Fr. Mike Schmitz
Appearances
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
Hey everyone, before we get started today, I want to let you know the Bible in a Year has brought the Word of God to so many people. As you know, you're part of this community, changing lives in so many incredible ways. We're humbled to play this role in God's plan and consider it our ongoing mission to keep bringing the Word of God to as many people as possible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
David says, people of Israel, remember this song. Learn this song and sing this song of the first king of Israel and his great son, Jonathan. And so it's a great, incredible reminder to us all that it's one thing to have enemies. It's another thing to allow our enemies not only to pursue us like Saul pursued David, but But to hold us captive, David refused to be held captive by the memory of Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
He refused to be held captive by Saul's animosity towards him. He refused to be held captive by Saul's jealousy. And so even in death, David honored Saul, both in song and in taking essentially justice on the man, the Amalekite, who claimed that he killed King Saul. David did not allow himself to be held captive, held prisoner, held hostage by the memory of Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
And so that can be a reminder for us too, right? We have people in our lives that want to hold us captive. They've chosen to be our enemy for whatever reason. And yes, we can maybe do whatever kind of battle we need to do, a spiritual battle. We can do engaging with them for justice. But they don't necessarily have to have permission to hold us hostage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
And definitely their memory does not have permission to hold us hostage because you and I have been redeemed by Jesus Christ himself. And we've been set free just like David could rise above King Saul because he was anointed. So you are anointed in Christ. And so the memories of the past are real. Their effects and consequences in our lives are real.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking subscribe. It's that easy to do. As I mentioned, we're dipping our toes into 1 Chronicles for the first time. Now, Chronicles is kind of a unique book.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
but also the freedom that we experience in Christ is real. And so you and I have permission to not be held hostage by our enemies, to not be held hostage by the past, not be held hostage by even the sorrow and the pain that's really truly in our lives, but with God's grace to be able to move forward like David is now moving forward.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
There are things in our pasts that are real, that are affecting our present, but God himself is giving you a future. And so we'll say yes to that. That is easier said than done. Believe me, I completely understand that is easier said than done. And so we need to pray because it's not just a matter of willpower. It's not just a matter of like, if you really, really try, no, it's a matter of grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
And so let's ask the Lord for each other on behalf of each other, that he can give the grace to be able to get out from underneath the the the past to get out from underneath those who were or are our enemies and live in freedom please pray for each other i'm praying for you please pray for me my name is father mike i cannot wait to see you tomorrow god bless
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
One of the reasons it's unique is because typically it would be the last book in the Hebrew canon, right? So it would be the last book in the Jewish canon of Scripture. If it was included in that, it would be because what's happening is 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles, it is going to be focused on a couple of things. One is the temple and worship. The other is the kingdom and the Messiah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
And so what we're going to find is that the person who wrote Chronicles, who might have been the scribe Ezra, we're not sure. I'm not sure. Maybe somebody knows. The person who chronicled Chronicles is basically setting the stage for ultimately the temple to be reestablished and temple worship to be given its pride of place, but also setting the stage for the Messiah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
So what I'm saying is the end of this year is not going to be the end of Bible in a Year. So far, Ascension has been able to add the podcast to YouTube. You might have found it that way. Maybe you're watching right now on YouTube. And also, we're working on translating it into different languages so you could have the Bible in a year in other languages than English.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
And it uses King David as the... prototype for the Messiah. So while we are going to go through 2 Samuel and hear all of the stories of not just David the great and not just David the wise, but also David the sinner, 1 and 2 Chronicles are not going to really emphasize David's sin. Now, they're not trying to obfuscate that, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
They're not ignoring that because they know you can just read 2 Samuel and you can read the rest of the Bible, right? So with the chronicler, we'll call him the chronicler, is doing when it comes to writing about David is emphasizing David's strengths in particular, not just to glorify David, but to highlight this is what the Messiah will be like.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
The Messiah will have all the virtues of David plus whatever more, right? So as we go through this, keep this in mind. The first couple chapters of Chronicles are a lot of names. If you thought we've had names up to this point, Boy, howdy. Are you in for a treat? If you love the names, then you are going to love the next couple of days as we go through 1 Chronicles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
As I said, today is day 120, reading 2 Samuel chapter 1, 1 Chronicles chapter 1, and Psalm 13.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
David mourns Saul and Jonathan. After the death of Saul, when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag. And on the third day, behold, a man came from Saul's camp with his clothes torn and earth upon his head. And when he came to David, he fell to the ground and did obeisance. David said to him, where do you come from?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
And he said to him, I have escaped from the camp of Israel. And David said to him, How did it go? Tell me. And he answered, The people have fled from the battle, and many of the people also have fallen and are dead. And Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead. Then David said to the young man who told him, How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
And the young man who told him said, By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa. And there was Saul leaning upon his spear, and behold, the chariots and the horsemen were close upon him. And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me, and I answered, Here I am. And he said to me, Who are you? And I answered him, I am an Amalekite. And he said to me, Stand beside me, and slay me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
For anguish has seized me, and yet my life still lingers. So I stood beside him, and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown which was on his head, and the armlet which was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my Lord. Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. And David said to the young man who told him, Where do you come from? And he answered, I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
But, of course, this takes a significant investment to bring projects like these free of cost to our listening communities. And we want to keep them free of cost to all those people who participate because we want to get the Word of God out there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
David said to him, How is it that you were not afraid to put forth your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed? Then David called one of the young men and said, Go, fall upon him. And he struck him so that he died. And David said to him, Your blood be upon your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed. David's Lamentation
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
And David lamented with his lamentation over Saul and Jonathan his son, and he said it should be taught to the people of Judah. Behold, it is written in the book of Jeshar, he said, Your glory, O Israel, is slain upon your high places. How are the mighty fallen?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult. You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor upsurging of the deep. For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty. Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely, in life and in death they were not divided, they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you daintily in scarlet, who put ornaments of gold upon your apparel. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle? Jonathan lies slain upon your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant you have been to me. Your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished? The First Book of the Chronicles Chapter 1 From Adam to Abraham Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalal, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The sons of Japheth, Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshach, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer, Ashkenaz, Dephath, and Togarmah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
The sons of Javan, Elisha, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim. The sons of Ham, Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush, Zeba, Havilah, Sabta, Ra'ama, and Sabdika, the sons of Ra'ama, Sheba, and Edan. Cush was the father of Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
Egypt was the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lihabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Kasluhim, from whom came the Philistines, and Kaphtorim. Canaan was the father of Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, and the Sinites, the Arvidites, the Zemurites, and the Hamathites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
The sons of Shem, Elam, As-Shur, Arpachshad, Lud, Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshach. Arpakshad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah was the father of Eber. To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and the name of his brother Joktan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
Joktan was the father of Almodad, Shalef, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadaram, Uzal, Dikla, Ebal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jubab. All these were the sons of Joktan, Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nehor, Terah, Abram, that is, Abraham. Descendants of Abraham. The sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. These are their genealogies. The firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaoth and Kedar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
Adbil, Mibsam, Mishma, Duma, Masa, Hadad. Tima, Jetur, Nafish, and Kedema. These are the sons of Ishmael. The sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine, Shebor, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shua. The sons of Jokshan, Sheba, and Adan. The sons of Midian, Ephah, Ephur, Hanok, Abida, and Elda'ah. All these were the descendants of Keturah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
Abraham was the father of Isaac, the sons of Isaac, Esau, and Israel. The sons of Esau, Eliphaz, Reul, Jeush, Jelam, and Korah. The sons of Eliphaz, Timan, Omar, Zephi, Getam, The sons of Raiul, Nehath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizah. The sons of Sehir, Lotan, Shobal, Zibion, Anah, Dishan, Ezer, and Dishan. The sons of Lotan, Hori, and Homam. And Lotan's sister was Timnah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
The sons of Shobal, Aliyan, Manahath, Ebal, Shephai, and Onam. The sons of Zibion, Ahiah and Anah, the sons of Anah, Dishon, the sons of Dishon, Hamran, Eshban, Ethran, and Charan, the sons of Ezer, Bilhan, Zaavan, and Jaakkan, the sons of Dishan, Uz, and Aran.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites, Bela the son of Beor, the name of whose city was Dinhabah. When Bela died, Jabab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his stead. When Jabab died, Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his stead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
When Husham died, Hadad the son of Bidad, who defeated Midian in the country of Moab, reigned in his stead, and the name of his city was Avith. When Hadad died, Samlah of Masraqah reigned in his stead. When Samlah died, Shaul of Rehoboth on the Euphrates reigned in his stead. When Shaul died, Baal Hanan, the son of Akbor, reigned in his stead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
When Baal Hanan died, Hadad reigned in his stead, and the name of his city was Pi, and his wife's name, Mehetabel, the daughter of Metred, the daughter of Mizahab. And Hadad died. The chiefs of Edom were Chiefs Timnah, Aliyah, Jetheth, Aholibamah, Elah, Penon, Kinaz, Timan, Mibzar, Magdiel, and Aram.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 120. We finally made it to this day, 120. We are reading from 2 Samuel 1.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
To the Choir Master. A Psalm of David. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God. Lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
Lest my enemies say I have prevailed over him, lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. But I have trusted in your merciful love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
We thank you for all of the ways that you have interacted with us. And for the course of our lives, God, you have guided us. You've strengthened us. You've protected us. You've lifted us up when we've fallen down. You've forgiven us when we've needed your mercy. And you have continually led us to this moment of our lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
Whether we are 14 years old and listening to your word or whether we are 94 years old and listening to your word, Lord God, every one of our breaths has been a gift from you that we didn't deserve. Every heartbeat has been a gift from you that we did nothing to earn. They've all been gifts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
And even if our hearts stop beating at 14, our hearts stop beating today, every heartbeat, every breath up to this moment will have been a gift from you. And so we thank you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
for all the unseen ways in which you have guided our lives, all the unseen ways in which you have protected us, all the potential dangers and potential ways in which we could have fallen, we could have been destroyed, and yet here we are today, able to listen to your word, able to receive your love, and able to love you in return.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
We thank you for this, and please help us to have that lens, the lens that no day is earned, but every day is a gift. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So, okay. Golly. Man, oh man. Okay, here we go. We have this First Chronicles. It's going to be fun. You guys, it already is fun because of all the names.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
Yesterday, we said goodbye to 1 Samuel, which, of course, was all one book at one point, but we can pay no attention to that and realize that we're making progress to 2 Samuel chapter 1. We're also diving for the first time into 1 Chronicles chapter 1. We're also praying Psalm 13. As always, the Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
But one of the things we have to keep in mind is there is never anything in Scripture that's wasted. There's almost always, not just almost always, there is always something the Lord is telling us. Again, the chronicler, the one authoring the book of Chronicles, is pointing out something important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
And even though God has not been mentioned once in Chronicles chapter one, God is not mentioned at all. We hear the names of some characters that we know. We know Adam. We know Seth. We know Enoch. We know Noah. We know all these people. We know Nimrod. Remember that guy? We know these names now because we've heard their stories.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
And remember that every one of their stories had God directly involved with their stories. And so even though in 1 Chronicles 1, there's not one mention of God, it just starts with a bunch of names. We know that the one who is unnamed in 1 Chronicles is the great and almighty God himself. And so that these names actually mean something to us. They don't mean something to us because of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
They mean something to us because of what God has done in them and what God had done through them and with them. It's so good. Again, sometimes God goes unnamed in our lives. Sometimes God goes unnoticed in our lives. And yet our lives matter because he is present. And that's so, so powerful for every one of us to remember.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 120: David Mourns Saul (2025)
The only other thing I want to highlight is that here we are in 2 Samuel 1, where David mourns the death of Saul and Jonathan, and he sings this song. David is the classic songwriter. He is the Renaissance man of the Old Testament, where he fights and he leads, but he also writes poetry and writes songs. David praises his enemy, Saul, and praises his great, great dear friend, Jonathan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
Why is that so important? One of the reasons it's so important is because in the ancient world, they had a deeper appreciation for proper names. We've kind of lost that a little bit where you can reveal your name to anybody because we like, oh, that's who I am. That's my name. But in ancient world, to know someone's name was understood as being in a relationship with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
It was understood as now there's a certain vulnerability in knowing another person's name and their name being revealed to you. And here is God who is distant, God who is omnipotent, God who's omnipresent, all these things. who's making himself intimate. He's making himself personal. I mean, he's always been personal, but he's revealing himself in a personal way. And he says, this is my name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
When you call upon my name, you're calling upon me as a personal God. And so this personal God now is called this person, Moses, to go to Pharaoh. And it's interesting to see how here's Moses, who has seen a miracle. He's seen a And he's still unconvinced of the fact that the Lord God will be with him, that this personal God will be enough.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
The Lord said to him, what is that in your hand? He said, a rod. And he said, cast it on the ground. So he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent and Moses fled from it. But the Lord said to Moses, put out your hand and take it by the tail.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And so he says, he defers and says, well, let my brother Aaron speak instead because he can speak well and I don't speak well. Even though God has just given him two miracles, right? The miracle of the rod. turning into a serpent, where I love the fact that Moses sees this rod become a serpent and runs away, because I'm like, yep, that's what I would do too.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
But then he grabs it by his tail, becomes a rod again. And the same thing with his hand, putting it into his bosom and it becoming leprous and then putting it there again and having it become clean, that there is this reality that God is saying, listen, Moses, you don't actually know me yet. I revealed my name to you, but you don't know the depth to which you can trust me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And that's why he keeps saying, I am the God of your fathers. That again, I'm largely unknown to you. And this is what have been the case that the Lord God would be largely unknown to Moses. I mean, the family of Israel has been living in slavery and they've held on to the stories of the Lord God revealing himself to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
But you can imagine the degree to which he would still be largely unknown to them. And so when God does call Moses and to do this dangerous thing, you can understand how Moses would be hesitant. Not only that, he has reason to be hesitant, right? You have Pharaoh who could destroy his life with a snap of his fingers, but you also have the people of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And this is one of the more difficult moments of, well, it's a lot of, and amongst a lot of difficult moments, here's a very difficult moment for the people of Israel. When Moses and Aaron come along and they say, the Lord God wants to set you free. And Pharaoh says, oh, really? You want to go and worship me? That's, and also keep this in mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
We've mentioned it before, but it's really important to note. It's why do we want to be set free to go and serve the Lord? That word to serve is actually the word to worship. So keep that in mind. Always keep that in mind. The goal of freedom is not just simply freedom for freedom's sake, not just simply freedom from, but freedom for. And freedom for what?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
Freedom for worship, to be able to worship the Lord God. And so Pharaoh says, oh, really? You have all this time you want to take off and worship? If you have that much time that you want to devote to other things other than work, then I'll give you more work. And it's interesting to note this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
One is the fact that that would be the anger of the people of Israel towards Moses and Aaron saying, you just interrupted our lives is so interesting because you're like, wait, I've interrupted what kind of life? I've made it more difficult for you to be a slave. You'd rather just be left alone as a slave as opposed to having your life more difficult because I'm actually trying to set you free.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
There's something that this weird paradox, this weird tension here in this moment. But also there's something really remarkable that we can apply to our lives. And that is this. That is, here's Pharaoh who says, already that you have time to worship. Well, I'm going to give you more work. So you don't have time to think about worship. You don't have time to think about your God. Many of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
So he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand, that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to you. Again, the Lord said to him, Put your hand into your bosom. And he put his hand into the bosom. But when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous. as white as snow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
We are Pharaohs to ourselves, meaning we make ourselves so busy that we don't have time to think about God. We make ourselves so busy. We do it to ourselves. We have made ourselves into slaves by saying, I have to do this. I have to do that. All these other things. I've, I've set up a pace of life for myself that is unmanageable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
If I even take a break, I've set up a pace for my life that is necessitates demands that I cannot stop going. And so we don't have time in our lives for worship and we're no more than slaves, but we have made ourselves into slaves. So many of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And one of the things that the Lord God reveals today is that his people are never meant to be slaves, not a slave to Pharaoh and definitely not a slave to the Pharaoh that lives inside of us. but we're meant to be free so that we can truly belong to him, so that we can truly be his, so that we can truly worship. So keep this in mind as we move forward into this day. Let's worship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
Let's find a time in our lives to worship, to not be a slave master to yourself, but to allow ourselves to have that freedom to be able to stop. to seek the Lord's voice, to be still and know that he is God and to pray for each other. I'm praying for you as we go on this journey. So please pray for me. Let's pray for each other. We cannot do it alone. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And if you're interested in getting more information, updates about this, what we're doing, this Bible in a year, you can just text the word Catholic Bible to 33777. But I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
Then God said, Put your hand back into your bosom. So he put his hand back into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. If they will not believe you, God said, or heed the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
using the great adventure bible timeline we'll read all the way from genesis to revelation discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today this is day 29 and we are reading from exodus chapter 4 and chapter 5 from leviticus chapter 4 and from psalm 46 as always i'm reading from the revised standard version the catholic edition um specifically the great adventure bible um from ascension and if you want to follow along not only with your ears but also with your eyes
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
If they will not believe even these two signs or heed your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water which you take from the Nile will become blood upon the dry ground. But Moses said to the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, either heretofore or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
Then the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak. But he said, O my Lord, send, I pray, some other person. Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is there not Aaron your brother, the Levite?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
I know that he can speak well, and behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. And you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you what you shall do. He shall speak for you to the people and he shall be a mouth for you and you shall be to him as God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And you shall take in your hand this rod with which you shall do the signs. Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, Let me go back, I beg, to my kinsmen in Egypt and see whether they are still alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. And the Lord said to Moses and Midian, Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
So Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey and went back to the land of Egypt. And in his hand Moses took the rod of God. And the Lord said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles which I have put in your power, but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son. And I say to you, Let my son go, that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your firstborn son. At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought to kill him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it and said, surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me. So he let him alone. Then it was that she said, you are a bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision. The Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord which he had been sent to him and all the signs which he had charged him to do. Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the sons of Israel. And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And when they heard that the Lord had visited the sons of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped. Afterward, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. But Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should heed his voice and let Israel go?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go. Then they said, The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go, we beg, a three days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. But the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get to your burdens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land are now many. And you make them rest from their burdens? The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as heretofore. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks which they have made heretofore you shall lay upon them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
You shall by no means lessen it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
let heavier work be laid upon the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words so the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people thus says pharaoh i will not give you straw go yourselves get your straw wherever you can find it but your work will not be lessened in the least
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
You can download your Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Really simple. Just type in your email, I believe, and it will give you access to that Bible in a Year reading plan. And be sure also to subscribe to this podcast in whatever app you are using to listen to the Word of God. So good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. The taskmasters were urgent, saying, Complete your work, your daily task, as when there was straw. And the foremen of the sons of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today as before?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
Then the foreman of the sons of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, Why do you deal thus with your servants? No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, Make bricks. And behold, your servants are beaten, but the fault is with your own people. But he said, You are idle. You are idle, therefore you say, Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
Go now and work, for no straw shall be given you, yet you shall deliver the same number of bricks. The foreman of the sons of Israel saw that they were in an evil plight when they said, you shall by no means lessen your daily number of bricks. They met Moses and Aaron who were waiting for them as they came forth from Pharaoh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And they said to them, the Lord look upon you and judge because you have made us offensive in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants and have put a sword in their hand to kill us. Then Moses turned again to the Lord and said, O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, If anyone sins unwittingly in any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and does any one of them, if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then let him offer for the sin which he has committed a young bull without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
He shall bring the bull to the door of the tent of meeting before the Lord and lay his hand on the head of the bull and kill the bull before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
and the anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull and bring it to the tent of meeting and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle part of the blood seven times before the lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary and the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of the fragrant incense before the lord which is in the tent of meeting and the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
Just as these are taken from the ox of the sacrifice of the peace offerings. and the priest shall burn them upon the altar of burnt offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
But the skin of the bull, and all its flesh, with its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung, the whole bull he shall carry forth outside the camp to a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and shall burn it on a fire of wood, where the ashes are poured out, it shall be burned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
What a great gift to be able to be together and to listen to journey with the people of God, with the holy people of Israel. with God's chosen people as covenantal people ourselves, as people who have been brought into the covenant, to be able to see the many ways in which God has heard the cries of his people and has come to meet them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
If the whole congregation of Israel commits a sin unwittingly, and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they do any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and are guilty,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
when the sin which they have committed becomes known the assembly shall offer a young bull for a sin offering and bring it before the tent of meeting and the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the lord and the bull shall be killed before the lord then the anointed priest shall bring some of the blood of the bull to the tent of the meeting
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the veil. And he shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar, which is in the tent of meeting before the Lord. And the rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the door of the tent of meeting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And all its fat he shall take from it and burn upon the altar. Thus shall he do with the bull as he did with the bull of the sin offering. So shall he do with this, and the priests shall make atonement for them, and they shall be forgiven. And he shall carry forth the bull outside the camp and burn it as he burned the first bull. It is the sin offering for the assembly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
When a ruler sins, doing unwittingly any one of all the things which the Lord his God has commanded not to be done and is guilty, if the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring as his offering a goat and a male without blemish, and shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat and kill it in the place where they killed the burnt offering before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
It is a sin offering. Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
If any one of the common people sins unwittingly in doing any one of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done and is guilty, when the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish. for his sin which he has committed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill the sin offering in the place of burnt offering. And the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. And all its fat he shall remove as the fat is removed from the peace offerings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And the priest shall burn it upon the altar for a pleasing odor to the Lord. And the priest shall make atonement for him and he shall be forgiven. If he brings a lamb as his offering for a sin offering, he should bring a female without blemish and lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering and kill it for a sin offering in place where they kill the burnt offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. And all its fat he shall remove as the fat of the lamb is removed from the sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest shall burn it on the altar upon the offerings by fire to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
Because we also raise up our cries to the Lord, asking that he meets us. Today, I go once again, reading from Exodus chapter 4 and 5, from Leviticus chapter 4, and from Psalm verse 46. Exodus chapter four and chapter five. Then Moses answered, but behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice for they will say, the Lord did not appear to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
Psalm 46, God's defense of his city and people. To the choir master, a psalm of the sons of Korah, according to Alamoth, a song. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea, though its waters roar in foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage. The kingdoms totter. He utters his voice. The earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has wrought desolations in the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I am exalted among the nations. I am exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
We give you praise and glory for who you are. You are the one God. Living and true, you are the one who has come and visited your people. You are with us right now. God, you are in our midst. You are in our midst. And so what you invite us to do is to be still and to know, to be still and to know that you are in our midst, to be still and know you, to be still and know that you are our God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
So help us, help us to stay in the midst of our busyness, to be still in the midst of our tumult, in the midst of our slavery, in the midst of our redemption, in the midst of our being set free, our liberation, in the midst of our vocation. Help us to take this time to be still. and to know that you are God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
We make this prayer in Jesus's mighty name, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Wow. What a gift. What a gift to be able to be together once again and to hear like, gosh, this reality of here's God calling Moses. He revealed his name, the sacred name of God to Moses, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
And so whenever we see in the scriptures, wherever it says the Lord, particularly the Lord God, or especially when a lot of times the font changes. So it's a capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That is a reverent way to indicate that originally the word wasn't simply Lord, which is Adonai, the word Elohim, you know, the word was originally the sacred name of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 29: Moses Returns to Egypt (2025)
I am who I am, which is also known in fancy terms, the Tetragrammaton, which is the YHWH, what we typically refer to as the holy name of God or Yahweh. Whenever we see that capitalized L-O-R-D, that is the Lord God being referred to by his proper name, the name that he had revealed to Moses before this. Now here is the personal God. And then why is that so important? A quick question.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
It goes on from there to talk about how everything gets overlaid then with wood. So not one piece of stone was seen. Everything was overlaid with wood on the inside and then overlaid by that wood with gold, hence the gold. Why? Because this is for the Lord. In fact, people... people wouldn't really see the inside of the temple. If you were coming to worship, you'd worship on the outside.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
The outer court, that's where you'd more or less stay. The priests were the ones who go into the temple. And so we recognize all this gold, all this artwork, all these carved fruits and palm trees and the cherubim that were massive and incredibly impressive, 10 meters high, basically, I think is what that amounts to. We recognize that All of that was more or less unseen by the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
And what does that highlight? One of the things that highlights is that all of this effort, all this work was simply for God himself. All this beauty, all this gold, all this wealth was put into place so that his house, right? So that the temple of the Lord would be extraordinary for the Lord. Now, we make churches now that can be beautiful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
I mean, there was an era where churches were remarkably beautiful, and sometimes they're built now that they are remarkably beautiful as well. And one of the things that we can criticize and say, oh my gosh, look at all this extravagance, look at all this beauty. That seems like maybe a waste. And yet, we recognize that This is a place not only for the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
The first book of Kings, chapter six, Solomon builds the temple. In the 480th year after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord. The house which King Solomon built for the Lord was 60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Like when we walk into a church, I mean, there's a guy, his name's St. John Vianney and St. John Vianney was, I mean, he was so poor. He didn't keep hardly any money for himself. St. John Vianney for the last, I don't know, 40 years of his life, something like this. He subsisted on a half a boiled potato and a cup of milk every day. I mean, he just, that's it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
And the Eucharist, that's all, that's all he ate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
he didn't buy anything hardly for himself but all of his wages that he got for being a priest he spent on just buying stuff for the church have beautiful vestments and beautiful like you know things whether they were overlaid with gold or just looked like they were gold i'm not sure but he wanted to make the church beautiful but in this case we recognize in the new covenant people actually enter into the church right we actually get to enter into the holy of holies
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
We actually get to approach the sanctuary and we get to see into that house of God. And so not only now are churches for God, right? So the beauty is there for him, but it's also there for us to have access to that. We actually get to be a part of, we get to participate. in the beauty of the churches that we're invited into, not to stand outside worship, but enter into worship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
And so our churches are meant to be beautiful as well for God, of course, but also so that we can participate in that beauty. We can enter into that beauty and therefore enter into worship. Ah, it's something remarkable. Again, this is really telling about what it was to live in the kingdom under King Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Now, what's also going to be true is that not everyone got to experience the joy of the king being so wealthy and the joy of the king having so many business deals with all these kingdoms around him. But there's something remarkable about this heyday, right, of the reigns of King David and the reign of King Solomon. One last note.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
It says that in Chronicles chapter 9, it talks about examples of Solomon's wealth and prosperity. And one of the examples that King Solomon made 200 large shields of hammered gold. So this is pure gold, right? Hammered gold is pure gold. It's not overlaid wood with wood overlaid with gold. This is 200 large shields of hammered gold, 600 shekels of hammered gold went into each shield.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
And then 300 shields of gold with 300 shekels of gold going into each shield. There's two things about this. Just to keep in mind, I came across a website that talked about how the large shield would be roughly equivalent of maybe $150,000 a piece. Maybe not a modern equivalent, but $150,000 a piece for each one of these shields. And the smaller shields would be worth about $77,000 a piece.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Which is interesting for those 200 large shields and 300 small shields, it would be roughly $53 million for these shields. And someone had pointed out that, yes, it's decorative and it's meant to kind of put on display the beauty, the power of the kingdom and of the king himself. But also, those shields would be useless in battle. This person pointed this out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
These shields would be useless in battle. And you kind of have the sense of, oh, so this is just for show. So when King Solomon is assembling and building the temple, he is doing it for the Lord because it is not just for show. I mean, you have the sense that through and through, King Solomon is doing this for God himself. David has said, do this, and his son is doing it, and he's doing it for God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
But all these amassing of other things So, you know, so much gold that it says that, you know, gold counted for or silver counted for nothing in the days of King Solomon. You have the sense that, huh, who is King Solomon amassing all these other things for? Who is he building these? Who is he creating these 500 shields of hammered gold for? Just be hung up in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was 20 cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and 10 cubits deep in front of the house. And he made for the house windows with recessed frames. He also built a structure against the wall of the house, running round the walls of the house, both the nave and the inner sanctuary, and he made side chambers all around.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
You think, huh? Is this a little bit posturing, right? Especially when it comes to shields. Again, as I mentioned before, shields be useless. Gold shields be useless in battle because they're too heavy and they're too soft. And I wonder, is that what Solomon is becoming? Is Solomon becoming an image of strength, but who's not strong? Because King David, he was strong, image of strength.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
But is King Solomon becoming an image of strength, but not actually strong? Like 500 shields of gold, images of strength, but not actually strong. And this is where we kind of begin to get to ask the questions and not the question to condemn King Solomon or to condemn anyone else, but to really expose our own hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
is where do I want to give off an image of goodness or holiness or wisdom or strength where it's because I don't believe that I'm wise or holy or good or strong. And we want to be truly wise. We want to be truly good and truly holy and truly strong and truly belonging to the Lord. And that's a key thing. What I want to do is I don't just want to give off
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
for the Lord or for anyone else, an image of something if that's not who I actually am. And also there's times, right, of course, where we are weak and we are not as holy as we ought to be or good as we ought to be or wise as we ought to be.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
In that case, we say, okay, God, make my desire, make my internal reality match up with the desire of my heart, which is help me to become a holy person, a good person, a wise person, and a strong person in your sight for my family, for my friends, for your church, and for your glory. That's a great prayer. Well, if I do say so myself, that's a great prayer to be able to pray.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
And so let's pray for each other for that exact thing. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. Please pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
The lowest story was 5 cubits broad, the middle one was 6 cubits broad, and the third was 7 cubits broad. For around the outside of the house he made offsets on the wall in order that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the temple while it was being built. The entrance for the lowest story was on the south side of the house, and one went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle story to the third."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today, it is day 148. We're reading from 1 Kings chapter 6, 2 Chronicles chapter 9, and we are praying Psalm 4, going all the way back to the beginning of the book of Psalms. As always, the Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
So he built the house and finished it, and he made the ceiling of the house of beams and planks of cedar. He built the structure against the whole house, each story five cubits high, and it was joined to the house with timbers of cedar. Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon concerning this house, which you are building.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
If you will walk in my statutes and obey my ordinances and keep all my commandments and walk in them. Then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father, and I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel. So Solomon built the house and finished it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
He lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar from the floor of the house to the rafters of the ceiling. He covered them on the inside with wood and he covered the floor of the house with boards of cypress. He built 20 cubits of the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the rafters, and he built this within as an inner sanctuary, as the most holy place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was 40 cubits long. The cedar within the house was carved in the form of gourds and open flowers. All was cedar. No stone was seen. The inner sanctuary he prepared in the innermost part of the house to set there the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
The inner sanctuary was 20 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 20 cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also made an altar of cedar and Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold and he drew chains of gold across in front of the inner sanctuary and overlaid it with gold. And he overlaid the whole house with gold until all the house was finished.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Also, the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary, he overlaid with gold. furnishings of the temple. In the inner sanctuary, he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. Five cubits was the length of one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the length of the other wing of the cherub. It was ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
The other cherub also measured ten cubits. Both cherubim had the same measure and the same form. The height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was that of the other cherub. He put the cherubim in the innermost part of the house, and the wings of the cherubim were spread out so that a wing of one touched one wall and a wing of the other cherub touched the other wall.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Their other wings touched each other in the middle of the house, and he overlaid the cherubim with gold. He carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers in the inner and outer rooms. The floor of the house he overlaid with gold in the inner and outer rooms. For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
The lintel and the doorposts formed a pentagon. He covered the two doors of olive wood with carvings of cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. He overlaid them with gold and spread gold upon the cherubim and upon the palm trees. So also he made for the entrance to the nave doorposts of olive wood in the form of a square and two doors of cypress wood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
I am using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe in whatever app or whatever application you are listening to this Bible today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
The two leaves of the one door were folding and the two leaves of the other door were folding. On them he carved cherubim in palm trees and opened flowers, and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied upon the carved work. He built the inner court with three courses of hewn stones and one course of cedar beams.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid in the month of Ziv. And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its parts and according to all its specifications.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Now, when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions, having a very great retinue and camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing hidden from Solomon which he could not explain to her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seatings of his officials, and the attendance of his servants and their clothing, his cupbearers and their clothing, and his burnt offerings which he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
And she said to the king, The report was true, which I heard in my own land of your affairs and of your wisdom. But I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, half the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You surpassed the report which I heard. Happy are your wives. Happy are these, your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on his throne as king for the Lord your God. Because your God loved Israel and would establish them forever, he has made you king over them, that you may execute justice and righteousness. Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
There were no spices such as those which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. Moreover, the servants of Haram and the servants of Solomon, who brought gold from Ophir, brought algem wood and precious stones. And the king made of the algem wood steps for the house of the Lord and for the king's house, lyres also and harps for the singers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
One thing to keep in mind is the fact that today we are going in First Kings, we're going to look at King Solomon building the temple. And there's a lot of dimensions, a lot of cubits involved in this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
There never was seen the like of them before in the land of Judah. And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what she had brought to the king. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants. Solomon's wealth and wisdom. Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Besides that, which the traders and merchants brought, and all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land brought gold and silver to Solomon. King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold. 600 shekels of beaten gold went into each shield. And he made 300 shields of beaten gold. 300 shekels of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold. The throne had six steps and a footstool of gold, which were attached to the throne. And on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests. while 12 lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the sixth steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold and all the vessels of the house of the force of Lebanon were pure gold. Silver was not considered as anything in the days of King Solomon. For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Haram. Once every three years, the ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and of gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses and mules, so much year by year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
And so if you want to have kind of a little more accurate sense of like how to picture this, if you are anywhere near a computer, it might be helpful for you to pull up something like King Solomon's temple or dimensions of King Solomon's temple. And it would probably give you some images people have recreated that would say probably look something like this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
And Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots and 12,000 horsemen whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. And he ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone and cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
And horses were imported for Solomon from Egypt and from all the lands. the death of Solomon. Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, from first to last, are they not written in the history of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shillanite, and in the visions of Edo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years, and Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father, and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead. Psalm chapter four, confident plea for forgiveness from enemies to the choir master with stringed instruments, a Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my right.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
You have given me room when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. O sons of men, how long will you be dull of heart? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. The Lord hears when I call to him. Be angry, but sin not. Commune with your own hearts on your beds and be silent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. There are many who say, Oh, that we might see some good. Lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O Lord. You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. In peace, I will both lie down and sleep for you alone, O Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
We thank you for the gift of peace and deliverance. Lord God, because you do, you deliver us from our enemies. Now, even when we're in distress, even when it seems like the world is crashing around us, even when it seems like there are obstacles, and truly there are obstacles in our lives, you make us lie down and sleep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Lord God, when we can't sleep, when we cannot find rest, when our minds are so busy, are so scattered, and we feel so stretched, so thin, then we can realize that we need to rely upon your grace and your mercy. God, when we pray, deliver me from this thorn, deliver me from this trial, you speak to us the words you spoke to St. Paul. My grace is sufficient for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
That could just be helpful because chapter six is very detailed. It's great. It's awesome. But it sometimes is hard to picture because I'm going to be giving you a word picture from the Bible, from 1 Kings chapter 6.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Power is made perfect in weakness. And so we acknowledge our weakness so we can accept your power. And we know it's true. Your grace is sufficient for every one of our days, for every one of our moments. And so we give you praise. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Okay, so we have the tale of in 2 Chronicles 9, which is a little FYI. We're taking a little break from 2 Chronicles for the next number of days. In fact, maybe roughly about two weeks. Tomorrow we're starting Ecclesiastes, which is one of the readings of the wisdom of Solomon, right? And so that's going to take us about five days or so to get through Ecclesiastes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
And so we're taking a break from 2 Chronicles. This is a big moment. Why? Because this is the end of Solomon's life. We begin with 2 Chronicles chapter 10 with the beginning of Rehoboam as being the new king. And that's going to be pretty much disaster. But we're taking a little break because we're going to join 1 Kings 12, which is
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Rehoboam and that whole story and second chronicles 10 and 11 that's Rehoboam and that story so we're kind of going to match up the timelines a little bit by taking a quick little break for the next five days again tomorrow we're starting Ecclesiastes for the next five days and then we're jumping into Mark chapter 1 all the way through chapter 16 for the days after that so just kind of FYI of what's coming up because we just heard today in second chronicles 9 of the end of Solomon's life and one of the things that is noted to us and really is pointed out so clearly to us about Solomon's life is that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
He did a lot of building, right? Solomon's known as the great builder. In fact, one of the things that Jeff Cavins always reminds us of when we're in Israel is that Solomon was the builder. He doesn't just build, he amasses this incredible, incredible wealth for the people of Israel and for the temple of the Lord. Gosh, if there is anything we heard, any one word we heard in 1 Kings 6,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
And if you want to have an actual picture, just Google something like King Solomon's Temple, dimensions of King Solomon's Temple, images of King Solomon's Temple, and it will give you a dimension and images and picture of King Solomon's Temple. As I said, today is day 148. We're reading 1 Kings 6, 2 Chronicles 9. We're praying Psalm 4.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
about the building of the temple, it's the word gold. There is, the other word is cubits, but the two words being gold and cubits, that recognition of everything was, so here's stone. Oh my gosh. Okay. Let's stop. Hopefully you had a chance to look up what the temple of Solomon might've looked like.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Kind of an artist's rendering using their best imagination to say, okay, this is probably what it could look like. it could be really helpful for you to go back and even re-listen to that section or re-read it in your Bible while looking at those images and realizing, okay, that's how high this is. That's how wide this is. That's what the stones look like. And this is kind of remarkable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
Well, everything's remarkable, my gosh. But what was one of the commandments that Solomon had given to the workers? He said, okay, you're going to quarry the stones for the building of the temple, and you're going to cut those quarried stones at the quarry. You're not going to let a hammer or chisel, you're not going to be banging away at these stones at the site of the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
And this is just one of the gosh, it's one of those small things that if we miss it, we miss it. If we just, we don't know what we're looking for, it's really easy to overlook it because what is Solomon saying? He's basically saying, okay, this is not my house. This is not your house. This is going to be God's house. And so because of that, there is a certain kind of sacred silence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
I mean, I can't imagine that it was silent at the construction site of the temple for seven years there, but we recognize that The banging away or the chipping away, the sawing away or however you cue stone, that did not happen there to highlight the fact that the foundation underneath all the gold, underneath all the cedar in Cyprus was stone that was dedicated to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 148: Solomon's Wealth (2025)
There's something about the fact that it came there somewhat silent and it was just put into place ready to go. And that's just, you know, St. Peter later on says, you've been living stones, living stones in the temple of the Lord. And we're not put in place ready to go, but we are put into place to be that living temple of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
I mean, I went to the city of Corinth and they said up down the hill, that's where the temple to Aphrodite was. I don't think there was anything there anymore. But once upon a time there was. And so here's what going to church, quote unquote, going to church in the temple of Aphrodite looked like. This is kind of PG-13, so keep this in mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
You would bring your sacrifice, whether that be a goat or a ram or a lamb, whatever the thing was, you'd bring that sacrifice. And there were three parts to a lot of these temples. The first part was where the sacrifice would be offered. The second part was where there'll be cultic prostitution.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
And so the second part of your, again, it's loosely saying going to church, going to this temple, offer a sacrifice, then have these sexual relations with a temple prostitute and And then the third part was by the time you were done with all that, the part of the sacrifice you had brought would be barbecued, you know, and you'd have, there'd be a restaurant on the back of the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
And so basically going to the temple area, offer the sacrifice, cultic prostitution, and then have dinner. And it was one of those situations where I think I remember there was something at the height of this in Corinth, the temple of Aphrodite, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of temple prostitutes there. You know, it was, I think it was Pope Benedict who wrote about this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
He talked about how Nietzsche said that Christianity signaled the death of Eros. So Eros is that love of desire, right? There's four kinds of love. Eros is one of them, the love of desire. And Nietzsche said that Christianity killed Eros because he pointed to these cultic prostitutes, temple prostitution and the cult of Aphrodite and the cult of Venus, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Pope Benedict points out, he says, okay, so if that was the death of Eros and that was a bad thing, according to Nietzsche, let's explain the full gamut of temple prostitution. That, okay, here are the people going to the temple to engage in this. Okay, so Eros for them, if with the death of destruction of the temple of Aphrodite or Venus, yeah, for them, that Eros was needed to be curtailed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
But Pope Benedict points out, he says, okay, But what about the people who served the temple? What about those who were brought into prostitution for the sake of those people who were dedicated to the cult of Venus or the cult of Aphrodite? And he points out, he says, yeah, for maybe for some of people who would show up to the temple and were free to leave. Oh, they had to have the death of Eros.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
But for those who are stuck there, who are essentially sex slaves, that did not signal the death of Eros. What it signaled was the recognition that they are human beings made in God's image and likeness, and they did not deserve to be treated this way in any way, shape, or form.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
It was, in fact, the affirmation of their dignity, not just the dignity of those who would show up, but the dignity of those who were being forced to serve in that kind of situation, that kind of trap, that slavery. He pointed that out. And so this is the context in which St. Paul is writing to these people because now there's dissension right now. But in the next chapter, in chapter five, St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air, and I heard a voice saying to me, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But I said, No, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth. But the voice answered a second time from heaven, What God has cleansed you must not call common. This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Paul is going to describe a very, very, well, the subtitle is called Sexual Immorality Defiles the Church. There's going to be, he's going to call out some folks for basically going back to living like Corinthians. I'll say it like that. But today we have the dissension. who is Apollos? Who is Paul? Basically here, Paul, again, he's saying that, listen, we laid a foundation, Apollos built on it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
And now be careful because you're building something too. I'm going to highlight two things quick. It's just so important. Two quick things. One is in first Corinthians chapter three, St. Paul says, Now, if anyone builds on the foundations is verse 12 with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each man's work will become manifest for the day. We'll disclose it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
The day is a capital D day. So the day of the Lord will disclose it because it will be revealed with fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. Now, this is one of the, uh, So we mentioned before the doctrine of purgatory and that recognition that if you die in relationship with God, in friendship with God, then, of course, you're welcomed into heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
You die in a state of grace in that right relationship with God. And yet at the same time, this 1 Corinthians kind of at least alludes to this notion that the day of the Lord, which is the day you stand before God or the day of the Lord's judgment, whether that's all at once or your particular judgment, that day will disclose how you've lived, right? How you've built. And it says...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
because it will be revealed with fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. So the process of purgatory is simply purification.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
It's that sense of, okay, there are things in my life that can't be my life. Now there's good things in your life. Those give God glory. But there are some things that, ah, I have created a life of straw and hay, and that stuff needs to be burnt up in order to be able to enter into the fullness of God's glory and simply radiate his glory back to him and live in his glory for all eternity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Again, it doesn't prove the reality of purgatory, but it does point to the reality of a process of purification of some sort. Hopefully that makes sense. Because again, this isn't to cause division between Catholics and non-Catholics. This is meant to say, we're all united on this, that there is some... degree of purification we all have to go through that St. Paul is talking about right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
And hopefully that is more unifying than it is dividing just because we see here's what God's word points out. Hopefully that makes sense. The last thing I want to point out is maybe also unifying, but also it's kind of a Catholic thing. There's so many incredible things that St. Paul has said today. But one of the things he has said is helps someone like me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
For example, I always say, my name is Father Mike. And sometimes we have brothers and sisters who are Christian who say, Jesus said, call no man your father. And we already addressed that in previous looking at the gospel, how Jesus also said, call no one teacher. And yet we do that. Anytime you call someone doctor, that's the word doctor means.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Pastor means shepherd, even though Jesus is the good shepherd. Here is St. Paul in the end of chapter four, who says that though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. He even calls Timothy my beloved and faithful child in the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
So Paul refers to himself as father, and he's not contradicting what Jesus has taught us because Jesus was making it clear that ultimately, ultimate fatherhood comes from God the Father. Ultimate teacher is Jesus Christ himself. The ultimate shepherd is Jesus the Good Shepherd.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
that we participate in god's fatherhood we participate in god's teaching we participate in god's shepherding but he is the one true father but here is saint paul who is referring to himself as father so hopefully again especially if you ever have a tough time you're like okay i like this podcast and everything but i really hate that he calls himself father mike and i would say uh hopefully this helps a little bit because here is saint paul i'm referring to himself as father
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
At that very moment, three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brethren also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. And he told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, Send to Joppa, and bring Simon called Peter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Hopefully, again, I don't say these things to cause division. I say them because hopefully we can hear those things and say, oh, okay, I see where Catholics get some of these things. I see where this isn't contradicting scripture. I see that we're more united than we are divided. That's my prayer. That's my hope. And hopefully you see it too. Hopefully you know that you're loved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Hopefully, this is my last hope of the day. Hopefully all of us who are Catholic or not Catholic, that we just rejoice in the fact that we get to be united in this way. And hope, well, second to last, hopefully. Here's the last hopefully. And hopefully no one feels like I am speaking of them as a second class Christian. You belong to the Lord. As St. Paul says today, you belong to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
The Holy spirit is in you. You are his children. You're the temple of the Holy spirit. And we continue to pray. God lead us closer and closer to you. Let us close and closer to your church. Lead us closer and closer to the truth and the fullness of truth as revealed in scripture and in the church in scripture and in tradition. Um, Man, okay, you guys, long enough for today. I am praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Please pray for me. What a gift. What a day. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
He will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household. As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 332. If you are following along with the Great Adventure Bible timeline, year-to-year reading plan, you would know that this is the second-to-last day on the second-to-last page of the year, which is pretty phenomenal if you ask me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God? When they heard this, they were silenced, and they glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance unto life. the church in Antioch.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Now, those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number that believed turned to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a large company was added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a large company of people. And in Antioch, the disciples were for the first time called Christians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them, named Agabus, stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world, and this took place in the days of Claudius. And the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brethren who lived in Judea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it, and even yet you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving like ordinary men?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
For when one says, I belong to Paul, and another, I belong to Apollos, are you not merely men? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom he believed as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. According to the commission of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
We're reading on day 332, Acts of the Apostles, chapter 11, 1 Corinthians, chapters 3 and 4, as well as Proverbs, chapter 27, verses 23 through 27. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
So let no one boast of men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Kepha or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours. And you are Christ's and Christ is God's. Chapter four, the ministry of the apostles. This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then every man will receive his commendation from God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
And also, you can download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, in which case you would know that we are on the second to last day, on the second to last page of this entire Bible in a Year reading plan. If you had it in your hand, you'd be able to check it off and say, oh my goodness, all these dates, all these readings are checked off, except for one last, you know, I'm getting that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
I have applied all this to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brethren, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. For who sees anything different in you? What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Already you are filled, already you have become rich. Without us, you have become kings. And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you. For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly clothed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. When slandered, we try to conciliate. We have become and are now as the refuse of the world, the dregs of all things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Fatherly admonition. I did not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you then, be imitators of me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Therefore, I sent to you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach them everywhere in every church. Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people, but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
What do you wish?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds. For riches do not last forever, and does a crown endure to all generations? When the grass is gone, and the new growth appears, and the herbage of the mountains is gathered, the lambs will provide your clothing, and the goats the price of a field.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
There will be enough goat's milk for your food, for the food of your household, and maintenance for your maidens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Thank you for the gift of grace. And thank you not only for the gift of your grace, but also for the gift of your messengers, Peter and Paul, and Barnabas, who we hear of today. We just ask you, please, help us to live like them. Help us to continuously say yes to you and to... Whatever it is that you want to do in our lives, whatever it is that you want to do in this world, Lord God, we say yes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
As I said, you can download your own Bible in a Year reading plan at ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. It is day 332. We're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 11, St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
And we ask you to please help us to say yes to you and your will and your plan and to say yes to love with everything we have. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So we have Peter had this incredible revelation, right? And Cornelius, the whole thing we heard yesterday. And then today, what do we have? We have Peter reporting and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
that God wants to extend his Holy Spirit on the Gentiles. And there are folks who do not like this idea. In fact, we can often forget, as modern day Christians, we can often forget the thing we have talked about so many times in the last 300 plus days. We've talked about how Christianity is not a new religion. It is the fulfillment of Judaism.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
So all of those first Christians were Jews, every single one of them. And we forget that because now there's this division, right, between Judaism and Christianity. But that wasn't always the case. Here in chapter 11, it reveals the heart of what's going to happen in the early church. And what's going to happen in the early church is there's this disagreement.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
The question is, it's going to come up in maybe in a day or two. The question is, okay, those people, those Gentiles who are becoming Christian, Do they first have to be circumcised and then received into the church, then be baptized? That's going to be a big, big question in the next couple of days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
But you see here, even the fact that God has opened up his grace to the Gentiles is something that challenges the preconceptions and the pre-ideas of many, many people. And so Peter has to explain, here's this vision I saw. Here's not just the vision I saw, because that's one thing, but here's also the miracle that happened. These men and women who I preached to, the Holy Spirit came upon them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
And remember when Jesus himself said, John baptized you with water. I will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. That happened. I saw it. And that's so important because again, as we continue to grow and move forward, this is going to be a really big deal. And it's going to stretch a lot of people here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
now the church in antioch again some proclaiming to the jews but also proclaiming to the greeks this is the first place that the disciples of jesus were called christians and so that's a little factoid for you that antioch was the first place called christians up to this point they were followers of the way they actually will still be called followers of the way kind of a capital t the capital w way
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Paul's letter to the Corinthians, his first one, chapters 3 and 4, and Proverbs chapter 27, verses 23 through 27. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 11, Peter's report to the church at Jerusalem. Now the apostles and the brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
And yet in Antioch, we have our second snapshot of a guy named Barnabas. We heard Barnabas. He was the one who sold his property and gave it to the apostles. Barnabas, his name means son of encouragement. And this is so important. I just think this is remarkable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
It says in chapter 11, verse 23, it says, when he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And now Barnabas and Paul are going to become co-workers as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
And I always, you know, I might mention this a dozen times between now and the end of 365 days, but I always think of Barnabas again, son of encouragement. His name wasn't Barnabas. His nickname was Barnabas. His nickname was son of encouragement. And I love this description.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Can you imagine, can you imagine the, ah, gosh, the Lord describing you in this way in chapter 11, it says he was a good man. Imagine the Bible describing you. She was a good woman, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. The person who was the son or daughter of encouragement. In Barnabas's case, it makes so much sense that he and Paul would be traveling companions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Paul becomes known as the Apostle, like capital T, the capital A Apostle. I guess that's the second time I've done that today. But Paul is the Apostle. You can imagine why Paul would need a Barnabas with him. Paul's going to go out and he's going to spread the gospel. He's going to be rejected a bunch.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
So many times, just imagine how many days Paul tried to spread the good news and was completely rejected. If you were a Paul, you would absolutely need a Barnabas in your life. If you're the person who's getting out there and you're trying to proclaim God's word and you're constantly being rejected. You need someone whose nickname is son of encouragement.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
You need someone in your life who is that cheerleader. You need someone, you know, again, everyone has their role. You know, Paul writes this so often. He talks about how not everybody has the same gifts in the church, that the eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you. The foot can't say to the head, I don't need you. All these things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
And Paul couldn't say to Barnabas, I don't need you because he absolutely did need him. Even if Barnabas isn't the one who's going to be all the main messenger and You have the fact that he is playing a very specific role. And the truth is, you have a specific role as well. You have a gift that the Lord needs. And, you know, he makes himself need us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
You know, he doesn't really need us, but he humbles himself so much that he kind of puts himself, I don't want to say in our debt, but in our mercy in so many ways. because he trusts you and he desires to be known in this world through you and through me. And just because someone might not be the apostle doesn't mean they don't have a role.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Maybe they are the encourager or maybe they're the cheerleader. Hope that makes sense. So I mentioned yesterday that I was going to talk about Corinth and what Corinth was like. Corinth was a metropolitan city, right? Cosmopolitan city. It was very diverse. It had
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
There was a saying back in the day apparently to live like a Corinthian and to live like a Corinthian meant that you did not have good morals. It meant that you were willing to do anything to make a buck. It meant you were willing to do anything when it came to sexual relations. Corinth was the city of sin back in the day. And St. Paul goes there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them? But Peter began and explained to them in order. I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something descending like a great sheet let down from heaven by four corners, and it came down to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
Remember, he went to Athens first at the Areopagus, Mars Hill, had this philosophical argument about Jesus and then said, you know what? When I go to Corinth, I will know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he's going to this place where there are bad habits. In fact, there was a temple to the goddess Aphrodite in Corinth, right outside Corinth. I went there once.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
So what we're looking at is we're looking at hyperbole here. that no man was left alive, no woman was left alive, no children were left alive. That is hyperbole. Not only this, but God reveals, he already revealed to us in Deuteronomy chapter 20, that this is a limited engagement. This is completely a limited engagement.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
This is just for these people of Canaan, the land of Canaan, because God's will is that Israel has peace with all nations. Remember this, the prophecy is that people come from north and south and east and west and and they respond to God's blessing. They respond to his promise of being present to them, that God's desire is not division among people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
God's desire is not the destruction of people, but God's desire is the reconciliation and union of all people. And so that's what God's promise is, and that's what he's revealing. On the way, it is incredibly difficult, though. But keep these things in mind, that there was a reason the people of the land of Canaan were being defeated. There's a reason why they were being driven out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
But also, it was restrained. Simply, you might say hyperbolized or exaggerated about. And knowing these things, we know that God's ultimate plan is not the destruction of the world. God's plan is not the destruction of anyone who's different. God's will is not the destruction of someone who believes something differently.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
But God's plan, his will is the union of people, harmony back with each other, harmony within ourselves, harmony above all with him. And so that is God's plan. And that is what we're going to be continuing to get deeper and deeper into as we continue these days of these journeys. And so once again, as I said yesterday.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
Since that is God's plan, that we are not divided but united, that we're not fighting against each other, but we are fighting for each other, let us keep fighting for each other. Let's keep praying for each other. Let's keep holding each other up, especially, you know, day 85, we've covered a lot of ground. We've come so far. We've got some distance to cover still.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
And so keep each other in prayer. I'm praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
and from the middle of the valley as far as the river Jabbok, the boundary of the Ammonites, that is half of Gilead, and the Erebah to the sea of Chinneroth eastward, and in the direction of Beth-Jeshimoth, to the sea of the Erebah, the salt sea, southward to the foot of the slopes of Pisgah,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
and Og king of Bashan, one of the remnant of the Raphaim, who dwelt at Ashteroth and at Edrei, and ruled over Mount Hermon, and Salekah, and all Bashan, to the boundary of the Geshurites and the Maakathites, and over half of Gilead to the boundary of Sihon king of Heshbon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 85, and we're reading today from Joshua chapters 12, 13, and 14. We're also praying Psalm 129.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
moses the servant of the lord and the sons of israel defeated them and moses the servant of the lord gave their land for a possession to the reubenites and the gadites and the half tribe of manasseh the kings conquered by joshua and these are the kings of the land whom joshua and the sons of israel defeated on the west side of the jordan
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
from Baal Gad in the valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak that rises towards Seir. And Joshua gave their land to the tribes of Israel as a possession according to their allotments in the hill country, in the lowland, in the Arabah, in the slopes, in the wilderness, and in the Negev, the land of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
The king of Jericho, one, the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one, The king of Jerusalem won. The king of Hebron won. The king of Jarmuth won. The king of Lachish won. The king of Eglon won. The king of Gezer won. The king of Debir won. The king of Gedder won. The king of Hormah won. The king of Arad won. The king of Libna won. The king of Adulam won. The king of Makedah won.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
The king of Bethel won. 1. The king of Tapua, 1. The king of Hefer, 1. The king of Aphek, 1. The king of Lasharon, 1. The king of Madan, 1. The king of Hazor, 1. The king of Shimron-meron, 1. The king of Akshraf, 1. Chapter 13 Still Unconquered Parts of Canaan Now Joshua was old and advanced in years.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
And the Lord said to him, you are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed. This is the land that yet remains all the regions of the Philistines and all those of the Geshurites from Shehor, which is east of Egypt toward the boundary of Ekron. It is reckoned as Canaanite. There are five rulers of the Philistines, those of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkeloth,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
Gath and Ekron, and those of the Avim, in the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Me-Ara, which belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the boundary of the Amorites, and the land of the Gebelites, and all Lebanon, toward the sun rising, from Baal-Gad, below Mount Hermon, to the entrance of Hamath, all the inhabitants of the hill country, from Lebanon to Mishra-Foth-Maim, even all the Sidonians."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
as always i am reading from the revised standard version the second catholic edition i'm using the great adventure bible from ascension which is just such a gift especially when we're in the midst of the period of conquest and judges it gives some backstory it gives a great summary you know at the beginning of every one of these time periods and kind of gives us an orientation of here's where we are here's where we're going uh if you want to also know here's where we are here's where we're going you can download your own bible in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com bible in a year and you'll be able to cross out those dates and those
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
I will myself drive them out from before the sons of Israel, only allot the land to Israel for an inheritance as I have commanded you. Now, therefore, divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
With the other half of the tribe of Manasseh, the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them beyond the Jordan eastward, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave them from Erewar, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
and all the tableland of the Medibah as far as Dibon, and all the cities of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon as far as the boundary of the Ammonites, and Gilead, and the region of the Geshurites, and Mahakathites, and all the Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Salakah, and all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashteroth and in Edrei.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
He alone was left of the remnant of the Raphaim. These Moses had defeated and driven out, yet the sons of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites or the Ma'akathites. But Geshur and Ma'akath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day. To the tribe of Levi alone Moses gave no inheritance. The offerings by fire to the Lord God of Israel are their inheritance, as he said to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
The territory of Reuben. And Moses gave an inheritance to the tribe of the Reubenites according to their families. So their territory was from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the table land by Medabah, with Heshbon, and all its cities that are in the table land, Dibon, and Bamoth Baal, and Beth Baal Maon, and Jehaz, and Kedemath, and Mephaath, and Kiriathaim, and Sibma.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
and Zereth-shahar, on the hill of the valley, and Beth-peor, and the slopes of Pisgah, and Beth-jeshemoth, that is, all the cities of the table land, and all the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses defeated with the leaders of Midian, Evai, and Rechem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the princes of Sihon who dwelt in the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
Balaam also, the son of Beor, the soothsayer, the sons of Israel, killed with the sword among the rest of their slain. And the border of the people of Reuben was the Jordan as a boundary. This was the inheritance of the Reubenites according to their families with their cities and villages. the territory of Gad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
And Moses gave an inheritance also to the tribe of the Gadites according to their families. Their territory was Jezer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the Ammonites to Erewar, which is east of the Rabbah, and from Heshbon, Eremoth, Mizpah, and Betonim, and from Mahanaim to the territory of Debir.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
and in the valley of Beth-haram, Beth-nimrah, Sukkoth, and Zaphon, and the rest of the kingdom of Sihon, king of Heshbon, having the Jordan as a boundary to the lower end of the sea of Chinareth, eastward beyond the Jordan. This is the inheritance of the Gadites according to their families with their cities and villages. the territory of the half-tribe of Manasseh, east.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
And Moses gave an inheritance to the half-tribe of Manasseh. It was allotted to the half-tribe of the Manassites according to their families. Their region extended from Mahanaim all through Bashan, the whole kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair, which are in Bashan, sixty cities, and half Gilead, and Ashteroth, and Edrei, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
These were allotted to the people of Machir, the son of Manasseh, for the half of the Machirites, according to their families. These are the inheritances which Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan, east of Jericho. But to the tribe of Levi, Moses gave no inheritance. The Lord God of Israel is their inheritance, as he said to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
chapter fourteen the distribution of territory west of the jordan and these are the inheritances which the sons of israel received in the land of canaan which eleazar the priest and joshua the son of nun and the heads of the fathers houses of the tribes of the sons of israel distributed to them Their inheritance was by lot as the Lord had commanded Moses for the nine and one half tribes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
For Moses had given an inheritance to the two and one half tribes beyond the Jordan, but to the Levites he gave no inheritance among them. For the people of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, and no portion was given to the Levites in the land, but only cities to dwell in, with their pasture lands for their cattle and their substance. The sons of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
They allotted the land." Hebron allotted to Caleb. Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, "'You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh Barnea concerning you and me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
chapters. I do it every day. I have this blue marker that I just mark off every day. And it's just such a great gift of being able to say, yeah, we're moving and we're still cruising along and going through the Bible and marking up our Bibles and writing down these insights that the Lord is giving to us. It's just such an incredible gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. But my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt.' Yet I wholly followed the Lord my God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
And Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God. And now behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as he said, all these forty years, since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
And now behold, I am this day eighty-five years old." I am still as strong to this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me. My strength now is as my strength was then for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day. For you heard on that day how the Anakim were there with great fortified cities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
It may be that the Lord will be with me and I shall drive them out as the Lord said. Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. So Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel. Now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath Arba.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
This Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim, and the land had rest from war. Psalm 129. Prayer for the downfall of Israel's enemies. A song of ascents. Sorely have they afflicted me from my youth. Let Israel now say, sorely have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me. The plowers plowed upon my back, they made long their furrows. The Lord is righteous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
He has cut the cords of the wicked. May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turn backward. Let them be like the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up, with which the reaper does not fill his hand or the binder of sheaves his arms. While those who pass by do not say, the blessing of the Lord be upon you. We bless you in the name of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
You can also subscribe in your podcast app to this podcast to receive the daily episodes, which are put out pretty much every day, as you would expect daily episodes to be put out. So once again, it's day 85. We're reading from Joshua chapter 12, 13, and 14. We'll also be praying Psalm 129. the book of Joshua, chapter 12, the kings conquered by Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you for bringing us to this day. We thank you for bringing us all the way through this Bible to this point, your word to this point, and we know that without your word, we wouldn't even know who you are. We would not know who we are, God, without revealing yourself to us and revealing your heart to us. Yes, we could see your traces.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
We can see your fingerprints in the world around us. We can see hints at your truth in the created world, the world that you created, as we can see the person of the artist in the artwork. Yet, Lord, we still might not know your heart unless you revealed your heart to us. And so we ask you to please continue to reveal your heart to us that we can reveal our hearts to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
We make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Okay, just a couple quick things. I want to, this is where we kind of go deep into this whole thing of like, what's happening when it comes to the battles? What's happening when it comes to this war? And how easily is it for us to misunderstand what is happening?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
Now, this is clearly, this is not meant to be a whitewashing of history, right? And what I'm about to say is not meant to take away from the fact that, like I said yesterday, these are troubled times and it was not part of God's original plan. Now, not only was this not part of God's original plan, His original plan was peace, right? Harmony, as I said yesterday.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
Harmony in ourselves, harmony with each other, and harmony with God. And now here we live in this broken and divided world. But also what we recognize is, what I've said before, but just be reminded of this, is that the people of Israel God is commanding this war. He's commanding this destruction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
And we just think about this kind of warfare that just is so strange and so violent and brutal, not that all war isn't violent or brutal, but it's so absolute and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
is because of the the falseness because of the fickleness of the hearts of the people of israel which is also in our hearts that if they're going to live as god's holy people then god knows that they're not going to be able to live among a people that they um They'd be so tempted to live as the people around them. That's what we heard in Numbers. We heard in Deuteronomy again and again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
God knows that if they just try to coexist with these people, they will fail. Now, that's not to say that we don't coexist now. In fact, that's what we all want to talk about right now is there's three reasons, especially when people get upset by this. I remember coming across this. I thought it was so wise that these people had put this together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
They had said there's at least three reasons or three things to keep in mind as Joshua is leading these people into battle, is leading the people of Israel into battle. And it talks about The first reason is because of the moral corruption of the people of the Canaanites. And in fact, if you remember back in Leviticus chapter 18, they had two kinds of corruption.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
They had at least two kinds of corruption. One was a sexual corruption that they just took for granted. And Leviticus 18 has a whole slew of things that were very, very common in the land of Canaan. That's what they were doing. That's why God is driving them out is because of this moral corruption. But also it wasn't just in their sexual lives. In Deuteronomy chapter 12, if you remember this,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
These people, as I mentioned yesterday, perform child sacrifice. So there is a judgment that God is extending upon these people. And so their fulfillment of God's judgment at some point, that's the first thing that they're entering into this place of moral corruption. But secondly, we think, okay, but is God commanding a genocide? Is he calling this a commandment for the destruction of everybody?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
What we have to understand is that this is a bit of hyperbole. that calling for the destruction of everybody is not exactly what happened, but it is a way to hyperbolize or to exaggerate the amount of destruction that happens. How do we know this? We know this because in Deuteronomy chapter seven, which we went through a while back, God is calling for the destruction of everybody.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
Now these are the kings of the land whom the sons of Israel defeated and took possession of their land beyond the Jordan toward the sun rising from the valley of Arnon to Mount Hermon with all the Arabah eastward. Sihon, king of the Amorites who dwelt at Heshbon and ruled from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
He says destroy everyone through Moses. He's saying this. But then he also says, but also don't marry them or do business with them. And you think, oh wait, so the scripture itself is giving us a clue into the fact that, okay, so maybe this is hyperbole.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
When you say destroy everyone and also don't marry them or do business with them, it'd be very hard to do business with someone or marry someone that has been completely destroyed. Not only that, but in Joshua chapter 10, which we heard yesterday, it says, It says, you know, leave no survivors in these cities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 85: Fighting for Each Other (2025)
But what we're going to hear tomorrow in Joshua chapter 15, we're going to hear about the people still being there. And it said that they destroyed everyone in the city, but then they're going to go back and there are going to be people in the city. So I left no survivors, it says in chapter 10, but basically chapter 15 of the same book talks about people still being there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
Without relationship, the rules are fine. They're wise. I mean, they're good and good to live by. But without the relationship, those rules can also be hollow. They can also be dead. They can also be empty. They can be wise, of course, but they're empty of the reason. And the reason for the rule is the relationship. That is why Moses is reminding the people
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
So remember, okay, take these words and bind them on your forehead. Take these words and bind them on your arm. Put them on the door, lintels of your doorpost. In fact, if you go to almost any Jewish home, you have a thing called a mesuza. It's called a mesuza, and it's usually typically metal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
a container in which these words of the Lord are written on a very tiny piece of paper and they're put there. And every time a Jewish person walks in or walks out, oftentimes they will touch that Masusa as a reminder, like, no, never forget what the Lord has done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
In fact, the scripture says that you would take these words of mine and bind them on your foreheads, wear them on your foreheads and bind them on your arms. That is what's known as the phylactery. So Jesus later on, he calls, he says that the Pharisees would widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. In Hebrew, that word is tefillin. So for the phylacteries is tefillin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
The word for the tassels is the word tzitzit. Fun things to know. But in the phylacteries, again, they're made out of leather, leather boxes and leather straps that still right now, even Orthodox Jewish men will continue to use it when they're praying. They will have the boxes that have scripture inside of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And then with the leather straps, they'll affix that to their arms, forearms, and or to their foreheads. And that is the fulfillment of what is written in Exodus 13, in Deuteronomy chapter 6, Deuteronomy chapter 11, where it talks about having those words of God always on our mind, always on our arms.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
As Christians, one of the things that we will do is if you've ever gone to a Catholic mass, you know that before the gospel is proclaimed, the priest or the deacon or the bishop would proclaim and say a reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. And people respond, glory to you, O Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And as we say glory to you, O Lord, what the priest does is he makes a sign of the cross on the words of the text and then on himself and all the people make the sign of the cross on their foreheads. on their lips and on their hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
All the days that he separates himself to the Lord, he shall not go near a dead body, neither for his father, nor for his mother, nor for a brother or sister. If they die, shall he make himself unclean because his separation to God is upon his head. All the days of his separation, he is holy to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And one of the things that we're saying internally when we're making that sign of the cross over our foreheads, over our lips, and over our hearts is, may the word of the Lord be on my mind, be on my lips, and be in my heart. And so it's kind of a spiritual way of still having that idea of keeping the word of God on our foreheads and on our arms before us always.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And that's what we say every time we go to Mass and we hear the words of the gospel proclaimed. Oh my goodness, what a gift, right? Because we are keeping the Bible in our ears and we are not forgetting what the Lord our God has not only done for the Jewish people, not only done in the new covenant for the people of the world, but also what the Lord our God has done for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
By reading this, by listening to God's words like you're doing right now this year, you are obeying the commandment of Deuteronomy chapter six.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
to remember and never ever forget what the lord our god has done for us here oh israel the lord our god is one and you shall love him with everything you got you guys i am proud of you you've made it to day 57 and we are trucking right along we are praying for each other please know that i am praying for you you are doing so so well we're moving and god is blessing so many of you and what you're reporting uh is that gosh
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
Even in days of missing days, missing a weekend, maybe even missing a week, but you're getting back on the horse, right? You're getting back on there and getting back in the saddle. You're either catching up or keeping up. You don't need to catch up to where we are right now. You just need to go at your own pace and just never, ever stop because this is the commandment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
This is the commandment is to listen to the Lord. Hear, O Israel. Oh, my goodness. I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day 57, and so... We are cruising. I always say that, but it's true. We'll be reading Numbers chapter six, Deuteronomy chapter six, and praying Psalm 91. Psalm 91 is just my goodness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And if any man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing. On the seventh day he shall shave it. On the eighth day he shall bring two turtle doves or two young pigeons to the priest to the door of the tent of meeting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering and make atonement for him because he sinned by reason of the dead body. And he shall consecrate his head that same day and separate himself to the Lord for the days of his separation and bring a male lamb a year old for a guilt offering. But the former time shall be void because his separation was defiled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And this is the law for the Nazarite.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
When the time of his separation has been completed, he shall be brought to the door of the tent of meeting, and he shall offer his gift to the Lord, one male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish as a peace offering, and a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil, and their cereal offering and their drink offerings."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And the priest shall present them before the Lord and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering. And he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord with the basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall offer also its cereal offering and its drink offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And the Nazarite shall shave his consecrated head at the door of the tent of meeting, and shall take the hair from his consecrated head, and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And the priest shall take the shoulder of the ram when it is boiled, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazarite, after he has shaved the hair of his consecration. And the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
They are a holy portion for the priest, together with the breast that is waved and the thigh that is offered, and after that the Nazarite may drink wine. This is the law for the Nazarite who takes a vow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
His offering to the Lord shall be according to his vow as a Nazarite, apart from what else he can afford, in accordance with the vow which he takes, so shall he do according to the law for his separation as a Nazarite. the priestly benediction. The Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron and his sons, thus shall you bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the sons of Israel and I will bless them. the book of Deuteronomy chapter 6, the great commandment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the ordinances which the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
Hear, therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
All of the Psalms are incredible prayers. They're incredible songs to the Lord. But man, Psalm 91 is one of my personal favorites. And so I'm so glad to be able to pray it with you today. As you know, we read from the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. That is the Bible translation that I'm using. Specifically, I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes, and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. caution against disobedience.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And when the Lord your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, with great and excellent cities which you did not build, and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and cisterns hewed out which you did not hew, and vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And when you eat and are full, then take heed, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and swear by his name. You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are round about you. For the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you and he destroy you from the face of the earth. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him at Massa. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees and his statutes which he has commanded you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may go well with you. and that you may go in and take possession of the good land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers by thrusting out all your enemies from before you as the Lord has promised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
When your son asks you in time to come, what is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances which the Lord our God has commanded you? Then you shall say to your son, we were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And the Lord showed signs and wonders great and grievous against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household before our eyes. And he brought us out from there that he might bring us in and give us the land which he swore to give our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always. that he might preserve us alive as at this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God as he has commanded us. Psalm 91 Assurance of God's Protection He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High and abides in the shadow of the Almighty will say to the Lord, My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
For he will deliver you from the snares of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the destruction that lays waste at noon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked, because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your habitation. No evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent. For he will give his angels charge of you, to guard you in all your ways.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
To download your Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily episodes. So every time we give an episode, you get an episode. Again, today is day 57. We're reading number 6, Deuteronomy 6, and praying Psalm 91. Numbers chapter six, the Nazarites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. Because he clings to me in love, I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. Father in heaven, you are good and you do protect us. You do care for us. You bear us up as on the wings of eagles. And you bear us up lest we dash our foot against the stone. Yet, Lord God, we do not put you to the test because we are tested every day. Every day we are tried and every day... Life reveals the truth of our hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
It reveals our fickle hearts. It reveals our shaky and quick to forget hearts. Lord, help us never forget what you have done for us. Help us never forget who you are. Help us never forget what you revealed about our own hearts. Help us to never forget you, Lord God. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So there are a number of things to talk about today. The first is in the book of Numbers, there's this thing called the Nazarite vow. You might be familiar with the Nazarite vow because there was a couple of people in the beneath the Nazarite vow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
Now, here's normally what the Nazarite vow was, was just a temporary kind of a thing, right? So the two people I can think of, at least right offhand, who took a Nazarite vow for life, one was Samson. He did not follow that Nazarite vow super well. Then again, I guess it was his parents who chose it for him. Sometimes, you know, the Nazarite life chooses you. You don't choose the Nazarite life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
But truthfully, Samson was set aside from his mother's womb and the angel of the Lord who appeared to his mother and told him that he'd be set apart and that he would not cut his hair and that he would not touch strong drink. He failed in that. We're going to get to that story when we get to the book of Judges.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
The other person that we know of, at least, who had a lifelong Nazirite vow is John the Baptist. And to our knowledge, he successfully held to that Nazirite vow. So again, it was not cutting hair. It involved not touching strong drink. or anything of the fruit of the vine. Now, normally, those were two exceptions. Normally, they did not last for one's entire life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
Normally, it was kind of like dedicating time of your life to the Lord, right? So we've talked about, a lot about, in Leviticus and in Numbers so far, we've talked a lot about dedicating places to the Lord, right? So here's the articles of the temple, so dedicating things to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
When we get to Mount Zion, that space where the temple is gonna be built is gonna be dedicating a place to the Lord. Even, remember with the story of people like Jacob, When Jacob has the dream of the angels going up to heaven and descending from heaven, and he dedicates that place, he consecrates that place and builds an altar there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
So we've heard all about dedicating things and spaces to the Lord. The Nazarite vow is kind of a way to dedicate time to the Lord. We say, okay, for the next week, maybe two weeks, maybe four weeks, I am going to kind of go away. And basically, a general analogy would be kind of like, say, I'm going to go on retreat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And while I'm on retreat, I am not going to drink and I'm not going to cut my hair or shave. And then at the end of that retreat, at the end of that time that's been dedicated to the Lord, consecrated to him for his, for worship of him, for love of him, I am going to not only offer the sacrifices that are prescribed, like the different animals, but also offer
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, say to the sons of Israel, when either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazarite to separate himself to the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink, and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
the hair that grew during that time, I will shave that off as kind of a sign of the time, right? So, I mean, our toenails, fingernails grow and our hair grows. And so there's a sign where, there's kind of a sense where that growth is a marker of time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And so at the end of that time, however far your hair has grown, you would cut that off and that would be actually placed on the altar as part of the sacrifice. Kind of, again, just think of the imagery there. It's kind of really cool.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
I mean, burnt hair doesn't smell the best, but the imagery is really cool where it has that sense of, Lord, that whole time I offer to you, that was yours as is represented here by the hair that is cut off of my head. And I just think that's pretty, it's just really cool. Last, or last when it comes to numbers. The last thing we have in the chapter six of Numbers is the priestly benediction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
It's called the Aaronic Blessing. So after Aaron, not ironic, but Aaronic, A-A-R-O-N-I-C, Aaronic Blessing. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you, be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. That's this powerful blessing. I remember hearing Jeff Cavins, who, you know, he's featured on this podcast.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
He helps us out every single time we come to a new time period. Him pointing out that that is a great prayer of blessing for parents to pray over their children. And specifically, I would just invite fathers who are listening to pray that prayer, that the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Because Aaron, again, that tribe of Levi being the firstborn, was also in some ways like the father. Because remember, the priesthood was always related to the fatherhood. And so there's that Father's blessing that's built into the Aaronic blessing as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
Now, when it comes to the book of Deuteronomy, oh my goodness, what an incredible gift. What we have is what's called the Shema. And the Shema is the word in Hebrew for hear, to hear. Now to hear, so hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, right? So we've heard this because we know the gospels.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
We also have heard this because of Deuteronomy chapter six. This is the great commandment. And if there's any one commandment that united the people of Israel, obviously there's the 10 commandments. Obviously there's all 613 commandments of the old covenant. But this one commandment, this great Shema, this hear, O Israel, sums everything up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And so to hear in Hebrew, that Shema doesn't just mean, hey, you guys, listen up. It means like hear and obey. It means to receive and actually put this into practice. And so here are the people of Israel that Moses is speaking to them because he's said some commandments, right? We went through the Ten Commandments. He's going to continue with...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
other laws, but this is the heart of all of the laws. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. Why does he bring this up? Because he knows. Not only do they come from Egypt, where there are multiple gods, they're going into Canaan, where there's multiple gods, and you have to be on guard against this. Now, how are you on guard against this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins. All the days of his vow of separation no razor shall come upon his head until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord. He shall be holy. He shall let the locks of his hair of his head grow long.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
It's not just like, I'm going to hold dogmatically to my beliefs. It involves also remembering. It's not just simply saying, well, this is what I believe, and that's what I believe. It's remembering that that the Lord God, the God, is the one who brought you out of that place of slavery. And that's what your sons in the future will say. What are these ordinances? What are these commandments?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 57: Hear, O Israel (2025)
And you need to remind your children of all that the Lord, your God, who is one, has done for you. That's why we obey these commandments. And it's so important for all of us to realize that All the rules come out of a relationship. Every single one of the rules we have in the church, every single one of the rules that we have in the scripture, they all come out of relationship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Paul to Titus is that, yeah, we give witness to the power of the gospel or we give witness to the impotence of the gospel by our lives. If we live like everyone else, then the gospel is powerless. If we live differently, live lives that are changed, then we bear witness that the gospel has power, has power to change our lives and has power to change the people's lives among whom we live.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
But I know what you're waiting for. You're waiting for St. Paul, not St. Paul, St. John's revelation, the apocalypse of John, because, oh gosh, all the imagery. Now, hopefully some of this imagery is going to be completely familiar to you because here's what happens. Chapter four hits and John says, after this, I looked. Remember, we ended yesterday with the messages to the churches.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
That's on earth. Chapter four opens up. After this, I looked and behold in heaven and open door. And the first voice heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. And once I was in the spirit and behold, a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne. And this is, this is so important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
This is now the next number of chapters is John in heaven. And John is relating to us what he saw in heaven. And this is bananas. It's incredible. He sees the one on the throne. And he sees around about there's 24 thrones with 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns upon their heads. And now think about this in verse 5.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
From the throne issued flashes of lightning and voices and peals of thunder. What's that sound like? That sounds like Mount Sinai to me. I don't know if it sounds like that to you, but it sounds like that to me. Also, these 24 elders, right? They're both kings and they're going to be priests.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
This is going to be absolutely critical to notice that they have crowns like kings and they worship like priests. Bananas again. We have the four living creatures, like the lion, like an ox, the face of a man, and the flying eagle type living creature. We saw those things, those creatures before as well. And what do they never cease to sing?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And round the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind. The first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all round and within.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. This is, I don't know if you've ever been to a Catholic mass, you know that that's what we sing. It's called the Sanctus. It's the holy, holy, holy. And one of the things that I just want to remind you, every one of us, every time you go to Mass, this is what's happening.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
You're being brought up like John into the heavenly throne room. You're being brought up like John into heavenly worship. That is the secret of the book of Revelation, is that whenever we walk into Mass, we're there. We are in the place. We are in the place that we just heard described in chapter 4 and 5 and following. And this is incredible. What happens?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, singing, And we're created. And this is just incredible. That's this worship. Now, chapter five has, there's a scroll.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And on the scroll, there has seven seals. And I heard someone describe this. And they pictured it like this. They said, don't picture a scroll with seven seals in terms of seven seals along one edge. If you can picture that right now, here's a paper rolled up and here's one edge. But imagine it rolled tightly. With every roll, there's another scroll or another seal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
So that if you were to say this, and this was described, and I thought, this is kind of interesting. The seventh seal would be that one in the center of the scroll, right? In the center of the being rolled up. And that would be the last one to be broken. The first one would be on the outside, right? But if you crack that first one, you could read that first message.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
But maybe the next message wasn't for you. So you crack the next one and the message is for someone else who could read your message and their message. But the third message isn't for you. So the third person cracked that seal. And now the third person can read the first and second person's message. No problem. But there's their third message. That makes sense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
So it's kind of like this unrolling of a scroll. And I thought that's helpful for me visually because what we see here is we see first the lament. The lament is there's no one worthy to open the scroll and break open its seals. No one can do this. Who is going to do this? John himself begins to weep. And so one of the elders says, weep not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals and a seal, a lamb standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and seven eyes. Numbers of the covenant may possibly, the seven horns and seven eyes symbolize Christ's full power and full knowledge.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Seven horns, horns are a symbol of power and eyes, a symbol of knowledge. So seven and seven, right? That number of covenant, full power, full knowledge, Jesus Christ himself, the one who is living forever. And what can happen? He can open the scroll.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
When he had taken the scroll in verse eight, chapter five, when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song singing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Now the prayers of the saints right there in chapter five, it's one of the reasons why we believe that those holy ones on earth, right? The holy ones on earth, Christians around the world, that the saints in heaven, those 24 elders, those saints in heaven are lifting up the prayers of the saints on earth. We'd see that these prayers of the saints here, the golden bowls full of incense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
They sang a new song singing, worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals. It goes on to say, you are slain by your blood, you ransomed men for God from every tribe and nation and tongue and people. and have made of them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. And then, bam, this is this massive praising God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And day and night they never cease to sing, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And again, verse 14, end of chapter five, and the four living creatures said amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped. This is the picture of heavenly worship, worshiping not only the one on the throne, but also the lamb who was slain and lives forever. And then in chapter six, the lamb opens one of the seven seals, and you have this succession of
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
I don't want to say woes come upon the earth, but definitely some hard times coming upon the earth. And we have the first horse, right? The four horsemen. The first one is the white horse with the rider had a bow and a crown was given to him and he went out to conquer. Second one was another horse, bright red, and it took peace away from the earth. There was war upon the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And the third was a black horse and rider had balance in his hands. And this is an interesting thing because it could be worth noting. I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures. This is verse six saying a quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius, but do not harm oil and wine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
I read in a commentary that talked about like, what is that? And they highlighted the fact that the time for the oil harvest or, you know, the olive harvest was a different time of year than it was for wheat and barley. And so what this proclamation essentially could be saying is that this was a temporary affliction, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
This is not complete destruction for an entire year, but only for a season. And I think I was like, oh, that's really important. That makes sense. So wheat is down or wheat is up and barley is up, but the oil hasn't been damaged because that wasn't around for that time. That makes any sense. And fourth seal, there's the pale horse.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
In fact, I think of translation, I came across that sickly green color, not pale, but sickly green. And its rider's name was Death and Hades followed him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and wild beasts in the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
The next number of, well, next two really, seals that are opened bring, again, destruction and they bring pestilence upon the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
now chapter seven is the seventh seal and in this is very fascinating because we have 144 000 what is that well 144 000 are 12 times 12 times 1 000. so 12 times 12 000 is 144 000. so that would essentially be the idea of here are 12 tribes of israel named here in chapter 7. And you have 12,000 people from the 12 tribes of Israel. And they're being brought back. They're being reunited.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
They're being restored, essentially, in God's presence. And so that is really important to understand. Why 144,000? Because 12 times 12,000. The numbers of tribes of Israel and 12,000, which is, again, that number 12 being a very powerful, complete kind of number that here's God who wants to restore Israel. You could also say that here's God restoring the new Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
This could be God restoring Christians, those who belong to him. Again, there are different scholars who say different things, but what is very clear, very clear, is that this is the restoration of the kingdom of God in the old covenant. He even mentioned, he even names every one of the 12 tribes of Israel. So this is very, very important that these are the Jewish people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Again, this is so important. Sometimes people can think that the New Testament can be anti-Semitic, but it's not when we realize that the people who wrote it were Jews. Not only that, but here in chapter seven, 144,000, this is the proclamation, the prophecy that says that, no, there's a restoration of the people of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
They cast their crowns before the throne singing, Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. Chapter 5 The Scroll and the Lamb And I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
But then after that, this is incredible, in verse 9, I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And again, everyone's worshiping. And this is just incredible because not only are the Jewish people meant to be saved, meant to be restored, the kingdom of Israel meant to be restored, but... us, Gentiles, who belong to the Lord God, get to participate in heavenly worship. Last line, verse 13.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Then one of the elders addressed me saying, who are these clothed in white robes and from where have they come? And I said to him, bro, you, you're the one who lives here. He says, sir, you know. And he said to me, these are they who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
These are the martyrs and the martyrs have a special place. It's incredible, right? These are the martyrs. And after this, I looked, as John says, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues. And these are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 360. That sounds like a good number, kind of very circular. And we are reading from Revelation chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7. Okay. And as well as the book of Titus, a letter of Paul to Titus, chapters 1, 2, and 3. Might be a big day today. You probably already know that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. And they have a special place. And that's one of the things that's true, right? That some people have a special place in heaven. And that's okay because everyone's loved. But there are those who have given, get born witness to the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord with their very lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Remember that even at one point, Peter says to Jesus, he says, Lord, you know, we've given up everything to follow you. What did we get? And Jesus says, oh, you'll get blessings in this life and persecutions and you'll get eternal life and this blessing in heaven. But we recognize that what we do on earth makes a difference in how we live in heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
and the the more righteous we live on earth the more we cooperate with with god on earth the more we say yes to jesus on earth the more glory he gets in heaven i just think this is just the the heart of everything we're going to talk about more about this in the chapters to come as john learns more and more about heavenly worship but one of the things that it seems to be revealed again seems to be revealed maybe it's just my interpretation but how we live on earth those righteous deeds
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
they amplify, they glorify, they exalt the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit for eternity. And it just seems like one of those situations where it's like, don't we want him to receive the maximum amount of glory through our lives on earth and throughout eternity in heaven?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Not just about making it to heaven, but about living in such a way on earth that he's glorified even more with every passing breath, with every passing moment in heaven. I don't know, that's one of those things that kind of just lights a fire beneath me and I wanted to pass that on to you. Of course, everyone, everyone is loved by God. He will never stop loving you. He has never stopped.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
He will never stop loving you. The question is, will I let him love me? Will I say yes to him today? I'm praying that you do. I'm praying that I do. I'm praying that all of us can be in that number of people who are worshiping the Lord, not only in this world, in the mass, but also in eternity in heaven. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And I wept much that no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. Then one of the elders said to me, Weep not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
and between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders i saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and with seven eyes which are the seven spirits of god sent out into all the earth and he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made them into a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voices of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all therein saying, To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. and ever. And the four living creatures said, Amen, and the elders fell down and worshipped. Chapter 6 The Seven Seals
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say, as with the voice of thunder, Come. And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, Come. And out came another horse, bright red.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that men should slay one another, and he was given a great sword. When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, Come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And I saw, and behold, a black horse, and its rider had a balance in his hand, and I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, but do not harm oil and wine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
when he opened the fourth seal i heard the voice of the fourth living creature say come and i saw and behold a pale horse and its rider's name was death and hades followed him and they were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
It's also Proverbs chapter 31, verses 10 through 15. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan for these last few days, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow-servants and their brethren should be complete who were to be killed as they themselves had been when he opened the sixth seal i looked and behold there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth the full moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
The sky vanished like a scroll that is rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Then the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the generals, and the rich, and the strong, and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation. That's where we are.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Chapter 7 The 144,000 of Israel Sealed After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Then I saw another angel ascend from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, though we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And I heard the number of the sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel, twelve thousand sealed out of the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand of the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand of the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand of the tribe of Asher,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
12,000 of the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000 of the tribe of Manasseh, 12,000 of the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 of the tribe of Levi, 12,000 of the tribe of Issachar, 12,000 of the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 of the tribe of Joseph, 12,000 sealed out of the tribe of Benjamin. the multitude from every nation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. You know that. It's day 360. We're reading Revelations 4, 5, 6, and 7, Titus 1, 2, and 3, Proverbs chapter 31, verses 10 through 15. The Revelation to John, chapter 4. The Heavenly Worship. After this I looked, and behold, in heaven an open door.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man can number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And all the angels stood round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying, Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, Who are these clothed in white robes, and from where have they come? I said to him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, These are they who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night within his temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more. The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith of God's elect with their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who never lies, promised ages ago, and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by command of God our Savior.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
To Titus, my true child in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. Titus in Crete. This is why I left you in Crete, that you might amend what was defective and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. If any man is blameless, the husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery and not being insubordinate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
For a bishop, as God's steward, must be blameless. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain. but hospitable, a lover of goodness, master of himself, upright, holy, and self-controlled. He must hold firm to the sure word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to confute those who contradict it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
For there are many insubordinate men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for base gain what they have no right to teach." One of themselves, a prophet of their own said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith instead of giving heed to Jewish myths or to commands of men who reject the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving, nothing is pure. their very minds and consciences are corrupted. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good deed. Chapter 2. Teach Sound Doctrine But as for you, teach what befits sound doctrine. Bid the older men be temperate, serious, sensible, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. bid the older women likewise to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be sensible, chaste, domestic, kind, and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be discredited. Likewise, urge the younger men to control themselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Show yourself in all respects a model of good deeds, and in your teaching show integrity, gravity, and sound speech that cannot be censured, so that an opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say of us. Bid slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there appeared like Jasper and Carnelian, and round the throne was a rainbow that looked like an emerald.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
They are not to talk back nor pilfer, but to show entire and true fidelity, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. Declare these things. Exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
chapter three maintain good deeds remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities to be obedient to be ready for any honest work to speak evil of no one to avoid quarreling to be gentle and to show perfect courtesy toward all men
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by men and hating one another.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life. The saying is sure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
I desire you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to apply themselves to good deeds. These are excellent and profitable to men. But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels over the law, for they are unprofitable and futile. As for a man who is factious, after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Knowing that such a person is perverted and sinful, he is self-condemned. Final Messages and Benediction When I send Artemis, or Tychicus, to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. Do your best to speed Zenos the lawyer and Apollos on their way. See that they lack nothing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And let our people learn to apply themselves to good deeds, so as to help cases of urgent need and not to be unfruitful. All who are with me send greetings to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
The heart of her husband trusts in her and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not harm all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax and works with willing hands. She is like the ships of the merchant. She brings her food from afar. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and tasks for her maidens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
Round the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns upon their heads. From the throne issued flashes of lightning, and voices and peals of thunder. And before the throne burned seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there is, as it were, a sea of glass, like crystal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
We thank you so much for bringing us once again to this day, to day 360. We ask that you please continue to walk with us, continue to journey with us. Above all, we ask you, Lord, to please continue to guide us because without your guidance, without your word, without your direction, we are completely lost. Help us to be yours this day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, so we have the letter of Paul to Titus, which is really brief, obviously. It's a brief letter, only three chapters. And in it, I just want to highlight one piece. And that is that St. Paul, as he's writing to Titus, Titus is in Crete.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And one of the things that even Paul quotes, he says that one of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, And then Paul says, That testimony is true. I agree. Those Cretans, yeesh, that kind of a situation. But what Paul is pointing out is that a lot of these Cretans who have become Christians are not necessarily living converted lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And so he talks about, okay, so have the older women live like this, have the older men live like this, have the younger women and younger men live like this. If you're a slave, live like this. And the reason essentially is because Christianity has to become credible. Again, the gospel has to become credible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
At this point, you realize that if Christians are living among the world and in the world and are living no differently than anyone else, like if here's a Cretan Christian and they're just a Cretan and they're not living any differently from each other, then that's a problem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 360: Heavenly Worship (2024)
And so what Paul is saying is he's basically saying you're giving witness, you're bearing witness to Jesus or you're bearing witness to the ineffectiveness of the gospel if you're no different than the people around you. And so I would say that probably the... The upshot of this particular letter of St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. Now then, what have you at hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here. And the priest answered David, I have no common bread at hand, but there is holy bread. If only the young men have kept themselves from women. And David answered the priest of a truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
Women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is a common journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy? So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the presence, which is removed from before the Lord to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen. And David said to Ahimelech, And have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? for I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 113. And we are reading from 1 Samuel chapter 21 and 22. We're also praying Psalm 52. As always, the Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
And the priest said, The sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here. And David said, There is none like that. Give it to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Akshish, the king of Gath. And the servants of Akshish said to him, Is not this David, the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands? And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Akshish, the king of Gath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
So he changed his behavior before them and feigned himself mad in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down on his beard. Then said Akshish to his servants, Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adulam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him and everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was discontented gathered to him and he became captain over them. And there were with him about four hundred men. And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
And he said to the king of Moab, Please let my father and my mother stay with you till I know what God will do for me. And he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. Then the prophet Gad said to David, Do not remain in the stronghold, depart, and go into the land of Judah. So David departed, and he went into the forest of Hereth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
Now Saul heard that David was discovered and the men who were with him. Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand and all his servants were standing about him. And Saul said to his servants who stood about him, here now you Benjaminites, will the son of Jesse give everyone of you fields and vineyards?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a league with the son of Jesse. None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait as at this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
Then answered Doeg, the Enamite, who stood by the servants of Saul, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nab, to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub. And he inquired of the Lord for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
then the king sent to summon ahimelech the priest the son of ahitub in all his father's house the priests who were at nob and all of them came to the king and saul said hear now son of ahitub and he answered here i am my lord and saul said to him
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he has risen against me to lie in wait as at this day? Then Ahimelech answered the king, And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law and captain over your bodyguard and honored in your house?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to get that Bible, you can go to ascensionpress.com and buy it or wherever fine Bibles are sold. If you want to get the... Bible in a Year reading plan. You can get that even quicker and even more easily by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year and you can download that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No, let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
for your servant has known nothing of all this much or little and the king said you shall surely die ahimelech you and all your father's house and the king said to the guard who stood about him turn and kill the priests of the lord because their hand also is with david and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord. Then the king said to Doeg, You turn and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned and fell upon the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, oxen, donkeys, and sheep, he put to the sword. But one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
And David said to Abiathar, I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father's house. Stay with me, fear not, for he that seeks my life seeks your life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
To the choir master, a mascal of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, David has come to the house of Ahimelech. Why do you boast, O mighty man, of mischief done against the godly? All the day you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is a sharp razor, you worker of treachery. You love evil more than good and lying more than speaking the truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue. But God will break you down forever. He will snatch and tear you from your tent. He will uproot you from the land of the living. The righteous shall see and fear and shall laugh at him saying, see the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his wealth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will thank you forever because you have done it. I will proclaim your name for it is good in the presence of the godly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
And we know what it is to be betrayed. We know what it is to be lied about. We know what it is to... to lose faith in others when they have turned their backs on us. We know what it is to be hurt by having trusted others, having given our hearts to them and having those hearts be betrayed. And so we recognize in David's prayer, in this Psalm 52, we recognize our own experience.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
So right in front of you is the color-coded chart with the Bible plan printed out. You can look at it, stare at it, love it, check it off every single day because today, as I said, is day 113. If you want to subscribe to this podcast, please feel free and consider yourself thanked. We're reading today 1 Samuel chapter 21, chapter 22, and Psalm 52. 1 Samuel chapter 21, David and the Holy Bread.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
We recognize our own hearts. We recognize what it is to be abandoned. to have had friends and then to have those friends turn on us. And so we pray for each other, especially those betrayed hearts, especially those who find themselves wounded by those they thought they could trust.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
Lord God, we pray for all of our friends right now who've been wounded by friends, all those people who are joining us in this community who have been wounded by those they believed they could trust. And we ask for their strength, for grace, and for mercy to be in their hearts. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
So we had, gosh, 1 Samuel chapter 21 and 22, kind of one of the villains. I mean, if Doeg the Edomite had a, if we had a picture of him, he'd have one of those curly mustaches because he just slimy, right? He would have been that slimy kind of guy who's just slimy. doing what he needs to, just doing what he wants to, to get ahead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
And in chapters 21 and 22, Doeg the Edomite is that betrayer, right? Not only does he bust Ahimelech, but also then when the king's men are saying, we're not going to strike down all the priests, Doeg said, well, I'll do it then. And he does this thing, this, I was going to say dastardly deed, but it's a dastardly deed. It's an evil, evil thing that he does.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
And yet we recognize David's response to this in praying Psalm 52 is, yes, Lord, bring justice about. Yes, Lord, let there be justice upon this man who betrayed me and who not only betrayed me, but betrayed the Lord, not only betrayed the Lord, but also betrayed the priests of the Lord and struck them down.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
But I'm going to walk, even though people around me betray, I'm going to walk as righteously as I can. Even though the people around me are false, I want to be as true and as honest as I possibly can be. And this is our call because, right, we live in a world right now. We live in a, well, always the world is this. It's not just right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
It's this world is one where there is such a thing as treachery, right? We live in a world where there's such a thing as betrayal. In fact, if you've ever read Dante's Inferno, Dante, Dante's Inferno. If you've ever read Dante's Inferno, And he goes down the circles of hell, the deepest circle of hell, where Lucifer is encased in ice. So every circle of hell represents a certain kind of sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
And things get more serious and more serious. As the sins get more serious, it becomes a deeper circle of hell. And so you think, gosh, what would be the deepest circle of hell? Well, Dante at least puts those who betray in the darkest and deepest circle of hell. Those who were trusted by someone else and they betrayed the trust of that person.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
He has people who betrayed their country, people who betrayed their vows, people who betrayed God, people who betrayed those they had promised to love and they betrayed them. Judas is in that circle of hell next to Lucifer and some other people. But you recognize here is someone like Doeg, who we don't necessarily know that he had any connection with David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
It wasn't like a close, close friendship, obviously. David knew who Doeg was because he recognized him when he was at the temple of the Lord. But you recognize this also. You recognize that here is what it is to betray, is idolatry. Someone trusted me and I hurt them because I was able to hurt them more deeply because of their trust.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
And that's one of the reasons why betrayal is so, so deep and so dark. So moving on, because we've experienced this. So we're going to keep praying for each other that we are able to, A, not only not be betrayers. but also heal from it. Because everyone, every one of us has been hurt by that, by trusting someone. And then it turns out later that they weren't worthy of our trust.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
They didn't deserve it. They abused our trust. One other thing, just to kind of keep in mind, this is more of a detail. When it comes to chapter 21, this is David and the holy bread. Just what a gift. Remember, when we're back in talking about how is the layout of the temple with the layout of the presence of God, you have the holy place and you have the holy of holies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
And the holy of holies was where the Ark of the Covenant would be kept, right? But before that was the holy place. And there were three pieces of furniture, we'll call them, three pieces of furniture, three objects that were in the holy place. There was the altar of incense, where the incense would go up before the ark of the Lord. There was the menorah, the golden lampstand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
And there was also the bread of the presence. And the bread of the presence, the capital P presence, it would be a sign of not only God's provision for the people of Israel as he fed them through their desert wanderings, but also a sign of God's love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
Then came David to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, Why are you alone, and no one with you? And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has charged me with a matter, and said to me, Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
In fact, at the end of the feasts, when we finally get to Jerusalem and the temple is built there by King Solomon and then later restored, et cetera, et cetera, it's all coming, coming up in the future.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
But when they came up for the high holy feasts, we've already talked about those so many times, high holy feasts, the final blessing that was given to the people was where the priest would go into the holy place and he'd come out with the bread of the presence. And he would lift up the bread of the presence and he would say to the people, behold, and the love of God for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
As he held up the bread of the presence, he said, behold, the love of God for you. This is what happens at every single Mass. That the priest holds up the bread of the presence, the true presence, right? The real presence of Jesus Christ. And he says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the lamb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
Basically, one of the things he's saying is behold, the love of God for you. This is Jesus Christ. Crucified and risen and ascended to heaven. This is truly him. It's what a gift. It's so, so incredible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
And here's David who gets to eat this bread of the presence so that he and his men can continue their fight, continue their fleeing from King Saul, who's unjustly pursuing David and seeking his life. Ah, speaking of being pursued, you are being pursued right now by the Lord. He loves you, and he desires to make your heart his own.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
And so let's keep praying for each other because sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's hard when we've been hurt by other people's betrayal that we learn, I don't know who I can trust. And yet, once again today, we're reminded, I can always trust the Father. I can always trust the Son. I can always trust the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 113: Broken Trust (2025)
And so let's pray for each other that we can be men and women who trust in God. Please pray for me. I am praying for you. Let's pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Who gave him charge over the earth, and who laid on him the whole world? If he should take back his spirit to himself and gather to himself his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust. If you have understanding, hear this. Listen to what I say. Shall one who hates justice govern?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
And behold, seven other cows, gaunt and thin, came up out of the Nile after them, and then stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. And the gaunt and thin cows ate up the seven sleek and fat cows. And Pharaoh awoke, and he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty, who says to a king, worthless one, and to nobles, wicked man, who shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands? In a moment they die. At midnight the people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away by no human hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
For his eyes are upon the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps. There is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves, for he has not appointed a time for any man to go before God in judgment. He shatters the mighty without investigation and sets others in their place. Thus, knowing their works, he overturns them in the night, and they are crushed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
He strikes them for their wickedness in the sight of men." because they turn aside from following him, and had no regard for any of his ways, so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him, and he heard the cry of the afflicted. When he is quiet, who can condemn him? When he hides his face, who can behold him, whether it be a nation or a man?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
That a godless man should not reign, that he should not ensnare the people. For as anyone said to God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend anymore. Teach me what I do not see. If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more. Will he then make repayment to suit you because you reject it? For you must choose and not I. Therefore, declare what you know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Men of understanding will say to me and the wise man who hears me will say, Job speaks without knowledge. His words are without insight. Would that Job were judged to the end because he answers like wicked men. For he adds rebellion to his sin and claps his hands among us and multiplies his words against God. Proverbs chapter four, verses one through nine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Hear, O sons, a father's instruction and be attentive that you may gain insight. For I give you good precepts. Do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, let your heart hold fast to my words. Keep my commandments and live. Do not forget and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Get wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Get insight. Do not forsake her and she will keep you. Love her and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this. Get wisdom. And whatever you get, get insight. Prize her highly and she will exalt you. She will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a fair garland. She will bestow on you a beautiful crown. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
We thank you for your gift. We thank you for revealing your heart to us as you reveal yourself to us always, constantly through this journey of this Bible in a year. We ask that you continue to lift up our minds and hearts to you as you reveal your mind and your heart to us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Man, oh man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
And behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind. And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream. So in the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dream, but there was none who could interpret it to Pharaoh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
One of the words in the Old Testament in the book of Genesis is go to Joseph. It's three words. Go to Joseph. Ite ad Joseph in Latin. And it becomes a marker, in fact, for many of those people who have a devotion to St. Joseph. In so many ways, what do we do? When we go to Our Lady, when we go to Mary, she points us to Jesus. So we approach Mary and say, Mary, bring me to your son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
There are so many ways in which the Lord God has given us this foster father of Jesus as well, St. Joseph in the New Covenant, in the New Testament, to be the one that we can go to, the one who took care of the food, the bread from heaven, the one who guarded the bread from heaven to be able to be distributed to people who were dying of hunger. That's us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
That's Jesus in the Eucharist, and that's us who are dying for him. And so what we do is we can have a devotion to St. Joseph. In fact, there's this remarkable consecration to St. Joseph done by Father Calloway. And it is a remarkable journey of 30 or so days to get to know Joseph better, the one who's silent in the New Testament, silent in the Bible. but to have a heart like his.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
We realize the Old Testament Joseph had a heart as well, a heart like God's. Because why? Because he was faithful. We talked about this yesterday, but how Joseph, God was with him, but also Joseph fought for God to be with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Joseph had opportunities, Old Testament Joseph had opportunities to rebel, he had opportunities to sin, but he fought to stay faithful to the Lord, and he was faithful to the Lord. No matter what we're going through today, we also are invited to do the same, to fight to be faithful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
to go to Joseph and let him take us through his intercession, the New Testament Joseph, but his intercession to take us to his foster child, but his Lord, our God, Jesus Christ. Keep praying for each other as we continue this journey with each other. We are now launched into the fourth week. You know, it's day 22 today and you're trucking along. So keep it up. Don't don't give up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
We're almost to the end of Genesis and we're almost to the end of the book of Job. But we have just started. So let's keep each other in prayer. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
then the chief butler said to pharaoh i remember my faults to-day when pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me and the chief banker in custody in the house of the captain of the guard we dreamed on the same night he and i each having a dream with its own meaning a young hebrew was there with us a servant of the captain of the guard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
And when we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream. And as he interpreted to us, so it came to pass. I was restored to my office and the baker was hanged. Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon. And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream and there is no one who can interpret it. And I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it. Joseph answered Pharaoh, it is not in me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
god will give pharaoh a favorable answer then pharaoh said to joseph behold in my dream i was standing on the banks of the nile and seven cows fat and sleek came up out of the nile and fed in the reed grass and seven other cows came up after them poor and very gaunt and thin such as i have never seen in all the land of egypt And the thin and gaunt cows ate up the first seven fat cows.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
This is day 22. Let us get started and keep on rolling. We are going to be reading from Genesis chapter 41 and 42. Going to continue following our new friend, Joseph. We are also going to be walking with our old friend, Job, in chapters 33 and 34. And we'll be reading from the fourth chapter of Proverbs, verses 1 through 9.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
But when they had eaten them, no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were still as gaunt as at the beginning. Then I awoke. I also saw in my dream seven ears growing on one stalk, full and good. And seven ears withered, thin and blighted by the east wind, sprouted after them. And the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
And I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me. Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years. The dream is one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
The seven lean and gaunt cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also seven years of famine. It is as I told Pharaoh. God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do. There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
But after them, there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
the famine will consume the land and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of that famine which will follow for it will be very grievous and the doubling of pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by god and god will shortly bring it to pass now therefore let pharaoh select a man discreet and wise and set him over the land of egypt let pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land and take the fifth part of the produce of the land of egypt during the seven plenteous years
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
and let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and lay up grain under the authority of pharaoh for food in the cities and let them keep it that food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine which are to befall the land of egypt so that the land may not perish through the famine The proposal seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
And Pharaoh said to his servants, can we find such a man as this? In whom is the spirit of God? So Pharaoh said to Joseph, since God has shown you all this, there is none so discreet and wise as you are. You shall be over my house and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
And Pharaoh said to Joseph, behold, I have set you over all the land of Egypt and then pharaoh took his signet-ring from his hand and put it on joseph's hand and arrayed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck and he made him to ride in his second chariot and they cried before him bow the knee thus he set him over all the land of egypt
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without your consent, no man shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zephanath-Paniah, and gave him in marriage Asenath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of On. So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt. Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt. During the seven plenteous years, the earth brought forth abundantly and he gathered up all the food of the seven years when there was plenty in the land of Egypt and stored up food in the cities. He stored up in every city, the food from the fields around it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea until he ceased to measure it for it could not be measured. Before the year of famine came, Joseph had two sons, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of On, bore to him. Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for he said, God has made me forget all my hardship in all my father's house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
If you want to have your own Bible in a Year reading plan, so you can follow along and see this, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can download that, and it's free. accessible, super simple. We're also reading from the Bible translation called the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
The name of the second he called Ephraim, for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. The seven years of plenty that prevailed in the land of Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the lands, but in the land of Egypt there was bread.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread, and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do. So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain because the famine was severe over all the earth. When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, Why do you look at one another? And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might befall him. Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came. for the famine was in the land of Canaan. Now Joseph was governor over the land. He it was who sold to all the people of the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. Joseph saw his brothers and knew them. But he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. Where do you come from? He said. They said from the land of Canaan to buy food. Thus Joseph knew his brothers, but they did not know him. And Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
And he said to them, you are spies. You have come to see the weakness of the land. They said to him, no, my Lord, but to buy food, have your servants come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
we are all sons of one man we are honest men your servants are not spies he said to them no it is the weakness of the land that you have come to see and they said we your servants are twelve brothers the sons of one man in the land of canaan and behold the youngest is this day with our father And one is no more. But Joseph said to them, It is as I said to you, you are spies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one of you. and let him bring your brother while you remain in prison, that your words may be tested whether there is truth in you, or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies. And he put them all together in prison for three days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
On the third day, Joseph said to them, do this and you will live. For I fear God. If you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined in your prison and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households and bring your youngest brother to me so that your words will be verified and you shall not die. And they did so.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
And I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension, which is super helpful because it has the eras, you know, the stages of the timeline that are built into, like color-coded into the Bible. Really, really helpful, as well as some notes that can help us as we follow along. You also, I want to invite you to subscribe to this podcast app. So every time we have an update, you get updated.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Then they said to one another, in truth, we are guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we would not listen. Therefore, this distress has come upon us. And Reuben answered them, did I not tell you not to sin against the lad? But you would not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
They did not know that Joseph understood them for there was an interpreter between them. Then Joseph turned away from them and wept. And he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain and to replace every man's money in his sack and to give them provisions for the journey.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
This was done for them. then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed and as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food at the lodging place he saw his money in the mouth of the sack and he said to his brothers my money has been put back here it is in the mouth of my sack at this their hearts failed them and they turned trembling to one another saying
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
What is this that God has done to us? When they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had befallen them, saying, The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly to us, and took us to be spies of the land. But we said to him, We are honest men, we are not spies, we are twelve brothers, sons of our father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
One is no more, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, By this I shall know that you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for your famine to your households, and go your way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Bring your youngest brother to me, then I shall know that you are not spies, but honest men, and I will deliver to you your brother, and you shall trade in the land. As they emptied their sacks, behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were dismayed. And Jacob, their father said to them, you have bereaved me of my children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Joseph is no more. Simeon is no more. And now you would take Benjamin. All this has come upon me. Then Reuben said to his father, slay my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands and I will bring him back to you. But he said, my son shall not go down with you for his brother is dead and he only is left.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
If harm should befall him on the journey that you are about to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol. The book of Job chapter 33 and 34. Elihu addresses Job. But now hear my speech, O Job, and listen to all my words. Behold, I open my mouth, the tongue in my mouth speaks. My words declare the uprightness of my heart, and what my lips know they speak sincerely.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Answer me if you can. Set your words in order before me. Take your stand. Behold, I am toward God as you are. I too was formed from a piece of clay. Behold, no fear of me need terrify you. My pressure will not be heavy upon you. Surely you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard the sound of your words.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Here we go. We're And 42, following our young friend, our new friend, Joseph. Genesis chapter 41 and 42. After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, and behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows, sleek and fat, and they fed in the reed grass.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
You say, I am clean without transgression. I am pure, and there is no iniquity in me. behold he finds occasions against me he counts me as his enemy he puts my feet in the stocks and watches all my paths behold in this you are not right i will answer you god is greater than man why do you contend against him saying he will answer none of my words
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
For God speaks in one way and in two, though man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men while they slumber on their beds, then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings that he may turn man aside from his deed and cut off pride from the man. He heaps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Man is also chastened with pain upon his bed, and with continual strife in his bones, so that his life loathes bread and his appetite dainty food. His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen, and his bones, which were not seen, stick out. His soul draws near the pit, and his life to those who bring death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
if there be for him an angel a mediator one of the thousand to declare to man what is right for him and he is gracious to him and says deliver him from going down to the pit i have found a ransom Let his flesh become fresh with youth and let him return to the days of his youthful vigor. Then man prays to God and he accepts him. He comes into his presence with joy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
He recounts to men his salvation and he sings before men and says, I have sinned and perverted what was right and it was not repaid to me. He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit and my life shall see the light. Behold, God does all these things twice, three times with a man to bring back his soul from the pit that he might see the light of life. Give heed, O Job, listen to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Be silent and I will speak. If you have anything to say, answer me, speak, for I desire to justify you. If not, listen to me. Be silent and I will teach you wisdom. Then Elihu said, Hear my words, you wise men. Give ear to me, you who know. For the ear tests words as the palate tests food. Let us choose what is right. Let us determine among ourselves what is good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
For Job has said, I am innocent, and God has taken away my right. In spite of my right, I am counted a liar. My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression. What man is like Job, who drinks up scoffing like water, who goes in company with evildoers and walks with wicked men? For he has said, it profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 22: Go to Joseph (2025)
Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding, far be it from God that he should do wickedness and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. For according to the work of a man he will repay him, and according to his ways he will make him befall him. Of a truth God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
But at the end of one's life, to be thinking of someone else, at the end of one's life, to be thinking of where can I give the people around me who've cared for me, who have fought by my side, who have lived a life with me? Can I tell the world of their greatness? Can I praise them in the face of other people? And that's one of those just such a gift that we can do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
And we don't have to wait till the end of our life to do it. On one hand is to be able to give God praise in every situation, in every circumstance. On the other is to be able to recognize the people around us and to praise them and to thank them and to recognize David couldn't have done all that he did by himself, right? He's one man. He could not have united the kingdom. He's one man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
He could not have defeated the Philistines. He's one man. He could not have defeated the Ammonites. He's one man. He couldn't have done all these things by himself. So he recognizes that I needed these people around me. to be able to be at the place where God had called me. So what does he do? He gives God praise for having anointed him and strengthened him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
And he notices and recognizes the people around him. And this is just one of the invitations we have, not only to give God praise and to not become resentful, to not be corrupted by the battles we've been through, but also to look up from our own pain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
If this is at the end of David's life, to look up from our own story and recognize here's the stories, here's the lives, here's the courage, the gifts, the skills, the strength, the accomplishments of the people around me. Today, can I recognize that? Can I recognize those things without bitterness, without resentment?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Because I think there's something massively important to be able to learn from in this story of the last days of David's life. Now, There is one more chapter, one more chapter in 2 Samuel chapter 24 before we go to 1 Kings. And David's going to, he's going to, he's going to stumble one more time. We already heard about it. We heard about it in 1 Chronicles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
But here at the end of David's life, we have these two major lessons. One, to give God thanks and praise, to not be corrupted by our battles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
But godless men are all like thorns that are thrown away for they cannot be taken with the hand. But the man who touches them arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear and they are utterly consumed with fire. David's mighty men. These are the names of the mighty men whom David had. He was the chief of the three. He wielded his spear against 800 whom he slew at one time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
And secondly, is to look up from our own pain, look up from our own story and recognize the stories of those around us and to be able to praise those people around us, to lift them up when the only thing we can do, I mean, the only thing David could do at this point in his life
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
was lift up the people around him well i guess he could have chosen to be resentful he could have chosen to be bitter but he gave what he had to give and that's my invitation for all of us is okay today help me to give what i have to give just give what i have to give if that's praise if that's thanks that's blessing that's notice attention give what i have to give let's pray for each other because that is not always easy um
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 141, and we're reading today from 2 Samuel 23.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
And next to him among the three mighty men was Eliezer, the son of Dodo, son of Ahohai. He was with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle and the men of Israel withdrew. He rose and struck down the Philistines until his hand was weary and his hand clung to the sword. And the Lord wrought a great victory that day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
And the men returned after him only to strip the slain. And next to him was Shammah, the son of Agi the Herorite. The Philistines gathered together at Lehi, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the men fled from the Philistines. But he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and slew the Philistines, and the Lord wrought a great victory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
And three of the thirty chief men went down and came about harvest time to David at the cave of Adulam, when a band of Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim. David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then at Bethlehem. And David said longingly, Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, which was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. But he would not drink of it. He poured it out to the Lord and said, Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
shall i drink the blood of the men who went at risk of their lives therefore he would not drink it these things did the three mighty men now abishai the brother of joab the son of zeruiah was the chief of the thirty and he wielded his spear against three hundred men and slew them and won a name beside the three
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
He was the most renowned of the 30 and became their commander, but he did not attain to the three. And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was a valiant man of Kabzil, a doer of great deeds. He struck two aerials of Moab. He also went down and slew a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen. And he slew an Egyptian, a handsome man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
from first chronicles chapter 28 and we are praying psalm 42. as you know the bible translation that i'm reading from is the revised standard version the second catholic edition and i'm using the great adventure bible from ascension if you want to download your own bible in a year reading plan you can visit ascensionpress.com bible in a year if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast you can do that i got that in under one minute so
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but Benaiah went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and slew him with his own spear. These things did Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and won a name beside the three mighty men. He was renowned among the 30, but he did not attain to the three. And David set him over his bodyguard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Asahel, the brother of Joab, was one of the 30. Elhanan, the son of Dodo of Bethlehem. Shema of Harad. Elisha of Harad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikesh of Tekoa, Abiezar of Hanathoth, Mabunai the Hushethite, Zalman the Ahohite, Mahari of Netophah, Heleb the son of Baana of Netophah, Itai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the Benjaminites, Benaiah of Pirathon, Hiday of the brooks of Gaash, Abi-Albon the Arbethite,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Azmaveth of Bahurim, Eliabah of Shaalbon, the son of Jashin, Jonathan, Shema the Hararite, Ahayim, the son of Sharar the Hararite, Eliphelet, the son of Ahaspai of Maaka, Eliam, the son of Ahitophel of Gelo, Hezro of Carmel, Pa'arai the Arbite, Iga, the son of Nathan of Zoba, Bani the Gadite, Zilek the Ammonite, Naharai of Be'iroth,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
the armor-bearer of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, Ira, the Ithrite, Gerab, the Ithrite, Uriah, the Hittite, 37 in all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
David assembled at Jerusalem all the officials of Israel, the officials of the tribes, the officers of the divisions that served the king, the commanders of thousands, the commanders of hundreds, the stewards of all the property and cattle of the king and his sons, together with the palace officials, the mighty men, and all the seasoned warriors.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Then King David rose to his feet and said, Hear me, my brethren and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the footstool of our God. And I made preparations for building. But God said to me, you may not build a house for my name, for you are a warrior and have shed blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Yet the Lord God of Israel chose me from all my father's house to be king over Israel forever, for he chose Judah as leader. And in the house of Judah, my father's house, and among my father's sons, he took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
And of all my sons, for the Lord has given me many sons, he has chosen Solomon, my son, to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. He said to me, It is Solomon your son who shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
I will establish his kingdom forever if he continues resolute in keeping my commandments and my ordinances as he is today. Now, therefore, in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God, observe and seek out all the commandments of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land and leave it for an inheritance to your children after you forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
And you, Solomon, my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. Take heed now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary. Be strong and do it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Hit that fast-forward button twice, and here we are, beginning of the Bible, reading the Bible. It's going to be great. As I said, it is day 141. We're reading 2 Samuel 23, 1 Chronicles 28, and Psalm 42. The second book of Samuel, chapter 23, the last words of David. Now, these are the last words of David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Then David gave Solomon his son the plan of the vestibule of the temple, and of its houses, its treasuries, its upper rooms, and its inner chambers, and of the room for the mercy seat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
and the plan of all that he had in mind for the courts of the house of the Lord, all the surrounding chambers, the treasuries of the house of God and the treasuries for dedicated gifts, for the divisions of the priests and of the Levites and all the work of the service in the house of the Lord, for all the vessels for the service in the house of the Lord,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
the weight of gold for all golden vessels for each service the weight of silver vessels for each service the weight of the golden lampstands and their lamps the weight of gold for each lampstand and its lamps the weight of silver for a lampstand and its lamps according to the use of each lampstand in the service
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
the weight of gold for each table for the showbread the silver for the silver tables and pure gold for the forks the basins and the cups for the golden bowls and the weight of each for the silver bowls and the weight of each and for the altar of incense made of refined gold and its weight also his plan for the golden chariot of the cherubim that spread their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the lord
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
All this he made clear by the writing from the hand of the Lord concerning it, all the work to be done according to the plan. Then David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage and do it. Fear not, be not dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
And behold the divisions of the priests and the Levites for all the service of the house of God. And with you in all the work will be every willing man who has skill for any kind of service.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
To the choir master, a mascal of the sons of Korah. As a deer longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me continually, where is your God?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I went with the throng and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is cast down within me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts. All your waves and your billows have gone over me. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me while they say to me continually, where is your God? Why are you cast down on my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
We do give you praise in all things. And God, thank you so much for Psalm 42. We are reminded that we can ask the question, God, where are you? And actually, we're not only reminded that we have the question, where are you? We get so often assaulted by that question. Where's your God? If you believe in him and if he's there for you, if he loves you, then point him out to me. Where is he?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
The oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel. The spirit of the Lord speaks by me. His word is upon my tongue. The God of Israel has spoken. The rock of Israel has said to me, when one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Our God, in those moments, we might be our own accuser. The evil one might be the accuser or those around us might be the accuser.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
that ask that question and yet in this moment lord we know where you are you are with us who you're for you're for us and you're beside us at all times lord god we give you praise and we thank you and we make that declaration of faith that declaration of faith that is even when it is hard for us to know where you are hard for us to sense your presence We have faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
We have faith that you are faithful to your promises and you have said you will be with us forever. You are with us at all times. Without you, we can do nothing. And so with you, we can do all things. Father, keep us close to you. and never let us be parted from you. In Jesus' name we pray, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So a couple things to highlight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Ah, gosh, okay, let's go in reverse because I think it's gonna be fun to go in reverse. When I say reverse, I mean from 1 Chronicles 28. 1 Chronicles 28 is here's David handing the reins over to Solomon. Remember that Samuel and Chronicles are telling two different stories, right? They're telling the story as it happens. That's Samuel. Here's the story of history as it's unfolding.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
And here's Chronicles that's looking back not only on the life of David and life of Solomon, but knowing all of the corruption that's gonna happen when Kings starts. He knows all the corruption, all the division, all the exile that's gonna happen after Kings starts. And here is in 1 Chronicles 28,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
David is handing over the reins to Solomon saying, I've built up all this, amassed all these treasures and wealth so that you can build a temple for the Lord. And then he says these words, and Solomon, my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and a willing mind. Solomon is going to start out so strong. We're going to get this in just a day or two.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Solomon is going to start out so strong. He is not going to end strong. And here is David. Again, remember, this is Ezra, maybe the chronicler, whoever's writing Chronicles, knows the story of Solomon. He knows that Solomon is going to have a divided heart and an unwilling mind. He's going to be a man who starts out with great wisdom, but he's going to waste that wisdom on a sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
He's going to waste that wisdom on power. He's going to waste that wisdom on all the things that we are tempted to waste wisdom on. And so here in verse 9 of chapter 28 of 1 Chronicles, we have this almost ominous words of King David to his son. And you, Solomon, my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and a willing mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
He goes on to say, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. And that is what ultimately will happen. And it's just so tragic. And yet we know that while it happened for Solomon, God did not abandon his people. Not at all. He did not abandon his people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
And the same thing is true for us. When we turn our backs on the Lord, he does not abandon those he loves. And he loves you so much. Last little note. from 2 Samuel chapter 23 and the stories of David's mighty men. This is, it's one of my, one of my favorite chapters. I have a bunch of favorite chapters in 1 and 2 Samuel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
He dawns on them like the morning light, like the light shining forth upon a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth. Yes, does not my house stand so with God? For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure. For will he not cause to prosper all my help and my desire?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
And this is one of my favorite chapters in 2 Samuel where David talks about the three mighty men. And it's just, it's, I don't know. I could gush. I could go on and on. But you have these three mighty men. Remember he has his 30. Actually, by the end of this chapter, there's 30 plus, roughly 37, including Uriah the Hittite. But you have these three. The top three soldiers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
And if you're going to be one of the top three soldiers of David's army, these are the specialists of his special forces, right? First, we have Josheb, Bathshebeth, the Takmanite, who's chief among them. He kills 800 men at one time. And just, you think about this, this is remarkable that he just doesn't give up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Then you have Eleazar, the son of Dodo, one of the three mighty men, when he arose and attacked the Philistines until his hand was weary and his hand stuck, cleaved to the sword. And you just can imagine that just, that battle, he kept fighting. And then he arose and attacked Philistines. Then also the third mighty man was Shammah, the son of Agi the Herorite.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
And he's defending a plot of lands, basically a hill full of beans. And he, everyone else fled, but Shammah, the son of Agi the Herorite, he stayed there. He stationed himself in the middle of the field. He defended it, killed the Philistines and Lord brought about a great victory. Those three incredible soldiers, those three incredibly brave soldiers are noted here at the end of David's life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
Now we can note their stories and there's so much to learn about their stories, but But one of the things that we want to highlight today is what we highlighted yesterday is that at the end of David's life, he could choose to be corrupted by the fact that he's done wrong. He could choose to be corrupted by the fact that he's been through so much.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 141: The Life of David (2025)
He could choose to be resentful and bitter of the fact that his life is ending. And yet he gave God praise. And now here he is in chapter 23, giving the men around him praise. And this is one of those recognitions of, yes, maybe it's easy to give God praise in certain situations, but
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Hey everyone, before we get started today, I want to let you know the Bible in a Year has brought the Word of God to so many people. As you know, you're part of this community, changing lives in so many incredible ways. We're humbled to play this role in God's plan and consider it our ongoing mission to keep bringing the Word of God to as many people as possible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
You want to have a pen. You want to have some kind of thing to mark this down. Not only here is Peter's boldness, not only is this no other name given under heaven, which must be saved, but even this, they were different and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. And there's something about that, that for all of us,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
That's the key, that's the core, which is if we've been with Jesus, we should look different. That if we've been with Jesus, we should look like him. And as Jeff noted a couple days ago in that intro to this last age, the final time period of the church, you have Peter who looks a lot like Jesus. And later on after chapter eight, we're going to see Paul who looks a lot like Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
And that's what we're called to be. We're called to look like Jesus. I just love this. It keeps going. I don't want to say everything. Just repeat the entire chapter again. Gosh. But it says, they called on them. This is verse 18 in chapter four. They called on them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, finally, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates. And every single day, including day 325, you would know what to read.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
But Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge. for we cannot speak of what we have seen and heard. In verse 21, and when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them. Because why? Because you can't stop someone who's already dead. You can't threaten someone who's already dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
And Peter and John, they've already died to themselves out of love for Jesus Christ. Now, last couple of things I want to highlight is that what happens from this in verse 23. They're released. They went to their friends, reported what the chief priests and elders had told them. And when they heard it, they all began to pray. And what did they pray for? This is incredible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
They don't say, God, there's a lot of danger out there and a lot of opposition. So, you know, make it safe. Like, God, there's a lot of opposition out there, a lot of danger. So take away the danger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
What they pray for is they say in verse 29, and now Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. You know, it's incredible. Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to face life. Do not pray for an easy life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Pray for the courage to face life. Not pray for an easy way to follow Jesus. Pray for boldness to be able to do this. This is just the secret of the saints and this is the secret of Acts chapter four. These people were already living in boldness. They were already speaking in boldness. And they said, instead of God, take away the danger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
They said, give us more boldness and Lord Jesus, stretch out your hand and do miracles so that more and more people will know that you are the Messiah, that you are the one who conquered death and has restored life to all of us, which is how great is this? You guys, that's amazing. Romans chapter six and seven. There's too much to say. There's too much to say. But let's begin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Let's try to say something. In verse 6, I love this in 6 and 7, Paul has this pattern. Maybe you noticed it. Maybe you didn't notice it. He will say something and then he'll kind of, not hedge his bets, he will qualify it. He'll say, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. And he says, what then?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Are we to sin because we're not under the law but under grace? By no means. He'll ask those questions and say, no, no, no, that's not what I meant. Just anticipating. You know, it's a literary device and it's great because it clarifies some things because At the end of chapter five, St. Paul had said that so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
And it is day 325, reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 4, Romans, chapter 6 and 7, and Proverbs, chapter 27, verses 4 through 6. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 4. Peter and John before the council.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
So then he asked the question, are we saying then continue in sin that grace may abound? Because here's what St. Paul was saying. The more sin, the more grace. That the more we need God's grace because of our sin, the more he gives his grace because of our need. And so then the question could be, well, shoot, in that case, how about I sin more and get more grace? And that's why St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Paul says, no, no, no, no, no. That's not the point. When you need the grace, grace is given. But don't go like injuring yourself in order to get more grace. But the reality, of course, is that's the power of God's healing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
The power of God's grace is we can be trucking along, right, at a certain level of relationship with the Lord, a certain level of holiness and just, you know, his divine life in us. And then we fall into sin. What happens when we repent and turn back to the Lord, we go to confession. God doesn't just raise us back up to the same level we were.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
He raises us up and elevates even further because where grace abounds, sorry, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. But that's why he clarifies, don't go looking for sin so you get more grace. But if you happen to need the grace you can trust in, the love of God for you to give you even more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Hopefully that makes sense because he goes on to talk about those of us who are baptized into Christ, baptized into his death. We were buried therefore. And so this reality of course, is that the old man, right? The former man, he calls it the old man being our fallen flesh is meant to have been crucified with Christ in our baptism. That when we actually repented, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
We turned away, not just from sin, not just from vice, not just from old habits. We turned away from that person. I was someone different before I encountered Christ. I was someone different before he saved me. He's made me into a new creation. And so I turned from that and that let that person die. I remember going to confession to a priest. And at one point I was, he said, you know what?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
I think sometimes we would rather just kind of torture the old man or what St. Paul says here is the former man rather than actually let him die. Because he was kind of highlighting how sometimes we don't really fully turn away from that former way of life. Sometimes we don't really fully turn away from that sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
And so he used that turn of phrase to be able to say, sometimes I think we just torture the old man rather than actually let him die. Keep him alive a little bit and maybe he'll have some power in our lives. But as St. Paul says, we know that our former man was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed and that we might no longer be slaves of sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
That's verse six in chapter six. For he who has died is freed from sin. So if we've died with Christ, we believe we should also live with him because this is the whole, this incredible mystery. Gosh, there's so much to say. I'm gonna just jump to the end in chapter seven because there is so much good, but there's also this sense of, oh my gosh, Paul understands me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
In chapter seven, this is another place where you might wanna just have that highlighter out there, that pen, that pencil, whatever it is, to be able to write your notes, to underline these words. We recognize, he says, the interior conflict between good and evil. And this is one of those passages of scripture that you might say, oh my gosh, this is me. If it's not, that's great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Praise the Lord for that. But I read it and think, oh God, at least you understand me. So does Paul. He says, I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. He ever felt like that, that we're at war within ourselves. He even says that. He says, now, if I do what I do not want, I agree the law is good. Yeah, because I don't want this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
I want the right. I don't want the wrong. So then it's no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. And that recognition that, yes, there's this brokenness. And when St. Paul uses the terms, the flesh, he's not condemning like our bodies. The flesh means the fallen human nature, our fallen human nature. So keep that in mind. Whenever you hear the term that St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Paul uses, the flesh, I don't know if there's any exceptions. St. Paul refers to the flesh. That means our fallen human nature. It doesn't mean that bodies are bad. It's just that part of us that doesn't want to do the right thing, essentially. but I love this. He says, so I find it to be a law when I want to do right. Evil lies close at hand. This is chapter seven, verse 21.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
I see in my members, another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin, which dwells in my members. Then he cries out in verse 24, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death. And the very next verse, he just like inserts this praise. And he says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
just like i'm still i'm still a mess i'm just here i am a puddle of messiness but thanks be to god through jesus christ our lord and it's just that's the key in the middle of the mess to be able to praise god uh for his presence for what he's doing in the in the midst of that mess you guys i don't mean to take any more of your time today it has been an incredible gift to man be in what day four i guess now of the age of the church
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of men came to about five thousand. On the next day, the rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family. And when they had set them in their midst, they inquired, by what power or by what name did you do this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
and just be trucking along here. I think I've used that term twice today. Oh, well, here we are. I'm telling you, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
So what I'm saying is the end of this year is not going to be the end of Bible in a Year. So far, Ascension has been able to add the podcast to YouTube. You might have found it that way. Maybe you're watching right now on YouTube. And also, we're working on translating it into different languages so you could have the Bible in a year in other languages than English.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a cripple, by what means this man has been healed? Be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, but which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they wondered, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
But seeing the man that had been healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred with one another, saying, What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is manifest to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name. So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people. For all men praised God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than 40 years old. The believers pray for boldness. When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who by the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples imagine vain things?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
The kings of the earth set themselves in array and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. For truly, in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal. And signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
But, of course, this takes a significant investment to bring projects like these free of cost to our listening communities. And we want to keep them free of cost to all those people who participate because we want to get the Word of God out there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
The believers share their possessions. Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul. And no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power, the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
There was not anyone needy among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet. And distribution was made to each as any had need."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Thus, Joseph, who was surnamed by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field which belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
The letter of St. Paul to the Romans, chapter six, dying and rising with Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our former man was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace. Slaves of Sin or of Righteousness What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Chapter 7.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
The Analogy with Marriage Do you not know, brethren, for I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only during his life? Thus, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning her husband.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. And if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive so that we serve not under the old written code, but in the new life of the spirit. the law and sin. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means. Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. The very commandment which promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good. The Interior Conflict Between Good and Evil Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
The book of Proverbs chapter 27 verses 4 through 6.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy? Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 325. 325, that's three to five. If you add three and the two, you get five. That's today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Father in heaven, we give you praise. Thank you so much.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Gosh, Lord, God, as we just keep hearing about your grace that is just poured out on us, your grace which comes to meet us in our brokenness, help us just to say yes. Help us to say yes to your grace. Help us to say yes to your gift. Lord God, right now, help us to say yes to you, that you may be glorified in everything we think, everything we say, and everything we do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
that you may be known, and that more and more people may love you, and that you may be loved by more and more of our heart. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, gosh. Let's go back to the Acts of the Apostles first. Oh, goodness gracious. Okay, so at the beginning, what do we have? The context, of course.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Peter and John went into the temple. There was the man who was crippled, right? He couldn't walk. And in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Lord heals him through Peter. And this is incredible. Now what happens is they're being brought before the priests, the captain of the temple and the Sadducees. Now I love that this says they're annoyed because they're annoyed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
The Sadducees are annoyed. Captain of the temple, priests, they're annoyed. All those people are annoyed. Why are they annoyed? This is the interesting thing. They're annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. Remember the Sadducees?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
The difference between the Pharisees and Sadducees, I mean, there's a lot of differences, but the Sadducees, they only believed in the first five books of Moses, right? The Sadducees didn't believe in angels. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
And one of the ways we can remember that, of course, is that the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection and the Sadducees didn't. And that's why they were sad. You see, old joke. Okay. But it says merely that they were annoyed. And I think that that is interesting, right? Anyways, here is Peter and John. They're brought before the council, that's Sanhedrin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
The same people that they were, both Peter and John, were in the presence of essentially during Jesus's trial, which is remarkable to remember because the first time we don't hear anything about John. We know that John went all the way with Jesus to the crucifixion, but we did hear about Peter and we do know that Peter, he failed, right? In that moment, he was not bold. In that moment, he
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
cracked and he denied knowing Jesus three times. And yet now this is incredible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Verse eight, Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a cripple, by what means this man has been healed, be it known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
And we're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter four, as well as Romans, chapters six and seven, and Proverbs, chapter 27, verses four through six. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
By him, this man is standing before you well. It goes on to say, this is incredible. This is a cornerstone line, not only because it speaks about the cornerstone in verse 11, but in verse 12, the line is, and there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
This is huge because Jesus himself had said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And here's Peter, who's making it very clear. There is salvation in no one else. There's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And now the key word I think of chapter four is boldness, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
Key word of chapter four is it says multiple times that they're filled with boldness. And this is remarkable, right? observing them to be common, ordinary, uneducated men. And yet they have this new quality and the quality is not theirs. It says they recognized that they had been with Jesus. Oh my gosh, you guys, chapter four, this is one of those chapters in the Acts of the Apostles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
For his mercy endures forever. Father in heaven, we do give you praise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
Your mercy does endure forever, and we love you. We love you for that. We love you for who you are. We love you for all your blessings. We love you for your true fatherhood. Help us to be true sons and daughters of such a good dad. We make this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
So, so Numbers 33, little recap of all the journeys, which is great. If you ever have a map, this is one of the reasons why we know what the journey of the children of Israel was like in the wilderness from Egypt all the way to the promised land, because in chapter 33 of Numbers, we have the recap of where they journeyed. But then we also have Deuteronomy 32 and the song of Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
Now, we heard yesterday that God had said, this is the song that Moses, you're going to get all the children of Israel together and you're going to teach them this song. They need to know this song. And then we heard it today and you're like, wow, that's a harsh song. That is a, that's an intense song. It is a song that is given by the Lord through Moses to the people, which speaks of the
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
Gosh, well, nothing other than their faithlessness. It speaks that word of prophecy, essentially almost saying that I know what's going to happen. What's going to happen is you're going to be faithless. And when you are faithless, I will let you get what you've chosen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And I think sometimes this is really, really hard for us to understand that when you're faithless, I will let you get what you've chosen. When you choose other gods that don't exist, other gods you don't know, other gods who have never fought for you, that have never called you by name, that they don't love you, I'll let you have them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
Now, the remarkable part about this, well, it's all remarkable, but the thing we need to remember is then when we heard from Psalm 118, we prayed Psalm 118, and there are so many incredible lines of Psalm 118, but even maybe some lines that hopefully interpret or become the interpretive keys for what we've heard. We have, gosh, his mercy endures forever. We have that line, so powerful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
So the sons of Israel set out from Ramses and encamped at Sukkoth. And they set out from Sukkoth and encamped at Etham, which is on the edge of the wilderness. And they set out from Etham and turned back to Pi-Haharath, which is east of Baal-Zaphon. And they encamped before Migdal. And they set out from before Haharath and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
We have out of my distress, I called in the Lord and he answered me and set me free with the Lord on my side. I do not fear. What can man do to me? So powerful to be able to have that courage and confidence in the Lord. Just like God spoke to Moses, be strong and of good courage. And like Moses spoke to Joshua, be strong and courageous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And what we're going to hear in the book of Joshua, be strong and courageous, but also We have this, the words of God in Psalm 118, saying that God has fought on my behalf when all the world raged against me. And it's so powerful to pray Psalm 118 because they surrounded me like bees. They blazed like fire among thorns, but in the name of the Lord, I cut them off. So good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
But then we have some harder lines. And the line of 118 verse 18 says, the Lord has chastened me sorely, but he has not given me over to death. So what is God doing in the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32? What's he promising? And he's saying, I promise you, I'll let you have what you've chosen. He's chastened me sorely, but I'm not going to abandon you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
I will let you get the fact that you want something other than me. I'll let you have it. And you'll see that anything other than me will let you down. It will actually cause you pain. And I'm going to allow you to experience that pain so that you can know how good I am. So you can know that you actually don't want this brokenness. What you want is me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And this is like basically, you know, that can be a hard lesson, but it's a lesson that every one of us has to learn. I mean, think about any human relationship where there's exclusivity, right? Because God says, I'm a jealous God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
There's exclusivity like a husband and wife, for example, where it's like, no, if you're a wife, you get to be jealous of your husband in the sense that like, no, you're mine. And if you're a husband and you get to be jealous of your wife, like, no, you're not other men's wives, you're my wife. And here's God who says, I get to be jealous of you because... You don't belong to other gods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
You're mine. You're my people, that you are my beloved. And when you give your heart to other things, it breaks my heart. But here's God who says, I'll let you have other things so that you learn, so that you learn that I truly love you. And maybe I'm the only one who ever has. That's what it means in there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
Psalm 118, to hear the words, the Lord has chastened me sorely, but he's not given me over to death. He's allowed me to have what I've chosen and but he has not abandoned any of us. When we are faithless, he remains faithful. Hear these words. When we are faithless, he remains faithful, just like we heard yesterday. This is the day which the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
Save us, we beg you, O Lord. Lord, we beg you, give us success. This is our prayer today, that is our continual prayer, that when we encounter in our hearts what was in the hearts of the people of Israel, in the heart of every human being, which is so fickle and faithless, Lord, make us new this day. Give us your love this day. Bring us home this day. And be a good father to us this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
Praying for you, please pray for me. Please pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And they went a three days journey in the wilderness of Etham and encamped in Marah. And they set out from Marah and came to Elim. At Elim, there were 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees and they encamped there. And they set out from Elim and encamped by the Red Sea. And they set out from the Red Sea and encamped in the wilderness of Sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And they set out from the wilderness of Sin and encamped at Dovka. And they set out from Dovka and encamped at Alush. And they set out from Alush and encamped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink. And they set out from Rephidim and encamped in the wilderness of Sinai. And they set out from the wilderness of Sinai and encamped at Kibroth Hatava.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 78, and we have only three days, including today. We have only three days left in Numbers and Deuteronomy. We have only three days left of the desert wanderings. And on the fourth day, we begin Joshua and conquest and judges. It is... Great time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And they set out from Kibroth Hatava and encamped at Hazeroth. And they set out from Hazeroth and encamped at Rithma. And they set out from Rithma, and encamped at Ramon Perez. And they set out from Ramon Perez, and encamped at Libna. And they set out from Libna, and encamped at Risa. And they set out from Risa, and encamped at Kehalatha.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And they set out from Kehalatha, and encamped at Mount Shephar. And they set out from Mount Shephar, and encamped at Haradah. And they set out from Haradah, and encamped at Mekeloth. and they set out from achaloth and encamped at tahath and they set out from tahath and encamped at terah and they set out from terah and encamped at mithkah and they set out from mithkah and encamped at hashmonah
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And they set out from Hashmanah, and encamped at Moseroth. And they set out from Moseroth, and encamped at Benidjakan. And they set out from Benidjakan, and encamped at Horhagidad. And they set out from Horhagidad, and encamped at Jatbatha. And they set out from Jatbatha, and encamped at Abranah. And they set out from Abranah, and encamped at Ezean-Geber.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And they set out from Ezean-Geber, and encamped in the wilderness of Zin, that is Kadesh. And they set out from Kadesh and encamped at Mount Hor on the edge of the land of Edom. And Aaron the priest went up Mount Hor at the command of the Lord and died there in the fortieth year after the sons of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt on the first day of the fifth month.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And Aaron was 123 years old when he died on Mount Hor. And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the Negev in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the sons of Israel. And they set out from Mount Hor and encamped at Zalmonah. And they set out from Zalmonah and encamped at Poonon. And they set out from Punan and encamped at Oboth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And they set out from Oboth and encamped at Eyi Abarim, in the territory of Moab. And they set out from Eyim and encamped at Dibon Gad. And they set out from Dibon Gad. and encamped at Alman da Blathim. And they set out from Alman da Blathim, and encamped in the mountains of Abirim before Nebo.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And they set out from the mountains of Abirim, and encamped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. They encamped by the Jordan from Beth Jeshimoth as far as Abel Shittim in the plains of Moab. instructions for the conquest of Canaan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, say to the sons of Israel, when you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their molten images and demolish all their high places. And you shall take possession of the land and settle in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
So day 78, we're reading Numbers chapter 33, Deuteronomy chapter 32, the song of Moses we heard about yesterday that was going to be proclaimed and sung again and again so the people of Israel would not forget. And we're also praying Psalm 118. As always, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, the second Catholic edition of the Bible and using the Great Dimensional Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
For I have given the land to you to possess it. You shall inherit the land by lot according to your families. To a large tribe you shall give a large inheritance, and to a small tribe you shall give a small inheritance. Wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his. According to the tribes of your fathers you shall inherit. The book of Deuteronomy chapter 32, the song of Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
Then Moses spoke the words of this song until they were finished in the ears of all the assembly of Israel. Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as the gentle rain upon the tender grass, and as the showers upon the herb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
For I will proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God. The rock, his work is perfect. for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he. They have dealt corruptly with him. They are no longer his children because of their blemish. They are perverse and crooked generation. Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
Is not he your father who created you, who made you and established you? He says, He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness he encircled him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone did lead them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And there was no foreign god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, and he ate the produce of the field. and he made him suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock, curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs and rams, herds of Bashan and goats, with the finest of wheat, and of the blood of the grape you drank wine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
But Jerushan waxed fat and kicked. You waxed fat, you grew thick, you became sleek. Then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the rock of his salvation. They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods. With abominable practices, they provoked him to anger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast and your podcast app to receive daily episodes. As I said, today is day 78. We're reading Numbers chapter 33, Deuteronomy chapter 32, and Psalm 118.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
They sacrificed to demons, which were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come in of late, whom your fathers had never dreaded. You were unmindful of the rock that begot you and you forgot the God who gave you birth. The Lord saw it and spurned them because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
I will see what their end will be for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness. They have stirred me to jealousy with what is no God. They have provoked me with their idols. So I will stir them to jealousy with those who are no people. I will provoke them with a foolish nation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
For if fire is kindled by my anger and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. and I will heap evils upon them. I will spend my arrows upon them. They shall be wasted with hunger and devoured with burning heat and poisonous pestilence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And I will send the teeth of beasts against them with venom of crawling things of the dust. In the open, the sword shall bereave, and in the chambers shall be terror, destroying both young man and virgin, the sucking child and the man of gray hairs. I would have said, I will scatter them afar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
I will make the remembrance of them cease from among men, had I not feared provocation by the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge amiss, lest they should say, Our hand is triumphant. The Lord has not wrought all this. For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them. If they were wise, they would understand this. They would discern their latter end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
How should one chase a thousand and two put 10,000 to flight unless their rock had sold them and the Lord had given them up? For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For the vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of poison. Their clusters are bitter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
Their wine is the poison of serpents and the cruel venom of asps. Is not this laid up in store with me, sealed up in my treasuries? Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly. For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on their servants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
When he sees that their power is gone and there is none remaining, bond or free, then he will say, where are their gods? The rock in which they took refuge, who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you. Let them be your protection. See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God beside me. I kill and I make alive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
The Book of Numbers Chapter 33 The Stages of Israel's Journey from Egypt These are the stages of the sons of Israel, when they went forth out of the land of Egypt by their hosts under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. Moses wrote down their starting places, stage by stage, by command of the Lord, and these are their stages according to their starting places.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
I wound and I heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear, as I live forever, if I sharpen my glittering sword and my hand takes hold of judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and will repay those who hate me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
I will make my arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives from the long-haired heads of the enemy. Praise his people, O you nations, for he avenges the blood of his servants and take vengeance on his adversaries and makes expiation for the land of his people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua, the son of Nun. And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, he said to them, Lay to heart all the words which I enjoin on you this day, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
For it is no trifle for you, but it is your life. And thereby you shall live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess. Moses' death foretold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses that very day, Ascend this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I give to the sons of Israel for possession, and die on the mountain which you ascend.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
and be gathered to your people as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people because you broke faith with me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin because you did not revere me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
For you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there into the land which I give to the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
Psalm 118, a song of victory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His mercy endures forever. Let Israel say his mercy endures forever. Let the house of Aaron say his mercy endures forever. Let those who fear the Lord say his mercy endures forever. Out of my distress, I called on the Lord. The Lord answered me and set me free. With the Lord on my side, I do not fear. What can man do to me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
The Lord is on my side to help me. I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. All nations surround me in the name of the Lord. I cut them off. They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side in the name of the Lord. I cut them off.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
They surrounded me like bees. They blazed like a fire among thorns in the name of the Lord. I cut them off. I was pushed hard so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. Listen, glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has chastened me sorely, but he has not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
They set out from Ramses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the day after the Passover, the sons of Israel went out triumphantly in the sight of all the Egyptians, while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had struck down among them. Upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we beg you, O Lord. O Lord, we beg you, give us success. Blessed be he who enters in the name of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 78: The Song of Moses (2025)
We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches up to the horns of the altar. You are my God and I will give thanks to you. You are my God. I will extol you. I'll give thanks to the Lord for he is good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
But if they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery which they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the lands of their enemies, if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And I will remember the land, but the land shall be left by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. And they shall make amends for their iniquity because they spurned my ordinances and their soul abhorred my statutes. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them. For I am the Lord, their God. But I will, for their sake, remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord made between him and the sons of Israel on Mount Sinai by Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
They're the people, the two men who are the skilled workers who We're going to be looking at more of the making of the Ark of the Covenant and the table, the lampstand. Remember that lampstand is the menorah. So if you're kind of wondering, wait, what can I picture in my head?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
God has taken his place in the divine council. In the midst of the angels, he holds judgment. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Give justice to the weak and the fatherless. Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy. Deliver them from the hand of the wicked. They have neither knowledge nor understanding.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
They walk about in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I say, you are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you. Nevertheless, you shall die like men and fall like any prince. Arise, O God, judge the earth, for to you belong all the nations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
We thank you so much for your commandments. We thank you for revealing to us your heart and how we are called to offer you our heart. Thank you for sharing your word with us today. And we ask you please be with us in all of our moments. our moments of darkness, our moments of light, moments we turn away from you, and the moments where we find ourselves deep and deep in your most sacred heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
We make this prayer, Father, in the name of your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. So there is something remarkable to talk about today. Just two quick things. One is going to be a review of a day before, and the other is today. So a bit ago,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Yesterday, I believe, where the Lord, through Moses, was calling upon the people to offer their offerings. Actually, it was two days ago. My goodness, the days fly by. One of the things that God instructed through Moses in Leviticus, it's here's what you must offer. Here is the grain offering, the cereal offering, right? Here is the libation offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Here is the different burnt offerings that God demands, right? They're necessary. But a couple of days ago, God was making it very clear. He has said this earlier in Exodus, but it said anyone whose heart moves them to make a freewill offering, anyone in whom the spirit of God has moved and they want to give out of their generosity, come before the Lord and bring all these things, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Picture that as well as the, I guess we call them the articles of furniture, for lack of a better term, that are in the holy place and the holy of holies. And so what we know about the tabernacle or we know about the temple later on is that there was the holy place. And in the holy place, there were three objects or three pieces of furniture, for lack of a better phrase.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
The gold or silver or the blue, purple, scarlet stuff, fine linen, goat's hairs, whatever Whatever you have, there's something there about God saying, you know, there is an element where here's the worship that's demanded me. Here's the sacrifice that is required of you. But there's something that goes to the heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And again, the sacrifice, when we offer the sacrifice that's required of us, that is true sacrifice, right? That's true worship. But there are many times when God says, if you would like to go beyond that, if the Holy Spirit in you is moving you to give beyond that, then here's an opportunity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
In fact, the people of God, the people of Israel, were moved so deeply, so fully by that generosity, by that Spirit of God,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
that he's here at the end or gosh what was that in the middle of chapter 36 where god through moses had to say okay stop people were strained from bringing for the stuff they had was sufficient to do all the work and more and this is a reminder for all of us there are some things we offer to the church right in support of our parish our local parish or support of the church ministries around the world but also as catholic christians and also all christians we're called to
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
allow the Lord to move our hearts to generosity, to supply for the needs of the people around us. Can you imagine? You know that I think the statistic is something along these lines, that 7% of every parish provides for 90% or more of the parish work. That only 7% of the folks who are in a parish provide for the volunteering, provide for the financial workings of a parish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And just imagine, I know Matthew Kelly had once asked this, he said, imagine what if we increase that? Not just like, you know, double it to 14%. What if we increased it 1%? I mean, imagining that all of the stuff the church does throughout the world, incredibly great stuff, not only locally, but also globally, you know, internationally. Imagine if 8% of Catholics supported that work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Imagine how many people could be blessed. Imagine how many people, like to get to the point, what if we got to the point where even 10% of a parish was supporting the working of the parish? How much more good could be done? Imagine getting to the place where we were so generous with our time, with our talent, with our treasure, that we would have to say actually stop giving.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Wouldn't that be amazing? Here's Moses who says, let neither man or woman do anything more for the offering for the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing for the stuff they had was sufficient to do all the work and more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
I know that today, as I am reflecting on a couple of days ago and even reflecting on what God commands to be done and crafted in his tabernacle, what I'm called to reflect upon and be convicted about is that is, am I that generous? Because if I were more generous, then at some point, the people who are suffering around the world would cease to suffer, at least from lack.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 50. Congratulations. Another mile marker. I think every day, every day we take a step forward. It is a great day because it means everything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And so I have to ask God, God, how are you calling me to offer what I have? How are you calling me to offer even just a bit more? Because again, sacrifice is required for love. And so that's what we're called upon to be able to offer the Lord. So that was kind of a reflection from a couple of days ago that just kind of caught up to me today as I was praying about this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And hopefully it's caught up to you as you're praying about this and reading through. We're almost at the very end of Exodus, two more chapters, one more chapter of Leviticus. But the second to last chapter of Leviticus, I just want to highlight one quick point before we conclude today's episode. And that is there are rewards, as it says, rewards for obedience and punishment for disobedience.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
There was the menorah, right? The gold lamp stand. There was the altar of incense that needs to be offered up on this altar. And thirdly, there was the bread of the presence. And so the table of the bread of the presence past that veil was the Holy of Holies. And in that Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Um, we know that not every good thing that happens to us happens because we were good and not everything bad happens to us happens because we were not good because we were disobedient. That's not, it's not a one-to-one kind of a situation. Um, we can, we can come back to that later on when we get back to the wisdom literature.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
We knew that already because, you know, the very beginning of our journey, we were walking with Job and Job was a righteous man and he still had horrible things happen to him. We know that that's not the rule. But also we know that here's God in Leviticus chapter 26, who makes it clear that there are consequences for our actions. And he says, I will hand you over to the sword.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
I'll hand you over to these pestilence. I'll hand you over to these evil things that are happening. But he doesn't hand people over. He doesn't hand us over. He doesn't hand the people of Israel over because he hates them. He hands them over because he loves them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Again and again, God says, if this still won't correct you, if this still doesn't call you back to my heart, then I'll let the next thing happen to you. And that still doesn't call you back to my heart. I'll let the next thing happen to you. Because the whole point of this is not punishment. The whole point of this is rescue. The whole point of this is not just experience my wrath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
The whole point of it is, this is the discipline of a father. And this is so important for all of us. You know, when we approach scripture and we don't trust God, We see these things and go like, wow, that's crazy. I'm done with this. Day 50, that's it. I'm out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
But when we approach the word of God and we have that spirit of trust where it's like, okay, if I don't understand this, it must be me that doesn't understand this. Or if I begin to be suspicious of God, then I say, wait, let me pause. God is a good dad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And when I don't understand what he's doing here, what he's not doing there, I have to look at him, look at life, look at myself through the lens of, okay, but God is a good dad. So why would a good dad allow these punishments to come upon those who are disobedient? Well, because just like any good dad, like any good parent, I want more for you than just your comfort.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
I want more for you than just for you to go about your life and do whatever it is you want to do. I want the best for you. So this is God who is the good dad. He says, I want the absolute best for my children. And so if they refuse to walk in my ways and walk contrary to me, then here's the consequences because I want to bring them back to my heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
So my brothers and sisters, how is God calling me to be generous today so I can just supply for the needs of the people around me? How is God calling me to not walk contrary to him, but to walk in in his will, because that's what it is to be holy, to walk in the will of the Father, to act and love in the will of the Father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
So we're going to get a little bit of description here in chapter 37 and 38 of how they made those things and what they looked like. So it's easy to get lost as I'm describing this. And I invite you, just let it be described to you. Use your imagination. If you're not driving, close your eyes maybe and picture it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
So we keep praying for each other because this is something we cannot do without God's grace. And so I pray for you. Please pray for me. Please pray for each other. You guys, we cannot do this on our own. Oh, man. Well, what a gift we have. Passing up day 50. What a gift. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
If you have access to a computer right now, even maybe pull up as I'm describing this, what did the Ark of the Covenant look like? What did the table look like? What did the altar of incense look like? And maybe you have a little visual. Or what the Holy of Holies, how is that built next to the doorway, extension doorway, past the veil into the Holy of Holies and the holy place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Does that make sense? If you're driving, keep your eyes open, watch the road, and focus on making sure that everyone's safe out there on the road. But here we are, Exodus chapter 37 and 38. Making the Ark of the Covenant. Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half was its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without and made a molding of gold around it. And he cast for it four rings of gold for its four corners, two rings on its one side and two rings on its other side.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
and he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold and put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark and he made a mercy seat of pure gold two cubits and a half was its length and a cubit and a half its breadth and he made two cherubim of hammered gold On the two ends of the mercy seat he made them, one cherub on the one end and one cherub on the other end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Of one piece with the mercy seat he made the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces one to another, toward the mercy seat were the faces of the cherubim. Making the Table He also made the table of acacia wood. Two cubits was its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And he overlaid it with pure gold and made a molding of gold around it. And he made around it a frame a hand-breadth wide, and he made a molding of gold around the frame. He cast for it four rings of gold and fastened the rings to the four corners at its four legs. Close to the frame were the rings, as holders for the poles to carry the table.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
He made the poles of acacia wood to carry the table and overlaid them with gold. And he made the vessels of pure gold, which were to be upon the table, its plates and dishes for incense, and its bowls and flagons, with which to pour libations. making the lampstand. He also made the lampstand of pure gold. The base and the shaft of the lampstand were of hammered work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Okay, Lord, man, in the midst of my unfaithfulness, in the midst of my being fickle, maybe I stopped, maybe I fell off the wagon, but I'm back. This is day 50, and it is an accomplishment because we are two days away, this day and tomorrow, from being at the end of Exodus and the end of Leviticus and launching into the next period, which is desert wanderings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Its cups, its capitals, and its flowers were of one piece with it. And there were six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it, and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
three cups made like almonds each with capital and flour on one branch and three cups made like almonds each with capital and flour on the other branch so for the six branches going out of the lampstand and on the lampstand itself were four cups made like almonds with their capitals and flowers and a capital of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out of it
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Their capitals and their branches were of one piece with it. The whole of it was of one piece of hammered work of pure gold. And he made its seven lamps and its snuffers and its trays of pure gold. He made it and all its utensils of a talent of pure gold. Making the altar of incense. He made the altar of incense of acacia wood. Its length was a cubit and its breadth was a cubit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
It was square and two cubits was its height. Its horns were of one piece with it. He overlaid it with pure gold, its top and its sides round about and its horns. And he made a molding of gold around about it. And he made two rings of gold on it under its molding on two opposite sides of it as holders for the poles with which to carry it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And he made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold. making the anointing oil and incense. He made the holy anointing oil also, and the pure fragrant incense, blended as by the perfumer. Chapter 38. Making the altar of burnt offering. He made the altar of burnt offering also of acacia wood. Five cubits was its length, and five cubits its breadth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
It was square, and three cubits was its height. He made horns for it, on its four corners. Its horns were of one piece with it, and he overlaid it with bronze. And he made all the utensils of the altar, the pots, the shovels, the basins, the forks, and the firepans, all its utensils he made of bronze.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And he made for the altar a grating, a network of bronze, under its ledge, extending halfway down. He cast four rings on the four corners of the bronze grating as holders for the poles, He made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze. And he put the poles through the rings on the sides of the altar to carry it with them. He made it hollow with boards.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
making the laver and the court. And he made the laver of bronze and its base of bronze from the mirrors of the ministering woman who ministered at the door of the tent of meeting. And he made the court. For the south side, the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, a hundred cubits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
The pillars were twenty and their bases twenty of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. and for the north side a hundred cubits their pillars twenty their bases twenty of bronze but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver and for the west side were hangings of fifty cubits their pillars ten and their sockets ten
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Congratulations, especially if you've ever, ever experienced that discouragement over, gosh, I've been trying to read the Bible, but I always... I always just seem to fail. Here you are today. Here you are today in the midst of whatever other places you've stumbled in the midst of whatever other places in your life right now, you may have, may have tripped, may have fallen today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
The hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver, and for the front to the east, fifty cubits. The hangings for one side of the gate were fifteen cubits, with three pillars and three bases. And so for the other side, on this hand and that hand, by the gate of the court were hangings of fifteen cubits, with three pillars and three bases."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
All the hangings round about the court were of fine twined linen, and the bases for the pillars were of bronze. But the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. The overlaying of their capitals was also of silver, and all the pillars of the court were filleted with silver.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And the screen for the grate of the court was embroidered with needlework in blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen. It was twenty cubits long and five cubits high in its breadth, corresponding to the hangings of the court. And their pillars were four. Their four bases were of bronze, their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their capitals and their fillets of silver.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And all the pegs for the tabernacle and for the court roundabout were of bronze. Materials for the Tabernacle This is the sum of the things for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the covenant, as they were counted at the commandment of Moses for the work of the Levites under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron, the priest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Bezalel, the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses. And with him was Aholiab, the son of Ahissamach, of the tribe of Dan, a craftsman and designer and embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet stuff in fine twined linen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
all the gold that was used for the work in all the construction of the sanctuary the gold from the offering was 29 talents and 730 shekels by the shekel of the sanctuary and the silver from those of the congregation who were numbered was a hundred talents and a thousand seven hundred and seventy five shekels by the shekel of the sanctuary a becca ahead that is half a shekel by the shekel of the sanctuary
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
for everyone who is numbered in the census, from 20 years old and upwards, for 603,550 men. The hundred talents of silver were for casting the bases of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil. A hundred bases for a hundred talents, a talent for a base. And of the 1,775 shekels, he made hooks for the pillars and overlaid their capitals and made fillets for them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And the bronze that was contributed was 70 talents and 2,400 shekels. with it he made the bases for the door of the tent of meeting the bronze altar and the bronze grating for it and all the utensils of the altar the bases round about the court and the bases of the gate of the court all the pegs of the tabernacle and all the pegs round about the court
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
Rewards for obedience. You shall make for yourselves no idols and erect no graven image or pillar. And you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to them. For I am the Lord, your God. You shall keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
You are opening your heart and your mind to God's word. And I am so proud of you. We're reading today on day 50 from Exodus chapter 37 and 38. We're also reading from Leviticus chapter 26, and we'll be praying today from Psalm 82. The Bible translation I'm using is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Red Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in the season and the land shall yield its increase and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit and your threshing shall last the time of vintage and the vintage shall last to the time for sowing and you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And I will give peace in the land and you shall lie down and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove evil beasts from your land and the sword shall not go through your land. And you shall chase your enemies and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred and a hundred of you shall chase 10,000 and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And I will have regard for you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. And you shall eat old store long kept and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. And I will make my abode among you and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God and you shall be my people forever. Punishment for disobedience.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes and if your soul abhors my ordinances so that you will not do all my commandments but break my covenant, I will do this to you. I will appoint over you sudden terror, consumption and fever that wastes the eyes and cause life to pine away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And you shall sow your seed in vain for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you and you shall flee when none pursues you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And if in spite of this, you will not listen to me, then I will chastise you again sevenfold for your sins and I will break the pride of your power and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like brass and your strength shall be spent in vain for your land shall not yield its increase and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will bring more plagues upon you, sevenfold as many as your sins. And I will let loose the wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children and destroy your cattle and make you few in number, so that your ways shall be desolate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And if by this discipline you are not turned to me, but walk contrary to me, then I also will walk contrary to you. And I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven and shall deliver your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied. And if in spite of this you will not listen to me but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury and chastise you myself sevenfold for your sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
If you want to be able to follow along, you can download your own Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast. If you haven't yet, please do that. But here we are, once again, reading from Exodus chapter 37 and 38. What we've heard about is we have, obviously, Bezalel, right, and Aholiab.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
You shall eat the flesh of your sons and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols. And my soul will abhor you. And I will lay your cities waste. It will make your sanctuaries desolate. And I will not smell your pleasing orders.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And I will devastate the land so that your enemies who settle in it shall be astonished at it. and I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheath the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemy's land. Then the land shall rest and enjoy its Sabbath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
As long as it lies desolate, it shall have rest. The rest which it had not in your Sabbaths when you dwelt upon it. And as for those of you that are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight and they shall flee as one flees from the sword. They shall fall when none pursues.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
They shall stumble over one another as if to escape a sword, though none pursues and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 50: Sacrificial Offerings (2025)
And those of you that are left shall pine away in your enemies' lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall pine away like them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
You do it with gentleness and reverence, not with a sledgehammer, not with any power tools, not with just this kind of club that you want to beat people over the head with, but do it with gentleness and reverence and keep your conscience clear so that when you're abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. That's so important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Now, next is in the same chapter three, just a couple lines down, Peter talks about the days of Noah, right? And how God saved the people of Noah, eight people in all, through water. In verse 21, he says, baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you. And this is one of the places where we get the doctrine that baptism does something. Baptism actually saves us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
And you are now her children if you do right and let nothing terrify you. Likewise, you husbands. Live considerately with your wives, bestowing honor on the woman as the weaker sex, since you are joint heirs of the grace of life, in order that your prayers may not be hindered. Suffering for doing right.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
It's not simply a sign of a preexisting condition. It actually does something. In fact, all the sacraments, we believe, All the sacraments do something. And here is Peter making it absolutely clear that baptism saves you. That isn't just a kind of a sign of your salvation, but it actually does save you. Just like living in an ark in the middle of a flood isn't a sign of your salvation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
It's actually what's saving you. So that's kind of a kind of slightly important little piece there, both explaining the faith and be able to defend it in gentleness and reverence. as well as the fact that baptism saves us now. Peter is incredibly, incredibly eager to remind Christians that we have to, absolutely have to be on guard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
He talks about in chapter four, verse seven, he says, "'The end of all things is at hand. "'Therefore keep sane and sober for your prayers. "'Above all, hold unfailing your love for one another, "'since love covers a multitude of sins. "'Practice hospitality ungrudgingly to one another.'" As each has received a gift, employ it for one another as good stewards of God's very grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
And then he goes on to talk about the different gifts people can have, whether they're speaking or having strength to serve or whatever it is, that do everything so that God may be glorified. But he does talk about how we have to be prepared. And he does make it absolutely clear that our battle is not with flesh and blood, just like St. Paul had said. He says, ah, this is so important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Chapter five, verse six, humble yourselves. Therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that in due time, he may exalt you. Verse seven, cast all your anxieties on him for he cares about you. Another translation is cast all your cares on him for he cares for you. I like that one too, because you know. Care and care. Verse eight, be sober, be watchful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him firm in your faith. This is so incredibly important for every one of us to acknowledge, to understand and to engage and to accept is that yes, our battle, once again, not with principalities and powers, but with the evil one. or sorry, I battle is with principalities and powers with the evil one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
And we have to be sober. We have to be alert. We have to resist him firm in our faith, but also knowing you're not alone. St. Peter says, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the whole world. And that suffering is not to an empty end. It's to a very powerful end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Verse 10, and after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, and strengthen you. To him be dominion forever and ever. It's so good. Wow. That's the conclusion of St. Peter's first letter. Tomorrow, we're going to be able to hear a second letter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
And I'm just, I'm so grateful because it's, we're actually going to hear the entire second letter tomorrow. It's just three chapters, one through three. Today, we're also introduced to the Thessalonians and Paul. And one thing to know about the Thessalonians, Paul loves them. You're talking about someone's favorites? Okay, I think the Thessalonians might be Paul's favorites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 353, once again, a palindrome day. I don't know why I have to point that out every time, but we are reading the second half of 1 Peter 3, 4, and 5. We're also starting St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love of the brethren, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not return evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless. For to this you have been called, that you may obtain a blessing. For he that would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
He's just talking about, I love you, I love you, you're great, you encourage me. In fact, with all the struggles he had with the Corinthians, I mean, gosh, think about that, or the Galatians, or even the Ephesians. The Thessalonians, he is just, I can't wait to see you. You're my favorites. Why? Because you received God's word. You're saying yes to it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Now, I know so many of us, we might be God's favorites because we need his love more than anyone else does. We might be God's favorites because he pours his love on us because we need it more. But in this case, St. Paul, he is just so encouraged. He is so encouraged by the faith of the Thessalonians that it just, you can't walk away from this reading without kind of a smile on your face.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
One of the pieces that marks St. Paul's letter here that we just heard is he says, you know, you know that when we came among you, we were not only willing to share with you the gospel of God, but also our very selves. This is chapter two, verse eight. He says, so being affectionately desirous of you, we're ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our very selves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
And that is, you know, we have missionaries on our campus. They're focused missionaries. It stands for Fellowship of Catholic University Students. And That is how they live. It is incredible. They not only run Bible studies, they don't just do like discipleship. They don't just put on events. They truly get into the lives of our college students and they just, yeah, they share themselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
They don't just share the gospel. They share their very lives. and share their very selves. And this is the way in which every single missionary has to live. And the fact that if you're a baptized Christian, that means you're a missionary. You're a missionary disciple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
And we are called to follow Jesus and then to bring as many people to him as we possibly can, which means that the way we do that is the way that St. Paul describes how he was among the Thessalonians. To not just share the gospel of God, not just share the teaching, but also to share our very lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
One of the things I've said and I will say again and again is I believe that the gospel in our culture, that Christ in our culture, the gospel will not be advanced from a stage or from necessarily a podcast or from anyone on any kind of screen or any kind of internet platform. but the gospel will be truly advanced through families and through friendships. I just, I'm so convinced of this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
The gospel will advance, yeah, in some other ways, because these tools are awesome. Like this podcast, I'm so grateful to be part of this community. But truly, the way in which this is spread is through families and through friendships. That's why so many of you, I know, when you listen to this podcast, you then talk about it with your family or you talk about it with your friends.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
And it's like, I just think right now on day 353, all of the ways, all the friendships over the last 353 days that have been strengthened, all the family members who I just, I can't, I hear about this again and again, that, um, They say, yeah, I text my brother about the Bible reading for today, or I text this group of friends I have about the reading for this week.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
And I just think that is remarkable. That's incredible. That is the way the gospel will advance, not just sharing the gospel of God, but also sharing our very selves. And I'm so proud of so many of you. I just get to stand here and I get to read the word of God. But you get to share it with the people in your lives. And you do share it. And you get to share your lives with them too.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
And you do share that. And that's incredible. And I'm so grateful. And I'm so proud of you. And I'm so proud to belong to this community of people and this Bible in the air. And please, please know this. Please believe me. I am praying for you. And please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Let him turn away from evil and do right. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those that do evil. Now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is right? But even if you do suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and reverence, and keep your conscience clear so that when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God's will, than for doing wrong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison who formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons were saved through water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him. Chapter 4 Good Stewards of God's Grace
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same thought. For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer by human passions, but by the will of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Let the time that is past suffice for doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry. They are surprised that you do not now join them in the same wild debauchery, and they abuse you. but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
For this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead, that though judged in the flesh like men, they might live in the spirit like God. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, keep sane and sober for your prayers. Above all, hold unfailing to your love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins. Practice hospitality ungrudgingly to one another.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians chapters 1, 2, and 3. So six chapters today, including Proverbs chapter 30, verses 15 and 16. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace. Whoever speaks as one who utters oracles of God, whoever renders service as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Suffering as a Christian
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or a wrongdoer or a mischief-maker. Yet, if one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but under that name, let him glorify God. For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
And if the righteous man is scarcely saved, where will the impious and sinner appear? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful creator. Chapter 5. Tending the Flock of Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed, tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by constraint, but willingly, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
And when the chief shepherd is manifested, you will obtain the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you that are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast for these last couple weeks. Receive daily episodes and daily updates, and you won't have to go hunting and pecking for each episode every single day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you. Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, establish, and strengthen you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Final greeting and benediction. By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Stand fast in it. She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does my son Mark. Greet one another with the kiss of love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians and God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace. The Thessalonians, faith and example. We give thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
For we know, brethren, beloved by God, that he has chosen you. For our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia." For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
For they themselves report concerning us what a welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. Chapter 2 Paul's Ministry in Thessalonica For you yourselves know, brethren, that our visit to you was not in vain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
You know, because today is day 353, and we're reading 1 Peter 3, 4, and 5, 1 Thessalonians 1, 2, and 3, as well as Proverbs 30, verses 15 and 16. The first letter of Peter, chapter 3, Wives and Husbands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the face of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from error or uncleanness, nor is it made with guile. Thank you for watching. but we were gentle among you, like a nurse taking care of her children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
So being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember our labor and toil, brethren. We worked night and day that we might not burden any of you while we preached to you the gospel of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our behavior to you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displeased God and opposed all men by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God's wrath has come upon them at last.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Paul's desire to visit the Thessalonians again. But since we were deprived of you, brethren, for a short time, in person, not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you, I, Paul, again and again, but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
For you are our glory and joy. Chapter three. Therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone. And we sent Timothy, our brother and God's servant in the gospel of Christ to establish you in your faith and to exhort you that no one be moved by these afflictions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Likewise, you wives, be submissive to your husbands, so that some, though they do not obey the word, may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives when they see irreverent and chaste behavior.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
you yourselves know that this is to be our lot for when we were with you we told you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction just as it has come to pass and as you know for this reason when i could bear it no longer i sent that i might know your faith for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and that our labor would be in vain Timothy's good report.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
But now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us as we long to see you. For this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction, we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live if you stand fast in the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
For what thanksgiving can we render to God for you, for all the joy which we feel for your sake before our God, praying earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith. Now, may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men as we do to you, so that he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
The leech has two daughters. Give, give, they cry. Three things are never satisfied. Four never say enough. Sheol, the barren womb, the earth ever thirsty for water, and the fire which never says enough.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Let not yours be the outward adorning with braiding of hair, decoration of gold, and wearing of robes, but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. So once the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves and were submissive to their husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Thank you for Peter once again today. Thank you for Paul. Thank you for your Holy Spirit that has reached out to us and continues to speak to us through your word that you have given to us for so many years. Lord God, we ask you to please continue to shape our hearts, continue to change our hearts, make them more like you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Help us to imitate Jesus Christ, whose spirit you have given to us to give us wisdom, to give us strength, to give us courage. And in this moment right now, Lord, to give us hope, especially in the midst of suffering. for doing what's right also, Lord God. We know that many of us not only suffer for doing what's right.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
We also, many of us suffer because of the consequences of our own actions that we've chosen wrong in our day. We've chosen wrong at some points in our lives. And now we're experiencing the burden of that choice. We're experiencing the reality of that choice. And we ask you, Lord God, come and meet us in our need. Come and meet us in our weakness. Come and meet us in our brokenness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Without you, we can do nothing. Whether this is our own making or whether this was a trouble that has come upon us, even in the midst of virtue. Regardless, Lord, we ask you to be with us because we need you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So I had that prayer because, you know, St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Peter in 1 Peter chapter 3, he says, talks about suffering for doing what's right. And he says, basically, there's some words that he has that are, you know, If you're suffering for doing what's wrong, that's fine, whatever. But he says, ah, you want to suffer for doing what's right. That's actually a good thing. And I find myself saying, well, sometimes I suffer for doing what's right.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
Also, I find myself suffering the consequences of my own choices too often. I said that thing I shouldn't have said. I didn't do the thing I should have done. You know what I'm saying? And so I just need the Lord's grace to meet me in all situations and in all times. One of the things that is so important and powerful for me personally in 1 Peter 3 is beginning with verse 15.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
This is a verse that defined and charted the course of much of my life. I mean, truly, Peter says, always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is within you. Yet do it with gentleness and reverence and keep your conscience clear. There's something about that that just, so always be ready to give a reason for the faith that's within you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
I mean, different translations word it slightly differently. Here in the RSV, Second Catholic Edition says, always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you. I've heard years ago, it was always ready to give a reason for the hope or reason for the faith that's within you. When I was in high school, this line just struck me so powerfully.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
In fact, it's the reason why when I went to college, I studied theology. I said, that's what I want to do. I want to be able to study scripture. I want to be able to study God's word. I want to be able to study philosophy. I want to know. I want to be able to give a reason for why I believe what I believe. It was, as I said, it was the guiding principle, the guiding scripture.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: Sharing the Gospel (2024)
for so much of my life. And I'm so grateful to the Lord that he has allowed me to proclaim that word today. And I'm so grateful to the Lord that he's allowed us all to hear that word today. Always be ready, always prepared to give a reason for the faith that's within you. But also I like how Peter says it. He says, yet do it with gentleness and reverence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
He has capabilities, but one of his Achilles heels, one of his shortcomings is he is overly concerned with what other people think. And again, this is the affliction of those who look the part. It's because they look a certain way because they appear to others to be a certain way. they are always thinking about how they look to others.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
They always thinking about how they're seen in other people's eyes. And this is going to be one of the situations that happens to King Saul. Now, before we get to that point, though, recognize that here's Saul, he's doing his job, he's doing his duties. Now, Saul is not, and this is important for us to understand, Saul is not an evil character.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Now, he is going to descend into being pretty much a bad guy, right? Yet, we need to understand that we've done this already for 105 days until today, day 106, is that we've recognized that there are people just like us in the Bible that are mixes of good and bad, mixes of good motivation and bad motivation, mixes of good choices and bad choices, and Saul is one of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Bekaroth, son of Aphia, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth. And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the sons of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward, he was taller than any of the people. Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Saul makes some really good choices. Saul is doing his father's bidding. He's doing his daily duty. He's doing what he should be doing and looking for these lost donkeys, and he's not going to give up. He continues to seek them. That's really good. That's really noble.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
And then also when he goes to see Samuel in the high place, Samuel anoints him with oil and says, here's what's going to be a sign of your being anointed is that you're going to get to meet a band of prophets and you're also going to prophesy. In fact, it's so powerful to recognize that it says the spirit of God will come upon you and you will be a new man. The Spirit of God will come upon you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
It will be a new person, a new creation. In fact, this is exactly what happened to you and me at our baptism. When we received the Holy Spirit, we became a new person. We were given the gift of, you know, when a child is baptized or an adult is baptized in the Catholic Church, they're not only baptized, but they're also anointed with oil. And they're anointed priest, prophet, and king or queen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
So anointed priest, prophet, and king or queen. And here is Saul. He's anointed king. And he's also anointed prophet. which is remarkable. That's what happens to us. And that spirit is real. And that prophesying was real. It was so real that people recognized there was something different about Saul. He's not a prophet. Where did he get this spirit of God? Where did he get this new role?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Where did he get this new power? Well, it came from God. And so Saul was really, truly given the gifts he needed to be the man and to live up to the vocation he was called to. And yet, even in this story, we see a chink in his armor. And what is that?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Even though he's been called, even though he's been anointed, even though then he's chosen by Lot from all the tribes of Israel, from all the people of Benjamin, from all the families, he's chosen, Saul is hiding among the luggage. He knows he's gonna be elevated to be the king, but in the face of the crowd, in the face of other people, he shrinks back, right? He hides. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Because one of Saul's Achilles heels is going to be what other people think. Now, this is going to go with us on this next journey of the next number of days that we follow Saul. He will have so many strengths. Why? Because the spirit of God is upon him. God has actually chosen him and gifted him and equipped him. But His downfall is going to be this preoccupation with what other people think.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
And if that's where we are, then that's what we need to identify with Saul. Even though he's not the most heroic of characters, he's not thoroughly corrupt. He's just like you and me. He's wounded. And he cares too much about what other people think.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
And so if that's us, let's pray for each other because we got a long way to go in this story of Saul leading into the story of David and the royal kingdom. We have so many days ahead that are so good and we're going to be so blessed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
But those of us who have received the spirit of God, we also have to be aware that if I'm overly preoccupied with the opinions of human beings and not as driven by doing the will of God, then I too, we too will need to change that. We'll need to ask for that help from the Lord. So we ask for help from each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. Pray for each other. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
So Kish said to Saul his son, take one of the servants with you and arise, go and look for the donkeys. And they passed through the hill country of Ephraim and passed through the land of Shalisha, but they did not find them. And they passed through the land of Shaalim, but they were not there. Then they passed through the land of Benjamin, but did not find them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 106, and we just concluded seven days of reading the Gospel of John, which is such a gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
When they came to the land of Zoph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, Come, let us go back, lest my father cease to care about the donkeys and become anxious about us. But he said to him, Behold, there is a man of God in this city, and he is a man that is held in honor. All that he says comes true. Let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us about the journey on which we have set out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Then Saul said to his servant, But if we go, what can we bring the man? For the bread in our sacks is gone, and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What have we? The servant answered Saul again, Here, I have with me the fourth part of a shekel of silver, and I will give it to the man of God to tell us our way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he said, Come, let us go to the seer, for he who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer. And Saul said to his servant, Well said, Come, let us go. So they went to the city where the man of God was.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
as they went up the hill to the city they met young maidens coming out to draw water and said to them is the seer here they answered he is behold he is just ahead of you make haste he has come just now to the city because the people have a sacrifice to-day on the high place
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
as soon as you enter the city you will find him before he goes up to the high place to eat for the people will not eat till he comes since he must bless the sacrifice afterward those eat who are invited now go up for you will meet him immediately so they went up to the city as they were entering the city they saw samuel coming out toward them on his way up to the high place
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel, Tomorrow, about this time, I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines, for I have seen the affliction of my people because their cry has come to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, Here is the man of whom I spoke to you. He it is who shall rule over my people. Then Saul approached Samuel in the gate and said, Tell me, where is the house of the seer? Samuel answered Saul, I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place, for today you shall eat with me, and in the morning I will let you go, and I will tell you all that is on your mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
I know at the same time, reading through the gospel of John in seven days means that we had quite a lot of content with not a lot of commentary, which is probably okay because the most important part of this podcast is the actual scripture being proclaimed. But this is, as I said, day 106, we're going into the royal kingdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
As for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not set your mind on them, for they have been found. And for whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for you and for all your father's house? Saul answered, Am I not a Benjaminite from the least of the tribes of Israel? And is not my family the humblest of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Why then have you spoken to me in this way? Then Samuel took Saul and his servant and brought them into the hall and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited, who were about thirty persons. And Samuel said to the cook, Bring the portion I gave you, of which I said to you, put it aside. So the cook took up the leg and the upper portion and set them before Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
And Samuel said, See, what was kept is set before you. Eat, because it was kept for you until the hour appointed that you might eat with the guests. So Saul ate with Samuel that day. And when they came down from the high place into the city, a bed was spread for Saul upon the roof and he lay down to sleep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Then at the break of dawn, Samuel called to Saul upon the roof up that I may send you on your way. So Saul arose and both he and Samuel went out into the street. Samuel anoints Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
As they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Tell the servant to pass on before us, and when he has passed on, stop here yourself for a while, that I may make known to you the word of God. Chapter 10 Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, "'Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
And you shall reign over the people of the Lord, and you will save them from the hand of their enemies round about. And this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage.'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
When you depart from me today, you will meet two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they will say to you, The donkeys which you went to seek are found, and now your father has ceased to care about the donkeys and is anxious about you, saying, What shall I do about my son? Then you shall go on from there further and come to the oak of Tabor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there, one carrying three kids, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall accept from their hand. After that, you shall come to Gibeath Elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
So we left off with first Samuel six through eight, and then we took a seven day break with the gospel of John. Now, We're entering into the period of the royal kingdom. We're going to be introduced to Saul today in 1 Samuel 9 and 10. We're also reading from the book of Proverbs, like we did the last couple of days, Proverbs 6, verses 23 through 35.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
And there, as you come to the city, you will meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying." then the Spirit of the Lord will come mightily upon you, and you shall prophesy with them and be turned into another man. Now, when these signs meet you, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
And you shall go down before me to Gilgal, and behold, I am coming to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait until I come to you and show you what you shall do. Saul prophesies. When he turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart. And all these signs came to pass that day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
When he came to Gibeah, behold, a band of prophets met him, and the Spirit of God came mightily upon him, and he prophesied among them. And when all who knew him before saw how he prophesied with the prophets, the people said to one another, What has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets? And a man of the place answered, And who is their father?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets? When he had finished prophesying, he came to the high place. Saul's uncle said to him and to his servant, Where did you go? And he said to seek the donkeys. And when we saw that they were not to be found, we went to Samuel. And Saul's uncle said, please tell me what Samuel said to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
And Saul said to his uncle, he told us plainly that the donkeys had been found. But about the matter of the kingdom of which Samuel had spoken, he did not tell him anything. Saul proclaimed king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Now Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah, and he said to the sons of Israel, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
But you have this day rejected your God, who saved you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said, No, but set a king over us. Now therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands. Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by Lot.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
And he brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its families, and the family of the Matrites was taken by Lot. Finally, he brought the family of the Matrites near, man by man. And Saul, the son of Kish, was taken by Lot. But when they sought him, he could not be found. So they inquired again of the Lord, Did the man come here? And the Lord said, Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Then they ran and fetched him from there. And when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. And Samuel said to all the people, Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? There is none like him among all the people. And all the people shouted, Long live the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Then Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship, and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the Lord. Then Samuel sent all the people away, each to his own home. Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched. But some worthless fellows said, How can this man save us? And they despised him and brought him no present.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition, I am using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking subscribe wherever you're listening to your podcast.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adventurous. Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes. For a harlot may be hired for a loaf of bread, but an adulteress stocks a man's very life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Can a man carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk upon hot coals and his feet not be scorched? So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife. None who touches her will go unpunished. Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry, and if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold, and he will give all the goods of his house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
He who commits adultery has no sense. He who does it destroys himself. Wounds and dishonor he will get, and his disgrace will not be wiped away. For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge. He will accept no compensation, nor be appeased though you multiply gifts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Thank you for day 106. Thank you for leading us by your spirit to hear your word once again, to go into this new stage of the royal kingdom and to see the beginnings of how you not only blessed the 12 tribes of Israel, but you brought them together. And this is the beginning of you bringing them together into a royal kingdom. And you've done this. You've done this in order to bless us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
You've done this in order to prefigure the church that you founded. in Jesus Christ. And you gave us your Holy Spirit, that same Spirit that came upon Saul, son of Kish, to lead him and to guide him so he could be a prophet, so he could be a king, so he could lead, so he could fight the enemies of the people of Israel, so he could unite the people of Israel. You have given us this same Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
your same Holy Spirit. So right now, Lord, we just give you thanks. And we ask that you please renew the gift of your spirit in each one of us. Let us always say yes to you in everything that we are and everything that we do. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So a quick note about Proverbs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
So this is the last few verses of chapter six of the book of Proverbs. And I just want to highlight, you know, in chapter five and chapter six, as we heard it, you know, chapter five is the subtitle warning against loose women. And chapter six is practical admonitions and warnings. And so it can be sometimes difficult for us to hear. OK, so loose women, what about the men?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
As I said, it is day 106, and it is an incredible gift. to not only have been given a week, seven days of the gospel of John, but also to come back and to be in this new time period, period of the royal kingdom, as we read 1 Samuel chapter 9 and 10 in Proverbs chapter 6, verses 23 through 35. 1 Samuel 9, Saul chosen to be king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
You know, and of course, Proverbs is directed to the character of my son. So obviously it's going to be kind of one sided in this way. but it does have this in this last section on chapter six, it does have this word of caution. It talks about the thief and it says, men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he's hungry, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Because you think, of course, I mean, I get it. I don't like the fact that you stole my stuff, but I also understand that you were hungry. I don't understand that you were desperate and that you needed food. So you can pay me back and we'll call it square, right? But he says, those who commit adultery It's something different, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Because a person does need to eat in order to live, but a person does not need to commit adultery in order to do anything. And so that recognition of that there are some things that we do that can be completely understandable. And there's some things that we do that make no sense in any context.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
I remember my dad years ago, I made a video about this for Ascension Presents once, but he was talking about how my dad, we got robbed at one point. Someone broke into my parents' house when I was younger and they stole some things and they also trashed one room. They kind of broke some things in a room. And I remember my dad saying he didn't mind being stolen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
He didn't like being robbed, you know, at all. But he hated the fact that people just broke stuff because he said, I get it. You need money. You need stuff, whatever the thing is. But you didn't need to break my stuff in the process because
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
And there's something also, you know, similar about this in Proverbs chapter six, where I get it if someone's going to steal from me, but you didn't need to steal my wife. You know, I get it if someone's going to steal from me, but you didn't need to break my marriage vows or vice versa, right? Steal my husband, that kind of situation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
And something we can do is we can look at our own hearts in this context and say, what are those sins? It doesn't have to just be theft or adultery, or as I mentioned, vandalism, but it can be anything. And there's something we can choose to do that we realize this isn't benefiting anybody. I don't actually need this. In fact, this is just a sign of my broken heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Whether that's using someone, whether that's being envious of someone or prideful or vain, gossiping, none of those things, none of those things we're tempted to actually help us. And so it makes no sense that we do them. And so we ask the Lord not only for his mercy, for his forgiveness for those times, but but also for healing, reconciliation, and restoration so we can avoid them in the future.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Just a thought on Proverbs chapter 6. We're going back tomorrow to the Psalms, and so just kind of a last word. Okay, here we are. Our introduction to Saul is very clear that he looks like a king, right? So Saul is the most handsome in all in Israel. There's no one more handsome than he. This is the words of Scripture.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
And also, not only that, but Scripture makes a very important point, or at least emphasizes the point, that Saul was incredibly tall, that he was head and shoulders taller than everyone else. Remember, the job of the king is going to be not only to unite the people, but also to fight for the people. And so Saul looks like a king. He looks like a fighter. He looks like a warrior.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
He looks like someone who would be brave. And that's how we're introduced to him. Now, we're going to find out that Saul suffers persecution. from an affliction that happens to many people who look the part, right? There's a lot of times in our lives where we might look the part. She might be super beautiful, and so we think, oh, she is such a way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 106: Saul Is Chosen (2025)
Or he might be really handsome, so he's such a way. Or someone might seem really aggressive, and so they're just a big fighter. Or someone looks weak, and so we just kind of put them into these categories. And Saul is someone who looks the part. He looks like he is the king. Handsome, tall, he looks capable. What we're going to find is Saul is not capable. Well, he's sorry.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And after. And after. So many times.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, it's so important, especially just recognizing that every one of these kings, the downfall in so many ways was disobedience. That here was Saul disobedient, here's David disobedient, here was Solomon, who's disobedient. And then we have Christ, right, who is fully made himself obedient. And by that was exalted, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And that sense of that faithfulness and that faithful obedience to his father. Last thing, just kind of the last minute or two, Jeff, what are some lenses or what's some things we should be focusing on or paying attention to as we go through this next section on the royal kingdom?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, that's so, I mean, and that's the, I love, as you even mentioned, not just that journey, but also there's stuff in here about fatherhood. There's stuff in here about being a good parent. Again, here's the land, the dynasty, the worldwide blessing. But even the day-to-day decisions that these people had made, they affect ultimately the way the kingdom goes. They affect that blessing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
They affect all these things. And I think sometimes we fail to see the ways in which some are like, oh, this is just my life. These are my decisions. How those can affect God's ultimate decisions. efficacy in the world, the way that God wants to actually bless the people around us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Because as part of the church, we're part of that worldwide blessing that God wants to extend to the entire world through us and in us. And yeah, it's so good. Like you said, there are so many details that are not neat and are not clean, but are part of the story. And we're so grateful. I think some people have experience when they're growing up as like, okay, don't ask questions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
When it comes to the Bible, when it comes to church, when it comes to God, we don't ask questions. And yet we want to encourage that because theology is faith seeking understanding. And we have to ask questions if we're going to seek understanding. So... So grateful for you, and also for this introduction to the royal kingdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Every single time we have this new time period, I know that every one of us who is joining the Bible in a year, we just are so blessed every time you walk alongside with us, Jeff, and so grateful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, so good. So, and speaking of, we're praying for you all who are walking with us. And this is more than just a bunch of people listening to a podcast. This is a community of people who aren't just listening to God's word, but we're also praying with God's word and we're praying for each other. So please keep that up. Keep praying for each other. I know you're praying for me and for Jeff.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
We are praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Today, we are once again joined by Jeff Cavins. as we take our steps away from this last checkpoint we had, the first checkpoint, really, the messianic checkpoint of the Gospel of John. And now today we're taking that step into the royal kingdom. So that encompasses 1 and 2 Samuel, that encompasses the beginning of 1 Kings, as well as the books of Chronicles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's so interesting because we did that, the intro to conquest and judges together and talked about, yeah, it's going to get bad. It's going to get dark. It's going to, that we talked about that cycle and that the devastation that people experienced and how, how dark it would get. But I think a lot of people who have been journeying with us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Didn't realize until the last couple of days that like, oh, my gosh, yeah, you weren't kidding. And they might have actually even forgotten that we had kind of prepped and said, just, you know, heads up warning. It gets horrible. I mean, it's it's it's absolutely devastating where God's people had fallen, how far they had fallen. And now that brings us to now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And so I'm really excited to have Jeff here with us today as we take this next step in this next time period. I hope and pray that the messianic checkpoint, those seven days we just experienced, of the gospel of John was a massive blessing to you, that sense of just being able to kind of pop your head up and say, okay, this is the fulfillment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Well, that's remarkable too, because of the fact that at the end of Judges, what we heard was here's the The horror of the tribe of Benjamin and that it was happening in the midst of the tribe of Benjamin. And here, the first king is coming from that tribe. Now, when it comes to, you mentioned the three kings, Saul, David, and Solomon. I just need to say it. It's burning inside of me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Which one brought gold? Which one brought frankincense? And which one brought myrrh? Is that... Those are the same. That's not the same three kings. OK, sorry. I just had to do it. I don't know. I just it was it was there. Yeah, that kind of landed flat anyway. So, you know, it's remarkable that that even with that warning of here's what's going to happen. And then we just see it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
We see it play out in real time, not only with Saul, but also with David and with Solomon. Even the highlight, David being the prototype king for the Messiah, he even also has this tendency towards doing exactly what God said he didn't want to happen but was going to happen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Jesus is the fulfillment of everything that we've been hearing, everything we've been reading, everything has been proclaimed to us. And now we're going back, back in time to 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and the books of Chronicles, as we see what's happened now that David unites the tribes into one kingdom. So Jeff, to orient us as we take these next steps, what do we need to know?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, sorry.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Oh, we should say it out loud. Yes, Solomon. No, wait, more and more to come after Solomon. You know, there is with this royal kingdom, there's so much promise and there is like there is truly promise. As you mentioned, here's the three promises in that covenant with Abraham. And here's the fulfillment. Well, a partial fulfillment. Here's the land. Here's the beginning of this royal dynasty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And ultimately, again, through Jesus Christ, who is the ultimate Messiah. I know that we're mostly following first and second Samuel and first Kings here. But also, would you mind just giving us a little taste or peek into Chronicles? So here's what I mean. In Chronicles, I've been doing some reading on this to kind of get brushed up on getting my lens right. At that, Chronicles written...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
even after the Babylonian exile. And so Chronicles is pointing out, written by people who say Ezra the scribe, that you would say it's pointing out here is David as the prototype Messiah or the prototype anointed one we're waiting for to reestablish that kingdom, as well as the role of temple worship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Because here, you know, is after the Babylonian exile, we need to recapture and remember our history, right? And so, yes, we have first and second Samuel, we have Kings, but also here's Ezra saying, okay, let's go back and be reminded of the unfaithfulness. And that could be us again, because that's why we were brought into exile in the first place. And so here's a recapitulation in some ways.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
I guess maybe my question would be two questions. One is what's one way that people can read Chronicles concurrently with Samuel and Kings and not be like, oh my gosh, this is the same story retold over again. Yeah. And then secondly, what is, yeah, I guess the same question. What's a good way to approach when it seems redundant, but we know that it's not being redundant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
It's telling us another layer of truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, and so some of those elements in Samuel as well as beginning of 1 Kings that do highlight the fact that even though these men are chosen by God, even though they are anointed, they're not perfect. And we've seen that consistently. The whole story right now has demonstrated so consistently that a person can be anointed by God, they can be called by God. Even the book of Judges, again,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Here is the Spirit of God upon Samson, who was not a good judge. Sorry, he was a good judge, wasn't necessarily a good man. And yeah, is there any kind of thing we can draw out from that when it comes to not just our own moral lives, but also paying attention to that as an element of Scripture, an element of God's story that we should be not forgetting, that we should remember?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
You just told us what we need to know. Go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen so gosh our friend job we're not going to talk about him today too much but just we can see what's going on that job has these three friends if you've lost the context a little bit job has these three friends there's going to be a fourth who shows up later on but these three they know that job must have done you know they quote unquote know that job must have done something wrong and so every time they speak what they're saying is essentially now job you be honest with us now tell us for real what
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
As he looked, he saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well's mouth was large, and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place upon the mouth of the well. Jacob said to them,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
um, you either think you're righteous, but you're not, um, or you, uh, have rebelled against God and you're, you're hiding it from us. And Job is like, I, I don't know what to tell you. I, it seems like God is my enemy. It seems like God is not on my side. It seems like I served him and now he doesn't care about me. We're getting more deeply and deeply into that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Um, we're coming out of it at some point, not anytime soon. Well, yeah, pretty soon, but Just to know that what happens with Job is he is honest. He is honest. Now, his friends are doing their best to be honest, but God's going to have some words for his friends that they did not represent him in the way that they should have to our friend Job. So that's coming.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
But today, before we conclude this time together in God's word, it is so important to highlight what is happening with Jacob and Leah and Rachel and Laban and this whole family. It is a mess upon a mess. And this is like, this is so good for us to understand that here is the family of God. This is the family from which Jesus came. There's all these messes, all this dirtiness, all this brokenness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Here's Laban who like Yeah, you can have all these sheep, all these goats, and then he takes them all away. And so then Jacob's like, well, in that case, I'm going to make sure that the ones I want are the ones I get. But even worse is you have this deception happening from Laban with his two daughters, Leah and Rachel. As we noted, sorry, my gosh, did I say Rachel? I meant to say Rebecca.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
No, I meant to say Rachel. Rebecca is Jacob's mom. Okay, going back to this. Leah and Rachel. Scripture says that Leah had weak eyes. Maybe to say that she wasn't so easy on the eyes is one of the ways people can interpret that. But Rachel was very beautiful. And Rachel is the one who had Jacob's heart. but you see how sometimes the Bible shows us instead of tells us some things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Here's the first thing. One is that Laban, who tricks Jacob into marrying his daughter Leah, says that it is not right in our land. I don't know how it works where you came from, Jacob, but in our land, it is not right to give the younger children what belongs to the older and just remind, rewind a couple of pairs, a couple of chapters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
And we see what happened was the younger Jacob took what belonged to the older Esau. And so here's this, this way in which the scripture again shows us, and it doesn't necessarily tell us, but it shows us like, okay, Jacob is the deceiver. Jacob is the one who grasps. Jacob is, is the one who's getting, you know, he's used to kind of getting what he wants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
And here is Laban, his uncle who is getting what he wants. He's kind of Pulling a Jacob, you might want to say. That's an interesting thing. And it's an interesting thing that God is revealing to Jacob and to us. But there's a painful thing that happens. And the painful thing is I want to highlight Leah. You imagine Rachel is the one who was loved by her husband.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Leah is the one who was tolerated by her husband. And this is one of the wounds that so many people have, whether it be with their spouse or with their parents or by their children or by life. Sometimes the people in our lives that we think they should love us and they don't, they just tolerate us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
In fact, this is sometimes what a lot of people envision God does with them is just simply tolerates them as opposed to God truly loves you. God truly loves you. And so here is in chapter 29, beginning with verse 31. It says, when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb. Rachel was barren and she conceived and bore a son and named his name Reuben.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Because she said, because the Lord has looked upon my affliction, surely now my husband will love me. And this is the refrain, right? The next child was Simeon. And she says, because the Lord has heard that I'm hated, he's given me this son also. And then the third son is going to be Levi. And she says that, um,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Now this is the time my husband will be joined to me because I have born him three sons. See, every son, she thought, now my husband will love me. Now my husband will be joined to me. Now my husband will stop hating me. She thought what she could do would make herself more lovely, make herself more lovable. That's this trap that so many of us fall into.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
If I can do this, it'll make myself more lovable. And at one point, with the birth of her fourth son, Judah, Leah has given up trying to make her husband love her. And she says, she conceived and bore a son and said, this time I will praise the Lord. Therefore, she called his name Judah. That's what Judah means, praise, praise the Lord. Instead of the others, which is, this will make him love me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
This will make him be my spouse. This will make him stop hating me. Now, of course, that doesn't end because even she and Rachel trade some mandrakes in order to have access to their husband's bed. And just, again, brokenness. And yet God works through all of this brokenness. God will continue to work through all this brokenness. Being unloved, being hated, trading, even handmaids.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
It's all so much of a mess. And yet, so are our lives. It is really rare that anyone has a completely clean life where everything is super simple, everything's super clear, everything's super easy. Even those who are being used by God to build his kingdom, it's incredibly rare that you find a person who doesn't have a mess. In fact, it's so rare that I would say it doesn't exist.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
And that's one of the reasons why we keep coming back to the Bible. That's one of the reasons why we keep being part of this community is because we know that our lives kind of mirror the lives of these people in the Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
And so if they're going to mirror the lives of the people in the Bible at the end of the story where there's glory and where there's honor being given to God and there's holiness, then it's sometimes okay. to recognize that right now, though, right now there is some brokenness that God can still use. And that's the thing. He can still use it. So let's keep praying for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Please pray for me. I'll be praying for you and pray for each other. This community of people going through the Bible. We're going to be doing this for the next 365 days or, you know, minus 15. And it is going to be phenomenal. I'm continuing to pray for you. And please know that you're not alone. You're not alone in your brokenness. You're not alone in your grief. You're not alone in your sorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Water the sheep and go, pasture them. But they said, We cannot, until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well, then we water the sheep. While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
You're not alone when you feel unloved. Because you are loved. My name is Father Mike. God bless you and I'll see you tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Now when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's kinsman and that he was Rebecca's son. And she ran and told her father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
When Laban heard the tidings of Jacob, his sister's son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to the house. Jacob told Laban all these things. And Laban said to him, surely you are my bone and my flesh. And he stayed with him a month. Then Laban said to Jacob, Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful and lovely. Jacob loved Rachel, and he said, I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel. Laban said, "'It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man. Stay with me.'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed at him but a few days because of the love he had for her. Then Jacob said to Laban, "'Give me my wife, that I may go into her, for my time is completed.' So Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast. But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went into her.'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
This is day 15, so let's get started. We are reading today, day 15 from Genesis chapter 29 and 30. We're also reading from the book of Job, our friend Job in chapters 19 and 20, and then also continuing on chapter three of Proverbs chapter three, verses five through eight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her maid. And in the morning, behold, it was Leah. And Jacob said to Laban, What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me? Laban said, It is not so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years. Jacob did so and completed her week, and Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to wife. Laban gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her maid. So Jacob went into Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called him Reuben. For she said, Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction, surely now my husband will love me. She conceived again and bore a son and said, Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also. And she called his name Simeon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Again she conceived and bore a son and said, Now this time my husband will be joined to me because I have borne him three sons. Therefore his name was called Levi. And she conceived again and bore a son and said, This time I will praise the Lord. Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister, and she said to Jacob, Give me children or I shall die. Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, Am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? Then she said, Here is my maid Bilhah. Go into her, that she may bear upon my knees, and even I may have children through her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went into her. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, God has judged me and has also heard my voice and given me a son. Therefore she called his name Dan. Rachel's maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, with mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
So she called his name Naphtali. When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. Then Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son, and Leah said, Good fortune. So she called his name Gad. Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son, and Leah said, Blessed am I, for the women will call me blessed. So she called his name Asher.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
If you want this Bible reading plan, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year, and you can get that reading plan just in front of you right now. You don't have to let me announce it to you. You can know what we're reading. Also, the translation that I'm using is the revised standard version, Catholic edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
In the days of the wheat harvest, Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray, some of your son's mandrakes. But she said to her, Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes also? Rachel said, Then he may lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, So he lay with her that night. And God hearkened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Leah said, So she called his name Issachar. And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. Then Leah said, God has endowed me with a good dowry.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Now my husband will honor me because I have born him six sons. So she called his name Zebulun. Afterwards, she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. Then God remembered Rachel and God hearkened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son and said, God has taken away my reproach. And she called his name Joseph saying, may the Lord add to me another son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
When Rachel had born Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go, for you know the service which I have given you. But Laban said to him, If you will allow me to say so, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. Name your wages and I will give it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Jacob said, You yourself know how I have served you and how your cattle have fared with me. For you had little before I came and it has increased abundantly and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own house also? He said, What shall I give you? Jacob said, You shall not give me anything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
If you will do this for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it. Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and such shall be my wages. So my honesty will answer for me later when you come to look into my wages with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Everyone that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen. Laban said, Good, let it be as you have said. But that day Laban removed the he goats that were striped and spotted and all the she goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it and every lamb that was black and put them in charge of his sons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
And he set a distance of three days journey between himself and Jacob. And Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flock. Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plain and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the rods. He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the runnels, that is, in the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
And since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the rods, and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban, and he put his own droves apart, and did not put them with Laban's flock.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
to proclaim this word today to you all with us all. Man, oh man. If you want to, please subscribe to this podcast app or in your app so that you can get the updates every time we drop a new episode, which is every single day for the entire year, 365 days in a row. You also can sign up for our email list by texting the word CatholicBible to 33777. Those are some of the announcements.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob laid the rods and the runnels before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the rods. But for the feebler of the flock, he did not lay them there. So the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. Thus the man grew exceedingly rich, and had large flocks, maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Job answers, I know that my Redeemer lives. Then Job answered, How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words? These ten times you have cast reproach upon me. Are you not ashamed to wrong me? And even if it be true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my humiliation an argument against me, know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me. Behold, I cry out violence, but I am not answered. I call aloud, but there is no justice. He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head. He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree. He has kindled his wrath against me. He counts me as his adversary. His troops come together. They have cast up siege works against me and encamp round about my tent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
He has put my brethren far from me and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me. My kinsfolk and my close friends have failed me. The guests in my house have forgotten me. My maidservants count me as a stranger. I have become an alien in their eyes. I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer. I must beseech him with my mouth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
I am repulsive to my wife, loathsome to the sons of my own mother. Even young children despise me. When I rise, they talk against me. All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me. My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. Have pity on me. Have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh? O that my words were written! O that they were inscribed in a book! Oh, that I had an iron pen and lead, they were graven in rock forever. For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
And my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me. If you say how we will pursue him and the root of the matter is found in him, be afraid of the sword. For wrath brings the judgment of the sword that you may know there is a judgment. Then Zophar the Namathite answered, Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
I hear censure which insults me, and out of my understanding a spirit answers me. Do you not know, this from of old, since man was placed on the earth, that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment? Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds, he will perish forever like his own dung.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Those who have seen him will say, Where is he? He will fly away like a dream and not be found. He will be chased away like a vision of the night. The eye which saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him. His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will give back his wealth. His bones are full of youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
I am so grateful for you being here as we just read through today's walk through, get proclaimed to by God's very word. So let's begin. Once again, we're reading Genesis chapter 29 and 30. Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
The wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue, though he is loathe to let it go and holds it in his mouth, yet his food is turned in his stomach. It is the gall of asps within him. He swallows down riches and vomits them up again. God casts them out of his belly. He will suck the poison of asps. The tongue of the viper will kill him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
He will not look upon the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds. He will give back the fruit of his toil and will not swallow it down from the profit of his trading. He will get no enjoyment. For he has crushed and abandoned the poor. He has seized a house which he did not build.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
because his greed knew no rest he will not save anything in which he delights there was nothing left after he had eaten therefore his prosperity will not endure in the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in straits all the force of misery will come upon him To fill his belly to the full, God will send his fierce anger into him and rain it upon him as his food. He will flee from an iron weapon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
A bronze arrow will strike him through. It's drawn forth and comes out of his body. The glittering point comes out of his gall. Terrors come upon him. Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures. A fire not blown upon will devour him. What is left in his tent will be consumed. The heavens will reveal his iniquity and the earth will rise up against him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
The possessions of his house will be carried away, dragged off in the day of God's wrath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Father in heaven, we give you praise for your word. We thank you for speaking to us once again this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
We thank you for the group of people who are journeying with us, this team of people, this family of God who seek after your word. We listen to it attentively. And we ask you to make yourself known even more fully, not merely through your word, but also through the spirit that works and animates in your word. May it also animate our hearts. May it also illuminate our minds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 15: Leah Feels Unloved (2025)
as we come back again and again to your word, as you reveal it, as you reveal yourself to us in this sacred scripture. We give you praise for revealing your heart to us. Help us to not be afraid to reveal our hearts to you. In Jesus' name we pray.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
But when David takes a census, he is doing something evil in the sight of the Lord because he's establishing himself rather than establishing God. Hopefully that makes sense. And that's kind of the motivation. We'll talk more about that in 2 Samuel. But here we are as we continue this journey through civil war. We're going to keep on moving tomorrow with 2 Samuel 17 and Chronicles 22.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
But today we have this moment of David being humbled. We have David being humiliated. Absalom revealing how devastating sin is and how devastating war is because as he uses and abuses these concubines of David's and just the evil that can proliferate in our world when we refuse to ask the Lord, what is the next step?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
When King David came to Bahurim, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gerah. And as he came, he cursed continually. And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David. And all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
the evil that can proliferate in the world when we say okay i want what i want and i don't care what god wants and so since that exists in every one of us that exists in every single one of our hearts we just need prayer we need god's grace because we say yep god that could be me that could be me doing the thing that for ages ends up devastating people and so god let me not be an agent of devastation but help me to be an agent for good to belong to you fully
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
So because of that, that's why I'm praying for you, that you are faithful. Please pray for me, that I also am faithful. And let's pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
And Shimei said as he cursed, Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, you worthless fellow. The Lord has avenged upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. And the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your ruin is on you, for you are a man of blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Then Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, said to the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head. But the king said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zerui? If he is cursing because the Lord has said to him, Curse David, who then shall say, Why have you done so? And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, Behold, my own son seeks my life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
How much more now may this Benjaminite? Let him alone and let him curse, for the Lord has bidden him. It may be that the Lord will look upon my affliction and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing of me today. So David and his men went on the road while Shimei went along the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
And the king and all the people who were with him arrived weary at the Jordan. And there he refreshed himself. The Council of Ahithophel Now Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him. And when Hushai, the archite, David's friend, came to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, Long live the king, long live the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
And Absalom said to Hushai, Is this your loyalty to your friend? Why did you not go with your friend? And Hushai said to Absalom, No, for whom the Lord and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen, his I will be, and with him I will remain. And again, whom shall I serve? Should it not be his son? As I have served your father, so I will serve you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, Give your counsel, what shall we do? Ahithophel said to Absalom, Go into your father's concubines, whom he has left to keep the house, and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself odious to your father, and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
So they pitched a tent for Absalom upon the roof, and Absalom went into his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel. Now in those days, the counsel which Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the oracle of God. So was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed both by David and by Absalom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to number Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, go number Israel from Beersheba to Dan and bring me a report that I may know their number. But Joab said, May the Lord add to his people a hundred times as many as they are. Are they not, my lord the king, all of them my lord's servants? Why then should my lord require this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
in knowing what Bible translation I am reading from. It is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, and you can subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe. As I said, it is day 134.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Why should he bring guilt upon Israel? But the king's word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed and went through all Israel and came back to Jerusalem. And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and in Judah four hundred and seventy thousand who drew the sword.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, for the king's command was abhorrent to Joab. But God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel. And David said to God, I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now I pray you take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
And the Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and say to David, Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer you. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you. So Gad came to David and said to him, Thus says the Lord, Take which you will.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
either three years of famine or three months of devastation by your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the Lord pestilence upon the land and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me. Then David said to Gad, I am in great distress.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great. But let me not fall into the hand of man. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, and there fell 70,000 men of Israel. And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. But when he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw, and he repented of the evil, and he said to the destroying angel, It is enough. Now stay your hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornon the Jebusite. And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. And David said to God, Was it not I who gave the command to number the people?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
hi my name is father mike schmitz and you're listening to the bible in a year podcast where we encounter god's voice and live life through the lens of scripture the bible in a year podcast is brought to you by ascension using the great adventure bible timeline we'll read all the way from genesis to revelation discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today it is day 134 we are reading from second samuel chapter 16 also first chronicles chapter 21 and we're praying psalm 15 if you're interested
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
It is I who have sinned and done very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray you, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father's house. But let not the plague be upon your people. David's altar and sacrifice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So David went up at Gad's word, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. He turned and saw the angel and his four sons who were with him hid themselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
We're reading 2 Samuel 16, 1 Chronicles 21, and we're praying Psalm 15. Second book of Samuel, chapter 16, David meets Ziba. When David had passed a little beyond the summit, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, met him with a couple of donkeys saddled, bearing 200 loaves of bread, 100 bunches of raisins, 100 of summer fruits, and a skin of wine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went forth from the threshing floor and did obeisance to David with his face to the ground. And David said to Ornan, Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the Lord. Give it to me at its full price that the plague may be averted from the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Then Ornan said to David, Take it and let my lord the king do what seems good to him. See, I give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for the wood and the wheat for the cereal offering. I give it all. But King David said to Ornan, No, but I will buy it for the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings, which cost me nothing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the site. And David built there an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings and called upon the Lord. And he answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering. Then the Lord commanded the angel, and he put back his sword into its sheath. The site for the temple chosen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he made his sacrifices there. For the temple of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Psalm 15, who shall abide in God's sanctuary? A Psalm of David. O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy mountain?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth from his heart, who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his friend, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor, in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
who swears to his own hurt and does not change, who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
We honor you and give you glory, the glory you deserve. We give you the praise and honor and worship and thanksgiving of this day. Gosh, Lord, as we follow the story of David, we ask that you please Help us to discern in our own hearts where we need to be convicted of sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Help us to see in our own hearts where we're called to be innocent, where we're called to be humbled, where we're called to be lifted up, where we're called to be strengthened, where we are called to receive encouragement, and we were called to be open to criticism. Lord God, help us to be wise in the voices that we listen to and the voices we pay attention to.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
And of all the voices that we hear in the course of the day, let yours be the one that is the loudest, that is the clearest, and is the one that goes directly to our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, gosh. Okay, so quick couple things when it comes to David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
As I said before, 2 Samuel is, look at this as if it's real time. So here's David who's on the run from Absalom. And in 1 Chronicles, this is a little bit past this. In fact, in 1 Chronicles 21, what we've done is we've just jumped over all of the story that we're listening to right now. It doesn't even mention the fact of David's sin. It doesn't mention him killing Uriah the Hittite.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
It doesn't mention any of the births of his children. It doesn't mention that one of his children is leading the half the nation in civil war against David and rebellion against David, Absalom. And so it doesn't even mention this. Remember, the key thing with this is not because the chronicler is trying to hide David's sin or his wounds or his weaknesses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
It's because the chronicler is telling a different story. He's telling the story of the Messiah, that ancestor or the yeah, the one to come after David. He's telling the story of worship because this is all about. So keep that in mind. All right. So we go back to 2 Samuel chapter 16. And what do we see? What we see is a couple people and some deceptions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
And the king said to Ziba, Why have you brought these? Ziba answered, The donkeys are for the king's household to ride on, the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine for those who faint in the wilderness to drink. And the king said, And where is your master's son? Ziba said to the king, Behold, he remains in Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
So we have Mephibosheth, which is easy for me to say. Wow. Mephibosheth is the son of Jonathan. And now David is told by Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, that Mephibosheth is basically just waiting in Jerusalem because he is going to be waiting to see who wins between David and Absalom. And he's going to pick up the pieces after both of them destroy each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
We're going to find out in 2 Samuel chapter 19 that that is not true. That's not true that he's been lied to in this moment. But just keep that in mind. Hold that in your thoughts. Mephibosheth is not a traitor to David. He's being told right now that he is a traitor to David. I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's not going to be true.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Then we have this powerful scene, I think, with Shimei, right? Who's Shimei, who's also a family of the house of Saul. And he's cursing David. Now keep this in mind. He even says, scripture says he's being surrounded by all of these people, all of David's household and all of David's mighty men. And here's Shimei who's throwing rocks and throwing dust at the people while he's cursing David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
And you have Abishai. who's one of David's right-hand men, right? He's one of the close guys here. Abishai says to the king, let me go over and cut off his head. And David has this response. And his response reveals that David has been humbled. He says, my own son is trying to kill me. How can it get any worse? Here's this person, this Shimei, who's cursing me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Yeah, my own son is trying to kill me. He I have no pride left. I have no sense of self left that I think I'm above this person cursing me. And he says, maybe even God has told him to curse me. I have lived in such a way that I am not immune to curses. I'm not above this and I'm not so good and so innocent that Shimei isn't saying the truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
And that, again, that is a great sign of repentance for all of us. When it comes to here's someone who's cursing us, here's someone who's criticizing us, here's someone who's saying something negative about us, realize actually what you're saying, whether it's true or not, what we realize is, yeah, you're not even covering half of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
What you're criticizing me for or even cursing me for or bawling me out for is not even half of it. If you knew the state of my heart at times, if you knew how much in rebellion I could be to the Lord at times, then yeah, your criticism means nothing. Here's David saying, yeah, my own son is trying to kill me. And not only this, oh gosh, it gets even worse.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Now, David, remembering his sin, remembering that it was prophesied that you're going to experience incredible disgrace in the sight of all the people. You did this in the dark, but something horrible is going to happen in the light. And that horrible thing happens where Ahithophel, who is the counselor of Absalom, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Remember, his counsel was highly valued by David, and now it's highly valued by Absalom. And Absalom asks Ahithophel for his counsel. And the counsel is, go into your father's concubines. Basically, have intimate relations with your father's pseudo wives and do this in the sight of all the people. Again, this is not in private.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
For he said, Today the house of Israel will give me back the kingdom of my father. Then the king said to Ziba, behold, all that belonged to Mephibosheth is now yours. And Ziba said, I do obeisance. Let me ever find favor in your sight, my lord, the king. Shimei curses David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
This is Absalom's way of not only establishing that, okay, I'm dominant, but it's also Absalom's way of shaming his father and letting him be making him in some ways a disgrace in the eyes of the people. That's what was intended. In some ways, we recognize that The crucifixion is awful on its own. The point of crucifixion is to kill somebody. But that's not the point. That's the end result.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
But to kill them in such a way that is shameful, to kill them in such a way that is humiliating. And so here is Absalom who's doing this action of, again, asserting his dominance over his father in a way that is humiliating, in a way that is shameful. And yeah, just again, the ugliness of war, the ugliness of sin and the ugliness of these violence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
You think of the people who are getting caught in the crosshairs in all of this stuff. So just one note on First Chronicles. In First Chronicles, we have a story that we're going to get to eventually in Second Samuel here, but it's the story of David taking a census. David wants to number the people of Israel. And Joab, his actual right-hand guy, is saying, I don't, this is not a good idea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
But David insists and wants to number the people. Now, why is it wrong for David to want to number the people? We'll say this again when it comes to the section in 2 Samuel. But remember, the book of Numbers is all about numbering the people. The beginning of Numbers is numbering the people. The end of Numbers is numbering the people. So how is this any different?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Well, it's different because in Numbers, we're talking about here's all the people that God saved at the beginning of Numbers. At the end of Numbers, it's, and here's all the people that God preserved in the wilderness. So the beginning of Numbers, here's what God did. All these people from each tribe, here's the big number that he saved from Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
And at the end of Numbers, here's all these people that God preserved in the wilderness. And what David's doing here in 1 Chronicles chapter 21 and later on in 2 Samuel, is he's saying, who are my people? These are not God's people anymore. He's taking, in some ways, he's taking ownership or taking possession of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Instead of saying, yeah, these are God's people that he has done something great. He's more or less saying, who am I in charge of? And that is really about motivation. He's taking ownership of God's people. And that is the wrong thing to do. He can take responsibility for God's people. He can be a steward of God's people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
But Abraham said, Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things. but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able and none may cross from there to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And he said, then I beg you father to send him to my father's house for I have five brothers so that he may warn them lest they also come into this place of torment. But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
He said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. The book of Proverbs chapter 26 verses 10 through 12. Like an archer who wounds everybody is he who hires a passing fool or drunkard. Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
There is more hope for a fool than for him. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. Thank you so much for your word, your word made flesh, but also your word spoken to us in these parables, your word spoken to us in teaching us that we're called to strive after you, that we're called to belong to you. Also, that you love us and rejoice over us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Lord God, help us both to strive after you and to receive the joy, to enter into the joy that you have for us and that you cry out over us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I just want to highlight a couple of quick things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Well, I did want to highlight the proverb, chapter 26, verse 11, like a dog returning to his vomit is a fool returning to his folly. A, because it's quoted, I think, I believe St. Peter quotes it later on in the New Testament, but also because it's so true that so many of us find ourselves going back to the same things over and over again, even though we know this is not where happiness is found.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And so just as a word of encouragement, I think sometimes in our folly, right, in our foolishness and our going back to the same sin over and over again, we can sometimes feel alone. We can sometimes feel that, yep, I'm the only stupid one. You're not the only stupid one. We're all stupid. Or as the book of Proverbs would say, foolish one. We'll say it like that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
But, you know, yes, what's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. So what we do is we say, okay, Lord, help me not to return to this folly. I want to highlight three things from today's Gospels. When I say Gospels is because there's four chapters and there's so much. It is incredible. But the very beginning of chapter 13.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Jesus highlights something. He asks this question. He says, do you think that all these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered like this? They were killed by Pontius Pilate, and then Pontius Pilate put their blood mingled with the pagan sacrifices.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And if it bears fruit next year, well and good. But if not, you can cut it down. Jesus heals a crippled woman. Now, he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, and there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity for 18 years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her and said to her, Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Or he goes on to say, those 18 upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? Must have been a very popular kind of noteworthy event of the moment that Jesus is referring to. And he basically goes back to, remember Job, remember our friend Job from the very first days of this Bible in a Year podcast.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And Job's friends, they had the illusion of saying that, no, if you're good, then good things happen to you. If you're bad, bad things happen to you. So if bad things are happening to you, you must be bad, right? That kind of, you must have done something wrong. And Jesus is cutting through that, even though the people who are around Jesus at this point, they have the book of Job.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
They know exactly that, yes, while God blesses those who are righteous, and yes, there's curses upon those who are not. At the same time, the math is not one to one, right? The ratio is not one to one. It's not if I've done well, I'll be blessed in every way I want to be. And if I've done poorly or done evil, I'll be cursed in all the ways that you think I should be. But it's not that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
and yet here is the common temptation to human beings is to think well did they do something wrong do bad things happen to good people or do only bad things happen to bad people and the reality is bad things happen to all of us and we all find ourselves in this place we all find ourselves in the place of um life we live in a broken world where towers fall and where evil people do evil things and we can get caught up in those things as well
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And yet, Jesus is pointing out in this example, not only, yes, do bad things happen to everybody, but also, just keep in mind, repent. Repent or you'll likewise perish. And that goes on to the second thing. Still in chapter 13, Jesus is asked this question about the narrow door. And someone asks him, Lord, will those who are saved be few?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 318. We are reading from Luke chapter 13, 14, 15, and 16, four chapters today. We're also reading Proverbs chapter 26, verses 10 through 12.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And that's a big question because, gosh, I want everyone to be saved, but... Jesus makes a point of saying, strive to enter by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. We have to realize this hard truth, and I don't like the idea that anyone, whether I know them or not, would be lost to God forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And yet Jesus makes it very, very clear that that is a real possibility, not even a distant possibility. Because Jesus says, this is the narrow gate. And later on, another gospel, he says, the road is wide that leads to destruction and many are on it. But the road to eternity, the road to eternal life with God is narrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And he goes on to say, you know, there are people who will say, Lord, open the door to us. And I think Matthew's gospel, he says, many will say, Lord, Lord. And he said, I will not know you. I will only know those who do the will of my father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
So that's why we always keep going back to this truth that a saint or someone in heaven is the kind of person who says yes to God and then just never stops saying yes to God. That's so critical. It's so key. It's so important for every one of us. But what do we do? You know, because this reality of hell can be something that, deters people from striving for heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
What I mean by that is, it's not even the fact that I could choose hell, not even the fact that I could lose heaven, but it's the idea that other people might not choose heaven, that other people might choose hell, that distracts us and gets us off our track. So what does Jesus say? His very first word spoken to the person who asks, Lord, will those who are saved be few? His first word is strive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
In fact, it's not just strive. The Greek word isn't, the Greek imperative, you strive. So the big question, will many be saved or will few be saved? He says, listen, you strive, you strive to enter through the narrow gate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
This is so absolutely critical because yes, while we love everyone and we're interested, we want everyone to come to know the love of God in Jesus Christ and be saved through the church, that sacrament of salvation, right? The church that God has given to us. Yet we can't allow, and I can't allow, none of us can allow the reality that others will not choose to be saved to deter us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
So Jesus says, you strive, you strive. At the same time, he races after us. I mean, this is the crazy thing is not only are we called to strive, but we are relentlessly pursued by God. And so in chapter 15, this is what I want to kind of end with, even though it might be a little bit longer explanation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, There are six days on which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. Then the Lord answered him, You hypocrites!
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
In chapter 15, tax collectors and sinners are drawing near to Jesus, and the Pharisees are complaining. And it says this. It says, so he told them this parable. So the people are complaining that Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
He tells them three parables, the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, and the parable of the prodigal and his brother, which I like in the Great Adventure Bible has that title, the parable of the prodigal and his brother, because it's not just simply the parable of the prodigal son. It's also about the older brother. In fact, it's also about the father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
But here's the three parables, right? He asked the question, which one of you having 100 sheep and losing one would not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one? Now, of course, the answer we all know because we've heard this story before is, well, yeah, you'd all do that. And the actual answer to those hearing Jesus would be, nobody would do that. None of us would do that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
No shepherd would do that. Why? Because that is ridiculous to leave 99 sheep. potentially in the wilderness, potentially killed, lost, threatened, whatever, to seek after one stupid sheep who couldn't stick with the rest of the flock. And yet Jesus says, no, but I will do that. I will go after him. I will go after that sheep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And when I find it, when he doesn't beat it up, he doesn't drag it home, he says, when he finds it, he rejoices. lays it on his shoulders and brings it home, carrying it, which is crazy. I mean, you think this dumb sheep, you know, that foolish sheep that wanders away, like, no, you're walking home. I'm not carrying you home.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And yet here is Jesus who is saying, no, I'll put it on my shoulders, carry it home, not angrily rejoicing. And it goes on to say, when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me for I found my sheep, which was lost. That is ridiculous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
In fact, that's the point that Jesus is saying, is that you are relentlessly pursued and you're ridiculously celebrated. Because not only does he celebrate a lost sheep that was found, but the next parable of the woman having 10 coins, losing one. When she finds the one, as he says, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, rejoice with me for I found the coin which I had lost.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
How many times have you ever...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
found something and and said you guys rejoice with me you know it's like oh stupid i was dumb i can't believe i lost this thing or finally i found my keys whatever the thing is we don't call together people to rejoice over something that was lost and then found we just don't do that but what jesus is revealing is that he does what he's revealing is that the father does that you are relentlessly pursued you are ridiculously celebrated not only that but in heaven
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God for one sinner repents. Listen, when you go to confession, it sometimes can feel like a place of embarrassment. Maybe you might experience it as a place of shame, but it's not. It's a place of victory. It's a place of joy. It's a place where every time, listen, this is crazy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Every time a person goes to confession, every angel God has ever made, every saint who's ever lived has your name on their lips, praising God. Every time. tongue in heaven is praising the Lord by crying out your name. That here, Sophia has come home. Here, Rachel has come home. Here, Jack has come home. Here, Mark has come home.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
This is this incredible thing to the glory of the father, which is incredible and amazing. And the third story, the parable of the prodigal and his brother. And this is the one that just completely wrecks me. We have this son who wants not only the inheritance, But also, he leaves. Now, the one thing, he wants the inheritance, right? He wants the stuff that belongs to the father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? As he said this, all his adversaries were put to shame and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
But then he leaves. And this is even more telling. Because when the younger son leaves, what he's saying is, I don't want to be affiliated with you, dad. Father, I don't want to be affiliated with you. I don't want to be associated with your family. I want out. I don't want to have anything to do with you. It's one thing to ask for the inheritance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
It's another thing to take that inheritance and leave. And he goes off, he squanders it, loses everything. He comes home, why? Not because he feels badly, not because he realizes he was wrong. He comes home because he's starving. And this is just this humility of God that we can go back to confession, why? Because I don't want to go to hell. We can come back to the Lord, why? Because I need help.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And he does the same to us what he does to the younger son. Seeing him at a distance, he ran to him, embraced him. In fact, another translation said he fell upon his neck and kissed him. This son is disgusting. And yet the father gives him these four things. He says, quick. Get the best robe. Then put a ring on his finger. Then put shoes on his feet. And then kill the fatted calf.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And let's rejoice. Remember, he's relentlessly pursued. He is ridiculously celebrated. My friend Stephanie Parks, who works for Focus, she and I created this retreat called the Prodigal Son Retreat. And it is just a gift. And in that retreat, we highlight these four things. What does it mean that the Father gives him the best robe?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
You know, in the ancient world, there's not a closet full of clothes. You have a couple robes in your life. You have one best robe. You don't have a bunch of best robes. But the father says to this son, he's a disappointment. He's a failure. He is not a good son. And he says, give him the best robe, not just one of the robes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Give him the best robe, which is he's giving him the glory of the father. Then secondly, he says, put a ring on his finger. On that ring would be like a signet, right? The sign of the father's authority. So not only is he clothing him in the father's glory, He's putting on his hand the father's authority. He's fully restoring him to sonship. Thirdly, he says, put shoes on his feet. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Because he's free. He can leave if he wants to again. And then kill the fatted calf. There's not a lot of fatted calves lying around. You got one. And that's one thing true. Not only is the best robe, he's clothed in the father's glory. The ring, he has a father's authority. He's restored. Not only he has shoes, he's free to leave if he wants to again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
but also killed the fatted calf because he is relentlessly pursued. He is ridiculously celebrated. And that brings us to the last point, which is the older son. The older son hears this rejoicing and he is angry. He's resentful. Why? Because the younger son didn't want to be associated with the father and he left. The older son, it turns out,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Didn't want to be associated with the father, but he stayed. What I mean by that is, he says, look, all these years, I've slaved for you. All these years, I have served you. All these years, I have done exactly what you asked me to do, and you've never even given me a kid to feast on with my friends. Now realize what that means.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
That means that here is the older son who's not run away, but he's living separated from his father. This is the way that a lot of us live right now. Now, we can associate it, we can see ourselves, our story in the story of the younger son, but this is definitely our story, the story of the older son. That we say, okay, gosh, man, God wants me to do all these checklists.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
He has all these task lists for me. God has all these things I need to do, I need to get done, I need to jump through all these hoops just to please the father, and he doesn't actually care about me. The older son, he is doing what the father asked him, but he's not living in relationship with the father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Basically, you can imagine him coming downstairs every morning and he just sees on the table a to-do list. But the problem is this. The problem was he waited until the father went out into the field. I'm filling in the blanks here. He waited until the father went out into the field and came down.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
The parable of the mustard seed. He said, therefore, what is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his garden and it grew and became a tree and the birds of the air made nests in its branches. the parable of the leaven. And again he said, To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
So the dad had to leave a checklist because here's the older son who doesn't want to be in relationship with his father. We know that because he says, you didn't even give me a kid to feast on with my friends. He's not grieved because his father didn't feast with him. He didn't want to feast with his father. He wanted to feast apart from his father. He wanted to feast away from his father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
He wanted to feast with his friends, not with his dad. Can you imagine? Imagine the grief in his father's eyes where he's like, yes, you're finally telling me the truth. You're finally telling me what's it meant in your heart. He says, listen, you're my son. Everything I have is yours. And this is the truth that you need to know too, that I need to be reminded of too.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
is that those of us who are striving after the Lord and you find yourself sometimes just broken down, you find yourself burdened by the fact that it's just one thing after another. The Father says, listen, it's not meant to be just one thing after another. I want to live in a relationship with you. Yes, there's stuff to get done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Yes, you're working in the kingdom of God, so there's work that has to get done. We got to go out into the field. We got to get stuff done today. But imagine differently, rather than waiting for the Father to leave so he just leaves you a task list, what would it look like if you came down in the morning,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And there's a father who made breakfast and you pour some coffee, give him a coffee cup and you sit down at the table and you just talk. What do we need to do today? What needs to get done today, dad? And he says, well, about this, you know, got to go to the South 40. We got to, you know, that kind of thing. We got to go over and do this thing. The fence broke down and whatever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And you plan your day with him. And then it's not, you're not a servant anymore. You're not a slave. You're his son. You're his daughter. And you're planning the day with your dad. And yeah, it's hard work because the kingdom of God needs to be built up. The kingdom of God, there are people who don't know Jesus and they need to know him. There are people who do know him and they need to be helped.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
So there's work to be done. But to do it with the father, not apart from the father, that's the key. My brothers and sisters, as again, my friend Stephanie Parks and I have written down in this retreat, the truth of the matter is you are relentlessly pursued and you are ridiculously celebrated by the father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
What a gift to be able to read this with you and to be able to go through scripture with you today. I'm praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened. the narrow door. He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, Lord, will those who are saved be few? And he said to them, strive to enter by the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
When once the householder has risen up and shut the door, you will begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us. He will answer you, I do not know where you are from. Then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. But he will say, I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
There you will weep and gnash your teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out. And men will come from east and west and from north and south and sit at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last. the lament over Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
At that very hour, some Pharisees came and said to him, Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you. And he said to them, Go and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. Today is day 318.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you, how often would I gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not. Chapter 14 Jesus Heals the Man with Dropsy on the Sabbath One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler who belonged to the Pharisees, they were watching him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus spoke to the lawyers and the Pharisees saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? But they were silent. Then he took him and healed him and let him go. And he said to them, Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well, will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day? And they could not reply to this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Humility and Hospitality
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he marked how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, When you are invited by anyone to a marriage feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest a more eminent man than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, Give place to this man, and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, Friend, go up higher. then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
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Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
He said also to the man who had invited him, When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
The parable of the great banquet When one of those who sat at table with him heard this, he said to him, Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. But he said to him, A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time of the banquet he sent his servants to say to those who had been invited, Come, for all is now ready. But they all alike began to make excuses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
The first said to him, I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So the servant came and reported this to his master.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
We're reading Luke 13 through 16, Proverbs 26, 10 through 12. The Gospel According to Luke, chapter 13. Repent or perish. There were some present at that very time, who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered thus? I tell you, no.
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Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Then the householder in anger said to his servant, Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame. And the servant said, Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room. And the master said to the servant, Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. the cost of discipleship. Now great multitudes accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.
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Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Or what king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace. So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. About salt. Salt is good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill. Men throw it away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Chapter 15, the parable of the lost sheep. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
So he told them this parable. What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing.
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Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. The parable of the lost coin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost. Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
the parable of the prodigal and his brother. And he said, There was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that falls to me. And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country. And there he squandered his property in loose living.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate and no one gave him anything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father.
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Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
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Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and make merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to make merry.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree And he told this parable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. Chapter 16 The Parable of the Dishonest Steward He also said to the disciples, There was a rich man who had a steward, and chargers were brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
And he called him and said to him, What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward. And the steward said to himself, what shall I do? Since my master is taking the stewardship away from me, I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
I have decided what to do so that people may receive me into their houses when I am put out of the stewardship. So summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, how much do you owe my master? He said, a hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50. Then he said to another, And how much do you owe?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
He said, A hundred measures of wheat. He said to him, Take your bill and write eighty. The master commended the dishonest steward for his prudence, for the sons of this world are wiser in their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal habitations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. And he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. the law and the kingdom of God. The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this and they scoffed at him. But he said to them, You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John. Since then, the good news of the kingdom is preached and everyone enters it violently. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery the rich man and lazarus there was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day and at his gate lay a poor man named lazarus full of sores who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table moreover the dogs came and licked his sores
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, Behold, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And he answered him, let it alone, sir, this year also, till I dig about it and put on manure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 318: The Narrow Gate, the Lost Sheep, and the Prodigal Son (2024)
The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy upon me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Lord God, today, please call us back to yourself. Today, give us a spirit of repentance. Today, give us a spirit of trust and confidence in your mercy for us, and give us your Holy Spirit that we may be your people this day and every day. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
So we continued our story with Balaam and Balak, right? So there's going to be a couple more times where Balak tries to convince Balaam to give a curse upon the people of Israel, and it's not going to go any better than these first two.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
It's so interesting because everything you read, both in the New Testament where it references Balaam and in the early church fathers, you mentioned this yesterday, no one sees Balaam as a good guy. In fact, Even though when you read the text itself, Balaam seems to be doing what God has asked him to do. He says, I will only say what God tells me to say.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
and balaam said to balak stand beside your burnt offering and i will go perhaps the lord will come to meet me and whatever he shows me i will tell you and he went to a bare height and god met balaam and balaam said to him i have prepared the seven altars and I have offered upon each altar a bull and a ram.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
And then he only says what God tells him to say. And yet the interpretation of this is that Balaam is a man for hire. Essentially, he's out for himself and that he is not interested necessarily in doing God's will as God's will, but he's willing basically to do whatever someone will pay him to do. And in this case, he's being prevented from
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
um god is using balaam to bless his people which is remarkable god used a donkey yesterday to speak and proclaim words and now god uses a bigger donkey i read that once god uses a bigger donkey in balaam to uh to speak his words and yet um again in a couple days we're going to see this we're going to see what is happening while god is blessing his people something else is happening and just stay tuned
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
But in Deuteronomy chapter 24 and 25, we have the continuation of a bunch of these laws. In fact, there's various laws. We have laws about marriage. We have laws about crime and punishment, essentially, we could say. But one of the things that is uniting the laws is this, the source of the law. Now, the source of the law, of course, is going to be the Lord. The Lord is the giver of these laws.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
He's the giver of this wisdom. But why do they have to be given? Now, we can read these various laws and they might seem a little bit unnecessary to us. They might seem really arbitrary to us.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
And yet, if you've ever tried to organize something, whether that even is like a group of kids playing a ball game or a card game or a board game to a family, to a business, to a company, you find yourself making up laws as you go. Why? Because people are breaking the laws. I mean, think about this. When it comes to kickball,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
At some point, someone was running from one base to the other and they threw the ball at the person. If you hit the person with the ball when they're not touching a base, they're out. This is how we play kickball. At some point, some kid gets hit in the head by the ball. And like, wait, does that count or not? I don't know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
We never thought about this until the situation arose where a kid was running from one base to another and got hit in the head. And then they make up the rule that says, no, if you get hit in the head by the ball, you're not out. That's kind of what we're seeing right now in Deuteronomy chapter 24 and 25 and following.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
What we have is a number of situations that must have arisen in the people of Israel. I mean, you have the things that like, yes, this would be necessary to make a law about. It seems like it gives a lot of forethought and some seem to be like, wait, that was random as an example.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
The command in Deuteronomy chapter 24 that says that when you are cleaning your field, you're bringing in the grain or when you're knocking the olives or the grapes, picking the grapes off of your vines, you only go over one time and you leave whatever else is there for the stranger, the sojourner, right? The orphan or widow. And that's that again, so much goodness in there. So much forethought.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
You go on to say that in chapter 25, there is a dispute and these men are fighting and one is accused by the other of being guilty of something. And if the person is found guilty, they shall be beaten, right? In accordance with the severity of the crime. It says 40 lashes, but no more than 40 lashes. Why? Because more than 40 would dishonor the man.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak. And he returned to him, and behold, he and all the princes of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering. And Balaam took up his discourse and said, From Aram Balak has brought me, the king of Moab, from the eastern mountains. Come, curse Jacob for me. Come, denounce Israel.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Now, in Jesus Christ, in the Shroud of Turin, we see that Jesus himself had been lashed far, far more times than just 40 because they were not following the Jewish law. They were doing whatever the Romans wanted to do. But there's a restriction on the lashes in order not to dishonor the individual. But the very next command is, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Just kind of random. But what is that about? What it's about is The fact that here is an ox that as he's working, he gets to eat what he's treading off the grain. As he's wandering through, as he's doing the work, the ox actually gets to eat. And there's this kindness to animals that even pops into the commands of the people of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
That's what we're going to find as we continue in scripture is that it might not be what we anticipate, but it is what we need. And that's such a great gift. Speaking of gifts, day 71 in the can. Well done, everyone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
As we continue to try to be faithful, as we continue to rely upon the Lord when it comes to our prayer, when it comes to letting his word change our minds, change our hearts, shape our lens. Let's pray for each other. And I am praying for you. I know I say that every day, but it's because I am praying for you every day. You're not in this alone. And we are not alone. We are here with each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
So, man, let's keep praying. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like his. And Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them. And he answered, Must I not take heed to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth? Balaam's second oracle. And Balak said to him, Come with me to another place from which you may see them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 71. You have done such a good job in keeping up with this. This might not be day 71 for you in the sense of it's not necessarily the 71st day of 2021. Whenever you are listening to this, it is your day 71. And you are here, you showed up, and that's phenomenal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
You shall see only the nearest of them and shall not see them all. Then curse them for me from there. And he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. Balaam said to Balak, Stand here beside your burnt offering while I meet the Lord yonder.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
And the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak. And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, What has the Lord spoken? And Balaam took up his discourse and said, Rise, Balak, and hear.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The Lord their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them. God brings them out of Egypt. They have, as it were, the horns of the wild ox. For there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel. Now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel what God has wrought. Behold a people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
As a lioness it rises up, and as a lion it lifts itself. It will not lie down till it devours the prey and drinks the blood of the slain. And Balak said to Balaam, neither curse them at all nor bless them at all. But Balaam answered Balak, did I not tell you all that the Lord says that I must do? And Balak said to Balaam, come now, I will take you to another place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there. So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that overlooks the desert. And Balaam said to Balak, Build for me here seven altars, and provide for me here seven bulls and seven rams. And Balak did as Balaam said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her and he writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house and she departs out of his house and if she goes and becomes another man's wife and the latter husband dislikes her and writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, then her former husband
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Various Laws When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be charged with any business. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken. No man shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for he would be taking a life in pledge.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
We are reading today from Numbers chapter 23 and Deuteronomy chapter 24 and 25. So we're going 23, 24, 25. We're also praying from Psalm 106. As always, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. And you can also download for free your own Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
If a man is found stealing one of his brethren, the sons of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from the midst of you. Take heed in an attack of leprosy to be very careful to do according to all that the Levitical priests shall direct you, as I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way as you came forth out of Egypt. When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to fetch his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
When the sun goes down, you shall restore to him the pledge that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness to you before the Lord your God. You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brethren or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
You shall give him his hire on the day he earns it before the sun goes down, for he is poor and sets his heart upon it, lest he cry against you to the Lord and it be sin in you. The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow's garment in pledge. But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. Therefore, I command you to do this. Let's read it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Therefore I command you to do this. Chapter 25 If there is a dispute between men, and they come into court, and the judges decide between them acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight. You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. Duty to a brother's widow. If brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside the family to a stranger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his brother who is dead.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
that his name may not be blotted out of israel and if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say my husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in israel he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, I do not wish to take her, then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face, and she shall answer and say, So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house, and the name of his house shall be called in Israel, the house of him that had his sandal pulled off.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
If you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, go ahead and do that. I'm not telling you what to do, just a suggestion. That's all this is. It's day 71, and this is Numbers 23, Deuteronomy chapter 24 and 25 in Psalm 106. the book of Numbers chapter 23, Balaam's first oracle. And the next day, Balak took Balaam and brought him up to Bamath Baal. And from there, he saw the nearest of the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Various commands. When men fight with one another and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him and she puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity. You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. A full and just weight you shall have, a full and just measure you shall have, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord your God.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary and cut off at your rear all who lagged behind you, and he did not fear God.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Therefore, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies round about in the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Praise the Lord. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Who can utter the mighty doings of the Lord, or show forth all his praise? Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times. Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Help me when you deliver them, that I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your heritage. Both we and our fathers have sinned.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
we have committed iniquity we have done wickedly our fathers when they were in egypt did not consider your wonderful works they did not remember the abundance of your mercy but rebelled against the most high at the red sea yet he saved them for his name's sake that he might make known his mighty power he rebuked the red sea and it became dry And he led them through the deep as through a desert.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
So he saved them from the hand of the foe and delivered them from the power of the enemy. And the waters covered their adversaries. Not one of them was left. Then they believed his words. They sang his praise. But they soon forgot his works. They did not wait for his counsel. But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness and put God to the test in the desert.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
He gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them. When men in the camp were jealous of Moses and Aaron, the holy one of the Lord, the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the company of Abiram. Fire also broke out in their company. The flame burned up the wicked. They made a calf at Horeb and worshipped a molten image.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Red Sea. Therefore, he said he would destroy them, had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to turn away his wrath from destroying them. Then they despised the pleasant land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Having no faith in his promise, they murmured in their tents and did not obey the voice of the Lord. Therefore he raised his hand and swore to them that he would make them fall in the wilderness and would disperse their descendants among the nations, scattering them over the lands. Then they attached themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to the dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
They provoked the Lord to anger with their doings and a plague broke out among them. Then Phinehas stood up and interposed, and the plague was stayed, and that has been reckoned to him as righteousness from generation to generation. They angered him at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account, for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke words that were rash.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and learned to do as they did. They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons. They poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. and the land was polluted with blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
And Balaam said to Balak, build for me here seven altars and provide for me here seven bulls and seven rams. Balak did as Balaam had said, and Balak and Balaam offered on each altar a bull and a ram.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Thus they became unclean by their acts and played the harlot in their doings. Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage. He gave them into the hand of the nations, so that those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their power.
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Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
many times he delivered them but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity nevertheless he regarded their distress when he heard their cry he remembered for their sake his covenant and relented according to the abundance of his mercy he caused them to be pitied by all who held them captive
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. And let all the people say, Amen. Praise the Lord. Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your gift, for your word. We thank you for the reminder.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 71: The Source of the Law (2025)
This Psalm 106, we give you praise for it because it is just the synopsis and it invites us to do, Lord God, what you keep reminding us to do, which is to remember. Remember what you have done. Remember your faithfulness and remember all the ways in which we are broken, all the ways in which We have failed to belong to you, and yet you continue to call us back to yourself.
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Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
I will praise you with an upright heart. When I learn your righteous ordinances, I will observe your statutes. O forsake me not utterly. How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have laid up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Teach me your statutes. With my lips I declare all the ordinances of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word. deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and observe your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. I am a sojourner on earth. Hide not your commandments from me. My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times. You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones who wander from your commandments. Take away from me their scorn and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, speak to the sons of Israel that they take for me an offering from every man whose heart makes him willing, you shall receive the offering for me. And this is the offering which you shall receive from them. Gold, silver and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen, goat's hair, tanned ram's skins, goat skins, acacia wood,
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Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes. Your testimonies are my delight. They are my counselers. My soul clings to the dust. Revive me according to your word. When I told of my ways, you answered me. Teach me your statutes. Make me understand the way of your precepts and I will meditate on your wondrous works. My soul melts away for sorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Strengthen me according to your word. Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law. I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my understanding. Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to gain. Turn my eyes from looking at vanities and give me life in your ways. Confirm to your servant your promise, which is for those who fear you. Turn away the reproach, which I dread, for your ordinances are good. Behold, I long for your precepts. In your righteousness give me life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Let your mercy come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise. Then I shall have an answer for those who taunt me, for I trust in your word. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your ordinances. I will keep your law continually forever and ever, and I shall walk at liberty, for I have sought your precepts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
I will also speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame, for I find my delights in your commandments, which I love. I revere your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes. Remember your words, your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort and my affliction, that your promise gives me life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Godless men utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law. When I think of your ordinances from of old, I take comfort, O Lord. Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked who forsake your law. Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you praise. We give you thanks right now, Lord God. We praise you not only for your future deliverance for us, we also praise you for what you've done for us in the past. We praise you for all the good that you've brought into our lives. The fact that you have made us into your children through the gift of your Holy Spirit given to us at baptism.
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Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
We thank you for the gift of worship. Thank you for revealing your heart to us and how we are to approach you, Lord God, because without your revealing how we are to approach you, we would be lost. We would have no idea how you desire us to come to you. We would have no idea how you desire us to live truly in freedom and in holiness. because you are holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
You call us to be holy and you make it possible by your grace for us to be holy. Help us to choose holiness today. Help us to choose you today and help us to glorify you today. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So we had a bunch of readings today, obviously, as we do every day.
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Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
But today, I don't know if you noticed, it's a Of the tabernacle, the descriptions of the Ark of the Covenant, the descriptions of the veil and the screen, the lampstand, all these things. And yet they are so important. When I say it's difficult to get through them, it's just because sometimes it's difficult to have a mental picture of what scripture is describing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. According to all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, of all its furniture, so you shall make it. The Ark of the Covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
And so, for example, on the lamp stand, just a brief example, the lamp stand, as I was describing it, I mean, as Moses, as God was describing it to Moses, and here it's written down in Exodus 26, 25, it might be hard to picture it. This is okay.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
So there's a base of the lamp stand and there's three cups on one side of it made like almonds, capital and flour on one branch and three cups like almonds with each capital and flour in the other branch. six branches going out of the lampstand. What's that look like? Well, it's a menorah. So if you've ever seen a menorah, like, oh, that's what's being described here. Like, I get this now.
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Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Or even in the fashioning of the Ark of the Covenant, the cherubim on top of it, if you've seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, you know that here is one of the ways in which we have this image of Here's this box, right? That's a certain size.
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Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
And on top, there are these angels, cherubim, that are extending their wings out over the mercy seat, which is the center of the Ark of the Covenant, and bowing their faces either towards each other or to that mercy seat. And if you've ever seen an image of this, like, oh, now I have a picture of this. And lastly, when it comes to the table for the bread of the presence or the tabernacle,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Sometimes if we've never seen any artist's rendering of these kinds of things, it can be tough for us to recognize what are we talking about? For example, in the tabernacle, there was the holy place. And in the holy place, there was the bread of the presence. There was the lampstand, the menorah, right? And there was also the altar of incense. Those three things were in the holy place.
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Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
And there's the holy of holy place, holy place, holiest place, right? The holy of holies. which is past the deeper curtain, the thicker curtain. And in that space, in that Holy of Holies was only the Ark of the Covenant. And I think sometimes when we just kind of read through and don't stop and think, like, has anyone ever drawn this out? We can miss some things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
And I don't want you to miss those things because there's going to be a recognition of some really powerful things that connect with us as Catholic Christians. As an example, we have the Holy of Holies, that veil that separates the holy place from the Holy of Holies. And that veil was the curtain that was torn into top to bottom. When our Lord Jesus gave up his spirit to the Father and thereby he
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
poured out his mercy right the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant even though the ark of the covenant wasn't there when jesus died the ark had been hidden away for years by this point but the idea is the same the idea is that mercy seat being poured out the mercy of god being poured out upon the world as his the veil of his flesh is pierced by that that soldier's spear and the blood and water flows out the blood of eucharist and the water of baptism that the holy of holies
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
is being revealed, not because it's no longer holy, but because it's no longer off limits. Not because it's no longer holy, but because here's God's love that is impossible to be held back anymore. This is so incredible, so incredible. Last note, last note is the table for the bread of the presence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Gosh, it says you shall, and this is verse 30 in chapter 25 in Exodus, you shall set the bread of the presence on the table before me always. And there is something remarkable about the bread of the presence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
especially for us as catholic christians we realize that in every single catholic church in the tabernacle right in that holy of holies place there is the bread of the presence the bread of the very presence of god not just in sign not just in symbol but in truth in spirit and truth here is jesus christ who continues to dwell among us the presence of god the bread of the presence
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
I do want to make a little note quick about Leviticus 19 and just how good it is. There can be some confusing moments, right? There is a part that says, like I mentioned yesterday, don't shave off the hair in your temples or don't mix fibers in your clothing. Say, okay, that's one of those conditional moments, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold. Within and without shall you overlay it. And you shall make upon it a molding of gold round about.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
As opposed to the universally unconditional moments where this is an absolute teaching for all time. But there's also some things that are just like so wise. And we also realize that the difficulty in approaching scripture without a context for that scripture. Once again, remember here in Leviticus, you have the story of the people of Israel who are being reminded of their true identity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
They're being reminded of God's identity. And so God has to start somewhere. And so there are some things that might seem even unfair to us where it's like, wait a second, why would this be the condition if, would this be the result consequence if this such and such an action happens?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Well, we would maybe say that a certain behavior would be greatly, more greatly punished, or we'd say there's certain behavior be like less, less punished than is in scripture. Keeping this in mind, keeping in mind that God is teaching his people who he is. He's teaching them justice first.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
And I think it's so, so powerful that it says in Leviticus 19, what I mentioned a couple days ago, is that you shall not prefer the poor nor defer to the mighty, but be just in all of your rulings. Again, God has to teach his people justice before he can teach them mercy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
He has to teach us what right and wrong are before he can teach us the subtle nuances of the, maybe say the shades of gray when it comes to truth and justice and in goodness. Anyways, this is the second day in a row where we have an extremely long podcast. Hopefully you put this on time and a half speed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Maybe speak a little faster so you can get on your commute or wherever you're praying with these words. Let the word of the Lord speak to your heart now. I think this is such a gift for us to be able to journey through Exodus and Leviticus at the same time. And we will continue to doing this tomorrow and the next few days. I cannot wait to do this. Please keep me in your prayers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
I am praying for you. Keep each other in your prayers because, hey, day 43 is checked off and now it's time to move on to day 44 tomorrow. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
And you shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it and two rings on the other side of it. You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark. They shall not be taken from it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
And you shall put into the ark the covenant which I shall give you. Then you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. And you shall make two cherubim of gold. Of hammered work shall you make them on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end and one cherub on the other end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another. Toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And you shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark. And in the ark you shall put the covenant that I shall give you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
There I will meet with you. And from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the covenant, I will speak with you of all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel. The table for the bread of the presence. And you shall make a table of acacia wood. Two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold around it. And you shall make around it a frame of a handbreadth wide and a molding of gold around the frame. And you shall make for it four rings of gold and fasten the rings to the four corners of its four legs. Close to the frame the rings shall be as holders for the poles to carry the table.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Both chapters 25 and 26 today, learning about not only the temple, learning about worship, learning about the Ark of the Covenant. That's Exodus 25 and 26. Also Leviticus chapter 19. We'll be praying today. Psalm 119 verses 1 through 56. As always, I'm reading from the revised standard version, the second Catholic edition. I'm actually using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold and the table shall be carried with these. And you shall make its plates and dishes for incense and its flagons and bowls with which to pour libations. Of pure gold you shall make them. And you shall set the bread of the presence on the table before me always. the lampstand, and you shall make a lampstand of pure gold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
The base and the shaft of the lampstand shall be made of hammered work. Its cups, its capitals, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it, and there shall be six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it, and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
three cups made like almonds each with capital and flour on one branch and three cups made like almonds each with capital and flour on the other branch so for the six branches going out of the lampstand and on the lampstand itself four cups made like almonds with their capitals and flours
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
and a capital of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out from the lampstand their capitals and their branches shall be of one piece with it the whole of it one piece of hammered work of pure gold and you shall make the seven lamps for it and the lamps shall be set up so as to give light upon the space in front of it its snuffers and their trays shall be of pure gold
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
The Tabernacle Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet stuff. With cherubim skillfully worked shall you make them. The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. All the curtains shall have one measure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
my name is father mike schmitz and you're listening to the bible in a year podcast where we encounter god's voice and live life through the lens of scripture the bible in your podcast is brought to you by ascension using the great adventure bible timeline we'll read all the way from genesis to revelation discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today this is day 43 let's keep on trucking we're moving ahead we're reading from exodus chapter
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Five curtains shall be coupled to one another, and the other five curtains shall be coupled to one another." and you shall make loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain in the first set, and likewise you shall make loops on the edge of the outermost curtain on the second set.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Fifty loops you shall make on the one curtain, and fifty loops you shall make on the edge of the curtain that is in the second set. The loops shall be opposite one another, and you shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to the other with the clasps, that the tabernacle may be one whole." You shall also make curtains of goat's hair for a tent over the tabernacle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Eleven curtains shall you make. The length of each curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. The eleven curtains shall have the same measure. You shall couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and the sixth curtain you shall double over at the front of the tent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
and you shall make fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is outmost in one set and fifty loops on the edge of the curtain which is outmost the second set and you shall make fifty clasps of bronze and put the clasps into the loops and couple the tent together that it may be one whole
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
In the part that remains of the curtains of the tent, the half curtains that remain shall hang over the back of the tabernacle and the cubit on the one side and the cubit on the other side of what remains in the length of the curtains of the tent shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and that side to cover it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
And you shall make for the tent a covering of tanned rams skins and goat skins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
framework and you shall make upright frames for the tabernacle of acacia wood ten cubits shall be the length of a frame and a cubit and a half the breadth of each frame there shall be two tenons in each frame for fitting together so shall you do for all the frames of the tabernacle you shall make the frames for the tabernacle 20 frames for the south side and 40 bases of silver you shall make under the 20 frames two bases under one frame for its two tenons
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
You can get your own Great Adventure Bible from Ascension at ascensionpress.com or Amazon or wherever they sell Bibles. You know how to get stuff. You know how to get stuff online for crying out loud. If you want to get, speaking of online, a Bible in a year reading plan, you can download to your device, to your computer. You can print it out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
and two bases under another frame for its two tenons and for the second side of the tabernacle on the north side twenty frames and their forty bases of silver two bases under one frame and two bases under another frame and for the rear of the tabernacle westward you shall make six frames
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
and you shall make two frames for corners of the tabernacle in the rear they shall be separate beneath but joined at the top at the first ring thus shall it be with both of them they shall form the two corners and there shall be eight frames with their bases of silver sixteen bases two bases under one frame and two bases under another frame
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
you shall make bars of acacia wood five for the frames of the one side of the tabernacle and five bars for the frames of the other side of the tabernacle and five bars for the frames of the side of the tabernacle at the rear westward the middle bar halfway up the frames shall pass through from end to end you shall overlay the frames with gold and shall make their rings of gold for holders for the bars
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
And you shall overlay the bars with gold and you shall erect the tabernacle according to the plan for it, which has been shown you on the mountain. the veil and the screen. And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen. In skilled work shall it be made with cherubim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
And you shall hang it upon four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold, upon four bases of silver. And you shall hang the veil from the clasps and bring the ark of the covenant in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate for you the holy place from the most holy place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
you shall put the mercy seat upon the ark of the covenant in the most holy place and you shall set the table outside the veil in the lampstand on the south side of the tabernacle opposite the table and you shall put the table on the north side And you shall make a screen for the door of the tent of blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen embroidered with needlework.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
And you shall make for the screen five pillars of acacia and overlay them with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold and you shall cast five bases of bronze for them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, Say to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods. I am the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
You can visit ascensionpress.com slash bible in a year. Print that puppy out, and then you can cross off. Like I mentioned yesterday, you can cross off each day as you move along, and you'll be like, man, I'm on day 43 already. This is amazing. I'm amazing. And that's right. You are amazing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted. It shall be eaten the same day you offer it or on the next day and anything left over until the third day shall be burned with fire. If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
It will not be accepted and everyone who eats of it shall bear his iniquity because he has profaned a holy thing of the Lord and that person shall be cut off from his people. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very border. Neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. I am the Lord your God. You shall not steal nor deal falsely nor lie to one another. And you shall not swear by my name falsely and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind. But you shall fear your God." I am the Lord. You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand forth against the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
you shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people but you shall love your neighbor as yourself i am the lord you shall keep my statutes you shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind nor shall you sow your field with two kinds of seed nor shall there come upon you a garment of cloth made of two kinds of stuff
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
If a man lies carnally with a woman who is a slave betrothed to another man and yet not ransomed or given her freedom, an inquiry shall be held. They shall not be put to death because she was not free, but he shall bring a guilt offering for himself to the Lord to the door of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
You can also subscribe to this podcast by just clicking subscribe, but I'm grateful that you are joining me today, and I cannot wait to journey with you through scripture. Exodus 25, 26, Leviticus 19, and as I said before, Psalm 119 verses 1 through 56. Let's keep on moving. Exodus chapter 25, offerings for the tabernacle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin which he has committed. And the sin which he has committed shall be forgiven him. When you come into the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you. It must not be eaten.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
And in the fourth year, all their fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. But in the fifth year, you may eat of their fruit, that they may yield more richly for you. I am the Lord your God. You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not practice augury or witchcraft. You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you. I am the Lord. Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry and the land become full of wickedness. You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. Do not turn to mediums or wizards. Do not seek them out to be defiled by them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
I am the Lord your God. You shall rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of an old man. And you shall fear your God. I am the Lord. When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you are strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just hin. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall observe all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant (2025)
Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong but walk in his ways. You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes. Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Paul concludes this letter in the end of chapter 5, at least, is the works of flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. And it's really interesting to take a moment really and recognize St. Paul has a list. And sometimes when we have these lists, they're just words that go in one ear and out the other. Lists of immorality, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
And when he had come, the Jews who had gone down from Jerusalem stood about him, bringing against him many serious charges which they could not prove. Paul said in his defense, Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I offended at all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Or lists of works of the flesh are immorality and impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit. That's the divisions they had amongst them. Like I belong to Apollos. I belong to Paul. Envy, drunkenness, carousing and the like. All of those things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
All of those things are things that separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Every single one of them take away our heart. They're the works of the flesh that destroy us and keep us slaves. But he also says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Okay, let's highlight this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
This will be the last thing we say, maybe. These are the fruits of the Spirit. What that means is this is the fruit of a life lived in God. They are a byproduct, you might say. They're an outgrowth of walking with God, walking in the Holy Spirit, walking in Christ, remaining, living, growing in God's will automatically will come about.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
If you're an orange tree, you don't have to really work to grow oranges. You just grow oranges. If you're an apple tree, you don't have to work to grow apples. You just grow apples. So here, the fruits of the spirit, if you're living in the spirit, here's what's going to happen. These are the fruits, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
These are the fruits of a life lived in the spirit. So if I have them in my life, okay, good. That's a good indication. That's a good sign that you are walking in the spirit. And if they're not in my life, that's a good sign that I might not quite be walking in the spirit. In chapter 6, verse 7, St. Paul makes a very big point, and that is, do not be deceived. God is not mocked.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. Basically, if you plant corn, you're going to get corn. If you plant orange trees, you're going to get orange trees. What is it you want to get? Do I want to get love and peace and patience and kindness and gentleness and goodness and faithfulness and self-control? If I do, then I need to... plant those seeds. I need to actually invest those things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem, and there be tried in these charges before me? But Paul said, I am standing before Caesar's tribunal, where I ought to be tried. To the Jews I have done no wrong, as you know very well. If then I am a wrongdoer, and I have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
It doesn't make any sense to plant rice and then be surprised that rice is growing. It doesn't make any sense to say, I want potatoes, but instead I'm going to plant beans. Does that make sense? I'm mixing my metaphors here, but it's so important. St. Paul says at the very end here, well, close to the very end, he says, Let us not grow weary in well-doing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
For in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart. So my brothers and sisters, my friends, in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart. So don't lose heart. Praying for you. He says, far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. The last words of St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Paul in this letter, he says, henceforth, let no man trouble me, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. that's led some people to wonder if St. Paul had the stigmata, right? The actual wounds of Jesus and his hands on his feet and his sides, like St. Padre Pio did, and some others have had this, but St. Francis of Assisi had that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
But it's possible that he would bear for the rest of his life on his body, the marks of Jesus, that stigmata, it's possible. But do not lose heart. Even if we find ourselves full of fruits of licentiousness and fruits of the works of the flesh, begin planting the works of the Spirit. Begin planting love and peace and joy and patience and kindness and gentleness and self-control.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
And by God's grace, we'll be given those fruits of the Spirit. I'm praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
But if there is nothing in their charges against me, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar. Then Festus, when he had conferred with his council, answered, You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you shall go. Festus consults King Agrippa. Now, when some days had passed, Agrippa the king and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to welcome Festus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
And as they stayed there many days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king, saying, There is a man left prisoner by Felix. And when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews gave information about him, asking for sentence against him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 346. We're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 25. Only four chapters to go, including chapter 25, as well as Galatians, St. Paul's letter to the Galatians, chapters 4, 5, and 6. The conclusion only in two parts. So we get Galatians 1 through 3 yesterday and 4, 5, and 6 today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
I answered them that it was not the custom of the Romans to give up anyone before the accused met the accusers face to face, and had opportunity to make his defense concerning the charges laid against him. When therefore they came together here, I made no delay, but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
When the accusers stood up, they brought no charge in his case of such evils as I supposed, but they had certain points of dispute with him about their own superstition and about one Jesus who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive." Being at a loss how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he wished to go to Jerusalem and be tried there regarding them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of the emperor, I commanded him to be held until I could send him to Caesar. And Agrippa said to Festus, I should like to hear the man myself. Tomorrow, said he, you shall hear him. Paul is brought before Agrippa.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
So the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city. Then by command of Festus, Paul was brought in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all who are present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Jewish people petitioned me both at Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. But I found that he had done nothing deserving death, and as he himself appealed to the emperor, I decided to send him. But I have nothing definite to write to my lord about him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Therefore, I have brought him before you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, that after we have examined him, I may have something to write. For it seems to me unreasonable in sending a prisoner not to indicate the charges against him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
The Letter of St. Paul to the Galatians, Chapter 4
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
i mean that the heir as long as he is a child is no better than a slave though he is the owner of all the estate but he is under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father so with us when we were children we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So, through God, you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir. Paul reproves the Galatians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to those weak and beggarly elemental spirits whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid I have labored over you in vain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
And we're also reading Proverbs chapter 29, verses 15 through 17. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan for this home stretch, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Brethren, I beg you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are." You did me no wrong. You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. What has become of the satisfaction you felt?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out that you may make much of them. For a good purpose, it is always good to be made much of, and not only when I am present with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you, I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. the allegory of Hagar and Sarah. Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and one by a free woman.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, the son of the free woman through the promise. Now this is an allegory. These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem for she is in slavery with her children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
But the Jerusalem above is free and she is our mother. For it is written, Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear. Break forth and shout, you who are not with labor pains. For the desolate has more children than she who has a husband. Now we, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
But as at the time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so it is now. But what does the scripture say? Cast out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave shall not inherit with the son of the free woman. So, brethren, we are not children of the slave, but of the free woman. Chapter 5 Christian Freedom for freedom Christ has set us free.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Stand fast, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Now I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates. That is today, day 346, Acts 25, Galatians 4, 5, and 6, and Proverbs chapter 29, verses 15 through 17. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 25. Paul appeals to Caesar. Now, when Festus had come into his province, after three days, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who called you. A little leaven leavens all the dough.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine. And he who is troubling you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. But if I, brethren, still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case, the stumbling block of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would mutilate themselves. For you are called to freedom, brethren.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed by one another. The works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Now, the works of the flesh are plain, immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another. Chapter 6.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Bear One Another's Burdens Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each man will have to bear his own load. Let him who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
But he who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Final Admonitions and Benediction See with what large letters I am writing to you in my own hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that would compel you to be circumcised and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who receive circumcision do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
And the chief priests and the principal men of the Jews informed him against Paul, and they urged him, asking as a favor, to have the man sent to Jerusalem, planning an ambush to kill him on the way. Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea and that he himself intended to go there shortly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God. Henceforth, let no man trouble me, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Amen. The book of Proverbs chapter 29 verses 15 through 17.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. When the wicked are in authority, transgression increases, but the righteous will look upon their downfall. Discipline your son and he will give you rest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
He will give delight to your heart. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you for this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
We thank you for the gift of all that St. Paul went through, his imprisonment and persecution, his afflictions, not only his afflictions and doing this out of love for you and in service to the gospel so that we can have him as an example, but also, Father, Thank you for giving him a spirit of joy in the midst of all this. Joy in the midst of affliction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
We ask you to please give us joy in the midst of affliction. Abba, Father, Dad in heaven, give us joy in the midst of affliction. In the midst of persecution, help us to trust in you more than anything else. When we cannot trust in ourselves or even in the people who love us and claim to love us, help us to always trust in you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So here we are in Acts of the Apostles, chapter 25. We have Paul appealing to Caesar. He already kind of threw that out there that he was going to, you know, he's a Roman citizen and he was going to appeal to Caesar. So he does this and he's brought before the king, King Agrippa. And tomorrow we're going to hear about how St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Paul testified and gave his witness, his testimony to King Agrippa and Bernice and was able to basically tell the truth, tell the gospel, share the gospel with the King Agrippa. But when it comes to St. Paul's letter to the Galatians, the second half, right? Yesterday we read chapters 1, 2, and 3. Today is chapters 4, 5, and 6. And we concluded the letter of St. Paul to the Galatians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
We remember the context for his letter. The context is the Judaizers, right? Those people who came in and were basically telling the Christians, the new Christians that... Yeah, you need to be circumcised. You need to follow the law in order to have the fullness of God's spirit, the fullness of the new covenant. And here's Paul and he is ticked off. St. Paul is, he is upset.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
So said he, Let the men of authority among you go down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them accuse him. When he had stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea, and the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
I love this in chapter 24. He makes very, very clear. He says, when the time had fully come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because your sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So through God, you are no longer a slave, but a son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
And if a son, then an heir. Basically back in the day, before all of this stuff, before Jesus, those under the law, right? The Jewish people were unable to keep the law. We heard this in Romans. We heard this in Corinthians. And then before this too, you Gentiles, you never even knew that there was a God who loved you. And so you failed to keep the law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
But now, but now you've been made into God's sons and daughters. Why would you want to go back? Why? Why would you, that's what he even asked in verse nine. He says, how can you turn back again to those weak and beggarly elemental spirits whose slaves you want to be once more?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
And this is the truth for how many of us, every single one of us, we're tempted to go back to our former bosses, our former little tiny tyrants, those little lords, those idols that take and take and take and never give anything back. And yet here is St. Paul who reminds us, you have a father who loves you, who just wants to give. So what is going on? And so St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Paul goes on to talk about the allegory of Hagar and Sarah. Hagar, the concubine, essentially the servant of Sarah and Abraham had relations with her and they had conceived a son, Ishmael. That was the child of slavery, essentially. And then Sarah, who had the freeborn child, who is Isaac, that through that child is the blessing. And here is St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
Paul making this allegory here, saying that you're of the free. You are set free by God in Christ Jesus. And then the first line of chapter five, for freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand fast, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. I would tell you, I probably highlighted a couple all-time verses, all-time favorite verses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 346: Fruits of the Spirit (2024)
One of them is this verse, chapter 5 of Galatians, verse 1. Also, Romans chapter 12, verse 1. Some of those later on, Revelation chapter 12, verse 1, or Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1. There's a lot of good verses in there. But for freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand fast, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. One of the things that St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
You gave and you keep giving. Help us to receive this gift with everything we are and everything we have. In the mighty name of the gift and the mighty name of the one who was given, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Golly, man. Okay, you guys, I'm sorry. I need to stop gushing. But just what a massive, massive gift to be able to be
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
into the gospel and not only any gospel, but the gospel of John, a couple of things we need to highlight. Okay, so this is called the gospel of John and it's believed to have been written by the apostle John, right? The beloved disciple. Now he doesn't refer to himself by his name throughout the course of this gospel. In fact, the tradition is that John refers to himself as the beloved disciple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
That's going to be more on this later. that the beloved disciple was there from the very beginning, right? He is one of those who was following John the Baptist. There's some confusion. We have a couple of Johns here, the gospel of John written by John the beloved or John the apostle and John the Baptist.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
And they're in these scenes right here because the very beginning is not only the prelude, right? In the beginning was the word and the word was God and the word was with God, but also we have John the Baptist baptizing and who's there, but John the beloved. So it can be a Father Mike, calm down. Here we go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Number one, from the very beginning, the very literally the first words of John's gospel, he's establishing Jesus's most deep identity. And that is that he is truly God. The very first verse of the very first chapter in this first gospel that we hear today in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Everything God had promised is the fulfillment of everything he'd been leading up to. So everything we've been reading, plus what we'll be reading for the next, you know, while after this. all points to Jesus. And so it's not a new religion. In fact, the first Christians, they did not see themselves as leaving Judaism and becoming something else.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Massively important that John is making and the word became flesh and dwelt among us in verse 14. So he's talking about Jesus himself, which is so important that Jesus isn't just another teacher. He's not just another healer or a prophet that Jesus actually is the word made flesh. God himself. We say it in the creed. We say God from God, light from light, true God from true God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
And in John chapter three, we hear that he was given to us, that God himself was given to us by God himself, that the father so loved the world that he gave his only beloved son, his only begotten son, that we might not perish, but might have eternal life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
oh my goodness okay a couple things to keep in mind john the baptist is being established now is not the messiah he's making it very clear that he was there to prepare for the messiah he's the last of the prophets leading up to jesus he's the last of the old testament prophets who point the way to jesus and not only does he point to jesus but he calls jesus a very specific thing which is going to be so important for us tomorrow and the days following
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
When John the Baptist sees Jesus coming towards him, he says it twice. He says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now we hear that and we might think, you know, as first 21st century Christians, 21st century Westerners, wherever we live right now, we might think that and think, oh yeah, he's saying that because Jesus is gentle. Jesus is meek.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
He's humble of heart, quite furry, woolly. But no, when John says, behold, the lamb of God, remember, he's saying this to Jews and What is the connection that you and I have gone through when it comes to Exodus, when it comes to Numbers and Leviticus and Deuteronomy, when it comes to the lamb, a lamb is what? A lamb is the sacrifice. A lamb is what's offered up to the father in worship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
So keep this in mind that when John says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world about Jesus, he is not pointing out that Jesus is gentle and humble of heart, although Jesus is gentle and humble of heart. He is saying, that's the sacrifice. That is the sacrifice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
If you remember this, remember back in Genesis where God tells Abraham, take your only son, your son whom you love, and go to a high place that I'll point out to you, and there offer up your son as a sacrifice. And on the way up, what happens? Isaac asks his father the question. He says, Father, here's the knife, here's the fire, but where's the lamb for the sacrifice?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
And then Abraham has this prophetic word that echoes to this moment. And he says, God will provide himself a lamb, my son. God will provide himself a lamb, my son. And here is John the Baptist here in these first chapters of Isaiah. the gospel of John, and he sees Jesus and he says, that's the lamb. This is the lamb. Oh, my gosh. This is the lamb of sacrifice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
This is the lamb that when we're going to get this tomorrow, but just prep yourself, prep your heart to be completely blown away tomorrow when we hear the gospel. This is the lamb that just like the Jews in slavery in Egypt, when they ate the flesh of the lamb and their homes were marked by the blood of the lamb, what were they given? They were given freedom and they were given life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
They were given freedom from slavery. They were given new life. And just like Jesus even points out, he says, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, the serpent in the desert, and all those who had been bit by the serpents were set free because the sign, the bronze serpent, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
What they saw was, no, this is the fulfillment of Judaism. And we're gonna make a note on that after we read John 1, 2, and 3. But keep that in mind, that as we launch into this messianic checkpoint for the next seven days, we're not leaving the Old Testament behind. What we're doing is we're seeing how the Old Testament has been fulfilled in Jesus and how God's promises have been fulfilled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
The sign of their slavery, the sign of their sin, the sign of the thing that was killing them became the symbol of their hope. Just like that, Jesus on the cross becomes the sign, the sign of our sin, the sign of our brokenness. He on the cross is the symbol of our hope. Man, oh man. Okay, so one last thing. I know this is 24 minutes or whatever we are into it right now, but here's the last thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
I was talking with some of our students who've been going through the Bible in a year, and they said, we love, this is so good to be able to hear what God is doing in the Old Testament, what he's doing with the Jewish people, and just what a gift that is. But doesn't God love everybody? Like, doesn't God... Yes, of course he loves the Jews, absolutely.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
But didn't he love people who were in different parts of the world as well? Why didn't, why is he just choosing the Jews? And remember, what was God's promise to Abraham? He said, I promise you a dynasty, right? I promise you land. And I promise that through you, the entire world will be blessed. So what happened was God had to pick, well, he willed to pick one person.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Here's Abraham and then his family, which expanded, expanded, expanded. This is why they need to be faithful because what's going to happen is ultimately Abraham Yes, everyone whom God has created, he loves. And it's through the Jewish people that God is going to bless the entire world. And now here we are in John's gospels, chapter one, two, and three.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
We see the beginning of God saying, yes, this is how I'm going to bless the entire world. Why? For God so loved the world, not just the Jewish people, although, of course, he has entered into a unique covenant with them. that God has so loved the world that he gave his only beloved, only begotten son so that all those who believe in him would not have to perish but have eternal life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
See, God, playing the slow game, is loving everybody. And now, in Jesus, what do you have? You have every, in the church, you have every nationality. In the church, you have every language. In the church, you have every race. In the church, you have every continent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 99. You guys, you're one day, one day away from 100 days of reading the Bible, listening to the Word of God, and letting it shape your mind, your eyes, your heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Every people is what is invited into the church because God has, through the Jewish people, ultimately through becoming a Jewish person, a Jewish man in Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, he has established his church so that the whole world can know that it is loved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
So every person can know that they are loved and that the whole world will know that God knows their name and he calls them, calls us, calls you, calls me into covenant relationship with him, that we might be saved and might not perish, but might have eternal life. Oh man, oh man. It's like six man-on-mans today, but I'm so grateful. You guys, let's keep praying for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
We have six more days of this, six more days of the gospel of John. Tomorrow is an incredible day as we read John 4, 5, and 6. I cannot wait. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
So without anything further, here we are with John 1, 2, and 3. The Gospel According to John 1. The Word became flesh. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came for testimony to bear witness to the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light. The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
he came to his own home and his own people received him not but to all who received him who believed in his name he gave power to become children of god who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of god and the word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth we have beheld his glory glory as of the only begotten son of the father
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
John bore witness to him and cried, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me. And from his fullness have we all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father. He has made him known.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
The testimony of John the Baptist. And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. They said to him, then who are you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, then why are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet? John answered them,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
I baptize with water, but among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. This took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing. The Lamb of God. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Every part of you is day 99 and we are taking a break. We just finished 1 Samuel 6, 7, and 8. We're taking a break for the next seven days. In the next seven days, we're going to go through the gospel of John. This is what it's called our first messianic checkpoint. And so today we're reading on day 99. We're reading from John chapters 1, 2, and 3.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me. I myself did not know him, but for this I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel. And John bore witness. I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven and remain on him. I myself did not know him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
But he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have bore witness that this is the Son of God. The first disciples of Jesus. The next day again, John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked and said, Behold, the Lamb of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following, and he said to them, What do you seek? And they said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, Come and see. They came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, So you are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Kepha, which means Peter. Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee, and he found Philip and said to him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him, "'Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.' Nathanael said to him, "'How do you know me?' Jesus answered him, "'Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.' Nathanael answered him, "'Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Jesus answered him, "'Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?' you shall see greater things than these. And he said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man. Chapter two, the marriage at Cana.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
On the third day, there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the marriage with his disciples. When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. And Jesus said to her, O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Now six stone jars were standing there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, Fill the jars with water. And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, Now draw some out and take it to the steward of the feast. So they took it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
We're also reading from Proverbs, taking a little break from the Psalms for about seven days, eight days or so. And then we're reading Proverbs 5, verses 1 through 6. As you might know, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm actually using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
when the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from though the servants who had drawn the water knew the steward of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him every man serves the good wine first and when men have drunk freely then the poor wine but you have kept the good wine until now
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana and Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. After this, he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brethren and his disciples, and there they stayed for a few days. The Cleansing of the Temple The Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all with the sheep and the oxen out of the temple and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
You shall not make my father's house a house of trade. His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. Then the Jews said to him, what sign have you to show us for doing this? Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
The Jews then said, It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. Chapter 3 Nicodemus Visits Jesus
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
If you want to get your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. If you've not yet subscribed to this podcast, subscribe. It's been 99 days. I think it's time to make a commitment. I don't know. I'm not telling you what to do. Just letting you know, you can subscribe in whatever you are listening to this podcast. Okay, here we go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Nicodemus said to him, How can this be?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Jesus answered him, are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand this? Truly, truly I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
No one has ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
For God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned. He who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
And men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God. After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
There he remained with them and baptized. John also was baptizing at Anon near Salim, because there was much water there, and people came and were baptized. For John had not yet been put in prison.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Now, a discussion arose between John's disciples and a Jew over purifying, and they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him. John answered, No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
You yourselves bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from heaven. He who comes from above is above all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
We're launching into the messianic checkpoint. What that means. Gosh, you guys, everything in the Old Testament leads to the New Testament. One of the things we know and believe is Christianity was not a new religion coming after Judaism. What Christians believe is that Christianity is the fulfillment of everything that God had promised in the old covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
He who is of earth belongs to the earth, and of the earth he speaks. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. He who receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for it is not by measure that he gives the Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life. He who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him. The book of Proverbs, chapter five, verses one through six. My son, be attentive to my wisdom. Incline your ear to my understanding, that you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
For the lips of a loose woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil. But in the end, she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps follow the path to Sheol. She does not take heed to the path of life. Her ways wander and she does not know it. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
Oh my gosh, Father, thank you so much for revealing your son to us, revealing your love to the heart. The son is, Father, the son is your heart given to us. We're so grateful. We are so thankful for even these first three chapters of the Gospel of John.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2025)
proclaim to us that you father in heaven so loved the world that you gave you've given your only beloved son your only beloved son so that we would not have to die but that we could have have life so weak so that we could have you so that we can know that you know us that we matter to you my gosh the Lord God thank you so much thank you so so much Help us to receive that gift. Father, you gave.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
He's just brushing up on his English. That's why he's listening to the Bible. Right. That's so good. And I think that's a great word to not just end this episode on, but to launch into the gospel of John with. which is that sense of, I remember hearing someone described that said that the guilt is when I know that I've failed to live up to a standard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
And so, you know, I've the standard of being honest and I wasn't honest, so I'm guilty. But, but shame is when you see that I've failed to live up to that standard, that, that I'm, I'm not just that I'm guilty in your eyes. So it's a relational kind of a situation. And, and just what the healing there or the remedy there was,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
with the woman caught in adultery is she stands before, is on the ground before Jesus. And Jesus sees her and knows her and loves her. And as he says, I forgive you. I don't condemn you. I go and sin no more. And that being seen, allowing ourselves to be seen is one of the most powerful remedies for shame. And maybe not by everybody, but definitely by the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
So I'm so glad you brought that up as we launch into John's gospel. Jeff, you'll still have your Facebook group that we'll continue to meet on Thursdays.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
So good. Yeah. I'm so grateful for the opportunity even just to see here is where the whole thing points. As I know, I think you might've even been the first person to point out this quote from St. Augustine. I think it's St. Augustine, right? You can correct me on this one, is that the Old Testament is revealed in the new and the New Testament is hidden in the old.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
Which is so good. Because the commentaries each day, they're limited. They're incredibly limited, not only in time, but also in my own wisdom and knowledge. And so I'm so grateful that every week, those who are journeying with us have the opportunity to get your wisdom and your guidance. So that's what we're doing now. We're on this journey. And so we need each other. It's not just about...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
ourselves. It's not just down to us. It's not just down to one person or even a couple people. It's the whole community of us who are allowing God's word to shape our hearts and to form our vision so that we can not only see like God sees and love like God loves, but truly live how God has called us to live. And so in order to do that, we need grace. We need his help.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
And so keep praying for each other. Keep praying for me. I am praying for you. With Jeff Gavins, my name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
And that's one of the things that I love about, well, all of the New Testament and Old Testament, but when it specifically comes to the gospel of John, there's a number of like just really critical connections that are fulfillments in John's gospel of all the stuff that we've been reading and some things we'll be reading in the future. But there are so many
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Speaking of today and speaking of Genesis to Revelation, We are now launching ahead. We just are in the midst of this time period, but we are jumping all the way to the Gospel of John in the New Testament.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
I think the people who have been journeying with us for these last number of days will hear John's gospel in an entirely new way, knowing all that they know now, having walked through Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, all that we've been through. I think this is going to be just a unique experience of journeying through John.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
Just one tells the whole story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
It's our first of four messianic checkpoints. One of the things that this comes out of is the idea or the reality, essentially, that as we're going through the Bible timeline, following these 14 narrative books, we recognized that if we just kept going through from beginning to
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
Yeah, and that sense of how John also makes that connection between belief and obedience, and a lack of belief and disobedience when it comes to, even the
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
classic slash powerful kernel the the most you know the heart of the gospel in john chapter 3 verse 16 for god so loved the world that he gave his only son that all who might believe in him might not perish but might have eternal life but then he goes on to say but some disobeyed in and that sense that illuminates what it truly is to believe in the context not only of i i assent with my intellect but
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
But also I say yes with my will. I actually choose what God has commanded. If you love me, you'll do what I have commanded you. You'll obey me. And there's that connection between, in John's gospel, so powerfully between faith and the way we actually are living right now, which is just so necessary for the Christian life as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
You know, one of the things that always strikes me about John's gospel is not just, as you noted, there's not too many miracles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
and not any parables, but how thoroughly full of Jesus' teaching, just direct teaching, whether that's the Last Supper discourse, the high priestly prayer, that time during the Last Supper, how much Jesus is teaching that last night before his betrayal and before his suffering and passion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
to the end we wouldn't be reading any of the new testament until roughly november and so we thought wow it would be very very important to introduce to all of us in the midst of this year a number of times where we get to take a step back and actually kind of launch forward and see okay now how has all of this been leading to christ because all the old testament is pointing to the New Testament.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
Yeah. It makes it so clear that Jesus is making the connection. I mean, who he believes himself, who he knows himself, not just believes himself, who he knows himself to be. And he knows himself to be, as you said, I and the Father are one. And before Abraham was, I am. And all those pieces in, as we heard in the book of Exodus, how God reveals his sacred name, I am.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
And here is Jesus who takes that and claims it for himself. Now, there's a piece of, if you recall, in the last chapter of John's gospel, when after Jesus has risen from the dead and Peter and some of the other guys are out there fishing on the lake, that they catch a certain number of fish that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
And is there a little kind of like insider baseball here when it comes to that certain number of fish that could also be a pointing to Jesus's identity?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
All the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus, who is the fulfillment of everything. And so for the next seven days, we are going to be walking through the gospel of John. And in order to introduce the gospel of John, so we can get kind of an understanding, once again, of John and of the structure of John's gospel and how unique John's gospel is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
And it's just one of those things where the Bible has so many different layers to it. And that's one of the reasons why we'll be going through all of John's gospel in only seven days. And so the next number of days for those who've been journeying with us are going to be pretty full. They're going to be full with the story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
But the thing I love about that is it means that we get to allow the entire story of John's gospel to kind of just wash over us in many ways, just to be able to take it in, knowing that I won't be able to take it all in, kind of like the previous 90 days or so. I will not be able to take all of this in. But what I'm going to do is I'm just going to allow in whatever can get in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
And so I might miss the 153 thing. I might miss some of the other pieces of these stories of John's gospel. But to realize in one week, I will have heard a gospel in its entirety, which I think is just a blessing, and I think is something that all of us can be looking forward to.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
Yeah. Yeah. That fear of, am I disqualified? I know what I've done. Maybe even at some point as a follower of Christ, I know what he's called me to and the dignity is bestowed upon me, but have I disqualified myself? And am I done? He's going to go on without me and he's going to do what he does because he's God and he's still God. He'll get someone else. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
Once again, we're joined by Jeff Cavins, which we're super grateful to talk with Jeff about John.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
Or is it, no, you're not disqualified. You're restored. And that's those last chapters of John's gospel. It's so, so, again, important for us because I think if you haven't been in a place yet where you feel like you've disqualified yourself when it comes to belonging to the Lord or serving the Lord, Just wait, because I think most of us get to that place and that's where we need to hear.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
Again, the Lord speak to Simon Peter and ask, do you love me? Okay, now feed my sheep. Let me restore you. You're not disqualified. You are restored. And that's such a gift. As we conclude this episode, Jeff, as I always ask, any takeaways as people can launch into this next seven days of John's gospel?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
We all know that God only punishes people who have done something wrong. So just admit the fact that you've done something wrong and you can move on. And Job is like, I haven't, I don't know what it was. If I have done anything wrong, let God tell me, I would tell you this. And also, why aren't you better friends?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
And that's a truth for us too, is so often we are not known, even by the ones who love us the most. Sometimes the people who love us the most understand us the least. And that's what's happening right now with Job and his friends. They have answers for him, but he doesn't want their answers. He wants them in his grief.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
And I think that sometimes, again, the lesson that God is giving to us today as he speaks to us is sometimes the people in our lives don't need our answers as much as they just want us to be present. I think sometimes that's true when it comes to God too. I want God to give me an answer. But if I really think about it, maybe I just want God to be with me in my confusion and in my pain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
So after Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to Abram, her husband, as a wife. And he went into Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram, May the wrong done to me be on you. I gave my maid to your embrace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
That's what we're praying about this day. And that's what we'll be praying about as we continue to move forward with our father in faith, Abraham, and his wife, Sarah, as well as our friend and our brother, Job. We continue our prayer and we continue to pray with you. Also, please just know, please know that this is such a great opportunity to walk with you as we begin this year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
And any time of day, any time of year, whenever you started listening to this Catholic Bible in a Year podcast, we're so grateful that So grateful. If you want to download your own Catholic Bible in your reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
You can also subscribe in your podcast app so that you get the alert every time we have a new podcast that comes up, you will get the alert. And you can also sign up for our email list by texting the word Catholic Bible, all one word Catholic Bible to 33777. Again, I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. It's so helpful and such a great resource because it has the notes and it has
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
the story, you know, that the narrative books, these 14 narrative books that we're following right now in the middle of Genesis, and also shows where those narrative books and the other books, like something like Job or Proverbs, also fits in. So if you want to check that out, you can as well. But I'm grateful for you. Thank you so much. I am praying for you. Please pray for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
My name's Father Mike. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me. But Abram said to Sarai, Behold, your maid is in your power. Do to her as you please. Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness the spring on the way to Shur, and he said, Hagar, maid of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going? She said, I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai. The angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress and submit to her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
The angel of the Lord also said to her, I will so greatly multiply your descendants that they cannot be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said to her, behold, you are with child and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against every man and every man's hand against him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
And he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen. So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her. You are a God of seeing. For she said, have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him? Therefore, the well was called Bir Lahai Royi. It lies between Kadesh and Bered. And Hagar bore Abram a son. And Abram called the name of his son whom Hagar bore Ishmael.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless, and I will make my covenant between me and you and will multiply you exceedingly. Then Abram fell on his face, and God said to him, Behold, my covenant is with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
This is day eight, so let's get started. We are continuing to read Genesis, Genesis chapter 16 and chapter 17. We're also taking those next steps in the life of the tragic...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
You shall be the father of a multitude of nations who No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings shall come forth from you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant. And God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He that is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
Both he that is born in your house and he that is bought with your money shall be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh, an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant. And God said to Abraham, as for Sarai, your wife,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her. And moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples shall come from her. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
uh suffering man job reading job chapter 5 and chapter 6 and also continuing our reading of the wisdom literature by reading proverbs chapter 1 verses 20 through 33. as always the translation that i'm using for these podcasts is revised standard version catholic edition i'm using the great adventure bible from ascension the bible reading plan that we're following you can follow as well by downloading your catholic bible in a year reading plan
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
And Abraham said to God, O that Ishmael might live in your sight. God said, No, but Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I will bless him and make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
He shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year. When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all the slaves born in his house, or bought with his money every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
And Ishmael, his son, was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That very day, Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised, and all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
Call now, is there anyone who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn? Surely vexation kills the fool and jealousy slays the simple. I have seen the fool taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling. His sons are far from safety. They are crushed at the gate and there is no one to deliver them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
his harvest the hungry eat and he takes it even out of thorns and the thirsty pant after his wealth for affliction does not come from the dust nor does trouble sprout from the ground but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward as for me i would seek god and to god would i commit my cause who does great things and unsearchable marvelous things without number
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
he gives rain upon the earth and sends water upon the fields he sets on high those who are lowly and those who mourn are lifted to safety he frustrates the devices of the crafty so that their hands achieve no success he takes the wise in their own craftiness and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
they meet with darkness in the daytime and grow up at noonday as in the night but he saves the fatherless from their mouth the needy from the hand of the mighty so the poor have hope and injustice shuts her mouth behold happy is the man whom god reproves therefore despise not the chastening of the almighty for he wounds but he binds up he strikes but his hands heal
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
He will deliver you from six troubles. In seven, there shall no evil touch you. In famine, he will redeem you from death and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue and shall not fear destruction when it comes. At destruction and famine, you shall laugh. You shall not fear the beasts of the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
For you shall be in league with the stones of the field and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you. You shall know that your tent is safe and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing. You shall know also that your descendants shall be many and your offspring as the grass of the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
You shall come to your grave in ripe old age as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season. Behold, this we have searched out. It is true. Hear and know it for your good. Then Job answered, O that my vexation were weighed and all my calamity laid in the balances, for then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
by visiting ascensionpress.com slash bible in a year. You can also subscribe in the podcast app. Just click subscribe and these podcasts will pop up for the next 365 days. You can also sign up for our email list by texting the word Catholic Bible, all one word, Catholic Bible, to 33777.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
Therefore my words have been rash, for the arrows of the Almighty are in me. My spirit drinks their poison, the terrors of God are arrayed against me. Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass, or the ox low over his fodder? Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the slime of the purslane? My appetite refuses to touch them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
They are as food that is loathsome to me. All that I might have my request, and that God would grant my desire, that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off. This would be my consolation. I would even exult in pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One. What is my strength that I should wait? And what is my end that I should be patient?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh bronze? In truth, I have no help in me, and any resource is driven from me. He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. My brethren are treacherous as a torrent bed, as freshets that pass away, which are dark with ice and where snow hides itself. In time of heat, they disappear.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
When it is hot, they vanish from their place. The caravans turn aside from their course. They go up into the waste and perish. The caravans of Tema look. The travelers of Sheba hope. They are disappointed because they were confident. They come there and are confounded. Such you have now become to me. You see my calamity and are afraid.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
Have I said make me a gift or from your wealth offer a bribe for me or deliver me from the adversary's hand or rescue me from the hand of oppressors? Teach me, and I will be silent. Make me understand how I have erred, how forceful are honest words, but what does reproof from you reprove? Do you think that you can reprove words when the speech of a despairing man is wind?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
You would even cast lots over the fatherless and bargain over your friend. But now be pleased to look at me, for I will not lie to your face. Turn, I beg, let no wrong be done. Turn now, my vindication is at stake. Is there any wrong on my tongue?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
Wisdom cries aloud in the street. In the markets she raises her voice. At the top of the walls she cries out. At the entrance of the gates she speaks. How long, oh simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? Give heed to my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my thoughts to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
Without any further delay, let's get started cracking open the word of God and letting that shape the way that we think,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
I will make my words known to you because I have called and you refuse to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded and you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when panic strikes you, when panic strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacence of fools destroys them. But he who listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease without dread of evil. Lord God, you are good. And we know that you love us. We know that we can trust you. We know that you reveal your heart to us in your word. And we thank you for revealing your heart to us. Thank you for your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
we act and we love once again today we are reading from the book of genesis chapter 16 and chapter 17. let's get started now sarai abram's wife bore him no children she had an egyptian maid whose name was hagar and sarai said to abram behold now the lord has prevented me from bearing children go into my maid it may be that i shall obtain children by her And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
We ask that you please, in the midst of confusion, Lord, we ask that you give us your truth. In the midst of suffering, We sometimes don't want answers as much as we want you, Lord God. And so please just give us yourself. Give us your peace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
And to all those who are suffering in this moment and also all those who are suffering as they hear these words, your words proclaimed, Lord God, I ask that you please give them a confidence in you. Give them a trust in you. Give them a faith in you that above all things, you are faithful. Your love is unstoppable and your love is true.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
sufficient you are good we praise you in jesus name amen in the name of the father son holy spirit amen wow um gosh so here we have the couple of different stories right we're following abram now abraham and sarai now sarah which is going to be way much more fun to say from now on Because I always think of Abraham, not just Abram, and Sarah, not just Sarai, because there's a difference.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
There's a change, right? There is a change between Abram and Abraham and Sarai and Sarah. And that change makes up the bulk of their life, that here is Abram who is walking in faith and Sarai who's walking in faith. But there is a change when they're brought into relationship, when they're brought into covenant with the Lord God. And that sign of the covenant, obviously being circumcision.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
Why circumcision? And the answer is, I don't know. But what could it be? Well, in so many ways, what do we want to do with our lives? We want to control our lives. And in so many ways, what does God want to do with our lives? He wants to bless our lives. He wants to let himself be the Lord. That means he has dominion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
And so here's a story of Sarai and Abram and Hagar trying to take control of the situation. That here is God who has promised that from Abram would be a vast dynasty. And he's 100 years old. So that's not happening anytime soon, right? So why not take Hagar? We see, though, that when we take measures into our own hands, nothing good comes of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
In the space of five verses, Sarai has the idea to hand over Hagar to her husband so she can be another wife to him. And like five verses later, she's yelling at him for doing what she told him to do. causes problems. And yet that sense of, okay, I'm going to place myself in your hands, Lord. That's what the sign of circumcision in so many ways is. It's that step of surrender.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
It's that step of saying, okay, Lord, I am no longer in control. So here's Abraham who gets circumcised at 100 years old and Ishmael, his son, who's circumcised at 13 years old and all the men in Abraham's, essentially in his posse in his family, whether they were raised in his family or whether they were purchased in a simply work for him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham (2025)
But that whole tribe essentially is now under the dominion of the Lord God. And that's one of the invitations that God has for us today as well. is to place ourselves under his dominion, even when we don't know what he's doing. And that's the story of Job, right? We have Eliphaz who says, okay, Job, here's the deal. We all know this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
In fact, some of them are described as being able to do a bow and arrow and a sling with both their left and their right, which is just... Pretty awesome.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
They can not only sing a stone with their right hands, but also with their left hands ambidextrous when it comes to battle, which you can see how that would be so, so incredibly important as they move forward and have to defend Israel against the Philistines and those other nations around them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
So here we are on day 127 with 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles and just getting the story and getting the story of David the king going because the story of David the king is now going to unfold for the majority of the rest of 2 Samuel and the rest of 1 Chronicles as we learn the story, hear the story of King David and then in the story of King Solomon as we move forward.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
on this journey through the Bible. You guys, oh my goodness, what an incredible gift it is to be able to journey with you. That's why I'm praying for you every day, because it is an honor. It's an honor to be part of this community, this Bible in a year community. I know that you're praying for each other, and that is massively important, because I
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
If we're not praying for each other, we just happen to be a bunch of people who are listening to one podcast on a regular basis. But this community is more than that. It is a community because we don't just listen to the same word, the word of God. We're also lifting each other up before that same God, that God who loves everyone who's listening to these words.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
If you hear these words right now, that means that God is reminding you of how much he loves you. And there are people in this world right now who are praying for you, and you are not alone. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
And Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and did obeisance. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold, your servant. And David said to him, Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 127. We are reading from 2 Samuel chapter 9 and 1 Chronicles chapter 2. We're also praying Psalm 28. I know yesterday was kind of a long... episode. So shorten it down.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
And he did obeisance and said, What is your servant that you should look upon a dead dog such as I? Then the king called Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, All that belonged to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master's son. And you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring in the produce that your master's son may have bread to eat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
But Mephibosheth, your master's son, shall always eat at my table. Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Then Ziba said to the king, According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do. So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
And all who dwelt in Ziba's house became Mephibosheth's servants. So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king's table.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Now these are the men who came to David at Ziklag while he could not move about freely because of Saul, the son of Kish. and they were among the mighty men who helped him in war. They were bowmen and could shoot arrows and sling stones with either the right or the left hand. They were Benjaminites, Saul's kinsmen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
The chief was Ahiazar, then Joash, both sons of Shemaah of Gibeah, also Jeziel and Pellet, the sons of Asmaveth. Barakah, Jehu of Anathoth, Ishmael of Gibeon, a mighty man among the thirty, and a leader over the thirty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Jeremiah, Jehaziel, Johanan, Jehozabad of Giderah, Eluzai, Jeremoth, Bealiah, Shemariah, Shephatiah the Harophite, Elkanah, Isshaiah, Azarel, Joazer, and Jashobam the Korahites, and Joela and Zebediah the sons of Jeroham of Gidor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
From the Gadites there went over to David at the stronghold in the wilderness mighty and experienced warriors, expert with shield and spear, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and who were swift as gazelles upon the mountains. Ezra the chief, Obadiah the second, Eliab third, Mishmanah fourth, Jeremiah fifth, Atai sixth, Eliel seventh, Johanan eighth, Elzabad ninth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
These Gadites were officers of the army, the lesser over a hundred and the greater over a thousand. These are the men who crossed the Jordan at the first month, when it was overflowing all its banks, and put to flight all those in the valleys, to the east and to the west. And some of the men of Benjamin and Judah came to the stronghold to David. David went out to meet them and said to them,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
If you have come to me in friendship to help me, my heart will be knit to you. But if to betray me to my adversaries, although there is no wrong in my hands, then may the God of our fathers see and rebuke you. Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, chief of the thirty, and he said, We are yours, O David, and with you, O son of Jesse.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
I mean, not that we did it on purpose, but it is only three chapters. Basically today we're reading as always from the translation called revised standard version, second Catholic edition. I'm using the great adventure Bible from Ascension. Also, if you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Peace, peace to you, and peace to your helpers, for your God helps you. Then David received them and made them officers of his troops." Some of the men of Manasseh deserted to David when he came with the Philistines for the battle against Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Yet he did not help them, for the rulers of the Philistines took counsel and sent him away, saying, At peril to our heads he will desert to his master Saul. As he went to Ziklag, these men of Manasseh deserted to him, Adna, Josabad, Jediah el, Michael, Josabad, Elihu, and Zelethai, chiefs of thousands in Manasseh,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
They helped David against the band of raiders, for they were all mighty men of valor and were commanders in the army. For from day to day, men kept coming to David to help him until there was a great army, like an army of God. David's army at Hebron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
These are the numbers of the divisions of the armed troops who came to David in Hebron to turn the kingdom of Saul over to him according to the word of the Lord. The men of Judah bearing shield and spear were 6,800 armed troops. Of the Simeonites, mighty men of valor for war, 7,100. Of the Levites, 4,600. the prince Jehoiada of the house of Aaron, and with him 3,700.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Zadok, a young man mighty in valor and 22 commanders from his own father's house. Of the Benjaminites, the kinsmen of Saul, 3,000, of whom the majority had hitherto kept their allegiance to the house of Saul. Of the Ephraimites, 20,800, mighty men of valor, famous men in their fathers' houses. Of the half-tribe of Manasseh, 18,000, who were expressly named to come and make David king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Evizikar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command. Of Zebulun, 50,000 seasoned troops equipped for battle with all the weapons of war to help David with singleness of purpose. Of Naphtali, a thousand commanders with whom were 37,000 men armed with shield and spear. Of the Danites, 28,600 men equipped for battle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Of Asher, 40,000 seasoned troops ready for battle. of the Reubenites and Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh from beyond the Jordan, 120,000 men armed with all the weapons of war. All these men of war arrayed in battle order came to Hebron with full intent to make David king over all Israel. Likewise, all the rest of Israel were of a single mind to make David king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
And they were there with David for three days, eating and drinking, for their brethren had made preparations for them. And also their neighbors, from as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, came bringing food on donkeys and on camels and on mules and on oxen, abundant provisions of meal, cakes of figs, clusters of raisins, and wine and oil, oxen and sheep, for there was joy in Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
And if you've not yet subscribed to this podcast, you can subscribe to this podcast. Whenever you'd like to subscribe to this podcast, subscribe to this podcast. It's day 127. We're reading second Samuel chapter nine. 1 Chronicles chapter 12 and Psalm 28. The second book of Samuel chapter 9. David's kindness to Mephibosheth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Psalm 28, prayer for help and thanksgiving for it. A Psalm of David. To you, O Lord, I call. My rock, be not deaf to me, lest if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my supplication as I cry to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Take me not off with the wicked, with those who are workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors while mischief is in their hearts. Repay them according to their work and according to the evil of their deeds. Repay them according to the work of their hands. Render them their due reward, because they do not regard the works of the Lord or the work of his hands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
They will break them down and build them up no more. Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord is my strength and my shield. In him my heart trusts. So I am helped, and my heart exalts, and with my song I give thanks to him. The Lord is the strength of his people. He is the saving refuge of his anointed. O save your people and bless your heritage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Lord God, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this season of our lives. We thank you for guiding us and speaking to us for the last 127 days and shaping our eyes, our hearts, our minds. by your word and by who you truly are, who you are calling us to be.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
We ask you to please fill us with the spirit of courage, fill us with a singleness of purpose, fill us with the wisdom to be able to know which actions to take and to know which actions to refrain from taking. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Okay, here we go. Gosh, this is so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Okay, so in 2 Samuel chapter 9, we have this young man named Mephibosheth. So Mephibosheth, right, we know who that is. This is the grandson of King Saul. He is the son of Jonathan. And even just this chapter, chapter 9, starts off with David asking this really important question. Now, we just had, in 2 Samuel chapter 7, we just had David ask the question, what can I do for God? right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
And he says, I want to build a temple. Here I am living in Jerusalem. I live in this really nice house, a house of cedar, and the ark of God is dwelling in a tent. So what can I do for God? I want to build him a temple. And of course, Nathan says, no, someone else is going to do that. So TBD on that one. But here in 2 Samuel 9, David's asking the question, okay, what can I do?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
What kind of kindness, not can I show to the Lord, but what kind of kindness can I show to others right now? And he wants to honor the covenant that he made with his blood brother, right? His covenantal brother, this friend of his, this deep friend of his, Jonathan. And so he asked, are there any sons, any family of Jonathan left? And there's one son, Mephibosheth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
And so if you remember that story, we kind of glossed, not glossed over it, but we just, we didn't touch on it a couple of weeks ago when we read the story. where Mephibosheth with the family of Saul, family of Jonathan, they're all racing away and Mephibosheth's nurse dropped him and he became lame in both feet. So unable to walk well, he was hurting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
And David said, Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba. And they called him to David. And the king said to him, Are you Ziba? And he said, Your servant is he. And the king said, Is there not still some one of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God to him?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
And yet here's David who says, no, restore to him, restore to this young man, Even though he is the grandson of my enemy, he is the son of my blood brother. He's the son of my friend with whom I made this covenant. And so, you know, Mephibosheth would think that here is David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
If this is going to be dynasty, if Saul is going to have a dynasty at all, that would mean that Mephibosheth would be David's natural born, like literally born enemy. And yet David did not treat him like an enemy in the same way that David so often did not treat Saul like an enemy and definitely did not treat Jonathan like an enemy, but he treated him like a friend.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
In fact, he treated him like his own son. He said he would eat at the king's table as one of the king's sons. Now, Mephibosheth would come before the King David with the notion that, okay, here it is. This is the last day of my life on this planet because it makes sense. The new king would kill any descendant of the old king. David shows his wisdom here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
He just shows so much wisdom and so much compassion. He shows the kindness of the Lord by saying, no, I do not want to do that. I want to destroy you. In fact, I want to elevate you and honor you. Now, I've heard people, other people talk about here's David, you know, keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
And that's what David is doing here with Mephibosheth, keeping him in his household, basically, and letting him be moved around and have some honor. But, you know, keeping him under his thumb. But that doesn't strike me as David's MO, right? That's not his modus operandi. David's MO here is I'm going to honor King Saul because he was anointed. I'm going to honor Jonathan as my friend.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
And so, of course, I'm going to honor in a real way, not in a kind of duplicitous or manipulative way, this young man, Mephibosheth. It truly, scripture just seems to indicate that David's intention was to give honor or to give kindness, you know. As he says, is there anyone still left in the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
And this is the question we get to ask ourselves as well. Is there anyone around me right now that I can show kindness to for the Lord's sake? Now, last quick thing in 1 Chronicles chapter 12. With all these numbers, I get turned around. But in 1 Chronicles chapter 12, one of the things that we see is, of course, we're introduced to David's army and these continue, these mighty men of David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Now, this is his anointing. This is David's being made king. And in First Chronicles, it's kind of summing up the story, kind of remember when we talked about Deuteronomy and Exodus happening at the same time, where we have, sorry, Deuteronomy and Numbers happening at the same time, and Deuteronomy is looking back over the story and kind of giving a bird's eye view of this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
First Chronicles is kind of giving us a little bit of a bird's eye view of the events that we heard just a couple days ago when it came to David being named king and David bringing together all of the tribes of Israel into one united kingdom. Not no longer a loose confederation of tribes, but actually a united kingdom. But it talks about these men who were part of David's army at Hebron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
And if they have anything in common, they have in common their bravery, their valor, they have in common their singleness of purpose and their wisdom. Now, every one of them is described as being brave, right? They're all described as having valor. Their faces were like lions. They have character, right? But they're also wise. This is an interesting thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
It says that of the tribes of Benjamin, it says of the Benjaminites, the kinsmen of Saul, 3,000, of whom the majority had hitherto kept their allegiance to the house of Saul. And that makes sense. And David, you see how David would value that. Benjaminites, Saul was a Benjaminite.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
And David would value the fact that, no, these Benjaminites were hitherto faithful to the house of Saul because David also recognized the legitimacy of the house of Saul. And so it makes so much sense that David would not only notice this, but would honor that kind of thing. Later on in verse 32 in chapter 12, it also says,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Ziba said to the king, There is still a son of Jonathan. He is crippled in his feet. The king said to him, Where is he? And Ziba said to the king, He is in the house of Machir, the son of Amiel, at Lodebar. Then king David sent and brought him from the house of Machir, the son of Amiel, at Lodebar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do. Again, the same kind of thing. These men of wisdom. They're not only brave and have valor, they're men of wisdom. The men who had understanding of the times, meaning that the men of Issachar also were faithful to Saul while Saul was king, and now they're faithful to David while David is king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
And again, keep that in mind, that this isn't just someone shaving their own skin, at least not as is chronicled in 1 Chronicles. This are a people, the people of Issachar, who have wisdom. And they knew when Saul was king, we'll be faithful to the king. When David's king, we'll be faithful to the king. And that's so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
Last little quality that these soldiers, this army had, not only were they brave and had valor, not only did they have wisdom, but they also had a single-mindedness of purpose. It goes on, the scripture says here that they have this dedication and perseverance, where they're able to focus in on, here is what my job is to do here. My job is to defend the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 127: Kindness for the House of Saul (2025)
My job is to defend and fight against those who are enemies of the people of Israel. And they had that singleness of purpose. Not only that, I guess the one last quality, they were very good at what they did, right? They were men of valor who were good with spear and shield.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
We're talking betrayal. We're talking thousands of people dead. We're talking about the end of the chapter 14 of 2 Maccabees, where you have this man, Rasis, you caught this, right? He tries to kill himself by falling upon his sword so they couldn't abuse him. doesn't work super well. So he throws himself off to height, falls into the midst of the people, onto the ground, still enraged.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
So still alive in this is verse 45, still alive in a flame with anger. He rose and though his blood gushed forth and his wounds were severe, he ran through the crowd. He tore out his entrails, took them with both hands and hurled them at the crowd, calling upon the Lord of life and spirit to give them back to him again. And I'm so sorry.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
I probably should have had a little alert on this one as well beforehand. But just this sense of, wow, that is very graphic. And that is a very horrible way to die. And yet that's in the Bible. What are we to make of this? And what we are to make of it in so many ways is... Here is the story. Here is our story. Here is the way in which God is present even in crazy scenarios like this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Here's the way God is present even in remarkable scenarios that we would just think, is this from a horror movie? Because that is disgusting and horrible. And yet, here's God. is somewhere in the midst of all of it. Just like in my life, he is somewhere in the midst of all of it. Some days we see it more clearly than others.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Some day we know it more certainly than others, but every day we know that it's true. And it's, that's, we moving on to the wisdom of Solomon chapter 17, a couple and 18, a couple of things to highlight. The very beginning of chapter 17 is just has this line. It says this, it says for thinking that in their secret sins, they were unobserved behind a dark curtain of forgetfulness and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
they were scattered terribly, alarmed and appalled by specters, for not even the inner chamber that held them protected them from fear. And there's this thing of like thinking that in their secret sins, they were unobserved. How often there's that reality of secret sins? How often is there that reality that we are tempted to just give ourselves a pass? Because like, well, no one knows about this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
There's anonymity here. There's a certain idea that This is not hurting anybody. It's unobserved. No one will find out. And the reality, of course, is when we walk in truth, when we walk in wisdom, again, the whole wisdom of Solomon, we realize there's no such thing as secret sins. There's no such thing as a life that is unobserved or that's forgotten.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
During that day, he kept quiet, but he found an opportunity that furthered his mad purpose when he was invited by Demetrius to a meeting of the council and was asked about the disposition and intentions of the Jews. He answered, Those of the Jews who are called Hesedians, whose leader is Judas Maccabeus, are keeping up war and stirring up sedition and will not let the kingdom attain tranquility.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
It talks about this dark curtain of forgetfulness. Like, no. That doesn't exist. And there's something so powerful about this to convict us when we're sinning and to comfort us when we're trying to walk in righteousness. To convict us when we're in sin to be able to say, okay, Lord, you are present here. Lord God, you do see these things and there is justice. But also,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
To have that word of comfort, that word of assurance, when we're trying to strive after righteousness, that there's no secret virtue either. If there's no secret sins, there's also no secret virtue. And we recognize, or even just attempt at virtue, the fact that you and I are trying to follow the Lord, we're trying to belong to him, is seen. He knows this. The Lord God cares because you matter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Even your attempt matters. But when we have the secret sin at the end of chapter 17, it talks about this. It says, while over those men alone, heavy night was spread. So this is talking about in the kingdom of Egypt, where the people of God were enslaved. And there was that section, remember, where darkness came upon where the Egyptians lived, but there was still light where the Hebrews lived.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
That's this. It says, while over those men alone, heavy night was spread, right? So over the Egyptians, heavy night was spread. An image of the darkness that was destined to receive them. That powerful poetry. but still heavier than darkness were they to themselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
while over those men alone heavy night was spread, an image of the darkness that was destined to receive them, still heavier than darkness were they to themselves. Because they belonged to false gods, because they had conspired to kill the firstborn, or the males of all the Jews, males of all the Hebrew parents. And they were darkness, heavier than darkness were they to themselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
It goes on in chapter 18, verse 1, but for your holy ones there was very great light. Again, it talks about the Jewish people being delivered basically by God's vengeance, by his justice from slavery in Egypt through that whole next chapter, chapter 18. You know, we're almost at the very end. We have one chapter left in Maccabees. We have one chapter left in the book of Wisdom of Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
But there's this last note in chapter 18. This is incredible. Chapter 18, verse 14. This is, I just invite you, go back to your scriptures and highlight this. For while gentle silence enveloped all things, this is talking about the night of the destruction of the firstborn. For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 311. We're reading the second book of the Maccabees, chapter 14, as well as the Wisdom of Solomon, chapters 17 and 18, and Proverbs, chapter 25, verses 18 through 20.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Your, you got, your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed, a stern warrior carrying the sharp sword of your authentic command, and stood and filled all things with death and touched heaven while standing on the earth. Now, this is the justice of God, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
This is the justice of God upon the Egyptians that had killed all the males that were born to the Hebrew people. But there's also a prophecy here, right? I always think of Christmas. This is the nativity for while gentle silence enveloped all things and night in its swift course was now half gone middle of the night. Your all powerful word, the word made flesh, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Leaped from heaven, from the royal throne into the midst of the land that was doomed. A stern warrior carrying the sharp sword of your authentic command and stood. And there's, it says, and stood and filled all things with death and touched heaven while standing on earth. Now, obviously we know that Jesus Christ came to bring life, but also he came to conquer death. He also came to fight for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Therefore, I have laid aside my ancestral glory, I mean the high priesthood, and have now come here. first because I am genuinely concerned for the interests of the king, and second, because I have regard also for my fellow citizens. For through the folly of those whom I have mentioned, our whole nation is now in no small misfortune.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
And this is the powerful news of the good news that we're about to launch into for the rest of the year, the day after tomorrow. is here is Jesus Christ himself, the word made flesh, leaping forth from the throne with what? With a voice of thunder, leaping forth with a sword of truth and of the Holy Spirit. Fighting for you. That's the key thing. Fighting for me. Fighting for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Because as we know, here is God saying, you're worth fighting for. There are things that are trying to kill you and you're worth fighting for. So be fought for. The word leapt forth from the mighty throne of heaven. to come to this earth and to fight. And so we trust in him. We trust in his ability to fight. We trust in his willingness to fight, that he wants to fight for you today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
And so we trust in that. And we ask you, Lord Jesus, please fight for us. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. Last day tomorrow of the Old Testament and then all New Testament all the time. I can't wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Since you are acquainted, O king, with the details of this matter, deign to take thought for our country and our hard-pressed nation with the gracious kindness which you show to all. For as long as Judas lives, it is impossible for the government to find peace. When he had said this, the rest of the king's friends, who were hostile to Judas, quickly inflamed Demetrius still more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
And he immediately chose Nicanor, who had been in command of the elephants, appointed him governor of Judea, and sent him off with orders to kill Judas and scatter his men, and to set up Alchemus as high priest of the greatest temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
And the Gentiles throughout Judea, who had fled before Judas, flocked to join Nicanor, thinking that the misfortunes and calamities of the Jews would mean prosperity for themselves. Nicanor makes friends with Judas.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
When the Jews heard of Nicanor's coming and the gathering of the Gentiles, they sprinkled dust upon their heads and prayed to him who established his own people forever and always upholds his own heritage by manifesting himself. At the command of the leader, they set out from there immediately and engaged them in battle at a village called the Sow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Simon, the brother of Judas, had encountered Nicanor, but had been temporarily checked because of the sudden consternation created by the enemy. Nevertheless, Nicanor, hearing of the valor of Judas and his men and their courage in battle for their country, shrank from deciding the issue by bloodshed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Therefore he sent Posidonius and Theodotus and Mattathias to give and receive pledges of friendship. When the terms had been fully considered and the leader had informed the people, and it had appeared that they were of one mind, they agreed to the covenant. and the leaders set a day on which to meet by themselves. A chariot came forward from each army. Seats of honor were set in place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Judas posted armed men in readiness at key places to prevent sudden treachery on the part of the enemy. They held the proper conference. Nicanor stayed on in Jerusalem and did nothing out of the way, but dismissed the flocks of people that had gathered. And he kept Judas always in his presence. He was warmly attached to the man. And he urged him to marry and have children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
So he married, settled down, and shared the common life. Nicanor turns against Judas. But when Alchemists noticed their goodwill for one another, he took the covenant that had been made and went to Demetrius. He told him that Nicanor was disloyal to the government, for he had appointed that conspirator against the kingdom, Judas, to be his successor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
The king became excited, and provoked by the false accusations of that depraved man, wrote to Nicanor, stating that he was displeased with the covenant and commanding him to send Maccabeus to Antioch as a prisoner without delay. When this message came to Nicanor, he was troubled and grieved that he had to annul their agreement when the man had done no wrong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast, which is a little known fact.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Since it was not possible to oppose the king, he watched for an opportunity to accomplish this by a stratagem. But Maccabeus, noticing that Nicanor was more austere in his dealings with him and was meeting him more rudely than had been his custom, concluded that this austerity did not spring from the best motives. So he gathered not a few of his men and went into hiding from Nicanor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
When the latter became aware that he had been cleverly outwitted by the man, he went to the great and holy temple while the priests were offering the customary sacrifices and commanded them to hand the man over. And when they declared on oath that they did not know where the man was whom they sought, he stretched out his right hand toward the sanctuary and swore this oath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
If you do not hand Judas over to me as prisoner, I will level this precinct of God to the ground and tear down the altar and I will build here a splendid temple to Dionysus. Having said this, he went away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Then the priests stretched forth their hands toward heaven and called upon the constant defender of our nation in these words, O Lord of all, who have need of nothing, you are pleased that there be a temple for your habitation among us. So now, O Holy One, Lord of all holiness, keep undefiled forever this house that has been so recently purified. Razis dies for his country.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
A certain Razis, one of the elders of Jerusalem, was denounced to Nicanor as a man who loved his fellow citizens and was very well thought of, and for his good will was called father of the Jews. For in former times, when there was no mingling with the Gentiles, he had been accused of Judaism, and for Judaism he had with all zeal risked body and life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Nicanor, wishing to exhibit the enmity which he had for the Jews, sent more than 500 soldiers to arrest him, for he thought that by arresting him he would do them an injury. When the troops were about to capture the tower and were forcing the door of the courtyard, they ordered that fire be brought and the doors burned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Being surrounded, Razis fell upon his own sword, preferring to die nobly rather than to fall into the hands of sinners and suffer outrages unworthy of his noble birth. But in the heat of the struggle, he did not hit exactly, and the crowd was now rushing in through the doors. He bravely ran up on the wall and manfully threw himself down into the crowd.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
I've never mentioned this before, I don't think, when it comes to being able to subscribe. So I'm so sorry that it's taken me until day 311 to note to everyone that you can subscribe to this. And if you do, you get daily episodes and daily updates, and it's just what makes things a lot easier. So I am so sorry that it has taken me
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
But as they quickly drew back, a space opened, and he fell in the middle of the empty space.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Still alive and aflame with anger, he rose, and though his blood gushed forth and his wounds were severe, he ran through the crowd, and standing upon a steep rock with his blood now completely drained from him, he tore out his entrails, took them with both hands, and hurled them at the crowd, calling upon the Lord of life and spirit to give them back to him again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Great are your judgments, and hard to describe. Therefore, uninstructed souls have gone astray. For when lawless men supposed that they held the holy nation in their power, they themselves lay as captives of darkness and prisoners of long night, shut in under their roofs, exiles from eternal providence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
For thinking that in their secret sins they were unobserved, behind a dark curtain of forgetfulness, they were scattered, terribly alarmed, and appalled by specters. for not even the inner chamber that held them protected them from fear. But terrifying sounds rang out around them, and dismal phantoms with gloomy faces appeared.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
and no power of fire was able to give light, nor did the brilliant flames of the stars avail to illumine that hateful night. Nothing was shining through to them except a dreadful, self-kindled fire, and in terror they deemed the things which they saw to be worse than that unseen appearance. The delusions of their magic art lay humbled, and their boasted wisdom was scornfully rebuked.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
For those who promised to drive off the fears and disorders of a sick soul were sick themselves with ridiculous fear. For even if nothing disturbing frightened them, yet scared by the passing of beasts and the hissing of serpents, they perished in trembling fear, refusing to look even at the air, though it nowhere could be avoided.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
For wickedness is a cowardly thing, condemned by its own testimony, distressed by conscience, it has always exaggerated the difficulties. For fear is nothing but surrender of the helps that come from reason, and the inner expectation of help being weak prefers ignorance of what causes the torment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
But throughout the night, which was really powerless and which beset them from the recesses of powerless Hades, they all slept the same sleep and now were driven by monstrous specters and now were paralyzed by their soul's surrender. For sudden and unexpected fear overwhelmed them and whoever was there fell down and thus was kept shut up in a prison not made of iron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
For whether he was a farmer or a shepherd or a workman who toiled in the wilderness, he was seized and endured the inescapable fate. For with one chain of darkness they all were bound.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Whether there came a whistling wind or a melodious sound of birds and widespread branches, or the rhythm of violently rushing water, or the harsh crash of rocks hurled down, or the unseen running of leaping animals, or the sound of the most savage roaring beasts, Chapter 18
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
this long to mention it, but hopefully you can forgive me because it's day 311 and we're reading 2 Maccabees chapter 14, the book of Wisdom of Solomon chapters 17 and 18, and Proverbs 25 verses 18 through 20. The Second Book of the Maccabees, Chapter 14, Alchemist Speaks Against Judas.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
but for your holy ones there was very great light their enemies heard their voices but did not see their forms and counted them happy for not having suffered and were thankful that your holy ones though previously wronged were doing them no injury and they begged their pardon for having been at variance with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Therefore, you provided a flaming pillar of fire as a guide for your people's unknown journey and a harmless sun for their glorious wandering. For their enemies deserved to be deprived of light and imprisoned in darkness. Those who had kept your sons imprisoned through whom the imperishable light of the law was to be given to the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
When they had resolved to kill the infants of your holy ones, and one child had been exposed and rescued, in punishment you took away a multitude of their children, and you destroyed them all together by a mighty flood. That night was made known beforehand to our fathers, so that they might rejoice in sure knowledge of the oaths in which they trusted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
The deliverance of the righteous and the destruction of their enemies were expected by your people. For by the same means by which you punished our enemies, you called us to yourself and glorified us. For in secret the holy children of good men offered sacrifices, and with one accord agreed to the divine law, that the saints would share alike the same things, both blessings and dangers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
And already they were singing the praises of their fathers. But the discordant cry of their enemies echoed back, and their piteous lament for their children was spread abroad. The slave was punished with the same penalty as the master, and the common man suffered the same loss as the king. And they all together, by the one form of death, had corpses too many to count.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
For the living were not sufficient even to bury them, since in one instant their most valued children had been destroyed. For though they had disbelieved everything because of their magic arts, yet when their firstborn were destroyed, they acknowledged your people to be God's son. For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed, a stern warrior carrying the sharp sword of your authentic command, and stood, and filled all things with death, and touched heaven while standing on the earth. Then at once apparitions in dreadful dreams greatly troubled them, and unexpected fears assailed them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
And one here, and another there, hurled down half-dead, made known why they were dying." For the dreams which disturbed them forewarned them of this, so that they might not perish without knowing why they suffered. The experience of death touched also the righteous, and a plague came upon the multitude in the desert. But the wrath did not long continue.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Three years later, word came to Judas and his men that Demetrius, the son of Seleucus, had sailed into the harbor of Tripolis with a strong army and a fleet, and had taken possession of the country, having made away with Antiochus and his guardian, Lysaeus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
For a blameless man was quick to act as their champion. He brought forward the shield of his ministry, prayer, and propitiation by incense. He withstood the anger and put an end to the disaster, showing that he was your servant."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
He conquered the wrath, not by strength of body and not by force of arms, but by his word he subdued the punisher, appealing to the oaths and covenants given to our fathers. For when the dead had already fallen on one another in heaps, he intervened and held back the wrath and cut off its way to the living.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
For upon his long robe the whole world was depicted, and the glories of the fathers were engraved on the four rows of stones, and your majesty on the diadem upon his head. To these the destroyer yielded, these he feared, for merely to test the wrath was enough.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a war club or a sword or a sharp arrow. Trust in a faithless man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth or a foot that slips. He who sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day and like vinegar on a wound.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Thank you for this day. Thank you for the opportunity to be able to once again come into your presence, to allow your word to speak to us, to shape our minds, our hearts, to tell us not only who you are, but how to love, how to live in this world. We ask that you please continue to open our minds, continue to shape our vision, and continue to call us your own. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So we got some graphic. You know, the battles in 2 Maccabees are... All the Bible, obviously, in reading the entire Old Testament up till now, you know, we have one more day and then it's all in the Testament all the time, which is really incredible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
In two days from now, the day after tomorrow, we're starting the Gospel of Luke and we'll go through the Gospel of Luke in about a week plus because it's a long gospel. But what a gift it's been. We get to see, maybe in ways that we've never seen before, the amount of, gosh, I guess I want to say violence in the scriptures, but I don't just want to highlight the violence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
I want to highlight the fact that here is God working through brokenness. Here is God working through broken people. Here is God working through even these horrible situations. And one of the things we recognize is that Life is not a Hallmark movie. I mentioned this before in the past.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Now a certain alchemist, who had formerly been high priest, but had willfully defiled himself in the times of separation, realized that there was no way for him to be safe or to have access again to the holy altar, and went to King Demetrius in about the 151st year, presenting to him a crown of gold and a palm, and besides these, some of the customary olive branches from the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
I know there's a lot of people who are part of this community who are not necessarily from the West, not necessarily from North America or where you might have the Hallmark Channel. But the Hallmark movie version of Christianity, right, is so what I'm talking about is there are things called Hallmark movies and Hallmark movies. Things are really neat and things are clean. And a guy meets girl.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Girl likes guy. Guy likes girl. But they have some kind of tension keeping them apart from each other. And at the end of the movie, Everything is fine and everyone's happy. And even sometimes the enemy or the person trying to keep them apart is still has found happiness too. Like everything, it's all clean. It's all neat. It's all tidy and orderly. And we recognize that here is the Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 311: God Fights for You (2024)
Here is the story of life in this world. Here's the story of God interacting with his people. And it is not neat. It is not tidy. It is powerful, but it's not clean. It's messy. And we also recognize that the power of God's entering into the messiness. And now when I say messy, we're not just talking, well, there was a little bit of a, you know, some sin here or some suffering over there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
The man is picking up sticks, it says here in Numbers chapter 15, beginning with verse 32. The man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. What do we do with this? And it says, well, take him outside the camp and stone him to death with stones. And we can look at that. We can hear that and think that is, I don't want to say crazy, but that is something we wouldn't expect.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
That might be something we would expect, but not something we expect out of God's law, not necessarily something we expect from the God who is mercy and the God who is love. So how do we understand this? There's a couple of things we need to understand. First is the Lord God made provision both for people making sins or committing sins unwittingly and those who are committing sins flagrantly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
So here's someone who unwittingly, I didn't realize this. I accidentally committed this sin. I accidentally had a violation against the Lord. And God says, yeah, I mean, you could come back to me and there's forgiveness there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Then he who brings his offering shall offer to the Lord a cereal offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of oil and wine for the drink offering. A fourth of a hin you shall prepare with the burnt offering or for the sacrifice for each lamb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
But this phrase that is used in Numbers 15, where it says, but if the person who sins with a high hand, with a high hand, what that reference is, is someone who's openly rebelling, someone who's saying, essentially, I am choosing to be set apart. I'm choosing to make myself not part of God's people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Then the consequence would be, well, you're being treated like someone who's not part of God's people. And the punishment for that was death, the capital punishment. And it can seem so, again, extreme for us when it comes to our understanding of here's a person violating the Sabbath and the consequences of death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
But keeping in mind, there's provision for when someone wasn't sinning with a high hand, when this was something that was done unwittingly, something that was not done in great rebellion. The second piece of this is that the people of Israel, remember, their mission is going to be through them, God is going to bless the entire world. So they have to be different from the rest of the entire world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
It's one of the reasons why when we get to Deuteronomy and we have these commands, and some of the commands are the tithe. The tithe isn't simply... Because God wants a worship, although that is so important for us that we have to have our hearts set on worship of God. But the tithe is also to provide for the Levites. Part of your tithe goes to them. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Because they don't have an inheritance with the other tribes of Israel, meaning they don't get land. And so you have to supply for the priests. But the other thing, so that's compassion, right? That's taking care of each other. But the other piece of the tithe is, especially that third year tithe that we heard of in Deuteronomy chapter 14. is this is for those who are fatherless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
This is for those who are widows. This is for those who are strangers among you who don't have employment. And so keep this in mind. The same God who commanded that the person who was picking up sticks on the Sabbath day be executed is the same God who says, but those fatherless, those who are orphans, those who are widows, those who are among you who are strangers, Care for them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Make sure that you make an extra effort to show them my mercy and show them my love. Now that on the surface for us can be like, that seems so, I don't wanna say schizophrenic, but it can seem like a dichotomy or a paradox that we cannot reconcile. But the reconciliation is this. You have to be other, right? You have to be separate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
And one of the ways you're separate that's so clear is how you worship and how you live, like how you eat, how you mourn the death of people among you. For example, it says you should not shave your head. Why? Because in that area, when people would mourn, they would shave their heads in a particular way to commemorate this death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Or for a ram you shall prepare for a cereal offering two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil. And for the drink offering you shall offer a third of a hin of wine, a pleasing odor to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
offering of the person to another god and this is again so utterly important that because if god is going to use the people of israel to bless the world they cannot be like the rest of the world specifically as i said and how they worship and how they live how they dress and how they eat so these laws are of vital importance not because
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
The law itself has, I mean, it all has depth, obviously, but I'm trying to make the case for the fact that this is the same God who can both say, yes, the consequence of violating the Sabbath is the death penalty, as well as make sure that those who are most vulnerable among you
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
are taken care of it is the same god because there's a big picture going on in this moment now i want to make one last point it's in the end of numbers chapter 15 where it comes to the tassels on the garment it says upon the tassels each of them will have a cord of blue
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you're inclined to do. But you shall remember and do all my commandments when you look at this tassel. Now, the blue cord, what's up with blue? Well, remember that the garment spoken of, worn by the priests, had woven blue in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Remember that there are a number of times where God says, OK, the color that is used in the temple, not only was it scarlet and other, but also blue. This being an important reminder that you would wear that would have the reminder of God's holiness, because we see that blue in the tabernacle. We see that blue in the tent of meeting. We see that blue in the temple. And so once again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
The scripture on your doorpost, mezuzah. The scripture on your forehead or arm is a tefillin. And the scripture that is not a scripture, but the thread that is on your shawl is called the tzitzit. Just in case any of you get on Jeopardy and have to answer that question. We keep praying for each other as we're moving right along.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
And when you prepare a bull for a burnt offering or for a sacrifice to fulfill a vow or for a peace offering to the Lord, then you shall offer with the bull a cereal offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a half a hin of oil. And you shall offer for the drink offering half a hin of wine as an offering by fire, a pleasing order to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Today is day 64, and so we continue to lift up our eyes to the Lord and call upon his name for each other. We call upon his name for ourselves because we need grace. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you again tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 64, and we are reading today from Numbers chapter 15, Deuteronomy chapters 13 and 14, And we are also praying Psalm 96 today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Thus it shall be done for each bull or ram or for each of the male lambs or the kids. According to the number that you prepare, so shall you do with everyone according to their number. All who are native shall do these things in this way, in offering and offering by fire a pleasing odor to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
And if a stranger is sojourning with you, or anyone is among you throughout your generations, and he wishes to offer an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord, he shall do as you do. For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you, and for the stranger who sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your generations. As you are, so shall the sojourner be before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
One law and one ordinance shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you. The Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, When you come into the land to which I bring you, and when you eat of the food of the land, you shall present an offering to the Lord. Of the first of your course meal, you shall present a cake as an offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
As an offering from the threshing floor, so shall you present it. Of the first of your course meal, you shall give to the Lord an offering throughout your generations. But if you err, and do not observe all these commandments which the Lord has spoken to Moses, all that the Lord has commanded you by Moses from the day that the Lord gave commandment and onward throughout your generations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Then if it was done unwittingly without the knowledge of the congregation, all the congregation shall offer one young bull for a burnt offering, a pleasing odor to the Lord with its cereal offering and its drink offering, according to the ordinance, and one male goat for a sin offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
And the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and they shall be forgiven, because it was an error. And they have brought their offering, an offering by fire to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord for their error.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
And all the congregation of the sons of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who sojourns among them, because the whole population was involved in the error.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
If one person sins unwittingly, he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering, and the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who commits an error when he sins unwittingly to make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
You shall have one law for him who does anything unwittingly, for him who is native among the sons of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them. But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off. His iniquity shall be upon him. punishment for violating the Sabbath. While the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
They put him in custody because it had not been made plain what should be done to him. And the Lord said to Moses, the man shall be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp. And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones as the Lord commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
As always, the Bible translation that I'm using is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. And as always, I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. You can find that Bible wherever Bibles are sold. To download your Bible and your reading plan,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Tassels on Garments The Lord said to Moses, Speak to the sons of Israel, and bid them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put upon the tassel of each corner a cord of blue.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
And it shall be to you a tassel to look upon and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to go after wantonly. So you shall remember and do all my commandments and be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Chapter 13. Moses continued, "'If a prophet arises among you, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder which he tells you comes to pass,' And if he says, let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of dreams.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice. And you shall serve him and cling to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend, who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples that are round about you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
To get the whole reading plan that we have for the 365 days that we are doing this, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. And you can download that for free and you can check off every single day. You would be checking off day 64 today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him, but you shall kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of that house of bondage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
And all Israel shall hear and fear, and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
If you hear in one of your cities which the Lord your God gives you to dwell there, that certain base fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of the city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
that such an abominable thing has been done among you, you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, destroying it utterly, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword. You shall gather all the spoil into the midst of its open square, and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall be a heap forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
It shall not be built again." None of the devoted things shall cling to your hand that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion upon you and multiply you as he swore to your fathers. If you obey the voice of the Lord, your God, keeping all his commandments, which I command you this day and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord, your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Chapter 14, Pagan Practices Forbidden. He says, You shall not eat any abominable thing. These are the animals you may eat, the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. Every animal that parts the hoof and has a hoof cloven in two and chews the cud among the animals you may eat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
And if you have not yet subscribed in your podcast app, go into your podcast app, which you are currently using and click subscribe and you will be subscribed and life will be great and we can move on. Speaking of moving on, we are reading today from Numbers chapter 15, Deuteronomy 13 and 14, as well as praying Psalm 96. The book of Numbers chapter 15, various offerings. The Lord said to Moses,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Yet of those that chew the cud, or have the hoof cloven, you shall not eat these, the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud, but do not part the hoof, are unclean for you. And the swine, because it parts the hoof, but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Of all that are in the waters, you may eat these, whatever has fins and scales you may eat. and whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat it is unclean for you you may eat all clean birds but these are the ones which you shall not eat the eagle the vulture the osprey the buzzard the kite after their kinds every raven after its kind the ostrich the night-hawk the sea-gull
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
the hawk after their kinds the little owl and the great owl the water hen and the pelican the carrion vulture and the cormorant the stork the heron after their kinds to the hoopoe and the bat all the winged insects are unclean for you they shall not be eaten all cling winged things you may eat You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk. Regulations concerning tithes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
You shall tithe all the yield of your seed, which comes forth from the field year by year. And before the Lord your God, in the place which he will choose to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstlings of your herd and flock, Amen. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves, and you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
And you shall not forsake the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you. At the end of every three years, you shall bring forth all the tithe of your produce in the same year, and lay it up within your towns.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols. But the Lord made the heavens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in holy attire. Tremble before him all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all that fills it. Let the field exult and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
We thank you for your scripture today. We thank you also for the great wisdom that you give to us in helping us understand your word. Lord God, for all the times we are perplexed and troubled, not just perplexed, but deeply troubled, even troubled in our heart by you or by your teaching, what you reveal about yourself. We ask that you give us not only a...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
not only take away a spirit of skepticism or a spirit of cynicism, but you give us a spirit of openness, a spirit of truth and a spirit of honesty, a spirit of trust that when we don't understand, we ask. And when we still don't understand, we continue to ask. Lord God, give us a spirit of trust. Give us a spirit of trust. that is open to whatever it is you will for us this day and every day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So in today's readings from Numbers, Numbers chapter 15, it's kind of a a reiteration, right? Remember that this is the people of Israel as they're beginning their journey. They're now going to be beginning their journey into the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
And so here is Moses who continues to remind them about the offerings. So we covered all of those offerings in greater detail in the book of Leviticus. And this is roughly the same time in the history of Israel, roughly the same time when those laws of Leviticus were being offered and how important it is for these laws.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 64: Consequences of Sin (2025)
Remember, the heart of these laws is that God has said, no, you are my people, and he has set his love upon them. This is so important that these laws, the consequences of sin or the consequences of rebelling against the Lord are so great. that they shock us, right? Capital punishment as a violation of the Sabbath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, till I proclaim your might to all the generations to come. Your power and your righteousness, O God, reach the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? You who have made me see many sore troubles will revive me again. From the depths of the earth, you will bring me up again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
You will increase my honor and comfort me again. I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God. I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O holy one of Israel. My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to you. My soul also which you have rescued. And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
We thank you for the gift of your revealing your heart to us through scripture. And we ask that you please let your scripture, let your word, let your grace conform our minds to your mind, that we see things as you see them, conform our hearts to your heart, that we can love things as you love them. Help us to turn away from what kills us. and help us turn towards you who give us life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So today we have in the book of Exodus this food that the Lord gives. We're going to hear this story a couple more times in the book of Numbers, for example. But you have the people who are murmuring against the Lord and Moses and Aaron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
And even, you know, you have Moses and Aaron saying a couple times, like, listen, why are you murmuring against us? It's kind of like pawning off the blame to God. God's the one who did this. But God is also the one who's going to give you the food that you long for. It's so remarkable, isn't it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
That here it's just been a few weeks now that the Lord God has miraculously delivered these people, his people from slavery and has led them through the Red Sea. when they're murmuring against God saying, why didn't we just die back in Egypt? This is going to be one of the refrains. Would it have been better if we had just died as slaves?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Wouldn't it be better if we had just died as people who were abandoned by the Lord rather than being led by the Lord through dangerous places, uncomfortable places? And yet, this is what the Lord God is doing for his people, his people of Israel. It's interesting because we note this. Not only is God feeding his people, but he's also asking something of them. He's training them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his picked officers are sunk in the Red Sea. The floods cover them. They went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power, your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty, you overthrow your adversaries. You send forth your fury. It consumes them like stubble.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
He's not just feeding them. He's not just caring for them. He's training them. And this is going to be one of the themes throughout the book of Exodus and the book of Numbers. We're going to see this again and again, how God is taking care, he's fighting for, but he's also trying to teach his people who he is and the degree to which they can trust him. So here's the example of manna, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
The Hebrew, what is it, is translated as the word manna. And people see this manna on the ground and Moses says, gather an omer of this and it will spoil. So only gather enough for one day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
and if they kept it overnight it would spoil had worms in it that's gross but on the sixth day gather twice as much so that you can keep a sabbath day that seventh day being shabbat right that seventh day being a day where you're gonna rest but also it's a day of trust and this is the remarkable thing god has demonstrated that if you keep the manna overnight it spoils and you don't have any food or the food you gathered the day before is useless because it's now gross right
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
And yet, if you honor my Sabbath day and do not work and do not gather that food that you gathered, I will preserve it. And so here's God. Again, what is he doing? He's not just providing for his people. He's not just feeding his people. He's also training them. He's training them in the act of trust. He's training them to walk in faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
He's training them who he is, his heart, his love for them, his faithfulness for them, his fidelity to them, and that he's near to them. And they have to learn this. And so do we. We have to learn how to trust the Lord. And that's one of the reasons why God gives us certain commandments. Sometimes for our good. Sometimes they're to keep us out of harm.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
And I imagine sometimes God gives us commandments not just to keep us out of harm and not just because it's oriented towards human flourishing, but also because it teaches us and trains us to be like him. God is faithful and he wants us to be faithful. He is faithful to us. He's faithful to himself. He's faithful to his promises.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
And so God is inviting us to learn how to be faithful to him and be faithful to his promises and faithful to our own promises. In order to do that, we need his grace. We can't do it on our own. So we need to pray. We need to pray with each other for each other. And especially on this journey, as we're now in the wilderness, the wilderness of our own lives, we need each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
None of us can do this on our own. We can't do life on our own. We can't do this Bible in a year on our own. And so please, as part of this community, I invite you, encourage you, continue to pray for each other. You might not know each other by name, but we do know each other as brothers and sisters in the Lord. I am praying for you. And please pray for me. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
At the blast of your nostrils, the waters piled up. The floods stood up like a heap. The deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. You blew with your wind, the sea covered them, they sank as lead in the mighty waters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day 36. Let's keep on going. We'll be reading today from Exodus chapter 15 and 16, as well as Leviticus chapter 11, and then finally Psalm 71.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, terrible in glorious deeds, doing wonders? you stretched out your right hand the earth swallowed them you have led in your merciful love the people whom you have redeemed you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode the peoples have heard they tremble pangs have seized on the inhabitants of philistia
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed, the leaders of Moab trembling seizes them. All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. Terror and dread fall upon them because of the greatness of your arm. They are still as a stone. Till your people, O Lord, pass by. Till the people pass by whom you have purchased.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
You will bring them in and plant them on your holy mountain, the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. The Lord will reign forever and ever. For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
But the sons of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea. then miriam the prophetess the sister of aaron took a timbrel in her hand and all the women went out after her with timbrels and dancing and miriam sang to them sing to the lord for he has triumphed gloriously the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Then Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter. Therefore it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses saying, what shall we drink?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
And he cried to the Lord and the Lord showed him a tree and he threw it into the water and the water became sweet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
There the Lord made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he tested them, saying, If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give heed to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon you which I put upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water. They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came into the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
And the whole congregation of the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness and said to them, Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
As always, I am reading from the revised standard version, the Catholic edition. In fact, I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. You can get that Bible at ascensionpress.com or you can get the Bible at amazon.com, which is taking over the entire world. Just kidding. Side comment, I guess. But you can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
on the sixth day when they prepare that which they bring in it will be twice as much as they gather daily so moses and aaron said to all the sons of israel at evening you shall know that it was the lord who brought you out of the land of egypt and in the morning you shall see the glory of the lord because he has heard your murmurings against the lord For what are we, that you murmur against us?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
And Moses said, When the Lord gives you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your murmurings, would you murmur against him? What are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord. And Moses said to Aaron, Say to the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your murmurings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord said to Moses, I have heard the murmurings of the sons of Israel. Say to them, At twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
In the evening, quails came up and covered the camp. And in the morning, dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine flake-like thing, fine as hoarfrost on the ground. When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, What is it? For they did not know what it was.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
And Moses said to them, It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded. Gather of it, every man of you, as much as he can eat. You shall take an omer apiece, according to the number of the persons whom each of you has in his tent. And the sons of Israel did so. They gathered some more, some less.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
But when they measured it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. Each gathered according to what he could eat. And Moses said to them, Let no man leave any of it until the morning. But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and became foul. And Moses was angry with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat. But when the sun grew hot, it melted. On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, two omers apiece. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, this is what the Lord has commanded. Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil. And all that is left over lay by to be kept until the morning. So they laid it by till the morning as Moses bade them, and it did not become foul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
and there were no worms in it moses said eat it today for today is a sabbath to the lord today you will not find it in the field six days you shall gather it but on the seventh day which is the sabbath there will be none on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather and they found none and the lord said to moses how long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws see the lord has given you the sabbath therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
remain every man of you in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. And Moses said, this is what the Lord has commanded.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
If you want to download your Bible in a year reading plan, that way you can follow along. You know what what readings are coming up, you know how many chapters we're going through. You also can get an overview of the entire year, all 365 days and all 365 episodes that we're going to have as we continue to journey through the scripture today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt. And Moses said to Aaron, take a jar and put an omer of manna in it and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the covenant to be kept.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
And the sons of Israel ate the manna forty years till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Say to the sons of Israel, These are the living things which you may eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud among the animals you may eat. Nevertheless, among those that chew the cud or part the hoof, you shall not eat these.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
The camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the rock badger, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the hare, because it chews the cud, but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the swine, because it parts the hoof, and is cloven-footed, but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. They are unclean to you. These you may eat of all that are in the waters, everything in the waters that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers, you may eat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
But anything in the seas or the rivers that has not fins and scales of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters is an abomination to you. They shall be an abomination to you of their flesh. You shall not eat in their carcasses. You shall have an abomination. Everything in the waters that has not fins and scales is an abomination to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
and these you shall have in abomination among the birds they shall not be eaten they are an abomination the eagle the vulture the osprey the kite the falcon according to its kind every raven according to its kind the ostrich the night-hawk the sea-gull the hawk according to its kind the owl the cormorant the ibis the water-hen the pelican the carrion vulture the stork the heron according to its kind the hoopoe and the bat
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
All winged insects that go upon all fours are an abomination to you. Yet among the winged insects that go on all fours, you may eat those which have the legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth. Of them you may eat the locust according to its kind, the bald locust according to its kind, the cricket according to its kind, and the grasshopper according to its kind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
If you have not subscribed in the podcast app that you're using to listen to this podcast, go ahead and do that. You don't have to, but why wouldn't you is my question. And lastly, as I said, today we are reading from Exodus chapter 15 and 16. That's where we're starting. Exodus chapter 15 and 16, the songs of Moses and Miriam.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
But all the other winged insects which have four feet are an abomination to you. He says, And all that go on their paws among the animals that go on all fours are unclean to you. Whoever touches their carcass shall be unclean until the evening. And he who carries their carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. They are unclean to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
And these are unclean to you among the swarming things that swarm upon the earth, the weasel, the mouse, the great lizard according to its kind, the gecko, the land crocodile, the lizard, the sand lizard, and the chameleon. These are unclean to you among all that swarm. Whoever touches them when they are dead shall be unclean until the evening.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
And anything upon which any of them falls when they are dead shall be unclean, whether it is an article of wood or a garment or a skin or a sack, any vessel that is used for any purpose, it must be put into water and it shall be unclean until the evening. Then it shall be clean. And if any of them falls into an earthen vessel, all that is in it shall be unclean, and you shall break it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Any food in it, which may be eaten, upon which water may come, shall be unclean. And all drink, which may have been drunk from every such vessel, shall be unclean. And everything upon which any part of the carcass falls shall be unclean, whether oven or stove, it shall be broken in pieces, they are unclean, and shall be unclean to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Nevertheless, a spring or a cistern holding water shall be clean, but whatever touches their carcass shall be unclean. And if any part of their carcass falls upon any seed for sowing that is to be sown, it is clean. But if water is put on the seed and any part of their carcass falls on it, it is unclean to you. And if any animal of which you may eat dies and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
he who touches its carcass shall be unclean until the evening. And he who eats of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. He also who carries the carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. Every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth is an abomination. It shall not be eaten.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Whatever goes on its belly and whatever goes on all fours or whatever has many feet, all the swarming things that swarm upon the earth, you shall not eat for they are an abomination. You shall not make yourselves abominable with any swarming thing that swarms, and you shall not defile yourselves with them, lest you become unclean. For I am the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls upon the earth, for I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
This is the law pertaining to beast and bird and every living creature that moves through the waters and every creature that swarms upon the earth to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, my Father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
In you, O Lord, I take refuge. Let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness, deliver me and rescue me. Incline your ear to me and save me. Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Rescue me, O my God, from the hands of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man, for you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Upon you I have leaned from my birth, from my mother's womb you have been my strength. My praise is continually of you. I have been as important to many, but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise and with your glory all the day. Do not cast me off in the time of old age. Forsake me not when my strength is spent. For my enemies speak concerning me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
Those who watch for my life consult together and say, God has forsaken him. Pursue and seize him, for there is none to deliver him. O God, be not far from me. O my God, make haste to help me. May my accusers be put to shame and consumed with scorn and disgrace. May they be covered who seek my harm. But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 36: Manna from Heaven (2025)
My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge. With the mighty deeds of the Lord God, I will come. I will praise your righteousness, yours alone. O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Hello, everybody. My name is Father Mike Schmitz. I want to let you know about a one-night-only opportunity we have in Newark, New Jersey on Monday, December 9th. It's right after the start of Advent. We're doing an Advent Night of Reflection and Q&A at the Newark Performing Arts Center. Again, Monday, December 9th. at 7 o'clock.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them, and they worked, for by trade they were tent makers. And he argued in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with preaching, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, Your blood be upon your heads. I am innocent. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justice, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord together with all his household, and many of the Corinthians, hearing Paul, believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not be silent. For I am with you, and no man shall attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
If you're interested in finding out more about this, go to ascensionpress.com slash fathermiketour. Basically, a night of reflection, diving deeply into what it is that we're preparing for in the season of Advent. If you're interested at all, Monday, December 9th, 7 o'clock, Newark Performing Arts Center. Go to ascensionpress.com slash fathermiketour. That's F-R-M-I-K-E tour. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. But when Galio was pro-council of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack upon Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying, This man is persuading men to worship God contrary to the law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Galio said to the Jews, If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, I should have reasoned to bear with you, O Jews. But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things. And he drove them from the tribunal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Galio paid no attention to this. Paul's return to Antioch After this, Paul stayed many days longer, and then took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Sincraia he cut his hair, for he had a vow. And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
But he himself went into the synagogue and argued with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. But on taking leave of them, he said, I will return to you if God wills. And he set sail from Ephesus. When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
After spending some time there, he departed and went from place to place through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. ministry of Apollos. Now, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, well-versed in the scriptures.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and expounded to him the way of God more accurately.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to receive him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully confuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus. Now, concerning the contribution for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that contributions need not be made when I come. And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
I will visit you after passing through Macedonia for I intend to pass through Macedonia. And perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter so that you may speed me on my journey wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost for a wide door for effective work has opened to me and there are many adversaries. When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you for he is doing the work of the Lord as I am. So let no one despise him. Speed him on his way in peace that he may return to me for I am expecting him with the brethren.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
As for our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brethren, but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity. Final message and greeting. Be watchful. Stand firm in your faith. Be courageous. Be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. Now, brethren.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints. I urge you to be subject to such men and to every fellow worker and laborer. I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Give recognition to such men. The churches of Asia send greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. All the brethren send greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord come. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
He who tills his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty. A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Thank you for your word. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us. And thank you, Lord God, for all these people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
We keep hearing these stories of these men and women who, spread your word, these stories of these men and women who laid down their lives, these stories of these men and women who are willing to expose themselves to argumentation and to derision and to being mocked and to being killed. for the opportunity to share your goodness, your truth, your love, your hope to the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Lord, help us to be these kind of people. Help us to be this kind of men and women. Help us to belong to you more and more fully every day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Kind of a shorter reading today. We have, well, let's start with Proverbs because there's something so insightful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
I mean, obviously, God's word is always insightful. I think I probably always say that. But the last verse we read today is Proverbs chapter 28, verse 21. To show partiality is not good, but for a piece of bread, a man will do wrong. That sense of, it reminds me at least of Jacob and Esau.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Remember the story of Esau coming in from hunting, coming in from the wilderness and Jacob had the red stuff at the red porridge. And here is Esau who's willing to trade anything for a bit of stew. That was it. And that sense of, ah, man, bribery and the way in which we would do anything for it. Maybe it's not a piece of bread. Maybe your price is higher.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today, it is day 339. Reading from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 18, as well as First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 16, the conclusion of the St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. and Proverbs chapter 28, verses 19 through 21.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Maybe my price is higher than a piece of bread. But we recognize, man, Lord, I can be too fickle. In fact, too often I can be too fickle. So please help me to be resolute, right? Help me to let you be my North Star, your truth, be the guiding compass that helps us walk through this life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Because again, when we know ourselves, we know how easily we can be toppled, how easily we can be set off course. Now, at the same time, We have the readings today, Acts of the Apostles, chapter 18, and in 1 Corinthians, chapter 16, and we recognize how Jesus speaks to Paul. Here, Paul goes to Corinth, and we already have this. Now, a little backstory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
We already talked about this a little bit, but Paul goes to Corinth. He's a tentmaker by trade, so he meets this guy named Priscilla. Sorry, the guy is Aquila, and he and his wife Priscilla are tentmakers that came to Corinth from Italy because Claudius, the emperor, had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
So here, this incredible way in which God uses these crooked lines to make a straight story, essentially, where we have Priscilla and Aquila who are in Corinth because of persecution and they encounter Paul who brings them to Jesus and sets them on a new course. And that's one of the things, you know, Pope Benedict had said this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
He said, being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty ideal. Basically not because we're trying to be good or because we're trying to shoot for the stars or because we have like good morals. He says, being a Christian is a result of an encounter with a person. And that encounter with a person gives one's life a new horizon and sets it in a decisive direction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
And you have this right here where Aquila and Priscilla, who are in Corinth because of exile, and they encounter Paul. And that encounter of Jesus through Paul radically transforms their lives. It's remarkable because from now on, Aquila and Priscilla are going to be missionaries themselves. They're going to be evangelists themselves. They're going to preach the gospel themselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
And not just make tents in Corinth. They're going to go all over the place. We also have the introduction of how Timothy and Silas got to know the Corinthians. Because at the end of the letter here today in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, we have all these people who are named in the Acts of the Apostles. All these people even who are named at the beginning of the letter to the Corinthians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
I think it's really remarkable that at the close of this letter, here is St. Paul, who this is going, we jumped over to Corinthians just for a second, that at the end of this letter, St. Paul says, when Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he's doing the work of the Lord as I am. So let no one despise him. Later on, St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Paul's going to say to Timothy, let no one despise you because of your youth. So that might be a reason why he's saying, let no one despise him because Timothy was a young person. And so there is the sense that It could be tempting for the Corinthian church to look down on Timothy because of his youth. And yet here, Paul says, let no one despise him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
And later when Paul writes to Timothy, he says, let no one despise you because of your youth. And so there's something there that's just so powerful and beautiful. You realize these people were very close to each other. They knew each other. They worked together. Not only that, but in actually apostles today, we encounter Apollos. And we get a little bit of his backstory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Here's Apollos, who is a convert, and Apollos who is eloquent, and Apollos who is well-spoken, right? And he spoke accurately about the Lord Jesus, but he only had the baptism of John. So then what happens? He gets taught, and this is so incredibly important, when he gets taught by Priscilla and Aquila. He changes. So there's this thing called docility.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Docility, sometimes we can think of docility as a bad word because it seems like, oh, you're so docile. You're just kind of passive. It's not. That's not what docility means. Docility means I'm open to being taught. If I'm docile, I'm open to being taught. Here is Apollos, who is incredibly gifted, right? He is an eloquent man, well-versed in the scriptures.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
He'd been instructed in the way of the Lord and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately. And then he gets corrected. And what happens? He gets corrected. He lets himself be taught. And it goes on to say, it's incredible that when we're open to being taught, when we're open to being corrected, God can do incredible things with us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Now, maybe when a person's really talented, they're less open to being corrected. But if a person is talented, gifted, skilled, and open to being corrected, open to being taught, that means there's no limit, really. It's almost like the same way or similar to grace, that it's one thing to be blessed by the Lord. It's another thing to allow him to bless abundantly with his grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Every aspect of our lives. I think sometimes a lot of us are tempted to only let God bless part of our lives. God, this is the part of my life you can bless because it belongs to you. But these other parts of my life belong to me. And so, I mean, yeah, you go ahead and bless them, but not like don't use them as well. And of course that is, that's a trap. Don't do that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
But here is Apollos who was incredibly blessed and then even further blessed because he allowed himself to be corrected, allow himself to be taught and Now, remember at the beginning of the first Corinthians, Paul says that there's factions. Some saying I belong to Paul, some I belong to Apollos, some I belong to Kepha. And yet here, Paul is commending to the Corinthians. Hey, receive Apollos.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
This day is day 339, Acts chapter 18, 1 Corinthians chapter 16, and Proverbs chapter 28, verses 19 through 21. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 18, Paul in Corinth. After this, he left Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
You know, as for brother Apollos, I strongly encouraged, urged him to visit you. Like, you know, it would be one thing if Paul was threatened by this division, if Paul was threatened by the factions, he would say, yeah, Apollos, you stay away. This is, these are my folks and I don't want you to try to win them to your side. Instead, he says, no, no, no.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
At the very end of this letter, I urged, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brethren. He says, but it was not at all his will to come now. Now, that could mean it was not Apollos' will. It also could mean that it was not the Father's will, meaning that it was not God's will for him. But here is St. Paul concluding these words with words that echo Acts 18.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Now, I'm sorry, I'm going back and forth, right, between Acts and Corinthians. And I apologize if that's one of those things that you're like, this is so confusing, Father. Like, why are you doing this? It's only because it's so connected and it blows my mind. how connected our readings are today, how connected Acts 18 and 1 Corinthians 16 is. Here is Jesus' last thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Here are Christ's words to Paul. And he says, Now, Paul, ultimately, of course, many times was attacked. But he was told by Jesus Christ to be strong, to be courageous, to be bold, to not be afraid. And what does Paul say at the end of this letter to the Corinthians? He says, be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
What an incredible gift. Paul receives from the Lord these words, do not be afraid, move forward, have confidence in me. And then Paul is able to then say to the people, the people he loves, the same things. Be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. And this is the truth for every one of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
Those are words that every one of us can be blessed by because they're the words of Jesus for us. Do not be afraid. Walk in courage. Walk in faith. Let everything you do be done in love. Easier said than done. So we just pray. We ask God for his grace to be able to live that way, to be that kind of person, to be that kind of people. And I want to be that kind of person.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 339: Priscilla and Aquila (2024)
And I know you want to be that kind of person as well. That's why I'm praying for you. And please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-Keramim, with a very great slaughter. So the Ammonites were subdued before the sons of Israel. Jephthah's Daughter Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah, and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances. She was his only child. Beside her he had neither son nor daughter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And when he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, "'Alas, my daughter!' You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me, for I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Abimelech tries to establish a monarchy. Now Abimelech, the son of Jerubabel, went to Shechem to his mother's kinsmen and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother's family, say in the ears of all the citizens of Shechem, which is better for you, that all 70 of the sons of Jerubabel rule over you or that one rule over you. Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And she said to him, My father, if you have opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me according to what has gone forth from your mouth now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites. And she said to her father, Let this one thing be done for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
let me alone two months that I may go and wander on the mountains and bewail my virginity I and my companions and he said go and he sent her away for two months and she departed she and her companions and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains and at the end of two months she returned to her father who did with her according to his vow which he had made She had never known a man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And it became a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah, the Gileadite, four days in the year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
The Marriage of Boaz and Ruth. And Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the next of kin, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, Turn aside, friend, sit down here. And he turned aside and sat down. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, Sit down here. So they sat down.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Then he said to the next of kin, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land which belonged to our kinsmen, Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it and say, buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
But if you will not, tell me that I may know, for there is no one beside you to redeem it, and I come after you. And he said, I will redeem it. Then Boaz said, The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you are also buying Ruth the Moabites, the widow of the dead, in order to restore the name of the dead to his inheritance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Then the next of kin said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it. Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging. To confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other. And this was the manner of attesting in Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
So when the next of kin said to Boaz, Buy it for yourself, he drew off his sandal. Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, You are witnesses this day. that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, and that belonged to Kilian and to Malone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Also Ruth the Moabites, the widow of Malone, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day. The genealogy of David. So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And he went into her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next of kin, and may his name be renowned in Israel. He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons has born him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And his mother's kinsmen spoke all these words on his behalf in the years of all the men of Shechem, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, He is our brother. And they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berit, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows who followed him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name saying, a son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Now these are the descendants of Perez."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nashon, Nashon of Salmon, Salmon of Boaz, Boaz of Obed, Obed of Jesse, Jesse of David. Psalm 137, lament over the destruction of Jerusalem. By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there, we hung up our lyres.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, and how they said, Raise it, raise it down to its foundations. O daughter of Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us. Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
We give you honor and we just declare our love for you and our gratitude for who you are and all you have given to us this day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
I know that it has been a long day, a long day of readings and a bunch of stories when it comes to the book of Judges and even the happy conclusion of the book of Ruth. But it's a couple brief things. It began with chapter nine. Remember, Jeroboam, whose name was Gideon as well, Gideon's way easier to say than Jeroboam. I just have to say that right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Gideon, Jeroboam had 70 sons, 71 sons, really. And Abimelech decides that he wants to be the king. Now, Gideon had set himself up essentially as the king. And this is one of his downfalls. And then the next group, the next generation, his son Abimelech did the same thing. And again, one of the things we find is in this book of Judges, This cycle of God's close to his people. He blesses them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And he went to his father's house at Ophrah, and slew his brothers, the sons of Jerubabel, seventy men, upon one stone. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubabbel, was left, for he hid himself. And all the citizens of Shechem came together, and all bet Milo, and they went and made Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar at Shechem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Then they turn away. They turn to other gods. Then tragedy befalls them. They repent. They turn back to the Lord. They call out to him and God helps them and they're restored. And this we see this a bunch of times. In fact, 12 or 13 times here in the book of Judges. And the story of Abimelech is no different.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
We have the stories not of heroes, but of protagonists who aren't necessarily all together. For example, the great story, when I say great, I mean just big story of Jephthah, right? He was the Gileadite, one of the sons of Gilead, who was the son of a harlot. And so he's rejected by his family, but he becomes a mighty warrior, kind of a boy named Sue type situation, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
where here's the Johnny Cash song, where he gets kicked out of the family. Our Johnny Cash version is he's named Sue. And so he gets beat up a lot, becomes really, really tough. Well, same thing when it comes to Jephthah. He's kicked out of the family, becomes this mighty warrior, becomes basically a bandit. And then when the Ammonites come against the tribe of Gilead, they know who to turn to.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
They turn to the guy they rejected, who became the toughest person on the block. Now, the problem is not that Jephthah led the battle against the Ammonites. Jephthah seems to have done a pretty good job there. The problem is his vow. And this vow is so problematic that what does Jephthah say?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
He says, God, if you give me, and he's turning to the God of Israel, which makes no sense because Jephthah knows the truth. He knows the reality of the God of Israel, that he does not desire human sacrifice. In fact, that he prohibits human sacrifice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And yet Jephthah makes this rash vow where he says, God, if you give me victory, whoever comes out of my door, out of the house when I come back home, I will sacrifice them to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Which again, when I first read this story years and years and years ago, it was so problematic because I was still under the impression that every story in the Bible, if a quote unquote hero of the Bible does this, it must be somehow okay. I try to bend my mind around why would this be okay? And the reality is in the book of Judges, we have all of these Judges.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
who do one thing okay and another thing very not okay. They have goodness in some areas of strength or of might or of being able to fight, but they are foolish as well. They're unfaithful as well. And Jephthah is no different. In fact, Jephthah fulfills his vow that he made, this rash vow to the Lord, not because God wanted it. And that's the crazy, dark, and dangerous thing here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
is it is possible that Jephthah did the same thing that Israel would later do. There is this God, Moloch. We've heard about him already from the Canaanites. And those who worshiped Moloch would offer up their sons and daughters in sacrifice to Moloch. And here is Jephthah doing the same thing to the God of Israel, which is absolutely prohibited.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
When the Israelites would have heard the story of Jephthah, they would have heard the story of a mighty warrior who had done something incredibly, mightily foolish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And so one of the things we just recognize for ourselves in this last minute of this podcast today is our need not only to want to make covenant with the Lord, not only to want to make promises to the Lord, but also our need to make wise promises to the Lord, our need to make wise oaths. If we ever get to a place where we make an oath or promise God something,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
that it is consistent and congruent with his character, with who he is, that God does not desire the death of the living, the death of anyone, but desires that all might come to life and have fullness of life. And so these rash vows that Jephthah, this one rash vow that Jephthah had made is not a model for us unless it is a model for us to avoid. So we continue to pray.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Jotham's Parable of the Trees, Vine, and Bramble When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim, and cried aloud and said to them, Listen to me, you men of Shechem, that God may listen to you. The trees once went forth to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, Rain over us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
I'm praying for you, especially on these long days where it's just a lot of words and a lot of minutes. But I'm so grateful for everyone who's on this journey with us. As I said, it's day 92. You guys, we're over three months into this reading the Bible through these 365 days. Man, what a gift, absolute gift. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
But the olive tree said to them, Shall I leave my fatness, by which gods and men are honored, and go to sway over the trees? And the trees said to the fig tree, Come, you, and rain over us. But the fig tree said to them, Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go to sway over the trees? And the trees said to the vine, Come you and rain over us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
But the vine said to them, Shall I leave my wine, which cheers gods and men, and go to sway over the trees? then all the trees said to the bramble come you and reign over us and the bramble said to the trees if in good faith you are anointing me king over you then come and take refuge in my shade but if not let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of lebanon
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Now, therefore, if you acted in good faith and honor when you made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubabbel and his house, and have done to him as his deeds deserved, for my father fought for you, and risked his life, and rescued you from the hand of Midian, and you have risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, seventy men, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the citizens of Shechem, because he is your kinsman.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
It is day 92, and we are reading from Judges 9-11. 10, and 11. They're three kind of long chapters with some really, well, as all of Judges is just an intense, intense book. It is PG-13. It gets worse. Knowing that we've had the first eight chapters of the book of Judges, it gets worse. Every chapter is worse than the one before. Just keep that in mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
If you have done well with Jerubabbel and his house, and have done to him as his deeds deserved, for my father fought for you, and risked his life, and rescued you from the hand of Midian, If you have then have acted in good faith and honor with Jerubabbel and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech and let him also rejoice in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the citizens of Shechem and Bet-Milo and let fire come out from the citizens of Shechem and from Bet-Milo and devour Abimelech. And Jotham ran away and fled and went to Beer and dwelt there for fear of Abimelech, his brother. the downfall of Abimelech.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Abimelech ruled over Israel three years, and God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubabel might come and their blood be laid upon Abimelech, their brother who slew them, and upon the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to slay his brothers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And the men of Shechem put men in ambush against him on the mountaintops, and they robbed all who passed by them along that way. And it was told Abimelech. And Gaal, the son of Ebed, moved into Shechem with his kinsmen, and the men of Shechem put confidence in him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And they went out into the field and gathered the grapes from their vineyards and trod them and held festival and went into the house of their God and ate and drank and reviled Abimelech. And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech? And who are we of Shechem that we should serve him? Did not the son of Jerubabel and Zebel his officer serve the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Why then should we serve him? Would that this people were under my hand, then I would remove Abimelech. I would say to Abimelech, Increase your army and come out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
When Zebul, the ruler of the city, heard the words of Gaal the son of Ibed, his anger was kindled, and he sent messengers to Abimelech at Aramah, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ibed and his kinsmen have come to Shechem, and they are stirring up the city against you. Now, therefore, go by night, you and the men that are with you, and lie in wait in the fields.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Then in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, rise early and rush upon the city, and when he and the men that are with him come out against you, you may do to them as occasion offers. And Abimelech and all the men that were with him rose up by night and laid wait against Shechem in four companies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city, and Abimelech and the men that were with him rose up from the ambush. And when Gaal saw the men, he said to Zebul, Look, men are coming down from the mountaintops. And Zebul said to him, You see the shadow of the mountains as if they were men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. We'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Gaal spoke again and said, Look, men are coming down from the center of the land, and one company is coming from the direction of the diviner's oak. Then Zebul said to him, Where is your mouth now? You who said, Who is Abimelech that we should serve him? Are not these the men whom you despised? Go out now and fight with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And Gaal went out at the head of the men of Shechem and fought with Abimelech. And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and many fell wounded up to the entrance of the gate. And Abimelech dwelt at Aramah, and Zebul drove out Gaal and his kinsmen, so that they could not live on at Shechem. On the following day, the men went out into the fields, and Abimelech was told.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
If you have people that you want to maybe, I don't know, if you want to edit a little bit of what you expose people to when it comes to the word of God. It is still the word of God, but it is also a hard word, and it gets harder and harder through the book of Judges. We're also reading a happy, happy story, and that is Ruth chapter four. We're concluding the story of Ruth today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
He took his men and divided them into three companies and laid wait in the fields. And he looked and saw the men coming out of the city, and he rose against them and slew them. Abimelech and the company that was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city while the two companies rushed upon all who were in the fields and slew them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He took the city and killed the people that were in it, and he razed the city and sewed it with salt. When all the people of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the stronghold of the house of Elberit. Abimelech was told that all the people of the tower of Shechem were gathered together and Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
He and all the men that were with him and Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a bundle of brushwood and took it up and laid it on his shoulder. And he said to the men that were with him, what you have seen me do, make haste to do as I have done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
So every one of the people cut down his bundle and following Abimelech put it against the stronghold and they set the stronghold on fire over them. so that all the people of the tower of Shechem also died, about a thousand men and women. Then Abimelech went to Thebes, and encamped against Thebes, and took it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the people of the city fled to it, all the men and women, and shut themselves in it. And they went to the roof of the tower, and Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it, and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. And a certain woman threw an upper millstone upon Abimelech's head and crushed his skull.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Then he called hastily to the young man, his armor bearer, and said to him, draw your sword and kill me, lest men say of me, a woman killed him. And his young man thrust him through and he died. And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man to his home. Thus God repaid the crime of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And God also made all the wickedness of the men of Shechem fall back upon their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubabel. Chapter 10. Tola and Jair. After Abimelech there arose to deliver Israel Tola the son of Pua, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, and he lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And he judged Israel twenty-three years, then he died, and was buried at Shamir. After him rose Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel 22 years. And he had 30 sons who rode on 30 donkeys. And they had 30 cities called Havoth Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. And Jair died and was buried in Kamon. oppression by the Philistines and Ammonites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And the sons of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites, and they crushed and oppressed the children of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the sons of Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
We're also praying Psalm 137. As always, the Bible translation that I am using is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. Hopefully you can get yours at ascensionpress.com or at amazon.com or wherever you find Bibles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was sorely distressed. And the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, saying, We have sinned against you because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And the Lord said to the sons of Israel, did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? The Sidonians also and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you and you cried to me and I delivered you out of their hand. Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods. Therefore, I will deliver you no more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Go and cry to the gods whom you have chosen. Let them deliver you in the time of your distress. And the sons of Israel said to the Lord, We have sinned. Do to us whatever seems good to you. Only deliver us, we beg you this day. So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. And he became indignant over the misery of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Then the Ammonites were called to arms, and they encamped at Gilead. And the sons of Israel came together, and they encamped at Mizpah. And the people, the leaders of Gilead, said to one another, Who is the man that will begin to fight against the Ammonites? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a harlot.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Gilead was the father of Jephthah, and Gilead's wife also bore him sons. And when his wife's sons grew up, they thrust Jephthah out and said to him, You shall not inherit in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman. Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob, and worthless fellows collected round Jephthah and went raiding with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
After a time, the Ammonites made war against Israel. And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob. And they said to Jephthah, come and be our leader that we may fight with the Ammonites. But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Did you not hate me and drive me out of my father's house?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Also, you can download your free Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You also can subscribe to the podcast app. and rate it and comment on it if you want in your podcast app. That is all the announcements today. Once again, Judges 9, 10, and 11, Ruth chapter 4, and pray in Psalm 137.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Why have you come to me now when you are in trouble? And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, That is why we have turned to you now, that you may go with us and fight with the Ammonites and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you bring me home again to fight with the Ammonites and the Lord gives them over to me, I will be your head.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, The Lord will be witness between us. We will surely do as you say. So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and leader over them. And Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord at Mizpah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and said, What have you against me, that you have come to me to fight against my land? And the king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel, on coming from Egypt, took away my land from the Arnon to the Jebok and to the Jordan. Now, therefore, restore it peaceably.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the Ammonites and said to him, Thus says Jephthah, Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. But when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh. Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Let us pass, we beg, through your land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
But the king of Edom would not listen. And they also sent to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh. Then they journeyed through the wilderness and went round the land of Edom and the land of Moab and arrived on the east side of the land of Moab and encamped on the other side of the Arnon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
But they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab. Israel then sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon. And Israel said to him, Let us pass, we beg, through your land to our country. But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his people together and encamped at Jehaz and fought with Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them. So Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites who inhabited that country. And they took possession of all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
So then, the Lord, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel. And are you to take possession of them? Will you not possess what Shamash, your God, gives you to possess? And all that the Lord, our God, has dispossessed before us, we will possess. Now, are you any better than Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
Did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever go to war with them? While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its villages, and in Arawar and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon three hundred years— Why did you not recover them within that time? I therefore have not sinned against you, and you do me wrong by making war on me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
The Lord, the judge, decide this day between the sons of Israel and the people of Ammon. But the king of the Ammonites did not heed the message of Jephthah, which he sent to him. Jephthah's vow. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and he passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from the Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 92: Jephthah's Vow (2025)
And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whoever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me when I return victorious from the Ammonites shall be the Lord's, I will offer him up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
So the first three days, there's light and darkness. Second days, there's water and sky. The third day, there is the separation between the water and land. Well, then on day four, you have the lights of the dome of the sky. You have the sun and stars and moon. On day five, you have the flying things and things in the sea. And day six, you have all the things on the land, including human beings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
What the author is pointing out is, okay, day one is light. And day three is what rules the light and darkness. Day two is the water and the sky. And day five is what rules the water and the sky, the flying things and the swimming things. Day three is what's on land, is the lands made. And day six is what rules the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
This is the early world period in the Great Adventure Bible timeline. And then Psalm 19, of course, is just this beautiful psalm of David on the creation of the world. Let's get started. Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
It's not only the wild beasts, but the men, the humanity, male and female that has dominion has been given dominion over all that's on the land. And so you see that this is not meant to be taken literally, but made to be taken truthfully and poetically. As I said, the macro perspective of Genesis 1 also meets the micro perspective of Genesis 2.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
That God made human beings for labor, for leisure, and then in Genesis 2 we see for love. As God says, it's not good for the man to be alone. And just recognizing how deeply profound this is. The term helpmate that God uses is the term ezer k'negdo.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
And it does not mean, it does not mean that the woman is lower, just a helpmate, you know, in that sense of give me a sandwich, kind of that joke that's floating around there. But it means something more profound.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
In fact, I believe something like this, that the term ezer, or the helper, is used 21 times in the Old Testament, and 19 of those times it's used in reference to God, that God is my helper. And so when God creates Eve, he's not creating someone who's substandard or beneath Adam. In fact,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
I've shared this poem before many, many times, but at one point when I was growing up, we had an Atari, you know, the gaming system, and I had older siblings, so I never got to play the Atari. I just got to watch them play the Atari. But next to the TV that they had the Atari hooked up to was a plaque that my mom had just put there. And the plaque had these words.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
It said, when God took Eve from Adam, he did not take her from his head to lord it over him, nor from his foot to be walked upon by him. He took her from his side to walk with him, from beneath his arm to be guarded by him and from near his heart to be loved by him. And it's so powerful, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
When God took Eve from Adam, he did not take her from his head to lord it over him, nor from his foot to be walked upon by him, but from his side to walk with him, from beneath his arm to be guarded by him, from near his heart to be loved by him. And so that's what we see in Genesis 2, is he looks at Eve and says, this one at last is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh, this one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
is the reason why men leave their father and mother and cling to their bride. And then those key words that John Paul II said is the mystery, the key description we can't even begin to understand. And the man and woman were naked and yet they felt no shame. Why? Because God, when he made this world, he made it absolutely good. And that's what I want to leave you with today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
that here's the story of creation. Here's the story of God's goodness. Every day of creation is good, good, good. Day six is very good. The world that God made because he's good is good. Tomorrow, we're going to find out what happened to this world because we live in a good world still, but we're going to discover that we live in a good world that has gone wrong, a good world that has been broken.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
But until then, I want to let you know that I'm praying for you and I will see you back here tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
The earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night. There was evening and there was morning one day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it separate waters from the waters. And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called the firmament heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. And God said, And God saw that it was good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
And God said, And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning, a third day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. And God said, let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
This is day one, so let's get started. A couple of reminders is that we're using the Bible translation of the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition. That's the RSVCE. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves and with which the waters swarm according to their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let birds multiply on the earth. And there was evening, and there was morning, a fifth day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
And God said, Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, a sixth day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the hosts of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation. Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
And if you're interested in getting the Bible reading plan that we're using, you can download the Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. That's ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, all one word. The Bible reading plan is based off of
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and they were divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon. It is the one which flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
And the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may eat freely of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
For in the day that you eat of it, you shall die. Then the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper fit for him. So out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
The man gave names to all the cattle and to all the birds of the air and to every beast of the field. But for the man, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. And while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
The man said, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
the great adventure Bible timeline and the Bible timeline created by Jeff Cavins covers the 14 narrative books of the old Testament and the new Testament. So that you get the entire story of salvation in a really creative way. We're also including these supplemental books or the non narrative books in along the way with those 14 narrative books.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words. Their voice is not heard, yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes forth like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hid from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
In keeping them, there is great reward. But who can discern his errors? Clear thou me from hidden faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. And then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
I don't think I can overemphasize the importance of Genesis chapter one and Genesis chapter two, because if we get these two and tomorrow's chapters wrong, we're gonna get the entire rest of the story wrong. In fact, the trajectory of the entire Bible, the entire story of salvation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
In fact, the trajectory of Western civilization is based off of the uniqueness of these two chapters, chapter one and chapter two. Now I say unique, but you think like, wait a second, I remember hearing that there are other creationist stories in the Middle East. There are other creationist stories in Mesopotamia. There's other creationist stories around the world. And you are absolutely correct.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
But Genesis chapter one is unique when it comes to all creation stories ever known to human beings. What do I mean by that? Well, if you read any of the ancient Mideast creation stories, it always says this, it's always creation born out of violence or born out of sexual domination or even just the sexual act.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
Basically, it's very much so that here's the god or the gods that destroy another god or they destroy some other thing And out of the husk of that thing, out of the carcass of that thing, they create the world. Or it's that one dominates, sexually dominates the other or sexually manipulates the other and they give birth to the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
And what we heard in Genesis chapter one is in the beginning, God created, and that word created is the Hebrew word bara or bara. I'm not sure, but it's B-A-R-A. And it basically is found nowhere else. When it comes to, it means simply creation out of nothing. That he simply just created. And there's something that the catechism says about this. It's actually, it's the prologue of the catechism.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
So while you're hearing the story unfold and being unpacked and being proclaimed to you, you're also going to be getting like, here's where those other books, those non-narrative books fit in to the great story. You can subscribe at your podcast app, wherever you listen to podcasts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
Because think about this. All the other creation stories. saying, how do we get to this planet? How do we get to exist rather than not exist? Well, it must've been through destruction. It was through violence. It was through the sex. And yet at this creation story that God revealed to the Jewish people is no, it's because of God's sheer goodness. So the catechism says it like this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
It says, God infinitely perfect and blessed in himself in a plan of sheer goodness, freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. And that's just one sentence. It's like virtually the first sentence in the entire catechism. The God infinitely perfect and blessed in himself. He wasn't lonely. He wasn't wondering what to do with his time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
In fact, those other creation stories, those other creation myths, what happens is there's the God or the gods and they create human beings to be slaves because the gods don't want to work. Work is beneath them. And so they create human beings either to be their slaves or to toy with, to simply be entertainment for them. And what does the catechism assert?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
Well, it asserts what the Bible asserts, which is God is infinitely perfect and blessed in himself. He wasn't lonely. He didn't need someone to do work for him. In a plan of sheer goodness, he freely created man, human beings, to make him share in his own blessed life. He didn't create us to be his entertainment. He didn't create us to be his pawns. He didn't create us to be his slaves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
In fact, no other place. I mean, think about how amazing this is in Genesis chapter one, that it says that in God's image and likeness, he created us. Male and female, he created us. It is image and likeness. Do you know that there is literally no other religion, no other worldview that believes that all human beings are created in God's image and likeness except for the Judeo-Christian worldview?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
Like this is where that comes from. This is where the idea of human beings having dignity, this is where its source is. And that's why you cannot overemphasize the importance of Genesis 1 and Genesis chapter 2. because it establishes where do human beings get their dignity? They don't get it from their strength. They don't get it from their own power or beauty or wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
And you can also sign up for our email list by texting the word Catholic Bible, all one word, Catholic Bible, to the number 33777. Today, we will be reading from Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2, the first two chapters of Genesis, as well as Psalm 19. As we launch into Genesis 1 and 2, we're going to hear both stories of creation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
We don't get it from government. We don't get it from any other source other than the fact that every human being is made in God's image and likeness, that both male and female are made in God's image and likeness. It is remarkable and that we're created not to be his servants, but to participate, as it says in the catechism, to share in his own blessed life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
In fact, as I mentioned in the other creation stories, the other creation myths, the gods create human beings, again, for entertainment, for sport, or for work, to be their slaves. And yet, what do we see in this first creation story? We see God working. God is a creator. And so when he puts man and woman in the garden, what does he have them do?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
He creates them for three purposes, at least three purposes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
one is labor actually work is he puts man before the fall he puts man in the garden says go to work till the soil like have dominion over the animals he says part of what makes you like me is the fact that you can labor like me now obviously we're going to hear this later on is that work gets distorted work gets fallen because of the the sin that's coming to the world but
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
But our original, God's original intention for us, he made us for labor. He also made us for leisure. On the seventh day, God rested and he commands us ultimately to rest like that for labor, for leisure and for love. As God makes it very clear in Genesis chapter two, after creating Adam.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
One of the things we know is that Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are two different accounts of the same event, right? The gods creating the universe and human beings. Genesis chapter 1 is like this macro event, and Genesis chapter 2 is this micro event, like zooming in on the first man and the first woman. One of the things we recognize also, the macro event in Genesis chapter 1,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
is that it doesn't have to be taken literally or historically and literally. It did happen, but it is created and told in such a way that it is so deeply and profoundly poetic and revealing. So for example, we have what? We have the days of creation, six days of creation. And we are not meant to take it literally. And we know this. Why? Because on day one, God says, let there be light.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
And he separated the light from the darkness and the light he called day and the darkness he called night. But on day four, God finally makes the sun and the stars and the moon. And so we realize that, wait a second. There wouldn't be day and night unless there was sun and stars and moon, unless there was a purpose for how the sacred author laid this out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
He's like, I really want the vegetable trees. That's the ones I really want.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
We want to be able to understand the context as well as the stories. We're not just getting a collection of stories. We're also getting like the big story. And Jeff is here to do that. Before we begin, however, the Bible translation that I'm using, quick reminder, It is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
The results kind of happen. It unravels pretty quickly. Like the story of here is the grasping and that pride and that sense of like, I know better than God. It seems to be like this repeating thing that happens, especially when it comes to that decision. Okay, will I let God be God or will I reach out for my own sake? As you mentioned, it goes from fruit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
I took a piece of fruit to sibling murder, you know, fratricide. Very quickly. That escalated quickly in so many words. But how important is it, do you think, that... I think it can't be overstated, the importance of getting these first pieces of the story nailed down, that God is good. He made this world good. He made human beings good. And then we took all that goodness and we distorted it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
We broke it by... And we didn't need to, but we chose to. And even, like you're mentioning, the Cain and Abel story comes next where God says to Cain, you don't have to give in to this sin. The devil's a demon looking at your door, but you can resist him. There's still hope even in the midst of this brokenness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension because it has all the color coding. It has all the timeline in it. You can follow along super easily. If you want to follow along, not only in your own Bible, but also know what's coming, we have a downloadable PDF that's the Bible in a Year Reading Plan. You can get it for free just by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Because we hear it as kids. It's not a kid's story. In what way, kind of a last thing, so that people who are listening to the podcast can jump into episode one and hear the story proclaimed to them. What is that not children's part of the story, of the story of Noah and the flood? Again, as kids, you hear it. And so you're like, oh yeah, this is a story for kids. But it's so much not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
It's not at all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Amen. Thank you so much for that, because especially these first 11 chapters, we're going to get through them in five days. These first five days of the year are going to take us through this entire, just kind of the shortest time period. But the early world, which will be in so many ways, it's the first layer of a lens that's being shaped when it comes to how to look at the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And so, again, this layer of here's God's goodness, here's our grasping, and here's God not letting go of us, but continuing to pursue us even in the midst of our brokenness, in the midst of our turning away from him. So thank you, Jeff, once again, for joining us to introduce this early world to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Welcome to the official start of the Bible in a Year podcast. Today, this is the day that we begin our journey. where we read through the entire Bible in 365 days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
In a couple days, after we get through the early world, Jeff's going to join us again for the patriarchs so we can walk through that and kind of get a good context of a little bit longer journey. Next month or so after the early world ends, we're going to start the patriarchs and get that next context for that next time period.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
So if you want to get your Bible in a Year reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You also can sign up for our email list and get the updates and text messages, whatever, and probably not text messages, but the email list by texting the word Catholic Bible. I know that's two words, but we're combining them together. Catholic Bible to the number 33777. Again, just text
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Once again, if you're interested in downloading the Bible in a Year reading plan, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also get updates by texting the word Catholic Bible to 33777. And finally, please, once again, subscribe to your podcast app and continue walking through the Bible with us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
As Jeff said, the power of the word of God has the power to change hearts, has the power to change lives, has the power to change even someone like you and like me. This is Father Mike Schmitz. God bless you. I cannot wait to be on this road with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
In your text function of your phone, just the number is 33777. And in the message part of it, just type all together, not two words, but one word, Catholic Bible. Lastly, please subscribe in your podcast app.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
So not only will you get an update every single time we drop an episode, which is gonna be every single day for the next 365 days, but also that way it kind of gives some more exposure and people can learn about this podcast. So all of that being said, let's get started. As I've mentioned before,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
I have learned probably more about the Bible from one individual named Jeff Cavins than maybe any other human being on this planet. I am so grateful for him not only to have created the Great Adventure Bible timeline, but all of his other Bible studies, as well as I'm so grateful for his friendship because it would be an understatement if I called him a mentor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
It would be an understatement if I called him someone that I just find myself... Um, constantly referring to what he has taught me, what I've learned from him. Um, we're constantly referring to what I've heard him say or what I've read him, uh, read him, right. But we're joined today by Jeff Cavins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
He's going to get us, give us kind of basically, um, not only an overview of the first time period, which is the early world, but also give us a deeper dive into like, what can we expect over the next few days as we're reading through the early world. So with all that being said, Jeff.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
I can't believe that. But I have to believe that because I know how time works. But Jeff, so one of the things that before, as we launch in, one of the pieces that's going to happen in every one of the podcasts is we will proclaim scripture. And I really think it's, not just being recited.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
I think we really want to have it so that you get the sense that the people are listening, get the sense that it's being proclaimed, but also there's going to be a little guidance. At the end of every podcast, there's kind of some commentary that I'll offer or some kind of like, here's what I have gotten out of some reflections on this or trying to put things in context.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
But before we begin with day one, we have to first introduce the very first time period of the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. So as you probably already know, what we'll be following over the course of this entire year, 365 days, is the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. And the person who created this
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
But before we do that, can you offer us some context for when it comes to like the, not just the idea, but also the implementation of these 12 time periods? Like whether that's a brief description of how you came up with that or if it's just kind of like how you found that to be incredibly useful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
is the renowned Catholic Bible teacher, Mr. Jeff Cavins, to give you an introduction to the early world. This is gonna be so important. Like this episode is gonna be very important as we launch into the early world, which is the very first time period of the Great Adventure Bible Timeline.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And is that the distinction between the early world and the patriarchs is that chapters 1 through 11 are that Hebrew poetry and then it switches in chapter 12 through 50 where it's like, no, now we're talking a different kind of writing, telling the expansion of the story, but maybe, I don't want to say more rooted in some characters or figures that...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
we maybe are rooted more in, this is maybe prehistory, 1 through 11, and then history, history, 12 through 50. Is that kind of accurate way of saying it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
So as you know, the reading plan that we're using, it's inspired by this Great Adventure Bible Timeline, which divides the Bible into 12 time periods. And if you have the Great Adventure Bible, those time periods are identified by different colors and that would serve kind of like as chapters in salvation history.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
It doesn't go so well. That's a great way to describe it. It kind of doesn't turn out how you want it to.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Something else happens. No, that's an interesting, it's so powerful. I think, I remember the first time I heard you describe that, that here is kind of a, I don't want, recapitulation is the wrong word, but that you said form and void being filled. So you have, again, time, space, and land. And in time, what marks the time? Well, the moon and the stars. Like, okay. And then here is space.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And what fills the space is the birds of the sky and the fish in the, and then what fills the land is the animals on here. And I didn't realize, like, oh my gosh, this is, Uh, it's structured in a way that makes sense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Cause I, you know, as a younger person or person, I, like you're saying, you stumble into the word of God, like, okay, uh, I guess, you know, of course he hit day four and you're like, wait a second. God already made the day and the night, but now on day four, he's making sun and moon. What? Oh, Hebrew poetry. That's right. We'll go back to that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And recognition that, wow, it's fascinating when someone's able to give some structure or lens even. Like, here is what to look for. Like, oh my gosh, I would never have known that. That's why I think it's so important to have a guide like the Great Adventure Bible study. The Great Adventure Bible timeline is so, so powerful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Start Here: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
So every time we arrive at a new time period in the Bible, we're going to be able to have Jeff on this podcast to give you an introduction to that period. So my hope is that these episodes, these like beginning launching a new time period episodes will give you a deeper understanding of the biblical context and as we read through the Bible, because that's one of the goals we want to have.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
But the deeper reality of how has this podcast changed my life is the more and more I come into contact with God's Word as a whole, because of course, as a priest, we read the Bible multiple times a day, every single day. But there's something about coming into contact with God's Word as a whole that just roots me even more deeply in the heart of the Father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
And I don't know what I mean by that, other than there's something about, here as Catholics, we have liturgical seasons. And so we have kind of the same readings over the course of, on Sundays, over the course of a three-year plan. And when it comes to weekday masses, over the course of a two-year plan. And so we have the same readings regularly, which is fantastic and really, really good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
But there's something about those readings that we seldom encounter. That is just so good for me. I love the fact that, you know, even when we get to the names, we get to just, here is a bunch of names that could strike us as very random. There's something about those less read parts of scripture that are just really, really good for me. Beyond that, it's changed the lives of many, many people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
And I'm so grateful for that. The number of times I hear families saying that they have done the Bible in a year podcast, or we even have freshmen who show up on campus and they say, hey, my parents and I, we did the Bible in a year podcast, or I did this as a senior. I did this as a junior in high school. And I think that is amazing and so remarkable. And it just impacts my heart every time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
But today for this bonus episode, one of the things that I thought I wanted to reflect on was I wanted to read three excerpts from three different saints going back to the first centuries of Christianity. And they're all about why Bible reading is essential.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
Today is day 366. because this year is a leap year. And so we have a little bonus episode. You were like, wait a second, I got done with the Bible in a year yesterday. What is happening today? Well, as I said, today's day 366. We're still another day left in this year. And if you are on your own reading plan, it might not be December 31st right now for you, but it could be any time of the year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
That what you have done in concluding this Bible in Ear podcast, and maybe even starting next tomorrow, starting again tomorrow, is so essential. So the first reading is from a man named St. John Chrysostom. St. John Chrysostom lived in the 4th century, lived briefly into the 5th century, died in the year 407. But St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
John Chrysostom has important words to say how lay people, you know, people who aren't just preachers or aren't just priests or religious sisters or brothers, must read scripture more regularly than monks. Here's what St. John Chrysostom said.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
I'm always encouraging you to pay attention not only to what is said here in church, but also when you are at home to continue constantly in the practice of reading the divine scriptures. For let not anyone say to me those silly contemptible words. I'm stuck at the courthouse all day. I'm tied up in political affairs. I'm in an apprentice program. I've got a wife. I'm raising kids.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
I'm responsible for a household. I'm a businessman. Reading the Bible isn't my thing. That's for those who are set apart, for those who have made the mountaintops their homes, who have a way of life without interruption. What are you saying, man? It's not your business to pay attention to the Bible because you are distracted by thousands of concerns?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
Then Bible reading belongs more to you than to the monks. For they do not make as much use of the help of the divine scriptures as those who always have a great many things to do. but you are always standing in the line of battle and are constantly being hit, so you need more medicine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
For not only does your spouse irritate you, but your son annoys you, your servant makes you lose your temper, an enemy schemes against you, a friend envies you, a neighbor insults you, a colleague trips you up. Often, a lawsuit impends, poverty distresses, loss of possessions brings sorrow. At one moment, success puffs you up. At another, failure deflates you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
Numerous powerful inducements to anger and anxiety, to discouragements and grief, to vanity and loss of sense surround us on every side. A thousand missiles rain down from every direction. And so we constantly need the whole range of equipment supplied by Scripture.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
Since many things of this kind besiege our soul, we need the divine medicines so that we might treat the wounds we already have and so that we might check beforehand the wounds that are not yet, but are going to be, from afar extinguishing the missiles of the devil and repelling them through the constant reading of the divine scriptures.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
For it is not possible, not possible, for anyone to be saved who does not constantly have the benefit of spiritual reading. That's a reading again from St. John Chrysostom. And just that remarkable sense that he has about the fact is the more busy I am, the more you are on the front lines.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
Yes, Bible reading is for the monks, but actually Bible reading is for those of us who find ourselves on the front lines, those who find ourselves in the midst of a battle. The next little excerpt is from a man named St. Jerome. Now, you probably know St. Jerome as the one who translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
So he's the translator of the Latin, what they called the Vulgate translation or the translation that was in the tongue of the people. Now, St. Jerome here again, once again, in the fourth century died in the early fifth century. St. Jerome talks about how we need a guide to the Bible. And in order to interpret scripture correctly, we need to have a guide. Here's what St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
Jerome says about needing a guide to the Bible. In the apocalypse, a book is shown sealed with seven seals, which if you hand to an educated person saying, read this, he will answer, I can't because it's sealed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
Praise God for that. Because we have, again, day 366. You know, it's been a number of years since we first recorded the Bible in a year. And it's remarkable the ways we've seen this podcast change people's lives. And the first question people asked him, how's it changed your life? I realized, well, I'm going to read some things today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
Today, many people claim to be educated, yet the scriptures are a sealed book to them, one which they cannot open through him who has the key of David, he that opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens. See Revelation chapter 3 verse 7. In the Acts of the Apostles, Philip asked the holy eunuch who was reading Isaiah, Do you understand what you are reading?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
He answered, How could I unless I have someone to guide me? Yet although he had the book in his hand and took the words of the Lord into his mind, and even had them on his tongue and pronounced them with his lips, he still did not know the one he unknowingly worshipped in the book. Then Philip came and showed him Jesus, who was concealed beneath the letter. What a wonderful teacher!
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
In the same hour, the eunuch both believed and was baptized. He became one of the faithful and a saint. He was no longer a pupil, but a master. I have touched on this instance to convince you that you can make no progress in the Holy Scriptures unless you have a guide to show you the way. Once again, that was from St. Jerome. Again, just remarkable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
And this reality, of course, is that we have a guide. It's called the Magisterium of the Church. You know, if you have not yet read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, if you have not yet been a part of the Catechism in a year, my invitation is, you know, tomorrow you might pick up Bible in a year again. Also, you might consider picking up the Catechism in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
Now there's one last quote that I'd like to read to you. It's once again from a man who died roughly somewhere in the fifth century. His name is St. Vincent of Laran. And he talks about how scripture and tradition are necessary. Both of them are needed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
You know, what's one of the reasons why we not only have the Bible in your podcast, we have the catechism in your podcast because both scripture and tradition are absolutely essential. Here's what St. Vincent said back in the fifth century.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
I have often inquired most earnestly and attentively from very many experts in sanctity and learning how and by what definite and universal rule I might distinguish the truth of the Catholic faith from the falsity of heretical perversion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
And I have always received an answer of this kind from almost all of them, that whether I or anyone else wish to detect the frauds of newly rising heretics to avoid their snares and to remain secure and whole in the sound faith, one ought, with the Lord's help, to fortify one's faith in a twofold manner.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
First, by the authority of the divine law, and secondly, by the tradition of the Catholic Church. Here, perhaps, someone will ask, since the canon of Scripture is complete and is in itself sufficient and more than sufficient on all points, what need is there to join to it the authority of ecclesiastical interpretation?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
The answer, of course, is that, owing to the very depth of Holy Scripture itself, all do not receive it in one and the same sense, but in one way and another, in another interpret the declarations of the same writer, so that it seems possible to elicit from it as many opinions as there are men. for Novation expounds it in one way, Donatus another, and quite lately Nestorius another.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
And today, as I'm reading things, I need to put on some readers. So there's a little change there. But in other ways, I'm just so grateful for, because I go back and I listen. I listen on a regular basis to this podcast. I have to listen at two times speed. And I know people think that's crazy, but I listen at two times speed for at least two reasons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
So, it is most necessary, on account of the great intricacies of such various errors, that the rule for the interpretation of the prophets and apostles should be laid down in accordance with the standard of the ecclesiastical and Catholic understanding of them. Also, in the Catholic Church itself, we take great care that we hold that which has been believed everywhere, always, by all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
for that is truly and properly Catholic, as the very force and meaning of the words show, which comprehends everything almost universally. And we shall observe this rule if we follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole church throughout the world confesses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
Antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations, which it is plain that our ancestors and fathers proclaimed. consent, if in antiquity itself, we eagerly followed the definitions and beliefs of all, or certainly nearly all, priests and doctors alike. That was St. Vincent of Laron back in the year, well, year 450, he died around the year 450. But all of these teachers from St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
Jerome to St. John Chrysostom to St. Vincent, all of them pointing back to not only the need to know scripture, but the reality, of course, is we need to continue to defend ourselves against the onslaught of the evil one, of the world, and even of our own broken hearts. So that's my prayer, my prayer for everyone who's joining us today on this day 366. My invitation, how about this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
How about let's not let this be the last day. Let's just let this be day 366, but not the final day. Let it maybe be the final time around the sun. Let it be the final time through this podcast. But let tomorrow be day 367. If you want to call it day one, that would be fantastic. But my invitation is keep going. There's no need to stop and there's no reason to stop.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
You guys, it has been an incredible honor, an incredible joy, an incredible grace to be able to be with you every single day. This has been a gift to me. I hope that it has been a gift to you. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 366: A Special Leap Year Message
One is that, you know, when you listen to your own voice, you just are like, oh my goodness, that's what I sound like. If I go at two times speed, I can't hear myself. And then secondly, if I do listen at the normal speed, I am sitting there the entire time thinking, bro, you gotta talk faster. You're going so slow, which I know is maybe news for some people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
And there's something so powerfully true about this. And when we allow the Lord to love us, when we allow the Lord to delight in us, something changes, something radically changes. I think a lot of us hold on to this idea that I have to perform in order to please the Lord, that you have to perform in order to please the Lord, that you have to do something in order to be delighted in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
And Psalm 18 just says, no, he saved you because he delighted in you. He saved David because he delighted in David. And he saves you because he loves you. And it's something so powerful to allow it to really transform our hearts that you don't need to perform in order to be preferred, that the Lord just loves you. He already delights in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Okay, one quick note about 1 Samuel, the end of the book. Tomorrow, we're going on to 2 Samuel and to 1 Chronicles. But here's a couple things that just reveal the wisdom of David, right? So David's going to go fight with the Philistines, and they say, no, we don't trust you. And they were right. They should not trust David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Now, Akshi's trusted David because David's been lying to him all this time and saying that he's been doing raids upon the Israelite people, and he hasn't been. And so they send him back. Anyways, he gets back to Ziklag and realizes the Amalekites... have raided his city and they've taken off all the people, taken the people away. Now here's where David shows some wisdom, number of places.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Number one, David shows his wisdom by saying he donned the ephod, right, the clothing of the priest, and he goes before the Lord and he asks God, should we pursue these Amalekites? Should we pursue them in order to retrieve our family members and get back our stuff? And the first thing he does, he asks direction from the Lord. He doesn't just say, here's what we're going to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
David has learned, right? Remember, David has learned that I'm going to ask direction from the Lord first if I should go into this battle. And that's number one. Now, it could seem really obvious to you. Of course, you're going to go after them. But David shows wisdom and he prays first. Number two, after he routes the Amalekites and comes back, there's two other ways that David shows his wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
One is he had a party of 600 men at some point at the Brook of Besor. 200 of those men were so exhausted they couldn't go on any further. So they stayed with the baggage. They stayed with all their stuff and they guarded that stuff while the other 400 went on and defeated the Amalekites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Now when they come back with all their spoil, the 400 who fought say, we're not going to give any of this stuff to the 200 that didn't fight. You can have your families back, but you're not getting any of the spoil from war. And David said...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
no actually you did a service by fighting they did a service by guarding the luggage and so everyone gets the results of the spoil and he actually makes it an ordinance and in doing this he keeps his people he keeps the men united in in doing this recognizing that everyone serves a purpose even if not all those go into battle those who stay home are staying home for a purpose as well and he does such a good job of keeping the people united and the third thing he does that's so wise
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Is not this David, of whom they sing to one another in dances, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands? Then Akshish called David and said to him, As the Lord lives, you have been honest, and to me it seems right that you should march out and in with me in the campaign, for I have found nothing wrong in you from the day of your coming to me to this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
is when he comes back with all this spoil, he sends presents to the elders of Judah. Basically, David, he's a hair's breadth away now from uniting all the tribes of Israel. He's just not too far away from becoming the king now that King Saul in chapter 31 has been killed. David is on the verge of becoming the next king. So what does he do? He sends all of these gifts to the elders around the area.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
showing that, yep, I'm here to take care of you. I'm going to go off to battle and I'll take care of you. And there's something so powerful. David is showing himself that he has the heart of a king, that he has the heart of a true leader. And that's just another way in which David reveals himself to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
That being the man of prayer, who prays before he acts, that man who wants to be a man of justice, who... gives gifts or the spoils to the 200 as well as to the 400. And that person who gives the gifts is going to be uniting the tribes of Israel, uniting the families of Israel to make a kingdom of Israel. Anyways, that's all coming up in the next number of days. And so we're very excited.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
I'm so excited to get to 2 Samuel and first starting 1 Chronicles tomorrow. It's going to be great. Just FYI, 1 Chronicles, the first number of chapters, a lot of names, just pointing out there, a lot of names in the beginning of 1 Chronicles. But that's okay. We like names and we like being here. I like you guys. This community is phenomenal. And please know that I'm praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Please pray for me. Please pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 119. We are at the last few chapters, in fact, the last three chapters of 1 Samuel 29, 30 and 31. We're also going to be praying today, Psalm 18.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Nevertheless, the lords do not approve of you. So go back now, and go peaceably, that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines. And David said to Akshish, But what have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day I entered your service until now, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
And Akshish made answer to David, I know that you are as blameless in my sight as an angel of God. Nevertheless, the commanders of the Philistines have said, He shall not go up with us to the battle. Now then, rise early in the morning with the servants of your Lord who came with you, and start early in the morning, and depart as soon as you have light.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
So David set out with his men early in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Now, when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid upon the Negev and upon Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burnt it with fire and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. David's two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nebal of Carmel. And David was greatly distressed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
For the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, Bring me the ephod. So Abiathar brought the ephod to David. And David inquired of the Lord, Shall I pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
He answered him, Pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue. So David set out, and the six hundred men who were with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where those stayed who were left behind. But David went on with the pursuit, he and four hundred men, two hundred stayed behind, who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
They found an Egyptian in the open country, and brought him to David. And they gave him bread, and he ate. They gave him water to drink. And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins, and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
and when he had eaten his spirit revived for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights and david said to him to whom do you belong and where are you from he said i am a young man of egypt servant to an amalekite and my master left me behind because i fell sick three days ago
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
We had made a raid upon the Negev of the Cherethites, and upon that which belongs to Judah, and upon the Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire. And David said to him, Will you take me down to this band? And he said, Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this band.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
And when he had taken him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. And David struck them from twilight until the evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped except 400 young men who mounted camels and fled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
As always, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And if you've not yet subscribed to this podcast, I invite you to consider that. And then after considering to actually do it, that'd be really good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives. Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken, David brought back all. David also captured all the flocks and herds, and the people drove those cattle before him and said, This is David's spoil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow David and who had been left at the brook Besor. And they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David drew near to the people, he saluted them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Then all the wicked and base fellows among the men who had gone with David said, Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil which we have recovered, except that each man may lead away his wife and children and depart. But David said, You shall not do so, my brothers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
With what the Lord has given us, he has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us. Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike. And from that day forward, he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day. When David came to Ziklag,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
He sent part of the spoil to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, Here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
It was for those in Bethel, in Ramoth of the Negev, in Jatir, in Eroar, in Sifmoth of Eshtimoah, in Rakhal, in the cities of the Jeremelites, in the cities of the Kenites, in Hormah, in Borashan, in Natak, in Hebron, for all the places where David and his men had roamed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Melchishua, the sons of Saul. The battle pressed hard upon Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and make sport of me. But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Thus Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men, on the same day, together. And when the men of Israel, who were on the other side of the valley and those beyond the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook their cities and fled. And the Philistines came and dwelt in them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
It really takes no time at all. You just click subscribe and then you're subscribed. As I said, it is day 119. We're reading 1 Samuel chapter 29, chapter 30, chapter 31, and we're praying Psalm 18. 1 Samuel chapter 29. The Philistines reject David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
On the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to their idols and to the people. They put his armor in the temple of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall at Bet-shan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bet-shan. And they came to Jabesh and burnt them there. And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and fasted seven days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
To the choir master, a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hands of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, he said, I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
My stronghold. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies. The cords of death encompassed me. The torrents of perdition assailed me. The cords of Sheol entangled me. The snares of death confronted me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord. To my God, I cried for help. From his temple, he heard my voice and my cry to him reached his ears.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Then the earth reeled and rocked. The foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth. Glowing coals flamed forth from him. He bowed the heavens and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
he rode on a cherub and flew he came swiftly upon the wings of the wind he made darknesses covering around him his canopy thick clouds dark with water out of the brightness before him there broke through his clouds hailstones and coals of fire the lord also thundered in the heavens And the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. And he sent out his arrows and scattered them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
He flashed forth lightnings and routed them. Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils. He reached from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
They came upon me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth into a broad place. He delivered me because he delighted in me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
the lord rewarded me according to my righteousness according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me for i have kept the ways of the lord and have not wickedly departed from my god for all his ordinances were before me and his statutes i did not put away from me i was blameless before him and i kept myself from guilt therefore the lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Now the Philistines gathered all their forces at Aphek, and the Israelites were encamped by the fountain which is in Jezreel, as the lords of the Philistines were passing on by hundreds and by thousands. And David and his men were passing on in the rear with Akshish. The commanders of the Philistines said, What are these Hebrews doing here?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
With the loyal, you show yourself loyal. With the blameless man, you show yourself blameless. With the pure, you show yourself pure. And with the crooked, you show yourself perverse. For you deliver a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down. Yes, you light my lamp. The Lord my God lightens my darkness. Yes, by you I can crush a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
This God, his way is perfect. The promise of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For who is God but the Lord? And who is a rock except our God, the God who girded me with strength and made my way safe? He made my feet like deer's feet and set me secure on the heights. He trains my hands for war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
You have given me the shield of your salvation and your right hand supported me and your help made me great. You gave a wide place for my steps under me and my feet did not slip.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
i pursued my enemies and overtook them and i did not turn back till they were consumed i thrust them through so that they were not able to rise they fell under my feet for you girded me with strength for the battle you made my assailants sink under me You made my enemies turn their backs to me, and those who hated me I destroyed. They cried for help, but there was none to save.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
They cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them. I beat them fine as dust before the wind. I cast them out like the mire of the streets. You delivered me from strife with the peoples. You made me the head of the nations. People whom I had not known served me. As soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me. Foreigners came cringing to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their strongholds. The Lord lives and blessed be my rock and exalted be the God of my salvation. The God who gave me vengeance and subdued peoples under me, who delivered me from my enemies. Yes, you exalted me above my adversaries. You delivered me from men of violence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
For this I will extol you, O Lord, among the nations and sing praises to your name. Great triumphs he gives to his king and shows mercy to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
We thank you so much for this opportunity to listen to your word and to see the end of Saul and to have followed him, the one who was anointed first, the one who was anointed by Samuel, anointed by you and called and consecrated to be a king, to fight for the people of Israel. And we are honored that you revealed not only the fact that you called Saul, but also the
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
And Akshish said to the commanders of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant of Saul, king of Israel, who has been with me now for days and for years? And since he deserted to me, I have found no fault in him to this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
the way in which our choices, even in the midst of being called, can either raise us up to you or can lead us away from you. And Lord God, we just ask you to please help us to be people who have been anointed, but say yes to you. People who have been chosen by you and then are faithful to you because every one of us has a heart like Saul. Every one of us has a heart that can turn away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
And we just ask you to please, please, Always keep us in your grasp. Always keep us near your heart. And never let us wander away. Never let us die alone apart from you. But always allow us to walk with you and to die in you. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Just a couple quick things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
um one is in psalm 18 which is just such a good psalm i don't know if you when we're praying these psalms if if you ever get kind of lost because sometimes they're short and sometimes they're long and sometimes but we and sometimes they can be a little i don't know what the word is they can come out of left field in the sense that we don't necessarily always have a context obviously the subtitle of the psalm can give us a certain context today the subtitle was this is a psalm of david uh who addressed the words of this song to the lord on the day when the lord delivered him from the hands of all his enemies and from the hand of saul
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
Right. That's good context. But sometimes if you're not reading along and praying along with your eyes as well as with your ears, it can sometimes just kind of go on and on and we don't know exactly where we're going next.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
So one of my invitations is when it comes to the psalm, even if you listen at one point during the day, it might be helpful to even go back at night or maybe another time of the day and take out that Bible of yours and and then just let your eyes match up with your heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
but the commanders of the philistines were angry with him and the commanders of the philistines said to him send the man back that he may return to the place to which you have assigned him he shall not go down with us to battle lest in the battle he become an adversary to us for how could this fellow reconcile himself to his lord Would it not be with the heads of the men here?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
And maybe in some ways, just to be able to go back and to allow yourself to follow along, just because it can be kind of a new way to pray. One of the things that sticks out to me from this Psalm 18, well, there's so many great things, so many good things. But one line that every time I pray this Psalm 18, which is pretty, pretty often, there is a line that talks again, Psalm 18 verse 19.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 119: David's Wisdom (2025)
It says, he brought me forth into a broad place. He delivered me because he delighted in me. The translation that I typically will use when it comes to the liturgy of the hours, when I'm praying Psalms, the Psalms is he saved me because he loved me. And there's something about that. He delivered me because he delighted in me. He saved me because he loved me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
The Lord God, he's setting his people free for their own sake, but he's also setting them free so that they can become a people who is free to worship him as he's asking them to worship him. And it is just such a gift. That's one of the reasons why as we're looking back into Leviticus now, chapter two and chapter three, We have the peace offering. We have the serial offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
We have these different ways that God had asked his people to worship him. And that's why we pay attention to Leviticus, because this was the way that God had asked in ancient times his people to worship him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And so we pay attention to that, knowing that God has asked us in this final age, in this age of the church, this age of the Holy Spirit, this age of Christianity, that he's asked us to worship him in the mass. And why it's absolutely critical that we do what he's asked us to do, because he's made us to worship him this way. He's created us to worship him in this way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And he's given us everything that we need to give him the worship that he deserves and the worship that he has asked for. It's such a gift. What a gift, not only to be able to hear these words, to speak these words to y'all, but also to pray with you. I invite you, continue to pray for each other. We have not yet gotten to the place where God delivers his people from slavery in Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And the story that's coming up relatively quickly, but we have to go through a number of number of experiences first. They're going through those tomorrow and the days to come. But in the meantime, we continue to pray for each other. My invitation, please pray for each other. Please pray for me. I am praying for you. This journey is a long one and it is not one that I think we can make on our own.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
So we need each other. We pray for each other. We help each other. And God willing, I cannot wait to see you again tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And he said, here am I. Then he said, do not come near. Put off your shoes from your feet for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day 28. Let's keep on going. We're going to be reading today from Exodus chapter three, just one chapter in Exodus. but also Leviticus chapter two and three, as well as Psalm 45.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
Then the Lord said, I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
a land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt? He said, But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you. When you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
Then Moses said to God, If I come to the sons of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask of me, What is his name? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the sons of Israel. I am has sent me to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
God also said to Moses, say this to the sons of Israel, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. And thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob has appeared to me saying, I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And I promise that I will bring you up out of affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey. And they will listen to your voice. And you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews has met with us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And now we beg you, let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord, our God. I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders, which I will do in it. After that, he will let you go. and I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And when you go, you shall not go empty, but each woman shall ask of her neighbor and of her who sojourns in her house, jewelry of silver and of gold and clothing, and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
Thus you shall despoil the Egyptians. Leviticus chapter two and chapter three.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
When anyone brings a cereal offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour. He shall pour oil upon it and put frankincense on it and bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests. And he shall take it from a handful of the fine flour and oil with all of its frankincense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
If you want to get a copy of your own Bible in a Year podcast reading plan, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Go to ascensionpress.com Bible in a Year. You can get that free download of your Bible in a Year reading plan. Also, I invite you to subscribe to this podcast. That way, every single day, whenever we drop a new episode, you have it accessible to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And the priest shall burn this as its memorial portion upon the altar, an offering by fire, a pleasing order to the Lord. And what is left of the cereal offering shall be for Aaron and his sons. It is most holy part of the offerings by fire to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
When you bring a cereal offering baked in the oven as an offering, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil or unleavened wafers spread with oil. And if your offering is a cereal offering baked on a griddle, it shall be of fine flour unleavened mixed with oil. You shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it. It is a cereal offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And if your offering is a cereal offering cooked in a pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. And you shall bring the cereal offering that is made of these things to the Lord. And when it is presented to the priest, he shall bring it to the altar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And the priest shall take from the cereal offering its memorial portion and burn this on the altar, an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord. And what is left of the cereal offering shall be for Aaron and his sons. It is a most holy part of the offerings by fire to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
No serial offering which you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey as an offering by fire to the Lord. As an offering of first fruits, you may bring them to the Lord, but they shall not be offered on the altar for a pleasing order. You shall season all your cereal offerings with salt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be lacking from your cereal offering. With all your offerings, you shall offer salt. If you offer a cereal offering of first fruits to the Lord, you shall offer for the cereal offering of your first fruits, crushed new grain from fresh ears, parched with fire. And you shall put oil upon it and lay frankincense on it. It is a cereal offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And the priest shall burn as its memorial portion part of the crushed grain and of the oil with all of its frankincense. It is an offering by fire to the Lord. Peace Offerings If a man's offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering and kill it at the door of the tent of meeting. And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall throw the blood against the altar round about.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And from the sacrifice of the peace offering as an offering by fire to the Lord, he shall offer the fat covering the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the appendage of the liver, which he shall take away with the kidneys.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
Then Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt offering, which is upon the wood on the fire. It is an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord. If his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord is an animal from the flock, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
If he offers a lamb for his offering, then he shall offer it before the Lord, laying his hand upon the head of his offering and killing it before the tent of meeting. And Aaron's sons shall throw its blood against the altar roundabout.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
Then from the sacrifice of the peace offering as an offering by fire to the Lord, he shall offer its fat, the fat tail and tire, taking it away close by the backbone and the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the appendage of the liver, which he shall take away with the kidneys and the priest shall burn it on the altar as food offered by fire to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And it's just right there. We're reading from, as always, the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. And I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension, which is so helpful. We are now in a new period. We started yesterday with Exodus chapter one and chapter two, this time of seeing what happens when the Lord begins to set his people free and leads them out of slavery in Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
if his offering is a goat then he shall offer it before the lord and lay his hand upon its head and kill it before the tent of meeting and the sons of aaron shall throw its blood against the altar round about then he shall offer from it as his offering for an offering by fire to the lord the fat covering the entrails
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys, with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the appendage of the liver which he shall take away with the kidneys, and the priest shall burn them on the altar as food offered by fire for a pleasing odor. All fat is the Lord's.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood. Psalm 45, ode for a royal wedding to the choir master, according to the lilies, a mascal of the sons of Korah, a love song. My heart overflows with a goodly theme. I address my verses to the king. My tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
You are the fairest of the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips. Therefore, God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one, in your glory and majesty. In your majesty, ride forth victoriously for the cause of truth and to defend the right. Let your right hand teach you dread deeds. Your arrows are sharp.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
In the heart of the king's enemies, the peoples fall under you. Your divine throne endures forever and ever. Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity. You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows. Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and kesha. From ivory palaces, stringed instruments make you glad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
Daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor. At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. Hear, O daughter, consider, and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him. The people of Tyre will court your favor with gifts. The richest of the people with all kinds of wealth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
The daughter of the king is decked in her chamber with gold woven robes. In many colored robes she is led to the king with her virgin companions, her escort in her train. With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king. Instead of your fathers shall be your sons. You will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be celebrated in all generations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
Therefore, the peoples will praise you forever and ever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
Father in heaven, we thank you. Once again, we thank you for your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
We thank you for the gift of yourself. And we thank you for being with us with your grace. We know that we can trust you in all things. We know that we can rely upon you at every moment of our lives. And so this moment, and with these things in our lives, we trust you. We declare you are good. We declare that you are faithful. We receive your love and we rest in your peace. In Jesus' name we pray.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Man, oh man, we are continuing our journey through Exodus and Leviticus. And it is, I don't know, hopefully you are getting a sense of like, okay, this is something big. Maybe these are the first times you've ever read or ever heard the words of Exodus where God actually calls Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
Again, spoiler alert. Sorry about that. But today we're continuing our story. by following this man, Moses, who has fled to the area of Midian by reading Exodus chapter three. Exodus chapter three. Now, Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
Like a lot of us are familiar with the Prince of Egypt, right? Or a lot of us are familiar with the movie, the 10 commandments, but not a lot of us. Sometimes we've never necessarily read all of the words or heard all of the words of
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
when god appears to moses and i know sometimes some of you you might have noticed wait a second since i've never read all these words like of exodus chapter 2 and now exodus chapter 3 today i noticed that um yesterday moses was said to have gotten married to zipporah who is the daughter of a guy named raul But today it says Jethro was the name of Moses' father-in-law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
You're like, what the, what's going on here? Well, there are a number of scholars who refer to them as the same person because he will be referred to it kind of like Jacob and Israel, you know, they're same person, two different names. And so same thing with in the New Testament, we have Peter and Simon. And even after Jesus changes Simon's name to Peter, he gets referred to at times as Simon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
So it's not completely unusual for people, characters in the Bible to have more than one name. But if you've never read Exodus chapter 2 and chapter 3 before, you might have been like, wait a second here. What's going on? That's what's going on, is that they are the same person, and they're just referred to by two different names.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
There's some other theories, too, like maybe Reul is the head of the entire household, but Jethro is the actual father of Zipporah. But nonetheless, the most important thing from our story today is not only... that God says, listen, I have heard, I have watched, I have observed, I care about the sufferings of my people. I've heard their cries. And this is one of the things for us. It's so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
It's so necessary for us to know that this is true, to know that when we cry out to the Lord and it doesn't seem like there's any answer. Remember, this has been hundreds and hundreds of years of the people of Israel being blessed by the Lord in the sense that they're having more children and they're becoming stronger and stronger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
but also being in terrible circumstances where they're being worked with rigor, where they're being treated as slaves and being forced to live as slaves. Yet, the entire time, God has heard their cry. The entire time, God has loved every one of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
The entire time, he's blessed them in many ways, even if one of his blessings, this is important, even if one of his blessings hadn't yet been their freedom from slavery. This is so important for all of us. We can be in the midst of horrible situations I'll be crying out to God, like, deliver me from this situation. Please answer this particular prayer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And there can be times, many times, in fact, when God doesn't release us from that particular situation, when he doesn't free us from that particular thing that's in our lives. But that doesn't mean that he's not blessing us in dozens upon hundreds of other ways.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And one of the important things for all of us to do is to recognize that just because God has not answered this prayer doesn't mean he's not answering any prayers. Just because he hasn't blessed me in this particular way doesn't mean that he is not blessing me in a bunch of other ways. It's one of the things the people of Israel...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
Kept in mind, even as they were in the midst of slavery, that God was continually with them, that he was continually helping them in strengthening them and blessing them, even though they were in incredibly awful circumstances. But when God said to Moses, here's what's going to happen. I want you to come out back to this place, to come back to this mountain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
And on this mountain, you're going to do something specific. On this mountain, you will worship me. This is key. This is absolutely critical. It's going to be the refrain we're going to go hit on for the rest of the book of Exodus, at least the narrative part of this book, where God is saying, I'm setting you free not just because you're made for freedom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 28: The Burning Bush (2025)
I'm setting you free not just because slavery is bad and it demeans you. I'm setting you free not just even to bring you back to the promised land. I'm setting you free so you can worship. And this is so critical.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
I'll heal their land. Like I basically here's God saying, whenever you're not faithful, just remember, I am faithful. Turn back to the temple worship. Turn back to this place. Turn back to my presence. Turn back to worship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
turn back to obedience of my commandments and i will hear your prayers and but then he says but as for you and this is so critical as for you if you walk before me as david your father walked doing according to all that i've commanded you keeping the statutes and also saying he says i'll be with you as i was with your father david but if you turn aside and forsake my commandments and statutes and go and serve other gods and worship them then i will pluck you from the land now god is giving king solomon
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
clear, clear commandment. He's given him wisdom. Solomon knows stuff, right? He's also given him a direct, direct warning saying that just stay faithful to me and stay close to me and I'll be with you. What we know is that Solomon will not. In fact, in chapter eight, what It says, Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the city of David to the house which he had built for her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
He said, my wife shall not live in the house of David, king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the Lord have come are holy. So you think, oh, yeah, no, he's making it separate. He's keeping Pharaoh's daughter away because she's not part of the covenant. She's not part of that covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
She's part of the alliance, right, between Israel and Egypt, but she's not part of the covenant in terms of belonging to the Lord God. But what is this? We noted before, when Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter, he was opening himself up for idolatry. And this is what's going to happen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
Rather than Pharaoh's daughter being brought into the people of Israel, rather than Pharaoh's daughter being brought into the covenant, rather than Pharaoh's daughter learning about the Lord God, the one God, the God above every other God, Pharaoh's Solomon just says, well, you know what? She's just going to live outside of the city of David because she's not part of the covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
And so just going to keep her outside as opposed to why not? Why don't you bring her in? Why don't you rather than let her worship her false gods of Egypt? Why not bring her in to the worship of the one true God, the Lord God? But Solomon doesn't do this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
And also we noticed that the fact that he has a lot of stuff, whatever the word in English is for that, that Solomon has thousands and thousands of chariots, thousands of horses, thousands of horsemen,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
Solomon already, as we know, even though he's wise, even though God is speaking to him in his prayers, Solomon is doing what he was warned, what the kings were warned not to do, to not gather to themselves horses and chariots and horsemen and not to multiply for themselves these things. And yet that is what Solomon is doing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
Remember, the place of the temple is a place of God's presence and also a place of worship. But remember the kind of worship that God desires, the kind of sacrifice that God desires is obedience. And here are the chinks in Solomon's armor that while he is wise and he knows he knows more than anybody, he is not willing to be obedient. Maybe that's one of our downfalls as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
The first book of Kings, chapter 5. Preparations and materials for the temple. Now Hiram, king of Tyre, sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram always loved David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
When we are like, oh, no, no, I know, I know, I know. I just don't want to. I know what God wants. I just don't want to do what God wants. And maybe there's a good reason. Well, you know, we have peace now, but maybe we won't have peace in the future. So let me get these horses around here. Yeah, we have good relations with the nations around us, but maybe we won't always.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
So I'm going to marry Pharaoh's daughter. And it could seem wise. Maybe it even could be wise in some ways. but it's not obedient. If we want to love God, we have to be obedient to God. There's no other way to love God than to obey him. So the other way we love God, the two ways we love God, one is obedience and the other is by loving our neighbor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
Here's Solomon and he's on the road away from obedience to God and away from God, even though he'd been warned. And all of us, we've been taught as well. And so I just ask the Lord to help us, help us to be faithful, help us to be obedient to his commandments, even when it seems like, no, no, no, there's something wise over here. But yeah, but if it's not obedient, then I don't want to do it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
And so I can't do that on my own because I am just such, I have a rebellious heart and I have a disobedient heart and I want to do what I want to do. And so I need prayers. And so I'm asking for your prayers for me. I am praying for you. Let's pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 147. We're reading from 1 Kings 5, 2 Chronicles 7 and 8. We're also praying today, Psalm 66. As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
And Solomon sent word to Hiram, You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
And so I propose to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord said to David my father, your son, whom I will set upon your throne in your place, shall build a house for my name. Now, therefore, command that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me, and my servants will join your servants, and I will pay you for your servants such wages as you set."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
For you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians. When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, Blessed be the Lord this day, who has given to David a wise son to be over this great people. And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have heard the message which you have sent to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
I am ready to do all you desire in the manner of cedar and cypress timber.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
my servants shall bring it down to the sea from lebanon and i will make it into rafts to go by sea to the place you direct and i will have them broken up there and you shall receive it and you shall meet my wishes by providing food for my household so hiram supplied solomon with all the timber of cedar and cypress that he desired
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
while Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 cores of wheat as food for his household and 20,000 cores of beaten oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year, and the Lord gave Solomon wisdom as he promised him. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty. King Solomon raised a levy of forced labor out of all Israel, and the levy numbered 30,000 men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
And he sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in relays. They would be a month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the levy. Solomon also had 70,000 burden bearers and 80,000 hewers of stone in the hill country, besides Solomon's 3,300 chief officers who were over the work, who had charge of the people who carried out the work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
At the king's command, they quarried out great costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones. So Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the men of Gabal did the hewing and prepared the timber and the stone to build the house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
When all the children of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord upon the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the earth on the pavement and worshipped and gave thanks to the Lord saying, For he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord. King Solomon offered as a sacrifice 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. The priests stood at their posts. The Levites also with the instruments for music to the Lord, which King David had made for giving thanks to the Lord for his mercy endures forever. Whenever David offered praises by their ministry. Opposite them the priests sounded trumpets, and all Israel stood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
It's the Second Catholic Edition. And I am using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. To download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, you can subscribe to this podcast by clicking subscribe. Very simple, very easy. As I said, it's day 147.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
And Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord, for there he offered the burnt offering and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar Solomon had made could not hold the burnt offering and the cereal offering and the fat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
At that time Solomon held the feast for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entrance of Hamath to the And on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for they had kept the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that the Lord had shown to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people. the Lord's second appearance to Solomon. Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house, he successfully accomplished. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain or command the locusts to devour the land or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. And as for you, if you walk before me as David your father walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my ordinances,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
Then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, There shall not fail you a man to rule Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from the land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all the peoples.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
And at this house, which is exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, Why has the Lord done thus to the land and to this house? Then they will say, Because they forsook the Lord the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them. Therefore he has brought all this evil upon them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
Chapter eight, Solomon builds many cities. At the end of 20 years in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house, Solomon rebuilt the cities which Haram had given to him and settled the sons of Israel in them. And Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and took it. He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the store cities which he built in Hamath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
And that means, not only does it mean that we're almost...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
He also built upper Beth Haran and lower Beth Haran, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars, and Baalath, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and Lebanon and in all the land of his dominion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
all the people who were left of the hittites the amorites the perizzites the hivites and the jebusites who were not of israel from their descendants who were left after them in the land whom the sons of israel had not destroyed these solomon made a forced levy and so they are to this day But of the sons of Israel, Solomon made no slaves for his work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
to day 150 which means halfway to day 300 which means closer to day 365 but it also means that shortly after this in maybe i would say roughly i don't know let's say give or take seven days from now we're going to be having our second messianic checkpoint in seven days from now so one week from today we're having our second messianic checkpoint with the gospel of mark you would know this if you had downloaded the bible in your reading plan but if you didn't now you do and it is awesome because
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
They were soldiers and his officers, the commanders of his chariots and his horsemen. And these were the chief officers of King Solomon, 250 who exercised authority over the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the city of David to the house which he had built for her, for he said, My wife shall not live in the house of David, king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the Lord has come are holy. Then Solomon offered up burnt offerings to the Lord upon the altar of the Lord, which he had built before the vestibule, as the duty of each day required.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
offering according to the commandment of Moses for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the three annual feasts, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
According to the ordinance of David his father, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their offices of praise and ministry before the priests as the duty of each day required, and the gatekeepers in their divisions for the several gates. For so David the man of God had commanded."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
and they did not turn aside from what the king had commanded the priests and the Levites concerning any matter and concerning the treasuries. Thus was accomplished all the work of Solomon from the day the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
Then Solomon went to Ezion-Geber and Eloth on the shore of the sea in the land of Edom, and Haram sent him by his servants, ships and servants familiar with the sea, And they went to Ophir together with the servants of Solomon and fetched from there 450 talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
To the choir master, a song, a psalm. Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth. Sing the glory of his name. Give to him glorious praise. Say to God, how awesome are your deeds. So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you. All the earth worships you. They sing praises to you. Sing praises to your name. Come and see what God has done. He is awesome in his deeds among men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
He turned the sea into dry land. Men passed through the river on foot. There did we rejoice in him who rules by his might forever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations. Let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Bless our God, O peoples. Let the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept us among the living and has not let our feet slip. For you, O God, have tested us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
You have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net. You laid affliction on our backs. You let men ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water. Yet you have brought us forth to a spacious place. I will come into your house with burnt offerings. I will pay you my vows, that which my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams. I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Come and hear all you who fear God and I will tell him what he has done for me. I cried aloud to him. and he was extolled with my tongue. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened, but truly God has listened.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
He has given heed to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his merciful love from me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
You do hear our prayers. God, I mean, every time we talk to you, Lord, you hear our voices. You know the longing of our hearts. You know the depth of our prayer. You also know our distraction. You know how easily we can be distracted from loving you with our whole heart, with our whole mind, with our whole strength. You know how easily it is that we are turned aside from you. And so...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
We thank you for being able to hear through all the noise, cutting through all of the distraction, cutting through all of the turmoil that our hearts can experience because you know our hearts. You not only know the peace in our hearts, you know the troubled hearts that live in our chests. And so we ask you, please.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
Once again, let your ears be open, let your eyes be open to see who we are, to see us truly and to hear our voice and to hear our prayers this day and every day. You make this prayer in Jesus' name, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So, okay, this is one of those kind of
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
We're going to get the chance, just like we did a while back with the gospel of John. We're going to be able to walk through this gospel in the middle of this whole story, right? With Solomon and the temple and Solomon and building things in Solomon's wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
moments where, yes, clearly 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles are connected, but they're a little bit disconnected, right? In the sense that they're talking about some of the same things, but we're just on a little bit of a different timeline. Yesterday, we had King David dedicate the great prayer. The temple is dedicated. The Ark of the Lord is there. This is what we're going to be worshiping.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
And today in 1 Kings chapter 5, we're back with him getting the cedars and the cypress trees for building the temple. And so it's one of those things where we just kind of remember Oh, that's right. First Kings are a little bit behind Second Chronicles. They're a little bit ahead and they're looking back over this history and recounting what had gone down then.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
And so just keep that in mind as we move forward, because it can be at times a little bit difficult to like, wait, where are they? How about they built the temple? Yes, that is in Second Chronicles where the temple has already been built and dedicated. And they're trucking right along there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
But in first Kings, here is Solomon who is still establishing that temple, which I think is really helpful for us because it reminds us of the importance and the centrality of the temple. Why? Not only because that is where God's presence would abide.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
I mean, oh my gosh, what a gift to be able to hear in second Chronicles chapter seven, that here's the prayer of dedication at the very beginning of this. And Solomon finished praying and fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. This is, oh my goodness, this demonstrates the power of God's presence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
And the temple is essential because God's presence would abide there. Absolutely. That's absolutely clear. But it's also essential because that is where the people would offer their worship and And this is just so critical for us. It's so critical for us to understand the importance and the necessity of worshiping God as he has asked us to worship him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
And it's just, so as I said, in 1 Kings 5, preparations for building the temple and Solomon's working with his man Hiram. Hiram was good buddies with King David and he praises the Lord, which is so interesting. Hiram is not a Jew, but he's praising the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
We're going to take a break and we're going to jump ahead to Jesus and see how he is the fulfillment of everything that God has wanted his people to know and not just to know, but to be. Ah, so that's where we're at now, and that's where we're going to be in just a week from today. But as I said, it's day 147. We're reading 1 Kings 5, 2 Chronicles 7 and 8, and Psalm 66.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
He gives praise to God that David has such a wise son and helps him out with the cedars from Lebanon and everything that he needs with a bunch of people as well to have the labor that goes into building the temple. But then also we have just something interesting, a couple of things interesting about 2 Chronicles 7 and 8. And what are we talking about?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
What we're talking about is the fact not only that in the beginning of Chronicles chapter 7, Solomon ends his prayer, fire comes down from heaven, and the glory of the Lord fills the place. So, so, so beautiful and powerful. But also we have... A couple notes in chapter seven, Solomon finishes the house of the Lord and his own house, the King's house. And the Lord appears to Solomon by night.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 147: Temple Worship (2025)
He appears to him once again in the way that he had appeared to him before saying, ask me anything and I'll give it to you. And this time he doesn't say, you know, what do you want? He says, here's what I need you to know. He says, I need you to know that if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and seek my face, then I will hear from heaven. I'll forgive their sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
I can't remember if there are evidences to that interpretation, but it seems to make sense to me. Now, the Corinthian church gets established and now Paul has left and everything has kind of fallen apart. Not everything's fallen apart, but a lot of things have fallen apart. And the first thing that Paul has, I mean, he gets what, nine verses in and he begins in verse 10 of chapter one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
He's saying, okay, I got to start cracking some skulls, guys, because you are not. What are you doing? And there's dissension in the church. And he says, some people are saying I belong to Paul. I belong to Apollos. I belong to Kepha. Now, it's C-E-P-H-A-S. So some people say Cephas. I looked up a pronunciation thing one time years ago because I don't like Cephas. Cephas sounds stupid. Ha!
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
I'm sorry, I just don't like it. But Kepha sounds actually more close to what it would be called in Hebrew or Aramaic in those Mediterranean languages. And actually, there's an argument the pronunciation is Kepha. So there we go. Oh, sorry, by the way, Kepha means Peter. So that's how you'd say rock in that language. Back to our story. So there's dissension in the church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
I belong to Paul or I belong to Apollos. I belong to Kepha. There we go. Or I belong to Christ. And almost immediately here in chapter one, verse 10, St. Paul, he's talking about dissensions in the church and he sounds like he's ready to crack some skulls. I mean, he is saying that, okay, At one point, you were all united. You were all united in Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
And then what happens is all of a sudden, now you're saying, oh, you're in teams now. So some are team Paul or some are team Apollos. Apollos was a well-known orator. He was a Christian who preached really incredibly well, apparently. So Paul, he says he doesn't preach really well in person. He writes really well, but he doesn't preach really well in person. Apollos, though, man,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
That guy, he knew how to turn a phrase. Or I belong to Kephas. I know it's C-E-P-H-A-S, which is Cephas, right? But Kephas, I think, is the one acceptable pronunciation of the name of Peter. Or I belong to Christ. So you have these four factions, maybe three factions, and one group of people saying, no, no, we belong to Jesus. But you could see how the appeal would be. I belong to Paul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
Yeah, he was the one who founded our community. Or I belong to Apollos. He's the one who has the incredible words. You know, he's the great speaker. Or I belong to Kepha, right? Because he is the prince of the apostles, of course. But in all those things, Paul is saying those divisions, those teams, those factions, they're working against the unity of the church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
And not only that, but they are violating the very reason why you came to know Jesus in the first place. Because you came to know Jesus not through wisdom. Remember when Paul went to Athens, he preached wisdom and he was really wise. He read really, really smart things. But when he came to the people in Corinth, he resolved to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heaven opened and something descending like a great sheet let down by four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, No, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
They were not convinced by Paul's words. They were convinced by the power of the cross. And he's just reminding them, have you forgotten this? Have you forgotten that the reason why you came in the first place to profess faith in Jesus Christ was because you encountered Jesus in his cross? This is the temptation for every single one of us. We sometimes, we forget the cross, we forget Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
Or sometimes we forget the fact that Jesus and his cross go hand in hand. And we forget, we think that, you know, what's this preacher or that preacher? It's this teaching or that teaching. It's this way of, you know, singing a song or praising God or that way. And we realize that, no, if I forget, if I forget Jesus Christ and him crucified, I'm going to miss the point.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
And so in chapter two, he says so clearly, And so he goes on. So that your faith might not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. That's what the reason I believe that when Paul went to Corinth, as opposed to Athens, he just, he knew I can't make any miracles on my own. I need the power of God working through me. So humbly, Paul allowed the Lord God to work mighty works through him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
And the people saw those and came to know the truth of Jesus Christ crucified and the power of God. Does that make sense? Tomorrow, we're going to talk about a little bit more in that dissension, like that kind of division, those factions, those teams in the Corinthian church. but also there are a lot of people who are not living. Corinth was a pretty bad place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
We'll talk about that a little bit more tomorrow. Corinth was a, you might say the Las Vegas of that era, but Las Vegas has its good parts, right? I think, I don't know. I've never been there, but Corinth was a pretty nasty spot, pretty dangerous place to live if you want to be a holy person. And those people in Corinth, that's where they chose to live before they became Christian.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
And so they have a lot of bad habits, a lot of bad influences in their lives. And some of them are sliding back to those bad habits. And so as Paul keeps writing to the Corinthians, he's going to have to keep calling them back to the heart of the gospel, calling them back to the heart of Jesus and calling them back to the church. And so that's what we're going to get for the next couple of days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It's day 331. We're reading from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 10, as well as 1 Corinthians, chapter 1 and 2. We're also reading Proverbs, chapter 27, verses 21 and 22.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
But here we are today on day 331, which has been a gift and a half. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
And the voice came to him again a second time, What God has cleansed you must not call common. This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
Now, while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision which he had seen might mean, behold, the men that were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood before the gate and called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was lodging there. And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, Behold, three men are looking for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
Rise and go down, and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them. And Peter went down to the men and said, I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
And they said, Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say. So he called them in to be his guests. The next day he rose off and went off with them, and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his kinsmen and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him, but Peter lifted him up, saying, Stand up, I too am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered, and he said to them,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I asked then, Why you sent for me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
And Cornelius said, Four days ago, about this hour, I was keeping the ninth hour of prayer in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright apparel, saying, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms have been remembered before God. Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon a tanner by the seaside.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
So I sent to you at once and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord. Gentiles hear the good news. And Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly, I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
You know the word which he sent to the sons of Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
the word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses to all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates. It is day 331.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. But God raised him on the third day and made him manifest, not to all the people, but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. The Gentiles received the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
While Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word, and the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
Then Peter declared, Can anyone forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother Sosthenes. To the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours, grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
I give thanks to God always for you, because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
God is faithful, by whom you are called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. dissension in the church. I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren. What I mean is that each one of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Kepha, or I belong to Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
We're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 10, 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2, Proverbs chapter 27, verses 21 and 22. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 10. Peter and Cornelius. At Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms liberally to the people, and prayed constantly to God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
I am thankful that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that you were baptized in my name. I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else." For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
Christ the power and wisdom of God. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your call, brethren. Not many of you were wise according to the flesh. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no flesh might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, let him who boasts, boast of the Lord. 2.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
Proclaiming Christ Crucified When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away, but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
But as it is written, For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what person knows a man's thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the spirit. The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
The crucible is for silver and the furnace is for gold and a man is judged by his praise. Crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius. And he stared at him in terror and said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging with Simon, a tanner whose house is by the seaside.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
We thank you for this day and for the ability to have another book of scripture, another start with first St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians. God, we thank you. Because each page, each word of yours is truth and life. You, God, are truth and life. We thank you. Help us to receive your word well. Help us to receive the breath of your Holy Spirit well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
Help us to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit well. to speak in the power of the Holy Spirit, to love in the power of the Holy Spirit, because without your spirit, Lord God, we are nothing. Take your spirit away from us and we perish. We cease to exist.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
So please, Lord God, send out your spirit to renew the face of the earth, to give us strength, to give us the ability to be the men and women that you've called us to be. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, so really significant moment in the Acts of the Apostles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
I think probably every chapter so far has been a significant moment, but this is radical. This is Peter's first exposure, essentially Peter's first exposure to, okay, Jesus Christ has fulfilled the law, and now we're expanding to the Gentiles, and not just expanding to the Gentiles, But there is a mission to the Gentiles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
And not only that, but they are welcomed and we can't prevent the Holy Spirit. I mean, we're not going to stop the Holy Spirit. And why prevent them from being baptized since they've been given the Holy Spirit, just like we've been given the Holy Spirit? It's a big deal. Peter, if you ever wonder, why do we not observe the kosher laws of the Old Testament? Y'all, we went through all those laws.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
Why do we not do those? Why do we not observe those? It starts right here in chapter 10 of the Acts of the Apostles, where Peter has this vision that in the voice of the Lord speaks to him and says, rise, Peter, kill and eat. And what God has cleansed, you must not call common. And this is the end, the fulfillment of the kosher laws in the Old Testament, in the Old Covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
are now replaced by this expansion of God's embrace to the Gentile peoples and to all the foods of the earth. And that is a symbol for what happens next, which is the fact that Peter was essentially called to go to Cornelius, a centurion, right? Roman centurion's house. And I love this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
As Peter responds and goes to Caesarea Maritima, it's on the Mediterranean Ocean, that Cornelius has kind of prepared himself. He has gathered all of his kinsmen and close friends, and he says, yeah, we're ready to go. What do we need to know? A vision appeared to me that you're going to teach us something about how to live this new life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
So I'm going to get my family here and my close friends here. And you just, Peter, what is it? Tell us. And he does. He tells them and he preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. As he's still speaking, the Holy Spirit comes upon them and they begin speaking in tongues and extolling God. And so they get baptized and it's incredible. Just bananas. What is happening in the Acts of the Apostles?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
What God is doing to these ordinary human beings and he keeps showing his boundless love is just bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. It is bananas. And what a gift. Now, fast forward to 1 Corinthians. So little background. We're going to hear about St. Paul's mission to Corinth, I think in Acts of the Apostles chapter 18. So that's coming up in a couple of days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
But the context for that is Paul had been preaching in Athens and he went to the Areopagus or it's called Mars Hill. And he basically had a really great sermon. And when he started talking about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, folks were like, oh, interesting. We'll come back later. And maybe a couple of people became Christians, but not really.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
And so Paul resolves, he leaves Athens at one point and he goes to Corinth. And the kind of the understanding here is that Paul leaving Athens, he made all these incredible arguments, these really great arguments using Greek wisdom and using, you know, Roman logic and whatnot. It was great, but no conversions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
So he says, when I came to you in Corinth, I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And so I didn't come in wisdom, but I came in the power of God. So one of the assumptions there is that St. Paul didn't rely upon his own, you know, oration skills.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
He didn't rely upon his being able to convince people by his words or by his wisdom, but simply by allowing God's power to work through him, which I would understand that, and I could be wrong, but I would understand that to be mighty works, right? Miracles that St. Paul would have allowed, or God would have used St. Paul to bring about mighty works that would convince people
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those that waited on him, and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. The next day, as they were on their journey and coming near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. And he became hungry and desired something to eat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2024)
that Paul was correct when he talked about Jesus being the son of God, Jesus being crucified and risen from the dead, that he was telling the truth. My guess is that when he came among them, he did come among them without human wisdom, but he came among them with the power of God, not just boldly speaking, but actually walking in that power of God and having mighty works being done through him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And yet, again, you have multiple news sources, people who showed up intending to disprove that anything had happened, and every single one of them experienced this thing that's called the miracle of the sun from Fatima. So, in that case, was there a violation of the laws of nature, a violation of the laws of sun and moon and orbit and all those things?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
I don't know if it was a violation of it, but what the experience of it was for the people who were there was unmistakable and undeniable. It was a miracle that did not throw all of the cosmos into chaos. And so could something like that have happened in Joshua chapter 10? Absolutely. I mean, it happened 104 years ago. So yeah, it could absolutely something like that could have happened.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
But also we recognize that sometimes scripture uses figures of speech, right? Sometimes uses figures of speech or like a poetic language to say that something Yeah, the battle was so fierce that, and battle went for the Israelites so well that the amount of win they got, the amount of victory they got was like a battle that had gone on for two days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
So whether someone reads it poetically and says, kind of like when we read Genesis 1 through 11 in a poetic way, that's great. Or we say, yeah, God can perform miracles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
He has done it even more recently where there has been even, I guess we'd say for lack of a better term, photographic evidence or evidence of people who were skeptics and atheists and were there to disprove the miracle, who experienced the miracle. God can do those kinds of things and has done those kinds of things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
So Joshua chapter 10 should not bother us because good faith and good science never, ever contradict. One last thing. I have mentioned this before, and I'm going to mention it in a maybe more in-depth way in the next few days. But when it comes to all these battles, we recognize that this isn't necessarily God's plan. What I mean by that is it's not necessarily God's first plan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Then the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jermuth, the king of Lashish, and the king of Eglon gathered their forces and went up with all their armies and encamped against Gibeon and made war against it. And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal, saying, Do not relax your hand from your servants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
God's first plan is that his children will belong to him, that the whole world would know him, that we would say yes to him with everything we are. That's God's first plan, is that we would live in harmony with each other and live in harmony with him. That is God's original plan for humanity. That's God's original plan for all the nations, for all races, for all peoples, for all of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
That's God's original plan is that we live in harmony with him in harmony with each other. God's original plan is not death, is not destruction, is not violence. It is only a result of our broken humanity and our brokenness that God allows in his plan, what we just read and what we're going to read in the next couple of days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Because the book of Joshua is a book of violence and it's a book of violence in which God is somehow mysteriously, but actually involved. And that is very problematic for a lot of us because we're so used to God saying, you know, he's a God of peace. As I mentioned, he is Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And yet, if we look back over the entire story, one of the things we're reminded of, and I just want to remind all of us, we're going to go a little bit more deeply into this in the next couple of days, but we're reminded of the fact that this is not part of God's original plan. That original plan is not that people of Israel would wage war against men, women, children, all these kinds of things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
It is only a result of this brokenness in the world. It is only the result of the fact that we do not live in harmony with each other, but it is not God's original plan. It started out as peace on earth, peace with him, peace with us, peace within us, and it ends with peace. Again, that's the thing. It's like you go to the end of the story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
What's revealed to us, what God reveals is like, no, no, no, that all tribes, all nations, all races, and even read the book of Revelation, it's everyone. And in fact, John writes in the book of Revelation that he saw a multitude of people
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Again, from every tribe, every nation on earth, every race, every ethnicity, all peoples gathered into one, being once again reunited as one holy family, one kingdom on earth and in heaven. And so this is not a battle of races. This is not a battle of ethnicities. This is not a battle of peoples, ultimately, that God wants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
What he wants is the triumph of his name and that all people, how people, even in the midst of this broken world, come to know him. and come to be united once again with each other. But along the way, it is very, very messy and is very, very troubling. And we experience it even today. But this is not what God wants. What God wants ultimately is our unity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
What he wants ultimately is our peace because he reveals that yes, the way to that might be this difficult indestruction. But there's something at the end of chapter 11 where just that last line said, and the land had rest from war. And that is what God wants for us in our hearts, in our countries, in our world to finally at some point have rest from war.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Let's keep praying for each other because sometimes it is hard to wrap our hearts and minds around these things. And so what we do is we just say, okay, God, let's keep on reading. Let's keep on moving forward. Let's keep on trusting. Let's keep on fighting, not against each other, but keep on fighting for each other. That's why we pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Come up to us quickly and save us and help us. For all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the hill country are gathered against us. So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him. and all the mighty men of valor. And the Lord said to Joshua, Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. There shall not a man of them stand before you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is now currently day 84, and we are reading today from Joshua chapter 10 and 11, and we're praying Psalm 128, one or more of those Psalms of Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal. And the Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, who slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth Horon, and struck them as far as Azekah and Makedah. And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth Horon,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
The Lord threw down great stones from heaven upon them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the men of Israel killed with the sword. Then spoke Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the men of Israel. And he said in the sight of Israel, Son, stand still at Gibeon, and you, Moon, in the valley of Aijon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the book of Joshua? The sun stayed in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord listened to the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal. The five kings defeated. These five kings fled and hid themselves in the cave at Machedah. And it was told Joshua, the five kings have been found hidden in the cave at Machedah. And Joshua said, roll great stones against the mouth of the cave and set men by it to guard them. But do not stay there yourselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Pursue your enemies, fall upon their rear. Do not let them enter their cities for the Lord your God has given them into your hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
when joshua and the men of israel had finished slaying them with a very great slaughter until they were wiped out and when the remnant which remained of them had entered into the fortified cities all the people returned safe to joshua in the camp at machedah not a man moved his tongue against any of the sons of israel
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Then Joshua said, Open the mouth of the cave, and bring those five kings out to me from the cave. And they did so, and brought those five kings out to him from the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lashish, and the king of Eglon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And when they brought those kings out to Joshua, Joshua summoned all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him, Come near. Put your feet upon the necks of these kings. Then they came near and put their feet on their necks. And Joshua said to them, Do not be afraid or dismayed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Be strong and of good courage, for thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight. And afterward Joshua struck them and put them to death, and he hung them on five trees. And they hung upon the trees until evening. But at the time of the going down of the sun, Joshua commanded, and they took them down from the trees and threw them into the cave where they had hidden themselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
The Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plans, you can see where we're coming, see where we've been, see where we are. You can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And they set great stones against the mouth of the cave, which remain to this very day. And Joshua took Makedah on that day and struck it and its king with the edge of the sword. He utterly destroyed every person in it. He left none remaining. And he did to the king of Makedah as he had done to the king of Jericho.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And Joshua passed on from Makeda, and all Israel with him, to Libna, and fought against Libna. And the Lord gave it also and its king into the hand of Israel, and he struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it, he left none remaining in it. And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And Joshua passed on from Libna and all Israel with them to Lachish and laid siege to it and assaulted it. And the Lord gave Lachish into the hand of Israel and he took it on the second day and struck it with the edge of the sword and every person in it as he had done to Libna. Then Horam, king of Gezer, came up to help Lachish, and Joshua struck him and his people until he left none remaining.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And Joshua passed on with all Israel from Lachish to Eglon, and they laid siege to it and assaulted it, and they took it on that day, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it he utterly destroyed that day, as he had done to Lachish. Then Joshua went up with all Israel from Eglon to Hebron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
and they assaulted it, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and its king, and its towns, and every person in it. And he left none remaining, as he had done to Eglon, and utterly destroyed it with every person in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Then Joshua, with all Israel, turned back to Debir, and assaulted it, and he took it with its king, and all its towns, and they struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed every person in it. He left none remaining as he had done to Hebron and to Libna and its king. So did he do to Debir and its king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
So Joshua defeated the whole land, the hill country and the Negev and the lowland and the slopes and all their kings. He left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed as the Lord God of Israel commanded. And Joshua defeated them from Kadesh-Berniah to Gaza and all the country of Goshen as far as Gibeon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And Joshua took all these kings and their land at one time because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel. Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal. Chapter 11. The United Kings of Northern Canaan Defeated. When Jabin, king of Hazor, heard of this, he sent to Jobab, the king of Madan, and to the kings of Shimran, and to the king of Ashaf,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
and to the kings who were in the northern hill country, and in the Ereba, south of Chinneroth, and in the lowland, and in Naphoth-da-Ar, to the west, to the Canaanites in the east and the west, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, and the Jebusites in the hill country. and the Hivites under Hermon in the land of Mizpah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
If you want to subscribe in this podcast app, please do that to receive daily episodes. Those daily episodes come out pretty much every day. This is why we call them daily episodes. And it is incredible to be able to listen to the Bible in a Year. In these 365 days, as I said, it's day 84, reading Joshua 10 and 11 and Psalm 128. Let's get started.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And they came out with all their troops, a great host, in number like the sand that is upon the seashore, with very many horses and chariots. And all these kings joined their forces and came and encamped together at the waters of Merom to fight with Israel. And the Lord said to Joshua, So Joshua came suddenly upon them with all his people of war by the waters of Merom and fell upon them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel, who struck them and chased them as far as great Sidon and Mishraphoth Maim, and eastward as far as the valley of Mizpah. And they struck them until they left none remaining. And Joshua did to them as the Lord bade him. He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And Joshua turned back at that time and took Hazor and struck its king with the sword, for Hazor formerly was the head of all those kingdoms. And they put to the sword all who were in it, utterly destroying them. There was none left that breathed. And he burned Hazor with fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And all the cities of those kings and all their kings Joshua took and struck them with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded. But none of the cities that stood on mounds did Israel burn, except Hazor only, that Joshua burned. And all the spoil of these cities and the cattle the sons of Israel took for their booty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
But every man they struck with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them, and they did not leave any that breathed. As the Lord had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses. Summary of Joshua's conquests.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
So Joshua took all that land, the hill country and all the Negev and all the land of Goshen and the lowland and the Arabah and the hill country of Israel and its lowland from Mount Halak that rises towards Sair as far as Baal Gad in the valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. And he took all their kings and struck them and put them to death. Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
There was not a city that made peace with the sons of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took all in battle. For it was the Lord's doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle in order that they should be utterly destroyed and should receive no mercy but be exterminated as the Lord commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And Joshua came at that time and wiped out the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities. There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the sons of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses, and and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to the tribal allotments.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And the land had rest from war. Psalm 128, the happy home of the faithful, a song of ascents.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
The book of Joshua chapter 10, the sun stands still. When Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had taken Ai and had utterly destroyed it, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands. You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. The Lord bless you from Zion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. May you see your children's children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Peace be upon Israel. Father in heaven, we know that you have revealed yourself to us, and so we thank you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
We know that what you have revealed is you desire justice, you desire peace. You are the God of peace. In fact, revealed to us fully, that yourself revealed fully in the revelation of Jesus, is that he is the Prince of Peace. And yet when we hear so many stories of war and of battle and of violence, it can cause us to question.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
So we ask you, Lord, please, just to give us, give us interior peace, give us a sense of understanding of what it is that you want to teach us today and what it is that you want us to receive today. We make this prayer in the name of the Prince of Peace, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay. So praise the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Oh my gosh. Okay. I want to talk about two things today. And those two things have to do with, again, the book of Joshua, which makes sense. That's where we are. But what we heard was the sun standing still. And I know there's a lot of people, a lot of Christians, in fact, who might find themselves hearing the story of the sun standing still in Joshua chapter 10.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And they think of things like Galileo, or they think of things like the Copernican revolution of recognizing that the earth revolves around the sun. And they think, okay, so the How is this possible? It seems like people were pointing to, Christians or Christian Catholic scholars were pointing to Joshua chapter 10 as an argument against Galileo, which may or may not be accurate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
In fact, I think it's a little less accurate than it is completely accurate. One of the things we realize is that The issue of Galileo was not an issue of science versus faith. It was an issue of one ego versus another ego. That's a whole other story. The ego of Galileo and the ego of the Pope at the time. But it wasn't a battle of science versus faith because what we had before was a Copernicus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
Copernicus, who was a Catholic cleric and a scientist who had already discovered and made a claim that the earth revolved around the sun. And That was not met with any religious arguments because a lot of the religious people at the time were very interested in science. In fact, the Pope who got into this kerfuffle with Galileo had previously been one of Galileo's patrons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
He feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
He had supported Galileo's scientific research. And so, as I said, there's more to the story. But one of the things we can know is that good faith and good science never contradict. What contradicts are bad faith or bad science. And so, or one or the other, right? Because good faith is pursuit of what? Pursuit of truth. And good science is a pursuit of what? Pursuit of truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
What we know is that truth can never contradict truth. And so the pursuit of truth that faith pursues is supernatural truth. And the pursuit of truth that science pursues is natural truth. And those are both very good things. And those things will never be in conflict with each other as long as they are true.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
So what we look at, we look at Joshua chapter 10, and it is very rare, although you find some people who will claim that this is a description of an actual day that was extended for to be as long as two days, right? That the sun actually stood still or the earth rotation stopped, you know, another way to say it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And that what people were able to see was for, you know, day plus to two days, we're able to see the sun in the midst of the sky. Now, one could be, could be exactly supernatural miracle. I say that because there was a similar miracle roughly 100 years ago in a place called Fatima. At Fatima, there was, if you know the story, in October of 1917, Mary, Our Lady, had appeared to some children there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
So Adonizedek, king of Jerusalem, sent to Hoham, king of Hebron, Piram, king of Jarmuth, to Japhia, king of Lachish, and to Dibir, king of Eglon, saying, Come up to me, and help me, and let us strike Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
And on a number of occasions, at one point, she said that something was going to happen. There was going to be a sign on this particular date, on the 13th of October in 1917, in this particular place. And so,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
On that date and that place, a number of people, in fact, I think the number is like tens of thousands, if I'm not mistaken, tens of thousands of people showed up, many of them believers, but also many of them skeptics, many of them atheists, and many of them simply out to see the show to disprove the fact that nothing happened, there was no miracle, there was no sign.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
What happened was, at some point, the sign involved the sun in the sky. And at one point, the claim was everyone saw who was gathered there, whether they were believers or not. They saw what they would describe later on as the sun dancing in the sky, which made it look like the sun was shimmering and then began to move around the sky. We know that it's solarly impossible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 84: The Sun Stands Still (2025)
That does not happen according to nature. Because if that were to be the case, then the entire solar system would be thrown way out of whack and everyone would have noticed it, even not just the people who were at that location in Fatima, but also around the world. And yet, what was interesting is people in the local area saw it, but nowhere else was it registered.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
men against their wives now this would happen of course in any culture there would be these this jealousy between each other there also be a high need to be able to maintain faithfulness amongst this community of people who are now in the wilderness again once again they've just been freed in the book of numbers they have just been freed they've been free for one year plus
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And they don't necessarily know how to live as free people and God is teaching them. So what strikes us right away as being like, that is so weird. Keep in mind, this is a step towards greater equality. This is a step towards a greater honor and respect for both male and female. Hopefully that makes sense. Following off to that, we go back to Deuteronomy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Deuteronomy is now after all of this time in the wilderness. After all this time in the wilderness, Moses is reminding the people of what happened at Mount Horeb that first year, Mount Sinai, Mount Horeb, same place. Moses is reminding what happened that first year when God spoke out of the fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
They were like, yeah, Moses, you talk to the Lord because we're just overwhelmed by the fact that here is the Lord God who is speaking to us out of this fire on this mountain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
two things to note one is that it says that the lord spoke to them face to face and yet we look at other places where moses said god let me see your face and the lord god said you can't see my face and live so what's happening here talk to the lord face to face and yet you can't see my face and live
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Well, talking to the Lord face to face in the Hebrew idiom doesn't necessarily mean like that God has revealed his full glory person to person, face to face. What it means is in an intimate way, in a way that was person to person, that here is the person of God speaking to the person of Moses or the person of God speaking to the people of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And so that the Lord spoke to them face to face would be that idiom saying like in an intimate, deeply personal way. So just keep that in mind. The last piece, because we're going to wrap this up, the last piece has to do with the Ten Commandments. And in the Ten Commandments, obviously, there is the commandment that you shall not make for yourselves a graven image.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And I think that this is important because one of the things that sometimes people misunderstand about Catholics is they say that, yeah, you worship images and you violate the commandments by making images. And one of the things we need to understand is this, is that the catechism points this out and says, yes, of course, we would not make images ever to worship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Nevertheless, catechism says in 2130, it says, already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically towards salvation by the incarnate word. Because here's Jesus, who is the full image of the Father. So it was the bronze serpent. We're going to get to that in the book of Numbers later on.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
The Ark of the Covenant was an image with the cherubim over the top of the Ark of the Covenant were images that God had commanded his people to make. And so what we're talking about is not a strict or complete absolute prohibition against the making of images, but it's against the making of images in order to worship those images. Going on in 2131, the Catechism says,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
But if the man has no kinsman to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, The restitution for wrong shall go to the Lord for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement, with which atonement is made for him. And every offering, all the holy things of the sons of Israel, which they bring to the priest, shall be his. And every man's holy things shall be his.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate word, meaning the God who became flesh, right? So invisible God becoming visible. The seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea, which happened in 787, so early in the life of the church, justified against the iconoclasts. Those are people who wanted to break icons, right? Iconoclasts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Justified the veneration of icons of Christ, but also of the mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new, what they call, economy of images. So the Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment, which proscribes idols. But in fact, it's a respectful veneration of what the image represents.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And if we have any hesitation with that, realize that words are similar. What do I mean? Words are things we create, right? That represent the reality we're trying to express. And so we don't worship the Bible, but the Bible is held in great esteem. And the Bible contains what? The Bible contains words that themselves are not God himself. but represent what God has revealed to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
This is an analogy I'm trying to make here. So we have an image of Jesus on the cross. We have an image of Jesus and an icon. And we also have an image of Jesus that's brought to us through the Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And none of those things are a violation of the commandment against images, because we all recognize that the word itself is, I mean, the words on the page themselves are not the word himself, as well as the fact that the image of the crucifixion or the image of the icon is not the word himself, but they simply represent the truth. They represent reality in this in our limited human frailty way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
I hope that makes any sense. But again, we're continuing this journey. And if you've made it to day 56, I am so proud of you. We're going to keep praying for each other. Keep praying for me, please. I am every day praying for you because this community of people who are going through this Bible in a year, every day, with every passing day, even if you miss a day, just catch up. We're still walking.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
We're still moving. Every passing day, this community is being forged into even more strongly and even more tightly because sometimes as days go along, it gets smaller. But we will continue to be faithful because God is faithful. We'll continue to be steadfast because God is steadfast. And even when we fall, we can get back up again because our Lord God meets us when we fall.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Whatever any man gives to the priest shall be his. an unfaithful wife, or jealous husband. And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, If any man's wife goes astray and acts unfaithfully against him, if a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected though she has defiled herself,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And there is no witness against her, since she was not taken in the act.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself, then the man shall bring his wife to the priest, and bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephah of barley meal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
He shall pour no oil upon it, and put no frankincense on it, for it is a serial offering of jealousy. a serial offering of remembrance bringing iniquity to remembrance and the priest shall bring her near and set her before the lord and the priest shall take holy water from an earthen vessel and shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
and the priest shall set the woman before the lord and unbind the hair of the woman's head and place in her hands the serial offering of remembrance which is the serial offering of jealousy and in his hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanness while you are under your husband's authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Today is day 56, and I'll be reading from Numbers chapter 5, Deuteronomy chapter 5, and we'll be praying Psalm 90. As always, the Bible translation that I'm using is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
But if you have gone astray, though you are under your husband's authority, and if you have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband has lain with you, then let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse, and say to the woman, The Lord make you an execration and an oath among your people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
When the Lord makes your thigh fall away and your body swell, may this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your body swell and your thigh fall away. And the woman shall say, Amen, Amen. Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and wash them off into the water of bitterness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
and he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain and the priest shall take the cereal offering of jealousy out of the woman's hand and shall wave the cereal offering before the lord and bring it to the altar and the priest shall take a handful of the cereal offering
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
as its memorial portion, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And when he has made her drink the water, then if she has defiled herself and has acted unfaithfully against her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her body shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become an execration among the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children." This is the law in cases of jealousy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
When a wife, though under her husband's authority, goes astray and defiles herself, or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man and he is jealous of his wife, then he shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law. The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity. The Book of Deuteronomy Chapter 5 The Ten Commandments
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your hearing this day, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, while I stood between the Lord and you at that time to declare to you the word of the Lord. for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain. He said, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
You shall not make for yourselves a graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing merciful love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. We'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
In it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your manservant or your maidservant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle. Or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And also, I invite you to subscribe in the podcast app to receive daily episodes that drop every single day. As you probably know, since it is day 56, did I say 56? I meant to say 56. If I didn't, it's day 56, you guys. And so we're reading from Numbers 5, Deuteronomy 5, and praying Psalm 90. The book of Numbers, chapter 5, unclean persons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you in the land which the Lord your God gives you. You shall not kill. Neither shall you commit adultery. Neither shall you steal. Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. Moses, the mediator of God's will. These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness with a loud voice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And he added no more. And he wrote them upon two tables of stone and gave them to me. And when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders, and you said, Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
We have this day seen God speak with man, and man still live. Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die. For who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire as we have and still lived? Go near.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And hear all that the Lord our God will say, and speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it. And the Lord heard your words when you spoke to me. And the Lord said to me, I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They have rightly said all that they have spoken.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Oh, that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their children forever. Go, and say to them, Return to your tents, but you stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandments and the statutes and the ordinances which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
You shall be careful to do, therefore, as the Lord your God has commanded you, you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live. and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land which you shall possess. Psalm 90, God's Eternity and Human Frailty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
A prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You turn men back to the dust and say, Turn back, O children of men. For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
You sweep men away. They are like a dream, like grass which is renewed in the morning. In the morning it flourishes and is renewed. In the evening it fades and withers. For we are consumed by your anger. By your wrath we are overwhelmed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance. For all our days pass away under your wrath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Our years come to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are threescore and ten, or even by reason of strength fourscore. But their span is but toil and trouble. They are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you? So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord. How long?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Have pity on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your mercy that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us and as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be manifest to your servants and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, command the sons of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper and everyone having a discharge and everyone that is unclean through contact with the dead. You shall put up both male and female, putting them outside the camp that they may not defile their camp in the midst of which I dwell. And the sons of Israel did so and drove them outside the camp.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Yes, establish the work of our hands. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you for your word today. We thank you not only for your word, we thank you for your faithfulness. Lord God, we find so often that we are unfaithful and yet you are patient with us. We find that we are fickle and yet you are stable. You are steadfast in your love for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And so this day, we give you praise. And we thank you for continuing to speak to us. We thank you for continuing to be with us. We thank you for continuing to... Be ours, to be our God. You are not ashamed. Hebrews 11 says, you are not ashamed to be our God. Thank you so much. Help us never to be ashamed to be your people, to belong to you, to be the sheep of your pasture, those you have chosen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Okay, so there are a number of things to talk about today. The first is we have to deal with Numbers chapter five. In Numbers chapter five, what do we have? We have the occasion, the subtitle of after we talked about confession and restitution, after we talked about leprosy,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And we talked about an unfaithful wife or jealous husband. And that's how it's described because it says if a man is even jealous of his wife, meaning that he does not have any proof that she has been unfaithful to him. This whole section can strike us, especially modern readers who have kind of better sensibilities. Well, yeah, actually, yes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Remember the plus one theory of education is that sense of God is starting from a certain place with this culture and he's moving them along. And so consider this. In the ancient world, a woman was considered to be under full authority of her husband. So if he even accused her, he could do whatever he wanted to do with his wife.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
and here comes the law here comes the law of moses here in numbers chapter 5 and the law of moses says you don't actually get to do that yes remember back in genesis chapter 3 where one of the consequences of the fall is this tension and this i mean the horrible tension between men and women between wives and husbands where men will are tempted to so often to dominate to use women
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And this is part of the remedy of this. What do you mean remedy? Well, remember, the ancient world, a woman was considered the full property of her husband. And in all of the Middle Eastern cultures, if a man was jealous, then he could do literally whatever he wanted to her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
But here's the plus one theory of education, where the Lord God says through Moses that he doesn't get to do whatever he wants. He has to bring in a mediator. He brings her to the priest. Now, what happens after he brings her to the priest can be distressing to us again, because it's what's referred to as a trial by ordeal. You know, you think about the Salem witch trials.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
We think about those other times where, I mean, think of Monty Python, where if she floats, she's a witch. And if she sinks, then she's not a witch. But if she sinks, then she means she's dead. And so that's right, that kind of that silliness that we see. And yet trial by ordeal was actually relatively common. It's not the best, obviously, as we know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
As the Lord said to Moses, so did the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
But the interesting thing here is what happens in the trial by ordeal? What happens is that the woman will drink this water mixed with some dust, essentially, or with the cereal offering. And if she's guilty, a miracle has to happen to prove that she's guilty. Normally, she would just drink it and be completely fine. And so, and this is the thing, this is why there's some balance here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
And this is part of the genius, even if it's problematic for us. But part of the genius of the scripture is, A, the man does not have total authority over the woman. He has to bring her to a mediator because he has to submit to another higher law because both of them find themselves under the law, right? Your numbers in Deuteronomy, Leviticus, the whole thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
The second thing is this trial by ordeal, which again to us seems very unfair, is the opposite of the Monty Python sketch where it's what happens if she's guilty, a miracle has to prove that she's guilty. She's naturally protected by this process rather than threatened by it. I hope that makes sense. I hope that makes sense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Confession and Restitution And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, When a man or woman commits any of the sins that men commit by breaking faith with the Lord, and that person is guilty, he shall confess his sin which he has committed, and he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it, and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 56: Jealous Husbands (2025)
Because normally she would, like any person, would just drink water mixed with whatever this was, the cereal offering or the dust, and nothing would happen. Exactly. That is part of this point. It was a defensive mechanism against the jealousy of others.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
And at last in verse 16, chapter four, at my first defense, no one took my part. All deserted me. May I not be charged against them, but the Lord stood by me and gave me strength. And that's just, it's so important. We have to recognize that this is our lot, right? This is going to be our story as well. That there are people that we're going to trust.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
There are people who are going to be in our comrades in arms when it comes to following after the Lord. And we just pray that we're not the ones who fall away. We just pray that we're not the ones who betray. We just ask the Lord, please, Lord God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Help me not betray it, but also when those friends, when those family, when those people in my life, when they do fail me, help me also, like Paul, to be able to pray. May it not be charged against them. Help me to forgive, to let it go. You know, St. Paul also, two things I just want to highlight, because there's really powerful lines in chapter three, where St. Paul's writing to Timothy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
He says, as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it. Now, as St. Paul is writing about the sacred writings, he's talking about the Old Testament. And I think that is so good for us, all of us who have gone through the entire Old Testament, except for those last verses in Proverbs chapter 31.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
All of us who have gone through the Old Testament, we recognize that the entire Old Testament is pointing to the new. In fact, the New Testament is hidden in the old and the old is revealed in the new. And so here is Paul writing to Timothy saying, yeah, you've been familiar with those.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
They've instructed you and goes on to say, all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. And that's just, again, one of the reasons why maybe, maybe in eight days, we're going to start back in day one and one more lap around the Bible in another year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
But we also recognize that we pray that God helps us not just to start well, but he has helped us to finish well. St. Paul in chapter four, verse seven, he says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. And there's something so, I don't know. I don't even know if I have words for it. It's just so powerful. We just say, God, please let that be me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, everyone who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. a vision of Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Let me not fall away from you. Let me not abandon you ever, ever. And if I do bring me back, because we know this, that the Lord's love for us never fails. Even if we walk away from him, he is faithful. We heard that yesterday or the day before that, that even if we're unfaithful, he is always faithful. Even if we don't care about him, he cares for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Even if we say, I reject your love, that love of his for us never wavers ever, ever. So Lord, if we have walked away, if we have fallen away, bring us back. Bring us home. So, Revelation. A couple things. This is maybe, this is the one you've been waiting for, everybody. I don't know if that is. I don't know if you've been afraid of Revelation or if you've been excited for Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
But a couple things about the book of Revelation is... this is going to be a great book. It's a lot like Daniel. It is a lot like those other books of the prophets, apocalyptic literature, right? Where there's a lot of symbolism, for example, talks about the number 10. When you hear the number 10 in the book of Revelation, there's 10 horns, there's 10 days for 10 years, this is going to happen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 359. We're reading from the book of Revelation, chapters 1, 2, and 3, as well as the conclusion of St. Paul's second letter to Timothy, chapters 3 and 4.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Just know the number of 12 will be a number of fullness, right? Number seven is number of Sabbath, the number of covenant. Okay. So the number of 12 be a number of power, a number of completeness. 10 is powerful, but not all powerful. 10 would be powerful, but limited.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
And that is just kind of a little insight, little clue that when we read the word 10 here in the book of Revelation, that's what that is oftentimes, I believe maybe even every time is referencing. There's power there. It's long lasting, but it's not lasting forever. It's not all powerful. So it's limited power. It's limited time. Hopefully that makes sense. But let's look at the dating.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
So John says that he writes the book. And so the traditional A belief is that John, the beloved John, you know, that he wrote this book of Revelation, that this is a revelation from Jesus Christ to John so that he can pass it on to the churches. Now, we talked about the seven churches. So the addressees of John's book of Revelation are these seven churches in Asia.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
And we just get to hear in these first three chapters, we get to hear what's going on in those churches. But before that, let's back up even more and say, what's the dating of this book of Revelation? There are, I think, two theories, essentially.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
One theory is that the dating of this book is from the 90s, that the end of John's life, he's an old man at this point, and he's writing this book of Revelation during the era or the age of the Emperor Domitian. So that's one of the theories. Another theory is that this is happening in the 60s or 70s.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
So, you know, 30-ish plus years ahead of that time would be another theory, and that would be under the time of Nero. Now, a couple of reasons why I like, I prefer, in fact, that this would come from the 60s, 60s before the year 70. And one is because when we get to the number 666, everyone is afraid of the word 666, or the numbers 666, that is in Hebrew numerology, a number indicating the name of
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Nero Caesar or Caesar Nero so you know all the letters our numbers have a letter value or our letters have number value and so if you add those up later on we're going to hear this where John says this is code but if you're smart enough you can figure this out because if I'm writing this during the time of Nero then it makes sense that I'm going to keep this a code and so they don't see me um essentially you know lambasting the emperor who wants to kill all these Christians in Rome so
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
It would make sense. It also, there's some variations that have the number 616, and that still spells Nero just in, I think, in the Latin language. So it makes a lot of sense that if this is happening during the persecution of Nero versus the persecution of Domitian, that makes sense to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Also what makes sense is that Jesus had said that essentially, I'm coming soon, and the end of the world is happening soon. In fact, remember in the Gospels, Jesus prophesied that I'll come back before all these things take place, that essentially the world will end soon. Before this generation ends, all these things will take place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
So since Jesus prophesied this, you'd say, wait a second, when did that happen? And if you remember in the year 70 AD, what happened was Rome destroyed Jerusalem. They destroyed the temple. And we have to understand how important the temple was. I mean, I've emphasized this, I think, over the last 359 days, but the temple was everything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
In fact, remember when God showed Moses on the mountain, the dimensions and the building of the temple, it was meant to be a little microcosm of the cosmos, right? A microcosm of the world, of the universe. That's meant to be, that's what it is. So in the year 70, when the Romans came into Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, all of what this is a prophecy of destroying the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
I, John, your brother, who share with you in Jesus the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Because the temple, again, is the epicenter. The temple is the epicenter not only of finance. It's not only the epicenter of politics for the Jewish people. It's the epicenter of worship. It is the center of the world. It is a microcosm of the world. And so here is Jesus in Revelation. Here is Jesus in the Gospels who's prophesying, yeah, the end of the world will happen in this generation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
It makes sense that we would say that this would be written in the year 60 so that John is prophesying and getting the people ready for the destruction of the temple and that ransacking of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD. That's my, it's an opinion. Other people have different opinions that are informed as well, but that's also gonna inform us
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
a lot about what's going on for the next number of chapters. So just FYI, with all of that in mind, one of the things we know is that regardless of what emperor this was under, this was a time of persecution for Christians. And regardless of what year this was, this was a time of great persecution for Christians. And so what is God doing? God is saying, okay, I want you to get prepared.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
I want you to get prepared for this persecution and just know that there is a battle happening that's going on in this world between evil in the world and between God. Not that evil and God are equal. Not at all. Not even close. But because we live in this world, because we live on this planet, because we live in this time that's broken, there is this battle that is waging. So let's begin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Chapter 1. We have this revelation. And...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
it's it's so i you can't even begin i'm so glad you all read the old testament because you know that when someone like john when he says something like um here is jesus the faithful witness the firstborn of the dead the ruler of the kings on the earth or when it says that here's jesus this i saw one like a son of man come like wait a second i've heard those terms like in daniel book of daniel that's a really big deal jesus even himself says you will see the son of man coming in power and glory so we know the background for all this but
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
The background of the context of this is I, John, your brother, in chapter 1, verse 9, who share with you in the tribulation, in Jesus, in the tribulation, in the kingdom, in the patience, endurance, on the island of Patmos. He was exiled to the island of Patmos. And he was there on the Lord's day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Now, this is going to be really critical because this is going to set the stage for everything that happens after this. This is not a book of Revelation that's all about just about future stuff. It's not about just about, like, it's not about the rapture. It's not about anything like that. It is about...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
strengthening the body of Christ, strengthening the church via the worship that happens at the mass. This is going to be so important. It's about strengthening the church through the worship that happens in the mass. That's what the book of Revelation is all about, or largely about. So they're on the Lord's day. What's the Lord's day? The Lord's day is the day that Christians celebrate the mass.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Every Christian at this point,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
on sunday would celebrate the mass and he hears these words you know right what you see right what you see he turns and sees the voice speaking to him saw the seven golden lampstands in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man clothed with a long robe golden sash across his chest what's that those are priestly robes that's what they are so you have jesus the one like a son of man the high priest with priestly robes he turns and sees him on the lord's day this is so so critical and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
And he sees this, and what happens? Verse 17, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Now this is just, man, how often? You know, of course, Jesus doesn't want us to be afraid of him. But we have this thing called the fear of the Lord when we know that here is God himself, and here I am not God. Here is the creator of everything, and I am a measly creation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
That sometimes I think we have this, maybe not you, but we can have this cavalier attitude of, yes, I just approach God however I want. Come as you are. There's a sense of this. Of course, God loves us as we are. But man, if I turned and saw the Lord God himself standing in front of me, I would do, this is John the beloved. He didn't even run away at the years of fiction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
This is John who was faithful. This is John who suffered. John was boiled alive and didn't die. And then here he is. If anyone could boast, like St. Paul says, if anyone could boast, it'd be John. If anyone could just run up to Jesus and say, hey, Jesus, we were best friends when you walked on this earth in the incarnation, it'd be John. But when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
I just think that next time you go to adoration, next time you go to adoration, just realize, here's the truth. Next time you go to mass and you see the Eucharist elevated, that's Jesus. Sometimes we just get so distracted. Sometimes we're so blah. Sometimes we're dead inside about this. And yet, what does Jesus say to the church in Laodicea?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
He says, the thing I hold against you is that you're neither cold nor hot. You just show up. Yeah, and you show up. It's great. You're there. But I would rather that you would be cold or hot. But because you're lukewarm, I will vomit you out of my mouth. How many of us, we approach the Lord's presence. We go to mass. We go to adoration. We just even pray, call upon the name of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace. and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
And we're just, meh. Meh, lukewarm. To me, Jesus says, when I'm like that, Jesus says, hey, listen, either get fiery hot for me or coldly reject me because this lukewarm approach is not working. Yet, what does Jesus say? He laid his right hand upon me saying, fear not. I'm the first and the last, the living one. I died. Behold, I'm alive forevermore. And basically, get up, you know?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
And that's so good because here's Jesus who loves us. Yes, our response, our proper response would be, I'm dead. And his response is, I love you. So both responses can be equally true at the same time. But here's these messages to the churches in Ephesus, or the seven churches in Asia. First one, Ephesus. We have the lampstands and the angels. Sometimes, or the spirits is another translation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
sometimes like, wait, what are the seven spirits? What are the seven angels? And there are some who have said that the seven angels are the bishops of those churches in those cities, which sure, a person can make that argument. But the interesting thing is for the rest of the book of Revelation, when it uses the term angel, it means angel. And so like, okay, well, that's kind of problematic.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
You don't want to just twist it to make it mean what you think it means or what it might mean in this case. Another could be angels, like actual, there's angels assigned to those churches. Another could be the Holy Spirit, that here is the seven, number of covenant. Here is this Holy Spirit that is given in different ways to these seven different churches. That could be a thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
And then, of course, the gold lampstands are the seven churches, as Jesus himself says at the end of chapter one. All of these churches have things that they need to be corrected on. And I already mentioned Laodicea, that they're lukewarm, right? They're neither hot nor cold. But I just want to highlight one, and that's the church of Ephesus, the very first church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Because Jesus says, he says, I know your works. This is chapter two, verse two. I know your works, your toil, your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear evil men, but have tested those who call themselves apostles, but are not, and have found them to be false. I know you're enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake. And you have not grown weary. All of these things are so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
They are orthodox, right? They're believing the right things. Orthopraxy, they're living the right way. And they're also even suffering for the sake of the Lord. They're doing great. But he says in verse four, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. And this is just so key.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
You know, we can do, we can believe the right things and we can do the right things and that's good. And Jesus, he even praises them for that. But we're not just about doing the right things or believing the right things. It's about loving the one who lived and suffered, died and rose from the dead for us. It's about love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
And so whenever I hear, read this, and I've read it quite often throughout the course of the year, every year, and I hear those words of Jesus to Ephesus, and I think, I don't want that to be me because I can recognize, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen, repent and do the work you did at first. And that's,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
That's so important because I think, okay, Lord, I think I'm believing the right things. I'm trying to do the right things. But I want to be in love with you. That's the thing, right? I just want to be in love with you. That's what he's calling you to, too. To fall back in love with Jesus. It's easy to fall in love. It is hard to stay in love. But Jesus is calling us back to that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Okay, last thing. You know, Jesus also has words for the churches that he says, okay, if you do this, to him who conquers, in chapter two, to him who conquers, I will grant to eat the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. One of the reasons why I'm telling you that this whole book of Revelation is gonna be pointing back to the mass again and again. I am granted to eat of the tree of life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
From his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Here it is, the Eucharist. Not only that, but later on in verse 17, Jesus says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna. Again, the Eucharist. Once again, this piece of this. And then lastly, I mean, there's more references, but this has been long already. I apologize for that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
But there's this line that always strikes me as just the intimacy with which Jesus wants us to live with him. Right after he says, to him who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, chapter 2, verse 17. He says, and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone, which no one knows except him who receives it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
That here in eternity, here in heaven, Jesus will give you a new name. And that name is only known between you and him. That is only known between you and him. And it's the kind of, you know, I think sometimes we think, well, does God love everyone? If he loves everyone, then I'm not special. And here Jesus is declaring, no, I have a special, I have a unique love for you. This has been a long one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
I apologize. It'll be shorter from now on, but we had to do it. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Now write what you see, what is, and what is to take place hereafter. As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Chapter two, the message to Ephesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear evil men, but have tested those who call themselves apostles, but are not and found them to be false.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
We're also reading the book of Proverbs, chapter 31, verses 8 and 9. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan for these last seven days, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. And that'll be neat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
yet this you have you hate the works of the nicolaitans which i also hate he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches to him who conquers i will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of god
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
the message to smyrna and to the angel of the church in smyrna write the words of the first and the last who died and came to life i know your tribulation and your poverty but you are rich and the slander of those who say that they are jews and are not but are a synagogue of satan Do not fear what you are about to suffer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested, but for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who conquers shall not be hurt by the second death. the message to Pergamum.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write, the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. You hold fast to my name and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
You have some there who hold the teachings of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice immorality. So you also have some who hold the teachings of the Nicolaitans. Repent then. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone, which no one knows except him who receives it. The message to Thyatira.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, the words of the son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her immorality.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Behold, I will throw her on a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her doings, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches mind and heart. And I will give to each of you as your works deserve.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
You can also subscribe to this podcast for the last week. And then, you know, it's one of those things. Let go of your pride. Let go of your pride. Just subscribe. Come on, just kidding. I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I'm just joking around. It is day 359. We are reading Revelation chapters 1, 2, and 3, 2 Timothy chapters 3 and 4, as well as Proverbs chapter 31 verses 8 and 9.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay upon you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
He who conquers and who keeps my words until the end, I will give him power over the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received power from my father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Chapter 3.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
The Message to Sardis And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know your works. You have the name of being alive, and you are dead. Awake and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Remember then what you received and heard, keep that and repent. If you will not awake, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
He who conquers shall be clothed like them in white garments and I will not blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. The message to Philadelphia.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, the words of the Holy One, the true one who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens. I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and learn that I loved you. Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial, which is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell upon the earth. I am coming soon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Hold fast what you have so that no one may seize your crown. He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
The message to Laodicea. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write, the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you, and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see." Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
So be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I myself conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The second letter of Paul to Timothy, chapter three, godlessness in the last days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
The Revelation to John, the Apocalypse. Chapter one, introduction and salutation. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants what must soon take place. And he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
But understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. avoid such people. For among them are those who make their way into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and swayed by various impulses, who will listen to anybody and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men, Paul's charge to Timothy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, my sufferings, what befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet from them all the Lord rescued me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be urgent in season and out of season.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Convince, rebuke, and exhort. Be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already on the point of being sacrificed. The time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. From now on, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Personal instructions. Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful in serving me. Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of the prophecy and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written therein, for the time is near.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm. The Lord will pay him back for his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. At my first defense, no one took my part. All deserted me. May it not be charged against them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength to proclaim the word fully that all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Final greetings and benediction. Greet Prisca and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus remained at Corinth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Trophimus I left ill at Miletus. Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brethren. The Lord be with your spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Grace be with you. The book of Proverbs chapter 31 verses 8 and 9.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are left desolate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, maintain the rights of the poor and needy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
We thank you for bringing us to this new day, to this new book of the book of Revelation, as well as the conclusion of St. Paul's second letter to Timothy. Thank you so much. Thank you for these last days of this 365-day journey. We give you, we can't even begin, Lord God, to count up the blessings, not only the blessings of beginning, the blessings of making it through to the end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
We have talked so many times, Lord, about having a good beginning.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
you remind us that it is better to have a good ending than it is to have a good beginning help us to end well we make this our prayer in the name of jesus christ our lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen i want to go in reverse i want to talk first about the second letter of saint paul to timothy a couple things are just they're just beautiful you know as paul is encouraging his spiritual son timothy
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
One of the things that he's reminding him of doing is he's reminding him of the fact that suffering is going to be part of this, that there are those who are going to oppose you and there are those who are going to fall away. I mean, he already wrote to Timothy about this and he's just reminding him of this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 359: John's Apocalypse (2024)
In fact, even just those hard words, those sad words at the end of chapter four or middle of chapter four, really, where St. Paul says, do your best to come to me soon. You can hear the ache in his voice. And get Mark and bring him with you. He's very useful. He goes on to say, Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
Here's Jesus on the cross who's giving of himself. Here's Jesus in the Eucharist and he's giving of himself. So there's this incredible, incredible connection between Storge, Eros, and Philia in the love of agape. And it all comes to perfection in the person of Jesus Christ. who loves us to the point of death, calls us his friends and gives us his spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me. And why should my father hide this from me? It is not so. But David replied, Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he thinks, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved. But truly, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
So I'm praying for you, my friends, as well as we continue this journey. Please pray for me. Please be praying for each other and especially lift up in prayer all of those people who haven't known love, all those people who walk through life alone because you are one of us. You belong to us. You belong to this community and we belong to you too. We belong to you too. You're our friend.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
Then said Jonathan to David, "'Whatever you say, I will do for you.' David said to Jonathan, "'Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit at table with the king, but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field till the third day at evening.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 112, and we're reading one chapter from 1 Samuel. We're reading 1 Samuel chapter 20 on the friendship between
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
If your father misses me at all, then say, "'David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family. If he says, "'Good, it will be well with your servant,' But if he is angry, then know that evil is determined by him. Therefore, deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a sacred covenant with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
But if there is guilt in me, slay me yourself. For why should you bring me to your father? And Jonathan said, Far be it from you. If I knew that it was determined by my father that evil should come upon you, would I not tell you? Then said David to Jonathan, Who will tell me if your father answers you roughly? And Jonathan said to David, Come, let us go out into the field.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
So they both went out into the field. And Jonathan said to David, The Lord, the God of Israel, be witness. When I have sounded my father about this time tomorrow or the third day, behold, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
But should it please my father to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan, and more also, if I do not disclose it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. May the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father. If I am still alive, show me the loyal love of the Lord that I may not die, and do not cut off your loyalty from my house forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
When the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth, let not the name of Jonathan be cut off from the house of David. And may the Lord take vengeance on David's enemies. And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
Then Jonathan said to him, Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty. And on the third day you will be greatly missed. Then go to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was in hand and remain beside yonder stone heap. And I will shoot three arrows to the side of it as though I shot at a mark.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
And behold, I will send the lad saying, go find the arrows. If I say to the lad, look, the arrows are on this side of you, take them. Then you are to come for as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger. But...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
if i say to the youth look the arrows are beyond you then go for the lord has sent you away and as for the matter of which you and i have spoken behold the lord is between you and me for ever so david hid himself in the field and when the new moon came the king sat down to eat food
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
david and jonathan we talked about it a little bit yesterday we're taking this next step in chapter 20 we're also praying psalm 142. if you want to know what bible translation that i'm reading from i'll give you the answer the answer is i'm using the revised standard version second catholic edition i'm using the great adventure bible from ascension as well
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
the king sat upon his seat as at other times upon the seat by the wall jonathan sat opposite and abner sat by saul's side but david's place was empty yet saul did not say anything that day for he thought something has befallen him he is not clean surely he is not clean
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
But on the second day, the next day after the new moon, David's place was empty and Saul said to Jonathan, his son, why has not the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today? Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem. He said, let me go for our family holds a sacrifice in the city and my brother has commanded me to be there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away and see my brothers. For this reason, he has not come to the king's table. Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, You son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
For as long as the son of Jesse lives upon the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Therefore, send and fetch him to me, for he shall surely die. Then Jonathan answered Saul his father, Why should he be put to death? What has he done? But Saul cast his spear at him to strike him, so Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
And Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David, because his father had disgraced him. In the morning Jonathan went out into the field to the appointment with David and with him a little lad. And he said to his lad, Run, and find the arrows which I shoot. As the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
And when the lad came to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the lad and said, Is not the arrow beyond you? And Jonathan called after the lad, Hurry, make haste, stay not. So Jonathan's lad gathered up the arrows and came to his master, but the lad knew nothing. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
And Jonathan gave his weapons to the lad and said to him, Go and carry them to the city. And as soon as the lad had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times, and they kissed one another and wept with one another until David recovered himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
Then Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, The Lord shall be between me and you and between my descendants and your descendants forever. And he rose and departed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
Psalm 142, a prayer for deliverance from persecutors, a mask of David when he was in the cave, a prayer. I cry with my voice to the Lord. With my voice, I make supplication to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before him. I tell my trouble before him. When my spirit is faint, you know my way. In the path where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
If you would like to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, please consider yourself invited. I got a letter the other day from someone who said, also, by the way, P.S., I have subscribed, so you don't have to say it anymore.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
I look to the right and watch, but there is none who takes notice of me. No refuge remains to me. No man cares for me. I cry to you, O Lord. I say, you are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Give heed to my cry for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors for they are too strong for me. Bring me out of prison that I may give thanks to your name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
The righteous will surround me for you will deal bountifully with me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
We thank you so much. Thank you for your word and thank you for the gift of friendship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
Lord God, we see a true friendship between Jonathan and David and we just give you thanks for all the people in our lives, whether they be a few or great in number who have been loyal to us, have been faithful to us, that you've brought into our lives and have cared for us or protected us or even just done their best to to be a friend. Lord God, in this moment, we pray for all of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
We pray for every person who has ever loved us, even those who have not loved us like they should have. We lift them up to you right now. Lord God, in this moment, we also lift up before you every heart that is lonely, every heart that is isolated, every heart that does not. and has not known friendship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
We pray for all of those hearts that experience this life and this walking through this world as a lonely journey, as a lonely experience, as the experience of one who remains unseen and unknown and unloved. They are our brothers and sisters and they are with us right now. As we go through this Bible in a year, Lord God, we pray for them right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
And we pray for them in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As we mentioned yesterday, we have, gosh. We had the friendship of David and Jonathan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
You know, it has to be noted just because we live in the 21st century and oftentimes when people bring up the friendship between David and Jonathan, scripture does not back away from the fact that they truly loved each other very, very much. And so in our 21st century world, that's so limited. When we hear about two men who love each other, we think, wait, that's weird. And it's not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
What it is, is it's not disordered love. This is what we talked about yesterday, philia, this love of friendship. It is not erotic love. That's the love of eros. It's a, I would say, even deeper love and more pervasive love. In fact, when it comes to the four loves, I mentioned C.S. Lewis yesterday and the four loves, he spells out four kinds of love the Greeks would talk about.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
One is called storge, right? It's the love of affection. And it's the love that we'd say if I love pizza, I love my mom, I love home, I love... traveling, whatever those things are, all that kind of love, that's Storge. I have an affection. And C.S. Lewis, at one point, he describes Storge as the rice. I have the audiobook, The Four Loves, on audiobook, as I said. And he's the narrator.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
But I know there's someone out there who's listening right now and you're thinking, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to get to the entire end of the year and I'm not going to subscribe. I'm going to find it every single day for 365 days and that's going to be my goal. And so at the end of it, I can say, ha, I never subscribed and he was talking to me every single day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
And so it's great. I have this voice of C.S. Lewis. That sounds something like C.S. Lewis. But his British voice saying that Storge is like the bed of rice. that is, you put your, I think your pad tie on, something like this. He just used this as a great example where it's the foundation. Everyone experiences storge, is what I'm trying to say. Everyone experiences love of affection.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
You don't have to have fallen in love in order to experience storge. You don't have to have a great friendship to experience storge. You just have to prefer anything, have an affection for anything, and that's storge. The next kind of love he talks about is eros. And eros is,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
He also notes that in our day and age, we highlight and we elevate Eros to such a degree that it's remarkable because the Greeks, not that the Greeks were great, the Greek philosophers, not that they were great, but they had good thoughts. They recognized that while Eros is good, it's the love of desire. Eros is good, but it's the love of desire. It is a love that says it moves us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
And it's a love that moves us either to give ourselves or to take. And so it can be distorted, right? So Eros can move a husband and wife to give themselves to each other, right? but also eros can move a man or woman to take for themselves. And so eros itself is in some ways, well, it's good. It's a gift. It's love, but it can always be distorted. It can always be misused.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
One of the things that the Greeks also noticed is that eros isn't the highest love because as we know, eros is fickle. That love of desire not only can be misused, but it also can disappear just as fast as it came on.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
In fact, if you've ever read any of the Shakespearean love stories, you have Romeo and Juliet, or you have Midsummer Night's Dream, you have some of these stories, and they're not really about the enduring power of Eros. They're about the fickle nature of Eros.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
In fact, if you've ever read that classic Romeo and Juliet, you recognize, you realize that once you're past junior high and you've actually paid attention to the story, at the beginning of the play, Romeo is absolutely head over heels in love, but it's not with Juliet. He's head over heels in love with Rosalyn and he meets Juliet and he's like, wait, no, no, no.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
Now she's the East, you know, she's the by, but wait, but soft by, you know, after window break, it's these Juliet's the son that now she has the object of my, of my era. She's the object of my affection right now. And Shakespeare was pointing out, okay, Eros can be good. It's powerful, but also it can be silly. And also it's kind of cheap when it comes down to it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
That's what we just did. Here we are. Day 112 with 1 Samuel chapter 20 and Psalm 142. First Samuel chapter 20, the friendship of David and Jonathan. Then David fled from Naoth and Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, what have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin before your father that he seeks my life? And he said to him, far from it, you shall not die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
We even realize that Eros is cheap because, you know, person A can be in love with person B one moment and in love with person C the next moment. So Eros, while good and while powerful, it is fickle and it's pretty cheap. That's one of the reasons why. And again, we know this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
It's one of the reasons why we would note that, you know, when here's Jack and Jill end up getting married, what do they almost always invariably end up saying? They almost always end up saying, I married my fill in the blank. I married my best friend. which is great. It's awesome. But what Jack and Jill are trying to say is, okay, all those people out there who have Eros, that's great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
That's fine. We have that too, but we have something even better. We have this depth of friendship. I'm marrying my best friend today is what all these people want to be saying, which is great because what they're recognizing is the depth. And the depth is affection, love of affection, storge, super good. Eros, love of desire, great, really good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
But love of philia, friendship, is an even higher kind of love. As we mentioned yesterday, that virtuous friendship is pursuing something even bigger than the individual. It's pursuing something even bigger than the couple or group of people. Philia, true friendship, is that pursuit of virtue, and it endures.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
In fact, while we have affection, storge, for any number of things in our lives, and we can have the love of desire, we can have eros for any number of people in our lives, C.S. Lewis points out that when it comes to Philia, when it comes to true friendship, that happens maybe once or twice in a person's life. If ever, if ever, because it's so rare, it's so powerful, it's so precious.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
And this is what we have a description of in 1 Samuel chapter 20. We have the description of the philia between Jonathan and David, this brotherhood they have.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
united in their pursuit of glory for god united in their pursuit of honoring the the nation of israel united in their pursuit of doing great things in the name of the lord united in their pursuit of doing the right thing and they recognize that virtue in each other and they're therefore loving each other and helping each other and as they weep
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
as they say goodbye to each other today in 1 Samuel chapter 20, you recognize what's happening here is this love that maybe very few of us can really understand. We can all understand storge. We can all understand eros. We all feel it. But we haven't all experienced philia like this. We haven't all experienced friendship like this. We haven't all experienced this kind of love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
And so we see it and we're trying to fit it into our own experience. But if you have had that love of friendship, you know the power of this. That it's more than storge. It's something completely different than eros. But it's that being united. In fact, it's closer to the fourth kind of love, which is agape.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
And agape was an idea for the Greeks, but it became a reality for the Christians when we saw how much God loved us. Here in John chapter 3, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that everyone might not perish, but might have eternal life. In fact, one last note, Pope Benedict, he noted that God actually loves us. And it's encyclical, God is love, so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 112: True Friendship (2025)
He noted that God actually has eros for us as well, not erotic in that sense of like, you know, a sexual love for us, but the love of desire. Again, the love of desire doesn't have to be sexual. It can simply be the kind of love that moves a person out of themselves to give of themselves. Again, we distort it and we take. But here's God who so loved the world that he gave of himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
I cannot wait to continue this journey with you. We're going to find out more about Joseph tomorrow and next couple days, what God is going to do when he continues to walk and lead his people. We're also going to find out what Elihu has to say tomorrow, who is like the young pup, young buck, who is not going to hold back. He's going to tell these old folks what he thinks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
And then someone really important is going to show up in the book of Job, and we need to hear from him because he's been kind of quiet this entire time. Anyways, my name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, brought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. The Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian, and his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
So Joseph found favor in his sight and intended him and he made him the overseer of his house, and put him in charge of all that he had. From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
The blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had, in house and field, so he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and having him, he had no concern for anything but the food which he ate. Now Joseph was handsome and good-looking, and after a time his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, "'Lie with me.'
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Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
But he refused and said to his master's wife, "'Behold, having me, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has into my hand. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife.' How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie with her or to be with her. But one day when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house were there in the house, She caught him by his garment saying, lie with me. But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
And when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, she called to the men of her household and said to them, see, he has brought among us a Hebrew to insult us. He came in to lie with me and I cried out in a low voice. And when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment with me and fled and got out of the house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home. And she told him the same story saying, the Hebrew servant whom you have brought among us came into me to insult me. But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment with me and fled out of the house. When his master heard the words, which his wife spoke to him, this is the way your servant treated me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
This is day 21. So let's get started. We will be reading today from Genesis chapter 39 and 40, from Job 31 and 32, and from Proverbs chapter 3, verses 33 through 35. As you know, we've been going at this for three full weeks by now. And we read every day from the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition. I'm reading using The Great Adventure of Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
His anger was kindled and Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the King's prisoners were confined. And he was there in prison. And whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
Sometime after this, the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker offended their lord, the king of Egypt, and Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief butler and the chief baker, and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison where Joseph was confined.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
The captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he waited on them, and they continued for some time in custody. And one night they both dreamed, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, each his own dream, and each dream with its own meaning. When Joseph came to them in the morning and saw them, they were troubled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody of his master's house, why are your faces downcast today? They said to him, we have had dreams and there is no one to interpret them. And Joseph said to them, do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, I beg you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
So the chief butler told his dream to Joseph and said to him, in my dream, there was a vine before me and on the vine, there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
Then Joseph said to him, this is its interpretation. The three branches are three days. Within three days, Pharaoh will lift your head and restore you to your office. and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly when you were his butler. But remember me when it is well with you, and do me the kindness I beg you to make mention of me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
For indeed I was stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon. When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, I also had a dream.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
There were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head. And Joseph answered, This is its interpretation. The three baskets are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat the flesh from you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief butler and the head of the chief baker among its servants. He restored the chief butler to his butlership and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
The book of Job chapter 31 and 32. Job asserts his integrity. I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I look upon a virgin? What would be my portion from God above and my heritage from the Almighty on high? Does not calamity befall the unrighteous and disaster the workers of iniquity? Does he not see my ways and number all my steps?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
If I have walked in falsehood and my foot has hastened to deceit, let me be weighed in a just balance and let God know my integrity. If my step has turned aside from the way and my heart has gone after my eyes and if any spot has clung to my hands, then let me sow and another eat and let what grows for me be rooted out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
If my heart has been enticed to a woman and I have lain in wait at my neighbor's door, then let my wife grind for another and let others bow down to her. for that would be a heinous crime. That would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for that would be a fire which consumes unto a badden, and it would burn to the root all my increase.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
If you want to follow along, if you want to read along, maybe even want to go back after you listen to this and mark up your own Bible, you can download your own Bible in a Year reading plan by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can click the subscribe button on whatever app you have so that you can get the updates as soon as we update it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or maidservant when they brought a complaint against me, what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes an inquiry, what shall I answer him? Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
If I have withheld anything that the poor desired, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it, for from his youth I reared him as a father, and from his mother's womb I guided him, if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, or a poor man without covering, if his loins have not blessed me, and if he has not warmed with the fleece of my sheep,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
If I have raised my hand against the fatherless because I saw help at the gate, then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder and let my arm be broken from its socket. For I was in terror of the calamity from God and I could not have faced this majesty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
If I have made gold my trust, or called fine gold my confidence, if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, or because my hand had gotten much, if I have looked at the sun when it shone, or the moon moving in splendor, and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my mouth has kissed my hand, this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I should have been false to God above.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
if i have rejoiced at the ruin of him that hated me or exalted when evil overtook him i have not let my mouth sin by asking for his life with a curse if the men of my tent have not said who is there that has not been filled with his meat the sojourner has not lodged in the street i have opened my doors to the wayfarer
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
If I have concealed my transgressions from men by hiding my iniquity in my bosom because I stood in great fear of the multitude and the contempt of families terrified me so that I kept silence and did not go out of doors, that I had one to hear me. Here's my signature. Let the Almighty answer me. Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary. Surely I would carry it on my shoulder.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
I would bind it on me as a crown. I would give him an account of all my steps. Like a prince, I would approach him. If my land has cried out against me and its furrows have wept together, if I have eaten its yield without payment and caused the death of its owners, let thorns grow instead of wheat and foul weeds instead of barley. The words of Job are ended. Young Elihu rebukes Job's friends.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
So these three men ceased to answer Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then Elihu, the son of Barakal, the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became angry. He was angry at Job because he justified himself rather than God. He was also angry at Job's three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
And you can also sign up for our email list by texting the word catholicbible to the number 33777. Once again, as I said, today we're reading from Genesis chapter 39 and 40, where we pick back up. Yesterday, we read chapter 38, where we heard this story of Judah and Tamar and all the craziness in that family. Of course, from that family came the Messiah, came our Lord Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he. And when Elihu saw that there were no answers in the mouths of these three men, he became angry. And Elihu, the son of Barakhel the Buzite, answered, I am young in years and you are aged. Therefore, I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you. I said, let my days speak and many years teach wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. It is not the old that are wise, nor are the aged that understand what is right. Therefore I say, listen to me, and let me also declare my opinion. Behold, I waited for your words. I listened for your wise sayings while you searched out what to say.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
I gave you my attention, and behold, there was none that confuted Job or that answered his words among you. Lest you say, we have found wisdom, God may vanquish him, not man. He has not directed his words against me, and I will not answer him with your speeches. They are discomfited. They answer no more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
They have not a word to say, and I shall speak because they do not speak, because they stand there and answer no more. I also will give my answer. I also will declare my opinion, for I am full of words. Proverbs chapter 3, verses 33 through 35. The Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the abode of the righteous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he shows favor. The wise will inherit honor, but fools get disgrace. God in heaven, we thank you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for revealing your heart to us. We thank you for heroes, people who are faithful like our friend Job. We thank you for heroes, people who are faithful like Joseph.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
Help us to be the kind of men and women who know your name and who know your commands and have the ability and the grace the perseverance and the persistence, the confidence and trust in you to do your will in all things. We make this prayer in Jesus' name, amen. In the name of the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit, amen. So as we noted, St. Joseph, not St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
Joseph, but it's interesting because Joseph, the ancient Old Testament Joseph, has a lot of parallels with the New Testament Joseph. And among those parallels, we have not yet seen them because we see them later on in this story, Other than this, that young Joseph in the Old Testament is righteous. For the last 21 days, we've been following the story of families who are normal, meaning broken.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
Families who are normal, meaning messed up. And people who, even though they're trying to do right, they often fail to do right. And yet here is one of the most virtuous people. We've heard his story. I mean, obviously Noah was a righteous man. He's declared that in scripture. But here's Joseph, who seems consistently to... Choose to walk with the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
In fact, that's the marking of Joseph, isn't it? It's the refrain that keeps happening because the Lord was with him. The Lord was with him. This is one of the things that we can take consolation in our lives. Particularly in the midst of this, Joseph has been betrayed by his brothers. He has been sold into slavery. He's falsely accused. He's falsely imprisoned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
And all the while the refrain is, but the Lord God was with him. And I think sometimes for myself, I can only recognize the Lord God being with me when things go the way I want them to go. Not when they're blessed, not when there's fruit, not when there's some consolation and the Lord can still use me even in the midst of my brokenness, even in the midst of my not liking the situation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
And yet Joseph is a phenomenal example for all of us of here is Joseph who is in a terrible situation that he did not create, but he's basically the victim of it. but he did not live like a victim. What he lived like, he lived like a victor, right? He lived walking with the Lord and the Lord was with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
And so we know that even in brokenness, the Lord can continue to work. Speaking of brokenness, last time we saw Joseph, he was sold into slavery. And now we begin or resume Joseph's story, beginning with chapter 39 and 40. Genesis chapter 39 and 40.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
It is so easy for us to forget that in all situations, in all circumstances, the Lord is with us. Even when, as Job pointed out, our friend Job pointed out, I have walked with God. I have been righteous. And yet it feels like God is not with me. But I declare that in some ways he's saying God is still with me because I have not left him and he will not leave me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
We can declare that as Christians, as those who have the fullness of revelation. As Catholic Christians, we have the fullness of revelation, knowing that not only do we have these Old Testament stories, we also have the fulfillment of the Old Testament.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 21: Walking with God (2025)
We also have the revelation of Jesus in the New Covenant, in the New Testament, where God declares, not just with his words, but with his very self, that I am faithful to you, that you can count on me, that I fight for you. So all of us in our situations that are broken, all situations that are not ideal, we can know with absolute confidence that the Lord is still with us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Hey everyone, before we get started today, I want to let you know the Bible in a Year has brought the Word of God to so many people. As you know, you're part of this community, changing lives in so many incredible ways. We're humbled to play this role in God's plan and consider it our ongoing mission to keep bringing the Word of God to as many people as possible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
And the other translation is the word gentleness. Your gentleness made me great. Here's God. Here's David talking to God. Again, knowing, knowing his brokenness, knowing his past, knowing his, his, his wickedness, his own personal wickedness. But God, what did you, your gentleness made me great. Your goodness made me great. Your help made me great. And part of that is, okay, your grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Because again, once again, let's do this. David knows his brokenness. David knows, and it's been on full display, uh, The way in which his sin, I mean, think about this. We could be very much unaware of David's sins because they didn't have to record them all in 2 Samuel here, but they were recorded. They were transcribed. They were passed it down. They were known.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
They were known by the people in the kingdom. And imagine this, here is David, who not only does he know his sins, but he knows that everyone else knows his sins. And yet he says, but God's grace came to help me. Your help made me great. Your gentleness made me great. So he looks back over his life and he can acknowledge the brokenness as well as the realizing this is the last chapter of my life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
And he is not bitter by that. And he's not corrupted by that. He's not resentful of that because this is the big challenge for so many of us in our lives to be able to look back and to tell the truth, the good and the bad, to acknowledge it, the good and the bad, to recognize here's the evil that I have done. Here's the way I needed God's grace. Here's the victories that he's won for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
And now also to get through all of that, to live through an entire life and not become resentful, that is an accomplishment. To live through an entire life and to not have become bitter is an accomplishment. To get to the end of one's life knowing this is the last chapter of my life and to be able to look back and give God praise, this is what he's doing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Tomorrow we're going to get even, I don't want to say even better, but tomorrow we're going to see how David not just praises God for what he's done, he also praises the people around him for what they've done for him and what they've done for Israel. Again, to get to the end of one's life or even to get to the end of a person's day or week or a chapter in one's life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
And then all the things will be done and you'll be ready to just keep on moving forward, living life on day 140 with 2 Samuel 22, 1 Chronicles 27, and Psalm 41. We're getting to the end of these books. In fact, we only have, I think, two days left after this with 1 Chronicles and 2 Samuel before we go into 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. So that's pretty fun.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
And to choose gratitude, to choose praise there when so many of us after battles could choose resentment. So many of us after battles, after struggles could choose corruption to live through life and not be corrupted by it. That's, that's a miracle to get through this world and not be corrupted by it. That's a miracle. And here's David at the end of his life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
After all the battles, all the struggles, all the heartache, all the failure, the people around him and his personal failure. And to not be corrupted by that. It's a miracle. It's incredible. And so that's what we pray for as well. That we can acknowledge the good and the bad of our past. And that we can acknowledge the good and the bad in our hearts right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
That we can get to the end of this day or the end of this week or the end of this season. And tell the truth and not be corrupted by that. That's a gift of God. That's a grace to be given. And so we can't do it on our own. As you know, you know I'm going to say this, you know that because we can't do it on our own, we need prayer, we need grace. And so we need to pray for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
And that's what we do every single day. You are not alone in this. This is not your solo journey through the Bible in 365 days. This is our journey through the Bible in 365 days. because it is day 140 and you have a community of people around you right now. Please know this. You have a community of people who you might not even know. You might know some of them, but they are praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
And so they're praying that you are able to look back on your past and acknowledge the good and bad and give God praise to give God thanks to be able to live through storms and not be corrupted by them. To know of the brokenness in your own heart and even the hearts of the people around you and not be resentful of that. That is a miracle. So we're praying.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
We are praying for a miracle to be alive in every one of our hearts, every one of our lives right now. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me and pray for each other as well. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
So here we are at the end of Samuel and at the end of 1 Chronicles, 2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles. Golly, here we go. The second book of Samuel, chapter 22, David's song of thanksgiving. And David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
He said, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior. You save me from violence. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
So what I'm saying is the end of this year is not going to be the end of Bible in a Year. So far, Ascension has been able to add the podcast to YouTube. You might have found it that way. Maybe you're watching right now on YouTube. And also, we're working on translating it into different languages so you could have the Bible in a year in other languages than English.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
For the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of perdition assailed me, the cords of Sheol entangled me, the snares of death confronted me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord, to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice and my cry came to his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked, the foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked because he was angry.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth glowing coals flamed forth from him he bowed the heavens and came down thick darkness was under his feet he rode on a cherub and flew he was seen upon the wings of the wind he made darkness around him his canopy thick clouds a gathering of water Out of the brightness before him coals of fire flamed forth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice. And he sent out arrows and scattered them, lightning and routed them. Then the channels of the sea were seen, the foundations of the world were laid bare at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. He reached from on high.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They came upon me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth into a broad place. He delivered me because he delighted in me. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his ordinances were before me, and from his statutes I did not turn aside. I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt. Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight. With the loyal you
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Yes, by you I can crush a troop and by my God I can leap over a wall. This God, his way is perfect. The promise of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For who is God but the Lord? And who is a rock except our God? This God is my strong refuge and has made my way safe. He made my feet like deer's feet and set me secure on the heights.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
He trains my hands for war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation and your help made me great. You gave a wide place for my steps under me and my feet did not slip. I pursued my enemies and destroyed them and did not turn back till they were consumed. I consumed them. I thrust them through so that they did not rise. They fell under my feet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
But, of course, this takes a significant investment to bring projects like these free of cost to our listening communities. And we want to keep them free of cost to all those people who participate because we want to get the Word of God out there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
For you girded me with strength for the battle. You made my assailants sink under me. You made my enemies turn their backs to me, those who hated me, and I destroyed them. They looked and there was none to save. They cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them. I beat them fine as the dust of the earth. I crushed them and stamped them down like the mire of the streets.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
You delivered me from the strife of the peoples. You kept me as the head of the nations." People whom I had not known served me. Foreigners came cringing to me. As soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me. Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fastnesses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
The Lord lives and blessed be my rock and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation, the God who gave me vengeance and brought down peoples under me, who brought me out from my enemies. You exalted me above my adversaries. You delivered me from men of violence. For this I will extol you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing praises to your name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Great triumphs he gives to his king, and shows mercy to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
This is the list of the people of Israel, the heads of fathers' houses, the commanders of thousands and hundreds, and their officers who served the king in all matters concerning the divisions that came and went month after month throughout the year, each division numbering 24,000.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
jashabiam the son of zabdiel was in charge of the first division in the first month in his division were twenty-four thousand he was a descendant of perez and was chief of all the commanders of the army of the first month dodai the ahochite was in charge of the division of the second month In his division were 24,000.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
The third commander for the third month was Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, as chief. In his division were 24,000. This is the Benaiah who was a mighty man of the 30 and in command of the 30. Amizabad, his son, was in charge of his division. Asahel, the brother of Joab, was fourth, for the fourth month. And his son, Zebediah, after him, in his division were 24,000.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
The fifth commander, for the fifth month, was Shamhuth, the Israelite, in his division were 24,000. Sixth, for the sixth month, was Ira, son of Ikesh, the Tekhoite, in his division were 24,000. Seventh, for the seventh month, was Helez, the Pelonite, of the sons of Ephraim, In his division were twenty-four thousand. Eighth, for the eighth month, was Sibachai, the Hushethite, of the Zerahites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
In his division were twenty-four thousand. Ninth, for the ninth month, was Abiezar, of Anathoth, a Benjaminite. In his division were twenty-four thousand. Tenth for the tenth month was Mahari of Notaphah of the Zerahites, and his division were 24,000. Eleventh for the eleventh month was Benaiah of Pirathon of the sons of Ephraim, and his division were 24,000.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Twelfth for the twelfth month was Heldai the Netothaphite of Othniel, and his division were 24,000. Leaders of the Tribes Over the tribes of Israel, for the Reubenites, Eleazar the son of Zichri was chief officer. For the Simeonites, Shephatiah, the son of Maacah. For Levi, Hashabiah, the son of Kemuel. For Aaron, Zadok. For Judah, Elihu, one of David's brothers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
For Issachar, Omri, the son of Michael. For Zebulun, Ishmaiah, the son of Obadiah. For Naphtali, Jeremoth, the son of Azrael. For the Ephraimites, Hoshea, the son of Azaziah. For the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joel, the son of Padaiah. For the half-tribe of Manasseh in Gilead, Ido, the son of Zechariah. For Benjamin, Jaasael, the son of Abner. For Dan, Azarel, the son of Jeroham.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
These were the leaders of the tribes of Israel. David did not number those below 20 years of age, for the Lord had promised to make Israel as many as the stars of heaven. Joab, the son of Zeruiah, began to number, but did not finish. Yet wrath came upon Israel for this, and the number was not entered in the chronicles of King David. stewards and counselors.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Over the king's treasuries was Asmaveth, the son of Adiel. And over the treasuries in the country, in the cities, in the villages, and in the towers, was Jonathan, the son of Uzziah. And over those who did the work in the field for tilling the soil was Ezri, the son of Chelub. And over the vineyards was Shimei, the Ramathite.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
And over the produce of the vineyards for the wine cellars was Zabdi, the Shifmite. Over the olive and sycamore trees in the Shephelah was Baal Hanan the Gedarite, and over the stores of oil was Joash. Over the herds that pastured in Sharon was Shittri the Sharonite. Over the herds in the valleys was Shaphat the son of Adlai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Over the camels was Obiel the Ishmaelite, and over the she-donkeys was Jediah the Meronithite. Over the flocks was Jaziz the Hagrite. All these were stewards of King David's property. Psalm 41 Psalm 41
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
To the choir master, a psalm of David. Blessed is he who considers the poor. The Lord delivers him in the day of trouble. The Lord protects him and keeps him alive. He is called blessed in the land. You do not give him up to the will of his enemies. The Lord sustains him on his sickbed. In his illness, you heal all his infirmities. As for me, I said, O Lord, be gracious to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Heal me, for I have sinned against you. My enemies say of me in malice, when will he die and his name perish? And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words while his heart gathers mischief. When he goes out, he tells it abroad. All who hate me whisper together about me. They imagine the worst for me. They say, a deadly thing has fastened upon him. He will not rise again from where he lies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted his heel against me. But you, O Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up that I may repay them. By this I know that you are pleased with me and that my enemy has not triumphed over me. But you have upheld me because of my integrity and set me in your presence forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Father in heaven, we do give you praise and we do give you glory and we bless your name, we praise your name. And holiness and all glory is yours. All praise and thanksgiving belongs to you for who you are and for what you've done in our lives. And so, Lord, preserve us from resentment, preserve us from corruption, and preserve us from despair and discouragement.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 140. My gosh, awesome, so good. We're reading from 2 Samuel 22, that's 2 Sam 22, and 1 Chronicles 27. We're also praying today, Psalm 41.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Help us to be filled with your courage, to be filled with your grace, and therefore to be able to let our lives be
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
signs of praise and signs of thanksgiving in jesus name we pray amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen so there's a couple things we're getting to the end of the story of david right so not only in second samuel but also in first chronicles because we will soon be transitioning from david to solomon both in both books and so what we're getting is we're getting kind of these wrap-ups and so you might have noticed that in second samuel chapter 22
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
It is very familiar, very similar to Psalm 18. In fact, I don't want to say word for word, but it's kind of like Psalm 18 part two or Psalm 18 redo, redone. And it is really remarkable for a couple of reasons. Well, for many reasons, it's the word of God. That's the main reason. But also because of this, because Psalm 18 is a Psalm of David after he's delivered from his enemies and from Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
And so this is kind of like early on in David's, David's career. This is early on in David's kingship, essentially where he gives God praise for how God has delivered him from his enemies. But here in second Samuel chapter 22, this is a very, again, a very similar Psalm to Psalm 18. I mean, it's so similar. It's, it's, uh, That's not a bad thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
In fact, it's such a good thing because what it reveals is, here's David at the end of his life. And what is he doing at the end of his life? He's giving God praise again. It's such a temptation for a lot of us, I think, to recognize that, okay, here's the defeat of the obstacle in front of us. Here is the achievement. Here's the victory. And here's the beginning of a new page.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
Here's the beginning of a new story. Here's the beginning of a new chapter. That's what David had when he wrote Psalm 18. is, yeah, all the people who oppose me, including King Saul, they have now been defeated. And now I'm beginning this new life, the reign of King David. And it's one thing to give out praise, defeat of his enemies, beginning of a new chapter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
It is an entirely different thing to give God praise at the end of one's life. Because there is no chapter. There's no next chapter for David. This is the last chapter in David's life on earth. In 2 Samuel, we have two more chapters, but this is the last chapter in David's life on earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
And he could look back on his life and say, it's done and now I'm sick and I'm getting old and Lord's abandoned me because I'm dying and all these kinds of things. But what does he say? He says, no, the Lord, he lifted me up. He saved me because he loves me. He delights in me. And he makes me holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
I mean, in fact, here's David at the end of his life, where not only all of his history is laid out, like all of his victories, all of his accomplishments as the king, uniting the kingdom of Israel, but also all of David's failures are behind him. Except we're going to hear in two days from now, we're going to hear a couple of David's last failure at the end of his life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
But all these other failures are behind him. And he looks back over his life and he can still rejoice. See, this is remarkable. Not only... This is so big. It's so important for us, right? Because many times we can look back and see the victory. We can look at, here's the next page, the next chapter, the next part of my life. But at a certain point in our lives, we have to look back and say...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
not only the victories, I don't just see the victories. I also see here is where I've massively failed. Here is where I have screwed up my life. Here's where I said no to the Lord. Here is where he had to redeem me once again, because of the evilness in my heart, because of the wickedness in my choices. And David knows, he knows absolutely so clearly of the wickedness that has been in his life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
As always, the Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 140: David's Prayer of Thanksgiving (2025)
And that's why it's one of the lines in 2 Samuel 22. It utters these words and it says, this is so good. Your help made me great. Your help made me great is the Revised Standard Version translation. Your help made me great. But if you have the Great Adventure Bible, you can see that there's a little T next to the word help. And that references that another translation of the Hebrew word there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Hey everyone, before we get started today, I want to let you know the Bible in a Year has brought the Word of God to so many people. As you know, you're part of this community, changing lives in so many incredible ways. We're humbled to play this role in God's plan and consider it our ongoing mission to keep bringing the Word of God to as many people as possible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
And it's incredible in chapter three. You're going to find out that it also comes at a price because then tomorrow we're going to see that Peter and John are summoned before the council, the Sanhedrin. And we'll see how that goes tomorrow. But today we also have the letter of St. Paul to the Romans. As I mentioned before, this is St. Paul's masterwork.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
This is a proclamation of the gospel like none other. And so it's gonna be really difficult to kind of try to sum up what is St. Paul saying in his letter to the Romans.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
But one of the things he is saying, remember before this, he talked about how those who are Gentiles, those who didn't know the law, they didn't know the revelation of God, they have no excuse because they should know right from wrong. And the Jews, they do know right from wrong and also they don't live up to the law. So basically no one lives up to the law
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
And yet yesterday we heard in chapter three about, yes, but we've all fallen short of the glory of God, but we're justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, which is incredible. And then in chapters four and five, chapter four, St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. Today is day 324, reading the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 3. Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, chapters four and five, as well as Proverbs chapter 27, the first three verses. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter three. Peter heals a lame beggar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Paul points to Abraham, which I love because not only do we hear about Abraham in chapter three of the Acts of the Apostles, but we also hear about Abraham in chapter four of Romans. And the point that Paul is making is, let's go back. remember in Rome, there were two groups of Christians, Christians who came from Judaism and Christians who did not come from Judaism.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
There was a span of maybe five years or so where Jews were kicked out of Rome. Now they came back, including Jews who were Christians. They came back and they might have different views on how things should be done, how people should live. So the role of circumcision, it might be one of those roles. And so St. Paul goes back to
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
the circumcision of Abraham and says, okay, was it Abraham's circumcision that made him righteous or was it his faith? And we go back to remember Genesis that actually Abraham trusted in the Lord before he was circumcised. And that circumcision was a sign of his trust. but he already had faith in the Lord. He already trusted in the Lord before the circumcision. And so St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Paul's making the point of saying, yep, Abraham at one point was circumcised, but also he had faith before he was circumcised. Therefore, circumcision itself is ultimately, he's gonna say, it doesn't mean anything. Now, obviously it meant something in the old covenant,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
But in this context where you have Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians having debates over the role of circumcision, Paul is saying, no, no, this is why it depends on faith because Abraham had faith even prior to the circumcision. Hopefully that makes some sense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
I mean, obviously it gets deeper than that because it's a call for us to have faith as well, but that's kind of the context and the example that St. Paul is using here in chapter four. And then chapter five is just, I mean, there's so many things to say, but one of my favorite Two of my favorites, I'll say this, two of my favorites. At the beginning of chapter five, St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Paul says, okay, therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Imagine this, because St. Paul would later go on to describe how actually there was a time when we were enemies of God. Let's pause on that for a second. There was a time when you and I were enemies of God. And so through our sins, we make ourselves enemies again. But St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Paul says, we're justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That Jesus has transformed our enmity that we have between us and God into a friendship, into peace. And now through him we have access to this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. That is incredible. Those are the first two verses of chapter 5.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
But then beyond that, he says, more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings. And why? Because we know that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. It's not useless, right? We know that God uses everything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
We know that nothing is wasted when given to God. So even our sufferings do something. Our sufferings produce endurance. Endurance produces character. Character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint because we have God's love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. But then, but then, here's my favorite. I quote this probably once a week, probably.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
While we were yet helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Why? One will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man, one will dare even to die. But God, in my translation I use oftentimes is the New American Bible. It says, but God proves his love. In RSV here, it says, but God shows his love. But God shows his love for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And this is just, this is such good news. That while we were enemies of God, he died for us. While we were his enemies, Jesus Christ died for us. While we were yet sinners, he died for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Yes, if we were good, maybe a really good person, if we were already righteous, if we were already his friends, maybe a good person would even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still his enemies, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. How much more, he goes on to say, how much more that now we're reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of those who entered the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him with John and said, Look at us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
And this is just, oh my gosh, what a gift, incredible gift. And then it was on to talk about Adam, the old Adam, through whose disobedience brought death to the world. Here's Jesus, the new Adam, and through his obedience brings life to everyone who belongs to him. You guys, this is literally what they call the great adventure. We spent over 300 days listening to this huge story
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
And now this is the apex of the story. This is the summary of the story that all of the promises from the Old Testament, all the hope and all the longing, all the suffering, all the ups and downs, all the brokenness of the Old Testament is now fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And we have access to that because of him, because of his unending, relentless love for every single one of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
You and I have access to this grace because while we were enemies of God, he died for us. While we were sinners, while we were broken, while we had nothing to offer, he offered everything to give us the chance to belong to him, to give us a chance to be his, to give us the chance to be his sons and daughters and let God be our father. This is insane. Oh, what a gift. Oh, okay. So anyways.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
I'm gushing. I apologize. But praise the Lord. He loves you so much. Right now, you need to know this. The Lord God loves you very much. He delights in you. He declares over you. You are mine. Never believe the lie that you're not wanted. Never believe the lie that your life doesn't matter. You are loved. You're wanted and he will never stop loving you. No matter what.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
I hope that you believe that. I pray that you believe that. And I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
And he fixed his attention upon them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, I have no silver and gold. But I give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up. And immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
So what I'm saying is the end of this year is not going to be the end of Bible in a Year. So far, Ascension has been able to add the podcast to YouTube. You might have found it that way. Maybe you're watching right now on YouTube. And also, we're working on translating it into different languages so you could have the Bible in a year in other languages than English.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
And leaping up, he stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Peter addresses the people in Solomon's portico.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's, astounded. And when Peter saw it, he addressed the people. Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this? Or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
And his name, by faith in his name, has made this man strong whom you see and know. And the faith which is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Repent, therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Moses said, And all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came afterwards also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God gave to your fathers, saying to Abraham, And in your posterity shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you in turning every one of you from your wickedness. The letter of St. Paul to the Romans, chapter 4. The example of the faith of Abraham. What then shall we say about Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now, to one who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift, but as his due. And to one who does not work, but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. So also David pronounces a blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
But, of course, this takes a significant investment to bring projects like these free of cost to our listening communities. And we want to keep them free of cost to all those people who participate because we want to get the Word of God out there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not reckon his sin. Is this blessing pronounced only upon the circumcised or also upon the uncircumcised? We say that faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it reckoned to him? was it before or after he had been circumcised?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received circumcision as a sign or a seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
And likewise the father of the circumcised, who are not merely circumcised, but also follow the example of the faith which our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. God's promise revealed through faith. The promise to Abraham and his descendants that they should inherit the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
If it is the adherence of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath. but where there is no law, there is no transgression.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law, but also to those who share the faith of Abraham, for he is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope, he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, so shall your descendants be.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
And because of that, we have to rely on generous contributions from listeners like you to help defray these costs and to enable us to continually provide new audiences with this life-changing content. So if you would like to help support the Bible in a Year mission, you can go to ascensionpress.com support. That's ascensionpress.com support.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
That is why his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. But the words, it was reckoned to him, were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was put to death for our trespass and raised for our justification. Chapter five, results of justification.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
And hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. While we were yet helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God shows his love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Since therefore we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Adam and Christ. Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned, sin indeed was in the world before the law was given. But sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet, death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam who was a type of the one who was to come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, how much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the effect of that one man's sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation. But the free gift following many trespasses brings justification.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Then, as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. Law came in to increase the trespass. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth. Let another praise you, and not your own mouth, a stranger, and not your own lips. A stone is heavy and sand is weighty, but a fool's provocation is heavier than both. Father in heaven, we give you praise and thank you so much. Thank you for the gift of this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Thank you for the gift of your mercies, which are new every single morning.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Thank you for the gift of grace that comes to us as a complete and free gift, not something that we've earned and not something that we deserve, but simply something that we receive because of your goodness, not because of our worth, not because of our goodness, not because of our dignity, but simply because you are good, because you are just, because... You are the God who is good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
You're the Lord of all. And you have purchased us at a price. You've won us to yourself, not only by arresting us from the power of sin and death, but you've won our hearts by revealing your gentle heart, your strong heart. your faithful heart, your relentless heart that loves us and chooses us no matter what. So we thank you. Help us to choose you. Help us to receive your love no matter what.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Speaking of in Jesus' name is incredible. Acts of the Apostles chapter three. So we had Pentecost and now there's, you know, thousands of people who have been baptized. Now there's all the people who are following the Lord. They're gathering together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
We mentioned this before in chapter two, they held steadfastly to the apostles teaching and fellowship, breaking the bread, the prayers. That's Acts in 242. So important. But here's Acts chapter three, Peter and John going up to the temple. Now, why would they go up to the temple? They go up to the temple to pray. Because they're good Jews, right? So we have to remember this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 324. We are three days into the age of the church, and we're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 3. as well as the letter of St. Paul to the Romans, chapters 4 and 5.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
The reason why we spent all of that time reading through the Old Testament is because the Old Testament is still in effect. The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
So when I say it's still in effect, what I mean is that there was this heresy way back in the day that said that the Old Testament is abolished now, that the scriptures, the Hebrew scriptures, completely unnecessary and useless. That's not the case. That was a heresy that was condemned, essentially.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
It says, no, the New Testament or in Christ Jesus, the Old Testament, God's promises of old are fulfilled, not abolished. Jesus even says as much. So here are Peter and John going up to the temple. Yeah, maybe they're going up there because they want the opportunity to be able to preach in the temple precincts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
but also because they're going up at the hour of prayer because they saw themselves as Jews, just Judaism fulfilled in Jesus Christ, right? So, okay, here they are. And there's a person sitting, begging at the gate. I love this because they look at him intently and it says that the man looks back at them expecting that they would give him something.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
And Peter says, we neither have gold nor silver, but what we do have, we give you freely. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I say to you, arise. And the man is able to walk. And I love his response. It is exactly the response you would expect from anybody who is unable to walk, who then all of a sudden is completely restored.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Multiple times it says, leaping up, he stood and walked into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. And then they saw him walking and praising God. They saw him leaping and they saw him, you know, it was exactly, that's what you would be doing if you were unable to walk and you were able once again to be fully restored. Wouldn't you use that gift?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
And this goes back to Acts chapter 2, right? Yesterday we talked about this, how here's the Lord who sends the Holy Spirit upon the apostles to do what? Not simply to get into a holy huddle, but to move out and to use the gift that God has given to them. Here is the beggar who was unable to walk. Now God has given him the gift of being able to walk. What is he doing?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
He is using the gift that God gave to him. And this is one of the things for every single one of us. God has given all of us various gifts. Those gifts, yes, are meant to be enjoyed, but they're also meant to be used. We glorify the Lord. You know, we glorify the Lord when we give him thanks for the gifts he's given us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
I would say we glorify him even further when we use the gifts that he's given us. And so here are Peter and John using the gift of healing. Here is the man who has been given the gift of walking and leaping and dancing and jumping, and he's using that gift. But it's so powerful because, you know, this miracle accompanies what? This miracle accompanies the proclamation of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
We're reading also Proverbs 27, verses 1 through 3. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
You know, one of the things that happens has happened in the last 2000 years of Christianity is there are many mighty works. There are many incredible miracles. But those miracles, they almost all have to accompany the proclamation of Jesus Christ as the Lord, as the Savior, as the one who has conquered death on behalf of the Father and for us. And so this is so important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Miracles, yes, are because God loves us. Miracles exist. But kind of in some ways you say the function of miracles or the reason why God would continue to do miracles in our world. Okay, not only because he loves us, because sometimes the miracle doesn't happen, right? But even more is so that he can be known. So that here is the mighty work that's done. Here is the miracle that's wrought.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Name of Jesus (2024)
Here is the healing that happens. So that he can then be proclaimed. That's the key thing because we realize, yes, physical healing is so important, but spiritual healing is even more important because spiritual suffering and spiritual death is even more debilitating. Again, healing almost always must accompany the proclamation of Jesus Christ as Lord and as it happens today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
So you and I, we can have this, we can hear these same words of God, be strong and of good courage, not because everything is fine, not because there's no battles to fight, but Not because there's not even defeats to be suffered, but because I will be with you. Second note is God says, okay, write this song. And we're like, wait, wait, what song? Well, Song of Moses is coming up in chapter 32.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
So stay tuned tomorrow. We're going to hear the Song of Moses tomorrow. And that's the song that is repeated, the song that is sung. So the people of Israel can't claim ignorance of who God is or what he's done. And that's so important for us too, not to only to be strong and of good courage, but but also to be reminded of God's word. Here's what he has done, and here's who he really is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And they said, If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Do not take us across the Jordan. Verse 1.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
That's why we're doing this Bible in a year, isn't it? Because we want and we need to be able to be reminded of who God is. I'm talking a little fast. I'm sorry. I'm just excited. The last note is... It is revealed here in chapter 31 how thoroughly the Lord and Moses know that the people of Israel, while God is going to fight for them, while God is going to be with them,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
while he's even giving them a new leader after Moses, Joshua. He knows, he knows their hearts and he knows you are going to be faithless. I'm going to give you this land. I'm going to fight for you, fight with you to give you this land, take possession of it. And in this land, you will grow fat. You will grow wealthy. You will have everything you need.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And when I've given you everything you need, after having fought for you, you will turn to other gods. I just, I know this. you will turn away from me. And it's so powerful. I think at times we are tempted to turn away from God in times of pain, in times of suffering. You know, we just think, God, where are you? And what are you doing? Why don't you care?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
I think more of us, we turn away from God in times of prosperity. And yet here's God who says, but I'm still going to fight for you. I know you're going to do this. I know you're going to fail. I know you're going to be faithless, but I'm going to fight for you and I'm going to be faithful. It is an incredible, an incredible mystery of who God is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
That he not only promises to be faithful, he is faithful, even though he knows the people he loves, you and me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
and the people of israel here that even though he knows the people that he loves you and me the people of israel are going to take his love and throw it into the trash we're going to take his love and we're going to betray him and yet he still loves us and he still blesses us and he still says be strong and of good courage i will be with you man
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
We just keep praying because I want to be able to love God back the way he loves me. And I know it's impossible, but I know that I can love him better than I've been loving him. I know I can love him better with my whole heart instead of just with a divided heart, with a whole heart instead of a heart that I give to so many distractions and maybe even false gods at times.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
But I come back to the Lord and let's come back to the Lord today and say, God, you fight for us. You're faithful. Please help me when I fail. Help me when I'm faithless. Help me to trust in your love and in your power to lift up and to restore. I'm praying for you. I know you're praying for each other. This is, you know, day 77 and we're moving along.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
I don't think any of us probably could keep up with this unless we were praying for each other. Again, we're not alone in this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And your willingness to fight, your willingness to listen to God's word and let it shape you, it helps not only you, it helps your kids, it helps your parents, it helps your siblings, it helps your friends, and it helps this community of people who are going through this Bible. It helps me. And thank you. I'm praying for you, as I said. I know I asked it already, but please pray for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
Pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And the Lord's anger was kindled on that day, and he swore, saying, Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt from twenty years old and upward shall see the land which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me, none except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
and the lord's anger was kindled against israel and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the lord was consumed and behold you have risen in your father's stead a brood of sinful men to increase still more the fierce anger of the lord against israel
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
For if you turn away from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all this people. Then they came near to him and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our flocks and cities for our little ones, but we will take up arms, ready to go before the sons of Israel until we have brought them to their place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And our little ones shall live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our homes until the sons of Israel have inherited each his inheritance. For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan to the east.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
So Moses said to them, If you will do this, if you will take up arms to go before the Lord for the war, and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the Lord until he has driven out his enemies from before him and the land is subdued before the Lord,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
then after that you shall return and be free of obligation to the Lord and to Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. Build cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep, and do what you have promised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben said to Moses, Your servants will do as my Lord commands. Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle shall remain there in the cities of Gilead. But your servants will pass over every man who is armed for war before the Lord to battle as my Lord orders.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
So Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the sons of Israel. And Moses said to them, If the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben, every man who is armed to battle before the Lord, will pass with you over the Jordan, and the land shall be subdued before you,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
Then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession. But if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben answered, As the Lord has said to your servants, so we will do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
We'll be right back. discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 77. We are reading from Numbers 32, Deuteronomy chapter 31. We're also praying Psalm 117. As always, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to get your own Bible,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
We will pass over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us beyond the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And Moses gave to them, to the sons of Gad, and to the sons of Reuben, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, the land and its cities with their territories, the cities of the land throughout the country.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And the sons of Gad built Diban, Ataroth-Aroer, Atroth-Shophan, Jezer-Jugbahah, Beth-Nimrah, and Beth-Haran, fortified cities, and folds for sheep." And the sons of Reuben built Heshbon, Eliallah, Kiriathim, Nebo, and Baal-maon, their names to be changed, and Sibma. And they gave other names to the cities which they built.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, went to Gilead and took it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were in it. And Moses gave Gilead to Machir, the son of Manasseh, And he settled in it. And Jair, the son of Manasseh, went and took their villages and called them Havoth Jair. And Noba went and took Kenath and its villages and called it Noba after his own name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
you can go get it somewhere ascensionpress.com sells them as well as almost any place where fine bibles are sold you also can go to ascensionpress.com bible in a year to download your bible in a year reading plan if you have not yet subscribed in your podcast you can do that to receive daily episodes and that's about it when you subscribe. That's about all you get, just daily episodes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
The book of Deuteronomy chapter 31, Joshua becomes Moses's successor. So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel. And he said to them, I am 120 years old this day. I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, you shall not go over this Jordan. The Lord, your God himself will go over before you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
He will destroy these nations before you so that you may dispossess them. and Joshua will go over at your head as the Lord has spoken. And the Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land when he destroyed them. And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
Be strong and of good courage. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of good courage, for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
Rereading of the Law Commanded And Moses wrote this law, and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
At the end of every seven years, at the set time of the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place which he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children who have not known it may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
Moses and Joshua received God's charge. And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, the days approach when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting that I may commission him. And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting. And the Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud. and the pillar of cloud stood by the door of the tent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, you are about to sleep with your fathers. Then this people will rise and play the harlot after the strange gods of the land, where they are going to be among them, and they will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day and I will forsake them and hide my face from them and they will be devoured and many evils and troubles will come upon them so that they will say in that day, have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And I will surely hide my face in that day on account of all the evil which they have done, because they have turned to other gods. Now, therefore, write this song and teach it to the sons of Israel. Put it in their mouths that this song may be a witness for me against the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them and despise me and break my covenant. And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
Anyways, as I said, today is day 77. We are reading Numbers 32, Deuteronomy 31, and praying Psalm 117. The Book of Numbers, chapter 32. Conquest and division of the Transjordan lands. Now the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle, and they saw the land of Jazar and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place for cattle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
For it will live unforgotten in their mouths of their descendants. For I know the purposes which they are already forming, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give. So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And the Lord commissioned Joshua, the son of Nun, and said, Be strong and of good courage, for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to give them. I will be with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book, to the very end, Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, take this book of the law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
Behold, while I am yet alive with you, today you have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death? Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And in the days to come evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
Praise the Lord, all nations. Extol him, all peoples. For great is his mercy toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
We lift up our voices to you. We lift up our hearts to you. We know that you are the Lord. You are God and you are good and you call us to be yours. Even though you know our weakness, even though you know our frailty, even though you know that we will turn away from you. You still fight for us. You still call us to belong to you. You still love us, even in the midst of our faithlessness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
You love us when we do not love you. You are good. You are God, and we give you praise today. Help us in our weakness. Help us when we have fallen, when we have failed. Remind us of your faithfulness so that we can turn back to you, call upon your mercy, call upon your grace, and be restored by your love. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So let's say this. Psalm 117. We just prayed that. It is the shortest psalm of all the psalms. We did Psalm 119, which is the longest psalms of all the psalms. Wow, that was a while back. Gosh. That was a while back. But today, Psalm 117, the shortest of all of the Psalms. We got to pray that and it was great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
Okay, so here we go. Back to Numbers 32 in Deuteronomy chapter 31. One quick note about Numbers chapter 32. So remember, this is the end of the story. What's happened is the people of Israel have defeated the Midianites, right? So now they have. They've defeated Sihon, the king of the Amorites, Og, the king of Ishan. they've defeated that land. And so the plains of Moab now are theirs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And what we have is sons of Reuben, sons of Gad saying, Hey, this land is really good for cattle and we've got cattle. So can we have this land? And, you know, it's so remarkable that Moses's response is saying, essentially,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
This is what happened the first time when the people of Israel, the spies of Israel went up and they went to Kadesh Barnea to see the land and they lost heart because it's like, you know what? Let's just not. Let's not take the promised land. Let's not go fight. Let's not take the land that God wants for us. Let's just stay somewhere else, anywhere else.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And Moses is saying, okay, sons of Reuben, sons of Gad, that is exactly what you're saying right now. Not only because this is such a powerful fact. When we're not willing to fight, people around us aren't willing to fight either. This is that, you know, we say, hey, you do you and you can live your own life and you get to do what you want to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And I'm not going to comment on it and I'm not going to do. But, you know, the reality is we are not just individuals. We're not just atoms that are unbeholden to each other. Like we belong to each other. In fact, I think there's the quote from St. Mother Teresa who had said something along the lines of, is that we have so much violence in this life. We have so much distress in this life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
So the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben came and said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the congregation, Ataroth, Dabon, Jazer, Nimra, Heshbon, Elielah, Sabam, Nebo, and Baon, the land which the Lord struck before the congregation of Israel is a land for cattle, and your servants have cattle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
We have so much poverty in this world because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. So here is what Moses is pointing out. Okay, sons of Reuben, sons of Gad, you don't go up to fight. You know what's gonna happen? The other tribes are not gonna wanna go up to fight either. And this is gonna be the same thing over and over again. And this is true for our own hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
We can say, you know what? I just don't feel like doing what I know I'm called to do right now. And it's fine, it's my life, I'll do what I want. And what happens is people see that. And we say, no, I'm not gonna be your role model. You don't have to base your decisions off of me. And yet people do, we do that. That's just a natural, normal thing to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
Well, if he's not gonna fight, if she's not gonna fight, then I don't need to fight either. And this is what Moses was very concerned about. So what did they do? They came and the sons of Reuben, sons of Gad, were like, actually, we'll fight. Let us have this land. And so they make a compromise, not a compromise. They make an agreement.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
They make a pact with each other saying that, okay, you can leave your wives and kids and your cattle and everything here. But every one of you who is of fighting age has to go across the Jordan to take possession of the promised land so that the other tribes are going to be unafraid to fight as well. And it's so, so important. That's what they did. And so that's what they had committed to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And that's what ultimately they end up doing in, well, later on as we get to the conquest and judges, that's what happens. All the tribes go into the promised land and all the tribes make the decision and the commitment to fight on behalf of each other for the Lord, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
Because this is the land that the Lord God had given them, had promised to them, and he was going to give them, but they had to do their part too. And again, The spiritual lesson here is we have to do our part as well. God has a plan for us. He has a place he wants us to go. The kind of people he has called us and redeemed us in Jesus Christ to become. Becoming that is a battle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
And if you and I aren't willing to fight, then the people around us will say, well, I'm not going to fight either. Gosh. So good. Okay. Deuteronomy chapter 31, brief note on that. So not only is Joshua being named as the successor and Moses and Joshua go into the tent of meeting, they go into the presence of the Lord and the Lord gives such a powerful word. And Moses says it multiple times.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 77: God Is Faithful (2025)
What we're going to find is in Joshua, when Joshua takes charge of the people of Israel, he He's going to say the same words, the words repeated again and again, be strong and of good courage, be strong and of good courage. And not because you're amazing, not because you are strong, not because you are courageous, but because God says, because I will be with you. I will fight for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
He shall serve with you until the year of Jubilee. Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own family and return to the possession of his father's. For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
As for your male and female slaves, whom you may have, you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are round about you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their families that are with you who have been born in your land and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
You may make slaves of them, but over your brethren, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with harshness. If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you, or to be a member of the stranger's family, then after he is sold, he may be redeemed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
One of his brothers may redeem him, or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or a near kinsman belonging to his family may redeem him. Or if he grows rich, he may redeem himself. He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of Jubilee.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
And the price of his release shall be according to the number of years the time he was with his owner shall be rated as the time of a hired servant. If there are still many years, according to them, he shall refund out of the price paid for him, the price for his redemption. If there remain but a few years until the year of Jubilee, he shall make a reckoning with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
We repeat the things that are important and we highlight those things that are important by uttering them again. And one of the things that my older brother will say is that he's like, dude, whenever you're preaching, you just repeat the same thing over and over.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
According to the years of service due from him, he shall refund the money for his redemption. As a servant hired year by year, shall he be with him. He shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight." And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the year of Jubilee, he and his children with him. For to me, the sons of Israel are servants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
They are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
God's appeal to stubborn Israel. To the choir master, according to the Gitteth. A Psalm of Asaph. Sing aloud to God our strength. Shout for joy to the God of Jacob. Raise a song, sound the timbrel, the sweet lyre with the harp. Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon on our feast day. For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
He made it a decree in Joseph when he went out over the land of Egypt. I hear a voice I had not known. I relieved your shoulder of the burden. Your hands were freed from the basket. In distress you called, and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Hear, O my people, while I admonish you, O Israel, if you would but listen to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
There shall be no strange God among you. You shall not bow down to a foreign God. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. But my people did not listen to my voice. Israel would have none of me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own counsels. Oh, that my people would listen to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
that Israel would walk in my ways. I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him, and their fate would last forever. I would feed you with the finest of wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you. Father in heaven, we give you praise and thank you so much for your word. We thank you for confounding us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
I'm like, yeah, dude, because we remember stuff that when it gets repeated over and over again, and here is the Lord repeating a bit of what he has already said in Leviticus and what he's even already said some of these things in the book of Exodus. But it's important for us because it is revealing the heart of worship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
We thank you for confusing us. Lord God, when we hear about slavery, when we hear about these things that have been such a scourge on humanity for so many years, We just ask that you enlighten our minds to be able to understand what is the place that you allowed for this to take place?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
What is it that you're teaching us in doing this, in allowing this to be a part of the life of the people of Israel, your people? Lord God, help us to not harden our hearts nor to allow our minds to be darkened, but open our hearts and open our minds to not be minds of cynicism or skepticism, to not have hearts of distrust, but to open our hearts to trusting you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
We make this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So as I mentioned in that little prayer, we get some confusing stuff today when it comes to the book of Leviticus. And yet at the same time, it's not confusing. Sorry, let's rewind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
We have Exodus chapter 35 and 36, which might have sounded super duper familiar to you if you have joined us for the last couple of days, because we even had the story of not just the story, the account of our two skilled workers, Bezalel and Aholiab. in almost the exact same wording earlier on in the book of Exodus. And yet, why is this so important?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
I mentioned it at the very beginning of this particular episode. It's so important because what we're talking about is worship of God. What we're talking about is the dimensions of the tabernacle. We're talking about the fine elements jewels and the fine resources that go into creating not only the tabernacle, but also what's inside the tabernacle, what the priests are wearing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
All of these things are super important. Now, they might not be important to us, but one of the things that scripture reveals is that it's important to the Lord for some reason. And it's not important because God needs us to use acacia wood. It's because the worship that God instructs us to offer does something for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
And it has to touch not just the one day we might gather together to offer God worship, it has to touch the rest of our lives. And this is part of why the Lord God repeats himself multiple times in Exodus and Deuteronomy and Numbers and Leviticus when it comes to worship. We're going to come back to this again and again, because getting worship right is so critical.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day 49. Let's keep on going. We're reading from two chapters in Exodus. We're coming to the end of Exodus, Exodus chapter 35 and 36. We're also reading
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
In fact, when we invent worship, we're doing something completely wrong. Like when we create worship, we're doing something so, so backwards from what God is instructing us to do. And yet that's how a lot of churches are run.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
A lot of these, it seems like these days, I don't mean to be overly critical, but it seems like in a lot of different places, what we're doing is we're like, I think God wants this, we'll do this. Well, I think we'll sing a song here. Let's sing a song here, as opposed to saying, okay, how has God commanded us to worship him?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
When it comes to Sabbath, when it comes to the tabernacle, when it comes from the offerings that are brought into the tabernacle, it is all about worship. And there's nothing, there's no greater human act that anyone could do than the act of worship. And that's one of the reasons why the Lord God continues to instruct us in that teaching, teaching of worship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Okay, well, we know, as he said, here's the New Testament priesthood that is a fulfillment of the Old Testament priesthood. Here is the New Testament, new and eternal sacrifice, which is the fulfillment of the old sacrifice. And so what we do is we say, okay, God, you said, do this in memory of me, take this, all of you eat of it. This is my body. This is my blood. That's what we do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Cause you gave us the instruction to do that. And yet let's move past this to Leviticus. And yet that just can't be one day. It can't just be one hour of our lives. It has to be at the heart of our lives. In fact, The heart of worship is sacrifice. The heart of religion is worship. The heart of worship is sacrifice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
And one of the things we need to do is recognize that that sacrifice is a sacrifice of trust. It's a sacrifice of love. And so what we have in Leviticus today is we have this feast, the sabbatical year. The sabbatical year is what? That on the seventh year, God instructs. He says, okay, you grow crops. You have vines for grapes and wine and whatnot.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
On the seventh year, just like on every seventh day, you're called to rest. Every seventh year, you let the earth lay fallow that you don't harvest on that year. You don't plant crops that year. You don't harvest that year that you rest and let the land rest. And there's something about this that's just like, it's so backwards, especially for our, I'm going to say acquisitorial, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Acquisitorial. We live in such a culture that demands consumerism and demands acquisition, demands all this work. And yet here is God who says, no, on the seventh year, rest. What is that? It's not just resting. It's not just affirming you're no longer slaves, although that's a massive piece. We're going to come back to that in the next couple of weeks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
But it's also affirming, okay, God, I trust you. It's confirming and affirming, okay, God, I know that you are just. And so I have to be like you. I have to be just. That's why you have this, you know, so they have the seventh, seventh, seven, right? So the 49th year, the 50th year after seven, sevens, right? After seven years of seven times, seven years, they call it seven weeks of years.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
There's the 49th year and that 50th year is the year of Jubilee, right? And what we heard, and maybe we understood it, maybe we didn't, what we heard there is that if you had property that you had to let go of because of bad fortune, because of bad decisions, because of whatever, you got your property back. And if you had to sell yourself into slavery because of the same reasons,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
You were set free. That if you had any debts, those debts were forgiven. And then it's just this year of restoration. And that's what the year of Jubilee is. It's all about like, okay, here is the reality of life. The reality of life is that there is, I mean, back then, let's talk about the early world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Slavery was just as much a part of business, just as much part of how you would run the economy as we have contracts right now. So you have this, okay, I need job and someone's willing to hire me as an indentured servant. Someone's willing to hire me as their slave. So I'll sell myself into slavery, but here's the provision. The provision is it's not slavery forever, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
So it's, it's, it's not, it's not the same kind of slavery that we had in this country years and years ago, where it's based off of anything like race was based off of anything like, um, we call it cattle or chattel slavery. It was based off of something like overly domineering. In fact, Scripture says in Leviticus today, it says you shall not lord it over your these slaves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
You should not abuse them. Why? Because I am the Lord, your God. And God clearly says that. And he's who's he talking to? Let's keep this in mind. He's not talking to 21st century Westerners. He's talking to a people that themselves had experienced what it was like to be slaves and for 300 to 400 years, the people of Israel were slaves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
So without anything further, Exodus chapter 35 and 36, Sabbath Regulations. Moses assembled all the congregation of the sons of Israel and said to them, these are the things which the Lord has commanded you to do. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day, you shall have a holy Sabbath of solemn rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
So they knew what it was like to be under the domineering hand of a ruthless taskmaster. And God is saying, okay, I will tolerate this for now, right? This, this way of supporting your economy with this way of like, even not just supporting your economy, but this way of like supporting those among you who are poor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
If you find yourself in dire straits and you cannot feed yourself, you cannot clothe yourself. You cannot house yourself. You can actually sell yourself to be someone's labor. And what happens then they will clothe you. They will feed you. They will house you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
But all of this, A, with the provision that those who have purchased you, those who've entered into this contract with you would not lord it over you because I'm the Lord your God. And secondly, B, that the Jubilee year, you'd be restored to freedom. You'd be restored to freedom. We can look back on this and say, well, that's so backwards. And it's so, I don't get it. And that makes sense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
But whenever we read the Bible, we have to read it in context. And the context here is these are people who knew absolutely what it was like to be slaves. Not just like, not slaves where you got your freedom later on. They knew what it was like to have harsh taskmasters. Because God is saying, okay, I'm helping you grow. So I'm allowing this now. But even how I'm allowing this has restrictions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
You are not to be harsh taskmasters. And people get their freedom on that year of restoration, that year of Jubilee. Oh, gosh. It's just a gift. Again, because why? Because it's the plus one theory of education where God is helping these people move from level two to level three. He's helping them move from level three to level four, from level four to level five.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
But here we are a lot of times as 21st century Westerners and we look at this and we think like, that's crazy. Well, that's because God has already brought us to level 14 or whatever level we're at right now where we understand that this is problematic and And God is saying, yes, it is. But we have to start somewhere.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
And with these people who knew what it was like to be slaves, they also have to know what it's like not to be slaves. Therefore, every seventh day, rest, because you're not a slave. Every seventh year, rest, because you're not a slave. And every 50th year, every seven weeks of years, rest and set free, because you are not meant to be slaves. The Bible is not meant to be straightforward.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
The Bible is oftentimes an account of reality and it's not always the best. It's not always the easiest. It's not always the most straightforward, but it is true and it is good. Even if we have to read between the lines to understand what it is that God is allowing and what it is that God is saying and what it is that God is trying to teach us today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Let's keep praying for each other because sometimes we're going to run into some of these Bible passages that we don't get. And whenever we do that, we just say, okay, Lord, let me be humble before you help me to understand this. And if I'm not confused, I'm not clear enough. Meaning me, Father Mike, if I'm not clear enough, look it up because I will not have all the answers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
You shall kindle no fire in all your habitations on the Sabbath day. Preparations for making the tabernacle. Moses said to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, this is the thing which the Lord has commanded. Take from among you an offering to the Lord, whoever is of generous heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Let him bring the Lord's offering, gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen, goat's hair, tanned ram's skins and goat skins, acacia wood, oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, and onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
And let every able man among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded, the tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its hooks and its frames, its bars, its pillars and its bases, the ark with its poles, the mercy seat and the veil of the screen, the table with its poles and all its utensils, and the bread of the presence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
The lamp stands also for the light with its utensils and its lamps and the oil for its light.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
and the altar of incense, with its poles, and the anointing oil, and the fragrant incense, and the screen for the door, at the door of the tabernacle, the altar of burnt offering, with its grating of bronze, its poles, and all its utensils, the laver, and its base, the hangings of the court, its pillars, and its bases, and the screens for the gate of the court, the pegs of the tabernacle, and the pegs of the court, and their cords,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
the finely wrought garments for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons for their service as priests. offerings brought for the tabernacle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel departed from the presence of Moses, and they came, every one whose heart stirred him, and every one whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord's offering to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
So they came, both men and women, all who were of a willing heart, brought brooches, and earrings, and signet rings, and armlets, all sorts of gold objects." every man dedicating an offering of gold to the Lord. And every man with whom was found blue or purple or scarlet stuff or fine linen or goat's hairs or tanned ram's skins or goat skins brought them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
from the third to last chapter in the book of Leviticus, Leviticus 25, as well as praying Psalm 81. As always, I am reading both from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. As always, I'm reading using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your Bible in a Year reading plan, just visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Everyone who could make an offering of silver or bronze brought it as the Lord's offering. And every man with whom was found acacia wood of any use in the work brought it. And all the women who had ability spun with their hands and brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen. All the women whose hearts were moved with ability spun the goat's hair.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
And the leaders brought onyx stones and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastpiece and spices and oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense. All the men and women, the sons of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work which the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done, brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Bezalel and Aholiab received the offerings. And Moses said to the sons of Israel, See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, and of the tribe of Judah. And he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Aholiab, the son of Ahesamach of the tribe of Dan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
He has filled them with ability to do every sort of work done by craftsmen or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen or by a weaver, by any sort of workman or skilled designer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Bezalel and Aholiab and every able man in whom the Lord has put ability and intelligence to know how to work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded. And Moses called Bezalel and Aholiab and every able man in whose mind the Lord had put ability, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
And they received from Moses all the freewill offering which the sons of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning so that all the able men who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came each from the task that he was doing and said to Moses, the people bring much more than enough for doing the work which the Lord has commanded us to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
So Moses gave command and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, let neither man nor woman do anything more for the offering for the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing for the stuff they had was sufficient to do all the work and more. Construction of the Tabernacle And all the able men among the workmen made the tabernacle with ten curtains.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
They were made of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet stuff with cherubim skillfully worked. The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. All the curtains had the same measure. and he coupled five curtains to one another, and the other five curtains he coupled to one another.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
And he made loops of blue on the edge of the outmost curtain of the first set. Likewise, he made them on the edge of the outmost curtain of the second set. He made 50 loops on the one curtain, and he made 50 loops on the edge of the curtain that was in the second set. The loops were opposite one another."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
And he made fifty clasps of gold, and coupled the curtains one to the other with clasps, so that the tabernacle was one whole. He also made curtains of goat's hair, for a tent over the tabernacle. He made eleven curtains. The length of each curtain was thirty cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. The eleven curtains had the same measure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
If you want to buy one of those Great Adventure Bibles, you also can get that at ascensionpress.com. If you haven't yet subscribed in your podcast app, I invite you to do that. whenever you get the chance, maybe even like literally right now, just crush that subscribe button. As I said, today, we're reading from Exodus chapter 35 and 36. We're leaving a little bit of the narrative.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
He coupled five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves. And he made fifty loops on the edge of the outmost curtain of the one set and fifty loops on the edge of the other connecting curtain. And he made fifty clasps of bronze to couple the tent together that it might be one whole. And he made for the tent a covering of tanned ram's skins and goat skins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Then he made the upright frames for the tabernacle of acacia wood. Ten cubits was the length of a frame, and a cubit and a half the breadth of each frame. Each frame had two tenons for fitting together. He did this for all the frames of the tabernacle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
The frames for the tabernacle he made thus, twenty frames for the south side, and he made forty bases of silver under the twenty frames, two bases under one frame for its two tenons, and two bases under another frame for its two tenons." And for the second side of the tabernacle on the north side, he made 20 frames and the 40 bases of silver.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Two bases under one frame and two bases under another frame. And for the rear of the tabernacle westward, he made six frames. And he made two frames for corners of the tabernacle in the rear And they were separate beneath, but joined at the top, at the first ring. He made two of them thus for the two corners.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
There were eight frames, with their bases of silver, sixteen bases under every frame, two bases. And he made bars of acacia wood, five for the frames of the one side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the frames of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the frames of the tabernacle at the rear westward. And he made the middle bar to pass from end to end halfway up the frames.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
And he overlaid the frames with gold. And he made their rings of gold for holders for the bars and overlaid the bars with gold. And he made the veil of blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen. With cherubim skillfully worked he made it. And for it he made four pillars of acacia and overlaid them with gold. Their hooks were of gold and he cast for them four bases of silver.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
He also made a screen for the door of the tent of blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen embroidered with needlework and its five pillars with their hooks. He overlaid their capitals and their fillets were of gold, but their five bases were of bronze.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
The Book of Leviticus Chapter 25 The Sabbatical Year The Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai, Say to the sons of Israel, When you come into the land which I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard, What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves, and for your hired servant and the sojourner who lives with you. For your cattle also, and for the beasts that are in the land, all its yield shall be for food." the year of Jubilee.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
And you shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of seven weeks of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seven-month,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
We visited the narrative for a bit, right? We had a little digression where we talked about the tabernacle, talked about the labor, talked about all these, the elements of temple worship. Then we got back to the story with the golden calf and And we're also going to go back to the story clearly, but also some Sabbath regulations for the tabernacle and for the offerings brought into the tabernacle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
On the day of atonement, you shall send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land, and you shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty through all the land, in all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his property, and each of you shall return to his family.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
a jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines for it is a jubilee it shall be holy to you you shall eat what it yields out of the field In this year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his property. And if you sell to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall buy from your neighbor. And according to the number of years for crops, he shall sell to you. If the years are many, you shall increase the price. But if the years are few, you shall diminish the price. For it is the number of crops that he is selling to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God. Therefore, you shall do my statutes and keep my ordinances and perform them, so you will dwell in the land securely. The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in it securely. And if you say, What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year." so that it will bring forth fruit for three years. When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating old produce until the ninth year. When its produce comes in, you shall eat the old. The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
And in all the country you possess, you shall grant a redemption of the land. If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his next of kin shall come and redeem what his brother has sold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, let him reckon the years since he sold it and pay back the overpayment to the man to whom he sold it. And he shall return to his property.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
But if he has not sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the year of Jubilee. In the year of Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property. If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a whole year after its sale. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee. But the houses of the villages, which have no wall around them, shall be reckoned with the fields of the country. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Nevertheless, the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time. And if one of the Levites does not exercise his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city of their possession shall be released in the Jubilee. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
Some of this is going to sound familiar. You've already heard this in Exodus and you've heard this in Leviticus. And that's why God, he was just repeating this, these instructions, which one of the things that reminds me is not just that, wow, this is kind of repetitive, but that it's important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
But the fields of common land belonging to their cities may not be sold, for that is their perpetual possession. And if your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall maintain him. As a stranger and a sojourner, he shall live with you." Take no interest from him or increase, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 49: The Year of Jubilee (2025)
You shall not lend him money at interest, nor give him food for profit. I am the Lord your God, who brought you forth from the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God. And if your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave. He shall be with you as a hired servant and as a sojourner.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
What I mean by that is it is pressing play on day 352 when Oh yeah. Day one, day two, day 10. That was maybe kind of fun. Maybe got a lot out of it, but here's day 352 and you press play and say, okay, God speak, Lord speak. Your servant is listening. And it's like, well, this is dry. I didn't get a lot out of this. I was distracted by this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And sometimes when we show up for prayer, it's, that's all it is. It's just dry prayer. God is doing something in that maybe more than any other time. In fact, desolation and prayer can be used by the Lord God, maybe even more powerfully than consolation and prayer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Because what's happening in that desolation where we just show up and I get nothing out of this, what God is doing there is he is purifying our love for him. He is allowing us to go through this time of dry prayer, distracted prayer, and even desolate prayer so that we can have the kind of hearts that love him for his own sake.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
They don't just love the gifts, don't just love the consolations, don't just love those insights and blessings, but we love him. And here Peter is talking about this, you know, rejoice in this, rejoice in the various trials.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Now, again, those are dramatic trials that many of them went through, but every Christian has to go through the normal trials of life so that our hearts and our love and our faith can be purified. He goes on to say, without having seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And this is what we do as we do as well, is that we love the Lord God and he loves us. But that love gets purified through times of dryness, times of distraction, and times of desolation where we keep showing up. And that is so, so important. And of course, Peter goes on to talk about how we're called to live holy lives, that there's a way that we live life without Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And there's a way that we have to live life with Christ, that he gave himself up for us. And so our call is to be holy as the Lord God is holy. And he goes on to talk about how we are not only a new people, the living stones, chosen people, but he emphasizes in chapter two, verse nine, he says, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Once you were no people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. And that reality, of course, from all nations, from all races, from all ethnicities, from all backgrounds, we are now gathered into one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And that's one of the reasons why as Christians, we, gosh, the reality of coming from different countries, speaking different languages, belonging to different races, all of those things are essentially nullified. Actually, I would say this, all of those are unified. Maybe a better way to say it. All of those are unified.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
in the lord jesus our most important identity peter is saying here most important identity is that we are god's children therefore our ethnicity yeah sure that might be important but not as important as being an adopted son or daughter of god our race sure that might be important but not anywhere close to as important as being an adopted son or daughter of god that that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith, you obtain the salvation of your souls. The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired about this salvation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Where our background as sinners, in whatever way that we have sinned or continue to sin, whatever we struggle with, those things can be important. But they're nowhere near as important as the fact that you and I are now adopted sons and daughters of God the Father. So important. Made into a royal priesthood. Remember that Jesus Christ is the high priest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And he has made us into a nation of priests, able to offer the sacrifice to the Father, which is just amazing. Absolutely incredible. Last little note on St. Peter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
When talking about being subject to every human institution, he's basically saying, live as great citizens, live as good citizens, and have that sense of order that's given to the world, whether that be to the emperor, to the governor, whoever that is. In families, husbands and wives have an obligation to each other Parents and children have an obligation to each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And even those slaves and masters have an obligation to each other. Again, maybe someone can distort this and say, no, no, no, the men are over the women and the parents are over the kids and masters are over slaves. But that is not what St. Peter is saying. He is saying you have an obligation to each other. And that is absolutely, go back, please reread or re-listen to the end of chapter two.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Saint Peter is making a very, very clear point that all of us have an obligation to each other. That's one of the key pieces where Saint Peter talks, in fact, where Paul talks about this as well. And it's so interesting how in Colossians chapter three, Saint Paul is making kind of some of the similar points. Wives, be subject to your husbands as is fitting to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. This is the key. I remember hearing this in mass when I was a kid growing up. The next line, which is chapter three, verse 20 of St. Paul's letter to the Colossians. Children, obey your parents in everything for this pleases the Lord. And I remember being next to my dad and him looking over kind of a thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And the next line is, fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. Like, yes, okay, there we go. I like that, Paul. I appreciate that. The fact is not only did I feel myself justified in that moment in mass, but also what is Paul's point? Paul's point is you have an obligation to each other. You belong to each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
I think Mother Teresa once said, if we have no peace, it's because we've forgotten that we belong to each other. That the wife, she belongs to her husband and the husband, he belongs to his wife. that the children, they belong to the parents and the parents, they belong to the children and we belong to each other. That is so critically important that we continue this way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
They inquired what person or time was indicated by the Spirit of Christ within them when predicting the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glory. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things which have now been announced to you by those who preached the good news to you through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And last little note, chapter four, as St. Paul leaves the Colossians here with his further instructions, chapter four, verse two, he says, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving, And pray for us also, that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ. And this is so important, to pray for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. So important. Everything that Paul and Peter have written that we've heard declared today are absolutely critical for Christian living. And so that's why we have to keep coming back to the word because it just goes sometimes in one ear and out the other. Sometimes it just washes over our heart and we just want to remember it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
We want to store it up in our hearts. We want to have it carved into our hearts. And it's so easy to forget. It's one of the reasons why it's so good to write these things down, whether that be in the Insight Journal or anywhere that you collect information these gems, these pearls, these rules for living that we heard today from St. Peter and from St. Paul. It's a good day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Remember one of those last rules for living is to pray steadfastly and to pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
A Call to Holy Living Therefore, gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today, it is day 352. We are reading from the first letter of St. Peter, chapters 1 and 2, as well as the conclusion of St. Paul's letter to the Colossians, chapters 3 and 4. We're also reading from Proverbs chapter 30 verses 10 through 14.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And if you invoke as father him who judges each one impartially according to his deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake. Through him, you have confidence in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brethren, love one another earnestly from the heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
You have been born anew, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God, for all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides forever. That word is the good news which was preached to you. Chapter two, the living stone and a chosen people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
So put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up to salvation for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. Come to him, that living stone, rejected by men, but in God's sight chosen and precious.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And like living stones, be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and he who believes in him will not be put to shame. To you, therefore, who believe, he is precious.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
But for those who do not believe, the very stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall. For they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were no people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Live as servants of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Beloved, I beg you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war against your soul. Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles so that in case they speak against you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. For it is God's will that by doing right, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil, but live as servants of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. The example of Christ's suffering. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to the kind and gentle, but also to the overbearing. For one is approved if, mindful of God, he endures pain while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you do wrong and are beaten for it, you take it patiently?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
But if, when you do right and suffer for it, you take it patiently, you have God's approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin. No guile was found on his lips. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he trusted to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates because today is day 352. We are reading 1 Peter chapters 1 and 2, Colossians chapter 3 and 4, as well as Proverbs chapter 30 verses 10 through 14. The first letter of Peter, chapter one, salutation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
in these you once walked when you lived in them but now put them all away anger wrath malice slander and foul talk from your mouth do not lie to one another seeing that you have put off the old man with his practices and have put on the new man who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his creator
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And over all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you are called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Rules for Christian households. Wives, be subject to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything for this pleases the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart fearing the Lord. Whatever your task, work heartily as serving the Lord and not men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Chapter 4 Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. Further Instructions Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you. A Living Hope Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And pray for us also, that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear as I ought to speak. Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone. Final greetings and benediction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Tychicus will tell you all about my affairs. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts and with him Onesimus, the faithful and beloved brother who is one of yourselves. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you, and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions, if he comes to you, receive him. And Jesus, who is called Justice. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Epaphras, who is one of yourselves, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always remembering you earnestly in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. for I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and Heropolis. Luke, the beloved physician, and Dimas greet you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Give my greetings to the brethren at Laodicea and to Nympha and the church in her house. And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans. And see that you read also the letter from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, see that you fulfill the ministry which you have received in the Lord. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Do not slander a servant to his master, lest he curse you and you be held guilty. There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers. There are those who are pure in their own eyes, but are not cleansed of their filth. There are those, how lofty are their eyes, how high their eyelids lift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
There are those whose teeth are swords, whose teeth are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Thank you so much for Paul. Thank you for Peter. Thank you for the gift of your son and the gift of your Holy Spirit that has guided the letters of these men as they give encouragement, so much encouragement to us as modern day Christians, just like they gave that word of encouragement to Christians of eras past and bygone years. Gosh, Lord, we think about this. We think about how
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
For 2,000 years, Christians have read these words of St. Peter, these words of St. Paul, and have found in them not only guidance and truth, but also just a word of encouragement and a word that just speaks into our pain and fills us with the capacity and that will to continue on.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
That will to endure and that will not to merely endure, but the will to rejoice in the midst of suffering, in the midst of tribulation. Because we know, Lord God, that it is only through the suffering that we can reach the kingdom of God. And so we ask you, please help us. Help us to say yes to you this day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So we have the first letter of St. Peter, which is just... ah, so grateful. Um, so some context for Peter's letter, he's writing to who he's writing to exiles. Remember that there were a lot of Christians, Jewish Christians who were exiled from Jerusalem during the persecution.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
By his great mercy, we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And so it could be to them, but also could be to any Christians who find themselves in exile. And he says to the exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, um, that he's writing to them. They've experienced persecution. And this is so incredible because St. Peter jumps right in and he says, in this, you rejoice. What is in this? Well, in this, you've been born again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
So chapter one, verse three, he says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By his great mercy, we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are guarded through faith for a salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. So that's just this summary. I just invite you to go back to chapter one, verses three, four, and five. This is the inheritance that's been given to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
This is the gift that Peter is reminding these Christians. This is what you've been given. This is what the Lord God has done for you. Even in the midst of pain, even in the midst of suffering, this is what the Lord God has done for you. Because then he goes on to say in verse six, In this, you rejoice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Though now for a little while, you may have to suffer various trials so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is so important because he reminds them first of the gift they've been given.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And then he tells them that what's gonna happen is through this persecution, through this tribulation, through this trial, through this trouble, This is not God abandoning you. This is God doing something in you that he could not do without this trial, that he could not do without this tribulation, that he could not do without these various trials.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Because what's happening is the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, which though perishable, tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. One of the things that we know about the spiritual life is that a lot of times when people begin following the Lord, they can have this crisis. And the crisis is,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
Um, many crises, of course, obviously all of us have to have them, but one of the crises can be that we know our hearts and we know that we have a mercenary heart. We know that I, Lord, am I only coming to you because you promised me eternal life? Am I only coming to you because of the graces that you give me in prayer? Am I only coming to you because of the gifts? I want to love you, the giver.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
But I know this about myself. I know that I love the gifts, maybe sometimes more than the giver. And so we have this mixed up motivation, right? We have this mercenary heart that, you know, as C.S. Lewis has said, I think we've said this before. C.S. Lewis has noted, I have a mercenary heart willing to give myself to the highest bidder, willing to give my heart to the highest bidder.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
And the question is, gosh, Lord, help me. How do I become the kind of person who can love you for your own sake? The answer is through trials and tribulations. And sometimes those trials and tribulations are like Peter's describing that would might end in martyrdom. But a lot of times those trials and tribulations are simply showing up when showing up is not glamorous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 352: Purified by Fire (2024)
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, which, though perishable, is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Without having seen him, you love him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Hey everyone, before we get started today, I want to let you know the Bible in a Year has brought the Word of God to so many people. As you know, you're part of this community, changing lives in so many incredible ways. We're humbled to play this role in God's plan and consider it our ongoing mission to keep bringing the Word of God to as many people as possible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Bind them upon your heart always, tie them around your neck. When you walk, they will lead you. When you lie down, they will watch over you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
And what an incredible gift the last six days have been in this seventh day of being able to hear one gospel in one week. each day, just a little bit more has been an incredible gift for me. I hope it has been a gift for you. We're also reading from Proverbs chapter six, verses 16 through 22. As always, the Bible translation that I'm using is the revised standard version, second Catholic edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Gosh, Lord, thank you so much. Not only for the gift of the sacrifice of your son who laid down his life, not taken from him, he laid it down of his own accord. Thank you so much for the gift of your son who came into this world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
And this is how he has saved the world by laying down his life for his friends and laying down his life for his enemies so that we could become friends. In rising from the dead, Lord God, in appearing to disciples and speaking that powerful word, shalom, that powerful word, peace, peace which the world cannot give, he has given to us as he gave to the disciples.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
The ability to forgive sins, the restoration of the kingdom, and his Holy Spirit that dwells inside of us. Father, thank you. Thank you. We can never stop thanking you. We will never stop thanking you. In Jesus' name, we thank you. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. There is so much to be said.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
It's almost impossible to be able to say what we ought to talk about. We ended yesterday with the people crying out, we want Barabbas to be with us rather than Jesus, rather than the actual Son of God. And then we started today with this truth, this truth that here is Jesus sentenced to death and beaten, even though Pilate said, I find no crime in him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
And this is so incredible that, you know, remember the beginning of this gospel, John the Baptist said that behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And here, when Jesus is condemned, he's condemned at the exact hour when the lambs are being slaughtered in the temple. Not only that, remember what kind of lambs they were. They were unblemished lambs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
And here's Pilate who says, I find no fault in him. Remember, no bone of theirs was to be broken. And here's Jesus on the cross and no bone of his is broken. This demonstrates that this is so important. If we were to watch this, if you were a first century person. and you watched the crucifixion, you would not think that Jesus was a sacrifice. You would think that he is executed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
In fact, Dr. Scott Hahn talks about this, that if you were to watch this, if you were to watch the crucifixion, you wouldn't say, oh, there's a sacrifice. That's the lamb. You would say, here is the criminal who's being executed. But John is making it absolutely clear what Jesus said. He says, no one takes my life from me. I lay it down freely.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
He's making a sacrifice because he is the true lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We heard the story of Abraham and Isaac, how the father took his only beloved son and offered him up on a high place. This Golgotha is the high place. It's on Mount Moriah, which is the same place that the son, Isaac, was offered by the father. But of course, what was the line? What was the word?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
The word was, God will himself provide a lamb, my son. And here is Jesus, the true lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. But also, he's the sacrifice. Gosh, you guys. Okay, in John chapter 19, there's a minor point. It was minor to us. It says that the soldiers, when the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and made four parts, one for each soldier and also his tunic.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
But here's the word about the tunic. It says the tunic was without seam woven from top to bottom. They said, let's cast lots. Now, for those of us, we see that and think, oh, I guess the interesting side point for a Jew in the first century, you would say, wait a second, that is an ephod. Remember the word ephod? That is what Samuel was clothed in when he was brought to the temple by his mom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
I'm using the great adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to get that, you can get it. wherever fine Bibles are sold. You can also download your Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast if you haven't done that yet. That would be pretty phenomenal. As I said, it is day 105.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
He was weaned, right? And then his mom would make an ephod for him every single year when she came back to the temple and visited. Ephod is a priestly garment. Jesus is wearing a priestly garment as he offers up the sacrifice of the lamb himself to the glory of the father. Guys, this is so incredible that Jesus was not executed. He is the priest who offered up the sacrifice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
He is the sacrifice and he is the altar. And on the cross, the priest, the king, what does he say? The priest, king, this is important for us all to know this, that every Christian, when Jesus saw his mother on the cross, now here's Jesus being suffocated to death. Again, he's offering himself up, but he as a human being is dying as a human being.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Even though he is fully God, he also is fully human, and he's dying as a human being. And with those in that painful moment, what does he say? He looks at his mom and says, woman, behold your son. And then the beloved disciple, behold your mother. Now, this is so incredible. And this is John again, writing the firsthand is what we believe is according to tradition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
But the beloved disciple here in this place is every disciple who is beloved of God, which is you, which is me. And from the cross, what does Jesus do from the cross? He gives his mother to be the mother of every disciple. And the scripture says from that hour, he took her into his own home. And this is the call for every one of us, every Christian.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
And I know a lot of people who are listening to this are not Catholics. And you think like, wait a second, you have a thing for Mary. I know you guys have a thing with Mary. And so do you. Why? Because from the cross, Jesus gave his mom to be the mother of every disciple, not just Catholics, but every disciple from the cross. So remarkable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Of course, there is the fulfillment of the last supper when Jesus says, I thirst in a bowl full of vinegar, like sour wine, right? It's brought to his lips on what? On a sprig of hyssop. Remember the hyssop we saw in the book of Exodus? That was what they put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts through hyssop. Hyssop is used in the sacrificial rites in the temple. Remember, Jesus is the priest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
He is the sacrifice. He is the altar. And he fulfills the Passover in this moment where he says, it is finished. It's not just it is finished like my work here is done. It is the Passover sacrifice. of the Last Supper, when Jesus says, this is my body, this is my blood given for you, is connected to this moment on the cross. And he says, it is finished. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Because they didn't drink the fourth cup of the Passover meal. They went out into the night. And here he is connecting the Last Supper the night before where he gave us his body and blood in the Eucharist. And here he is connecting that with the crucifixion where he's offering up his body and blood to the Father. man, oh man, okay, last thing, last thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
We're reading from John chapter 19, 20, and 21, Proverbs chapter 6, verses 16 through 22. The Gospel of John chapter 19. Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head and clothed him in a purple robe. They came up to him saying, Hail, King of the Jews, and struck him with their hands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
There's so many things to talk about, but among them is the faithfulness of Mary Magdalene. It was the faithfulness of Thomas. Oh my goodness, the faithfulness of Thomas. And here is this gift that Jesus gives in John chapter 20. To the apostles, the disciples, he says, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they're forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
So people have the questions like, where do priests get off saying they can forgive sins? Because of this, because When he rose from the dead, Jesus gave the apostles the ability to forgive sins. And look, reading James chapter 5, we see them immediately, immediately going about forgiving in Jesus' name. So incredible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Last little note, because here we are a minute, I don't know, 100 right now in this long, long, long episode. But we also have restoration. We have the big question where Jesus asks Simon, son of John, do you love me? Of course, he says, do you love me more than these? And there's so much depth we can go into when it comes to this question. First of all, he says, Simon, do you love me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
And that word, that Greek word is agape. Do you love me like I love you? Do you pour your love out for me? Is it self-sacrificial love? And Peter answers and he says, Lord, I love you, Philia. Basically, I love you like a brother. I love you like a friend. And Jesus asks again, do you love me like I love you? Do you love me agape? And he says, I love you like a friend.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
And so Jesus then acquiesces and says, okay, do you love me as a friend? Lord, you know I love you. And it's so remarkable that Jesus wants us to love him like he loves us. That self-sacrificial love. But even when we don't, even here's Peter who's, no, I love you as a friend. Jesus meets us there and he accepts it, which is so remarkable because he doesn't just meet us and accept us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
When we come back to him, he restores us. And that's exactly what he does. In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus says, you are now Peter, rock, and upon this rock, I'll build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I'll give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, which you loose on earth is loosed in heaven, bound in earth is bound in heaven. And then here is Peter who's betrayed him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
He's denied him. But Jesus says, no, no, no, I'm going to restore you. So feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my lambs. And this is for all of us to have that word of hope. When we feel like all is lost because we've made a wreck of stuff, we come back to Jesus. And he doesn't just forgive us. He doesn't just reconcile us to himself. He has the power to restore us. Praise the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
My gosh, I'm so sorry this is so long, but what a gift, right? This is our last time of Messianic Checkpoint, last time of the gospel until another bunch of days. Tomorrow, we're going back in day 106, 1 Samuel 9 and 10 and back to Proverbs. So it'll be a journey back to the Old Testament. But today, we just rejoice in the Lord. And as every day, we rejoice in the Lord. I'm praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
So what I'm saying is the end of this year is not going to be the end of Bible in a Year. So far, Ascension has been able to add the podcast to YouTube. You might have found it that way. Maybe you're watching right now on YouTube. And also, we're working on translating it into different languages so you could have the Bible in a year in other languages than English.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Pilate went out again and said to them, Behold, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no crime in him. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, here is the man. When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, crucify him, crucify him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no crime in him. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God. When Pilate heard these words, he was even more afraid. He entered the praetorium again and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus gave no answer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Pilate therefore said to him, You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have the power to release you and the power to crucify you? Jesus answered him, You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Upon this, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king sets himself against Caesar. When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the pavement, and in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation of the Passover.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, Here is your king. They cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
The Crucifixion So they took Jesus, and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. The chief priests of the Jews then said to Pilate, Do not write the King of the Jews, but this man said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written. So the soldiers did this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
But, of course, this takes a significant investment to bring projects like these free of cost to our listening communities. And we want to keep them free of cost to all those people who participate because we want to get the Word of God out there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, Behold your mother. And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the scripture, I thirst. A bowl full of vinegar stood there, so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on a hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Jesus' side is pierced.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Since it was the day of preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness, his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth, that you also may believe.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, not a bone of him shall be broken. And again another scripture says, they shall look on him whom they have pierced. the burial of Jesus. After this, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
And because of that, we have to rely on generous contributions from listeners like you to help defray these costs and to enable us to continually provide new audiences with this life-changing content. So if you would like to help support the Bible in a year mission, you can go to ascensionpress.com support. That's ascensionpress.com support.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who had at first come to him by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. They took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now, in that place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
So because of the Jewish day of preparation, as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. Now, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. Peter then came out with the other disciple and they went toward the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
He saw the linen cloths lying and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the scripture that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes. Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. And as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
But go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, I have seen the Lord. And she told them that he had said these things to her. Jesus gives the disciples the power to forgive sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Jesus and Thomas. Now Thomas, one of the twelve called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands, and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not be faithless, but believing. Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Jesus said to him, You have believed because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. The purpose of this book, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Chapter 21, Jesus Appears to Disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel of Cana and Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
They said to him, we will go with you. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, Children, have you any fish? They answered him, No. He said to them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 105, and we are concluding our week. with the gospel of St. John. We're reading from John chapter 19, 20 and 21, the conclusion, the crucifixion, death of our Lord, as well as his resurrection.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in for the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, It is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and sprang into the sea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from land, but about a hundred yards off. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish lying on it and bread. Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them. And although there were so many of them, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, Come and have breakfast. Now none of the disciples dared ask him, Who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. Peter is given a command. When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Feed my lambs. A second time he said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he had said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you fastened your own belt and walked where you would. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will fasten your belt for you and carry you where you do not wish to go. This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God. And after this, he said to him, follow me, Jesus and the beloved disciple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Peter turned and saw following them the disciple whom Jesus loved, who had lain close to his breast at the supper and had said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? Jesus said to him, If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
The saying spread abroad among the brethren that this disciple was not to die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? This is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things and who has written these things. And we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things which Jesus did.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 105: It Is Finished (2025)
There are six things which the Lord hates, seven which are an abomination to him, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and a man who sows discord among brothers. My son, keep your father's commandment and forsake not your mother's teaching.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
He can't take the blessing away from his son, Jacob. It was given to him, even out of deception, it was still given. And so Jacob is the receiver of not only the birthright that he manipulated out of Esau, but also the blessing that he deceived out of his father, Isaac, which points us to something so important. Earlier scripture noted that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Esau was loved by their father, Isaac, and Jacob was loved by their mother, Rebecca. And it's noted that it seemed that that was the case. I have a friend who always says that, yeah, when it comes to my family, I always tell my siblings that I'm my mom's favorite. And he asked me, he said, are you your mom's favorite? And I was like, I don't know. I don't know if she has a favorite.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
One of the great gifts of being loved by your parents is I don't know who their favorites are. And I think because of that, I don't have any animosity or competition with my siblings. I don't think they have any competition or animosity with me either because there's that sense of like, No, mom and dad love us all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
And I mean, some people are more lovable than others, but I never, ever get the sense, ever get the sense that my parents actually have a favorite or that they have a least favorite. One of the gifts they've given our family, one of the gifts they've given to me and my siblings of harmony and unity is this like, oh no, you are all loved. And there is not one clear favorite.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Now then take your weapons, your quiver and your bow and go out to the field and hunt game for me and prepare for me savory food such as I love and bring it to me that I may eat, that I may bless you before I die. Now, Rebecca was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Now, I think that there's some people in my family who are super fun. There's some who are kind of easier to be around than others. And there's some that are kind of like myself, like I'm not super always easy to be around either.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
But what a great gift to be able to give your family this gift of your kids not knowing if you actually do, you know, prefer one over the other or over the others that they don't even know that because the brokenness of Jacob and Esau, they were competitive in the womb of Rebecca.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
And that competition was only exacerbated by the fact that one was preferred by their father and the other one was preferred by their mother. I wonder if there can be a lot of family problems that can kind of be resolved by parents who resolve to love their children as equally as possible. We're not perfect people. We can't always do it like that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
But I wonder, I wonder how much pain could be saved for so many families if we just loved each other as best we could instead of preferring each other over the other. Anyways, those are some thoughts for today. Um, this 14th day of our study, man, are walking through scripture. So incredible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
If you want to get an update, uh, just text the word Catholic Bible, all one word to the number three, three, seven, seven, seven. If you haven't yet subscribed, please do. That'd be awesome. If you could subscribe or even share this with some friends, if this has been something that like has blessed your life, these, these past two weeks of just being able to have a
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
What a great thing to be able to share on social media or even just directly with friends that you think would be blessed by this. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. Please pray for each other. Pray for the work of Ascension and for my work up here at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Let's pray for each other because we're not going on this journey through the Bible alone. We are.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
going on this journey as brothers and sisters who are loved unconditionally by our Father, each one of us. So let's pray for each other. My name is Father Mike, and I am so grateful to be able to be on this journey with you, and I'll see you tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebecca said to her son Jacob, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, bring me game and prepare for me savory food that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die. Now, therefore. My son, obey my word as I command you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Go to the flock and fetch me two good kids that I may prepare for them savory food for your father, such as he loves, and you shall bring it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies. But Jacob said to Rebekah, his mother, behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am a smooth man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Perhaps my father will feel me and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing. His mother said to him, "'Upon me be your curse, my son. Only obey my word and go fetch them to me.' So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared savory food such as his father loved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau, her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son. And the skins of the kid she put upon his hands and upon the smooth part of his neck.' And she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. So he went into his father and said, My father. And he said, Here I am.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Who are you, my son? Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Now sit up and eat of my game, that you may bless me. But Isaac said to his son, How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? He answered, because the Lord your God granted me success.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Then Isaac said to Jacob, come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not. So Jacob went near to Isaac, his father, who felt him and said, the voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him. He said, are you really my son Esau?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
This is day 14, and we have just completed two weeks. We are completing, actually, we're in the process of completing Two weeks, the 14th day. Let's get started. Today we're reading from Genesis 27 and 28. We're also reading Job chapter 17 and 18. And we're now cracking into Proverbs chapter 3 verses 1 through 4. As always, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
He answered, I am. Then he said, bring it to me that I may eat of my son's game and bless you. So he brought it to him, and he ate, and he brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, Come near and kiss me, my son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
So he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. May God give you the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. Be Lord over your brothers and may your mother's sons bow down to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be everyone who blesses you. As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father, Esau, his brother, came in from his hunting. He also prepared savory food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, let my father arise and eat of his son's game that you may bless me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
His father Isaac said to him, who are you? He answered, I am your son, your firstborn Esau. Then Isaac trembled violently and said, Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me? And I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him. Yes, and he shall be blessed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. But he said, your brother came with guile and he has taken away your blessing. Esau said, is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
And he said, have you not reserved a blessing for me? Isaac answered Esau, Esau said to his father, Have you but one blessing, Father? Bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. Then Isaac, his father, answered him, Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwellings be, and away from the dew of heaven on high.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother. But when you break loose, you shall break his yoke from your neck. Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said to himself, the days of mourning for my father are approaching. Then I will kill my brother Jacob. But the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebecca.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we will read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
So she sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, behold, your brother Esau comforts himself by planning to kill you. Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice, arise, flee to Laban, my brother in Haran and stay with him a while until your brother's fury turns away until your brother's anger turns away and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and fetch you from there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Why should I be bereft of both of you in one day? Then Rebecca said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me then? Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him. You shall not marry one of the Canaanite women.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and take as wife from there one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your descendants with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham. Thus Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel, the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. That is a great Bible to be able to follow along with us if you're ever interested in that because it has all these incredible notes. where we have extra information about the early age, the patriarchs, all the different ways that scripture connects to each other. That's so helpful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Badan Aram to take a wife from there. And that as he blessed him, he charged him, you shall not marry one of the Canaanite women. And that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Badan Aram.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac, his father, Esau went to Ishmael and took to wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaoth. Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth. And the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
The land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your descendants. And your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth. And you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south. And by you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth bless themselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
behold i am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land for i will not leave you until i have done that of which i have spoken to you then jacob awoke from his sleep and said surely the lord was in this place and i did not know it and he was afraid and said how awesome is this place this is none other than the house of god and this is the gate of heaven
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
So Jacob rose early in the morning and he took the stone which he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was loose at the first. Then Jacob made a vow saying,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear so that I may come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
My spirit is broken. My days are extinct. The grave is ready for me. Surely there are markers about me and my eye dwells on their provocation. Lay down a pledge for me with yourself who is there that will give surety for me. Since you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property, the eyes of his children will fail. He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit. My eye has grown dim from grief, and all my members are like a shadow. Upright men are appalled at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
If you want a reading plan, you can download the reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash bible in a year. You also can subscribe to your podcast, this podcast, by just clicking on subscribe. Really simple, really easy, really straightforward. And you can sign up for our email list where you can get updates by texting the word Catholic Bible to the number 33777.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Yet the righteous holds to his way, and he that has clean hands grows stronger and stronger. But you, come on again, all of you, and I shall not find a wise man among you. My days are past. My plans are broken off. The desires of my heart They make night into day. The light, they say, is near to the darkness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness, if I say to the pit, you are my father or to the worm, my mother or my sister, where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust? Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we will speak.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight? You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you, or the rock be removed out of its place? Yes, the light of the wicked is put out and the flame of his fire does not shine. The light is dark in his tent and his lamp above him is put out. His strong steps are shortened and his own schemes throw him down.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
For he is cast into a net by his own feet and he walks on a pitfall. A trap seizes him by the heel. A snare lays hold of him. A rope is hid for him in the ground, a trap for him in the path. Terrors frighten him on every side and chase him at his heels. His strength is hunger-bitten, and calamity is ready for his stumbling.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
By disease his skin is consumed, the firstborn of death consumes his limbs. He is torn from the tent in which he trusted and is brought to the king of terrors. In his tent dwells that which is none of his. Brimstone is scattered upon his habitation. His roots dry up beneath and his branches wither above. His memory perishes from the earth and he has no name in the street.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
He is thrust from the light into darkness and driven out of the world. He has no offspring or descent among his people and no survivor where he used to live. They of the West are appalled at his day and horror seizes them of the East. Such are the dwellings of the ungodly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commands. For the length of days and years of life and abundant welfare will they give you. Let not loyalty and faithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart, so you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man. God in heaven, we thank you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
We give you praise and we give you glory. We thank you for giving us your word and sharing with us your heart because it is your heart that you revealed to us in this scripture, in this word, in your word. Let our hearts become like yours. Help us to love what you love and to despise what you despise. Help us to live as you have willed us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
As I said, we are reading today, Genesis chapter 27 and 28. Let's get started. When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau, his older son, and said to him, my son. And he answered, here I am. He said, behold, I am old. I do not know the day of my death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
to live and as you have made it possible for us to live by your grace. May you be glorified in all things this day. In Jesus' name we pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So once again, we're following our family. We're following the family story of the people of God, of the Jewish people. And of course, as Christians, we're not a separate people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Christianity is the fruit of Judaism. And that's one of the reasons why we believe that this story, the story of Abraham and Isaac, and now Jacob is our story. That this whole Bible is our story, because as St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans, as Christians, as Gentile Christians, we've been grafted onto that tree.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
We've been brought into that family, that story, that the process of salvation that God had begun so, so long ago. And here we have the story of the deceiver, the grasper, the rebel, Jacob. who earlier he manipulated his brother out of the birthright. Now he deceives his father out of the blessing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
There's something remarkable in this is that, well, there's a number of things remarkable in this, but one of those things that is remarkable and worth noting is the fact that when Isaac gave Jacob the blessing, after he had given it, he didn't take it back. He didn't take that blessing back. And that's important for us to understand because that is in so many ways, the basis for our sacraments.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
What I mean by that is, you know, a Jewish male was brought into the covenant of Judaism by circumcision. You can't undo a circumcision. You're brought into the covenant and you're part of the covenant. As Christians, it's by our baptism that we're brought into the covenant. We're brought into the family of God through our baptism. And you're made into a son or a daughter of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
God is your father. And you can't undo that. And so here is, you know, Isaac, I imagine, pretty upset, pretty hot about this. That fact that he gave the blessing to the one who deceived him out of the blessing. But at the same time, it was a true blessing. It was a real blessing. He can't undo this blessing in similar way that we can't undo our baptism.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 14: Isaac Blesses Jacob (2025)
Even if someone were to say, I renounce my baptism. Even if someone were to say, I no longer want to be part of the church. I no longer want to be known as a son or daughter of God. I don't want God to be my father. You can't undo that. You can't undo the blessing of a sacrament. Those permanent sacraments can't be undone. And Isaac in some ways knows this, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
He just shows this trust very, very clearly in this moment. One last note, Ahithophel is the advisor, David's advisor, and Absalom sends for him. And so when David finds out that Ahithophel has essentially been a traitor and has gone over to Absalom. David is heartbroken. You can tell that David is truly disturbed. He's truly disturbed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And it's often thought that that's who David was thinking about when he wrote in the book of Psalms. Even my friend who ate at my table, my own familiar friend whom I trusted to eat my bread has lifted up his heel against me in Psalm 41. Yeah, you can imagine that this is that friend, possibly, Ahithophel, who was his counselor who betrayed him and traded sides and went over to Absalom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
Again, in the midst of all this, David shows his humility. In the midst of all this, David shows his trust in the Lord. And in all of this, David shows a true repentance. But... Will it be enough? Will it be enough for him to keep the kingdom together? Will it be enough for him to save his son?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
2 Samuel chapter 15, Absalom usurps the throne. After this, Absalom got himself a chariot and horses and 50 men to run before him. And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate. And when any man had a suit to come before the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him and say, from what city are you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
Because what we're going to find tomorrow and the following days is that David, more than almost anything, he wants this son Absalom to be safe. So if we need to act today to care for the people we love, maybe they don't know that we love them. Maybe they don't know that we've forgiven them. Maybe they've offered forgiveness to us, but we haven't received it or accepted it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
That's an opportunity for us right now to take that step, to either offer forgiveness or receive forgiveness, to offer reconciliation or receive reconciliation. Because we know this all started, this all started with inaction. This all started with failing to lift up the head and act on justice, act and do what was right in David's own family, in his own life. So I need that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
I need the help to be able to act when I know I need to act in my life, with my family, with my parishioners, our students here on campus. And I think you do too, probably in your life and with your family, in your neighborhood. Anyways, gosh, we'll pray for each other because this is, we're in the middle, not in the We're halfway.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
We're very much into the journey and therefore we're very much into praying for each other. So let's keep praying for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And when he said, your servant is of such and such a tribe in Israel, Absalom would say to him, see, your claims are good and right, but there is no man deputed by the king to hear you. Absalom said moreover, Oh, that I were judge in the land. Then every man with a suit or cause might come to me and I would give him justice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And whenever a man came near to do obeisance to him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. Thus Absalom did to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. And at the end of four years, Absalom said to the king, Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to the Lord in Hebron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
For your servant vowed a vow while I dwelt at Geshur and Aram, saying, If the Lord will indeed bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will offer worship to the Lord. The king said to him, go in peace. So he arose and went to Hebron. But Absalom sent secret messengers throughout all the tribes of Israel saying, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then say Absalom is king at Hebron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today, it is day 133. We're reading four chapters today, 2 Samuel chapter 15, two chapters in 1 Chronicles, that's chapters 19 and 20, and also praying Psalm 3. As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
With Absalom went 200 men from Jerusalem who were invited guests. And they went in their simplicity and knew nothing. And while Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the Gilanite, David's counselor, from his city, Gilo. And the conspiracy grew strong, and the people with Absalom kept increasing. David flees from Jerusalem. And a messenger came to David, saying,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom. Then David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee, or else there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Go in haste, lest ye overtake us quickly, and bring down evil upon us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And the king's servants said to the king, Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king decides. So the king went forth, and all his household after him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
and the king left ten concubines to keep the house and the king went forth and all the people after him and they halted at the last house and all his servants passed by him and all the cherethites and all the pelethites and all the six hundred gittites who had followed him from gath passed on before the king then the king said to ittai the gittite Why do you also go with us?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
Go back and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile from your home. You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander about with us, seeing I go I know not where? Go back and take your brethren with you, and may the Lord show mercy and faithfulness to you. But Ittai answered the king, As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
Wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be. And David said to Ittai, Go then, pass on. So Ittai the Gittite passed on with all his men and all the little ones who were with him. And all the country wept aloud as all the people passed by, and the king crossed the brook Kidron, and all the people passed on toward the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And Abiathar came up and behold, Zadok came up also with all the Levites bearing the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God until the people had all passed out of the city. Then the king said to Zadok, carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and let me see both it and his habitation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
But if he says, I have no pleasure in you, behold, here I am. Let him do to me what seems good to him. The king also said to Zadok the priest, Look, go back to the city in peace, you and Abiathar, with your two sons, Ahimaaz your son and Jonathan the son of Abiathar. See, I will wait at the fords of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
So Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem, and they remained there. But David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered, and all the people who were with him covered their heads, and they went up, weeping as they went. And it was told David, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You also can click on subscribe if you want to subscribe to this podcast. As I said, reading from Second Samuel, Chapter 15. 1 Chronicles 19 and 20 and Psalm 3.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And David said, O Lord, I pray you, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. Hushai becomes David's spy. When David came to the summit where God was worshipped, behold, Hushai the archite came to meet him with his coat torn and earth upon his head. David said to him, If you go on with me, you will be a burden to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
But if you return to the city and say to Absalom, I will be your servant, O king, as I have been your father's servant in time past, so now I will be your servant. then you will defeat for me the council of Ahithophel. Are not Zadok and Abiathar the priests with you there? So whatever you hear from the king's house, tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
Behold, their two sons are with them there, Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Abiathar's son. And by them you shall send to me everything you hear. So Hushai, David's friend, came into the city just as Absalom was entering Jerusalem. The first book of Chronicles chapter 19, defeat of the Ammonites and the Syrians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
Now after this, Nahash, the king of the Ammonites died and his son reigned in his stead. And David said, I will deal loyally with Hanun, the son of Nahash, for his father dealt loyally with me. So David sent messengers to console him concerning his father, and David's servants came to Hanun in the land of the Ammonites to console him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
But the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun, Do you think because David has sent comforters to you that he is honoring your father? Have not his servants come to you to search and to overthrow and to spy out the land? So Hanun took David's servants and shaved them and cut off their garments in the middle at their hips and sent them away, and they departed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
When David was told concerning the men, he sent to meet them for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, remain at Jericho until your beards have grown and then return. When the Ammonites saw that they had made themselves odious to David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent a thousand talents of silver to hire chariots and horsemen from Mesopotamia, from Aram Ma'ak and from Zobah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
They hired 32,000 chariots and the king of Ma'aka with his army who came and encamped before Medeba. And the Ammonites were mustered from their cities and came to battle. When David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the army of the mighty men. And the Ammonites came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the city. And the kings who had come were by themselves in the open country.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
One quick note before we start the readings is in 1 Chronicles 19 and 20, we're going to hear, again, just like always, it's going to be a little flashback. And some of the flashback we're going to get is David and his battles. We're also going to get a little glimpse of in the spring of the year when kings go out to battle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
When Joab saw that the battle was set against him both in front and in the rear, he chose some of the picked men of Israel and arrayed them against the Syrians. The rest of his men he put in the charge of Abishai his brother, and they were arrayed against the Ammonites. And he said, If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
But if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will help you. Be of good courage, and let us play the man for our people and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him. So Joab and the people who were with him drew near before the Syrians for battle, and they fled before him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And when the Ammonites saw that the Syrians fled, they likewise fled before Abishai, Joab's brother, and entered the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem. But when the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they sent messengers and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the Euphrates with Shophak, the commander of the army of Hadadezar at their head.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together and crossed the Jordan and came to them and drew up his forces against them. And when David set the battle in array against the Syrians, they fought with him. And the Syrians fled before Israel, and David slew of the Syrians the men of 7,000 chariots and 40,000 foot soldiers. and killed also Shophak, the commander of their army.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And when the servants of Hadadezar saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with David and became subject to him. So the Syrians were not willing to help the Ammonites anymore. Chapter 20, The Siege and Capture of Rabbah In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, Joab led out the army and ravaged the country of the Ammonites, and came and besieged Rabbah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
But David remained at Jerusalem. And Joab struck Rabbah and overthrew it. And David took the crown of their king from his head. He found that it weighed a talent of gold, and in it was a precious stone, and it was placed on David's head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city, a very great amount,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And he brought forth the people who were in it and set them to labor with saws and iron picks and axes. And thus David did to all the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem. War with the Philistines And after this, there arose a war with the Philistines at Gezer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
Then Sibichai, the Hushethite, slew Siphi, who was one of the descendants of the giants, and the Philistines were subdued. And there was again war with the Philistines. And Elchanan, the son of Jair, slew Lami, the brother of Goliath, the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
Joab led the armed forces and ravaged the country of the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. and David stayed at home. But we won't get the rest of the story. We're just going to get the story of the battle. And remember, that's because First Chronicles wants to highlight the fact that God is going to restore the kingdom and he's going to restore the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, 24 in number. And he also was descended from the giants. And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimea, David's brother, slew him. These were descended from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
Psalm 3, trust in God under adversity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom, his son. O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me, many are saying of me, there is no help for him in God. But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory and the lifter of my head. I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. I lie down and sleep. I wake again, for the Lord sustains me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
I am not afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O Lord, deliver me, O my God, for you strike all my enemies on the cheek. You break the teeth of the wicked. Deliverance belongs to the Lord. Your blessing be upon your people. Father in heaven, we praise you and we give you thanks. And gosh, Lord, we do thank you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
We offer this word of trust, this word of confidence in you and your goodness and your faithfulness, even in times of insecurity, even in times of uncertainty, even in times of great trial and battle where the enemy is winning, we declare our trust in you. this day and every day. In Jesus' name, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
I wanted to highlight that, that fact that we declare our trust in God, even in the midst of the battle. Psalm 3, I mentioned the other day, yesterday I think it was, that Psalm 131 is one of my favorite psalms. It's only three verses long, but it's also just this great psalm of trust and confidence, humble confidence in the Lord. But Psalm three is an incredible, phenomenal Psalm of trust.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And now we think, okay, Psalm of David. So here's David who's on his throne and he's saying, oh God, I trust you so much. But when Psalm three was written, it was written while David was fleeing from Absalom. So imagine here, everything is falling down around you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
Like you're on the run from your own son who is trying to kill you and trying to take your throne, trying to take your authority and everyone you know and everyone you love is now under threat of your own son. And it's your fault, more or less. And it's in that context that David writes this psalm of God, I trust in you. David's saying, I'm not going to wait till the battle is won to trust you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
I'm going to trust you in the middle of the battle. And that again, gosh. You guys, I know we have the sinner David. We have the flawed human being David. We have the David that maybe you can't even think of anymore without thinking of his massive, massive sin. But we also have this man who is like us and still trusts in God. And again, he says, I'm not going to wait for the battle to be won.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
He's going to restore the people of God and he's going to restore the worship of God. And so that's what First Chronicles is really, really focusing on. But We resume our story with Absalom and what he's doing, rebelling against his father in 2 Samuel chapter 15, and then going back and seeing how David was a great warrior king, even if he wasn't a great father here in 1 Chronicles 19 and 20.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
Trust God. I'm going to trust God in the middle of the battle. And so we have him. And also, again, yeah. Flawed human beings. But here's David in 2 Samuel chapter 15. And what is he doing? He's escaping, right? Because his son Absalom. So at the beginning of chapter 15, Absalom is being smart. Absalom's back. Absalom is back in Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And good-looking guy, Brad Pitt of the, I don't know, whoever the good-looking people are now, Brad Pitt of Jerusalem. And he's positioning himself at the gate. And he's saying, hey, listen, let me judge your cases for you. I'm just, I'm right. And listen, my dad can't be bothered. He can't be bothered by you, but I'll take care of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And he shows that he wants to actively take care of the people of Israel. Now, obviously, he wants to do that in order to take the kingdom away from his father. but he shows initiative there. And then when he gathers the people at Hebron to fight against his father, David knows the writings on the wall. He knows that he has to flee from the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And there's something about David, just again, let's highlight this fact that as David absalom's leading these people into jerusalem these warriors into jerusalem to kill his father david is walking with his people out to escape jerusalem and he waits and they all walk by him as he makes sure they all leave the city and they're all safe david stands there And they all have to walk by him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
And think about this. Not only is this a good sign of David saying, yeah, women and children first. You get in the lifeboats. I'm going to wait here until everyone's out. The captain going down with the ship, essentially. David's letting them all pass by him, making sure that everyone who needs to get out is getting out. But also, you know, they probably all knew.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
David, you failed as a king when you did that sin in chapter 11. David, you failed as a father when you didn't deal with Amnon who violated his sister. David, you failed as a father when you didn't deal rightly with Absalom. And he's standing there as they all have to walk by him and see him in his shame. And there's something noble about this. Again, David remains a noble person.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2025)
He remains the king who truly wants to care for his people. We're going to see him humbled even more tomorrow. But for this part, we have David saying, okay, priests, Zadok, Abiathar, take the ark of the Lord back to the temple. If God wants to bring me back, I'll be able to be in his presence again. But the Lord belongs in his tent, you know, in the tabernacle area. And he just shows this trust.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
The person who's coming back to his friend, which is the image Jesus gives us to come to prayer, that persistence, that shameless refusal to quit is just, I don't know about you, but something in me just responds to that really powerfully. That sense of, okay, God, what you've invited me to do, what you've invited us to do, what you commanded us to do is...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
to have this persistence, this shameless refusal to quit, that sense of I'm gonna keep coming back, I'm gonna keep coming back, I'm gonna trust you throughout this whole thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Now also, along with that persistence, along with that shameless refusal to quit, I don't know if I mentioned this in the other gospels, but when Jesus teaches, ask and it will be given you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
We don't get this very clearly in our English translation, but in the original Greek, it wasn't just ask like ask once or seek like seek once or knock. It is keep asking and it will be given. Keep seeking and you will find. Keep knocking and it will be opened to you. And there's something about that that just, again, it highlights the shameless refusal to quit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
It highlights the fact that God wants us to keep coming back to him. Now, only one style of prayer, one way of prayer is petition or intercession, where we ask for something for ourselves or for someone else. But when we do, God has said, I want you to. And that's really important. Why? Because he says that, yes, would you, any of you, if your son asks for a fish, would give him a serpent?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Or if he asked for an egg, give him a scorpion. If you then who are evil know how to give your children good things, the Father in heaven knows how to give good things. In fact, not just good things, some of the best things, in fact, the Holy Spirit. And this is one of the big key things. God doesn't promise to give us everything we ask for.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
And this is really important because if we were to believe that, that God just gives us whatever we ask for, then God becomes kind of like, no offense, I don't mean to use this term, our sugar daddy in heaven, right? He's not our father in heaven. He's our sugar daddy in heaven. And that is not who he reveals himself to be. He wants our good. And so he says,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks, which means that if you ask for the Holy Spirit today, right now, in this moment, the Father will give you his Holy Spirit. And I don't know, you guys, I just, we need the Holy Spirit. Maybe, I don't want to say more than ever, but we definitely do now. I know I need the Holy Spirit in abundance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask and it will be given you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. And he who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
And I think that, my friends, I think we all do. So moving on, throughout this chapter, there's also this kind of, I don't know, a complicated teaching or maybe it's confusing teaching about the return of the unclean spirit in chapter 11, verse 24 and following. And it says, when an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Finding none, he says, I will return to my house from which I came. Basically, he goes back to that same person. And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. I remember being so confused by this, thinking, how in the world?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
What is this? What does this even mean? And there is a priest. His name is Monsignor Charles Pope. Just ingenious. He's incredible. And at one point he wrote on this and he went back again to the original language. He's kind of an expert in a lot of languages and he's an expert in scripture. And at some point Monsignor Pope, which is, I know, an ironic name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
What if he was elected to be the Holy Father? He'd be Pope, Pope. But Monsignor Charles Pope, he explains what this means. So the demon is delivered from this person. And his soul is left, you know, he is left empty, swept, and ordered. Now, these all mean something. In fact, ordered is going to be kind of not necessarily the most appropriate word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
But every one of these things, these words mean something. So the house is empty. So here's the demon that's delivered from the person's soul. Of course, that's great. Or the person's body. I don't know what demons occupy, but it's empty. Meaning the evil has been delivered, right? It's been removed, but nothing good has taken its place. It's simply empty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
And we all know that nature abhors a vacuum. We all know that even super nature abhors a vacuum, that I can get rid of bad vices, or I can get rid of sins in my life. But unless I replace those vices with virtues, unless I replace those sins with acts of charity and goodness, What's going to happen is other vices will come in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
So here's this person who was delivered from evil, but didn't do anything to fill his life with good. It was empty and it was swept. And Monsignor Pope talks about this and says, well, if a good person has, by God's grace, been able to sweep sin from his life, praise the Lord, but there's a temptation there that you think, wait, I cleaned myself up. You know, I did the work. I made it clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Satan was delivered and I tidied everything up. And the sin of pride, which is one of the most deadly sins, maybe it's the deadliest sin, can come in and he can not only be empty, right, that he hasn't brought virtue in, but also looks around and sees the cleanliness of his soul and says, I did that. So empty and swept. And the last word is ordered.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 317. We're reading two chapters from the Gospel according to Luke. That's Luke chapters 11 and 12, also Proverbs chapter 26, verses 7 through 9.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
But he believes a translation that's better is ornate. And that word empty, swept, and ornate seems to indicate one of the things that Jesus is talking about when he talks about the scribes and Pharisees and lawyers who are hypocrites. That I want to appear to be a certain way, but I don't want to be a certain way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
that I want people to think that I have virtue, but I don't want to actually live virtue. And I want to be decorated, right? I want to have this facade, this ornate room or perception of me that sees me as being better than I actually am. And so here's when Jesus tells this parable here, tells this teaching, it's less confusing once we realize it, break it down,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
It's empty, so it hasn't been filled with God or things of God. It is swept, and there's a temptation to pride, and it is ornate, meaning it can just be all a facade. It's all just surface, and nothing is penetrated into the heart. And that can just be a way, hopefully, you can understand the parable that Jesus tells in chapter 11.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent, or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Jesus and Beelzebul Now he was casting out a demon that was mute.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Now, one last thing when it comes to chapter 12, I think it'd be important to highlight. There are so many teachings here, but let me just highlight one at the end of chapter 12. And it is Jesus, a cause of division. Jesus says, I came to cast fire upon the earth and would that it were already kindled. Do you think I've come to give peace down earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Henceforth in one house, there'll be five divided three against two and two against three divided father against son, mother against daughter, et cetera. Um, You know, one of the things that I've been reflecting on a lot lately has been that I think that there was a time in the history of Christianity when this few verses in Luke's gospel, when it was, you'd think like, oh, that's weird.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
We think like maybe at the, in the beginning of the church, when people were converting to Christianity, yeah, maybe there's division in family, you know, father against son and son against father and mother against daughter, but not now. And yet right now we've entered a time, at least in the West, when this is completely true. When Jesus is a cause of division in so many people's families.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
When the teachings of Jesus are a cause of division in so many people's families. And I think, you know, it's worth listening to the words of Jesus and taking heart, knowing that he said this would happen. I deal with college students every single day who are grieved when their parents aren't believers, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
And they're grieved that their parents, maybe they were raised Catholic, maybe they raised them Catholic, maybe not. We have a lot of those who come into fullness of the Catholic church here on campus and But they're grieved by the fact that my mom and dad don't know Jesus. My mom and dad haven't been fully converted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
And that's not meant to be a judgment against the parents as much as it is meant to be, you know, they go home and they want to go to daily mass. And their parents are like, why in the world? They go home and they don't want it. They're not trying to be weird, right? They're not trying to make a point.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
But they find that what they believe as believers in Jesus seems to contradict what their parents are professing to believe. And that grieves them so much. And I know many parents who are part of this community What grieves you is that your children have walked away or we just even look at the culture, right? And we realize that in our world, there is so much division.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Jesus says, I'm going to be a cause. I'm going to be one of the sources of division in your families. And I know that grieves us and breaks our hearts. And yet we can also take comfort. We can take courage to our hearts knowing that, okay, he said this would happen. And so it's not like I rejoice in this. I'm not proud of this. I'm not happy about it. But I knew it was coming.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
And what we can do is we can pray for them. So I always invite our students. I said, gently, please be patient with your family, be patient with your parents, but just pray for them. And parents, same thing. Be patient with your kids and just pray for them. Their story is not over yet. Your story is not over yet. My story is not over yet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
We pray that we can be faithful and persevere until the end. The shameless refusal to quit until our last breath and we get to step into eternity with the Lord. But also your parents' story or your children's story, your friends' story, your siblings' story. God willing, is not over yet. And if it is over, we don't know the ending. We don't know their hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
We don't know how they ended up when it came to the Lord. And so we just keep praying. We just keep praying and ask the Lord, please meet them, meet us where we're at with his grace. We pray for them because we know we need it, right? I'm praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke and the people marveled. But some of them said, He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, while others, to test him, sought from him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and house falls upon house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when one stronger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
The Return of the Unclean Spirit When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none, he says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. True blessedness. As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that you sucked. But he said, Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it. the sign of Jonah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, This generation is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the men of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
The Queen of the South will arise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, something greater than Solomon is here." The men of Nineveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
As always, the Bible translation we're reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year because you have about a page and a quarter to go, roughly, give or take. I think I'm estimating about that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The Light of the Body No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel, but on a stand, that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light. But when it is not sound, your body is full of darkness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Therefore, be careful, lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light. Jesus denounces the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and lawyers. While he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and sat at table.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness. You fools, did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give for alms those things which are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
But woe to you, Pharisees, for you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you, Pharisees, for you love the best seat in the synagogues and salutations in the marketplaces. Woe to you, for you are like graves which are not seen and men walk over them without knowing it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
One of the lawyers answered him, Teacher, in saying this, you reproach us also. And he said, Woe to you lawyers also, for you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
So you are witnesses and consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute, that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves and you hindered those who were entering. As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak of many things, lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
If you want, gosh. Don't pass up this opportunity to be able to mark off every day, every day. Also, you can subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. Today is day 317. We're reading Luke chapters 11 and 12, Proverbs chapter 26, verses seven through nine. The gospel according to Luke chapter 11, the Lord's prayer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Chapter 12, A Warning Against Hypocrisy In the meantime, when so many thousands of the multitude had gathered together that they trod upon one another, he began to say to his disciples first, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. whom to fear. I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him who, after he is killed, has power to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows. And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God. But he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how or what you are to answer or what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
The Parable of the Rich Fool One of the multitude said to him, Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, Man, who made me a judge or divider over you? And he said to them, Take heed and beware of all covetousness, for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
And he told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought to himself, What shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said, I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Do not be anxious.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
And he said to his disciples, therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouses nor barn. And yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
and which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to a span of life if then you are not able to do as small a thing as that why are you anxious about the rest consider the lilies how they grow they neither toil nor spin yet i tell you even solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O men of little faith? And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be of anxious mind. For all the nations of the world seek these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
He was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. And he said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things shall be yours as well. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms. Provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The Necessity of Watchfulness Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Truly, I say to you, he will put on his apron and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them so, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would have been awake and would have not left his house to be broken into.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. the faithful and the unfaithful servant. Peter said, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all? And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his master will set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Truly, I tell you, he will set him over all his possessions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
But if that servant says to himself, my master is delayed in coming and begins to beat the men servants and the maid servants and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will punish him and put him with the unfaithful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
And that servant who knew his master's will but did not make ready or act according to his will shall receive a severe beating. But he who did not know and did what deserved a beating shall receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much is given, of him will much be required. And of him to whom men commit much, they will demand the more. Jesus, the cause of division.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
I came to cast fire upon the earth and would that it were already kindled. I have a baptism to be baptized with and how I am constrained until it is accomplished. Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For henceforth in one house, there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
They will be divided father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother. mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Interpreting the present time. He also said to the multitudes, when you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, a shower is coming, and so it happens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, there will be scorching heat, and it happens. You hypocrites, you know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? Settling with your accuser. And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Like a lame man's legs which hang useless is a proverb in the mouth of fools. Like one who binds the stone in the sling is he who gives honor to a fool.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Thank you so much for the ability to be able to hear Jesus, your word, speak words. Thank you for the teaching of Jesus. Thank you for his example. Thank you for his coming, as we prayed before, his coming to fight for us. But not only that, he's coming to teach us and give us this wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
perseverance in prayer. And he said to them, which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within, do not bother me. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
Lord God, we ask you, please be with us this day and help us to pray in the way that Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Give us your spirit so that we can talk to you and listen to you the way that you deserve and the way that gives you glory and a way that just transforms our hearts and our lives. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Gosh, you guys, there's so much to talk about, but a couple of things that I think are worth noting. One thing is when it comes to perseverance and prayer, I came across something, you know, so this is chapter 11, the beginning where Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray the Lord's prayer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 317: Persistence in Prayer (2024)
But then also he goes on to perseverance. A couple of things about this, because I think this is so important. One is that when Jesus uses the term persistence, it comes from, it's a word that essentially means, and this was the definition given to me, the shameless refusal to quit. That the persistent prayer, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
However this happened. And it even seems like Balaam is not even impressed, overly impressed initially when the donkey talks to him because he's so mad that he says, I'm going to kill you. And yet this miracle that happens, um, That gets spoken about by the early church fathers. It's so interesting that even like St. Ambrose is an example. St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Ambrose says that the angel is revealed, but not to Balaam. He says, what offense does Balaam commit except that he said one thing and plotted another? That's the thing is that Balaam was going to take money. He was impressed by impressive people, and he said one thing and plotted another.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
It goes on, Ambrose says, this is in the fourth century, for God seeks out the pure vessel, one not corrupted by impurity and squalor. Balaam was tested, therefore, but he was found, not found acceptable before he was full of lies and guile. This is actually something that happens later on in the New Testament in 2 Peter 2. Peter writes and he says about some people, he says,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
They cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite me. Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed. So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
And it's just what a gift. In fact, even in the letter of Jude, it calls the error of Balaam is for profit. And so one of the things that we realize is, is what's going on underneath all of this is Balaam is willing to sell himself and sell his soul essentially for money, for influence, for fame, for power. And that can be our temptation as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
And so today, as we kind of journey with the people of Israel, it's so good because, man, as Balaam is going to be blessing the people of Israel, we're going to find out something that is so incredible about the very people that he's blessing in that moment that, man, it's going to blow your socks off. It's going to be pretty incredible. But that's for days to come. Keep praying for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow and continue this journey with you. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
And they came to Balaam, and they gave him Balak's message. And he said to them, Lodge here this night, and I will bring back word to you as the Lord speaks to me. So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam. And God came to Balaam and said, Who are these men with you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
And Balaam said to God, Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me, saying, Behold, a people has come out of Egypt, and it covers the face of the earth. Now come, curse them for me. Perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out. God said to Balaam, You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
We'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 70, and so we are reading today from Numbers chapter 22 and Deuteronomy chapter 23. We'll also be praying through Psalm 105. As always, I am using the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak, Go to your own land, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you. So the princes of Moab rose and went to Balak and said, Balaam refuses to come with us. Once again Balak sent princes, more in number and more honorable than they. And they came to Balaam and said to him, Thus says Balak the son of Zippor,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Let nothing hinder you from coming to me, for I will surely do you great honor, and whatever you say to me I will do. Come, curse this people for me. But Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less or more. Please now,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Tarry here this night also, that I may know what more the Lord will say to me. And God came to Balaam at night and said, If the men have come to call you, rise, go with them, but only what I bid you, that shall you do. Balaam, his donkey, and the angel. So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab. But God's anger was kindled because he went.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
And the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey and his two servants were with him. And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey to turn her into the road.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards with a wall on either side. And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam's foot against the wall. So he struck her again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
then the angel of the lord went ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left when the donkey saw the angel of the lord she lay down under balaam and balaam's anger was kindled and he struck the donkey with his staff
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times? And Balaam said to the donkey, Because you have made sport of me, I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you. And the donkey said to Balaam, Am I not your donkey, upon which you have ridden all your life long to this day?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Was I ever accustomed to do so to you? And he said, No. Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed his head and fell on his face. And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why have you struck your donkey these three times?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Behold, I have come forth to withstand you, because your way is perverse before me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
and the donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times if she had not turned aside from me surely just now i would have slain you and let her live then balaam said to the angel of the lord i have sinned for i did not know that you stood in the road against me now therefore if it is evil in your sight i will go back again
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
And the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, Go with the men, but only the word which I bid you, that shall you speak. So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak. When Balak heard that Balaam had come, he went out to meet him at the city of Moab, on the boundary formed by the Arnon, at the extremity of the boundary. And Balak said to Balaam, Did I not send to you to call you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to honor you? Balaam said to Balak, Behold, I have come to you. Have I now any power at all to speak anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak. Then Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kiria Husath. And Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep and sent to Balaam and to the princes who were with him. The Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 23.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And you can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. As I said, it is day 70 and we are reading from Numbers 22, Deuteronomy 23, and we're praying Psalm 105. The book of Numbers chapter 22, Balak summons Balaam.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Exclusion from the Assembly. He whose testicles are crushed or whose male member is cut off shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. No bastard shall enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation, none belonging to them shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Baor from Pithor of Mesopotamia to curse you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Nevertheless, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loved you. You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever. You shall not abhor an Edomite for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian because you were a sojourner in his land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
The children of the third generation that are born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord. sanitary, ritual, and humanitarian precepts. When you go forth against your enemies and are in camp, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing. If there is among you any man who is not clean by reason of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
He shall not come within the camp, but when evening comes on, he shall bathe himself in water, and when the sun is down, he may come within the camp. You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it, and you
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
when you relieve yourself outside you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement because the lord your god walks in the midst of your camp to save you and to give up your enemies before you therefore your camp must be holy that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you you shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
He shall dwell with you in your midst, in the place which he shall choose within one of your towns, where it pleases him best. You shall not oppress him. There shall be no cult prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a cult prostitute of the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God. you shall not lend upon interest to your brother, interest on money, interest on victuals, interest on anything that is lent for interest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
To a foreigner you may lend upon interest, but to your brother you shall not lend upon interest, that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are entering to take possession of it. When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not be slack to pay it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
But if you refrain from vowing, it shall be no sin in you. You shall be careful to perform what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth. When you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your vessel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
When you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain. Psalm 105, God's faithfulness to Israel. O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples. Sing to him, sing praises to him, tell of all his wonderful works.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Glory in his holy name, let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his presence continually. Remember the wonderful works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered. O offspring of Abraham his servant, sons of Jacob his chosen ones, he is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
He is mindful of his covenant forever, of the word that he has commanded for a thousand generations. The covenant which he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
When they were few in number, of little account, and sojourners in it, wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, he allowed no one to oppress them. He rebuked kings on their account, saying, Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm. When he summoned a famine on the land, and broke every staff of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Then the sons of Israel set out and encamped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho. And Balak, the son of Zippor, saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. And Moab was in great dread of the people because they were many. Moab was overcome with fear of the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Joseph, who was sold as a slave, his feet were hurt with shackles. His neck was put in a collar of iron. Until what he had said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him. The king sent and released him. The ruler of the peoples set him free. He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions, to instruct his princes at his pleasure and to teach his elders wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Then Israel came to Egypt. Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And the Lord made his people very fruitful. He made them stronger than their foes. He turned their hearts to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants. He sent Moses his servant and Aaron whom he had chosen. They wrought his signs among them and miracles in the land of Ham. He sent darkness and made the land dark.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
They rebelled against his words. He turned their waters into blood and caused their fish to die. Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the chambers of their kings. He spoke and there came swarms of flies and gnats throughout their country. He gave them hail for rain and lightning that flashed through the land. He struck their vines and fig trees and shattered the trees of their country.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
He spoke and the locusts came and young locusts without number, which devoured all the vegetation in their land and ate up the fruit of their ground. he struck all the firstborn in their land, the first issue of all their strength. Then he led forth Israel with silver and gold, and there was none among his tribes who stumbled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Egypt was glad when they departed, for dread of them had fallen upon it. He spread a cloud for covering, and fire to give light by night. They asked, and he brought quails, and gave them bread from heaven in abundance. He opened the rock, and water gushed forth. It flowed through the desert like a river, for he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
So he led forth his people with joy, his chosen ones with singing. And he gave them the lands of the nations, and they took possession of the fruit of other people's toil, to the end that they should keep his statutes and observe his laws. Praise the Lord. Father in heaven, we give you praise, and we do praise you, Lord God in heaven, because you are good and you are true and you are just.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
You are just and right in all your ways, and we continually affirm that truth. Even, Lord, when we are unfaithful, you are faithful. This is a common refrain, so we give you praise because you are truth itself. You are justice itself, and you are mercy. You are love. Let us... Let us be loved. Let us live in your justice. Let us walk in your truth and dwell in your peace. In Jesus' name we pray.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
And Moab said to the elders of Midian, This horde will now lick up all that is round about us as the ox licks up grass in the field. So Balak, the son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at the time, sent messengers to Balaam, the son of Beor of Pithor, which is near the river, in the land of Emma, to call him, saying, Behold, a people has come out of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So we have the story. This is so incredible. I love how all of these readings kind of coincide right now, right? Even Psalm 105 that we just got done praying.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
is a recap of what the Lord had done with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and through Moses and leading the people through the wilderness and feeding them with quail and feeding them with manna. It's this great recap as well as we got to hear about Deuteronomy chapter 23. Balaam, the son of Beor from Pithor, and how God would not listen to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
We're going to get that in the next couple chapters because Balaam is going to open his mouth because he's been hired to curse the people of Israel, but instead he will speak blessings upon the people of Israel, which is a remarkable thing for so many reasons that are going to be unfolded for us in the days to come. But one of the things that I really want to emphasize right now is this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
that this mysterious character, he's not very mysterious, there's some mysterious characters in the Bible, but Balaam. Balaam is this soothsayer, essentially. He's someone that is recognized by the people in that area as being someone who has some kind of spiritual connection. And clearly, scripture keeps saying that God is talking to Balaam.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
But Balaam, since the Lord said, no, do not curse these people. They are my people. He says, no, originally. But then what happens? The king of Moab, he amps up Balak. He amps up the whole price. He says, I'll offer you more money and even more honorable people will come to you. Like impressive people will come to invite you to do this thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
And so that's when Balaam seems to have God's permission. Like, yeah, if it seems well with you, go ahead and do this. But God has already let him know. God has already told him, no, don't do that. You'll only say what I want to say, and I'm not going to curse my own people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
But this is such an interesting thing because as this story unfolds in the next couple of days, Balaam is going to, as I said, he's going to speak blessings. But what we see is we see this story of Balaam who is impressed by the powerful. He's impressed by the impressive people sent by Balak. And then they spoken to by his donkey.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 70: The Offense of Balaam (2025)
It's his donkey that saves his life, which is so strange for us because we're following the story in numbers. And all of a sudden we have a talking donkey and it can stop us. And we think like, wait, is this Shrek? What is happening right now? But what's happening truly is a miracle. And we have no idea how this worked. Was his mouth moving? Was it just a voice coming from inside this donkey?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
When God heard he was full of wrath and he utterly rejected Israel, he forsook his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among people, and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe. He gave his people over to the sword and vented his wrath on his heritage. Fire devoured their young men and their maidens had no marriage song.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Their priests fell by the sword and their widows made no lamentation. Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a strong man shouting because of wine, and he put his adversaries to rout. He put them to everlasting shame. He rejected the tent of Joseph. He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever. He chose David, his servant. and took him from the sheepfolds, from tending the ewes that had young he brought him, to be the shepherd of Jacob his people, of Israel his inheritance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
We thank you for this great prayer that reminds us of all that you have done in our lives. Lord God, one of the big temptations we all have is to forget what you have done, to forget your might, to forget your goodness, to forget your love for us, to forget that you have fought for us. That in so many times, ways and at so many times, you remind us that the Lord will fight for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
You can subscribe in your podcast app if you haven't yet done that. It is one of the things that I like. being able to see how every day, here is the podcast. It pops up and just, bam, it's a reminder for me of, yeah, let's read through, let's listen through the Bible. But as I said, today we're reading Exodus 24, Leviticus 17 and 18, and then Psalm 78.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
All we have to do is keep still. Lord God, this Psalm, Psalm 78, reminds us of the need for us to remember how good you are and to remember how fickle we can be. Lord God, please help us. If we have been false to you, help us to be true to you now. If we have strayed, please find us and bring us back to your heart. If we have run away from you,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
We give you permission right now to take hold of our hands, take hold of our hearts, and bring us back to you. Bring us back home. Bring us back to you who are good, who fight for us, who love us. Lord God, make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Okay, so this is a big day, not only because we had massively long Psalm 78. I don't know if you guys got lost.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
in that prayer, but it's a good one to go back and pray with, um, whenever you get the chance, just because again, it's that prayer that reminds us and it reminds us to remember, to remember, and it reminds us of the great things that God has done for his people, Israel, but also gosh, Exodus chapter 24 and Leviticus chapters 17 and 18 are super important for a
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Exodus chapter 24, on the mountain of God and the blood of the covenant. My goodness, this is critical. What happens? Moses takes the people and he offers up a sacrifice, takes half of the blood, places it on the altar. The other half of the blood, the people say, everything the Lord has said, we will do. And they get splashed, sprinkled with that same blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
You guys, this is, again, like I said yesterday, this is... Not distant from us, this is exactly what happens to us around a regular basis. Whenever we have a group of people who come into the church as adults through a process like RCIA, right? Whenever we have this, people who are not raised Catholic, but are saying yes to the Catholic faith,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
One of the things they say is they say, I profess and believe all that the Catholic Church believes, professes, and proclaims to be revealed by God. Basically, they're saying what the people of Israel said in Exodus 24. Everything that the Lord has said, we will do. All the Lord has spoken, we will do. We will be obedient. Basically, it's almost like a... a proposal, not a proposal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
It is like the actual wedding vows, right? So there is two parts to every wedding. There is the male who offers himself, there's the female who offers herself. Another way to say it is there's the male who offers himself and the female receives, and the female then offers herself and the male receives. And something similar is happening in Exodus 24.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Something similar happens every Easter vigil or whenever someone becomes Catholic. The people say all that the Lord has said we will do. They're offering themselves. And then they're received. They're received by Moses and they are sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice. And same thing happens when it comes to RCIA.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
The people come forward and either the bishop or the pastor who's been delegated by the receives their offer and receives them. And it's just, it's this incredible thing. It's all about relationship. And here's what happened is, is then what seals that relationship is the blood of the covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
As Moses said, behold, the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. My goodness, what happens at every mass? We say, this is the blood of the new and eternal covenant. And what happens is that that blood is there on the altar and then we get to take it and receive it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
And that establishes, that confirms the covenant, confirms our place every time, not just the people who are coming into the church at Easter Vigil, but every time you and I walk forward to be able to receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the mass, we're
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Exodus chapter 24, the blood of the covenant. And he said to Moses, come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and 70 of the elders of Israel and worship afar off. Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near and the people shall not come up with him. Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
i don't want to say reenacting this because because it's reenacting is is less than we are participating in the fullness of it that's what we're doing and not only that but then what happens is then moses aaron nadab and abihu with 70 elders of israel they go up and they're able to eat and drink in the presence of the lord what happens at every mass not only do we have the blood of the lord on the altar and on us we also get to eat and drink in his presence
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
which is truly his real presence, the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. That's one of the reasons why it is so critically important that those of us who are Catholic Christians understand that the Old Testament is not dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
The Old Testament is very alive, and we need to know the Old Testament in order to truly appreciate the New Testament, because we participate in this every single time we come to the Mass. I know that this is one of the longer podcasts of the day, but we do have to talk about Leviticus chapters 17 and 18.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
One of the things that's important is because, gosh, and you don't have to bang a drum about this, but it's there. It's in the scriptures today. And in Leviticus chapter 18, we have laws regarding sexual morality. And this is going to be very important because not only does it have some boundaries, right? It's a list of sexual relationships that may not be engaged in by the people of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day 42. Let's keep on rolling. Today, we're going to be reading from Exodus chapter 24. That's Exodus 24. then Leviticus 17 and 18, and then Psalm 78.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Now, one of the things that we need to understand is there are some things in the Bible that are temporary, right? There's some things, there's some laws of Leviticus that have been surpassed basically because they were conditional, they were set in time. And those are things like, here are rules with regard to your being distinct from other peoples. This is how you're going to
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
remain separate from the people amongst whom you are living, right? Okay, so it's establishing community for Israel. Second are rules when it comes to worship, right? Temple rules. And the third are rules that are across the board, always and everywhere wrong. And so you have people who will be kind of smart. And when I say smart, I mean somewhat sarcastic.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
And they'll say, well, how come you have to follow these particular rules from the Bible, but you don't follow all of them? For example, Can I sell my daughter to you for three goats or so and so violated the Sabbath? When should we get together and stone them? And so, right.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
So there's a misunderstanding or a lack of understanding that there are three kinds of laws throughout the Old Testament, particularly here in Exodus, Deuteronomy, Numbers and Leviticus. The three kind are laws that establish a particular kind of society of people of Israel and the kingdom of Israel, right? Second, temple worship. And third is morality for always. Now, we don't do all of them now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Why? Because, well, Israel doesn't exist anymore. The people of Israel don't exist when it comes to having these kinds of laws with regard to, say, things like slavery.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
um not mixing fibers in uh the clothing that you make okay so that that law is passed away because israel has passed away secondly when it comes to temple worship we don't have all those laws still why because the temple has ceased to exist but the third kinds of laws with regard to morality are still in effect. Because why? Because they were not conditional.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
They were not merely for Israel to get along. They were for everyone. Now, how do we know that these laws with regard to sexual morality are the kinds that didn't just pass away with the people of Israel, didn't just pass away with the temple? Well, we know this because it's clearly spelled out in Leviticus chapter 18.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
This is so important for us to understand just because there are a number of people who want to kind of rewrite scripture. They But in Leviticus chapter 18, one of the things that the Lord God says in verse 24, he says, do not defile yourselves by any of these things. For by all these, the nations I'm casting out before you had defiled themselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
And all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words which the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. And he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and 12 pillars, according to the 12 tribes of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
What that does is it reminds us, actually doesn't remind us, just makes it absolutely clear that those laws concerning sexual relations are not merely for Israel. But God is saying, no, actually the Canaanites, the land you're going into are They defiled themselves by these things. So this isn't simply conditional. It's not simply again, like don't cut the hair on your sideburns.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
It's not simply don't mix match fibers when you're wearing clothes. This is not the same kind of level where that was specifically for Israel. Here God is very clearly saying in chapter 18 verses 24 and following that other nations did this and that was an abomination to me. Those things were abominable. They were perversions. They were wrong. They were evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
And that's one of the reasons why we know absolutely clearly that this wasn't merely a conditional commandment, but this is a universal or absolute commandment. Okay. So, well, this is a long podcast today. I apologize for the time it took, but what a gift that the Lord God has given us his word and given us himself because he loves us. So he loves you and he loves you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
And this is maybe the last word here, at least for today. We'll be back tomorrow. But that word is, there are so many things that the Bible brings up, things that are close to our hearts, some things that are part of our lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
And whether those things be, you know, again, laws concerning sexual morality, sometimes those things could be like, wow, I'm a victim of someone who had abused me, had violated these laws, or I'm someone who's attracted to these kinds of things. What does that mean for me? What it means for you? is that you are one of God's beloved. But this is what I desire, yeah?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
And you're one of God's beloved. This happened to me, where was he then? You're one of God's beloved. And whether that was someone doing violence to you, someone stealing something from you, or that's right now, even just feeling, experiencing that brokenness, that woundedness, know this, you are one of God's beloved. And all of us, all the people listening to this podcast,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
We experience brokenness in one way or another. This is one of the reasons why God has given us his law. It is the reason why God gives us his grace because you are one of God's beloved and all of us, and you need God's grace. All of us need God's grace. And so today, let that be the takeaway. The walk away from this, not experiencing condemnation, but experiencing hope.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
You are one of God's beloved. That's why he gave the commandments. That's why he's giving us his grace is because your story is not over. We're simply at the very beginning of the story. My name is Father Mike. I'm praying for you. I can't wait to see you again tomorrow. And God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
And he sent young men of the sons of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord and And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, Behold, the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. on the mountain of God. Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
And there was under his feet, as it were, a pavement of sapphire stone, like a very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. They beheld God and ate and drank. The Lord said to Moses, Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, and I will give you the tables of stone with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
So Moses rose with his servant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God and And he said to the elders, Wait here for us until we come to you again. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a cause, let him go to them. Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the sons of Israel. And Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
The slaughter of animals. And the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron and his sons and to all the sons of Israel, this is the thing which the Lord has commanded. If any man of the house of Israel kills an ox or a lamb or a goat in the camp or kills it outside the camp and does not bring it to the door of the tent of meeting to offer it as a gift to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord, He says,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
As always, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, actually from the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. You can get that at ascensionpress.com or wherever you buy your Bibles. Also, if you want to be able to follow along, I know we're on day 42 already, and one of the great things that I find is I look at this sheet that I printed out
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
and burn the fat for a pleasing odor to the Lord. So they shall no more slay their sacrifices for satyrs, after whom they play the harlot. This shall be a statute forever to them throughout their generations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
And you shall say to them, any man of the house of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn among them who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice and does not bring it to the door of the tent of meeting to sacrifice it to the Lord, that man shall be cut off from his people. eating of blood forbidden.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
If any man of the house of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls." For it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Therefore I have said to the sons of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood. Any man also of the sons of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten, shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust. For the life of every creature is the blood of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Therefore I have said to the sons of Israel, you shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off. And every person that eats what dies of itself or what is torn by beasts, whether he is a native or a sojourner, shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening, and he shall be clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
But if he does not wash them or bathe his flesh, he shall bear his iniquity. And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you dwelt, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
You shall do my ordinances and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances by doing which a man shall live. I am the Lord. Laws concerning sexual relations None of you shall approach anyone near of kin to him to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother. You shall not uncover her nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife. It is your father's nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or born abroad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
you shall not uncover the nakedness of your son's daughter or of your daughter's daughter for their nakedness is your own nakedness you shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife's daughter begotten by your father since she is your sister you shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister she is your father's near kinswoman
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Actually, it's sheets because it's more than one piece of paper of all of the days and all the readings for all the days. And I get to cross out one reading a day. And it's great to be able to see, like, I'm making progress. Sometimes when we're just kind of hitting play on our podcast, it's like, well... I don't know, I mean, am I really getting anywhere? And the answer is, yes, you are.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
you shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister for she is your mother's near kinswoman you shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother that is you shall not approach his wife she is your aunt you shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law she is your son's wife you shall not uncover her nakedness You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
She is your brother's nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, and you shall not take her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter to uncover her nakedness. They are your near kinswoman. It is wickedness. And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is yet alive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. And you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her. You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Moloch. And so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
And you shall not lie with any beast and defile yourself with it, neither shall any woman give herself to a beast to lie with it. It is perversion. Do not defile yourselves by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am casting out before you defile themselves. and the land became defiled, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
But you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, and do none of these abominations either to the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. For all these abominations the men of the land did who were before you, so that the land became defiled. Lest the land vomit you out when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
For whoever shall do any of these abominations, the persons that do them shall be cut off from among their people. So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs which were practiced before you, and never to defile yourselves by them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Emaskel of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
the wonders which he has wrought he established a testimony in jacob and appointed a law in israel which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children that the next generation might know them the children yet unborn and arise and tell them to their children so that they should set their hope in god and not forget the works of god but keep his commandments
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. The Ephraimites, armed with a bow, turned back on the day of battle. They did not keep God's covenant, but refused to walk according to his law. They forgot what he had done and the miracles that he had shown them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
You're on day 42 right now. Sometimes it's really helpful to have, though, that sheet of paper printed off at that Bible India reading plant, and then I take a marker. It is a blue marker because I like that color. And I just cross off the day as I've completed the reading for the day. And it just, yeah, it makes me feel like I'm going somewhere.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
In the sight of their fathers, he wrought marvels in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan, He divided the sea and let them pass through it. He made the waters stand like a heap. In the daytime, he led them with a cloud and all the night with a fiery light. He cleft rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like the rivers. Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the most high in the desert. They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God saying, can God spread a table in the wilderness? He struck the rock so that the water gushed out and streams overflowed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people? Therefore, when the Lord heard he was full of wrath, a fire was kindled against Jacob. His anger mounted against Israel because they had no faith in God and did not trust his saving power. Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven and he rained down upon them manna to eat and gave them the bread of heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Man ate of the bread of the angels. He sent them food in abundance. He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he let out the south wind. He rained down flesh upon them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas. He let them fall in the midst of their camp and all around their habitations. And they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
But before they had sated their craving, while the food was still in their mouths, the anger of God rose against them, and he slew the strongest of them and laid low the picked men of Israel. In spite of all this, they still sinned. Despite his wonders, they did not believe. So he made their days vanish like a breath and their years in terror. When he slew them, they sought for him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
They repented and sought God earnestly. They remembered that God was their rock. The Most High was their Redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouths. They lied to him with their tongues. Their heart was not steadfast toward him. They were not true to his covenant. Yet he, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
He restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert they tested him again and again and provoked the holy one of israel they did not keep in mind his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe when he wrought his signs in egypt and his miracles in the fields of zoan he turned their rivers to blood so that they could not drink of their streams
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
Obviously, moving to the Bible makes you feel like you're going somewhere too, but that's my tip and little practice that I have. So you can get that Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. I also realize I've been speaking a little quickly right now. I apologize for that. I'm going to slow it on down.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them and frogs which destroyed them. He gave their crops to the caterpillar and the fruit of their labors to the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamores with frost. He gave over their cattle to the hail and their flocks to thunderbolts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
He let loose on them his fierce anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels. He made a path for his anger. He did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague. He struck all the firstborn of Egypt, the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham. Then he led forth his people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
He led them to safety so that they were not afraid. But the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And he brought them to his holy land, to the mountain, which his right hand had won. He drove out nations before them. He apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 42: Moral Laws (2025)
yet they tested and rebelled against the most high and did not observe his decrees but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers they twisted like a deceitful bow for they provoked him to anger with their high places and moved him to jealousy with their graven images
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Paul, he's making a case for himself saying that, listen, the way in which I have preached the gospel to you was not about the law. It was not about obeying the ritual laws of Judaism, of circumcision, of kosher meals, of ritual purity, but it was faith. It was the faith that came to you when Jesus Christ was proclaimed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
And in fact, remember the Holy Spirit that came upon you when we prayed for the Holy Spirit, just like in Ephesus and those Gentiles were prayed with and they received the power of the Holy Spirit and all these other occasions that we had heard about in the Acts of the Apostles. And not only that, but St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Paul even points out the fact that it makes sense that you might be a little confused because there was even this guy named Kepha. And you all know Kepha because Kepha here is the al-Habayit, right? He doesn't say the al-Habayit, but we all know that he's the one over the house. He's the prime minister here. that even him, even he was insincere. What happened?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Paul's defense before Felix And when the governor had motioned to him to speak, Paul replied, realizing that for many years you have been judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Well, Paul, when he was living amongst the Gentiles, he was eating like a Gentile. He was not eating according to the Jewish customs. And yet when a bunch of Jews who really, really were holding strong to the idea that you needed to eat according to the Jewish customs arrived, then Kepha, Peter, he began to shrink back and he wouldn't eat with the Gentiles anymore.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
And he would observe the Jewish customs in the presence of the Jewish Christians. And Paul said, I publicly opposed him to his face because he was in the wrong. And that is true. And one of the things that sometimes people bring this up and they say, well, yeah, so the Pope was wrong. And we'd say, yeah, I mean, he was so infallible does not mean impeccable. Impeccable means without sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Infallible means doesn't teach error. And we don't say that the Pope or the Holy Father or even the first Pope here, Peter. that anything, everything they teach is without error. There are certain conditions for a pope to teach without error. For example, the first pope, St. Peter, he spoke without error when he preached the sermon at Pentecost.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
He preached without error when he wrote 1 Peter and 2 Peter. So we have that case there. In this case, though, he was insincere. He was, you might say hypocrite, but ultimately he was wrong. He was wrong in how he lived. And so, as Paul says, he opposed him to his face. And that was very important because of the fact that Peter was in the wrong. And so here is St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Paul showing the people in Galatia that what they're counting on is not the law. What they're counting on has to be the Holy Spirit. And there's this line, Galatians chapter two, verse 20, that is so important. It says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
that the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And this is so, so important because the Holy Spirit comes to us when we ask him. The Holy Spirit comes to us by the name of Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes to us through baptism, through confirmation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
As you may ascertain, it is not more than 12 days since I went up to worship at Jerusalem, and they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd either in the temple or in the synagogues or in the city. neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
The Holy Spirit comes to us in so many ways that the Lord just wants us to have access to himself. The Lord wants us to have access to the Father. In fact, he redeems us, right? He has redeemed us. The law had its purpose, and that's the end of chapter three. The law had its purpose. It was our custodian. It was our guardian.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 345. We're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 24. St. Paul's letter to the Galatians chapters one, two, and three, as well as Proverbs chapter 29 verses 12 through 14.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
And so the idea behind that is, is that on your way to school, there was a custodian, there was a guardian, or there was a teacher who brought you to school to make sure that you learned your lesson. And here's St. Paul at the end of chapter three saying, yeah, that's what the law was. It was our guardian. It was our custodian until Christ came that we may be justified by faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
But now that faith has come, this is verse 25, but now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. And this key was obviously affirmed by the council of Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15. And we already heard about the council of Jerusalem where the Holy Spirit and us, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
The apostles gathered together with the first Pope and they determined that, yep, you do not have to get circumcised in order to have the fullness of the faith that simply baptized, simply living out the faith, the Christian faith, not necessarily the Jewish faith. And again, once again, how do people experience this? They experience it equally.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
This last line in chapter three is important for us because St. Paul is making it very, very clear that it's not some people who experience the faith. You have to be a free person or you have to be a man or you have to be a Jew. He says, no, no, no. in Jesus Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free. There's neither male nor female. We're all one in Christ Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
That's not negating the reality of male and female. It's not negating the reality of Jew or Greek or of slave or free. What it's saying is there's an equality there. So everyone experiences the equality of grace, even amongst the differences between Jew and Greek or slave and free or male and female. Does that make sense? We're all one in Christ Jesus. And so The ultimate point that St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Paul's making then here is that everyone has become an heir in baptism to the promises of the Father, the promises that God made all the way back to Abraham. So hopefully that makes sense. I don't know. When we get to Paul's letters, there's so much stuff that we can break down, so much to learn from him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
That's why I'm so grateful we're going through this letter to the Galatians in two days only to be able to just, you know, absorb it, maybe rewind and take it back in and rewind and take it back in to be able to hear what is it that God is saying through St. Paul's letters, not just the Galatians, but all these letters that we're going to be diving more deeply into in the days to come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
But this I admit to you, that according to the way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the law or written in the prophets, having a hope in God, which these themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward God and toward men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Now, after some years, I came to bring my nation alms and offerings. As I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple without any crowd or tumult. But some Jews from Asia, they ought to be here before you and to make an accusation if they have anything against me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council except this one thing which I cried out while standing among them. With respect to the resurrection of the dead, I am on trial before you this day. But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the way, put them off, saying, When Lysaeus the tribune comes down, I will decide your case.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Then he gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody, but should have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs. Paul held in custody. After some days, Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak upon faith in Christ Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
And as he argued about justice and self-control and future judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, Go away for the present. When I have an opportunity, I will summon you. At the same time, he hoped that money would be given him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
But when two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Portia's Festus, and desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Paul an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. There is no other gospel. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast. by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ. Paul's vindication of his apostleship. Brethren, I would have you know that the gospel which was preached by me is not man's gospel, for I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
But when he who had set me apart before I was born and had called me through his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia, and again I returned to Damascus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Kepha and remained with him fifteen days." But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. And what I am writing to you before God, I do not lie. Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still not known by sight to the churches of Christ in Judea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
They only heard it said, He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. And they glorified God because of me. Chapter 2 Paul and the Other Apostles Then, after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
I went up by revelation, and laid before them, but privately before those who were of repute, the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, lest somehow I should be running or had run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
But because of false brethren secretly brought in who slipped in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into bondage, to them we did not yield submission even for a moment that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
And from those who were reputed to be something—what they were makes no difference to me, God shows no partiality—those, I say, who were of repute added nothing to me, but on the contrary— when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
For he who worked through Peter for the mission to the circumcised worked through me also for the Gentiles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
It is day 345. We are reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 24, St. Paul's letter to the Galatians, chapters 1, 2, and 3, and Proverbs chapter 29, verses 12 through 14. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 24. Paul before Felix at Caesarea. And after five days, the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a spokesman, one Tertullus. They laid before the governor their case against Paul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
And when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Kepha and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised, only they would have us remember the poor, which very thing I was eager to do. Paul rebukes Peter at Antioch.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
But when Kepha came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And with him, the rest of the Jews acted insincerely, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their insincerity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Kepha before them all, If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? We ourselves, who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Even we have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. because by works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not. But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God. For if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose. Chapter 3.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Law or Faith? O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so many things in vain, if it really is in vain?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Thus Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all nations be blessed. So then, those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham who had faith. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
For it is written, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Now it is evident that no man is justified before God by the law. For he who through faith is righteous shall live. But the law does not rest on faith. For he who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
For it is written, Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree, that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. The promise to Abraham. To give a human example, brethren, no one annuls even a man's will or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now, the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
It does not say, and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, which is Christ. This is what I mean. The law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance is by the law, it is no longer by promise. But God gave it to Abraham by a promise. The purpose of the law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
And when he was called, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, Since through you we enjoy much peace, and since by your provision, most excellent Felix, reforms are introduced on behalf of this nation, in every way and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude. But to detain you no further, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions till the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made. And it was ordained by angels through an intermediary. Now, an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not. For if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
But the scripture consigns all things to sin that what was promised to faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now, before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed. So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked. The poor man and the oppressor meet together. The Lord gives light to the eyes of both.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Thank you for this day and thank you for a new day, a day 345 of just being able to, gosh, Lord, we have 20 days left, 20 days left of listening to your word, 20 days left of being able to just be penetrated by your word, to soak in your word, to be able to be transformed by your word. Help us to not simply be informed by your word, but be transformed by your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
of us not just learn about you, but to become like you. Let this time we spend with you change us. And we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It kind of reminds me that end of that prayer, that time we spend with you, Jesus, let that change us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
You remember earlier on in the Acts of the Apostles, when they saw the apostles, they recognized that they had been with Jesus. We look at ourselves after 345 days and ask the question, okay, God, would Would people now looking at me recognize that I've spent time with you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Would they recognize that I've allowed your character and your thoughts and what you love, what you hate to shape my heart, my thoughts and how I live and what I love and what I hate? I think that there's something powerful there. Or we can remain unconverted. I mean, in chapter 24 of the Acts of the Apostles, that's kind of what we have.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
We have Felix and Felix is, you know, big man in town and Paul makes a defense before him. Now, Felix has a wife, Drusilla, and Drusilla is Jewish. And you think, well, that's kind of a bonus in their part. But yes, it is. And yes, it isn't in terms that, well, Drusilla had been married before to a king of a small little kingdom, small little nation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, an agitator among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him. By examining him yourself, you will be able to learn from him about everything of which we accuse him. The Jews also joined in the charge, affirming that all this was so.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
And so Felix was able to apparently convince her to leave her small king husband for him and saying that, yeah, I'm more connected to the Roman Empire than him. And however he convinced her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
The reality, of course, is that Felix and Drusilla, both of them have a certain character, not only about that, her leaving her husband and whatnot, but also history books have kind of indicated that Felix was a man who is not necessarily a good man. At the same time, this little snapshot we get in Acts chapter 24, is of kind of a Herod character, right? Remember how Herod longed to see Jesus?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Remember actually before that even, Herod wanted to hear from John in kind of a similar situation where John was accusing Herod of living with his brother's wife and how that was wrong. And here he says in the Gospels that Herod still liked to listen to John. Well, here we have the case of Felix and we have Paul preaching to Felix.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
And it's very fascinating that it says in chapter 24, verse 25, as Paul argued about justice and self-control and future judgment, Felix was alarmed. And that reality, of course, that Felix is alarmed is it reveals something to us about Felix. It reveals that not only was he convicted by Paul's preaching, but but also that he remained unmoved. Even after he was convicted, he remained unmoved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Because what's he say? He says, go away for the present. When I have an opportunity, I will summon you. And he sent for him often and conversed with him. But when two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Portia's Festus and desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison. So again, I can be really compelled by the Lord. I can be compelled by God's grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
He can open up my heart in all these ways. But unless I act on that, there is no change, right? Unless I act on what I believe, there is no change. Now, let's jump into Galatians. We have the St. Paul's letter to the Galatians, which isn't too long. It's simply six chapters. We have half of it today, chapters one through three. The background for St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
Paul's letter to the Galatians is, you know, the background, the background is that Paul went to the region of Galatia, right? And he established these churches and he proclaimed Jesus Christ. Obviously these Gentiles had come to faith in Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 345: One in Christ (2024)
But then what happens is some people follow, just like in Corinth, people followed Paul and start, began to say that you have to also get circumcised in order to experience the fullness of the Christian faith in order to experience the fullness of what it is to be a follower of Jesus Christ. And Galatians are beginning to believe they had already believed them. And yet here at St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
He reveals himself and makes himself our father. And every one of us, every generation has to choose him again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And here's Samuel, whose sons did not choose him, but were like Eli's sons who were kind of riding on the coattails of their father in some ways and had hardened their hearts to the Lord God, which is so tragic, so tragic when that happens, because I know that so many people maybe were listening to this Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
part of this community that we have as we're journeying through here on day 98, that you may be someone who's, I'm striving after the Lord, I'm striving to be faithful, whether or not you've always been faithful or maybe even you've only come to faith maybe 98 days ago, there's that recognition that what's happening with my kids though? And it can be the great sorrow of so many parents' hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
I know it's the sorrow of my heart because I say my name is Father Mike and that father is real. And we know that the reason why we call priests father is because of the Old Testament, right? The Levitical priesthood, they were meant to be fathers of the people. Because the original priesthood was the father of the family, was the original priest of the family.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And the Levites being the fathers of the community of Israel. And here in the new covenant, the priests are the fathers of the parish. And there's something so devastatingly difficult when us as parents, like me as a spiritual father,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
Maybe many of you as physical and biological and spiritual fathers and mothers and adopted fathers and mothers, that when we don't see the faith living in our kids, that can be even more devastating than anything else. I remember one time my little sister Sarah, I had said something along the lines of, Gosh, Sarah, I don't think I could ever be a parent because I'd be so nervous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
They answered, Five golden tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for the same plague was upon all of you and upon your lords. So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land and give glory to the God of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
I'd be so scared all the time of my kids getting hurt. And she said, well, you know, that is bad, but I just don't ever want them to lose their souls. I thought, oh, yes, thank you for the reminder, my sister, reminding the priest that that's even more important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
which is why it's even more devastating when we have people in our lives that we love so much who have turned away from the Lord, who have never known his goodness, never known his love, or just maybe even taken for granted. And so we're gonna join our hearts together in prayer. We often pray for parents in this part of this community, praying for kids too, praying for their kids.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And we're praying now for all those who have loved ones who have turned away from the Lord, have walked away from the church, because that can be the most devastating thing, again, in our lives. The last thing that happens in this story of 1 Samuel before we tomorrow jump into the Gospel of John is the people ask for a king. And it is also talk about rejection. I mean, think about this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
We're just praying about how kids can reject the faith. Here are the people of Israel who say, we want to be like other nations. Samuel, pick for us a king. Make a king for us. And here God says to Samuel, Samuel, don't be disheartened. They're not rejecting you. They're rejecting me. I know what's going on here. Because God's vision, God's purpose, God's plan, God's will was that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
I'll be your king, I fight for you, I guard you, I guide you, I lead you, I feed you, all these things, and yet you do not want me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And so even Samuel can give the warning, here's what's gonna happen, if you get a king, he's gonna put your sons at his service, he's gonna put your daughters at his service, he's gonna take a tenth of all your stuff, he's gonna build up his own self, he's gonna feed his own servants, he's gonna feed his own folks, and you're gonna be left with what's left over. And they said, that's fine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
We wanna be like everyone else, which is the story of all of our lives. God says, let me guide and guard. Let me feed and lead. Let me be your God. And we say, ah, I'll take a secondhand God over you so often. And yet we're gonna see what happens to that because God can even use some of these broken desires of ours to do something pretty incredible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
But we'll get back to that a week from now because tomorrow it is day 99. And tomorrow we're starting the Gospel of John because tomorrow is our first messianic checkpoint, our first launch into the New Testament where we get to just hear the entire Gospel of John in seven days. I am so excited. Please keep praying for me. I hate to keep asking for your prayers, but I know that I need them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
perhaps he will lighten his hand from off of you and your gods and your land why should you harden your hearts as the egyptians and pharaoh hardened their hearts ever he had made sport of them did not they let the people go and they departed now then take and prepare a new cart and two milch cows upon which there has never come a yoke
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
and yoke the cows to the cart but take their calves home away from them and take the ark of the lord and place it on the cart and put in a box at its side the figures of gold which you are returning to him as a guilt offering then send it off and let it go its way and watch If it goes up on the way to its own land, to Bet Shemesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
But if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us. It happened to us by chance. The men did so and took two milch cows and yoked them to the cart and shut up their calves at home. And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And the cows went straight in the direction of Beth Shemesh, along one highway, lowing as they went. They turned neither to the right nor to the left, and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh. Now, the people of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and when they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, they rejoiced to see it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh and stopped there. A great stone was there, and they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the box that was beside it, in which were the golden figures, and set them upon the great stone."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
and the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices on that day to the Lord. And when the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned that day to Ekron. These are the golden tumors, which the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the Lord, one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
Also the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and unwalled villages. The great stone, besides which they set down the ark of the Lord, is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh. The ark at Kiriath-Jerim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And he slew some of the men at Beth Shemesh, because they looked into the ark of the Lord. He slew seventy men of them. And the people mourned, because the Lord had made a great slaughter among the people. Then the men of Beth Shemesh said, Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-Jerim, saying, The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to you. Chapter 7 And the men of Kiriath-Jerim came and took up the ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and they consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of the ark of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
We'll be right back. Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 98 and this is the last day before tomorrow, which is our first messianic checkpoint, which begins the gospel of John tomorrow. But today, day 98, we're reading from 1 Samuel chapters 6, 7, and 8. We're also praying Psalm 86.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-Jerim a long time passed, some twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. Samuel as judge of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your heart to the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. So Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
Then Samuel said, Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you. So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said, We have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the sons of Israel at Mizpah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
As always, I'm reading from the translation called the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you have that, you can follow along. If you don't, you can follow along as well in whatever Bible you do have. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
Now, when the Philistines heard that the sons of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the sons of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the sons of Israel said to Samuel, Do not cease to cry to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
So Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And Samuel cried to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel, but the Lord thundered with a mighty voice that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were routed before Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them as far below as Bet-Kar. Then Samuel took a stone, and set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah, and called its name Ebenezer. For he said, Hitherto the Lord has helped us. So the Philistines were subdued, and did not again enter the territory of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Ekron to Gath, and Israel rescued their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life, and he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and he judged Israel in all these places. Then he would come back to Ramah, for his home was there, and there also he administered justice to Israel, and he built there an altar to the Lord. Chapter eight, Israel asks for a king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel and the name of his second Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to govern us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to govern us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people and all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds which they have done to me from the day I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And if you have not yet subscribed, and your podcast app. You can do that whenever you want. Just click on that button that says subscribe, and then what will happen? Well, you will be subscribed. But as I said, gosh, what a gift. Day 98. You guys, well done. I just want to say it again. Well done. 1 Samuel 6, 7, and 8 in Psalm 86.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
Now then, listen to the sound of their voice. Only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them. So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking a king from him. He said, these will be the ways of the king who will reign over you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties. and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots? He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and your donkeys and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks and you shall be his slaves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves. But the Lord will not answer you in that day. Israel's demand granted. But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel and they said, no, but we will have a king over us that we also may be like all the nations and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, listen to their voice and make them a king. Samuel then said to the men of Israel, go every man to his city. Psalm 86, supplication for help against enemies. A prayer of David. Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
Preserve my life, for I am godly. Save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant for to you O Lord do I lift up my soul. For you O Lord are good and forgiving abounding in mercy to all who call on you. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer. Listen to my cry of supplication.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
In the day of my trouble I call on you, for you do answer me. There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and bow down before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things, you who alone are God. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
Unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your merciful love toward me. You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. O God, insolent men have risen up against me. A band of ruthless men seek my life, and they do not set you before them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and faithfulness. Turn to me and take pity on me. Give your strength to your servant and save the son of your handmaid. Show me a sign of your favor that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
First Book of Samuel Chapter 6 The Ark Returned to Israel The ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us, with what we shall send it to its place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
Father in heaven, you are our helper, you are our comforter. And Lord God, we ask that you are also our vindicator, that you are the one who rises up and who declares and makes us righteous, makes us, it's not our own works, Lord God, that make us righteous in your sight. It's you, it's your grace that you have given to us, that you won on the cross and you handed yourself over for us, Lord God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
You made it possible for us. to experience your mercy, to have access to the heart of the Father, and to be able to receive the Holy Spirit deep into our hearts. So we ask you, Father in heaven, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, renew that Spirit, your Holy Spirit, in our lives so that everything we do
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
May it begin with your inspiration and be carried out by your saving and loving help to its completion, which gives you glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So there's a couple of questions that come up in 1 Samuel chapter six, where we're talking about some tumors in mice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And all of a sudden, I think people can say, wait, what happened again? So remember that when the Philistines had taken the Ark of the Covenant, that they had some health issues, we'll say. One of those health issues was that they had boils, they had tumors, they had some issues going on with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And so here are the people, and the Philistines decided, well, what are you going to do with the ark? We're going to put it on a cart, get some cows that have never had a harness on them, never had a yoke on them. It So good. This is actually the Philistines have kind of a good sense here where here is a cart that hasn't been used. Here's cows that haven't been used.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
There's something consecrated about those kinds of things. And even though they're pagans, even though they don't know the true and living God, they still had a good sense that if we're going to send the ark of the God of Israel back to Israel, then we should be very careful with how we do that. Now, this is going to play in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
You're going to see how the Israelites at one point did not do this in weeks to come, but the Philistines did. But they also had these two golden tumors and golden mice. Well, they had the golden tumors as representative of the tumors that they had experienced, right? As the skin issues that they had experienced. We didn't hear anything about the mice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
but it makes sense that if they might have associated their physical illness with something like plague as there might have been rats that were around to the revised standard version translate this as mice other bibles might translate it as rats and so make the golden rats or golden mice and the golden tumors And what an interesting thing that they say, we're gonna put this on a cart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And if the cows go to basically back to Israel, then we'll know this is from the Lord, the God of Israel. And if they don't, then this is just coincidence. And I think there's something wise about that. They're testing it out. In fact, in the Catholic church, When someone claims that there's a miracle, the church doesn't just say, well, hooray, there's a miracle. The church investigates it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
They said, If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering, Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you. And they said, What is the guilt offering that we shall return to him?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
In fact, the default position of the church is that when someone claims a miracle, that if there's a healing or if there's something else that seems extraordinary, the default position of the church is we assume a natural cause for this thing. So if there's healing, we assume a natural healing, a natural cause for this healing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
It has to be demonstrated that this is not, or it's beyond reasonable doubt that this could be claimed to be a reasonable healing, or sorry, be a natural healing, and can be demonstrated to be a supernatural healing. And that's what the Philistines are doing as well. They are saying that this could be the Lord God of Israel, or it could be just a coincidence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
And that kind of test is, I don't know, pretty wise on their part. When we get back to our story, when it comes to Samuel, there's two things that are happening, obviously, in these chapters. One is revealed that Samuel is a good judge. Samuel is a good prophet. He comes from a family of priests. His father lived in Ephraim, Elkanah, his father. But the assumption is that he also was a priest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
He was of the tribe of Levi. Now, it turns out that Samuel's sons were kind of like Eli's sons, that his sons were not good. His sons, in fact, are described as wicked. And it just goes to show how important it is, how just there is, you know, we say in Christianity that God doesn't have grandchildren. He only has children, right? God is not our grandfather.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
We know that suffering is a result of sin. But not all suffering is a result of sin. Some suffering is a result of the fact that we live in a broken world. We're going to find out later on. Why did God allow Satan to stretch forth his hand and strike Job down? Because that seems so unfair. It seems so cruel. In fact, not just unfair, it seems almost reckless and mean of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Where here's the one person who is faithful to God. And so God says, yeah, Satan, you can have him. What is going on there? We're going to unpack that as we journey forth the next couple of days. Know this though, know this, that the Lord is not fair. The Lord loves Job and the Lord loves you. This is so key as we walk through the book of Job.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
And as we walk through this entire Bible, this is God's love letter to you, which is why we're proclaiming it to you in your ears. This is why we want you to know that you can please join us every single day as we continue to travel throughout the course of this year with this Bible in your podcast. Man, what a gift. What a gift to know that God loves you and God is speaking to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Even when we don't know what he's talking about, even in the midst of brokenness and real suffering and confusion, we know that he wants us to know him. That's how much he loves us. Once again, if you're interested in downloading your own Bible in a Year reading plan, please visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can subscribe in your podcast app and get the updates daily.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
And you can also sign up for our email list by texting the word Catholic Bible, all one word, Catholic Bible, to the number 33777. Again, Catholic Bible to the number 33777. Man, what a gift. My name is Father Mike. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
And all these joined forces in the valley of Sedim, that is, the Salt Sea. Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and subdued the Rephaim in Ashteroth-Karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Sheva-Kiriathaim, and the Horites in the Mount Seir as far as El-Paran on the border of the wilderness."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Then they turned back and came to Enmishbat, that is, Kadesh, and subdued all the country of the Amalekites and also the Amorites who dwelt in Hazazon Tamar. Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Adma, the king of Zeboim, and the king of Betla, that is, Zoar, went out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
And they joined battle in the valley of Siddim with Chedorlaomer, king of Alam, titled king of Goim, Amraphal, king of Shinar, and Ariok, king of Elessar, four kings against five. Now the valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the mountain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
So the enemy took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their provisions and went their way. They also took Lot, the son of Abram's brother, who dwelt in Sodom and his goods, and departed. Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eshol and of Aner. These were allies of Abram.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
When Abram heard that his kinsmen had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and routed them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Then he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his kinsmen Lot with his goods, and the women, and the people. After this, he returned from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him. The king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shavah, that is, the king's valley, and Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram by God most high, maker of heaven and earth. And blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. And the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
This is day seven, and we are reading from Genesis chapter 14 and chapter 15. We're continuing the story of Abram and Sarai and their call. We're also taking those next steps in the story of the life of the righteous man, suffering man, Job, by reading Job chapter three and chapter four. We're also diving more deeply into the wisdom literature
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have sworn to the Lord God most high, maker of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal thong or anything that is yours, lest you should say I have made Abram rich. I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eshol, and Mamre take their share.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not, Abram. I am your shield. Your reward will be very great. But Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me? For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus. And Abram said, Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a slave born in my house will be my heir.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, This man shall not be your heir. Your own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said, Look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them. Then he said to him, So shall your descendants be. And he believed the Lord, and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. And he said to him,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess. But he said, O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? He said to him, Bring me a heifer three years old, a she goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
And he brought him all these, cut them in two, and laid each half over against the other, but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and behold, a dread and great darkness fell upon him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Then the Lord said to Abram, Know of a surety that your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be slaves there, and they will be oppressed for four hundred years, but I will bring judgment on the nation which they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
You shall be buried in a good old age, and they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. And when the sun had gone down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadamites, and the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Job chapter 3 and chapter 4.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said, let the day perish wherein I was born. And the night which said a man child is conceived, let that day be darkness. May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
by doing a number of verses in proverbs chapter 1 verses 8 through 19. quick reminder the bible translation that i'm using is the revised standard version catholic edition it's the great adventure bible from ascension and also you can track us and track how far you're coming and track where you're headed by downloading your bible in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com bible in a year
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
let gloom and deep darkness claim it let clouds dwell upon it let the blackness of the day terrify it that night let thick darkness seize it let it not rejoice among the days of the year let it not come into the number of the months yes let that night be barren Let no joyful cry be heard in it. Let those curse it who curse the day, who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Let the stars of its dawn be dark. Let it hope for light but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning. Because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes. Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me or why the breasts that I should suck? For then I should have laid down and been quiet. I should have slept.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Then I should have been at rest with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. Or why was I not as a hidden untimely birth, as infants that never see the light? There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
There the prisoners are at ease together, they hear not the voice of the taskmaster. The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master. Why is light given to him who is in misery and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find a grave?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? For my sighing comes as my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water. For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet. I have no rest, but trouble comes. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Yet who can keep from speaking? Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. But now it has come to you, and you are impatient. It touches you, and you are dismayed. Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Think now, who that was innocent ever perished, or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed. The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered. Now, a word was brought to me stealthily. My ear received the whisper of it. Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face. The hair of my flesh stood up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. There was silence. Then I heard a voice. Can mortal man be righteous before God? Can a man be pure before his maker? Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error. How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it. If their tent cord is plucked up within them, do they not die?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
You can subscribe in the podcast app and that way you don't have to even think about it. It just pops up every morning for you so you can listen to the word of God proclaimed. You can also sign up for our email list and get notifications and all those kinds of things by texting Catholic Bible to 33777. Just join that by texting the word Catholic Bible to 33777.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
And that without wisdom?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Reading from the book of Proverbs, chapter 1, verses 8 through 19. Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and reject not your mother's teaching. For they are a fair garland for your head and pendants for your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
if they say come with us let us lie in wait for blood let us wantonly ambush the innocent like sheol let us swallow them alive and whole like those who go down to the pit we shall find all precious goods we shall fill our houses with spoil throw in your lot among us we will all have one purse My son, do not walk in the way with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Hold back your foot from their paths, for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird. But these men lie in wait for their own blood. They set an ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of all who get gained by violence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
It takes away the life of its possessors. Father in heaven, thank you so much for bringing us here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Thank you for speaking your word to us. Thank you for revealing your heart to us as you do whenever we pick up your word, whenever we hear your word proclaimed, whenever we read your word. Lord, you enlighten our minds and enlighten our eyes. You give fire to our hearts and you show us how to love. Help us to trust you this day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Okay, wow. So there's so much. You guys, gosh, there is so much happening. Not only do we have this incredible couple stories of Abram. We'll be here. We heard Abram joined the kings, the battle of the kings, and he ultimately ended up on a rescue mission with his men to save his nephew Lot. And then what happens?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
There is this priest king, the king of Salem, Melchizedek, who blesses him and and offers up bread and wine on a high place. It's just, it's remarkable. You know that later on, Jesus will be described as having a priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek. Because why? Well, there's many, many reasons. But one of the reasons is because Jesus doesn't pass away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
It's not an inherited priesthood. He is the great high priest of all time. And so he's like Melchizedek, who has neither a beginning nor end, as scripture later on says. But also you have this incredible gift of the priest king who offers up a sacrifice of bread and wine. And as we know, later on, Jesus will offer up the sacrifice of bread and wine, which is truly his body and his blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
And at every mass, priests who are united to the great high priest Jesus offer up the sacrifice of his body and blood, bread and wine. It is remarkable. But we're also getting closer and closer to Abram's name changing to become Abraham. Not yet, but we're getting close. And we also saw this incredible covenant that the Lord God made with Abram. What does he do?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Let's keep going and let's get started. Genesis chapter 14 and chapter 15. In the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Ariok, king of Elessar, Jedorlamer, king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goim, these kings made war with Bera, king of Sodom, Bersha, king of Gomorrah, Sheneb, king of Adma, Shemeber, king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela, that is, Zoar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
He gets three-year-old ram, three-year-old heifer, three-year-old she-goat, turtle dove, young pigeon, and he splits the animals, not the birds, but splits the animals in two, makes a pathway between the two of them. Now, this is how you would forge a covenant in the ancient world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
You would make a path between the halves of these animals and you would walk through the parts, basically walk through the blood and the guts that was in there, essentially saying, if I am false to this covenant, if I'm false to what I'm about to do, then let me be as these animals. And here is Abram and he's waiting there and God himself passes through that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
And this is, which is remarkable, just blows the mind to realize that here is God who placing himself on the line, saying to Abram, all the things I promised you, I promised you a family. I've promised you land. I promised that the world will be blessed through you. that I will be faithful to this covenant and the Lord God passes through those pieces.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
You might have noticed that Abram did not pass through the pieces. And I've heard people talk about this and describe that this is the mercy of God as he knows that human beings, Genesis chapter one through chapter 11 are all about how broken we are, right? It's all about the fall and all about how it was just, we continually, we continually stumble.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
And so here is Genesis 12 and following that we're reading now. And what we have is God himself passing through the pieces, essentially saying, I know you're going to be false to this covenant. And so even your failure, I take on me. And that's what he does in the person of Jesus. The Lord God himself takes our wounds, takes our failings, takes our sins on himself, which is just amazing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
Praise the Lord God himself for this. And lastly, we have the book of Job. And what we're going to find is we have Job who he's kind of gotten to his end, right? And so yesterday he was saying, I'm going to still worship God. I'm still going to trust God. And today he opened up his heart and he said, actually, I wish I was never born.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
And he goes on this whole long speech about how it would have been better for him if he had died yesterday. even in his mother's womb. And then his friend, he has the three friends, you know, remember they sat with him for seven days and seven nights, and now they're going to speak.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 7: God's Covenant with Abram (2025)
And what we heard that first friend say, Eliphaz, what he was describing was a worldview that says that no, all suffering is a result of sin. So Job, listen, God is never unfaithful. God is never unjust, which is true. But then he makes the point, and he's going to say this tomorrow as well, that all suffering is a result of sin. Now, we know that that's not true.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
And so also that's what we're doing, right? We're receiving a vision for the future as well as how to live right now. Okay, so keep trucking along in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. We just give God praise and please know that I'm praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
And from Betah and Berothai, cities of Hadadezer, King David took very much bronze. When Toy, king of Hamath, heard that David had defeated the whole army of Hadadezer, Toy sent his son Joram to King David to greet him and to congratulate him because he had fought against Hadadezer and defeated him. For Hadadezer had often been at war with Toy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 126. We are reading from 2 Samuel chapter 8, as well as 1 Chronicles chapters 10 and 11. We're also praying Psalm 60. As always, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
And Joram brought with him articles of silver, of gold, and of bronze. These also King David dedicated to the Lord, together with the silver and gold which he dedicated from all the nations he subdued, from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, Amalek, and from the spoil of Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah. And David won a name for himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
When he returned, he slew 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt, and he put garrisons in Edom. Throughout all Edom he put garrisons, and all the Edomites became David's servants. And the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went. David's Officers So David reigned over all Israel, and David administered justice and equity to all his people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
And Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder. and Zedok the son of Ahitub, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar were priests, and Sariah was secretary, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherithites and the Pelethites, and David's sons were priests. The first book of Chronicles, chapter 10, the death of Saul and his sons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
Now the Philistines fought against Israel and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons and the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Melchishua, the sons of Saul. The battle pressed hard upon Saul, and the archers found him, and he was wounded by the archers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and make sport of me. But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died. Thus Saul died. He and his three sons and all his house died together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
And when all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that the army had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook their cities and fled. And the Philistines came and dwelt in them. The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
And they stripped him and took his head and his armor and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to their idols and to the people. And they put his armor in the temple of their gods and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
But when all Jabesh Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men rose and took away the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons and brought them to Jabesh. And they buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh and fasted seven days. So Saul died for his unfaithfulness. He was unfaithful to the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance, and did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore the Lord slew him, and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse. Chapter 11. David anointed king of all Israel. Then all Israel gathered together to David at Hebron and said, Behold, we are your bone and flesh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
In times past, even when Saul was king, it was you that led out and brought in Israel. And the Lord your God said to you, You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over my people Israel. So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
And I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And you can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking subscribe, and then it's done. As I said, it's day 126. We're reading 2 Samuel chapter 8, 1 Chronicles chapters 10 and 11, and we are praying Psalm 60.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
And they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of the Lord by Samuel. David's army captures Jerusalem. And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, that is Jebus, where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of that land. The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, you will not come in here. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
David said, whoever shall strike the Jebusites first shall be chief and commander. And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, went up first, so he became chief. And David dwelt in the stronghold, therefore it was called the city of David. And he built the city round about from the millow in complete circuit. And Joab repaired the rest of the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
And David became greater and greater, for the Lord of hosts was with him. David's mighty men and their exploits. Now, these are the chiefs of David's mighty men. who gave him strong support in his kingdom together with all Israel to make him king according to the word of the Lord concerning Israel. This is an account of David's mighty men. Deshobion, a Hachmanite, was chief of the three.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
He wielded his spear against 300 whom he slew at one time. And next to him among the three mighty men was Eleazar, the son of Dodo, the Ahohite. He was with David at Pasdamim when the Philistines were gathered there for battle. There was a plot of ground full of barley and the men fled from the Philistines.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
But he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and slew the Philistines and the Lord saved them by a great victory. Three of the 30 chief men went down to the rock to David at the cave of Adulam when the army of Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim. David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then at Bethlehem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
And David said longingly, Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, which was by the gate, and took and brought it to David. But David would not drink of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
He poured it out to the Lord and said, Far be it from me before my God that I should do this. Shall I drink the lifeblood of these men? For at the risk of their lives they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
Now Abishai, the brother of Joab, was chief of the thirty, and he wielded his spear against three hundred men and slew them and won a name beside the three. He was most renowned of the thirty and became their commander, but he did not attain to the three. And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was a valiant man of Kabzil, a doer of great deeds. He struck two aerials of Moab.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
He also went down and slew a lion in a pit on a day when the snow had fallen. And he slew an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits tall. The Egyptian had in his hand a spear like a weaver's beam. But Benaiah went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and slew him with his own spear.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
These things did Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and won a name beside the three mighty men. He was renowned among the 30, but he did not attain to the three. And David set him over his bodyguard. the mighty men of the armies were asahel the brother of joab elchanan the son of dodo of bethlehem shamath of harod helez the pelonite ira the son of ikesh of tekoa abiezar of anathoth
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
The book of 2 Samuel chapter 8, David's wars. After this, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. And David took Mithigamah out of the hand of the Philistines. And he defeated Moab and measured them with a line, making them lie down on the ground. Two lines he measured to be put to death and one full line to be spared. And the Moabites became servants to David and brought tribute.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
Sivakai the Hushethite, Eli the Ahuchite, Mahari of Netophah, Haled the son of Baana of Netophah, Ithai the son of Rebai of Gibeah of the Benjaminites, Benaiah of Pirathon, Hurai of the brooks of Gaash, Abiel the Arbethite, Azmaveth, of Bahurum. Eliabah, of Shaalbaon. Hashem, the Gizanite. Jonathan, son of Shagi, the Haarite. Achiam, the son of Sakhar, the Hararite. Eliphal, the son of Ur.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
Hefer, the Mecharithite. Ahijah, the Pelonite. Hezro, of Carmel. Na'arai, the son of Ezbai. Joel, the brother of Nathan. Mibhar, the son of Hagri. Zelek, the Ammonite. Naharai of Beoroth, the armor-bearer of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, Ira the Ithrite, Gerib the Ithrite, Uriah the Hittite, Zebad the son of Alaiah, Adinah the son of Shezah the Reubenite,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
a leader of the Reubenites, and thirty with him, Hanan, the son of Maakah, and Josaphat, the Mithnite, Uzziah, the Ashtorethite, Shammah, and Jael, the sons of Hotham, the Arorite, Jediahel, the son of Shimri, and Johah, his brother, the Tizite, Eliel, the Mahavite, and Jerobai, and Josheviah, the sons of Elnaam, and Ithma, the Moabite, Eliel and Obed, and Jaasiel, the Amazobite,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
The book of Psalms chapter 60, prayer for national victory after defeat to the choir master, according to the Shushan Eduth, a victim of David for instruction when he strove with Aram Nacharim and with the Aram Zobah and when Joab on his return killed 12,000 of Edom in the Valley of Salt. O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses. You have been angry. O restore us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
You have made the land to quake. You have torn it open. Repair its breaches, for it totters. You have made your people suffer hard things. You have given us wine to drink that made us real. You have set up a banner for those who fear you to rally to it from the bow that your beloved may be delivered. Give victory by your right hand and answer us. God has spoken in his sanctuary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
With exaltation, I will divide up Shechem and portion out the valley of Sukkoth. Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim is my helmet. Judah is my scepter. Moab is my washbasin. Upon Edom, I cast my shoe. Over Philistia, I shout in triumph. Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go forth, O God, with our armies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
O grant us help against the foe, for vain is the help of man. With God we shall do valiantly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and we do know that with you, we can do valiantly. Without you, we can do nothing. If we remain in you, then all things are possible. If we remain in you, then we can bear fruit and fruit that will last.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
And yet if we remove ourselves from you, if we remove ourselves from your presence and from your power, from your help, from your holiness, then there is nothing that we can do. We can bear no fruit and we can make no difference in our lives. So we need you, God, not only for existence, but also for perseverance. We need you not only for fruitfulness, but also for faithfulness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
So please, Lord God, help us to be faithful and fruitful. Help us to persevere and to be yours forever. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen awesome so this is so great this is such a gift okay so second samuel chapter eight what do we have we have david's conquering we have this picture remember under king saul there was this loose confederation of these twelve tribes of israel now david is bringing them together and united he's establishing a kingdom and he's establishing a kingdom by basically defeating all the nations around them he's defeating the peoples around them and that's one of the ways
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
david also defeated hadadezer the son of rehob the king of zobah as he went to restore his power at the river euphrates and david took from him a thousand and seven hundred horsemen and twenty thousand foot soldiers and david hamstrung all the chariot horses but left enough for a hundred chariots
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
that David is establishing not only himself as a king, but Israel as a kingdom. And that is massively important. Now, it's also really unique to notice that I mentioned yesterday that while 2 Samuel and, well, you know, Samuel, the books of Samuel and the books of Kings are kind of written, I don't want to say contemporaneously, but a lot more, a lot closer to the actual events.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
Whereas Chronicles is written after the fact. It's written far into the future after the Babylonian exile, most likely by Ezra the scribe. And so what we hear today in chapter 10 and 11 in Chronicles is, is the story we heard. We heard the death of King Saul and the defeat of his sons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
We also, in chapter 11, see the David being anointed king of Israel, which is the story we heard at the beginning of 2 Samuel. So a little bit of recapitulation. Now, it's not the same story. Keep this in mind. You might think, gosh, this is just repeating the same thing we've already heard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
It might be repeating some of the same events, but here I invite you to pay close attention to the reason and motivation why they are repeating, why Ezra the scribe would be writing in 1 and 2 Chronicles all these tales. It's because he is proposing to the people A vision for a future.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
He's writing of this past so they can have a clear sense of, okay, God is present with us now and he can build up, he can establish, he's leading us to the place where we are going to have a king, where we are going to have temple worship. And so that's what he's emphasizing. And he's casting a vision for these people. He is truly, Ezra is a vision caster.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
And he's casting this vision by reminding the people their pedigree, by reminding them where they came from, and also reminding them that here's David who didn't do this on his own, but he had around him David's mighty men and their exploits, which is just remarkable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
I love, later on, we're going to hear more about those people like Eleazar, the son of Dodo, and the Hacamanites, and the other three. It's the mighty three, the three big ones. Oh, man, they're awesome. But I want to highlight one name. of the 30, one of the mighty men of the armies. His name is Uriah the Hittite. He is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
He is here, and we're going to find out more about Uriah, unfortunately, in the days to come. Because Uriah the Hittite was married to a woman named Bathsheba. In 1 Chronicles, Uriah the Hittite is named as one of the mighty men of King David. And we're going to find out in 2 Samuel that Uriah the Hittite was the husband of the woman that David had committed adultery with.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David slew 22,000 men of the Syrians. Then David put garrisons in Aram of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David and brought tribute. And the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went. And David took the shields of gold which were carried by the servants of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
And that he ultimately, David ultimately arranged Uriah the Hittite, one of his mighty men, He arranged the death of Uriah the Hittite. And so we see these lines crossing. We see these paths as they unfold in our story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 126: David's Victories (2025)
And as we follow the story, keeping this in mind is that everything that's happening in the books called the Bible, all that's happening is, again, not just arbitrary and it's not just kind of incidental, but it is for our direction, for our education and for vision. Ezra's writing chronicles to give the people of God a vision for the future and how to live right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
Before we get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thank you to all those who have supported the Catechism in a Year or the Bible in a Year podcast. We hear stories every day about how those shows have transformed people's lives, and because of your prayers and financial gifts, you are a significant part of that. You might ask a question, though.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
We take good things and make them into ultimate things. We take good things and make them into God's chief rivals for our hearts. And the question we get to ask is, what is God's chief rival for my heart? Probably, and your heart, probably it's not a image carved in stone or an image carved out of wood or image carved out of clay, like it's talked about in the wisdom of Solomon today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
but it is most likely something. How do you identify it? You identify it by asking, who or what is God's chief rival for my heart? Who or what is God's chief rival for my time? Because we realize that our relationship with God is the kind of relationship that does not tolerate rivals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
As we know this, we know that marriages are the kind of relationship that don't tolerate rivals, that is husband and wife are married to each other to have someone of interest, to have someone on the side, to have another person competing for one's heart, that does not amount to a healthy relationship. That does not amount to a healthy marriage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
And same thing is true when it comes to our relationship with the Lord, that this relationship with God himself does not tolerate any rival. We can have other people in our lives. Of course, we can have other things that we do in our lives, but nothing that would contest, nothing that would be fighting for, nothing that would be considered to be a rival for God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
So the question is this, how do you identify that? And I would say, the question you can ask is, is there anything that if it came down to this thing or God, this thing might actually have a shot? This thing might win a couple times out of 10. if that's the case, that thing might be a rival for God, for your heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
And so, gosh, you know, so in this neck of the world, in this neck of the country, we have, you know, sports is kind of a big God. When I work with a lot of junior high, high school students, college students, Sports becomes that chief rival. So here's a family. We have a tournament this weekend, so we're not able to make it to mass. Okay, you just identified your idol.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
You just identified God's chief rival for your family's eternal soul. I mean, think about that. This is remarkable to me because here, let's take hockey, for example, because some incredible hockey players are from this region. I mean, they've grown up around here. They became incredible hockey players here, and they've gone on to do incredible things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
The number of them who do that, though, are so minuscule. In fact, they're so minuscule that you can never bank on that. You can never ever bank on the idea that if we go to all these tournaments and go to all these practices, all these hockey camps, We're going to have an all-star here who's going to reshape the face of hockey in the world. That doesn't happen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
And those people that it does happen for, you ask the question, okay, is it worth it? So as an example, we had a young man here and he came into the Catholic church while he was a student at the university I work at. And this is an incredible thing. He played on our hockey team here. And he scored the winning goal in double overtime for the national championship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
So the NCAA Division I Frozen Four. He scores the winning goal in double overtime for the national championship. And he goes on to play pro after this and everything. I remember, you know, the place was going nuts. And the next day, I remember calling him and saying, hey, Kyle, congratulations. This is incredible what you did. And he said, you know, he's a humble guy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
In the 149th year, word came to Judas and his men that Antiochus Jupiter was coming with a great army against Judea and with him Lysaeus, his guardian, who had charge of the government. Each of them had a Greek force of 110,000 infantry, 5,300 cavalry, 22 elephants, and 300 chariots armed with scythes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
And he said, well, yeah, that is incredible. That was really cool that I was able to do that. It was really cool that it got to be me. Really cool that, you know, the whole thing. And then he went on to say, he said, but nothing is going to compare with the first time I get to receive Jesus in the Eucharist when I become Catholic.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
And I was like, dude, you need to tell that to every single, you know, ice mite, every mite, every, all the people playing all these leagues and spending all this money and skipping mass all these Sundays.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
just to go to hockey and now a bunch of years later he'll say the same thing he'll say yeah that goal it was a great moment he says but it's not even in my top 10. he says my top one is that first time i got to receive jesus in the eucharist at mass second is when i got to marry my wife the third is my you know first child then my second child you go down the line he says that that that goal is no longer even in the top 10. in fact i don't know if he has any top 10 moments that are related to hockey and yet
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
here we are and we are willing to let, I'm not picking on hockey here. I'm just using that as an example. We're willing to let our sport, our job, our occupation, our hobbies become God's chief rivals in our lives for our hearts. And that seems to me like the book of wisdom would say, it seems to me to be foolish. So that's the little, the sermon for today. That's all I got to say though.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
But I want to let you know that I'm praying for you and I hope that you're praying for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
Menelaus also joined them and with utter hypocrisy urged Antiochus on, not for the sake of his country's welfare, but because he thought that he would be established in office.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
But the king of kings aroused the anger of Antiochus against the scoundrel, and when Lysaeus informed him that this man was to blame for all the trouble, he ordered them to take him to Berea and to put him to death by the method which is the custom in that place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
For there is a tower in that place, fifty cubits high, full of ashes, and it has a rim running around it which on all sides inclines precipitously into the ashes. There they all push to destruction any man guilty of sacrilege or notorious for other crimes. By such a fate it came about that Menelaus the lawbreaker died without even burial in the earth. And this was eminently just.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
Because he had committed many sins against the altar whose fire and ashes were holy, he met his death in ashes. A Battle Near Modine The king, with barbarous arrogance, was coming to show the Jews things far worse than those that had been done in his father's time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
But when Judas heard of this, he ordered the people to call upon the Lord day and night, now if ever, to help those who were on the point of being deprived of the law and their country and the holy temple. and not to let the people who had just begun to revive fall into the hands of the blasphemous Gentiles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
When they had all joined in the same petition and had begged the merciful Lord with weeping and fasting and lying prostrate for three days without ceasing, Judas exhorted them and ordered them to stand ready. After consulting privately with the elders, he determined to march out and decide the matter by the help of God before the king's army could enter Judea and get possession of the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
So, committing the decision to the creator of the world and exhorting his men to fight nobly to the death for the laws, temple, city, country, and commonwealth, He pitched his camp near Modine. He gave his men the watchword, God's victory, and with a picked force of the bravest young men, he attacked the king's pavilion at night and slew as many as 2,000 men in the camp.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
He stabbed the leading elephant and its rider. In the end, they filled the camp with terror and confusion and withdrew in triumph. This happened just as day was dawning, because the Lord's help protected him. Antiochus makes a treaty with the Jews. The king, having had a taste of the daring of the Jews, tried strategy in attacking their positions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
He advanced against Bet-Zur, a strong fortress of the Jews, was turned back, attacked again, and was defeated. Judas sent into the garrison whatever was necessary. But Roticus, a man from the ranks of the Jews, gave secret information to the enemy. He was sought for, caught, and put in prison.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
the king negotiated a second time with the people in Bet-Zur, gave pledges, received theirs, withdrew, attacked Judas and his men, was defeated. He got word that Philip, who had been left in charge of the government, had revolted in Antioch.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
He was dismayed, called in the Jews, yielded and swore to observe all their rights, settled with them and offered sacrifice, honored the sanctuary and showed generosity to the holy place. He received Maccabeus, left Hegemonides as governor from Ptolemaeus to Gerar, and went to Ptolemaeus. The people of Ptolemaeus were indignant over the treaty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
In fact, they were so angry that they wanted to annul its terms. Lysaeus took the public platform, made the best possible defense, convinced them, appeased them, gained their goodwill, and set out for Antioch.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
True worship of God contrasted to idols. But you, our God, are kind and true, patient, and ruling all things in mercy. For even if we sin, we are yours, knowing your power. But we will not sin, because we know that we are considered yours. For to know you is complete righteousness, and to know your power is the root of immortality.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
For neither has the evil intent of human art misled us, nor the fruitless toil of painters, a figure stained with various colors, whose appearance arouses yearning and fools. so that they desire the lifeless form of a dead image. Lover of evil things and fit for such objects of hope are those who either make or desire or worship them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
For when a potter needs the soft earth and laboriously molds each vessel for our service, he fashions out of the same clay both the vessels that serve clean uses and those for contrary uses, making all in like manner. But which shall be the use of each of these, the worker in clay decides. With misbent toil, he forms a futile god from the same clay.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
This man, who was made of earth a short time before and after a little while, goes to the earth from which he was taken when he is required to return the soul that was lent him. But he is not concerned that he is destined to die or that his life is brief, but he competes with workers in gold and silver and imitates workers in copper, and he counts it his glory that he molds counterfeit gods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
His heart is ashes, his hope is cheaper than dirt, and his life is of less worth than clay because he failed to know the one who formed him and inspired him with an active soul and breathed into him a living spirit. But he considered our existence an idle game, and life a festival held for profit. For he says one must get money however he can, even by base means.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
For this man, more than all others, knows that he sins when he makes from earthy matter fragile vessels and graven images. But most foolish and more miserable than an infant are all the enemies who oppressed your people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
For they thought that all their hidden idols were gods, though these have neither the use of their eyes to see with, nor nostrils with which to draw breath, nor ears with which to hear, nor fingers to feel with, and their feet are of no use for walking. For a man made them, and one whose spirit is borrowed formed them. For no man can form a God which is like himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
He is mortal, and what he makes with lawless hands is dead. For he is better than the objects he worships, since he has life, but they never have. The enemies of your people worship even the most hateful of animals, which are worse than all others when judged by their lack of intelligence. And even as animals, they are not so beautiful in appearance that one would desire them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
but they have escaped both the praise of God and his blessing. Therefore, those men were deservedly punished through such creatures and were tormented by a multitude of animals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
Instead of this punishment, you showed kindness to your people, and you prepared quails to eat, a delicacy to satisfy the desire of appetite, in order that those men, when they desired food, might lose the least remnant of appetite because of the odious creatures sent to them, while your people, after suffering want a short time, might partake of delicacies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
For it was necessary that upon those oppressors inexorable want should come, while to these it was merely shown how their enemies were being tormented. For when the terrible rage of wild beasts came upon your people and they were being destroyed by the bites of writhing serpents, your wrath did not continue to the end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
They were troubled for a little while as a warning and received a token of deliverance to remind them of your law's command. For he who turned toward it was saved, not by what he saw, but by you, the savior of all. And by this also you convinced our enemies that it is you who deliver from every evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
for they were killed by the bites of locusts and flies and no healing was found for them, because they deserved to be punished by such things. But your sons were not conquered even by the teeth of venomous serpents, for your mercy came to their help and healed them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
to remind them of your oracles they were bitten, and then were quickly delivered, lest they should fall into deep forgetfulness and become unresponsive to your kindness. For neither herb nor poultice cured them. But it was your word, O Lord, which heals all men. For you have power over life and death. You lead men down to the gates of Hades and back again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 310. You might know this, but there are three days left in the Old Testament. not counting the book of Proverbs, which is pretty phenomenal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
A man in his wickedness kills another, but he cannot bring back the departed spirit, nor set free the imprisoned soul. To escape from your hand is impossible. For the ungodly, refusing to know you, were scourged by the strength of your arm, pursued by unusual rains and hail and relentless storms, and utterly consumed by fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
For, most incredible of all, in the water, which quenches all things, the fire had still greater effect, for the universe defends the righteous. At one time the flame was restrained, so that it might not consume the creatures sent against the ungodly, but that seeing this, they might know that they were being pursued by the judgment of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
And at another time, even in the midst of water, it burned more intensely than fire to destroy the crops of the unrighteous land. Instead of these things, you gave your people the food of angels. And without their toil, you supplied them from heaven with bread ready to eat, providing every pleasure and suited to every taste.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
for your sustenance manifested your sweetness toward your children, and the bread, ministering to the desire of the one who took it, was changed to suit everyone's liking. Snow and ice withstood fire without melting, so that they might know that the crops of their enemies were being destroyed by the fire that blazed in the hail and flashed in the showers of rain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
Whereas the fire, in order that the righteous might be fed, even forgot its native power. For creation, serving you who have made it, exerts itself to punish the unrighteous, and in kindness relaxes on behalf of those who trust in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
Therefore, at that time also, changed into all forms, it served your all-nourishing bounty according to the desire of those who had need, so that your sons, whom you loved, O Lord, are might learn that it is not the production of crops that feeds man, but that your word preserves those who trust in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
For what was not destroyed by fire was melted when simply warmed by a fleeting ray of the sun, to make it known that one must rise before the sun to give you thanks and must praise to you at the dawning of the light. For the hope of an ungrateful man will melt like wintry frost and flow away like waste water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone. If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you be sated with it and vomit it. Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house, lest he become weary of you and hate you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
We have 2 Maccabees chapter 13, the book of Wisdom chapter 15 and 16, as well as Proverbs chapter 25 verses 15 through 17. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
Thank you for this day. Thank you for constantly bringing us back again and again, that you might remind us that you not only love us, not only that you are interested in us, but in the most mysterious way, you have a destiny for us. You have a destination you want us to reach, that you have... In some ways, we can maybe say plan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
That plan, that hope, that desire, that will that you have for us is that we live forever with you, that we live this life with you and that we live forever with you. Help us to say yes to your will today. Help us to say yes to this destiny for eternity. And we make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
You know, sometimes we have the book of Proverbs and it's just kind of one of those Proverbs you have to recover or like, what's the word? Reread. And we had three today, or kind of three that I think were really remarkable and worth commenting on. Here we go. The first is chapter 25, verse 15. With patience, a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
There's that sense of, if you've ever seen the movie Shawshank Redemption, you realize There is this pressure in time, right? Pressure in time is what Andy Dufresne, one of the characters in this movie, that's all he needed to get from a place of slavery or a place of imprisonment, a place of being caught to a place of freedom, pressure in time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
And here's the book of Proverbs saying more or less the same thing. With patience, a ruler might be persuaded and a soft tongue will break a bone. There's that sense of being able to say there is such a thing as pressure over time that can accomplish great things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
And that one of the things we realize is here we are on day 310 and this is pressure over time that, you know, day one might not have been blow your socks off kind of day or even 90 days journeying through the profits might not have been, you know, inspiring every single moment, but that pressure over time and being patient.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
And allowing God's word to bring his will to fulfillment in your life is remarkable, right? And so then the next one is, if you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you be stated with it and vomit it. And I think that makes sense. My mom and dad would always say that my eyes were too big for my stomach.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
We would go up to the buffet line and just overload on the good foods that I thought would be incredible to eat. And there's just so much of it. And yet there's something to be said for knowing when to quit, knowing when to stop, right? Knowing when enough is enough.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
And not only obviously when it comes to food, but when it comes to even other good things, there's something about, we heard it in the book of wisdom today, and we've talked about this before. In the book of wisdom, it talks about here are all these good things surrounding us and people make gods out of them. People make idols out of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
and entrust their hearts and their lives, their security, their protection, their future to these idols that are images of human beings or images of God's creation, animals, even things that are not attractive, like things that you wouldn't even desire, basically saying, you might even make gods out of alligators or crocodiles, I guess, whatever's over there in the Far East or Near East, or make gods out of snakes or flies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and then you will be subscribed and audio magically will be updated every single day. It is day 310. We're reading second Maccabees chapter 13, the wisdom of Solomon chapter 15 and 16, as well as Proverbs chapter 25 verses 15 through 17. The second book of the Maccabees chapter 13, then allow us the first put to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
I mean, remember when we went through the gods that the Lord God defeated in Egypt to set his people free, There were gods involving pestilence, gods of cows, gods of, as I said, flies, and you have snakes and serpents. You realize that here we are stooping so low as to being willing to worship something that has no power, no ability. and not even any nobility.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 310: Rivals for the Heart (2024)
And that's a unique thing that not only does it have no ability, it has no nobility. And how often is that the case for us? I know how many times in my life I have treated certain things or even people in the place of God. I put them in the place of God in my life. Remember, we talked about this, that we don't make gods typically out of bad things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Our wives and our little ones will become prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to one another, Let us choose a captain and go back to Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
In fact, they tried to elect captains to bring them back to Egypt. I mean, think about the... the heart of the slave that still beat in the chests of the people of Israel saying, let's just go back to Egypt, that place of slavery and live our days there and take whatever punishment we get for running away there. Let's just leave God and leave this land that he wants to give us. Because why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Because it's going to be hard and it's going to be dangerous and they might even beat us. Because that's what's going to happen, right? Fast forward to Deuteronomy. What we're going to hear is Moses' speech, as I mentioned. And then they're going to have to go into the land. The next book after this is Joshua. And that book of Joshua is going to tell the story of like, hey, now you need to fight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
You need to actually do something. It's not just about being given. Although the promised land was being given to the people of Israel, but they had to cooperate with the Lord's work. today, since they were unwilling to cooperate because they were driven by fear and paralyzed by distrust, this distrust that marked their lives and marked their hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Because of that, the Lord God says that they will not enter the promised land. In fact, The children that you said were going to be destroyed, they are not. Your children are the ones who are going to go into the promised land. They're the ones who are going to go up and they're the ones who are going to have to fight because you were unwilling to fight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
You not only do not get to see the promised land, but also your children that you're very concerned about, they're the ones that are going to have to fight because you were unwilling to fight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
And isn't there this lesson for us to hear in that those of us who are adults, those of us who are in a place of responsibility, those of us who have been given people and be given a task that if we're not willing to do the battle, if we're not willing to do that fighting of getting free from whatever burden has ensnared us, whatever slavery has been in our lives, that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
If we're not willing to use the grace that God has given us to move forward in freedom and to fight against that slavery, to fight against the addictions, to fight against the bad behaviors of previous generations, if we're not willing to do that battle, then who's going to have to battle?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel, and Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes, and said to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, The land which we passed through to spy it out is an exceedingly good land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Well, we might still live in slavery, but our children are the ones who are going to have to do the battle that we were unwilling to fight. And so today, this reminder for every one of us to take up arms against whatever enslaves us so that our children and our children's children don't have to take up arms against what enslaves us. This is so important for every single one of us because.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
If we've been given a position of authority or responsibility, then it's our responsibility in virtue of our authority to fight so that our children don't have to fight the battles that we were supposed to fight. They will have to fight battles on their own, but let them fight the battles that they are meant to fight, not our battles that we were unwilling to fight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
One last note, when it comes to Deuteronomy chapter 12, The Lord God, through Moses, commands that the pagan shrines be destroyed, which makes complete sense. But he also says that prepare yourselves for the fact that there's going to be one place where I'm asking you to worship. There's going to be one location that you have to go to when we offer these high and holy sacrifices.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
And that's going to be a very important thing because it's not kind of this willy-nilly, worship wherever you want, do whatever kind of worship you want. there is going to be a place that is pointed out by the Lord. And that's where the tabernacle is going to be. That's where ultimately the temple is going to be.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
And this is going to be very important, not only for the people of Israel, but for us as well. That there are restrictions when it comes to worship, not just in how we do it, but also in where we do it. We can pray anywhere and the people of Israel can pray anywhere.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
The Levites are going to live in their towns and their villages, but there is a place where the Levites, particularly the sons of Aaron, will exercise their priestly worship faculties, and that's going to be in the place where the Lord God points out Now, if you want to eat any other meat, God says, you can eat it wherever. Just keep in mind, it's got to be a certain kind of meat. Because why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Because in the ancient world, almost all kinds of animals were sacrificed to all kinds of gods. And so God is making it clear, okay, when it comes to certain kinds of animals, you can eat however much you want of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
But when it comes to other kinds of animals, particularly the animals that are offered in the temple, offered in the tabernacle, be careful because if you are close to the tabernacle, if you're close to the temple, you may not just eat whatever kind of meat you would like to. It all is connected to worship, and this is the thing to keep in mind for all of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
This whole teaching in Deuteronomy chapter 12 is not strictly speaking about eating. It is more connected to worship than to anything, and hopefully that makes some sense today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
As we continue to pray, we continue to pray for each other and ask the Lord to shape our minds, shape our hearts, and to shape our worldviews so that we can see the world, him and ourselves, and each other the way that God wants us to. especially as we're drawn closer and closer into battle for freedom and closer and closer into worship in spirit and in truth with the true and living God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the land for they are bred for us. Their protection is removed from them and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. But all the congregation said to stone them with stones.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
We pray for each other. We pray with each other. And we keep on this journey through our own wilderness and into the promised land that the Lord has prepared for us. I'm praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 63, and so we're going to be reading from Numbers chapter 14, Deuteronomy chapter 12, and Psalm 95. We'll be praying Psalm 95.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel. And the Lord said to Moses, How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs which I have wrought among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Moses intercedes for the people. But Moses said to the Lord, Now, if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to give to them. Therefore, he has slain them in the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
And now I beg you, let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of fathers upon children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Pardon the iniquity of this people, I beg you, according to the greatness of your mercy, and according as you have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now. Then the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
But truly, as I live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness. and yet have put me to the proof these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice, shall see the land which I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me faithfully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. Now since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea. God's punishment of the disobedient.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, How long shall this wicked congregation murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the sons of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say to them, As I live, says the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and all of your number, numbered from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, who you said would become a prey,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
As always, the Bible translation that I'm using is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension, which is phenomenal because it has all of the periods divided. It has some notes there that are incredibly helpful. If you want to track down one of those Bibles, you can go to wherever you
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
according to the number of days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year. You shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure. I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked generation that are gathered together against me. In this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing up an evil report against the land, the men who brought up an evil report of the land died by plague before the Lord. But Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
And Moses told these words to all the sons of Israel. And the people mourned greatly. And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, See, we are here. We will go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned. But Moses said, Why now are you transgressing this command of the Lord? For that will not succeed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Do not go up, lest you be struck down before your enemies, for the Lord is not among you. For there the Amalekites and the Canaanites are before you, and you shall fall by the sword because you have turned back from following the Lord. The Lord will not be with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed out of the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them even to Hormah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
The Book of Deuteronomy Chapter 12 Pagan Shrines to be Destroyed Moses continued, These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall be careful to do in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given to you to possess all the days that you live upon the earth. You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess shall
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
serve their gods upon the high mountains and upon the hills and under every green tree you shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their asherim with fire you shall hew down the graven images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place you shall not do so to the lord your god but you shall seek the place which the lord your god will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
awesome bibles are sold also if you would like to download your own bible in a year reading plan you can visit ascensionpress.com slash bible in a year and if you have not yet on day 63 subscribed to this podcast you can go into your app which you are using right now and hit click or punch subscribe and you will be subscribed today as i said we are reading from numbers chapter 14 deuteronomy chapter 12 and we are praying psalm 95
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the offerings that you present, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herd and of your flock.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you. You shall not do according to all that we are doing here this day, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God gives you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God gives you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies round about so that you live in safety, then to the place which the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell there,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
There you shall bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the offering that you present, and all your votive offerings which you vow to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your menservants and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you." Take heed that you do not offer your burnt offerings at every place that you see, but at the place which the Lord will choose in one of your tribes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
There you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you. concerning eating however you may slaughter and eat flesh within any of your towns as much as you desire according to the blessings of the lord your god which he has given you the unclean and the clean may eat of it of the gazelle and as of the deer Only you shall not eat the blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
You shall pour it out upon the earth like water. You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grains or of your wine or of your oil or the firstling of your herd or of your flock or any of your votive offerings which you vow or your freewill offerings or the offering that you present.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
But you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, and the Levite who is within your towns, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake. Take heed that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
When the Lord your God enlarges your territory as he has promised you, and you say, I will eat flesh, because you crave flesh, you may eat as much flesh as you desire. If the place which the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
then you may kill any of your herd or of your flock which the lord has given you as i have commanded you and you may eat within your towns as much as you desire just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten so you may eat of it the unclean and the clean alike may eat of it Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
You shall not eat it. You shall pour it out upon the earth like water. You shall not eat it, that all may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
But the holy things which are due from you and your votive offerings you shall take, and you shall go to the place which the Lord will choose and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Be careful to heed all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God. warning against idolatry.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take heed that you not be ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods, that I may also do likewise?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
You shall not do so to the Lord your God, for every abominable thing which the Lord hates they have done for their gods. for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
The book of Numbers chapter 14, the people rebel. Then all the congregation raised a loud cry and the people wept that night. And all the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, would that we had died in the land of Egypt or would that we had died in this wilderness. Why does the Lord bring us into this land to fall by the sword?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
O come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise, for the Lord is a great God. and a great king above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, the heights of the mountains are his also.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
The sea is his, for he made it, for his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Oh, that today you would listen to his voice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Harden not your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day of Massa in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I was wearied of that generation and said, They are a people who err in heart, and they do not regard my ways. Therefore I swore in my anger that they should not enter my rest."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
We thank you so much for hearing our prayers. We thank you for when we are unfaithful, you remain faithful. And that is what we need. That's you are who we need because, Lord, the depth to which our fears can control us, the depth to which our lack of faith can control us is paralyzing at times. And yet, Lord, when we know who you are, there is no room for fear.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
When we love you, there is no room for fear because that perfect love casts out whatever fear we might experience. Lord, if our day today is marked with fear, We ask that you please place your love in our hearts. If our day today is marked with uncertainty and with insecurity, we ask that you place your courage and your strength in our hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Lord God, above all, we ask that you place us in the palm of your hand and help us to never run away. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
Okay, as another reminder, I know I've said this many, many times, but when we were reading from Numbers, especially Numbers chapter 14, we are reading about the time right after the people of Israel were set free from slavery in Egypt. When we were reading Deuteronomy, now this is the recap, this is after 38 more years, they're about to launch into the promised land to take the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
And so just keep that in mind as we continue to move forward. This Deuteronomy is Moses' last speech, it's his last preaching, teaching to the people of God, and Numbers is telling us the story. And the story that we heard today was after the 12 spies had gone up into the land of Canaan, and 10 of them were so intimidated, they were so shocked, they were so consumed by fear,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
That they came back and said, we could not possibly take the land. Now, their job was to go up into the into the promised land and scout it out in that sense of being able to say, OK, are they strong? Are they weak? What kind of the cities are there like to create a plan? Not to say, can we do this or not? It was to say, where do we go first? It was what kind of talents do we attack?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2025)
What are the people like? What do we need to prepare ourselves for? But instead of saying that this scouting report comes back to prepare them to attack, it drew them to a place of fear where they said we couldn't possibly do this. And in today's chapter, Numbers 14, we hear the people's response. The people said that, why didn't we just die in Egypt?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
In this case, the Lord is fighting for you. You have only to stand still. If there's maybe a word that I want to pick out of today's reading, I underline that in my Great Adventure Bible and write it down in my journal. I, that's, that's the word of the day. Just the Lord fights for you. You have only to keep still. There are some times when we're called to fight as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
Sometimes we're called to run either toward the, toward the fray or away from the fray. And there's some times when the Lord just says, nope, I'm fighting for you. You stand straight. You stand still. You hold your position. We persevere because I'm fighting for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
And that's one of the reasons why we're praying for each other on this journey through the Bible is because there's battles that are happening in every one of our lives. So please, please with me, pray for each other. Let's please pray for me. I'm praying for you. Maybe this is one of those days where we just need to get reminded. Stand still. The Lord is fighting for you right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
And tomorrow is another day. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. This next day. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days. No leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. And you shall tell your son on that day, It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt. And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 35. Oh my gosh, you guys, we're trucking right along. We're going to be reading Exodus chapter 13 and 14 from Leviticus chapter 10 and from Psalm 53.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep this ordinance at its appointed time from year to year." And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and to your fathers, and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the Lord all the first that opens the womb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
All the firstlings of your cattle that are males shall be the Lord's. Every firstling of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. And when in time to come your son asks you, what does this mean?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
You shall say to him, by strength of hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt from the house of bondage. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of cattle. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first opened the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest the people repent when they see war and return to Egypt. But God led the people round by way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
And the sons of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt, equipped for battle. And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had solemnly sworn the sons of Israel, saying, God will visit you, then you must carry my bones with you from here. And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
Then the Lord said to Moses, tell the sons of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pihah Heroth, between Migdal and the sea, in front of Baal Zephan. You shall encamp over against it by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, they are entangled in the land. The wilderness has shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and he will pursue them
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. And they did so. When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people. And they said, what is this we have done that we have let Israel go from serving us? So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
and took six hundred picked chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the sons of Israel as they went forth defiantly. The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea by Pihah Hiroth in front of Baal Ziphon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
When Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them and they were in great fear. And the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord and they said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
Is not this what we said to you in Egypt? Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians. For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. And Moses said to the people, if you're not, stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
I'm always reading from the Revised Standard Version, Catholic edition, and as well as using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension, which is so good, so helpful for us because it has the periods, it has like the extra details.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
The Lord will fight for you and you have only to be still. The Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. Lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the sons of Israel may go forth on dry ground through the sea. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, so that they shall go in after them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
And I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, his chariots and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen. Then the angel of God who went before the host of Israel moved and went behind them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
And the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and darkness. And the night passed without one coming near the other all night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land and the waters were divided.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
And the sons of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen. And in the morning, watch, the Lord in the pillar of fire and of the cloud looked down upon the host of the Egyptians and said,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
And discomfited the host of all the Egyptians, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians. Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and upon their horsemen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
We've got some notes, got some maps, got all good things in there, as well as following along this Bible in a Year reading plan that you can get for free from ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. That's ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. If you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, I am not sure how you do it. How do you continue to come back here 35 days in a row?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
So Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its usual flow when the morning appeared, and the Egyptians fled into it, and the Lord routed the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not so much as one of them remained.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
But the sons of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. And Israel saw the great work which the Lord did against the Egyptians. And the people feared the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unholy fire before the Lord, such as he had not commanded them. And fire came forth from the presence of the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, This is what the Lord has said.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
I will show myself holy among those people who are near me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. And Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uziel, the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, So they drew near, and carried them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had said.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
And Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar, and Ithamar his sons, Do not let the hair of your heads hang loose, and do not rend your clothes, lest you die, and lest wrath come upon all the congregation. But your brethren, the whole house of Israel, may bewail the burning which the Lord has kindled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
and do not go out from the door of the tent of meeting lest you die for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you and they did according to the word of Moses and the Lord spoke to Aaron saying drink no wine nor strong drink you nor your sons with you when you go into the tent of meeting lest you die It shall be a statute forever through your generations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
You are to distinguish between the holy and the common and between the unclean and the clean. And you are to teach the sons of Israel all the statutes with the Lord has spoken to them by Moses. And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and to the sons who were with them, take the cereal offering that remains of the offerings by fire to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
and eat it unleavened beside the altar, for it is most holy. You shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your due and your son's due, from the offerings by fire to the Lord, for so I am commanded. But the breast that is waved and the thigh that is offered you shall eat clean in any clean place, you and your sons and your daughters with you, for they are given as your due and your son's due.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
from the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the sons of Israel. The thigh that is offered and the breast that is waved, they shall bring with the offerings by fire of the fat to wave for a wave offering before the Lord, and it shall be yours and your sons with you as a debt forever as the Lord has commanded.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
Now Moses diligently inquired about the goat of the sin offering, and behold, it was burned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
And he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron, who were left, saying, Why have you not eaten the sin offering in the place of the sanctuary, since it is a thing most holy and has been given to you, that you may bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord? Behold, its blood was not brought in to the inner part of the sanctuary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
If you haven't subscribed already, you impressed me. You impressed me a lot. But without any further delay, let's get started. Exodus chapter 13 and 14. The Lord said to Moses, And Moses said to the people, Remember this day. In which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
You certainly ought to have eaten it in the sanctuary as I commanded." And Aaron said to Moses, Behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, and yet such things as these have befallen me. If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been acceptable in the sight of the Lord?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
Psalm 53 Denunciation of Godlessness To the choirmaster, according to Mahalath, a maskil of David The fool says in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity. There is none that does good. God looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any that are wise, that seek after God. They have all fallen away. They are all alike depraved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
There is none that does good. No, not one. Have those who work evil no understanding? Who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon God? There they are in great terror, in terror such as has not been. For God will scatter the bones of the ungodly. They will be put to shame for God has rejected them. All that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
When God restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice and Israel be glad. Father in heaven, we thank you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your commandments. We thank you for fighting for your people. Once again, you reveal to us in Exodus that you are willing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
Not only see us, you not only know us, you not only know our plea, you know our plight, you hear our pleas and know our plight, and you answer our prayers. And you answer by fighting for us. And we praise you for that. We thank you for that. Lord God, every single day you fight for us. You continue to give us your grace. You continue to make us people whole again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
And you continue to call us closer and closer to your heart. Help us always to say yes. Help us always to say yes to you. We ask this prayer through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, through the intercession of all the saints who make this prayer in the mighty name of our God and Lord Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
Man, oh gosh, there are so many things to draw out. You know, when it comes to Leviticus, people think it can be dry. I mean, it's repetitive a little bit, but it's not dry. This is the Lord revealing his holiness. I mean, truly, all of the commandments, all of the rules in the book of Leviticus, they're all about the Lord. They're all about his holiness. They're all about what true holiness is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
How other, how other... God is. I mean, that's what it is to be holy is to be set apart. You know, you can say something is holy if it's been blessed, right? It's been set apart. It's been consecrated. It's for our purpose now. And here is God who himself is the author of holiness because he is holiness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
He's so fully other that here we have the sons of Aaron who come into the Lord's presence and they do whatever they want to do. They do everything. what is not right. They do what God has not asked them to do. He's not commanded them to do this. And so they offered an unholy fire. And so the fire of the Lord who is holy consumes them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
And sometimes we can hear some of these stories and we think, gosh, that seems so strange. They offered an unholy fire. What's that mean? And then that God's holy fire consumed them like that. Does that seem drastic? Does that seem extreme? And we realize not at all. I mean, because in the new covenant, what has God done? He has become so close to us. He has drawn so near to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
We are temples of the Holy Spirit. He's that close. But also he has revealed himself in humility, in poverty. You think of the nativity, think of Christmas, think of Jesus being born, God himself, God incarnate, who willed to become a single-celled human being at one point. And then grew in his mother's womb, was born in poverty, born in a stable or cave and laid in a manger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
All these things allowed us to torture him, allowed us to reject him, allowed us to kill him. That we think like, oh gosh, here's God who just, you know, he's kind of like whatever. And yet scripture again and again, especially today in the book of Leviticus, he reveals, no, there's no kind of whatever when it comes to approaching me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
It is approach me the way I'm telling you to, because I am holy. Honestly, just think of the seriousness of this. Approach me how I'm telling you to, because I am holy. And what if we did that when we went to mass? What if we did that when we presented ourselves before the Lord in prayer is just to be able to say, Lord, it's true. It is true that you are holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
And therefore we have this thing called the fear of the Lord. And again, fear of the Lord doesn't mean I'm afraid of God. The fear of the Lord is I'm taking God seriously. What would our lives look like? What would our prayer look like if we just took God seriously? Again, not being afraid, but simply realizing here is God who is holy. Here I dare to enter into his presence. That is remarkable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
Not only that, I dare enter his presence, but he is so, I don't know, humble. He loves us so much that he wants you to enter his presence. Well, last note, in Exodus today, man, here is the Lord's dramatic salvation of his people through the Red Sea. And there's this word, this word spoken to the people of Israel. The Lord fights for you. You have only to stand still.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 35: Crossing the Red Sea (2025)
This day you are to go forth in the month of Abib. And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
When we get to the Acts of the Apostles in a number of days— quite a few days from now. But when we get to the Acts of the Apostles, we're going to hear that story and we're going to hear about the reality. So just to prep your heart for this is that when we're following after Christ, we can have people who are of goodwill. We can be surrounded by these people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
You might even work in the church or volunteer in the church and you've encountered people who are tough to love. And maybe you are one of those people that is tough to love. I know I am someone who is tough to love. And sometimes we can have conflict. Now, the great news is that here is Paul and Barnabas and Mark who had conflict.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
But also the great news is that Paul and Barnabas and Mark also had reconciliation. They had division. They had this big falling out, but they also had reconciliation, which is so good. And what a gift. It's also believed that possible that Mark is the son of the woman who owned the upper room.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
So where they celebrated the Last Supper and where the apostles gathered, the disciples gathered after the Lord's crucifixion and resurrection, that that is where even Pentecost would have happened in the upper room there for the Last Supper, the upper room there for Pentecost. And so that's a great connection that Mark would have had with the early, early church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Now, as he's writing this, one of the thoughts as well is that he's writing during the persecution of Nero. And so one of the themes, the realities is... But here is, here's what it is to be a disciple. We heard in the very first chapters here, the call of the first disciples. And they were called to become fishers of men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
They were also called, we're going to get this later on, they were also called to pick up their cross with the Lord Jesus Christ and to trust in him, the one who was crucified for them. And to not lose heart in the face of difficulties, to not lose heart in the face of real suffering and real, true, genuine oppression. And so Mark is writing his gospel, you know, the gospel of St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
that Matthew and Luke must have or very, very likely use Mark as one of their templates to tell their story about Jesus's life. And so we kind of have like the original, the OG gospel right here when it comes to Mark's gospel. Another thing to kind of keep in mind is especially when it comes to contrasting Mark's gospel with John's gospel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Peter to these persecuted Christians under the emperor Nero. Okay. So a couple notes in chapter one, we have the baptism of Jesus. And one of the questions that almost is always asked about the baptism of Jesus is why did Jesus get baptized? I mean, there is, there is no reason for Jesus to get baptized because Jesus
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
John the Baptist was offering a baptism of repentance, and there's nothing that Jesus needed to repent from. And so what is going on? Well, one of the things we recognize is that where Jesus leads the way, we are all called to follow. And the waters didn't make him holy, but he made the waters holy. This is one of those key moments, one of those key teachings
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
in the early church is that Jesus wasn't baptized because he needed it. When he was baptized, he brought the holiness. Now, one of the things we heard when we were reading through the book of Leviticus, right, is that if something was unclean and it touched something clean, the unclean made the clean thing unclean. Does that make sense? So you have unclean, you have clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Unclean touching clean makes the clean thing unclean. Okay, that's really nice and confusing. But Jesus is going to reverse this. When Jesus, he encounters a leper in today's reading. And what happens? Well, if you touch a leper, you become unclean. The opposite happens when Jesus touches the leper.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Instead of the unclean leper making Jesus unclean, Jesus, the clean one, the holy one, he touches the leper and he extends his cleanness. He extends his righteousness. He extends his wholeness and his healing to the leper. And this is also what's happening in the baptism.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
is that Jesus is not being purified by the water, but he is sanctifying the water by his presence, by his touching the water, which is just so powerful and so incredible. One note as well, when it comes to that baptism, it says, he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the spirit descending upon him like a dove.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Now, when it says open, that word open is actually the word torn. And it means the heavens are torn asunder. This is important for us because at the end of the gospel in Mark chapter 15, when Jesus is crucified and he hands over his spirit, seeing the spirit comes upon him, but here when he hands over his spirit, the veil is torn in the temple from top to bottom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And it's the same, it's the same verb. It's the same Greek word that when he was baptized, the heavens were torn open. And when he was crucified, the veil in the temple was torn open. Which is just so, so powerful. Here's the beginning and the end of Christ's ministry on earth. Not only this, but a voice came from heaven saying, you are my beloved son. And with you, I am well pleased.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
It's one of those sentences. It's one of those moments in scripture that I often personally pray with, where I just hear the voice of the father who speaks over his beloved son and says, you're my beloved son with you. I am well pleased. And there's something so powerful about this. to realize that the father speaks over Jesus, the son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 154. It is our second messianic checkpoint. We begin today. We're reading Mark chapters 1 and chapter 2. We're also praying Psalm 11. One little note about the Gospel of Mark after this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
But also, if you've been baptized, you've been made a son or daughter of God, then the father also speaks over you. And what does he say to Jesus? He says, basically, I'm proud of you. You're my beloved son. He claims him. And then he tells him, with you, I'm well pleased. I'm proud of you. You're mine. And this is what the father does at every baptism.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
If you remember way back in the day when we went through John's gospel, One of the things that happened was there was a lot of exposition. We have a lot of long teachings from Jesus. You know, that whole even high priestly prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper went on for chapters and chapters of simply Jesus just talking. The Gospel of Mark is the opposite. It's all action.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
This is what the father does every time you approach him in prayer. When you're right now, as you're listening to these words, what the father does, he's declaring over you the words he declared over Jesus because you've been adopted by him. He says, you're mine and I'm proud of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And that's something so, so worth reflecting and worth praying about, worth allowing the Father to declare those words over you because sometimes it is always important for us to remember that God loves us. It is something else to remember that God is proud of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
and that is yeah it's powerful speaking of power what happens is the spirit immediately drove jesus into the wilderness why what was he doing he was in the wilderness 40 days tempted by satan and he was with the wild beasts one of the things we recognize is that jesus at this baptism he's anointed right the holy spirit descends upon him like a dove we might have mentioned this in the gospel of john but i'll mention it again
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Jesus, immediately after he's baptized, after he's anointed, right? So the anointed one is the Messiah, right? That's what it means. That's what Messiah means. It means anointed one. Christ means anointed one. They're waiting for the new anointed one, the new David. Now, we just have been listening about the life of David and then Solomon for the last number of days. But why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Because David is the prototype for the true anointed one, the new, the eternal anointed one, Jesus Christ, the great Messiah. But what's the role of the anointed one? Remember, that David's role was, he was anointed. Yep, that doesn't just mean people serve you at your palace, on your throne. That means you've been anointed to go and fight for your people. This is exactly what Jesus does.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
He gets anointed by the Holy Spirit descending upon him. The Father claims him and says he's proud of him. And then immediately, immediately the spirit drives him into the wilderness where he does battle with Satan. He does battle with Satan. And then, gosh, these keep reading. He gathers together the apostles, the first disciples, and then he keeps battling, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
He goes and does these exorcisms. And this is one of the things, it's such a huge reality to have a biblical worldview. It means we do see things the way the Bible tells us that reality is. What's one of the ways that this world is under slavery to Satan. This world is under slavery to the evil one. And Jesus came not just to teach and not just to heal and not just to preach. He came to save us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
He came to deliver us. He came to fight against the evil one. What scripture calls the strong man who has bound us and he binds up the strong man. And this is exactly what Jesus does right away. He's the anointed one. He is the king. He is the Messiah. And what does he do? Immediately, he begins to fight against what fights against us. And so, yes, there is healing of physical ills.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
There's healing against mental illness. That actually gets its own credit here in the scriptures. And he also fights against demonic oppression. And this is absolutely important for all of us to receive this because the biblical worldview is that the world is under bondage to the devil. But Jesus Christ has come to set us free. So we can either belong to the kingdom of darkness, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
That remains in bondage, or we can be transferred into the kingdom of light by belonging to Jesus. One last note, one last note, because it's just so good. In chapter two, it says Jesus heals a paralytic. And so we have the four friends who have their one friend who's paralyzed on the mat. He comes to Capernaum. They try to get to the house. They can't because it's too packed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
It is an action movie with very little dialogue. I mean, there's dialogue, but it is an action movie. And one of the things you'll note is that Mark's favorite word is the word immediately. And he consistently says immediately when it's time to do this. Immediately he got up. Immediately Jesus went over. Immediately he reached out his arm.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And so they go up on the roof. They do a little Chip and Joanna Gaines remodeling of the make a skylight for whoever's house this is. And then they lower the man down. And what does Jesus do? He says, your sins are forgiven. Two things to note. One note, it says, seeing their faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
He sees the faith of the four friends and someone else's faith is enough for Jesus to heal the one who needed healing. It's their faith that spoke for the man who is paralyzed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
One of the reasons why in the Catholic church, at least in much of Christianity, we have this thing called baptism of infants and people who are, you know, human beings, infants who are not able to express faith on their own. But we believe that here in Mark chapter two, that it was the faith of the friends that spoke on behalf of the man who was paralyzed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Just like in a baptism, we have the faith of the parents and the faith of the godparents that speaks on behalf of the one to be baptized. And so that's one of the reasons why we believe that it is possible and actually even possible vital and essential that get baptized as soon as possible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Even if this infant doesn't have faith on their own, it is the faith of the parents and the faith of the godparents that gets to speak for them, just like the faith of the friends spoke for the paralyzed man in Mark chapter two. Last note, when Jesus says, child, your sins are forgiven, some of the scribes saying, wait a second, that's blasphemy. Who but God can forgive sins?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
This is one of the first claims we have in the gospels of Jesus to divinity. It's one of the first places that Jesus claims to be God in the gospels because he's saying, I can do what only God can do. And to prove that I can do what only God can do after he declares forgiveness of sins over the man, he then says, okay, I'll prove it to you and rise, pick up your pallet and walk.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
and he gives him full and complete healing, demonstrating that Jesus is who he says he is. He is claiming to be God, and then he proves that he actually is God, which is just bonkers and amazing and so, so good. So here we are, the very first chapters of Mark's gospel, and we just started.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
We have another six days of this, and I'm so grateful and so honored and so privileged to be able to walk through Mark's gospel today. with you all pray for each other i'm praying for you please pray for me my name is father mike i cannot wait to see you tomorrow god bless
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
That word immediately is a hallmark of Mark's gospel because what he's doing is he's bringing us into the reality, into the presence, into the immediacy, for lack of a better word. of what Jesus is doing and who Jesus is, the mission of the Messiah and the mission of Christ on this earth. So keep that in mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
As we're reading through Mark's gospel, the whole thing, chapters 1 through chapter 16, keep your eyes open, or sorry, your ears open for that quickness. In fact, Mark even, last note before we start reading, Mark also goes back and forth between past tense and present tense on a regular basis. In fact, he kind of does it in the same sentences even.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
I was reading in a commentary from Mark chapter 1 verse 40 to 44, we're going to hear that today, where the literal translation of Mark's gospel would read like this. It says, a leper comes to him and kneeling down begs him and says, if you wish, you can make me clean. Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and he says to him, I do will it be made clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Now you can see how back and forth Mark is writing the gospel from past tense to present tense. And I think he does this in many ways to simply capture the fact that this is a gospel that is happening now. Yes, this happened in the past. So he keeps mentioning the past tense. But what he's saying is, and then Jesus says to him such and such. And he's reminding us of the fact that,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
while Jesus, yes, lived in the past and he acted like this in the past, Jesus lives now and forever and he acts in the present as well. And so as we are reading through the gospel, the modern translations have made it all consistent, right? So it's not alternating between past and present. It's just all going to be in the same tense, basically, as we begin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Okay, gosh, that's a lot of intro words to begin our second messianic checkpoint, Mark's gospel today, chapter one and two, and then we're praying Psalm 11. The Gospel According to Mark. The preaching of John the Baptist. the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I send my messenger before your face who shall prepare your way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And there went out to him all the country of Judea and all the people of Jerusalem. And they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Now John was clothed with camel's hair and had a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
These words, the words that you always heard, you hear every single day. We are reading, I am reading from the Bible translation known as the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
The Baptism of Jesus In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the spirit descending upon him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son. With you, I am well pleased. The temptation of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
The spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild beasts and the angels ministered to him. Jesus preaches the gospel in Galilee. Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Repent and believe in the gospel. Jesus calls the first disciples. And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. the man with an unclean spirit. And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. And immediately there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? A new teaching! With authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee. healings at Simon's house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever and immediately they told him of her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up and the fever left her and she served them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons, and the whole city was gathered together about the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons, and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
jesus preaches and heals throughout galilee and in the morning a great while before day he rose and went out to a lonely place and there he prayed and simon and those who were with him followed him and they found him and said to him everyone is searching for you and he said to them let us go on to the next towns that i may preach there also for that is why i came out and he went throughout all galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Jesus cleanses a leper. And a leper came to him, begging him and kneeling, said to him, if you will, you can make me clean. Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, I will be clean. And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
roughly 154 of those days episodes just delivered to your inbox or wherever you listen to podcasts as i said today we are starting the second messianic checkpoint mark's gospel now mark is the shortest gospel and so this is going to be a great experience i just i'm so excited
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And he sternly charged him and sent him away at once and said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
But he went out and began to talk freely about it and to spread the news so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country, and people came to him from every quarter. Chapter two, Jesus heals a paralytic.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And when he had returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home and many were gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even about the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And when they had made an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, child, your sins are forgiven. Now, some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, why does this man speak like this? It is blasphemy. Who can forgive sins but God alone?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they questioned like this within themselves, said to them, Why do you question like this in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise, take up your pallet and walk? But that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
He said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home. And he rose and immediately took up the pallet and went out before them all so that they were all amazed and glorified God saying, we never saw anything like this. Jesus calls Levi. He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd gathered about him, and he taught them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And as he passed on, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, Follow me. And he rose and followed him. And as he sat at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were sitting with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. The question about fasting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
When we went through the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John is one of the longer Gospels, and we're going to the opposite, Mark, the shortest Gospel. Now, not only are we kind of going to the opposite Gospel, Mark, Matthew, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels, and that means that they will, they're very, very similar. In fact, St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and people came and said to him, Why did John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of untrunken cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
But new wine is for fresh skins. a teaching about the Sabbath. One Sabbath as he was going through the grain fields and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain and the Pharisees said to him, look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And he said to them, have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the showbread, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat and also gave it to those who were with him. And he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
In the Lord I take refuge. How can you say to me, flee like a bird to the mountains? For behold, the wicked bend the bow, they have fitted their arrow to the string, to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids test the children of men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and his soul hates him that loves violence. On the wicked he will rain coals of fire and brimstone. A scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteous deeds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Gosh, Lord, thank you so much for revealing your son to us. Thanks for giving your son to us. You so loved the world that you gave your only son, that all who believe in him might not perish, but might have eternal life. And so we thank you and we give you praise. Thank you for these next seven days. Thank you for this day where we just get to hear the words of the gospel writer, Mark.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And thank you so much for giving to us the good news, the opportunity to hear this good news. So please receive our praise. Help us to be converted. Call us to be your disciples, to follow after you with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love you with everything we are and everything we have. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
John in the Gospel of John is completely unique from the other three Gospels. But Mark, Matthew, and Luke are very similar to each other. One of the things that we note about this is that scholars have pointed out that the gospel of Mark is probably the basis or the foundation for the gospels of Matthew and the gospels of Luke.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. You probably noticed that So Mark doesn't waste any time. He kind of just jumps right in. He just goes for it. And from the very, very start of the gospel, he just begins. Bam, here's John the Baptist is appearing in the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Now, as we noted, the word immediately, and I'm trying not to overemphasize the word immediately, but it is so prevalent. Now, pause for a moment. Let's go back to the top and say, ask the question. Okay, so here's Mark. Who's Mark? And there are some theories about who Mark is. I mean, it's pretty much the general consensus is that the gospel of Mark is the gospel of actually St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Peter, the apostle Peter. Why? Because Mark traveled with Peter. He was one of his traveling companions. And so Peter, as he's preaching around all of the Middle East, as well as Rome, Mark is hearing basically the gospel or the good news according to Peter. He's hearing the story of Peter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And so we typically believe that Mark's gospel is Peter's experience of the gospel, that Mark's repeating what he heard Peter preaching again and again and again. Now, Mark also... was a travel companion. His Jewish name was John. And at one point he was a travel companion with St. Paul. But at some point something went down and Mark wanted to go home from this missionary journey.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
And there was a little bit of falling out between Paul and Barnabas because of that. So what happened was Paul and Barnabas and Mark are on the missionary journey, right? And at one point Mark wants to go home. Okay, no problem. Go home, I guess, you know. It was a little bit let down-y though for Paul because then when they went out again, Mark wanted to go with them and Barnabas took his side.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
Apparently they were related. And Paul and Barnabas had a little falling out because apparently Paul was maybe miffed that Mark had bailed on them earlier. Now, the great news is—actually, that's great news for us. The reality that when you're on mission, not everyone around you is perfect. This is just one of those things that is just really important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
You guys don't know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
Yeah, that's so good, because especially how action packed Mark's gospel is that it's Jesus is going from one thing to the next thing to the next thing. And there's revealing. Here's the actions of the Savior. Here's the actions of the Messiah. As you noted, the first half of the identity of the Messiah, then here's the mission of the Messiah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
And it seems like, gosh, I don't even know what the percentages of Mark's gospel that is revealed. The percentage of time Mark spends on the crucifixion, or at least the last 24 hours, essentially, of Jesus' life, vastly outweighs, proportionally, the other three Gospels, as well as even just the, almost like the resurrection's a footnote, but it's not, obviously.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
In fact, we have a missionary here who last year she said, oh, gosh, I just I don't I don't like the gospel of Mark. I mean, it's just it's so it's too brief. It's too like staccato. It's too and kind of downplayed it. And and then. I handed her a commentary that is put out by, I think it's some kind of publication. It's a Catholic commentary on sacred scripture.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
It's a very important last piece that concludes his Gospel. But you have that recognition of here is Jesus whose heart is not only revealed, as you said, in what he's teaching, but his heart is revealed, his mission is revealed, his identity is revealed in what he does, which is just super powerful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
It's so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
And it's what a gift to be able to be again on this journey and have this messianic checkpoint where we get to be reminded of with all the mess, with all the United Kingdom, but ups and downs with all the divided kingdom coming on its way and exile that we have this story that the fulfillment or in many ways of the old covenant in Jesus Christ and bringing us into this part of this story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
And she said, oh my gosh, Gospel Mark is my favorite gospel from now on. Because it just, like you are about to say, the uniqueness of Mark's gospel not only makes it different, it makes it remarkable. I mean, there's some things that are just fascinating that Mark highlights that aren't necessarily in the other gospels in the same way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is time for our second messianic checkpoint, and it is with the gospel of the Lord. of Mark last messianic checkpoint, or the first one we had went to the gospel of St. John, which was the longest gospel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
And making us a part of this story. And as you said, here is, as they went out and preached, the Lord confirmed. The Lord did. He didn't leave them orphaned. He didn't leave them abandoned. He didn't leave them alone. Didn't leave them powerless. But he is the one who continues to bring fruit to the works of Christians around the world now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
Jeff, one last thought, if you have, as we launch into these next eight days of listening to and praying through Mark's gospel, any last pieces?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
Yeah, that's so good. What a gift. I'm so grateful, Jeff. Thank you so much for this intro to Mark and our second Messianic Checkpoint. I hope that it's been a blessing to everyone who's been listening to us. I know that every time I get a chance to talk with Jeff about the upcoming time period, it is just, it's a massive blessing for me. I hope it's a blessing for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
I just want to let you know that we continue to pray for you. Please keep praying for us. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
Right.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
Right, yeah. Just like, hey, if you want to get the bullet points, here's Mark's Gospel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
Now we are going down to Mark. I don't know, down to Mark is the best way to say it. We're going to Mark, which is the shortest of all four gospels. And again, joining us so grateful as always is Jeff Cavins, who's going to give us an intro to this second messianic checkpoint to this gospel of St. Mark. So Jeff, thank you so much for being here and welcome.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
Son of the carpenter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
Yeah. Right. And, you know, it's interesting you mentioned when it comes to the the identity of Jesus, how often in other gospels as well, Jesus, the messianic secret. So here is Jesus who gets revealed. You know, it's whether he a demon is saying, we know who you are or whether that's Jesus does a miracle and then tell someone. All right. So the demon says, we know you are.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
And then he says, be quiet. Or when he heals someone and then Jesus says, Don't tell anyone about this. I know a lot of times, especially when we were reading through the Gospel of John, people were writing it and saying, why doesn't Jesus want people to know who he is? Why do people, why does he want to hide from this identity?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
What's one of the answers that you oftentimes will give people when they ask, when they run into that messianic secret?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
Not every day a boy gets a whitewash offense, you know, that kind of thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
Yeah. That makes so much sense. I mean, Cardinal Newman at one point, he asked the question, how come Jesus didn't just appear to everyone after he rose from the dead? And why did he only appear to his disciples? And his answer is kind of similar to that, where he said the idea wasn't just so that people could see him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
The idea was that the people who knew him could see him, the people who had a relationship with him could see him because then they could go and bear witness to him as opposed to the fickle crowds, as opposed to those who had no investment whatsoever in him, who would say, Yeah, sure, I saw this man raised from the dead, but that doesn't change my life at all. He said is a lot.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
I'm paraphrasing, obviously, but that sense of it's here's this relationship and out of this relationship comes a witness bearing witness to his identity, not just himself and not just his miracles and obviously not the demons, but
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
but these apostles who are sent out who are no longer servants, but are friends who then get sent out into the world to not just bear witness to his miracles, not just bear witness to his resurrection, but bear witness to the one they know, the one they're in relationship with. And yeah, that makes sense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
You have to, as you said, we just finished the book of Ecclesiastes and there's a season for everything. And this was not the season to be revealed. Yet there's a yet time for growth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
They are. And it's one of the reasons why I love the fact that how we're doing this in this Bible in a year is we had all of John at once, maybe I think a little over a week, seven or eight days. And then we have all of Mark now, a number of a month and a half later.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
Just as a sidebar, asterisk. Just a sidebar. Quick, one thing about the authorship of Mark's gospel. Here's Mark, who I think I've come across many people who have said that it is highly likely that as Mark and Peter were close, Mark had traveled with Paul and Barnabas and that whole story, how that story went down. But then Mark and Peter were close that this would be Peter's gospel via Mark.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
Is that important? Is that unique to highlight? Or is that kind of like just a fact or a piece of trivia?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
Yeah, it's only 16 chapters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025
And I think that there's something really powerful about that, that over the course of these next, I think it's eight days, we're going to go through the gospel of Mark and be able to hear his voice in a unique way, which is different than John's voice and different than Matthew and Luke's. And so, yeah, the gospel of Mark is remarkably unique.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Hello, everybody. My name is Father Mike Schmitz. I want to let you know about a one-night-only opportunity we have in Newark, New Jersey on Monday, December 9th. It's right after the start of Advent. We're doing an Advent Night of Reflection and Q&A at the Newark Performing Arts Center. Again, Monday, December 9th. at 7 o'clock.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
And Paul went in, as was his custom, and for three weeks he argued with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Because the more and more I look like the world, the less and less God can really use me to turn the world upside down. And he wants to. And he wants to use you as well. Here's Paul. He goes on to Athens, right? And In Athens, we already heard the story. He goes to the Areopagus, which is, you know, Mars Hill, Aries, Mars, right? The same God just by different languages, Greek versus Latin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
And I love this. This is very interesting. People go to the Areopagus because they wanted to hear new ideas, right? Now, all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. And so here's Paul. He's got some new information. Talks about Jesus. Talks about the resurrection of the body.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Now, this is one of the reasons why those at the Areopagus ridiculed or mocked him is because they would believe that human beings, you're not your body. They would believe human beings, no, you're just a spirit and the body is your cage. And when St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Paul talks about the resurrection of the body, that would go directly against Greek thought, which is remarkable because in 1 Corinthians 15, we have this massive proclamation of St. Paul saying that the resurrection is real. That you, I mean, essentially, this is one of the things we believe. You are your body. You are your soul. That what a human being is, is body-soul combined, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Body-soul duality. You're an embodied soul or you're an ensouled body. And this is so important for us. Because just like St. Paul had to proclaim to the church in Corinth and just like St. Paul had to proclaim to the church in or the people in Athens, you are your body. And the body you have is actually your body. The body you have is the right body. How is that counter-cultural?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
It was counter-cultural when St. Paul first said it. It's counter-cultural when the church first declared it. And apparently now in our day, it is once again counter-cultural, but it is the truth. As St. Paul goes on to say, he says, if Christ has not been raised from the dead, then our faith is in vain. You know, there were, there was a movement in Christianity in the last, I
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
that actually said, well, Jesus only was raised from the dead in their hearts, in the hearts of the disciples. You know, he didn't really physically rise from the dead. And it wouldn't even matter if he didn't physically rise from the dead. I would still be a Christian. Well, that is going directly against what St. Paul declares today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
He says in chapter 15, verse 17, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. I said, I think I said when I read it, I said futile because that's even more powerful, right? If Christ had not been raised, has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. But in verse 20, in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
and some of them were persuaded and joined paul and silas as did a great many of the devout greeks and not a few of the leading women but the jews were jealous and taking some wicked fellows of the rabble they gathered a crowd set the city in an uproar and attacked the house of jason seeking to bring them out to the people
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
One of the realities, of course, it says here that the last enemy to be destroyed is death. And at the end of this chapter, chapter 15, we have that incredibly beautiful, beautiful proclamation. that says, behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, meaning that God's going to come at some point.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Not everyone is going to die, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed. For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable. But then he goes on to say that everyone's going to be able to cry out, death is swallowed up in victory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? Here's Jesus, who's the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. So what Jesus' resurrected body looked like is what our bodies will share in. So Jesus had a physical body, right? A physical body that could be touched, a physical body that would eat food, a physical body that could be one place and then be in another place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
It had this alacrity, had this movement. It could pass through walls. It could do all these incredible things. And St. Paul, one of the things he's saying is that all those things that were true about Jesus' resurrected body will be true about your resurrected body. And the recreation, the redemption, the resurrection of the world in so many ways.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Because that is the Christian belief is that heaven is not just a spiritual place. Heaven is going to be all of creation renewed and redeemed. So your physical body resurrected from the dead will need a physical place to abide.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
And that is this mystery that eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the imagination, the mind of man, what God has prepared for those who love him, which means what God has prepared for you. God will raise your body from the dead. Hopefully it is to glory because that's clear in scripture as well. Everyone will be raised some to everlasting shame and horror.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
That's in book of Daniel and some others to be an everlasting sign of God's glory to glorify God in your body for the rest of eternity. It's so good. Isn't that incredible? Oh my gosh, what a gift we have been given in Jesus. We no longer need to fear death. We no longer need to grieve like the rest. We do grieve because we love people. And when they're taken from us, then it's proper to weep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
It's proper to grieve. But we don't grieve like those who have no hope. We grieve as those who know that death is not the end. That's why death no longer has the sting that it used to have. Ah, my gosh, you guys, what a gift. I'm praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brethren before the city authorities, crying, These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
I'm praying that one day, if we don't meet in this life, that we're able to meet literally face to face in the resurrected flesh, in God's presence in heaven. So I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard this, and when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. Paul and Silas in Baroia. The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Baroia. And when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
If you're interested in finding out more about this, go to ascensionpress.com slash fathermiketour. Basically, a night of reflection, diving deeply into what it is that we're preparing for in the season of Advent. If you're interested at all, Monday, December 9th, 7 o'clock, Newark Performing Arts Center. Go to ascensionpress.com slash fathermiketour. That's F-R-M-I-K-E tour. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, stirring up and inciting the crowds. Then the brethren immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. Paul in Athens. Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and in the marketplace every day with those who chanced to be there. Some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers met him and some said, what would this babbler say? Others said, he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
And they took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new teaching is which you present? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know, therefore, what these things mean. Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
So Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, To an unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked. But now he commands all men everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
And of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead. Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, We will hear you again about this. So Paul went out from among them. But some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
The First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians Chapter 15 The Resurrection of Christ Now, I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast. unless you believed in vain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
For I delivered to you, as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Kepha, then to the twelve.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles." Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is in me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed." the resurrection of the dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Now, if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified of God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 338. We're reading from Acts of the Apostles, chapter 17. the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 15, and Proverbs, chapter 28, verses 16, 17, and 18.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then that is coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
But when it says, all things are put in subjection under him, it is plain that he is accepted who put all things under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, that God may be everything to everyone. Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why am I in peril every hour? I protest, brethren, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die every day. What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Come to your right mind and sin no more. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. The Resurrection of the Body But someone will ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is alike, but there is one kind for men, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are celestial bodies, and there are terrestrial bodies. But the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars." For star differs from star in glory. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a physical body. It is raised a spiritual body.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual which is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates. This day is day 338.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
And as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brethren, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall all be changed. For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. A ruler who lacks understanding is a cruel oppressor, but he who hates unjust gain will prolong his days. If a man is burdened with the blood of another, let him be a fugitive until death. Let no one help him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
He who walks in integrity will be delivered, but he who is perverse in his ways will fall into a pit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
We thank you so much. Thank you for your word and thank you for making us into your children. Lord God, you are our dad. And in Jesus Christ, your son, our brother, you have conquered death. And so we're able to say with St. Paul, we're able to say with all Christians who have gone before us, death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Lord God, we do mourn, but we do not mourn like the rest. Every one of us is touched by suffering. Every one of our lives is touched by grief. Every part of our lives in some way is touched by loss. Yes, Lord, we weep. And yes, Lord, we cry. But we do not weep. We do not cry. We do not grieve like the rest. We do not weep in vain because we have not believed in vain. You have conquered death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
We're reading Acts, chapter 17, 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, and Proverbs, chapter 28, verses 16 through 18. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 17. The uproar in Thessalonica. Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
And that we will rise. We know this to be true. You have revealed it. You've declared it. You have proven it. You've demonstrated it. You've given it to us. And so, Lord God, we accept this. We accept the resurrection of the dead. We accept the new life that you offered to us through our baptism, through the grace that comes to us now by the Holy Spirit. And we say yes. Help us to grieve well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Help us to weep well. Help us to experience loss well. Be with us in our grief, Lord God. And be with us at the hour of our death. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, so Acts of the Apostles, chapter 17. We have an uproar in Thessalonica. And what happens? This is, isn't it remarkable?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
We keep saying this, but the fact that Thessalonica The apostles, as they have fruit, as their proclamation of Jesus bears fruit, there's always this oppression that happens to them. But that oppression does not discourage them. And this is so necessary for us to be reminded of every single day because we're reading about our brothers and sisters right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Like in the Old Testament, we're reading about our forefathers in so many ways. And yes, maybe that is what's happening in the Acts of the Apostles as well. But there's also an element where we're reading about the age of the church. We're living in the age of the church. And so what the apostles experienced, what the disciples of Jesus experienced, we must expect as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Not only the sufferings and persecutions, but also the blessings, also the fruit. So one of those pieces of fruit, pieces of fruit, one of those parts of, yeah, one of the pieces of fruit here is in Thessalonica. What did they say? They dragged Jason out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
And again, before the city authorities crying out something, they're going to persecute the church, but they're also saying these words that are so powerful. They said this, they said, these men who have turned the world upside down have come here also. They've turned the world upside down. You know, in our battle, and it's a battle, it's a spiritual battle, right? It's a battle of ideas as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
But our battle is with the culture in so many ways, right? We live in the midst of a culture of death, in the midst of a culture of meaninglessness. We live in the midst of a culture that's seeking pleasure constantly, but no one's truly happy. And so we have a battle with this culture. Again, it's not a battle of physical violence at all in any way, shape, or form. It is a battle of ideas.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
It's a battle of spirit, the spirit of the world versus the spirit of God. It is a spiritual battle, right, between principalities and powers. And our call as Christians is to live in such a way that what they would say about us is what they said about Jason and Paul and the other disciples. They have turned the world upside down.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
Am I living in such a way that if people saw how I lived, they would say, you are living upside down. You're living backwards. You're You're living so differently than the rest of us. That's why you're so joyful. That's why you're so different. That's why you take care of people who need to be taken care of. And yet, what is the great desire of so many Christians is I just want to fit in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 338: Death Defeated (2024)
I just want to be like everyone else. The truth is, if I'm like everyone else, then I'm not like Jesus. If I'm like everyone else, then I'm not living like a saint. If I'm living like everyone else, there is no turning the world upside down if you're just looking like the rest of the world. And so I'm letting this word convict me. And I just want to share it with you all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And his concubine, who was in Shechem, also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. And Gideon, the son of Joash, died in a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezarites. As soon as Gideon died, the sons of Israel turned again and played the harlot after the Baals and made Baal-barit their god.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And the sons of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hand of all their enemies on every side. And they did not show kindness to the family of Jeroboam, that is Gideon, in return for all the good that he had done to Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Ruth and Boaz at the threshing floor. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, "'My daughter, should I not seek a home for you, that it may be well with you? Now is not Boaz our kinsman, with whose maidens you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash, therefore, and anoint yourself, and put on your best clothes, and go down to the threshing floor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And the hand of Midian prevailed over Israel, and because of Midian, the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and the strongholds. For whenever the Israelites put in seed, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up and attack them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
but when he lies down observe the place where he lies then go and uncover his feet and lie down and he will tell you what to do and she replied all that you say i will do so she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had told her and when boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Then she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and lay down. At midnight the man was startled, and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet. He said, Who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth, your maidservant. Spread your garment over your maidservant, for you are next of kin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And he said, May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter, for you have made this last kindness greater than the first, in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of worth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And now, it is true that I am a near kinsman, yet there is a kinsman nearer than I. Remain this night. And in the morning, if he will do the part of the next of kin for you, well, let him do it. But if he is not willing to do the part of the next of kin for you, then as the Lord lives, I will do the part of the next of kin for you. Lie down until the morning.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
so she lay at his feet until the morning but arose before one could recognize another and he said let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing-floor and he said bring the mantle you are wearing and hold it out so she held it and measured out six measures of barley and laid it upon her then she went into the city
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, How did you fare, my daughter? Then she told her all that the man had done for her, saying, These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said, You must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law. She replied, Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest, but will settle the matter to-day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Praise the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Give praise, O servants of the Lord, you that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing to his name, for he is gracious. For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself and Israel for his own possession. For I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is above all gods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
They would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the land as far as the neighborhood of Gaza and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. And they would come up with their cattle and their tents coming like locusts for number. Both they and their camels could not be counted so that they wasted the land as they came in. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Whatever the Lord pleases, he does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses. He it was who struck the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and of beast, who in your midst, O Egypt, sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
who struck many nations and slew mighty kings, Sihang, the king of the Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan, and gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to his people Israel. Your name, O Lord, endures forever. Your renown, O Lord, throughout all ages. For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not. They have eyes, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not. Nor is there any breath in their mouths. Like them be those who make them. Yes, everyone who trusts in them. O house of Israel, bless the Lord. O house of Aaron, bless the Lord. O house of Levi, bless the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
You that fear the Lord, bless the Lord. Blessed be the Lord from Zion, he who dwells in Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
May your name be glorified. May we know who you are and lift up our voices and our hearts to always honor you, always praise you, and always thank you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, gosh, we had the story of Gideon today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
As you noticed, three chapters from the book of Judges following the story of Gideon, whose name was changed to Jerubabbel, which is not as easy to say as you might think. A lot of those consonants right back to back make it a little difficult for this guy right here. Anyways, the reality behind this story of Gideon. Gideon, is it starts out with him doing what?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
It starts out with him crushing the Baals, right? And the Asherah. He takes his life into his hands by destroying the Baal and by destroying the Asherah, this place of worship of the false gods. And he becomes the one who contends against Baal. And it's so good. It starts out so good. But what happens is... He also then turns to idolatry.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Even though Gideon is a decent judge, one of the things we're going to hear again and again is even so-so judges, even good judges, even judges who seem to have some honor to them also are tempted by the same thing that every one of us is tempted by. And that's idolatry. He sets up this golden ephod, right? Remember the ephod was what the priests would wear when they were worshiping in the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 91, and today we are reading from Judges chapters 6, 7, and 8, as well as from the book of Ruth chapter 3. Ruth is only four chapters long, so we are three quarters of the way through it at the end of today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
That was that linen garment, that ephod that they would wear in the temple. And he sets up, he makes a golden ephod. He doesn't make a Baal, he doesn't make a golden calf. He actually makes a symbol of what is used to worship the living and true God. And yet what happens is the people turn to it instead of turning to God. They're distracted by it instead of turning their hearts to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And it's just so, so incredible. And again, incredible in the bad way. It says in chapter 8, verses 27, it says, Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in the city in Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot after it there. And it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
So even though Gideon was the one who contended against the Baals, right, against the false gods, he turned out to be someone who was setting up his family to turn back to the Baals, turn back to the false gods. In fact, it says in verse 33, as soon as Gideon died, the sons of Israel turned again and played harlot after the Baals, and they made Baal-barit their god.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And the sons of Israel cried for help to the Lord. When the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel. And he said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And Baal-barit means the Baal of the covenant. Gosh, just how awful is that? Why? Because the covenant is what they made with the true and living God, the Lord himself, who revealed his name to the people of Israel. And now they're worshiping the false God that they're connecting to the true God. And that is so often what we can do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
We can take our version of God, whatever version of God we like the most, whatever version of Jesus we like the most. And we can twist the true and living God who reveals himself in his fullness and say, no, I like this version. I like this little part. And that is always a snare. And that's what happens to Gideon and to his family after him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And so the land was given rest, but then they turned once again away from true and living worship and they turned it into idolatry. Now, last little note, because I know this is a long set of readings. And so we're getting to the end here. But one of the things you find in Ruth, Ruth chapter three. is there's the reality of what they call the kinsman redeemer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Another word for it is the goel, right? So the goel is the Hebrew term for the kinsman redeemer. We came across this when we read through Leviticus and Numbers and even Deuteronomy. Remember, there was a specifically defined role in Israel's family life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
So, for example, if one of the Israelites fell into slavery in Leviticus 25, 48, the kinsman redeemer was responsible to buy the fellow Israelites out of slavery, right? If someone was killed, was murdered, then the kinsman redeemer, their job was to make sure that the family member was answered in justice in Numbers 35.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
If there's ever someone had lost land, the kinsman redeemer was responsible to buy back family land that had been forfeited, Leviticus 25, 25. And also the last one is in Deuteronomy 25, verses five through 10. The kinsman redeemer was responsible to carry on the family name by marrying a childless widow. That's what Ruth is. Ruth is a widow with no children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And so she comes to Boaz and says, you're our relative. Would you marry me? Essentially, she puts herself in this position of... this position of trust to this man, Boaz, who's already shown her great, great kindness. And Boaz says that he would love to, but there is a nearer kinsman, someone who is actually the primary kinsman redeemer for her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And he's going to talk to this guy in chapter four, and that is happening tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
so that's the role of the kinsman redeemer and there's a definite connection between the kinsman redeemer of the old testament and jesus christ in the new testament here's why because remember leviticus 25 48 anyone who's fallen into slavery the role of the kinsman redeemer to buy that person out of slavery what has jesus done he's made us his brother he's made us his brother in all things
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, I am the Lord your God. You shall not pay reverence to the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, but you have not given heed to my voice. the call of Gideon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
and he's forfeited his life to redeem us. That's why he's the kinsman redeemer, selling himself into slavery so that you and I can have life. I know that's just a really quick little brief thing, but we had a lot of reading today. You guys, I am so grateful that you're sticking with this, especially when these days kind of get a little bit longer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
I apologize, but at the same time, it is God's word, and it is so, so good. I am praying for you. Please keep praying for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezarite, and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. And Gideon said to him, Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this befallen us?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And where are all his wonderful deeds which our fathers recounted to us, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has cast us off and given us into the hand of Midian. And the Lord turned to him and said, Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Do not I send you? And he said to him, Please, Lord, how can I deliver Israel?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my family. And the Lord said to him, But I will be with you and you shall strike the Midianites as one man. And he said to him, If now I have found favor with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Do not depart from here, I beg you, until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And he said, I will stay till you return. So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour, the meat he put in a basket and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the oak and presented them. And the angel of God said to him, take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them on this rock and pour the broth over them. And he did so.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And there sprang up fire from the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. and the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Then Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, and Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, for now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. But the Lord said to him, Peace be to you. Do not fear. You shall not die. Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord is Peace. To this day, it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
That night the Lord said to him, Take your father's bull, the second bull, seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal, which your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it, and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah, which you shall cut down. So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him, But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. Gideon destroys the altar of Baal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And we're also praying Psalm 135. As always, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, reading from the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to get that Bible, you can go to ascensionpress.com and order it or Amazon or wherever they sell Bibles. You can also download your Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered upon the altar which had been built. And they said to one another, Who has done this thing? And after they had made search and inquired, they said, Gideon, the son of Joash has done this thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Then the men of the town said to Joash, bring out your son that he may die for he has pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it. But Joash said to all who were arrayed against him, will you contend for Baal or will you defend his cause? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
If he is a god, let him contend for himself because his altar has been pulled down. Therefore, on that day, he was called Jerubabbel. That is to say, let Baal contend against him because he pulled down his altar. Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came together, and crossing the Jordan they encamped in the valley of Jezreel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
But the Spirit of the Lord took possession of Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. Then he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. The sign of the fleece.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Then Gideon said to God, if you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said, behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said. And it was so.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung out enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. Then Gideon said to God, let not your anger burn against me. Let me speak but this once. Please let me make trial only this once with the fleece. Please let it be dry only on the fleece and on all the ground. Let there be dew.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And God did so that night for it was dry on the fleece only and on all the ground there was dew. Chapter seven, Gideon's army selected. Then Jerubabbel, that is Gideon, and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Herod. And the camp of Midian was north of them by the hill of Morah in the valley.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
The Lord said to Gideon, The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, My own hand has delivered me. Now therefore, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home. And Gideon tested them. Twenty-two thousand returned, and ten thousand remained.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
If you haven't yet done that, you can also subscribe to this podcast. You can also rate it. You can also give it one star up to five stars, and you can also give a review, which is really helpful for a lot of people because the more people review, the more people get to see it and maybe more people start reading the Bible, which could be pretty awesome. Anyways, as I said, today is day 91.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And the Lord said to Gideon, the people are still too many. Take them down to the water and I will test them for you there. And he of whom I say to you, this man shall go with you, shall go with you. And any of whom I shall say to you, this man shall not go with you, shall not go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
So he brought the people down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, Everyone that laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise everyone that kneels down to drink. And the number of those that lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was three hundred men. But all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And the Lord said to Gideon, With the three hundred men that lapped, I will deliver you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home. So he took the charge of the people from their hands and their trumpets, and he sent all the rest of Israel, every man, to his tent. but retained the three hundred men, and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Gideon routs the Midianites. That same night the Lord said to him, Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
but if you fear to go down go down to the camp with purah your servant and you shall hear what they say and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp then he went down with purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men that were in the camp and the midianites and the amalekites and all the people of the east lay along the valley like locusts for multitude
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And their camels were without number as the sand which is upon the seashore for multitude. When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade and he said, behold, I dreamed a dream. And the cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And his comrade answered, this is no other than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. into his hand God has given Midian and all the host. When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, Arise, for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars with torches inside the jars. And he said to them, look at me and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout for the Lord and for Gideon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch. when they had just set up the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. And the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars, holding in their left hands the torches and in their right hands the trumpets to blow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And they cried a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. They stood every man in his place round about the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. When they blew the three hundred trumpets, the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Bet Shittah, toward Zerurah, as far as the border of Abel Maholah by Tabath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
We're still traveling with the judges. Today, we're going to be following the judge whose name is Gideon. You might know his story, but by the end of today, you will definitely know his story. As always, we are praying for each other. Usually, I save that to the end, but gosh, I think we need to begin this day just knowing that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian. And Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters against them as far as Beth-barah and also the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they seized the waters as far as Beth-barah and also the Jordan. And they took the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeb, and they killed Oreb on the rock of Oreb, and Zeb they killed at the winepress of Zeb, as they pursued Midian. And they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Chapter 8 GIDEON'S TRIUMPH And the men of Ephraim said to him, What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight with Midian? And they upbraided him violently. And he said to them, What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezar?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb, and Zeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you? Then their anger against him was abated when he had said this. And Gideon came to the Jordan and passed over, he and the three hundred men who were with him, faint yet pursuing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
So he said to the men of Sukkoth, Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are faint, and I am pursuing after Ziba and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. And the officials of Sukkoth said, Are Ziba and Zalunah already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And Gideon said, Well then, when the Lord has given Ziba and Zalunah into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars. And from there he went up to Penuel and spoke with them in the same way. And the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Sukkoth had answered. And he said to the men of Penuel, When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Now Ziba and Zamunah were in Karkor with all their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the east, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. And Gideon went up by the caravan route east of Nabah and Jokbahah, and attacked the army, for the army was off its guard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And Ziba and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and took the two kings of Midian, Ziba and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic. Then Gideon, the son of Joash, returned from the battle by the ascent of Herez. And he caught a young man of Sukkoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the officials and elders of Sukkoth, seventy-seven men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And he came to the men of Sukkoth and said, Behold, Ziba and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, Are Ziba and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are faint? And he took the elders of the city, and he took thorns of the wilderness and briars, and with them taught the men of Sukkoth. And he broke down the tower of Penuel and slew the men of the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
We belong here, you belong here, and the Lord does want to speak to you today. He is proud of you, and he loves you very much. The book of Judges, chapter six. The Midianite oppression. The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Then he said to Ziba and Zalmunna, where are the men whom you slew at Tabor? They answered, as you are, so were they, every one of them. They resembled the sons of a king. And he said, they were my brothers, the sons of my mother, as the Lord lives. If you had saved them alive, I would not slay you. And he said to Jether, his firstborn, rise and slay them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
But the youth did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a youth. Then Ziba and Zalmunna said, Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength. And Gideon arose and slew Ziba and Zalmunna, and he took the crescents that were on the necks of their camels. Gideon's ephod becomes a snare.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, "'Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have delivered us out of the hand of Midian.' Gideon said to them, "'I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.' And Gideon said to them, "'Let me make a request of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
Give me, every man of you, the earrings of a spoil, for they had golden earrings because they were Ishmaelites.' And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and every man cast in it the earrings of his spoil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And the weight of the golden earrings that he had requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold, besides the crescents, and the pendants, and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were about the necks of their camels. And Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in his city in Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot after it there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 91: Gideon's Story (2025)
And it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. So Midian was subdued before the sons of Israel, and they lifted up their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. the death of Gideon. Jerubabbel, the son of Joash, went and dwelt in his own house. Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
um if you're a leader of the people uh if you're if you are a priest of the people and you sin there's this recognition that okay that that's that's also scandalous and so you have a heavy responsibility and that's isn't that something that we all know when it comes to the leaders of uh the church and people that we look to in the faith that when when they fail uh
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
it not only hurts them, it not only hurts the people in their lives, it hurts the whole church. It hurts, we all suffer. And so that recognition that here is the Lord saying, yeah, there's a seriousness there. Or when a community sins, like there's a seriousness there. And then even when the common person, essentially the lay person sins, there's a seriousness there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
But one of the things that was so powerful as we're reading through Leviticus today is the reality that God is so gracious, even in his mercy. Like even when sacrifice, the guilt offering is being, the sin offering is being presented. God is so gracious.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
He's so merciful in that it says if you can't afford, you can't afford a goat, you can't afford a bull, then you can offer two pigeons or two turtle doves. But even if you can't afford that, you can bring an offering of fine flour. It's this element of God saying, what I want for you is I want to be able to give you my mercy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
If there's any prohibition, if there's anything getting in your way, any prohibitive, any kind of obstacle to you receiving my mercy, I'm willing to go down in price. Basically, what you are able to offer, you need to offer that. But if you can't offer something, then offer what you can. even to the point of like, here's some flower, Lord. And that is just, again, it's not about being technical.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
It's not about this being like, what's the word? Unnecessarily subtle or necessarily nuanced. It is about the fact that this is a sign of God's great graciousness, a sign of his great love. What do you have to offer? Offer that. If you don't have the big thing to offer, then offer the small thing that you do have.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, whom the Egyptians hold in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the sons of Israel, I am the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
And this is what we give to the Lord every single day because so many of us have so little. So many of us have, gosh, not great hearts. So the Lord says, well, just give me the heart you have. So many of us have not great, incredible deeds. And so the Lord God says, well, just give me the small deed that you have. Not a lot of us have incredible opportunities to do big, big things for God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
So he says, okay, then do small things. I'll take it. Why? Because I am your God and you're my child. You're my son, you're my daughter, and I'm your dad. And so just whatever you have to offer, offer it and I'll receive it because that's how good he is. We keep praying for each other as we keep going through the Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
Please lift each other up in your prayer today because, you know, we don't know the battles we're all facing. And so just keep on interceding on behalf of each other. Pray for me too. Gosh, I need the Lord's mercy and his grace every single day. And I'm praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to continue this journey with you. And I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
And I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from their bondage and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment and I will take you for my people and I will be your God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we will read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 30, and that means today we're continuing our journey through Exodus and Leviticus and the book of Psalms. We'll be reading from Exodus chapter six and chapter seven. Leviticus chapter five and Psalm 47.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
and I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord. Moses spoke thus to the sons of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and their cruel bondage. And the Lord said to Moses, go in, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the sons of Israel go out of his land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
But Moses said to the Lord, behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me who am a man of uncircumcised lips? But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge to the sons of Israel and to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt. These are the heads of the father's houses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, Hanak, Palu, Hezron, and Carmi. These are the families of Reuben. The sons of Simeon, Jameel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the sons of a Canaanite woman. These are the families of Simeon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
These are the names of the sons of Levi, according to their generations, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, the years of the life of Levi being 137 years, the sons of Gershon, Libni, and Shimei, by their families, the sons of Kohath, Amram, Ishar, Hebron, and Uziel, The years of the life of Kohath being 133 years. The sons of Merari, Mali and Mushi.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
These are the families of the Levites according to their generations. Amram took to wife Jokabed, his father's sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. The years of the life of Amram being 137 years. The sons of Ishar, Korah, Nepheg, and Nechri, and the sons of Uziel, Mishael, Elzpahan, and Sithri. Aaron took to wife Elisheba, the daughter of Aminadab, and the sister of Nashon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
And she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. The sons of Korah, Asir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph, these are the families of the Korahites. Eleazar, Aaron's son, took to wife one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites by their families.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
These are the Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, Bring out the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts. It was they who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, about bringing out the sons of Israel from Egypt, this Moses and this Aaron. On the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, the Lord said to Moses, I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
But Moses said to the Lord, Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me? And the Lord said to Moses, See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to let the sons of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
And though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth my hosts, my people, the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from among them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
If you want to be able to follow along, not just with your ears, with your eyes, you want to be reading along. We are reading from the revised standard version, the Catholic edition. I'm using the great adventure Bible from Ascension, as well as have this Bible in a year. We have this Bible in a year reading plan for,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
So Moses and Aaron did so. They did as the Lord commanded them. Now Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83 years old when they spoke to Pharaoh. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, when Pharaoh says to you, prove yourselves by working a miracle, then you shall say to Aaron, take your rod and cast it down before Pharaoh that it may become a serpent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same by their secret arts. For every man cast down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
Still, Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he would not listen to them as the Lord had said. Then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he is going out to the water. Wait for him by the river's brink and take in your hand the rod which was turned into a serpent and you shall say to him,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness. And behold, you have not obeyed. Thus says the Lord, By this you shall know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will strike the water that is in the Nile with the rod that is in my hand, and it shall turn to blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
And the fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile shall become foul, and the Egyptians will loathe to drink water from the Nile. And the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, take your rod and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over the rivers, their canals and their ponds and all their pools of water that they may become blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
And there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded in the sight of Pharaoh, in the sight of his servants, he lifted up the rod and struck the water that was in the Nile and all the water that was in the Nile turned to blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. And there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
where you can know what's coming up, know where to be at, know where to be at in your Bible. When we start talking, you can get that for free at ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. Again, the Bible in a year reading plan at ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not lay even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug round about the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
Leviticus chapter 5.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
If anyone sins and that he hears a public adjuration to testify, and though he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
Or if anyone touches an unclean thing, whether the carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of an unclean cattle, or a carcass of unclean swarming things, and it is hidden from him, and he has become unclean, he shall be guilty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
Or if he touches human uncleanness, of whatever sort the uncleanness may be with which he becomes unclean, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it, he shall be guilty. Or if anyone utters with his lips a rash oath to do evil or to do good, any sort of rash oath that men swear, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it, he shall in any of these be guilty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
When a man is guilty of any of these, he shall confess the sin he has committed, and he shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord for the sin which he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
But if he cannot afford a lamb, then he shall bring as his guilt offering to the Lord for the sin which he has committed two turtle doves or two young pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. He shall bring them to the priest who shall offer first the one for the sin offering. He shall wring its head from its neck.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
but shall not sever it and he shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar while the rest of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar it is a sin offering and he shall offer the second for a burnt offering according to the ordinance and the priest shall make atonement for him and for the sin which he has committed and he shall be forgiven
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
But if he cannot afford two turtle doves or two young pigeons, then he shall bring as his offering for this in which he has committed a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering. He shall put no oil upon it and shall put no frankincense on it for it is a sin offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
You can also subscribe to this podcast, you know, whatever app you're using to listen to this podcast by just clicking subscribe. Once again, we are reading from Exodus chapter six, chapter seven, Leviticus chapter five and Psalm 47. Exodus chapter 6 and chapter 7. But the Lord said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will send them out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
And he shall bring it to the priest and the priest shall take a handful of it as a memorial portion and burn this on the altar upon the offerings by fire to the Lord. It is a sin offering. Thus the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed in any one of these things, and he shall be forgiven. And the remainder shall be for the priest, as in the cereal offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, If anyone commits a breach of faith, and sins unwittingly in any of the holy things of the Lord, he shall bring as his guilt offering to the Lord a ram without blemish out of the flock. valued by you in shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, it is a guilt offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
He shall also make restitution for what he has done amiss in the holy thing and shall add a fifth to it and give it to the priest and the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering and he shall be forgiven. If anyone sins doing any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, though he does not know it, yet he is guilty and shall bear its iniquity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
He shall bring to the priest a ram without blemish out of the flock valued by you at the price for a guilt offering, and the priest shall make atonement for him for the error which he committed unwittingly, and he shall be forgiven. It is a guilt offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
He is guilty before the Lord. Psalm 47, God's rule over the nations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
To the choir master, a psalm of the sons of Korah. Clap your hands, all you peoples. Shout to God with loud songs of joy, for the Lord, the most high, is awesome, a great king over all the earth. He subdued peoples under us and nations under our feet. He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loves. God has gone up with a shout. The Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
Sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises to our King. Sing praises. For God is King of all the earth. Sing praises with a psalm. God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne. The princes of the peoples gather as the people of God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
He is highly exalted. God, you are exalted and you're exalted above all ages.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
You are exalted above all names and you have revealed your name to us. So we cry out your name. We cry out the name of the son of God, Jesus Christ. You are our Lord and you are the God of the universe. You are the king over all and you reign on your holy throne. We ask that you please, you are the God who reigns. We ask that you also reign in our hearts. You're the king of creation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
We also ask that you are the king of our lives. Oh God, we give you permission this day. Not that you need our permission, but you are so humble that you choose to allow us to refuse your love or to receive your love. Lord God, this day, help us to receive your love. Help us to let ourselves be loved by you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
Help us to give you permission to redeem us once again, to save us once again, to give us your grace once again, and to love us once again. Lord God, every day is new with you. Your love is new every morning. Please give us your love today as we receive it from you with gratitude. Make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Man, it seems like every time we come back to the scripture, every time we jump back into the story, there's another thing that God reveals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
I mean, he continually reveals to us, but one of the things he reveals in the first chapter we read today from Exodus is how he has to remind Moses who he is, that he's basically making it absolutely clear. So Moses cannot forget, like, I am the Lord, your God, the God Almighty. I'm the God of your father, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
And he says, even he's saying, like we said yesterday, I revealed myself to them, but my name, the Lord, remember that sacred name of God, YHWH, Yahweh, I did not make myself known to them. He's saying to Moses, listen, you heard all of these stories of your ancestors. but listen, I'm doing something even more new, even newer with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
Yes, with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land. And God said to Moses, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty. But by my name, the Lord, I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they dwelt as sojourners.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
And so therefore go to the people of Israel, go to them and tell them like God is doing something new. And this is the gosh, the case in our lives as well, that there are so many things, so much of himself that God has revealed to us. And yet when we read scripture, when we're here right now, one of the things that he reveals to us again is like, okay, those are the things I've done in the past.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
Remember them because it's so easy to forget. That's one of the things, one of the themes we're gonna have for the course of this entire year. Remember the deeds of God, remember his heart because we're so tempted to have this short-term memory where we don't remember what God has done in light of what we're going through right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
We forget the past because of the present or because of our anxiety over the future. And so God here is reminding Moses, yes, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, but also I'm with you and I will be your God and I'm revealing myself to you in a new way. And that's what God is doing for us to remembering the past. That's why we're going through this scripture, not just
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
to learn stuff, but to be reminded of things that are so easy to forget, like God's character, like his heart, but also so that he can reveal himself to us now so that we can know him even more deeply and be able to follow him even more closely. It's just so good. I just am so grateful to the Lord. One of the things he reveals to us, not only in Exodus, but also in Leviticus today, is
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 30: Nile Turned to Blood (2025)
is that here is the sin offering. When a person commits a sin and there's this, it's so great. I don't know if you've noticed there were different categories, right? If you are the leader of the people, if you are the people, if you are a common person, then different sacrifices are being offered. Why? Because
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
For there is no truth in their mouth. Their heart is destruction. Their throat is an open sepulcher. They flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Because of their many transgressions, cast them out. for they have rebelled against you. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Let them ever sing for joy, and do defend them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
It's the Hebrew word hevel, which is a word that means vapor. I guess that's so kind of vanity in the sense of not vanity. I'm so vain. We said King Saul was inordinately preoccupied with What people thought of him, that's vanity. This is more along the lines of vapor, meaning meaninglessness. So vanity in terms of meaninglessness, not vanity in terms of what people think of me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and we thank you and we do rise early and we pray to you and we listen to your word, whether early or midday or whatever random time of the day, Lord God, we just, we allow you to speak your word to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Your word of the story of Solomon building his own home and the temple being constructed and the word of the Lord from Ecclesiastes coming face to face with the limits of human living and the limits of human life and the limits of human strength and power and wisdom and work and memory. With you, Lord God, though, righteousness and goodness and justice endures forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
With you, Lord God, our works endure forever. Without you, we can do nothing. But with you, all things are possible. Help us to do all things with you and for you and for the glory of your name. In Jesus' name we pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Oh gosh, okay. This is so good. Okay, 1 Kings chapter 7. First things first. Here we are.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
We have King Solomon. What's he doing? He is building. Because, remember, we talked about this before. Solomon is the builder. And so he's building his own home. And then we go back to Hiram. How Hiram is an artisan and he's able to make these incredible columns, these incredible pillars, essentially, in the house of the Lord with all the stuff and all the pomegranates and all. It's beautiful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
And we keep this in mind that while in Second Chronicles, which we departed from for just a moment, we'll come back to that in roughly, I don't know, 15 days or so. we had the story of Solomon completing the temple. But here in 1 Kings, we have the story of him in the action, in the very task of completing the temple, and we get some of the hint of the beauty of the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Just that's what we heard now in 1 Kings chapter 7. But In our first steps into the book of Ecclesiastes, one of the things we have is, okay, the words of the preacher. Now, the Greek rendering of the Hebrew is koalath. So the Hebrew word is koalath, and this is a Greek rendering of the Hebrew word koalath, which is one who convenes or speaks in the assembly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
That's a note from the Great Adventure Bible, if you'd like to know this. Hence the name preacher. The preacher says such and such. Okay. So that's koalath. One of the things that we recognize is the vanity of created things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Again, not vanity in terms of what others think or in order to preoccupation with the opinions of others, but vanity in terms of vapor, vanity in terms of like, it's a pursuit of the wind. You can't capture it. It's meaninglessness. And there's something that's so good about the reality.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
that the preacher, the reality that the wise one has come to, this understanding the wise one has come to, because he's saying essentially, okay, so here's what happens. The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north, just keeps going. And then the rivers, they all run to the sea, but the sea doesn't get filled up and the rivers don't dry out. So what's going on?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
And there's what has been is what will be. What has been done is what will be done. There's nothing new under the sun. Even if you say, hey, this is new. No, it's the same thing. And this is so good for us in our day and age. We can say, okay, oh gosh, the distress we're going through right now. This is so new. Like, well, no, human heart is the same. Human relationships are the same.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
The same dilemmas that attack us. Yeah, they might be attacking us in new ways. The challenges we're facing, we might be facing them with a new flavor. but they're the same. The struggle to love each other, the struggle to forgive each other, the struggle to keep going in the midst of what is simply what feels like meaningless toil. And that's what Koalath says. That's what the preacher says.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
I am just working so hard. And what happens is at the end of the day, it's gone. At the end of the day, I just end up working. And so in chapter two, it talks about this. It says, how about let me pursue self-indulgence. Let me just see if I can maximize happiness, maximize enjoyment in life. And so I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine. And here is Colette.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
So just keep that in mind. The author of the book of Ecclesiastes is kind of, it's ascribed to someone like King Solomon, the wisest. It is unknown exactly who is the author of Ecclesiastes, but that isn't necessarily important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Here's the preacher who sang. So what did I do? I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made pools and all these kinds of things. And it was interesting because he doesn't just talk about that base level of happiness, that base level of pleasure, which is found in wine or in good food. But he also talks about, okay, I'm going to surround myself with beauty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
So I made, as it says, I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. Basically, okay, you guys, I'm going to move into the next house, the next house we have. That's our dream house. And then we'll be happy. There's a radio personality. It talks about that. How he says, yeah, you can spend all you want on your dream house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 149. We are reading from 1 Kings chapter 7. We're also beginning today, five days of the book of Ecclesiastes, one of the wisdom books. We're reading Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and chapter 2.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
I got to tell you, within three years, it's not going to be your dream house anymore. And that sense of like, you're going to continue to pursue, pursue, pursue, because the human heart always wants more. And that's what he says. He says, the eye keeps seeing, but doesn't get filled up. And the ear keeps hearing, but doesn't get filled up. And so we realize that's meaningless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
So living for pleasure in this world, meaningless, right? He goes on to say, well, what about wisdom? What if I am the wisest person around? And he has this great example where he says, I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness. Yeah, it's way better to be wise than to be foolish. It says, the wise man has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
And yet, so the wise man has eyes, he can see, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet, I perceive that one fate comes to all of them, because what befalls the fool will befall me also. So basically, we're both going to die. So why would I have been wise? And he says, that's meaningless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
And this is so good because it goes on to say, for if the wise man, as of the fool, there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in days to come, all will have been long forgotten. Basically, I remember hearing someone ask the question, they said, okay, can you remember, what's the name of your great-great-grandfather? What's the name of your great-great-grandmother?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Like one day, your great-grandchildren will not know your name. I mean, even that sense that he asked the question, he said, who here can name all the presidents? The president of the United States, we might know the last couple, maybe you know the last 20, maybe you know the last 30, but who can name all of them?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Yet at one point, they were in charge of the country in which many of us who are listening to this live. And if you're not from the United States, like what can you name the prime minister or the whatever? Another way to say it is we just recognize that the day will come when nobody on this planet will even remember our name. They don't remember anything about us. And so here is Koalath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
What's important is the heart of the book of Ecclesiastes, and the big question it asks, which is, isn't life, in the face of all these things, all the things you can do, all the ways a person can work to make a name for themselves, all the ways a person can simply strive to maximize pleasure in their life, is it all meaningless? Does it amount to nothing?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Here's the preacher who says, then what we're living for to be a legacy, to have a legacy, to be remembered, that's going to go away. That seems meaningless. And even the last one he says here in chapter two, he talks about how I could accumulate all these things and pass on a legacy to my family. I could pass on a legacy to my kids.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
I could work so hard and like King David did and passed it on to his son Solomon or like Solomon did passing on to his son Rehoboam. And what happens is maybe my son will be a fool. Maybe the person who gets my stuff won't know what to do with my stuff. Maybe they won't value my stuff.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
How many times have you been bequeathed something from your grandmother or grandfather in their will that was their prized China collection or their prized whatever their thing was? And you're like, oh, yeah, I guess grandma liked this thing. I guess grandpa thought this was important. And you maybe appreciated it a little bit. but nowhere near the way they appreciated it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
That is just, wow, all vanity. And so what's happening though, the ultimate thing that the preacher is highlighting is this. If you're living in this world simply for this world, it's meaningless. If you're living in this world, a life apart from God, yes, time will erase everything. Time will erase everything. But This is where Coalesce goes to. This is where the preacher goes to.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Is there more than time? You know, if you're just living for this life, you're right. Do whatever you want because none of it matters. But if there's more than this life, if there's eternity, if there's actually a purpose to this life where in some way, even if our choices in this world don't endure in this world, they will endure in eternity, then life matters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
We're going to be exploring this for the next four days after today. This reality that... Only, only if God exists, only if he has a purpose for our lives, only if he cares about us, only if we're made in his image and likeness, does any choice of ours matter at all. Because if all there is, is this life, then everything in this life will pass away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
If all there is, is this world, everything in this world will pass away. And that's just how life is. It's passing. But if there's more to this life than just this life, if there is the Lord God who sees all things and all things matter to him, if your life matters to him, then everything we do matters to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
And so in our journey here with the preacher with Koalath in the book of Ecclesiastes, we're going to come face to face with the question of meaning or meaninglessness. And the only thing that can make this world and make this life meaningful is the reality that there's more than just this life. Okay, so here we are taking our first steps, our last steps in 1 Kings for the next couple of days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
But we have four more days before our next messianic checkpoint. So we have four more days of 1 Kings, four more days of Ecclesiastes, and then we launch into the gospel of Mark. But in these days, as we're facing the battle between meaning and meaninglessness, let's keep praying for each other because I'm praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
And so it's going to be a kind of a negative book, but it's going to be ultimately positive. And so I just invite you to hang with us for the next five days as we go through Ecclesiastes. As I said, it's day 149. We're reading 1 Kings chapter 7, Ecclesiastes 1 and 2. We're praying Psalm 5. The first book of Kings chapter seven, Solomon's house and other buildings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Solomon was building his own house 13 years and he finished his entire house. He built the house of the forest of Lebanon. Its length was a hundred cubits and its breadth 50 cubits and its height 30 cubits. And it was built upon three rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams upon the pillars. And it was covered with cedar above the chambers that were upon the 45 pillars, 15 in each row.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
There were window frames in three rows, and window opposite window in three tiers. All the doorways and windows had square frames, and window was opposite window in three tiers. And he made the hall of pillars. Its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth thirty cubits. There was a porch in front with pillars, and a canopy before them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
And he made the hall of the throne, where he was to pronounce judgment, even the hall of judgment. It was finished with cedar from floor to rafters. His own house where he was to dwell in the other court back of the hall was of like workmanship. Solomon also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had taken in marriage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
All these were made of costly stones, hewn according to measure, sawed with saws back and front, even from the foundation to the coping and from the court of the house of the Lord to the great court. The foundation was of costly stones, huge stones, stones of eight and 10 cubits. And above were costly stones, hewn according to measurement and cedar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
The great court had three courses of hewn stone roundabout and a course of cedar beams. So had the inner court of the house of the Lord and the vestibule of the house. works of Hiram the bronze worker. And King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre. He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
And he was full of wisdom, understanding, and skill for making any work in bronze. He came to King Solomon and did all his work. He cast two pillars of bronze. 18 cubits was the height of one pillar, and a line of 12 cubits measured its circumference. It was hollow, and its thickness was four fingers. The second pillar was the same.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
He also made two capitals of molten bronze to set upon the tops of the pillars. The height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits. Then he made two nets of checkerwork with wreaths of chain work for the capitals upon the tops of the pillars, a net for the one capital and a net for the other capital.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
We're also praying Psalm 5 today. As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Likewise, he made pomegranates in two rows round about the one network to cover the capital that was upon the top of the pillar. And he did the same with the other capital. Now the capitals that were upon the tops of the pillars in the vestibule were of lily work, four cubits. The capitals were upon the two pillars and also above the rounded projection which was beside the network.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
There were 200 pomegranates in two rows round about and so with the other capital. He set up the pillars at the vestibule of the temple. He set up the pillar on the south and called its name Jachin and he set up the pillar on the north and called its name Boaz.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
and upon the tops of the pillars was lily work thus the work of the pillars was finished then he made the molten sea it was round ten cubits from brim to brim and five cubits high and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference under its brim were gourds for thirty cubits compassing the sea round about the gourds were in two rows cast with it when it was cast it stood upon twelve oxen three facing north three facing west three facing south and three facing east
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
The sea was set upon them, and all their posterior parts were inward. Its thickness was a hand-breath, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held two thousand baths. He also made the ten stands of bronze. Each stand was four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high. This was the construction of the stands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
They had panels, and the panels were set in the frames, and on the panels that were set in the frames were lions, oxen, and cherubim. Upon the frames, both above and below the lions and oxen, there were wreaths of beveled work. Moreover, each stand had four bronze wheels and axles of bronze, and at the four corners were supports for a laver.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
The supports were cast, with wreaths at the side of each. Its opening was within a crown which projected upward one cubit. Its opening was round, as a pedestal is made, a cubit and a half deep. At its opening there were carvings, and its panels were square, not round. And the four wheels were underneath the panels.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking subscribe, and that would be wonderful. Now, one quick note before we begin Ecclesiastes. We're continuing with King Solomon in 1 Kings chapter 7. He's going to be building his own home and some other kinds of things. We're going to see some of those dimensions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
The axles of the wheels were of one piece with the stands, and the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half. The wheels were made like a chariot wheel. Their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all cast. There were four supports at the four corners of each stand. The supports were of one piece with the stands. And on the top of the stand, there was a round band half a cubit high.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
And at the top of the stand, its stays and its panels were of one piece with it. And on the surface of its stays and on its panels, he carved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to the space of each, with wreaths round about. After this manner he made the ten stands, all of them were cast alike, of the same measure, and of the same form.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
And he made ten lavers of bronze, each laver held forty baths, each laver measured four cubits, and there was a laver for each of the ten stands. And he set the stands, five on the south side of the house, and five on the north side of the house, and he set the sea at the southeast corner of the house. Hiram also made the pots, the shovels, and the basins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
So Hiram finished all the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of the Lord. Two pillars, the two bowls of the capitals that were on the tops of the pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on top of the pillars.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were upon the pillars the ten stands and the ten lavers upon the stands and the one sea and the twelve oxen underneath the sea now the pots the shovels and the basins all these vessels in the house of the lord which hiram made for king solomon were of burnished bronze
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
In the plain of the Jordan, the king cast them in the clay ground between Sukkoth and Zarethan. And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed because there were so many of them. The weight of the bronze was not found out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
So Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of the Lord, the golden altar, the golden table for the bread of the presence, the lampstands of pure gold, five on the south side and five on the north before the inner sanctuary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of gold, the cups, snuffers, basins, dishes for incense, and firepans of pure gold, and the sockets of gold for the doors of the innermost part of the house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the nave of the temple. Thus, all the work that King Solomon did on the house of the Lord was finished.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated, the silver, the gold, and the vessels, and stored them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Like yesterday, we followed the building, the construction of the temple and what that looked like. Today, it's Solomon's, some other buildings that he's building. Ecclesiastes is one of the, as I said, one of the books of wisdom literature. And so it is classically ascribed to Solomon himself. Remembering that Solomon is the wisest man who ever lived.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
The wind blows to the south and goes round to the north, round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full. To the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. All things are full of weariness. A man cannot utter it. the eyes not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, See, this is new? It has been already in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to happen among those who come after. Vanity in seeking wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
I, the preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem, and I applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the sons of men to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be numbered. I said to myself, I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my mind has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. and I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly, I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. Chapter 2. Vanity in Self-Indulgence I said to myself, come now, I will make a test of pleasure. Enjoy yourself. But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, it is mad and of pleasure, what use is it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine, my mind still guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, man's delight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure for my heart found pleasure in all my toil. And this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
And behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind. And there was nothing to be gained under the sun. vanity of folly and toil. So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly, for what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what he has already done. Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness. The wise man has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
This book of Ecclesiastes, this book of the Song of Solomon is, um, basically a wise person who's looking at the world and looking at how people are living, looking at how he himself has lived and is saying, this is all vanity. In fact, it'll say vanity of vanities. Everything is vanity. Well, one thing to keep in mind, that's kind of a strange translation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
And yet I perceived that one fate comes to all of them. Then I said to myself, what befalls the fool will befall me also. Why then have I been so very wise? And I said to myself that this also is vanity, for of the wise man as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten, how the wise man dies just like the fool.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool. yet he will be the master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a man who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by a man who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
what has a man from all the toil and strain with which he toils beneath the sun for all his days are full of pain and his work is a vexation even in the night his mind does not rest this also is vanity there is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil This also I saw is from the hand of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
For apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy. But to the sinner, he gives the work of gathering and heaping only to give to one who pleases God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
To the choir master for the flutes, a Psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O Lord. Give heed to my groaning. Listen to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice. In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not sojourn with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 149: All Is Vanity (2025)
The boastful may not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors bloodthirsty and deceitful men. But I, through the abundance of your merciful love, will enter your house. I will worship toward your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
But we do have to be reconciled first before we receive communion, or else that's another sin. So there's that reality, of course, that every one of us sins, but this is, St. Paul's talking about, this is a public sin. This isn't just some kind of, no one really knew about this, whatever he was, any kind of sin that'd be more private, I guess, more unknown.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
This one is completely known because of that, because it's so public. Um, for the sake of the community and for the sake of this man's soul, he has to be excommunicated in order for him to realize this and bring back. Okay. Hopefully he got the cut, all that. Um, yeah, you know, here we go. But going on to say, St. Paul points out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
About that time, Herod the king laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the Days of Unleavened Bread.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
That I wrote you to not associate with immoral people, immoral men, he says, but he doesn't mean the immoral of the world because he's like, because then you won't be able to associate with anybody. But I'm talking about those brothers and sisters here in the community who are acting and living in this particular way. Treat them as you would treat an outsider.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
And this is really, really important. Again, I don't know how to do this exactly in my daily life, but I think part of what it means is allowing the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sins and allowing fraternal correction, right? This fraternal correction of when a brother comes to me or sister comes to me and says, listen, I see what you're doing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
I see where you're standing and calls me to repentance. I have to listen to them. And maybe I have to do that to others as well. because we can't live this kind of divided life. In chapter six, St. Paul talks about lawsuits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
Then here are Christians treating each other like they're strangers, treating each other like they're enemies and bringing each other to task, to court, and says that's a disgrace. It's a disgrace that Christians would turn against Christians and actually sue each other, which is remarkable. Later on in that same chapter, he says the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
And he makes it very, very clear that here's a list of sins. Here's a list of ways in which people can sin that will separate them from God. And some of them are distant from us. Some of them are very close to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
So idolaters and adulterers, again, living outside of marriage, nor homosexuals or homosexual actions, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, no robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. Now, in that list, we can say, well, I don't do all those things. And St. Paul didn't say you have to do all of them. It's even one of them, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
That sense of like, I don't deal, I'm not an adulterer. Okay, but have I stolen? Well, I'm not a thief. Well, okay, do I get drunk regularly? You know, that sense of we can sometimes excuse ourselves and make ourselves the exception. But there is this list of sins that can separate a person from the Lord and keep them from eternal life with him. This is a word of God list.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
So we need to pay attention to every single word of God. Now here's the great news. St. Paul says to them, and such were some of you, all this whole list, immoral, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers, This is what some of you were. But he goes on. This is so good, you guys. This is the great news. But you were washed. You were sanctified.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
And when he had seized him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was being made to God by the church. An angel rescues Peter from prison.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. This is every one of us is broken. Every one of us is broken. No one is an exception. And every one of us is loved. None of us is an exception. Therefore, all of us have to let go of whatever sin it is. I've always felt this way. It doesn't matter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
I have to let go of this sin and turn to the Lord Jesus because he desires you and he desires me to let go of our sins, to turn to him in repentance, a spirit of sorrow and a spirit of trust in him and let him redeem us. As he says at the very end of this chapter is incredible. You are not your own. Someone says, well, this is my, again, I've always felt like this. I've always done this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
It's always been a struggle for me. Okay, fine. God loves you. God loves you. But you don't just get to go do what you want. You are not your own. You were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. You guys, this is part of our journey. Part of our journey is to allow the word of God to convict us, to recognize that we see ourselves. Now, in this list, you might see other people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
That is not the point. That is not the point. In this list is to see ourselves and to say, okay, and this is how broken I am. And this is how loved I am. So let the love part win, not the broken part. Let the broken part get killed by Jesus, get conquered by Jesus and live in that love. You are not your own. You were purchased at a price. So glorify God in your body.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 333. That's triple three. The number, a holy number. It's the number of the Trinity three times. It's incredible. It's a 333.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
Again, do not look at other people's sins like this. This is a list of your sins. This is a list of my sins. And I'm praying that I'm convicted by this list and by the Holy Spirit. I'm praying that you're convicted by this list and by the Holy Spirit. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
That very night, when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell, and he struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, Get up quickly. And the chains fell off his hands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
And the angel said to him, Dress yourself and put on your sandals. And he did so. And he said to him, Wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
It opened to them of its own accord, and they went out and passed on through one street, and immediately the angel left him. And Peter came to himself and said, Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter's voice in her joy, she did not open the gate, but ran in and told that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, You are mad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
But she insisted that it was so. They said, It is his angel. But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, Tell this to James and to the brethren. Then he departed and went to another place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
Now when day came, there was no small stir among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. And when Herod had sought for him and could not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and remained there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
The Death of Herod Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him in a body, and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king's country for food. On an appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and made an oration to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
And the people shouted, The voice of a god, and not of man! Immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died. But the word of God grew and multiplied, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
Not only that, it is the last day on the last second, the last page of the Bible in your reading plan. We're reading today Acts of the Apostles, chapter 12, as well as St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, chapter five and six and Proverbs chapter 28, verses one through three. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans. For a man is living with his father's wife, and you are arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
And as if present, I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
Do you not know that a little leaven leavens all the dough? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be new dough, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with immoral men, not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
But rather, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of immorality or greed or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber, not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Drive out the wicked person from among you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
Chapter six, lawsuits among believers. When one of you has a grievance against a brother, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more matters pertaining to this life?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
If then you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who are least esteemed by the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no man among you wise enough to decide between members of the brotherhood, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
Why not rather be defrauded? but you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that even your own brethren. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. And you would also be able to check off the last day on the second to last page and realize you only have, I don't know, three quarters of a page left and it would be, you would feel accomplished.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. Glorifying God in the body. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything. Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy both one and the other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
For as it is written, the two shall become one. But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own. You were bought with a price.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. When a land transgresses, it has many rulers, but with men of understanding and knowledge, its stability will long continue. A poor man who oppresses the poor is a beating rain that leaves no food.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
Thank you, Lord, for calling us. Thank you not only for calling us to yourself. Thank you for calling us to repentance. Thank you for calling us away from our sins and back to you, back to your heart, back to your love, back to your will. Lord God, we so easily, so easily, we walk, we go astray so easily. We can run from you. And not only that, we can even justify our running from you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
Help us to never, ever run from you. Help us to never give in to our base desires, never give in to our inclination or temptation to sin, but help us in every way to say yes to you, to say yes to your will, to say yes to your call to us to repent, to turn away from what kills us and turn towards you who gives us life. In Jesus' name we pray.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
You probably, hopefully you feel accomplished and actually legit. Like hopefully you feel accomplished because this is incredible. This day, three 33. That means that for 333 days, whether they were consecutive days or not, it doesn't matter. The fact is you made it to this point, and that is remarkable. You can also subscribe to this podcast if you'd like.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So while the Acts of the Apostles, we have James, the brother of John, who was killed by Herod. In this one chapter, in chapter 12, we have this story about how, on one hand, an apostle, James, is killed by Herod, and another apostle, Peter, is rescued by the Lord from Herod.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
It brings up the question of, wow, God miraculously delivered Peter from prison, why didn't he miraculously deliver James from being beheaded? And this can become one of the, again, an incredible weight, incredible question, an incredible unanswered question, a mystery, capital M mystery.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
When we look at the world and we say, okay, Lord, this, I just, you, you spared my life here, but ah, this person I love, the person I know about, maybe someone I never even met, but I heard about, they weren't spared. Why, Lord? And we can be so conflicted by this question that ultimately the answer we don't know. other than we are called to trust the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
James, in the last moments of his life, trusted in the Lord. Peter, as he was lying down, believing these to be the last moments of his life, trusted in the Lord. We don't know the way to the destination. We only know the destination. The destination is God himself. The destination, the end of the journey is him. The point of the journey is him. Again, the destination is life with him forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
We don't know the way. Sometimes the way is there through the, at the end of the sword. Here's James who gets killed, get to his destination. Here's Peter who has, no, the Lord says, you've got years to go. You've got miles to go before you sleep. So here he is delivered. We know the destination, but we don't know the way to the destination.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
And sometimes, just like we saw today in chapter 12 of the Acts of the Apostles, sometimes the way to the destination immediately is that death, that suffering, that pain. And sometimes it's a miracle, being part of a miracle like St. Peter was. The only thing we get to do is we get to say yes to that. We get to say, okay, Lord, whatever it is, we trust in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
So that was chapter 12 of the Acts of the Apostles. We also had chapters five and six of 1 Corinthians, which hopefully is challenging for us. So I mentioned yesterday how to live like a Corinthian was basically to say that someone was living a broken life. We'll say it like that. living a broken life when it came to morality.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
As we noted that things were gonna get bad, I think it's PG-13 to be able to say that here is a believer who's living with his father's wife. Yeah, and so basically his stepmother, essentially. And the problem that St. Paul has here is he's saying, this kind of behavior doesn't even happen among pagans, much less here as Christians. Now, here's an interesting thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
You could say, well, where did Jesus say don't do that? And yet we know that we are not to do that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
Not only does the Old Testament allude to this, but we also recognize that sexual morality doesn't necessarily, you know, the teachings of the Lord and teachings of the Bible and teachings of the church don't always specify every possible deviation or every possible, for lack of a better term, perversion or misuse of the sexual function doesn't do that because we're really creative as human beings and we can distort good things all of the time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
You don't have to, but you're invited to on day 333. That's how we do it. It is day 333, reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 12, St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 5 and 6, and Proverbs chapter 28, verses 1 through 3. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 12. James killed and Peter imprisoned by Herod.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
But what St. Paul is saying is I'm basically heartbroken and also somewhat horrified by the fact that here is this person among you who claims to be a believer who is publicly living in a way that goes against what we believe. And you guys are fine with it. And in fact, he even says you're arrogant. You boast of this. Are you not rather to mourn?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
This is one of those things that happens a lot, right? So there could be public people who are clearly violating the laws of God, clearly violating the laws of the church. They're claiming to be Christians. They're claiming to be Catholics. And here is St. Paul. He would have no time for that, just like he has no time for that right here. What his remedy is, he says, deliver him to Satan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
I'm telling you this. When you're assembled, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. Now, this is not kicking him out. This is the source of what we call excommunication. Excommunication is that you're no longer in communion with us. Therefore, you need to realize that your actions have placed you outside the relationship of the church. It's really interesting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
Excommunication doesn't do something other than it just simply recognizes something. What I mean by that is here, if you remember the old Flintstones opening where at one point Fred Flintstone takes Dino, Dino, the dinosaur dog thing they have, and like sticks him outside, puts him down, shuts the door. Sometimes we can think if that image strikes you as, oh, I have that memory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
Sometimes we imagine that excommunication is like that. It's not. It doesn't put someone outside the house. What it's doing is it's declaring, it's pointing out the reality that is already present. Here is someone, I'm standing outside the community by my very choices, by my actions. Here is this man in chapter five. He has already stepped outside of the community by living this particular way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
The church, therefore, is to say, we're declaring, we're pointing out to you, this is where you're standing. Therefore, you are not in communion with us. Therefore, you can't receive communion. That's part of the whole thing, that you can't receive communion because you're not in communion with us, because you're standing outside the family. You're standing outside the community.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
And by pointing this out, the idea here is, as St. Paul even says, deliver him to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. The idea being that he realizes he's outside and he comes back in. He realizes, I need to repent of my ways because right now, people just tolerating this doesn't call him to conversion in any way, shape or form.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
And unfortunately that this thing that happened in first Corinthians is still happening. It's happened for the last 2000 years. And the church has had to exercise this power of excommunication has had to exercise this power of being able to say, okay, you're claiming to be one of us. You're not living like us. Um, So we have to point this out. And you're not repenting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 333: Peter Is Rescued from Prison (2024)
I mean, obviously, every one of us sins, every single one of us sins. That's a different thing. You know this if you're a Catholic, that if we have serious sin, grave sin, mortal sin, we have to go to confession before we receive communion. I mean, we have to repent of our sins before we receive communion. That's not the same thing as excommunication.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
A song of ascents. Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord. my soul waits, and in his word I hope.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
My soul waits for the Lord more than watchman for the morning, more than watchman for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption, and he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
We thank you for the names and the fact that, God, this is a real story. It's a true story with real places and real people in a real time. And we are giving you praise because we also are real people at a real place in a real time. And we know that just as you acted in the lives of the people of Israel, you act in our lives today. Help us to see your hand and see your work today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
to follow your will and do it in all times and all things in the name of jesus we pray amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen as i said super exciting reading today oh my goodness but that's the case i mean that's one of the reasons why and this is not a commercial but it is definitely a reason why the great adventure bible is so helpful because in the back there are these things called maps and those maps you can look and see okay this is my invitation i should have said at the very beginning of this uh the reading for today
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
But we're going on to more descriptions tomorrow, so keep that in mind. But one of the things that you can do is I love the fact that since I'm reading this out loud and you're listening to this, you could go back to, say, for example, page 1,595 in your Great Adventure Bible, and you can actually follow with your eyes what you're hearing with your ears. And so it's not just kind of this...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Okay, here's some names. And they're going southward toward the desert and over this to the river and over this to this city. Instead, you can see it with your eyes and see that, oh no, this is a real place. It was in a real time divided among these real people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
And that's kind of the lesson I want to take is that we recognize that Judeo-Christianity, Christianity itself, is an historical religion. It's not just this idea that came out of nowhere. It actually is God himself who took flesh and dwelt among us at a particular time in a particular place. And following Christ is the same. We are not just kind of this esoteric kind of floating in the haze.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
We are actually called to be here and now. And so as you're driving to work or as you're coming home from work, as you're out for a walk or doing your dishes or whatever you're doing when you're listening to this,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
sitting down and reading your bible maybe know that god is with you just as he was with the people of israel not somewhere in the future not somewhere in the past but right now and right here and that's the lesson one of the lessons from today oh gosh let's keep praying for each other because uh Days like today sometimes are a little bit discouraging.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
We're like, man, I didn't get anything out of that. But know that the Lord is with you and the Lord does guide you as he's guiding all of us who want to be faithful to him. I'm praying for you. I know you are praying for me. I'm so grateful for that. My name is Father Mike and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
And the boundary on the north side runs from the bay of the sea at the mouth of the Jordan. And the boundary goes up to Beth Hogla and passes along north of Beth Arabah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
and the boundary goes up to the stone of Bohan, the son of Reuben, and the boundary goes up to Debir from the valley of Achor, and so northward, turning toward Gilgal, which is opposite the ascent of Adumim, which is on the south side of the valley, and the boundary passes along to the waters of En-Shemesh and ends at En-Rogel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Then the boundary goes up by the valley of the son of Hinnom at the southern shoulder of the Jebusite, that is Jerusalem. And the boundary goes up to the top of the mountain that lies over against the valley of Hinnom on the west at the northern end of the valley of Raphaim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Then the boundary extends from the top of the mountain to the spring of the waters of Naphtoa, and from there to the cities of Mount Ephron. Then the boundary bends around to Baala, that is Kiriath-Jerim, and the boundary circles west of Baala to Mount Seir, passes along the northern shoulder of Mount Jerim, that is Chesalon, and goes down to Beth Shemesh, and passes along by Timnah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
The boundary goes out to the shoulder of the hill north of Ekron. Then the boundary bends around to Shikaron and passes along to Mount Baala and goes out to Jabneel. Then the boundary comes to an end at the sea. And the west boundary was the great sea with its coastline. This is the boundary round about the people of Judah, according to their families. Caleb occupies his portion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
into that story today it is day 86 we are reading three chapters in joshua they are exciting action-packed chapters of joshua where we hear a lot about a map and if you ever heard all these words without a lot of context it's going to be a great journey because it's part of god's word and so we're going to hear from joshua chapter 15 16 17 and 18 that's four chapters of joshua and also praying psalm 130 the bible translation that i am using is the revised standard version second catholic edition i'm using the great adventure bible from ascension
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
According to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, he gave to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, a portion among the people of Judah, Kiriath Arba, that is Hebron. Arba was the father of Anak. And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak, Shashai, Anachiman, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak. And he went up from there against the inhabitants of Debir.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Now, the name of Debir formerly was Kiriath Sefir. And Caleb said, whoever strikes Kiriath Sefir and takes it, to him will I give Akshah, my daughter, as wife. And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it, and he gave him Akshah, his daughter, as wife.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field, and she alighted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, what do you wish? She said to him, give me a present, since you have set me in the land of the Negev, give me also springs of water. and Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. The towns of Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
This is the inheritance of the tribe of the people of Judah according to their families. The cities belonging to the tribe of the people of Judah in the extreme south toward the boundary of Edom were Kabzil, Eder, Jagur, Kinah, Dimunah, Adadah, Kadesh,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Hazor, Ethnan, Zif, Talim, B. Alath, Hazor Hadatah, Kerioth Hezron, that is Hazor, Amam, Shema, Moladah, Hazar Gadah, Hashmon, Beth Pellet, Hazar Shual, Bir Sheba, In all 29 cities with their villages, and in the lowland, Eshtahol, Zorah, Ashnah, Zanoah, Enganim, Tapuah,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Enam, Jarmuth, Adlam, Soko, Azekah, Sha'a Ra'im, Adita'im, Gedera, Jedirotha'im, 14 cities with their villages, Zanan, Hadashah, Migdal Gad, 16 cities with their villages. Ashna, Nezib, Keilah, Akzib, and Mereshah, nine cities with their villages. Ekron with its towns and its villages, from Ekron to the sea, all that were by the side of Ashdod with their villages.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Ashdod, its towns and its villages, Gaza, its towns and its villages, to the brook of Egypt and the great sea with its coastline. And in the hill country, Shamir, Jatir, Zoko, Dana, Kiriath-Sana, that is Debir, Anab, Eshtemo, Anim, Goshen, Holon, and Gilo, 11 cities with their villages. Arab, Duma, Eshan, Janim, Beth-Tepua, Afaka, Humta,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. We'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Kiriath Arba, that is Hebron, and Zeor, nine cities and their villages. Ma'on, Carmel, Ziph, Judah, Jezreel, Jokd'am, Zanua, Cain, Gibeah, and Timnah, ten cities with their villages. Halchul, Beth-Zur, Gidor, Ma'arath, Beth-Anath, and Eltakhan, six cities with their villages. Kiriath Baal, that is Kiriath Jerim, and Rabbah, two cities with their villages.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
In the wilderness, Beth Arabah, Medin, Sechakha, Nibshan, and the city of Salt, and Ein Gedi, six cities with their villages. But the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah, could not drive out. So the Jebusites dwell with the people of Judah at Jerusalem to this day. Chapter 16, the territory of Ephraim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
The allotment of the descendants of Joseph went from the Jordan by Jericho, east of the waters of Jericho into the wilderness, going up from Jericho into the hill country to Bethel. Then going from Bethel to Luz, it passes along to Atarath, the territory of the Arkites. Then it goes down westward to the territory of the Japhletites, as far as the territory of lower Beth-Haron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
To download your Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe in your podcast app. Did you know you can subscribe to this podcast? That just blows the mind. You don't have to keep searching for it every single day like you've been doing for the last 84 days or 85 days. On this day, 86, just hit that subscribe button and it finds you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Then to Gezer, and it ends at the sea. The people of Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim received their inheritance. The territory of the Ephraimites by their families was as follows. The boundary of their inheritance on the east was Atarath Adar, as far as upper Beth-Haron. And the boundary that goes thence to the sea on the north is Mikmathah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Then on the east, the boundary turns round toward Taanath Shiloh and passes along beyond it on the east to Genoa. Then it goes down from Genoa to Atteroth and to Naarah and touches Jericho, ending at the Jordan. From Tapua, the boundary goes westward to the brook of Cana and ends at the sea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Such is the inheritance of the tribe of the Ephraimites by their families, together with the towns which were set apart for the Ephraimites within the inheritance of the Manassites, all those towns with their villages. However, they did not drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer. So the Canaanites have dwelt in the midst of Ephraim to this day, but have become slaves to do forced labor."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
chapter 17 the territory of the half-tribe of manasseh west then the allotment was made to the tribe of manasseh for he was the firstborn of joseph to makir the firstborn of manasseh the father of gilead were allotted gilead and bashan because he was a man of war And allotments were made to the rest of the tribe of Manasseh by their families, Abi-Ezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Hefer, and Shemida.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
These were the male descendants of Manasseh by the son of Joseph, by their families. Now Zelophehad, the son of Hefer, son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, had no sons, but only daughters. And these are the names of his daughters, Malah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
They came before Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the leaders and said, The Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance along with our brethren. So according to the commandment of the Lord, he gave them an inheritance among the brethren of their father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Thus there fell to Manasseh ten portions besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which is on the other side of the Jordan, because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance along with his sons. The land of Gilead was allotted to the rest of the Manassites. The territory of Manasseh reached from Asher to Mikmethath, which is east of Shechem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Then the boundary goes along southward to the inhabitants of En-Tapua. The land of Tapua belonged to Manasseh, but the town of Tapua on the boundary of Manasseh belonged to the sons of Ephraim. Then the boundary went down to the brook of Cana. The cities here, to the south of the brook, among the cities of Manasseh belonged to Ephraim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Then the boundary of Manasseh goes on the north side of the brook and ends at the sea, the land to the south being Ephraim's and that to the north being Manasseh's. With the sea forming its boundary, on the north Asher is reached and on the east Issachar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Also in Issachar and in Asher, Manasseh had Beth She'an and its villages and Ibrahim and its villages and the inhabitants of Dor and its villages and the inhabitants of Endor and its villages. and the inhabitants of Tanakh and its villages, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages. The third is Nephath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
You don't even have to find it. It finds you. As I said, today is day 86. Reading from Joshua 15, 16, 17, and 18 and praying Psalm 133. The book of Joshua chapter 15, the territory of Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Yet the sons of Manasseh could not take possession of those cities, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. But when the sons of Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor and did not utterly drive them out. The tribe of Joseph protests.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
And the tribe of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, Why have you given me but one lot and one portion as an inheritance, although I am a numerous people, since hitherto the Lord has blessed me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
And Joshua said to them, If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest, and there clear ground for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you. The tribe of Joseph said, The hill country is not enough for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Yet all the Canaanites who dwell in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Beth-shan and its villages, and those in the valley of Jezreel. Chapter 18 The Territories of the Remaining Tribes Then the whole congregation of the sons of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
There remained among the sons of Israel seven tribes whose inheritance had not yet been apportioned. So Joshua said to the sons of Israel, How long will you be slack to go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Provide three men from each tribe, and I will send them out, that they may set out and go up and down the land, writing a description of it with a view to their inheritances, and then come to me. They shall divide it into seven portions, Judah continuing in his territory on the south, and the house of Joseph in their territory on the north."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
And you shall describe the land in seven divisions and bring the description here to me, and I will cast lots for you here before the Lord our God. The Levites have no portion among you, for the priesthood of the Lord is their heritage. And Gad and Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan eastward, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
The lot for the tribe of the people of Judah, according to their families, reached southward to the boundary of Edom, to the wilderness of Zin at the farthest south, and their south boundary ran from the end of the salt sea from the bay that faces southward.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
so the men started on their way and joshua charged those who went to write the description of the land saying go up and down and write a description of the land and come again to me and i will cast lots for you here before the lord in shiloh so the men went and passed up and down in the land and set down in a book a description of it by towns in seven divisions
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Then they came to Joshua in the camp at Shiloh, and Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord. And there Joshua apportioned the land to the sons of Israel to each his portion, the territory of Benjamin. The lot of the tribe of Benjamin, according to its families, came up, and the territory allotted to it fell between the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Joseph.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
On the north side, their boundary began at the Jordan. Then the boundary goes up to the shoulder north of Jericho, then up through the hill country westward. It ends at the wilderness of Beth-Aven. From there, the boundary passes along southward in the direction of Luz, to the shoulder of Luz. Same is Bethel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Then the boundary goes down to Atarath-Adar, upon the mountain that lies south of lower Beth-Haron. Then the boundary goes in another direction, turning on the western side southward from the mountain that lies to the south opposite Beth-horon, and it ends at Kiriath Baal, that is Kiriath-Jerim, a city belonging to the tribe of Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
This forms the western side, and the southern side begins at the outskirts of Kiriath-Jerim, and the boundary goes up from there to Ephron, to the springs of the waters of Nephthah. Then the boundary goes down to the border of the mountain that overlooks the valley of the sons of Hinnom. which is at the north end of the valley of Rephaim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
And then it goes down the valley of Hinnom, south of the shoulder of the Jebusites, and downward to En-Rogel. Then it bends in a northerly direction, going on to En-Shemesh, and thence goes to Geliloth, which is opposite the ascent of Adumim. Then it goes down to the stone of Bohan, the son of Reuben. And passing on to the north of the shoulder of Beth-Arabah, it goes down to the Arabah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Then the boundary passes on to the north of the shoulder of Beth-Hogla. And the boundary ends at the northern bay of the Salt Sea, at the south end of the Jordan. This is the southern border. The Jordan forms its boundary on the eastern side. This is the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin, according to its families, boundary by boundary, roundabout.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
It goes out southward of the ascent of Akrabim, passes along to Zin, and goes up south of Kadesh Barnea, along by Hezron, up to Adar, turns about to Karka, passes along to Asman, goes out by the brook of Egypt." and comes to its end at the sea. This shall be your south boundary. And the east boundary is the salt sea to the mouth of the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 86: The Real Presence of God (2025)
Now, the cities of the tribe of Benjamin, according to their families, were Jericho, Beth-Hogla, Emek-Kaziz, Beth-Arabah, Zimaraim, Bethel, Avim, Parah, Ophrah, 12 cities with their villages, 14 cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin according to its families.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
They are ever full of sap and green to show that the Lord is upright.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
Lord God, you are faithful and you keep us coming back to you. You help us to be faithful because you are so good. Lord God, this is day 58 and you have brought us to this day. You brought us to this morning, to this midday, to this afternoon, to this evening. Lord, you've brought us to this moment because you are faithful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
Even when we are unfaithful, even when we forget, you are faithful and you never forget your children. Lord God, help us, help us truly to belong to you. Help us to remain faithful, not just by reading your word and letting it be proclaimed to our ears and our minds and our hearts, but also, Lord God, like yesterday, we prayed, help us to hear, oh Israel, that we belong to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
that we love you with everything we have. Lord God, help us to love you with everything we have, even when we are weak, even when we struggle, even when we stumble, even when we sin. Lord God, help us. We know that you will never abandon us or give up on us. And so, Father, in Jesus' name, we trust in you, we praise you, we thank you. And we ask for your continued faithfulness. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So, as we're praying through Numbers chapter 7, one of the things that strikes us is the repetitive nature of Numbers chapter 7. Like, oh my goodness, we had to go through all those? Yes, we did, because it is the Word of God, and it is a gift to all of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
Two wagons and four oxen he gave to the sons of Gershon according to their service, and four wagons and eight oxen he gave to the sons of Merari according to their service, under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest. But to the sons of Kohath he gave none, because they were charged with the care of the holy things which had to be carried on the shoulder.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
One of the things that it shows is, okay, this is Numbers chapter 7, but the events of Numbers chapter 7 actually happened before the events of Numbers chapter 1. Why? Because it's the dedication of the temple. So this is basically—or sorry, not the temple, but the tabernacle. So before all the worship of the tabernacle has happened or begins—
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
The 12 tribes of Israel with the representatives of the 12 tribes of Israel have come to Moses and Aaron and they have brought all of these gifts for sacrifice and all these gifts for the Levites. And so one of the things that we note is we kind of did a little time traveling here as we are recounting what had happened. prior to the events of worship in the tabernacle in Numbers chapter 1.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
So just keep that in mind. That's just kind of a little recap of what happened before that. Now, one thing to be able to draw our attention to when it comes to Numbers chapter 7 with the offerings of the leaders, one is that every single tribe contributed to the worship of the tabernacle. Every single tribe brought the same thing. In fact, that's why it was so repetitive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
But that shows us the humility of the people of Israel. It shows us that sense of, okay, Judah is not bringing more than Manasseh. And it's a sense of, okay, here is what the Lord has asked of us. So that's what we're all going to bring. We're all going to bring a silver platter that's 130 shekels. You're all going to bring a bowl that weighs 70 shekels.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
One thing, though, that is unique, there is one family here that gets some special attention. We saw that when the tribes of Israel brought forth the oxen and the carts, the four wagons and the eight oxen, that Moses gave them to the family of Gershon and gave the family of Merari for their service.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
So they have now two wagons, four oxen, the sons of Gershon, and then four wagons and eight oxen he gave to the sons of Merari. But it says to the sons of Kohath, he gave none. Why? Because remember what the job of the sons of Kohath was. The jobs of the sons of Kohath were to carry the holy objects, were to carry the sacred objects.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
And so those objects, if you remember back when they had to design them, they were made of acacia wood, overlaid with gold. And then those special objects had rings through which poles of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, were put through the rings. They were never to be put on a cart or on a wagon. They were only to be carried.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
And so it's such an interesting thing that out of all the objects of the tabernacle, sons of Kohath, you don't need any dedicated wagons. You don't need any dedicated oxen because these things are so holy, so set apart that you are going to carry them yourselves. And that's just, I just think that, I don't know, it's pretty neat because it does show the uniqueness of holy things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
And that's worth noting. Now, with that being said of Numbers chapter 7, we have to say one quick note on Deuteronomy chapter 7. And that quick note is a difficult note because it has to do with the injunction to have no mercy on the people into whose land the people of Israel are going to go, right? They're going to go to take the land, take possession of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
And the leaders offered offerings for the dedication of the altar on the day it was anointed. And the leaders offered their offerings before the altar. And the Lord said to Moses, they shall offer their offerings one liter each day for the dedication of the altar. He who offered his offering the first day was Nashon, the son of Anaminadab of the tribe of Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
And when they do that, they are not to spare them. They're not to have mercy on them. Now, we're going to talk more about this as time goes on. But the most important thing, you might say, why is this? And it's highlighted incredibly clearly in Deuteronomy chapter 7. And it's going to be repeated multiple times throughout the course of Deuteronomy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
And also what we're going to get when we get to Joshua and when we get to, man, well, I was taking such a hard stance against that intermingling with the peoples of the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Jebusites and the Canaanites. Why? Is because you're going to want to be, this is the Lord God essentially saying, you're going to want to be like the people around you. I know you already.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
Like again, remember this is Deuteronomy. Moses has already led these, he's lived with these people for their entire lives. They've been in the wilderness for 38 years. And Moses is saying, I know you. When you go into the land in which you're to occupy, you're going to want to marry them. You're going to want to live among them. You're going to want to be like them. But you can't be like them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
Not because you're special, he even says. Not because you're special, but because the Lord loves you. This is so important. This can seem so problematic to us, right? That it seems that God is commanding no mercy. And yet, let that not. We're going to look at that more deeply later on. Just trust me on this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
But the core of this is you can't be like the other people in the promised land because you're the people that I love. Not that I don't love them, but this is a particular kind of love. It is through you. It's through your faithfulness. It's through this covenant, this relationship that we have that the entire world is going to be blessed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 58, so we are reading today. Keep an On with our numbers, reading Numbers chapter 7 and Deuteronomy chapter 7. We're also going to be praying from Psalm 92.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
But before that, before that, you're going into a place that is dangerous at such a place that if you don't hold onto your faith on purpose, if you don't know my great love for you and never ever forget it, you are going to let go of it. And if you let go of this, if you let go of your faith, if you let go of your uniqueness, then the world will not be blessed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
If you let go of this, then my plan to bless the entire world through you will be thwarted. And so again, it's not because you're the best. That's what Moses says to the people of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
The Lord says through Moses to the people of Israel, not because you're great, not because you're amazing, not because you're the best, but because I love you and I've chosen you to be my instrument, to be a blessing to the world. But first you have to hold on to your faith. You cannot sacrifice it by intermarrying with people who do not believe what you believe.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
who are not in covenant with me because you will let go of the covenant. He will not be who the world needs you to be. You have to be unique. You have to be different. You can't let that go because if you do, the world will not be blessed. See, God's playing the long game here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
His long game is one, as I immediately love you now and I've chosen you now, but that also means right now you have to be faithful. Ultimately, we're going to bless the world. But right now, you have to be different than the world. That can be a hard word, but at the same time, it's a true word, and it's the word that we're going to keep walking with. And so it's not the final word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
And his offering was one silver plate whose weight was 130 shekels, one silver basin of 70 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
It is just the true word that we're going to keep walking with. You guys, I am praying for you, especially when we get to hard readings or difficult readings. We're going to read about battles. As I mentioned before, we're going to read about violence, and that is a reality of life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
And it's a reality of our ancestors, the people of Israel, whom the Lord has chosen, but he's chosen them for a very particular role in salvation history. And that is that they need to be faithful so that ultimately God can bless the world. I bless you right now in Jesus' name. I pray for his protection over you, his blessing over all of you, and ask you for your prayers for me as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
This is such a great journey. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you all tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
one gold dish of 10 shekels full of incense, one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering, one male goat for a sin offering, and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Nashon, the son of Amminadab.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
On the second day, Nethanel, the son of Zuar, leader of Issachar, made an offering. he offered for his offering one silver plate whose weight was a hundred and thirty shekels one silver basin of seventy shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for his cereal offering one golden dish of ten shekels full of incense one young bull one ram
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering, one male goat for a sin offering, and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Nethanel, the son of Zuar. On the third day, Eliab, the son of Halon, the leader of the men of Zebulun,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
His offering was one silver plate whose weight was 130 shekels, one silver basin of 70 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering, one golden dish of 10 shekels full of incense, one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering, one male goat for a sin offering, and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
This was the offering of Eliab, the son of Halon. On the fourth day, Elisur, the son of Shadur, the leader of the men of Reuben. His offering was one silver plate whose weight was 130 shekels, one silver basin of 70 shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
one golden dish of ten shekels full of incense, one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering, one male goat for a sin offering, and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Elisur, the son of Shedior.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
On the fifth day, Shelumiel, the son of Zerushadai, the leader of the men of Simeon, his offering was one silver plate, whose weight was a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver basin of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for cereal offerings, one golden dish of ten shekels full of incense, one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old for burnt offering,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
one male goat for a sin offering, and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Shulamiel, the son of Zerushadai. On the sixth day, Eliasaph, the son of Deuel, the leader of the men of Gad,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
As always, I am reading from the Bible translation called the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. As always, I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in the Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in the Year. And if you have not yet subscribed in your podcast app, please do that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
his offering was one silver plate whose weight was a hundred and thirty shekels one silver basin of seventy shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering one golden dish of ten shekels full of incense one young bull one ram one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
one male goat for a sin offering, and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Eliasaph, the son of Deol. On the seventh day, Elishema, the son of Amihud, the leader of the men of Ephraim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
His offering was one silver plate whose weight was 130 shekels, one silver basin of 70 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
one golden dish of 10 shekels full of incense, one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering, one male goat for a sin offering, and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Elishema, the son of Amihud.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
On the eighth day, Gamaliel, the son of Pedazur, the leader of the men of Manasseh. His offering was one silver plate whose weight was 130 shekels,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
one silver basin of seventy shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering, one golden dish of ten shekels full of incense, one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering, one male goat for a sin offering, and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
This was the offering of Gamaliel, the son of Petazur." on the ninth day abed-dan the son of gideoni the leader of the men of benjamin his offering was one silver plate whose weight was a hundred and thirty shekels one silver basin of seventy shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
one golden dish of ten shekels full of incense, one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering, one male goat for a sin offering, and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Abedan, the son of Gideonai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
On the tenth day, Ahiezar, the son of Amishaddai, the leader of the men of Dan, his offering was one silver plate whose weight was 130 shekels, one silver basin of 70 shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
one golden dish of ten shekels full of incense, one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering, one male goat for a sin offering, and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Ahiezar, the son of Amishadai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
That way you can receive all of your daily updates. Today, once again, it's day 58. We're reading Numbers chapter 7, Deuteronomy chapter 7, and Psalm 92. Numbers chapter 7, offerings of the leaders.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
On the eleventh day, Pagiel, the son of Okran, the leader of the men of Asher, his offering was one silver plate, whose weight was a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver basin of seventy shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering, one golden dish of ten shekels full of incense, one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
one male goat for a sin offering, and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Pagiel, the son of Okran. On the twelfth day, Ahira, the son of Enan, the leader of the men of Naphtali.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
His offering was one silver plate, whose weight was a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver basin of seventy shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
one golden dish of ten shekels full of incense, one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old for burnt offering, one male goat for a sin offering, and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Ahira, the son of Enon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
This was the dedication offering for the altar on the day when it was anointed from the leaders of Israel, 12 silver plates, 12 silver basins, 12 golden dishes, each silver plate weighing 130 shekels and each basin 70, all the silver of the vessels, 2,400 shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary, the 12 golden dishes full of incense weighing 10 shekels a piece according to the shekel of the sanctuary, all the gold of the dishes being 120 shekels,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
All the cattle for a burnt offering, 12 bulls, 12 rams, 12 male lambs a year old with their cereal offering, and 12 male goats for a sin offering. And all the cattle for the sacrifice of peace offerings, 24 bulls, the rams 60, the male goats 60, and the male lambs a year old 60. This was the dedication offering for the altar after it was anointed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was upon the ark of the covenant from between the two cherubim, and it spoke to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
Moses continued. when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than yourselves."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
On the day when Moses had finished setting up the tabernacle and had anointed and consecrated it with all its furnishings and had anointed and consecrated the altar with all its utensils, the leaders of Israel, heads of their fathers' houses, the leaders of the tribes who were over those who are numbered, offered and brought their offerings before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
And when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not make marriages with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons. For they would turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. But thus shall you deal with them. You shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and hew down their asherim and burn their graven images with fire. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love upon you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath which he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
Know therefore that the Lord your God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and merciful love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations and repays to their face those who hate him by destroying them. He will not be slack with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the ordinances which I command you this day. Blessing for obedience. And because you listen to these ordinances and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the merciful love which he swore to your fathers to keep. He will love you, bless you and multiply you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
He will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your cattle. And the Lord will take away from you all sickness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
And none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict upon you. But he will lay them upon all who hate you. And you shall destroy all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. Your eyes shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. If you say in your heart, these nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. so will the Lord your God do to all the people of whom you are afraid.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
six covered wagons and 12 oxen, a wagon for every two of the leaders and for each one an ox. They offered them before the tabernacle. Then the Lord said to Moses, accept these from them that they may be used in doing the service of the tent of meeting and give them to the Levites. to each man according to his service. So Moses took the wagons and the oxen and gave them to the Levites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
Moreover, the Lord your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is in the midst of you, a great and terrible God. The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
But the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed. And he will give their kings into your hand and you shall make their name perish from under heaven. Not a man shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. The graven images of their gods you shall burn with fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become accursed like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is an accursed thing. Psalm 92, Thanksgiving for Vindication, a psalm, a song for the Sabbath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to declare your merciful love in the morning and your faithfulness by night, to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre. For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work. At the work of your hands I sing for joy. How great are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
The dull man cannot know, the stupid cannot understand this, that though the wicked sprout like grass, and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever. But you, O Lord, are on high forever. For behold, your enemies, O Lord, for behold, your enemies shall perish. All evildoers shall be scattered. But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 58: A Chosen People (2025)
You have poured over me fresh oil. My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies. My ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants. The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord. They flourish in the courts of our God. They still bring forth fruit in old age.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
And he's writing to them, revealing to them. the power of worship that's happening in heaven. In fact, look at this chapter eight, the very beginning, it talks about this golden censer. And it says this, it says, he stood at the altar, this is chapter eight, verse three. Another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
He's given much incense to mingle with the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense rose up with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God. Remember this, remember that these are the prayers of the saints, the holy ones on earth. going up before God, who presented before God by those saints, the holy ones in heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
And this is so important because we have the intercession of the angels. We have intercession of saints. Here we have this worship in heaven happening. And this is very important because we're going to get in a second, we're going to get the image of the temple in heaven, but Stay tuned. We next have the seven trumpets. So the seven angels, the seven trumpets. We first have the seven seals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
And there were peals of thunder, loud noises, flashes of lightning and an earthquake. the seven angels and seven trumpets. Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets made ready to blow them. The first angel blew his trumpet and there followed hail and fire mixed with blood, which fell on the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Then we have the seven trumpets. This is hopefully you've noticed that from the scrolls, yep, there were some pretty big destruction came upon the earth. And those correlated with the destruction that Jesus Christ himself had prophesied would happen. Like every one of those seven images of destruction correspond directly with what Jesus had said.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Now we have the seven trumpets, and you can notice this, is that there's even more destruction. There's also gonna be seven bowls, and the seven bowls are gonna be even more destruction. So just keep that in mind. We have the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls that mark destruction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Now, this can be a lot to take, and that is a lot to take, maybe even for John, who was witnessing this whole thing. We're just hearing about it, but John got to see this whole thing. And what's happening is he's given a little reprieve Here's a voice that speaks to him from heaven saying, go take the scroll, which is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Went to the angel, told him to give me the little scroll. He said, take it and eat it. It will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey to your mouth. And there's this moment of, I would say even compassion on John. At the same time, this scroll that's bitter to his stomach but sweet to his taste, it relates both the sufferings and the victories of Christ's church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
He's given both a taste of the desolation and a taste of the consolation before he has to prophesy again about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings. Now, this is just, again, it's fascinating. Let's go back. I keep jumping back and forth, but we're going back to chapter 9, verse 20. It says, the rest of mankind, this is after the horns were blown.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
It says, the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot either see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their immorality or their thefts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
I think it's important for us to recognize, yes, this is judgment coming upon the world, but this is judgment meant to be oriented towards repentance. This is so important for all of us. I mean, even right. Peter said this. He said, when you're considering the Lord's return delay, it's not delay. It's he's God's being patient. He's being patient.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
So you can actually turn back to him at some point though. I'm not going to say God's patient runs out. That's not true. God doesn't run out of patience. God is long suffering. He endures so much, but at some point, the time, the opportunity runs out. And this is one of the messages of Revelation. It's one of the messages of the Bible is that here is God who loves you so much. He loves me so much.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 361. We are reading Revelations chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11, as well as the entire book of Philemon, or Philemon, depending on how you like to say it. I like to say Philemon because...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
And a third of the earth was burnt up and a third of the trees were burnt up and all the green grass was burnt up. The second angel blew his trumpet and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died and a third of the ships were destroyed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
He loves all of us so much, every single person. And at some point, the time is going to run out. Again, it's not God's love that runs out. It's not his patience that runs out. It is just the time. At some point, we get what we've chosen. And even after some of these plagues and after some of these devastating things happening upon the earth, there are those who will continue to choose themselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
They'll continue to choose anything but God. In chapter 11, we have these two witnesses. And in these two witnesses, it's very, very... the mysterious, who they are. They could simply be, you know, two Christian prophets in this context.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
But at the same time, it talks about how they have power, and this is chapter 11, verse 6, says that they have power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of the prophesying, and they have power over the water to turn them into blood. and to afflict the earth with every plague as often as they desire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
That kind of sounds a little bit like two people we encountered in the Old Testament. Who was an Old Testament person who had power to shut the sky so that no rain fell for, I think it was three years. His name was Elijah. Who was the prophet who turned waters into blood and had every plague afflict the earth? Well, that was Moses. So it could be possible in some ways that this is...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Moses and Elijah reappearing, or this is prophets who kind of symbolize Moses and Elijah. Um, regardless what it is, is here is a clear sign that God is present. God is active. God is real. And what it happens, the nations of the world team up and kill them. And then they congratulate each other over having killed these two prophets. And I think there's something so powerful about this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
You know how often in the New Testament here, the Christians have written about, you can't belong to both the world and to God. And a lot of us, we think, well, no, I mean, I kind of live in a decent, there's decent people around me in the world. And you're right. There are decent people all over the place, everywhere. At the same time,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
When we fully belong to the Lord, in some ways we can see ourselves and say, I don't really belong to this world. I don't really belong here. I don't feel like I fit in. We should often as Christians feel like we don't fit in. I think too often we feel like we fit in and that might not be to our benefit. That might actually be to our detriment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
They've killed these two prophets, these two witnesses. Witness in this term, in the sense, you know, it's the Greek, which means martyr. They've killed them and they're celebrating and it says, they gaze upon their dead bodies and what happens? They rejoice over them, make merry and exchange presents because these two prophets have been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
And that's what the world does to prophets. Sometimes the world recognizes that they were holy, but gosh, you can even think of people that have died recently in our age who have been clearly holy. And yet, people call into question their holiness. Maybe they had something going on. Maybe they had some ulterior motive. Maybe there was some other kind of deception happening in their life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
And of course, we're all broken, but think about how much the world hates holiness. I think we like it from afar, but when it's up close, we don't like it. And so we have this opportunity. The opportunity is to turn back to the Lord. Last little note. At the end of chapter 11, we have John looking into heaven. He says this in verse 19.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
The third angel blew his trumpet and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the fountains of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became Wormwood and many men died of the water because it was made bitter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple, and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. Once again, like a Mount Sinai situation, but also he sees the ark of the covenant. This is the end of chapter 11. This is absolutely so important for us to pay attention to. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Because the Ark of the Covenant has been lost. Remember, Jeremiah hated away hundreds of years before this. And now John sees it for the first time in his entire life, for the first time in centuries. He looks into heaven and he sees the Ark of the Covenant. This is so important. Why? Because it's in the Lord's temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Remember, the worship that was happening in heaven is now happening in Christian churches, is happening on altars, is happening in the Catholic church. all of the time. This is the place. This is the action. And this is the work that you and I are made for. I'm sorry this is so long. But again, we only have a few days left for each other. But here we are on day 361.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
What a gift it is to just, again, hear. It's not a gift to hear about judgment, but it is a gift to hear, here's what the Lord is doing. He has brought judgment to the world. He will bring it again, not to punish those who are innocent, but to bring justice to this world. I'm just praying for myself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
And I pray for you that we can be recipients of God's mercy, even in the midst of the need for justice. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
The fourth angel blew his trumpet and a third of the sun was struck and a third of the moon and a third of the stars so that a third of their light was darkened. A third of the day was kept from shining and likewise a third of the night. Chapter 9 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key of the shaft of the bottomless pit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those of mankind who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads. They were allowed to torture them for five months, but not to kill them. And their torture was like the torture of a scorpion when it stings a man. In those days, men will seek death and not find it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
They will long to die and death will fly from them. In appearance, the locusts were like horses arrayed for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold. Their faces were like human faces, their hair like women's hair, and their teeth like lion's teeth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
They had scales like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails like scorpions and stings, and their power of herding men for five months lies in their tails. They have as a king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
The first woe has passed. Behold, two woes are still to come. Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
So the four angels were released, who had been held ready for the hour, the day, the month, and the year to kill a third of mankind. The number of the troops of cavalry was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number. And this is how I saw the horses in my vision.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
The riders wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur, and the heads of the horses were like lion's heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur issued from their mouths. By these three plagues, a third of mankind was killed by the fire and smoke and sulfur issuing from their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
I don't know, that's the way I first heard it. And we're also reading Proverbs chapter 31, verses 16 through 18. The Bible translation I'm reading from, as always, is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound. The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, nor give up worshipping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot either see or hear or walk.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their immorality or their thefts. Chapter 10 The Angel with the Little Scroll Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud with a rainbow over his head and his face was like the sun and his legs like pillars of fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
He had a little scroll open in his hand and he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land and called out with a loud voice like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
And the angel whom I saw standing on sea and land lifted up his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there should be no more delay, but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God, as he announced to his servants, the prophets should be fulfilled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Then the voice which I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, Go, take the scroll which is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land. Chapter 11 The Two Witnesses Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and I was told, rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there. But do not measure the court outside the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan for these last five days, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Maybe you'd be preparing for the next trip around these 365 days of scripture by getting the Bible in your reading plan. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. It is day 361.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Leave that out for it is given over to the nations and they will trample over the holy city for 42 months. And I will grant my two witnesses power to prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands which stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
If anyone would harm them, thus he is doomed to be killed. They have power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying. And they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to afflict the earth with every plague as often as they desire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit will make war upon them and conquer them and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
For three days and a half, men from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
But after three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them and they stood up on their feet and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, Come up here. And in the sight of their foes, they went up to heaven in a cloud. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe has passed. Behold, the third woe is soon to come.
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Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
The Seventh Trumpet Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who are and who were, that you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth. Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
The Letter of Paul to Philemon Salutation
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy, our brother. To Philemon, our beloved fellow worker, and Apphia, our sister, and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and the church in your house. Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
We're reading revelations chapters eight, nine, 10 and 11, as well as Philemon and Proverbs 31 verses 16 through 18. The revelation to John chapter eight, the seventh seal and the golden censer. When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God and seven trumpets were given to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Philemon's Love and Faith I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints. And I pray that the sharing of your faith may promote the knowledge of all the good that is ours in Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. Paul's plea for Onesimus. Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love's sake, I prefer to appeal to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
I, Paul, an ambassador, and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus, I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me. I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
I would have been glad to keep him with me in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion, but of your own free will.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Perhaps this is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, as a beloved brother. especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. So, if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. If he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, charge that to my account.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
I, Paul, write this with my own hand. I will repay it, to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping through your prayers to be granted to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Final greetings and benediction. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. The book of Proverbs chapter 31 verses 16 through 18.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
She considers a field and buys it. With the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard. She clothes her loins with strength and makes her arms strong. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Her lamp does not go out at night. Father in heaven, we give you praise. We thank you so much.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Thank you for bringing us to this place. Thank you for this letter of St. Paul to Philemon. Thank you for giving us insight into judgment, for giving us insight into the fact that this world, though good, is broken and will not go on forever. The brokenness will not go on forever. You will bring your just judgment to us, to our lives, and to the world that you've placed us in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Help us to be faithful to you. Help us to be found watching and waiting, prepared to receive you as you deserve to be received. Help us to endure pain well. Help us to endure suffering like your Son, Jesus Christ, endured it. And we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
So let's once again kind of start with the letter of St. Paul to Philemon. And again, people say Philemon. I've always heard Philemon. And so I don't know how to say it. I'm just going to say Philemon. So St. Paul's writing to Philemon, who is someone that Paul had brought into the faith. Paul had brought Philemon into a relationship with Christ, brought him into the church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
And Philemon had a slave named Onesimus. And Onesimus at one point, we understand, he ran away. As he ran away, he ran to Paul and Paul helped him become a Christian as well. And so here is St. Paul's letter to Philemon saying, I'm sending back your slave, your runaway slave. But hey, FYI, he is now your brother.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
And it even says, I would have liked to keep Onesimus here as my brother, as my fellow coworker. But there's a justice here. And the justice is, I'm asking you to receive him back, but receive him back not as a slave, but as a brother. And there's just something just really powerful about this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer. And he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
Because again, one of the claims that's leveled is that people tried to use the scriptures to validate or endorse slavery. And at the same time, we have, what do we have in the scriptures? We've heard this from the very beginning, all the way back in the Old Testament, that What we've heard is there is this, it was mutually agreed upon service, right, is the idea behind this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
At some point, yes, could there be abuses? Absolutely. But especially in Christian, this, how would anyone even say it? Like Christian slavery, it's basically, When Christians owned slaves, what they were instructed to do, commanded to do, was to treat their slaves as brothers and sisters, essentially.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
And so there's that recognition that we have such a, and rightfully so, a horrible correlation and connotation when it comes to slavery, of course, because we're so familiar with this brutal racist slavery tradition. And yet here in St. Paul's letter to Philemon, he's sending Onesimus back, but he makes it very clear. I'm sending him back to you not as a slave, as a brother.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
And there is something that I would say, even if employers and employees who are Christians saw each other like this, we'd be in a different world. Like we'd live in a better world. Again, we're not talking about slavery here. We're talking about simply teachers and their students. We talked about family members.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
If we saw each other, not as those who get in our way, not as those who are supposed to serve us, but as brothers and sisters, then we would have a different world. What Paul is writing to Philemon is a picture of that different world that could possibly be ours. I don't know if that makes any sense, but just one last thought when it comes to this big issue that exists in our world right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
So back to Revelation. What do we have? We have chapters 8 through 11. So there's a lot of stuff happening. We have the seventh seal. Remember, with each opening of each seal, there's more destruction coming upon the earth. At the same time, there were those who were protected by this seal that they had on themselves. And it's interesting. I mentioned this before. I'll mention this again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 361: Judgment and Repentance (2024)
There is a debate regarding the dating of the book of Revelation that some say is before the year 70. Others say it's around the year 80 to 90. Again, those are important to note. The majority idea is the later dating. The minority view is the earlier dating. But regardless, they were writing to a people. John was writing to a people who were in persecution.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
When Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, fled to David to Keilah, he came down with an ephod in his hand. Now it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars. And Saul summoned all the people to war to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
David knew that Saul was plotting evil against him, and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring the ephod here. Then said David, O Lord, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah to destroy the city on my account. Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 114. We are just reading one chapter from 1 Samuel. We're reading 1 Samuel chapter 23. We're also praying Psalm 54.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
O Lord, the God of Israel, I beg you, tell your servant. And the Lord said, He will come down. Then said David, Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will surrender you. Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition, and David remained in the stronghold in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
And David was afraid, because Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, Fear not, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home. Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Does not David hide among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hakila, which is south of Jeshimon? Now come down, O king, according to all your heart's desire to come down, and our part shall be to surrender him into the king's hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
And Saul said, May you be blessed by the Lord, for you have compassion on me. Go, make yet more sure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
know and see the place where his haunt is and who has seen him there for it is told me that he is very cunning see therefore and take note of all the lurking places where he hides and come back to me with sure information then i will go with you and if he is in the land i will search him out among all the thousands of judah And they arose and went to Ziph ahead of Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Ma'on, in the Ereba to the south of Jeshamon. And Saul and his men went to seek him. And David was told, Therefore he went down to the rock which is in the wilderness of Ma'on. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Ma'on. Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
And David was making haste to get away from Saul, as Saul and his men were closing in upon David and his men to capture them, when a messenger came to Saul, saying, Make haste and come, for the Philistines have made a raid upon the land. So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore that place was called the Rock of Escape.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
As always, the Bible translation that I am using is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
To the choir master with stringed instruments, a mascal of David, when the Zephites went and told Saul, David is in hiding among us. Save me, O God, by your name, and vindicate me by your might. Hear my prayer, O God, give ear to the words of my mouth. For insolent men have risen against me, ruthless men seek my life. They do not set God before them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
Behold, God is my helper, the Lord is the upholder of my life. He will repay my enemies with evil, in your faithfulness put an end to them. With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good. For you have delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
We thank you for the fact that you are just and you are good and you continually speak to us, Lord God. And sometimes in our prayer, you're quiet. Sometimes in our prayer, when we're asking for a specific answer, you are silent and you don't speak in the way that we would prefer. But Lord God, you continue to speak. You continue to speak to us through your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
You continue to speak to us every single day that we press play and just allow your word to reach our ears and allow your word to touch and transform our hearts. And so this day, just like David, we ask for your guidance. We ask for your will to be made known, not only in sacred scripture, Lord God, and not only through the church, but also in our prayer. We ask that you please.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, you can just click subscribe and it'll be done and you'll be subscribed and life will be good. As I said, today is day 114. We're reading 1 Samuel chapter 23. We're praying Psalm 54.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So here we have just one chapter, obviously, in 1 Samuel chapter 23. And I just think there's something so powerful about this. So the beginning of the story, right, beginning of this chapter, I mean, we have David saving the city of Keilah. And so they told David, Philistines are attacking Keilah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
And it's really interesting because David has one of three basic, well, maybe he has a lot of potential options, but there are three that come to the surface. One is David could say, Okay, fine. I'm not the king. Saul's the king. Let Saul defend the people of Keilah against the Philistines. He could have said, not my business. Secondly, he could have said, okay, let's do it. It is my business.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
I will fight. Or he could do what he did do. And he said, I will inquire of the Lord about this. And it's really remarkable because we have this happen again and again, where it says, where it specifically will say that here's this group of people, or here is the leader of the people who did not consult the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
It just, you know, this new information came to this person and they didn't ask the Lord what he, what his will was. And yet here's David. Could have said, not my business. Could have said, it is my business. Let's go. But what he did say was, I actually need to ask of the Lord first. Then what happens? And this is, I think, pretty remarkable. There are people that David trusts who say, don't.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
Let's not do this. So then it says, David asks. appealed to the Lord again, and he went back to God. So what this shows is that not only does David inquire of the Lord, not only does David ask God for guidance, he's also actually taking into account the wisdom of the people around him. And this is one of the things that we do when we discern is that, yes, we absolutely, we go to the scripture.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
Absolutely, we listen to what has the church taught on this in the past. We look in and say, okay, God, have you ever said anything about this? Or are you speaking now to tell me no or to tell me yes? But we also weigh in, weigh up, I guess we take into account the wise voices around us. And so that's what David does.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
He takes into account and then goes back to the Lord and the Lord's voice continues to say, yep, even though your people who are your counselors around you say no, I continue to say yes. And so there's something really powerful about this where it just gives us a great example
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
not only for ourselves, but also gives us insight into the heart of David, that David is going to be the kind of person who does appeal to the Lord, who doesn't just go off on his own. Well, that might come later on. But right now, what David is showing is that he is a man after God's own heart, and he appeals to the Lord for direction more than anything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
The other thing I just want to highlight is the Ziphites, right, they betray David because they say that they tell Saul that he's there. But there's at the last section of chapter 23, there's this little story. And basically the story describes how on one side of the hill is Saul and his army. And the other side of the hill is David and his band of ruffians, essentially his band of his 600 men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
And they're simply separated by a ridge. They're simply separated, one on the other side. If Saul knew that King David, future King David, was on the other side of this ridge, what he could have done is he could have driven over the ridge. And yet what happened is, you know, God sends word through the messengers of King Saul that the Philistines were attacking.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
And so he had to go back and do what kings have to do. And I think about this in particularly, particularly as it relates to all of the ways that that God is acting when we don't realize it. All the ways that God is still active when we have no idea. Because you would imagine David has no idea on the other side of this ridge is King Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
Now they told David, behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors. Therefore David inquired of the Lord, shall I go and attack these Philistines? And the Lord said to David, go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah. But David's men said to him, behold, we are afraid here in Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
And David has no idea that this was a close call, that he has no idea this could have been the end of his life until after. And then he realizes, oh, this place is the rock of escape. And how many times, yes, difficult things happen to us and horrible things happen to the people we love. And yet, and we count those up, right? Because those matter. The fact that we're often hurt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
The fact that people who we love are often hurt. But we don't even know how to begin counting the number of escapes the Lord has given to us. The number of times the Lord has delivered us. The number of times we didn't even realize how close we were. to disaster, and God stepped in in a way that we just might see as a coincidence. We might just see as, we might not even notice it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
We might not even see it until heaven where we can look back over our lives and we'll be able to see not only all of the times when there was difficult moments where God was present, but he allowed us to enter the difficult moments, but also
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
All of those moments where it could have been catastrophe, it could have been disaster, it could have been the end of us, but God in his mysterious will, in his mysterious way, he had stepped in. And so one of the things, the hand of God is present to all of us, even when we don't realize it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
The hand of God is present to us right now in the sense that this is the shortest, I think, day we've had so far. Day 114. Maybe the Lord wants to just give you a little break and say, you know what? Only half as long today. We'll do some longer ones later on. But today is day 114.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
And I just want to let you know how proud I am of you and so grateful I am for you to continue journeying with all of us in this Bible in a year. Please keep praying for each other. I am praying for you. Please, please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 114: David Saves Keilah (2025)
How much more if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines? Then David inquired of the Lord again, and the Lord answered him, Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand. And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their cattle and made a great slaughter among them. So David delivered the inhabitants of Keilah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
Something has changed in the lives and the hearts of these brothers, of these men. When the new youngest brother, Benjamin, who also is beloved by their father, when his life is threatened and their father's life by extension is threatened, you know, earlier they didn't care that their father was heartbroken.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
Earlier they didn't care that their father was grieved by the fact that he believed Joseph to be dead. But now something must have changed in these years when Joseph was away, something must have changed in the lives and the hearts of these brothers. Where they must have realized we don't want to be those kinds of sons. We don't want to not only needlessly grieve our father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
We don't want to even have any reason to grieve our father. And so they put their own lives on the line for the new beloved son. They put their lives on the line for the new chosen, mostly beloved, mostly loved son, Benjamin, which demonstrates something. It demonstrates that these men have changed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
And if there's anything that we can take heart in, anything that the gospel reveals to us, anything that the Bible reveals to us, is that yes, we are broken. Yes, we're messy. That's the key words we've been following. But also that we can change. Also that, remember, who is the person who puts his life on the line here?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
It's Judah, who a couple chapters before had sexual relations with his daughter-in-law, thinking that she was a prostitute. So here is this reality of all these people in these stories. But this is Judah now. placing his life on the line for his father, for his brother, and for his other brothers. The fact that we are broken and the fact that we need God's help
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
is a present reality to all of us every day of our lives. What's not as present, what's not as obvious is the fact that we also can change with God's help, that things can become different. Judah, the fourth brother, whose name means praise, Judah had fallen seriously earlier on in this book of Genesis. But in this moment, Judah is a shining son. He's a shining brother.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
In this moment, Judah is the one that we can all look to and say, if I have the choice, if I had the chance to spare my parents, to spare my siblings, to spare those who need to be spared of needless grief, let me be like Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
we pray not only that like joseph we walk with the lord and the lord is with us we also pray that maybe like judah we can change because if there's anything that grace teaches us is that none of us have to remain stuck in our sin none of us have to remain stuck in our brokenness but with god's grace every one of us can change that's why we're doing that's why we're doing this bible in a year
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
For the man said to us, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you. Israel said, why did you treat me so ill as to tell the man that you had another brother? They replied, the man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred saying, is your father still alive? Have you another brother? What we told him was an answer to these questions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
is because we need to be reminded of the fact that God truly does want us, that he is communicating himself to us, that he's speaking to us. And today, I know that God spoke with you. So why not speak something back? Take these scriptures today to prayer. Take each other to prayer. Let's intercede on behalf of each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
I know that I'm praying for you, and I ask that you please keep on praying for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you again tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
Could we in any way know that he would say, bring your brother down? And Judah said to Israel, his father, send the lad with me and we will arise and go that we may live and not die. Both we and you and also our little ones. I will be surety for him. Of my hand, you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
For if we had not been delayed, we now would have returned twice. Then their father Israel said to them, if it must be so, then do this. Take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags and carry down to the man a present, a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. Take double the money with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
Carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. Take also your brother and arise. Go again to the man. May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man that he may send back your other brother and Benjamin. If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
So the men took the present, and they took double the money with them and Benjamin, and they arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, Bring the men into the house and slaughter an animal and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon. The man did as Joseph bade him and brought the men to Joseph's house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
And the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph's house and they said, it is because of the money which was replaced in our sacks the first time that we are brought in so that he might seek occasion against us and fall upon us to make slaves of us and seize our donkeys.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
So they went up to the steward of Joseph's house and spoke with him at the door of the house and said, oh my Lord, we came down the first time to buy food. And when we came to the lodging place, we opened our sacks and there was every man's money in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. So we have brought it again with us and we have brought other money down in our hand to buy food.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
this is day 23 let us keep on rolling um day 23 we're gonna keep following the story of joseph and his brothers and their father as we read from genesis chapter 43 and 42 we'll also be walking with our old friend our good friend job by reading job chapter 35 and 36 we're also reading more deeply into proverbs chapter 4 verses 10 through 19.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
We do not know who put our money in our sacks. He replied, rest assured, do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father must have put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
then he brought simeon out to them and when the man had brought the men into joseph's house and given them water and they had washed their feet and when they had given their donkeys food they made ready the present for joseph's coming at noon for they heard that they should eat bread there
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present which they had with them and bowed down to him to the ground. And he inquired about their welfare and said, is your father well? The old man of whom you spoke, is he still alive? They said, your servant, our father is well. He is still alive. And they bowed their heads and made obeisance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother, Benjamin, his mother's son. And he said, is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son. Then Joseph made haste for his heart yearned for his brother and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there. Then he washed his face and came out and controlling himself, he said, let food be served.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
They served him by himself and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
Portions were taken to them from Joseph's table, but Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs." So they drank and were merry with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
Then he commanded the steward of his house, fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack, and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest with his money for the grain. And he did as Joseph told him. As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
When they had gone but a short distance from the city, Joseph said to his steward, Up, follow after the men. When you overtake them, say to them, Why have you returned evil for good? Why have you stolen my silver cup? Is it not from this that my Lord drinks and by this that he divines? You have done wrong in so doing. When he overtook them, he spoke to them these words. They said to him,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
Why does my Lord speak such words as these, far be it from your servants, that they should do such a thing? Behold, the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks, we brought back to you from our land in Canaan. How then should we steal silver or gold from your Lord's house? With whomever of your servants it be found, let him die, and we also will be my Lord's slaves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
he said let it be as you say he with whom it is found shall be my slave and the rest of you shall be blameless then every man lowered his sack quickly to the ground and every man opened his sack and he searched beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest and the cup was found in benjamin's sack then they tore their clothes and every man loaded his donkey and they returned to the city
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
when judah and his brothers came to joseph's house he was still there and they fell before him to the ground joseph said to them what deed is this that you have done do you not know that such a man as i can indeed divine and judah said what shall we say to my lord what shall we speak or how can we clear ourselves God has found out the guilt of your servants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
As always, if you're interested in reading along or following along, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year and you can download the Bible in a year reading plan. You can get that and you can follow along because I'm reading the revised standard version Catholic edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
Behold, we are my Lord's slaves, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found. But he said, far be it from me that I should do so. Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my slave. But as for you, go up in peace to your father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
Then Judah went up to him and said, O my Lord, let your servant, I beg you, speak a word in my Lord's ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself. My Lord asked his servants, saying, Have you a father or a brother? And we said to my Lord, We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
And his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him. Then you said to your servants, Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes upon him. We said to my lord, The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
Then you said to your servants, Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more. When we went back to your servant, my father, we told him the words of my Lord. And when our father said, go again, buy us a little food, we said, we cannot go down.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
If our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down for we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us. Then your servant my father said to us, You know that my wife bore me two sons. One left me, and I said, Surely he has been torn to pieces, and I have never seen him since.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
If you take this one also from me, and harm befalls him, you will bring down my gray hairs in sorrow to Sheol. Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, Then as his life is bound up in the lad's life, when he sees that the lad is not with us, he will die. And your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame in the sight of my father all my life. Now, therefore, let your servant, I beg you, remain instead of the lad as a slave to my Lord and let the lad go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the lad is not with me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
I fear to see the evil that would come upon my father. Job chapter 35 and 36. Elihu condemns self-righteousness. And Elihu said, Do you think this to be just? Do you say it is my right before God that you ask what advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned? I will answer you and your friends with you. Look at the heavens and see and behold the clouds which are higher than you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
I'm using the actual Great Adventure Bible from Ascension, which is super good, super handy to have because of all the notes, the maps, everything that's in there. Also, if you want to, you can subscribe in your podcast app. Every time we drop an episode, you will pick it up because you have subscribed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give to him or what does he receive from your hand? Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself and your righteousness a son of man. Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out, they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
But none says, where is God my maker who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air? There they cry out, but he does not answer because of the pride of evil men. Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him and you are waiting for him. And now, because his anger does not punish and he does not greatly heed transgression, Job opened his mouth in empty talk. He multiplies words without knowledge. And Elihu continued and said, bear with me a little and I will show you. For I have yet something to say on God's behalf.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
I will fetch my knowledge from afar and ascribe righteousness to my maker. For truly, my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you. Behold, God is mighty and does not despise any. He is mighty in strength of understanding. He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives the afflicted their right.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings upon the throne, he sets them forever and they are exalted. And if they are bound in fetters and caught in the cords of affliction, then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly. He He opens their ears to instruction and commands that they return from iniquity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
Lastly, if you're interested in getting updates from Ascension, updates about the Bible in a year podcast, you can just simply text the word Catholic Bible to the number 33777. Once again, that's the word Catholic Bible to 33777. Once again, we're reading from Genesis chapter 43 and 44. Now the famine was severe in the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
If they listen and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity and their years in pleasantness. But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword and they die without knowledge. The godless in heart cherish anger. They do not cry for help when he binds them. They die in youth and their life ends in shame. He delivers the afflicted from their affliction and opens their ear by adversity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no cramping, and what was set on your table was full of rich food, but you are full of the judgment on the wicked. Judgment and justice seize you. Beware, lest wrath entice you into scoffing, and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside. Will your cry avail to keep you from distress, or all the force of your strength?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
Do not long for the night when peoples are cut off in their place. Take heed. Do not turn to iniquity. For this you have chosen rather than affliction. Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him? Who has prescribed for him his way? Or who can say, you have done wrong? Remember to extol his work of which men have sung. All men have looked on it. Man beholds it from afar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
Behold, God is great, and we know him not. The number of his years is unsearchable. For he draws up the drops of water. He distills his mist in rain, which the skies pour down and drop upon man abundantly. Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thundering of his pavilion? Behold, he scatters his lightning about him and covers the roots of the sea. For by these he judges peoples.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
He gives food in abundance. He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark. Its crashing declares concerning him who is jealous with anger against iniquity. Book of Proverbs, chapter 4, verses 10 through 19. Hear, my son, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many. I have taught you the way of wisdom. I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble. Keep hold of instruction. Do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life. Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not walk in the way of evil men. Avoid it. Do not go on it. Turn away from it and pass on, for they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
They are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble, for they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. The way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not know over what they stumble. God in heaven, we thank you and praise you. You are our good father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
You love us. You reveal your heart to us. We ask that you please continue to send your Holy Spirit upon us as we listen to your word, as we let it penetrate our minds and transform our hearts, as we let your word be the north star that guides the direction of our lives. Mary, queen of heaven, we ask for your intercession. We ask that you lead us to your son, Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
You who bore the word made flesh in your womb, help the word proclaimed dwell in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So, man, oh man. There is something about these 12 brothers. Well, about 12. Yeah, 12. It's 12. Here we go. These 12 brothers. Man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
And when they had eaten the grain which they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, Go again, buy us a little food. But Judah said to him, The man solemnly warned us, saying, You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you. If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food. But if not, we will not go down.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 23: Judah Changes (2025)
Originally what happened originally, these brothers were jealous of the love that their father had for the youngest brother, the 11th brother, Joseph. They were so jealous of the love that their father had for Joseph, that they were willing to kill him until they sold him into slavery. And yet something has changed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
They're also giving wholeheartedly. And so they have a loyal heart, a whole heart, and they offer willingly to the Lord. And that just brought joy to David. Because why? Because it gives joy to the Lord when we love him with our whole heart, when we give without resentment, when we give joyfully. Again, the Lord loves a cheerful giver. Scripture later on says,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
So the king said to Joab and the commanders of the army who were with him, Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and number the people that I may know the number of the people. But Joab said to the king, May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
And here you have this last chapter when people come forth willingly and joyfully with a whole heart to give to the Lord for his glory, to line the walls of the temple with marble and with silver and with gold. It is remarkable to recognize that there's this movement. And the movement is, again, how can I love the Lord with a whole heart, not with a divided heart?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
How can I move forward and joyfully give? Because that's the first test for so many of us is, okay, am I willing to give? Not just out of my excess, but out of my need. But then next is, can I joyfully give? Not just out of my excess, but out of my need. And that is a big challenge for every single one of us. How can I love the Lord with a whole heart?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
How can I give joyfully out of my need, not just my excess? But that brings joy, brings joy to the heart of David. It brings joy to the heart of those who love the Lord. And it brings joy to the heart of the Lord as well. And so to have that kind of heart, we need God's grace because that's not how our hearts are oriented. That's not who we are naturally, but it's who we can become supernaturally.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
And so we pray and come before the Lord and say, God, help us. Help me to love you with a whole heart. Help me to serve you with a whole heart. Help me to give with a whole and joyful heart. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. Here we go. Next step, next day, tomorrow. First Kings, Second Chronicles. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
But why does my lord the king delight in this thing? But the king's word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. They crossed the Jordan and began from Erewer and from the city that is in the middle of the valley toward Gad and on to Jazer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 142, and as we are going through this Bible in a Year timeline, if you have downloaded the Bible in a Year reading plan, you realize day 142, that is the last day on this sheet of page, of paper, of...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Then they came to Gilead and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites. And then they came to Dan. And from Dan, they went around to Sidon and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. And they went out to the Negev of Judah at Beersheba. So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and 20 days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
And Joab gave the number of the numbering of the people to the king. In Israel, there were 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword. And the men of Judah were five hundred thousand. Judgment on David's sin. But David's heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
But now, O Lord, I pray you, take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly. And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and say to David, Thus says the Lord. three things I offer you, choose one of them that I may do it to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
So Gad came to David and told him and said to him, shall three years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days pestilence in your land? Now consider and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me. And David said to Gad, I am in great distress.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
let us fall into the hand of the lord for his mercy is great but let me not fall into the hand of man so the lord sent a pestilence among israel from the morning until the appointed time and there died of the people from dan to beersheba seventy thousand men and when the angel stretched forth his hand toward jerusalem to destroy it
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
The Lord repented of the evil and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, it is enough. Now stay your hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Arunah, the Jebusite. Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking down the people and said, behold, I have sinned and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Let your hand, I pray you, be against me and against my father's house. David's altar on the threshing floor. So David went up at Gad's word as the Lord commanded. And when Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Araunah went forth and did obeisance to the king with his face to the ground. And Araunah said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
David said, To buy the threshing floor of you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be averted from the people. Then Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take an offer up which seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges, and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
And Araunah said to the king, The Lord your God accept you. But the king said to Araunah, No, but I will buy it of you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God, which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
The thing, check it off today. I love doing that every day. When I read it, I get to check it off one more time. And it's just this, I don't know, sign of progress. You can visually see I'm working my way through the Bible. It is really incredible. So day 142, we're reading 2 Samuel chapter 24, 1 Chronicles chapter 29. We're praying Psalm 30.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
So the Lord heeded supplications for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
And David, the king said to all the assembly, Solomon, my son, whom alone God has chosen is young and inexperienced. And the work is great for the palace will not be for man, but for the Lord God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
So I have provided for the house of my God so far as I was able, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, and the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood, besides great quantities of onyx and stones for setting, antimony, colored stones, all sorts of precious stones, and marble.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Moreover, in addition to all that I have provided for the holy house, I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver. And because of my devotion to the house of my God, I give it to the house of my God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
3,000 talents of gold of the gold of Ophir and 7,000 talents of refined silver for overlaying the walls of the house and for all the work to be done by craftsmen, gold for the things of gold and silver for the things of silver. Who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself today to the Lord?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Then the heads of fathers' houses made their freewill offerings, as did also the leaders of the tribes, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the officers over the king's work. They gave for the service of the house of God 5,000 talents and 10,000 derricks of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze, and 100,000 talents of iron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord in the care of Jehiel the Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced because these had given willingly for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly. David's prayer of praise. For all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God. And praise your glorious name. But who am I and what is my people that we should be able thus to offer willingly?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
For all things come from you and of your own have we given you. For we are strangers before you and sojourners as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow and there is no abiding. O Lord, our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your own hand and is all your own.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
I know, my God, that you try the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart, I have freely offered all these things. And now I have seen your people who are present here offering freely and joyously to you. O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people and direct their hearts toward you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is a revised standard version, second Catholic edition. And if you want to be able to check off each day, you can download your Bible in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. If you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, you can. You're welcome to. You do not have to.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Grant to Solomon, my son, that with a whole heart he may keep your commandments, your covenants, and your statutes, performing all, and that he may build the palace for which I have made provision. The people offer sacrifice and anoint Solomon. Then David said to all the assembly, Bless the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
And all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their fathers, and bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord and did obeisance to the king. And they performed sacrifices to the Lord. And on the next day offered burnt offerings to the Lord, a thousand bulls, a thousand rams,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
and a thousand lambs with their drink offerings and sacrifices in abundance for all israel and they ate and drank before the lord on that day with great gladness and they made solomon the son of david king the second time and they anointed him as prince for the lord and zadok as priest Summary of David's reign. Thus, David, the son of Jesse, reigned over all Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
The time that he reigned over Israel was 40 years. He reigned seven years in Hebron and 33 years in Jerusalem. Then he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor. And Solomon, his son, reigned in his stead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the chronicles of Samuel the seer, and in the chronicles of Nathan the prophet, and in the chronicles of Gad the seer, with accounts of all his rule and his might, and of the circumstances that came upon him and upon Israel, and upon all the kingdoms of the countries.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Psalm 30 Thanksgiving for Recovery from Grave Illness A Psalm of David A Song at the Dedication of the Temple I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord, my God, I cried to you for help and you have healed me. O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those who'd gone down to the pit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
It is not an obligation, but it's kind of nice. As I said, today is the last day on this sheet of paper, day 142, 2 Samuel 24, 1 Chronicles 29, and we are praying Psalm 30. 2 Samuel chapter 24, David takes a census. Again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Sing praises to the Lord, all you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes with the morning. As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved. By your favor, O Lord, you have established me as a strong mountain. You hid your face. I was dismayed. To you, O Lord, I cried.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
And to the Lord, I made supplication. What profit is there in my death? If I go down to the pit, will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me. O Lord, be my helper. You have turned my mourning into dancing. You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my soul may praise you and not be silent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
We give you praise. It is true. It is true that weeping may last for the entire night. Weeping may last for an entire season. Weeping may last for so long. But joy truly does come with the morning. Joy truly does come with the rising of the sun. And joy comes even in the midst of grief with the rising of your son, Jesus Christ. Lord God, we know that we are faithful to you when it suits us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Help us to be faithful to you at all times. We are faithful to you in good seasons, and we ask you to please help us be faithful to you in all seasons. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Oh gosh, okay. So here we are, the last chapters of 2 Samuel and the last chapter of 1 Chronicles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
are really remarkable. One is because we heard the story already, right? In 2 Samuel chapter 24, we heard the story of David taking the census. Remember why this is such a big deal, but we need to realize that the Bible sometimes can be translated in a way that gives us confusion. For example, the beginning of chapter 24, it says that the Lord incited David to take the census.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Now in 1 Chronicles, it is actually the evil one. It is the accuser, Satan, who is in 1 Chronicles chapter 21, that the census is instigated or incited by the evil one, not by the Lord. And so it's a little bit of a confusion here because we recognize that when David says, I've sinned, God does not lead us into sin. St. James says that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
He says that whenever we're led into sin, we never say that God has tempted us to sin. God never tempts us to sin. And so we have an understanding issue here. And the understanding is David was moved somehow, whether that be by himself or by, like it says in first Chronicles 21, moved by the evil one to take a census. Why do we know this is evil? Why would this be so bad?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Well, one is because remember we talked about this, the book of numbers begins and ends with the census. But the book of Numbers is about how God preserved these people at the beginning of Numbers. He delivered them from slavery. And at the end of Numbers, he led them through the desert. And so this is all about how God has saved his people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
And now here is David saying, I want to know how well I'm doing. I want to know what kind of power I have. So he's taking possession. He's taking basically ownership of the people rather than stewardship of God's people. And that's the main, main issue that's happening here. And David gets humbled by this, as I said.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
This is David reveals his heart and his heart is a heart that's open to be converted. It's not a hard heart. It's not a heart. As we said, the last couple of days that gives into resentment gives into being corrupted by this, but it's a heart that can still be converted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
And so here is David even pointing out saying all these people are suffering because I made this evil decision because I did this thing. The people are suffering. And so he places in his heart on the line. He places his life on the line here. in repentance and offers sacrifice on behalf of the people before the Lord God. So that's really important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Again, we have this transition now as we leave today from 2 Samuel into 1 Kings tomorrow. And so we still do, of course, we still see David because David has to bestow the kingdom upon his son, Solomon, there's going to be some intrigue happening there in the first couple of chapters of first book of Kings. But we recognize here, this is the end more or less of David's life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
And even at the end of his life, he's still open to being converted. He's still open to being recognizing here's where I need to repent of the evil that I've done. Lastly, we have the last chapter of First Chronicles. That's First Chronicles chapter 29. And what do we see here? Well, gosh, we have David saying, my son Solomon, he's young and inexperienced. And so we've gotten all these things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
What are they? They're gold for gold things, silver for silver things, iron for iron things. And what it says is David gives freely and wholeheartedly. And this is going to be the key at the end of 1 Chronicles and the beginning of 2 Chronicles is going to be being of whole heart, an entire heart. Remember yesterday, David says to his son, he says, love the Lord your God with your whole heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
And we're going to know that Solomon doesn't. Solomon ends up having a divided heart. But in this last chapter, chapter 29, you have David who has a whole heart. And what does he do? He wholeheartedly and freely gives of his own materials.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 142: Whole and Joyful Hearts (2025)
Yep, he's collected a bunch of gold and silver and other things expressly for the temple, but then also he's collected a bunch of things for himself that he basically had won in battle, that he took in battle. They were his own property. And and he freely and wholeheartedly is giving. And then what happens is all the other people in the nation, the kingdom of Israel, they're also giving willingly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Hello, everybody. My name is Father Mike Schmitz. I want to let you know about a one-night-only opportunity we have in Newark, New Jersey on Monday, December 9th. It's right after the start of Advent. We're doing an Advent Night of Reflection and Q&A at the Newark Performing Arts Center again Monday, December 9th at 7 o'clock.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
But if this is of man, it's going to be over with in a day. If it's of God, you will find yourselves battling the Lord himself, and you do not want to be battling the Lord himself. The last thing about Acts chapter 5 is, so they took his advice, and when they had called them the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
So yeah, they didn't kill them. They only scourged them, essentially. They only beat them. What was the apostle's response? It wasn't indignation. I gotta tell you, if I came before the government and because of my faith in Jesus, I was arrested for a couple days or whatever it was, if at some point they tortured me and then let me go, I would be indignant, right? I would be relatively put out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
I'll say it like that. What's the apostle's response? The apostle's response is, then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. That's incredible. Rejoicing that they've been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. And remember what Jesus had said in the Sermon on the Mount, in the Sermon on the Plain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
He said, blessed are you when they hate you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice in that day for your reward will be great in heaven. And here are the apostles doing literally exactly what Jesus told them to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
When you're found rejected, when you're found abandoned, when you're found abused for the name of Jesus because of your faith in Christ, rejoice on that day. And every day, and at home and in the temple, they did not cease teaching and preaching in the name of Jesus Christ. That's incredible. Incredible as well, Acts, sorry, Acts of the Apostles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Nope, letters of the Romans, chapter eight, life in the spirit. Oh my gosh, you guys, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because you have the law and you have the law of the spirit. We have to put to death the things of the flesh. I mentioned this yesterday, that St. Paul, when he's referring to the flesh, he's not referring to our bodies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
But a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge he kept back some of the proceeds and brought only a part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
He's not rejecting the body. We are our bodies. What human beings are is body and soul duality, right? We're a body and soul composite. We're embodied soul or we're in soul bodies. Either way, we are our bodies, right? So, and we are our souls. So he's not criticizing the fact that we have flesh. When he says flesh, he's referring to the fallen human nature that we are.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
And basically saying, you can live according to that. You can live according to your fallen nature and say, well, because I feel this, because I'm attracted this way, that's how I act. And a lot of people do that. They say, well, this feels right. Therefore, that's how I'm going to live. Or this is what I'm attracted to. Therefore, that's what I'm going to choose. And yet St. Paul is saying,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
You're set free from this. you actually have the ability, not only the ability, you have this freedom to be able to live according to the law of the spirit. And if the spirit of God really dwells in you, you are no longer in the flesh, you are in the spirit. It goes on to say, and this is verse nine, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirit's alive because of righteousness. And not only that, You know, I mentioned in the prayer today, and maybe I mentioned this before, that Jesus has revealed that God is our dad. And we sometimes use the term father, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
We often use the term father, but he gave us the term Abba, which ultimately, you know, if you're going to boil it down, ultimately is that closeness of the word father, which would be papa or would be dad. And so I apologize again for anyone who is bothered by that. And yet we need to have that healed in us. We need to have that healed in us. Because yes, we have bad histories.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Many of us have bad histories with our fathers or you have great history with your father, but it's a weird thing. And yet, St. Paul says, you did not, in verse 15, you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. You have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry Abba or dad, father, it is the spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Oh my gosh, you guys, someday in the next couple of days, I will make this big point. And this big point is, I'll say it right now, and then we'll back it up later on. The big point is that every human being is not necessarily automatically a child of God. Every human being is a beloved creature of God. Absolutely. That God himself gave his only begotten son so everyone would have life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Every human being on this planet, every human being who's ever lived is a beloved creature of God. But we become God's sons and daughters through adoption. We become God's sons and daughters through baptism. We become God's sons and daughters when we're given the Holy Spirit. And so that's what St. Paul is saying. When we receive the Spirit, then we get to actually say, Abba, Father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
But before we're given the Holy Spirit, we're not. Before we're baptized, we're not able to say, Abba, Father, because it is baptism that makes us sons and daughters of God. Now, in a certain way, you know, God, the creator is kind of like kind of sort of like a father to all the creatures he makes, of course.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
But we're truly made sons and daughters of God in the power of the Holy Spirit when we are baptized. And that is that's a big thing. Maybe it'll come back up because The letters of the New Testament make that point abundantly clear. Last thing. Oh my gosh, you guys, how incredible is verse 18 and following.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. I wonder if that's true in my life. Do I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us? I think it was St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Teresa of Avila who said that at the end of our lives in heaven, she said, even the worst life will seem like a night spent in a bad motel. Compared to the glory and the joy and the love of heaven. That even the worst life on earth will seem like a night spent in a bad motel. Which we trust in. We believe that God loves us that deeply. Here's the last line, last word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Verses 31 to the end of chapter 8.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
if god is for us who's against us he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all will he not also give us all things with him and goes on to say what shall who shall separate us from the love of christ tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or the sword no in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for i'm convinced i'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. What St. Paul is making, this is the last point here, I apologize. What St. Paul, the point he's making is that there is no force on earth. There is no amount of evil on this earth that can take you out of God's hands. It's interesting and worth praying about that St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Paul doesn't mention the one force that can take us out of God's hand, that can take us out of relationship with God, and that is sin. All these other forces are external forces. No one, no matter how much they hurt you, no matter how much they abuse you or use you, no one can take you out of the Father's hand. The only one who can is ourselves through sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
And so we have to say, okay, God, I know that there's no external force. There's no power, not even a demon or an angel who can take me out of your hand. So since I'm the only one who can walk away, I'm the only one who can separate myself from you and your love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Help me to never, never separate myself from you and your love through sinning, through rebelling against you, through saying, I want to do what I want to do. I'll leave you. Help me never, Lord. Help me never to wander away. That's a tall order. And if I do wander, Lord, bring me back. This is a gift. What an incredible gift today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
I'm sorry this is so long, but it's just only two chapters, but so much to say. So much gift today. And so last thing is I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
If you're interested in finding out more about this, go to ascensionpress.com slash fathermiketour. Basically, a night of reflection, diving deeply into what it is that we're preparing for in the season of Advent. If you're interested at all, Monday, December 9th, 7 o'clock, Newark Performing Arts Center. Go to ascensionpress.com slash Father Mike Tour. That's F-R-M-I-K-E Tour. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
After an interval of about three hours, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter said to her, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much. And she said, Yes, for so much. But Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Listen, the feet of those that have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Immediately she fell down at his feet and died. When the young man came in, they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. and great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things. The apostles heal many. Now many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the apostles, and they were all together in Solomon's portico.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high honor. And more than ever, believers were added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and pallets, that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. The apostles are imprisoned and brought before the council. But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him, that is, the party of the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles and put them in the common prison.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and taught. Now the high priest came and those who were with him and called together the council and all the senate of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, and they returned and reported, We found the prison securely locked and the sentries standing at the doors, but when we opened it, we found no one inside. Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were very much perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
And someone came and told them, The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest questioned them, saying, We strictly charge you not to teach in this name. Yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teachings and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us. But Peter and the apostles answered, We must obey God rather than men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things. And so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a while. And he said to them, Men of Israel, take care what you do with these men. For before these days, Theodos arose, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
But he was slain, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He also perished and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God. So they took his advice, and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
And every day in the temple and at home, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Verse 2. Verse 3. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
You are in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God really dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, Abba, Father, it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. The Glory to be Revealed I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
We know that the whole creation has been groaning with labor pains together until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now, hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
It is day 326. We're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 5, and Romans, St. Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 8, as well as Proverbs, chapter 27, verses 7 through 9. As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And those he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
God's love in Christ Jesus. What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies, who is to condemn.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
It is Christ Jesus who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
He who is sated loathes honey, but to one who is hungry, everything bitter is sweet. Like a bird that strays from its nest is a man who strays from his home.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. As I noted, today's day 326. I think I said that. We're only reading two chapters. One is Acts chapter 5 and the other is Romans chapter 8.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Thank you for giving us your word today. Thank you for sending your Holy Spirit in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, to dwell in us, to guide us, to put to death the works of the flesh and to give us life in the spirit, to set us free from slavery and to give us the true freedom as sons and daughters of you, your own sons and daughters who can call you father in the midst of this world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Father in heaven, we thank you. We praise you. Dad, we praise you and we love you. In Jesus' name, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, gosh, you guys, did I not say, did I not say that Acts of the Apostles chapter five and chapter eight of St. Paul's letter to the Romans was gonna be bonkers, completely bonkers today. Oh my gosh, I can't even begin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Where do you even start? Okay, so here's the story of Ananias and Sapphira. Right before this, I don't know if you remember this, but in chapter four, we had a guy named Joseph, who's also named Barnabas, meaning son of the encouragement, who had sold the field, which belonged to him. He brought the money, laid it at the apostles' feet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Here's Ananias and Sapphira, and they're kind of sort of doing the same thing, but they're not actually doing the same thing. They're working under the pretense of honesty or under the pretense of generosity. And that's the problem here. And one of the things that happens, obviously, is for us as well. I mean, even Peter says this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
He says, while you owned the piece of property, wasn't it yours to do whatever you wanted to do with it? Even after you sold it, you could do whatever you wanted to do with the money. But the problem is you made a pretense. You made a show of saying that you were giving everything when you weren't giving everything. That's the issue. The issue is not that, oh, you only gave X amount of money.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
That's not the issue. The issue is you made a pretense. The issue is, remember, how many times did Jesus condemn those who are hypocrites? Again, being a hypocrite, the term hypocrite in Greek is the term for actor, right? I'm pretending to be someone that I'm not actually willing to be. Someone who wants to be seen as someone who they're not actually willing to be.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
They want to be seen as having a virtue that they're not willing to choose, if that makes any sense. And so here's Ananias and Sapphira, they have this pretense, they're hypocrites. And because of that, it costs them their life. At the same time, starting in verse 12, the apostles are healing people like crazy. And that's such a remarkable thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
They even say that they laid people out so that Peter's shadow would pass over them because Remember what Jeff had pointed out how many days ago, he said that Peter is kind of re-embodying what Jesus had done. And later on, Paul's going to be re-embodying what Jesus had done. And what's that a sign of? Not only of the fact that God used these super apostles, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
These two apostles in remarkable ways. but also that we're called to allow the Lord to work in our way, our lives in a similar way. Now, I love this next story about how the apostles are imprisoned and brought before the council. Now, I read this story and maybe we might have mentioned this in that conversation with Jeff again. This would be my last reference to that conversation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
But one of the things that strikes me always is when I read this story, I am reading it and you and I are reading it from the perspective of it's already been done. It's already been lived. The story's already been written. And yet those apostles that were brought before the Sadducees, that were brought before the council, the story hadn't been written.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Pretty phenomenal chapters, really big deal chapters when it comes to Romans. Well, of course, all of the Bible is inspired, but Romans chapter 8 is very significant. So again, Acts of the Apostles chapter 5, St. Paul's letter to the Romans chapter 8, as well as Proverbs chapter 27, verses 7 through 9. The Acts of the Apostles chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
They were filled, I imagine, with a high degree of uncertainty, having no idea how is this going to play out? How is this going to hash out? And yet, even in the midst of that uncertainty, they were filled with boldness. Remember that prayer from yesterday, that prayer for boldness, for courage, for the willingness to stand up and say, I'm actually not bold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
going to go along with whatever you're asking me to go along with. We ordered you, did we not, to cease speaking that name, that you filled the whole city with that name. And that's incredible, right? So often we're told as Christians to stop speaking, stop living in the name of Jesus Christ. And here are Peter and the other apostles saying, we cannot but speak in the name of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
And he says in verse 29, we must obey God rather than men. That is so, so crucial for every single one of us. And you know what happened? They heard it and they were super happy. They were like, you know what? We're inspired by you. That's incredible. We want to be Christians too. No, verse 33 says, when they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
Peter gives witness, the apostles give witness to this, say, no, we saw Jesus raised from the dead. We're going to bear witness to these things. You can tell us not to speak in his name, but we must obey God rather than men. The result, we want to kill them. Gamaliel, of course, stands up and points out that there's other people who had followers, other people who died.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 326: Life in the Spirit (2024)
And then what happened to those followers? They fell away. Those followers became followers. Oh man, I just made up a term. Oh, you got to write that down because it's going to come up again. Followers became followers. You guys, boom, mind blown. Gamaliel says, if this is of God, you can't fight it. If it's of men, they're going to become followers. Okay, that's the last time I say that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, command the sons of Israel and say to them, when you enter the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you for an inheritance, the land of Canaan in its full extent. Your south side shall be from the wilderness of Zin along the side of Edom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
There are prophetic psalms that contain divine statements or prophecies where God is the one speaking. There's wisdom Psalms and there's royal Psalms. In fact, one of the, I guess you might say unofficial titles of this Psalm 120 today that we prayed is God's presence during distress. Today's Psalm 120 is one of those prayers that is a Psalm of lament.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
that god is truly present even in times of distress so for the next number of days we are going to be following all those psalms and praying all those psalms of ascent so from here on day 79 and we're beginning with psalm 120 we'll continue praying until day 90 with psalm 134 So we will be praying these prayers together with each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
And whenever we hit these Psalms of Ascent, just be reminded of the fact that they encompass all of the great joys and great trials of life. But they're all oriented towards journeying up to the temple of God, not only where his presence would abide, but also where he would be worshiped. He'd be worshiped as he had asked to be worshiped.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
And I think there's something about that that just reminds us in good times and in bad, in times of distress, in times of joy, in times of trial, in times of thanksgiving, in times of blessing, wisdom and prophecy that we are called to worship God. Because it is in worshiping God that we truly discover who we are. That in worshiping God, he doesn't get anything out of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
But he transforms us into a certain kind of person, a certain kind of people. And that is an incredible gift. So as we continue this journey, we continue to not only worship God, we also continue to pray for each other. And I hope you know by now, I hope you believe me, that I am praying for you every single day. And I know so many of you are praying for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
Let's not forget praying for each other as well because my voice might be the one that you hear. But there is someone else whose ears are hearing these words and whose heart is being touched by these words that might need your prayer, your prayers in a very powerful and very particular way today. So let's not forget each other as we continue this Bible in a Year journey. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
and your southern boundary shall be from the end of the salt sea on the east, and your boundary shall turn south of the ascent of Akrabim and cross to Zin, and its end shall be south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it shall go on to Hazar Adar and pass along to Asmon, and the boundary shall turn from Asmon to the brook of Egypt, and its termination shall be at the sea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
For the western boundary, you shall have the great sea and its coast. This shall be your western boundary." This shall be your northern boundary. From the great sea you shall mark out your line to Mount Hor. From Mount Hor you shall mark it out to the entrance of Hamath, and the end of the boundary shall be at Zadad. Then the boundary shall extend to Ziphron, and its end shall be at Hazar-anan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 79. We have only two days left, including today. until we're completed with the book of Numbers and the book of Deuteronomy and moving on to the next time period, the conquest and judges. But today, it is day 79.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
This shall be your northern boundary. You shall mark out your eastern boundary from Hazar Anan to Shepham, and the boundary shall go down from Shepham to Ribla on the east side of Ain, and the boundary shall go down and reach to the shoulder of the Sea of Chinareth on the east, and the boundary shall go down to the Jordan, and its end shall be at the Salt Sea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
This shall be your land with its boundaries all round. Moses commanded the sons of Israel saying, this is the land which you shall inherit by lot, which the Lord has commanded to give to the nine tribes and to the half tribe for the tribe of the sons of Reuben by father's houses and the tribe of the sons of Gad by their father's houses have received their inheritance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
And also the half tribe of Manasseh, the two tribes and the half tribe have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward toward the sunrise. Tribal leaders. The Lord said to Moses, These are the names of the men who shall divide the land to you for inheritance. Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
You shall take one leader of every tribe to divide the land for inheritance. These are the names of the men. Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. Of the tribe of the sons of Simeon, Shemuel the son of Amihud. Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chislon. Of the tribe of the sons of Dan, a leader, Buki, the son of Jogli.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
Of the sons of Joseph, of the tribe of the sons of Manasseh, a leader, Haniel, the son of Ephod. And of the tribe of the sons of Ephraim, a leader, Kimuel, the son of Shifton. Of the tribes of the sons of Zebulun, a leader, Elisaphan, the son of Parnak. Of the tribe of the sons of Issachar, a leader, Paltiel, the son of Azan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
And of the tribe of the sons of Asher, a leader, Ahihud, the son of Shalomi. Of the tribe of the sons of Naphtali, a leader, Pedehel, the son of Amihud. These are the men whom the Lord commanded to divide the inheritance for the sons of Israel in the land of Canaan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
The Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 33, Moses' Final Blessing This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death. He said, The Lord came from Sinai, and dawned from Seir upon us. He shone forth from Mount Paran. He came from the ten thousands of holy ones, with flaming fire at his right hand. Thus the Lord became king in Jeshurun.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
When the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together. Let Reuben live and not die, nor let his men be few. And this he said of Judah, Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him into his people. With your hands contend for him, and be a help against his adversaries.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
So we are reading today from Numbers chapter 34, Deuteronomy chapter 33. We'll also be praying Psalm 120. As always, I am reading from the Bible translation called the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible. from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
And of Levi he said, Give to Levi your Thummim, and your Urim to your godly one, whom you tested at Massa, with whom you strove at the waters of Meribah, who said of his father and mother, I regard them not. He disowned his brothers and ignored his children, for they observed your word and kept your covenant. They shall teach Jacob your ordinances and Israel your law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
They shall put incense before you and whole burnt offering upon your altar. Bless, O Lord, his substance and accept the work of his hands. Crush the loins of his adversaries, of those that hate him, that they rise not again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
of benjamin he said the beloved of the lord he dwells in safety by him he encompasses him all the day long and makes his dwelling between his shoulders and of joseph he said blessed by the lord be his land with the choicest gifts of heaven above
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
and of the deep that lies beneath with the choicest fruits of the sun and the rich yield of the months with the finest produce of the ancient mountains and the abundance of the everlasting hills with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness and the favor of him that dwelt in the bush
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
Let these come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of his head, of him that is prince among his brothers. His firstling bull has majesty, and his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them he shall push the peoples, all of them, to the ends of the earth. Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and such are the thousands of Manasseh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
and of zebulun he said rejoice zebulun in your going out and issachar in your tents they shall call peoples to their mountain there they offer right sacrifices for they suck the affluence of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand And of Gad he said, Blessed be he who enlarges Gad. Gad lurks like a lion, and he tears the arm and the crown of the head.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
He chose the best of the land for himself, for there a commander's portion was reserved. And he came to the head of the people. With Israel he executed the commands and the just decrees of the Lord. And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion's whelp that leaps forth from Bashan. And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favor and full of the blessings of the Lord, possess the lake and the south.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
And of Asher he said, Blessed above sons be Asher, and let him be the favorite of his brothers. and let him dip his foot in oil. Your bars shall be iron and bronze, and as your days, so shall your strength be. There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help and in his majesty through the skies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you and said, destroy. So Israel dwelt in safety. the fountain of Jacob alone in a land of grain and wine. Yes, his heavens drop down due. Happy are you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help and the sword of your triumph.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
Your enemies shall come fawning to you and you shall tread upon their high places. Psalm 120, prayer for deliverance from slanderers, a song of ascents. In my distress, I cry to the Lord that he may answer me. Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given to you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
If you want to subscribe to this podcast, that would be a really good idea, and I would recommend it. You can just click subscribe, and you are subscribed. As I said, today is the second to last day until we are concluding this Desert Wanderings time period. It is day 79. We're reading today, as I said, once again, this is the final blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
And what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue, a warrior's sharp arrows with glowing coals of the broom tree? Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshach, that I dwell among the tents of Kadar. Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
We thank you for being with us on this journey. You are the one who initiated this journey, God. You're always the one who leads us. You're always the one who speaks first. You're the one who moves first. You're the one who loves us first. All of our prayers to you, all of our listening to you, and all of our loving you back is simply a response to your initiative. So we just thank you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
We thank you that if we're hearing these words, we know that you have chosen us because you've loved us. Lord God, you choose your people and you continue to guide them and fight for them. And we know that you continue to choose us as messed up as we are, and you continue to love us and fight for us. Lord God, help us to love you back and help us to
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
respond to your fighting for us by being the kind of people who are willing to not fight against you, but fight with you. Help us to love you well and the people around us well. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. So, so good. We have a couple things happening today. This is wrapping up. We're wrapping up the book of Numbers. We're wrapping up the book of Deuteronomy. And so at the end here in Numbers chapter 34, we have the boundaries of the land of Canaan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
And right, so it just says, okay, on the southern side, this is the boundary. On the eastern side, this is the boundary, etc. And one of the things that reminds us of is the fact that the promised land is not some kind of abstract idea, right? I mean, maybe in modern times it's become kind of an abstract idea or it's a metaphor for something else.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
But in the ancient world, in the old covenant, for the Jewish people, it is a very specific thing. It is a tangible thing. The boundary lies from here to there to there to there, right? And there's something really powerful about that for us, because not only does it reveal to us that, it reminds us, I guess, of the fact that this is a true story. This is a historical reality.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
This is something that actually happened. This people of Israel were enslaved in Egypt for over 400 years. They were led through the wilderness for 40 years, and then they entered into this particular place and at this particular time, and lived in this particular way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
And one of the things that we recognize in this is that Judaism, as well as Christianity, are historical religions, is that they happened at a time and a place to a certain people, and this is how God has interacted with them and on their behalf. It just reminds us that to be spiritual, to have faith, is not divorced from our daily lives. It's not divorced from matter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
It's not divorced from time or space. It is entrenched in time and space as well. It's like us. As human beings, what we believe as Christians is that as human beings, we are both matter and spirit. We're made of flesh and our souls. And we're not one or the other. We're both together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
and almost the very, very end of Numbers chapter 34, where we find out about the boundaries of the land of Canaan. We find out about the tribal leaders amongst the people of Israel, and we continue with our journey today. The book of Numbers chapter 34, Boundaries of the Land of Canaan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
And something is incredibly similar to the Judeo-Christian faith is it is intensely spiritual, but it's also very much intensely material, that it is heaven and earth united in some ways. And so the boundaries of the land of Canaan, we have the tribal leaders in the book of Deuteronomy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
Moses' final blessing is so interesting because there are a number of times where you can kind of get a little sense of who is blessed a lot and who is not blessed a lot. As an example, the very first blessing is for Reuben, right? It's the tribe of Reuben. And it says, let Reuben live and not die, nor let his men be few. Like, okay, that is not a very powerful blessing. Let him live and not die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
Because the next couple, you know, Judah and we have, um, tribe of Levi and Joseph, like all of these other tribes are blessed in some pretty powerful ways. And yet let Reuben live and not die, nor let his men be few is a little bit underwhelming, we'll say. But one of the things I want to highlight is the Psalms.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
And I don't often talk about the Psalms as we're praying through these, but we just prayed Psalm 120. And And Psalm 120 marks the beginning of what it's called the Psalms of Ascent. The Psalms of Ascent are from Psalm 120 to 134. And these are the Psalms typically associated with the three major feasts in the life of the people of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
The Feast of Passover, the Feast of Weeks, or we call it Pentecost, or the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Booths. Now, remember, the people of Israel had to go up to Jerusalem to worship in the temple at these three times of the year. And so as they made pilgrimage, when they got to a certain place, they would begin praying these Psalms of Ascent, right? So there's two things to think about.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
Well, a couple of things to think about. One is Jerusalem is always considered holy. Even if you're living in the north of Israel, you would still go up to Jerusalem because Jerusalem is situated in the hill country, right? It's on Mount Zion. And so you'd always go up to Jerusalem, even if you're coming from the north.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
And so that Psalms of Ascent is as you're journeying on your pilgrimage, you are going up. So Psalms of Ascent. So when we take our pilgrimages to Israel, to the Holy Land, one of the things that we'll do is we'll typically ride the bus. It's much easier than walking, I hear. We'll ride the bus from the Jordan River all the way up to Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
And as we take that bus ride, we'll pray the Psalms of Ascent. And it's this, it's again, it's a reminder of the fact that here for thousands, thousands of years, the people of Israel would journey and make this pilgrimage upwards to be able to worship God in the temple in Jerusalem. And they pray those Psalms of Ascent as we are ascending.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
I've heard also, though, that it's not merely on the road necessarily. It's not merely on the trail leading up to Jerusalem where they would pray the Psalms of Ascent, but that there would be historically 15 steps leading up to, say, the second temple period.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
in the second temple period there were maybe 15 steps and on each one of these steps pilgrims would stop on each step and they'd pray the one psalm of ascent for every step and so they ascend to the temple while praying through these psalms of ascent and in all these one of the things that i find just kind of fascinating is you'd think okay these are psalms that you pray on your way up to being able to worship the lord
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2025)
They, in my mind, I would think, oh, they're all the same. And yet they're not all the same. Some of them are hymns. They are songs of joy. Some of them are laments. In fact, today, Psalm 120 is a lament. It's written, you know, songs written during times of distress and trouble and saying, okay, I'm leaving that behind me. There are psalms of thanksgiving. There are psalms of confidence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
Oh God, do not keep silence. They say, come, let us wipe them out as a nation. Let the name of Israel be remembered no more. Yes, they conspire with one accord. Against you, they make a covenant. The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, Gebel and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia and the inhabitants of Tyre. Assyria also has joined them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
They are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Do to them as you did to Midian, as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who were the destroyer at Endor, who became dung for the ground. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeb, all their princes like Zeba and Zilmunna, who said, let us take possession for ourselves of the pastures of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
Oh my God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind. As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze, so you pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane. Fill their faces with shame that they may seek your name, O Lord. Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever. Let them perish in disgrace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
Let them know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the most high over all the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
Thank you for your word and thank you for leading us on this journey. Thank you for sharing your heart with us because you enlighten us with your word. You shape our minds, our hearts. You fill them with your goodness when we open ourselves to you. And so we ask you to please help us to trust in you. Help us to continue to be open to you. Help us to have inquisitive minds but not skeptical minds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
Help us to have hearts that are wise, but not hearts that are cynical. Lord God, we trust in you and we love you and we thank you. Please receive our thanks this day. Receive our thanks through the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So we have journeyed through Exodus and Leviticus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And the end of Exodus and Leviticus ends with what? Well, it ends with some of the most important things. It ends with the tabernacle in Exodus. Keeping this in mind, Exodus carries the narrative, obviously, but there have been a number of chapters, a number of days that we've been journeying through the book of Exodus where we kind of stopped when it came to the narrative.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
We focused on the priest's garments, and we focused on the building of the laver. The laver is like the bowl for washing, so just keep that in mind. We focused on the altar of incense. We focused on the menorah, all these pieces. Why? Because of the priority of place of worship. This is so important for all of us, especially all of us who are going through the Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And it's just, it's incredible. So this is day 51. As I said, we're reading from Exodus chapter 39 and 40 from Leviticus 27. And also we're praying today from Psalm 83. As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading is the revised standard version, second Catholic edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
We realize that here is God's word that is so, so important. And yet, and yet, I would dare to say that almost even more important, maybe not even almost, just more important, is the worship of God. So we receive God's word, right? Because it shapes our minds. It informs us who God himself is. But how does God shape his people in the old covenant and in the new? By worship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And so getting the worship right is so absolutely critical. And so just keep that in mind because this isn't the last we've heard of the tabernacle. This isn't the last we've heard of God's law either because also there is a creed and there's also what God reveals about himself. And we're going to continue to hear about that because that's... What's happening in the Bible, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
God revealing himself. But we will never be able to replace worship of God with just hearing about God. Always, always, always. As men and women who have been made in his image and likeness, those have been consecrated to him through baptism. We are called 100% to worshiping him. And that's one of the reasons why I just think this is so remarkable. That was the last words of the book of Exodus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
We talk about the cloud covered the tent of meeting. You know, they assembled ordinary stuff, right? I mean, it was good stuff. Gold is pretty great. And bronze is pretty great. And they fashioned these articles of furniture and they wove incredible pieces of clothing for Aaron and for Aaron's sons, those priests.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
But they were ordinary until they were consecrated, until they were set apart, until they were made holy. And it says there, and when Moses anointed them, God made them holy. And then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And so what was just ordinary before, these pieces of furniture were now consecrated and then God's presence was present. And
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
There's something about that that should remind every one of us when it comes to not only holy places and holy things, but also ourselves, who are pretty ordinary when it comes to how we've been created. I mean, fearfully and wonderfully made, yes, of course, but ordinary. Yet when we are consecrated, we are made extraordinary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And when we have God's presence with us, there's something extraordinary about that. It's so remarkable. The last lines, it said, when throughout all their journey, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would go onward. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not go onward until the day that it was taken up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
If you want to download your Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can probably, you haven't subscribed yet. My guess is you've subscribed. So you're probably tired of me telling you, inviting you to do that. Not telling you what to, I'm not here to tell you what to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And one of the things about that is we just realized that we wait on the Lord. When he's ready to move, we move. And when he tells us to stay, we stay. The last little note here is from Leviticus chapter 27, this teaching on votive offerings. And I think there's something that will obviously, scripture will teach us again and again, more and more things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
But what votive offerings are is this reality that yes, there were some, we talked about this before. There are some things that were commanded. You must offer this. You must offer these thank offerings or these serial offerings or these sin offerings or guilt offerings. But some Israelites were so moved by the Lord, they wanted to give more donations through a special votive offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And so since we have this conversion value of, you know, male 20 years old, up to six years old, a woman, a female from that old, you know, 50 shekels and 30 shekels and 20 shekels. What is that? What we're seeing is that, you know, that only a Levite could work in the temple. And so if a person wanted to serve the temple, they wanted to serve the Lord, but they couldn't.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And to serve the Lord really specifically means serve at like being like serving in the temple. but they can't because they're not a Levite. Well, what they can do is they could say, well, if I'm 20 to 60 years old, the worth of my service would be 60 shekels. Is that what it was? Yeah, it was. The value of my work would be 50 shekels.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
If I'm a female from 20 to 60 years old, the value of my work would be 30 shekels. And so a person could say that, I know I can't be in the temple myself, but I can offer to the Lord, I can offer to the temple service the value of my work. Same kind of thing when it came to, I could vow an animal. Now, some animals are, dedicated to the Lord immediately.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
Like the first born male of every flock or herd that belongs to God. So that's not a votive offering. But if there was another kind of animal that you wanted to dedicate to the Lord, fantastic, you can do that. But I love the fact that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day 51. Let's keep on going. Actually, my goodness, congratulations to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
um scripture makes a point of saying that you might dedicate a you know say a calf when it gets born and say this is my votive offering but if that calf grows up to be like amazing it goes up to be one of those cats like oh shoot this i did not want to give away this prize steer it's like no it's holy to the lord you gave it to the lord you must keep it or you have to you know pay
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
redeem it back with an extra fifth. And I just think there's something good about, I just mean like the normal, like the realness of the dedication of anything to the Lord. Because how many times can you and I get to the place where we're thinking, okay, I want to give this to the Lord in the beginning, even the beginning of our day. Say, God, this is yours.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
Once again, the last two chapters of Exodus, the last chapter of Leviticus and Psalm 83. The book of Exodus chapter 39, making the priest's garments. And of the blue and purple and scarlet stuff they made finely wrought garments for ministering in the holy place. They made the holy garments for Aaron as the Lord had commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
I want to dedicate this beginning of the day to you. And then like, oh, I have another opportunity to do something else. Or I have another opportunity to go somewhere else. And we want to take it back. And that's how there's something in there. It's just like, no, if it's his, then it's his.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And if I've made this dedication, for example, if I've said that, yeah, at eight o'clock I go to door to daily mass.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
but something else came up like oh no if i made that dedication to the lord then that eight o'clock time is his and i can't just take it back see there's it's always through the book of leviticus it's always there's some things that belong to the lord we must do because he's asked us to do and there's some things that we get to do because he's moved our hearts to say this with love and yet to offer this with love and yet sometimes we want to take back
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
our hearts, and I just love how, again, how real the book of Leviticus and the entire Bible gets to be with us, because there are so many times when we would say, I want to offer X, and then we might want to take it back.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
and it's so good to be called out in that way in a way that just here's god who says i know your heart i know that that happens sometimes and so here's what you do when that happens it's holy you consecrated it to me so just let it be mine and i think that's pretty awesome what's also pretty awesome is the fact that you have concluded day 51
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
Tomorrow on day 52, we're going to begin the desert wanderings. So not only will we have Mr. Jeff Cavins join us to introduce this new period tomorrow, which I'm super excited about. He gives us an overview of what are the desert wanderings and how is it significant? How is it different? We see the people of Israel be transferred from being slaves in Egypt and through the Exodus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And now here they are going to be journeying through the wilderness in Numbers and in Deuteronomy. And also we'll start day 52, which is Numbers chapter one, Deuteronomy chapter one and Psalm 85. But that is tomorrow. Today, rejoice because you have dedicated this time to the Lord. You've offered it to him and it is his and nothing ever given to the Lord is ever wasted. I am praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
Please, please keep praying for each other and pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And he made the ephod of gold, blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen. And gold leaf was hammered out and cut into threads to work into the blue and purple and the scarlet stuff and into the fine twined linen in skilled design.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
They made for the ephod shoulder pieces, joined to it at its two edges, and the skillfully woven band upon it, to belt it on, was of the same materials and workmanship of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet stuff, and fine twined linen, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
The onyx stones were prepared, enclosed in settings of gold filigree, and engraved like the engravings of a signet, according to the names of the sons of Israel. And he set them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod to be stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel as the Lord had commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
He made the breast piece in skilled work like the work of the ephod of gold, blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twine linen. It was square. The breast piece was made double, a span its length and a span its breadth when doubled. And they set it in four rows of stones.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle was the first row, and the second row an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond, and the third row adjacent an agate and an amethyst, and the fourth row a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They were enclosed in settings of gold filigree. There were twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
They were like signets, each engraved with its name for the twelve tribes. And they made on the breastpiece twisted chains like cords of pure gold. And they made two settings of gold filigree and two gold rings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
and put the two rings on the edges of the breastpiece and they put the two cords of gold in the two rings at the edges of the breastpiece two ends of the two cords they had attached to the two settings of filigree thus they attached it in front to the shoulder pieces of the ephod
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
This is, I think, a pretty monumental day because not only is this the last day that we are reading the book of Exodus, we're reading Exodus chapter 39 and 40. And also the last day we're reading from the book of Leviticus chapter 27. But it is also the last day that we're in. That's the third time period. Remember, there's 12 time periods that we're walking through.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
then they made two rings of gold and put them at the two ends of the breastpiece on its inside edge next to the ephod and they made two rings of gold and attached them in front to the lower part of the two shoulder pieces of the ephod at its joining above the skillfully woven band of the ephod and they bound the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
so that it should lie upon the skillfully woven band of the ephod and that the breastpiece should not come loose from the ephod as the lord had commanded moses he also made the robe of the ephod woven all of blue and the opening of the robe in it was like the opening in a garment with a binding around the opening that it might not be torn
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
On the skirts of the robe they made pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet stuff in fine twined linen. They also made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates upon the skirts of the robe round about between the pomegranates. A bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, round about the skirts of the robe for ministering, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
They also made the coats woven of fine linen for Aaron and his sons, and the turban of fine linen, and the caps of fine linen, and the linen britches of fine twined linen, and the sash of fine twined linen, and of blue and purple and scarlet stuff embroidered with needlework, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it an inscription, like the engraving of a signet, Holy to the Lord. And they tied to it a lace of blue to fasten it on the turban above, as the Lord had commanded Moses. the work finished.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was finished, and the sons of Israel had done according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so had they done. And they brought the tabernacle to Moses, the tent and all its utensils, its hooks, its frames, its bars, its pillars, and its bases, the covering of tanned rams, skins and goat skins, and the veil of the screen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
the ark of the covenant with its poles and the mercy seat the table with all its utensils and the bread of the presence the lampstand of pure gold and its lamps with the lamps set in all its utensils and the oil for the light the golden altar the anointing oil and the fragrant incense and the screen for the door of the tent the bronze altar and its grating of bronze its poles and all its utensils the laver and its base the hangings of the court its pillars and its bases the
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
and the screens for the gate of the court, its cords and its pegs, and all the utensils for the service of the tabernacle for the tent of meeting, the finely worked garments for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons to serve as priests. According to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so the sons of Israel had done all the work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it, as the Lord had commanded. So had they done it, and Moses blessed them. Chapter 40 The Erection of the Tabernacle
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, On the first day of the first month, you shall erect the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and you shall put in it the ark of the covenant, and you shall screen the ark with the veil, and you shall bring in the table and set its arrangements in order, and you shall bring in the lampstand and set up its lamps, and you shall put the golden altar for incense before the ark of the covenant and set up the screen for the door of the tabernacle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
You shall set the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and place the laver between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it. And you shall set up the court round about and hang up the screen for the gate of the court.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And when it comes to the narrative books of scripture, we had the early world, we had the patriarchs, and now we have Egypt and Exodus. Tomorrow we'll move into the desert wanderings. And just again, congratulations, because it is not necessarily an easy thing to have carved out this kind of time to be able to spend with the Lord and to hear his word every single day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
Then you shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it and consecrate it and all its furniture and it shall become holy. You shall also anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils and consecrate the altar and the altar shall be most holy. You shall also anoint the laver and its base and consecrate it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tent of meeting and shall wash them with water and put upon Aaron the holy garments. And you shall anoint him and consecrate him that he may serve me as priest. You shall bring his sons also and put coats on them and anoint them as you anointed their father that they may serve me as priests.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And their anointing shall admit them to the perpetual priesthood throughout their generations. Thus did Moses, according to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did. And in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected. Moses erected the tabernacle. He laid its bases and set up its frames and put in its poles and raised up its pillars.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent over it as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he took the covenant and put it into the ark and put the poles on the ark and set the mercy seat above the ark. And he brought the ark into the tabernacle and set up the veil of the screen and screened the ark of the covenant as the Lord had commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And he put the table in the tent of meeting on the north side of the tabernacle outside the veil. and set the bread in order on it before the Lord as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he put the lampstand in the tent of meeting opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle and set up the lamps before the Lord as the Lord had commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And he put the golden altar in the tent of meeting before the veil and burnt fragrant incense on it as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he put in place the screen for the door of the tabernacle and he set the altar of burnt offering at the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting and offered upon it the burnt offering and the cereal offering, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And he set the laver between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it for washing, with which Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet. When they went into the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And he erected the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court, So Moses finished the work. The cloud and the glory of the Lord. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud abode upon it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would go onward. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not go onward till the day that it was taken up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
For throughout all their journeys the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, say to the sons of Israel, when a man makes a special vow of persons to the Lord at your valuation, then your valuation of a male from 20 years old up to 60 years old shall be 50 shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. If the person is a female, your valuation shall be 30 shekels.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
This is our day 51, but maybe this is, you know, day 100 for you. Maybe it's taken a while for you to get to this point, but that is no problem because I am just absolutely convinced that that the more and more, the longer and longer that we do this, that we expose ourselves and like just immerse ourselves in God's word, it changes how we see, it changes how we think, it changes how we love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, your valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels. If the person is from a month old up to five years old, your valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for a female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And if the person is sixty years old and upward, then your valuation for a male shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels. And if a man is too poor to pay your valuation, then he shall bring the person before the priest, and the priest shall value him, according to the ability of him who vowed the priest shall value him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
If it is an animal such as men offer as an offering to the Lord, all of such that any man gives to the Lord is holy. He shall not substitute anything for it or exchange it, a good for a bad or a bad for a good. And if he makes any exchange of beast for beast, then both it and that for which it is exchanged shall be holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
And if it is an unclean animal such as is not offered as an offering to the Lord, then the man shall bring the animal before the priest and the priest shall value it as either good or bad as you the priest value it so it shall be but if he wishes to redeem it he shall add a fifth to the valuation
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
When a man dedicates his house to be holy to the Lord, the priest shall value it as either good or bad, as the priest values it, so it shall stand. And if he who dedicates it wishes to redeem his house, he shall add a fifth of the valuation of money to it, and it shall be his.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
If a man dedicates to the Lord part of the land which is his by inheritance, then your valuation shall be according to the seed for it. A sowing of a homer of barley shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. If he dedicates his field from the year of Jubilee, it shall stand at your full valuation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
But if he dedicates his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall compute the money value for it according to the years that remain until the year of jubilee, and a deduction shall be made from your valuation. And if he who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth of the valuation in money to it, and it shall remain his.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
but if he does not wish to redeem the field or if he has sold the field to another man it shall not be redeemed any more but the field when it is released in the jubilee shall be holy to the lord as a field that has been devoted the priest shall be in possession of it
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
If he dedicates to the Lord a field which he has bought, which is not a part of his possession by inheritance, then the priest shall compute the valuation for it up to the year of Jubilee, and the man shall give the amount of the valuation on that day as a holy thing to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
In the year of Jubilee, the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to whom the land belongs as a possession by inheritance. Every valuation shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary. Twenty geras shall make a shekel. But a firstling of animals, which as a firstling belongs to the Lord, no man may dedicate, whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord's.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
But if it is an unclean animal, then he shall buy it back at your valuation and add a fifth to it, or if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at your valuation. But no devoted thing that a man devotes to the Lord of anything that he has, whether of man or beast or of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed. Every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
No one devoted who is to be utterly destroyed from among men shall be ransomed. He shall be put to death. all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord. If a man wishes to redeem any of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
In fact, that's in so many ways the heart of what we're trying to do. There's this thing, there's this Greek word called metanoia. And metanoia means to change your mind, to have your mind transformed. And nothing like God's grace and nothing like his word proclaimed does that to us. It changes our mind. It changes how we, gosh, it changes what we love and it changes how we see.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
In all the tithe of herds and flock, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman's staff shall be holy to the Lord. A man shall not inquire whether it is good or bad, neither shall he exchange it. And if he exchanges it, then both it and that for which it is exchanged shall be holy. It shall not be redeemed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 51: Israel's Worship of God (2025)
These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the sons of Israel on Mount Sinai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
then the Holy Spirit of God is united to you in a unique way that you share in the divine nature. Now, as a human being, as made in God's image and likeness, you are a beloved creature of God, of course. But as one who's been baptized, you've been transformed, and you actually don't just have a human nature. Yes, it's basically God gives you a share in his divine nature.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
we're not like Jesus in the sense that Jesus is one divine person with a human and divine nature, but we get to participate, get to share in the divine nature. The example I always like to give is the example of Pinocchio and Geppetto. I'm not sure if I used this this year. Shoot, it's been 353 days, 354 days, crying out loud. But here is Geppetto, right? He's the marionette maker.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
He's the creator and he loves Pinocchio. He makes Pinocchio in his image and likeness. He Gives him arms and legs like Geppetto. He can talk like Geppetto and walk like Geppetto, but he's not Geppetto's son. He's Geppetto's beloved creature. He's Geppetto's beloved creation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
Now, Geppetto loves him, of course, but in order for Pinocchio to be able to look at Geppetto and say, not just my maker, but my father, what has to happen? In order for Geppetto to look at Pinocchio and not just say my creation, but my son, what has to happen is that Pinocchio has to have the same nature as Geppetto. And so what happens? He becomes a real boy, right? In the course of the story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
And this is the same thing with us. Any unbaptized person can look at God and say, that's my creator who loves me. I'm a beloved creation of the incredible creator. But only when you're baptized, do you become a partaker in the divine nature that you're, in some ways, what you are changes, right? So that God can truly look at you and say, this is my son. This is my daughter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
And we can truly look at God the Father and say, he is our dad. He's truly our father. And that's something so, so important here in 2 Peter. It's just, again, bonkers to realize this. Now, Peter is writing to people who are saying, how come there's such a delay in God coming to us? Jesus said he'd come back, but I haven't seen him. Um, where is he?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. Amen. Amen. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
And Peter says, essentially, don't consider this delay. This is the final chapter, chapter three. Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years are as one day. God's not slow about his promises, but he's forbearing, meaning he's not, he doesn't wish that anyone should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
The idea is that God is giving us more time so more people can repent. But he says the day of the Lord will come like a thief. So we have to be prepared. We have to be ready for that day that's coming upon us. In fact, there was something similar happening in St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
Paul's letter to the Thessalonians because what's happened for them is that they were concerned because people were dying and the Christians were dying and they thought, wait, shoot, does this mean that they won't be able to receive salvation? the fullness of God's glory, because they're already dead. We're waiting. We're expecting Jesus to come back in our lifetimes. But here is St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
Paul in chapter four, who's able to say, we would not have you ignorant brethren concerning those who are asleep. Again, those who have died, that you may not grieve as others who do not have hope. This is so incredible. We do grieve. As Christians, we grieve, but we don't grieve as those who have no hope. We don't grieve as those who think that death is the end. Death is this place of transition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
It's this passage into eternal life for those who are to be saved. And so we do grieve, but we don't grieve as those who have no hope. We don't grieve like the rest. But St. Paul goes on to say, for this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
For when the Lord comes, the dead will rise. The dead in Christ will rise. And then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
And that's incredible, incredible word of comfort for all of us, is that those who have died, those who have passed on, We'll meet them again. Those who are passed on in Christ, we'll meet them again, is the hope we have. St. Paul concludes this first letter with these words of exhortation, which are so great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. I love this line, this last thing here. He says, do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything, hold fast to what is good. There's that piece of, yep, people have a word from the Lord. Okay, great. Let's test it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
That's so important for us to do because too many people can be too easily misled if they just say, oh, that's from God. I guess I'll believe it. Nope. If someone is given a word, given a word of prophecy, we've read the entire Bible, you false prophecy. And so what we need to do is test everything and retain what is good. Ah, so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
What an incredible, incredible gift today has been concluding that second letter of St. Peter and concluding the first letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians. Tomorrow we have 1 John and we have 2 Thessalonians and we're on our way. What a gift. What a gift it's been to be part of this community and what a gift it is to be able to pray for you. I am praying for you. Please pray for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 354. Day 354, we're all reading the entire second letter of St. Peter, chapters 1 and 2 and 3, as well as the conclusion of the first letter of St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these things, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to arouse you by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. And I will see to it that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall these things. Eyewitnesses of Christ's glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
We heard this voice born from heaven for we were with him on the holy mountain and we have the prophetic word made more sure. You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
First of all, you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Chapter two, false prophets and their punishment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentiousness. And because of them, the way of truth will be reviled. And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
From of old, their condemnation has not been idle and their destruction has not been asleep. For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
If he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven other persons, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
And if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked. For by what the righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
Paul to the Thessalonians, chapters 4 and 5, as well as Proverbs chapter 30, verses 17 through 19. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they are not afraid to revile the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a reviling judgment upon them before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed, reviling in matters of which they are ignorant, will be destroyed in the same destruction with them, suffering wrong for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their dissipation, carousing with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed, accursed children. Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Baor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression. A speechless donkey spoke with the human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
these are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm for them the deepest gloom of darkness has been reserved for uttering loud boasts of folly they entice with licentious passions of the flesh men who have barely escaped from those who live in error They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
It has happened to them, according to the true proverb, the dog turns back to his own vomit, and the sow is washed, only to wallow in the mire. Chapter 3 The Promise of the Lord's Coming This is now the second letter that I have written to you, beloved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
And in both of them, I have aroused your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. First of all, you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, where is the promise of his coming?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
You can also subscribe in your podcast app to this podcast because why not keep making this announcement here in the final days leading up to our conclusion of our scripture and our second trip around the sun and second trip around through the Bible. It is day 354. We're reading 2 Peter chapters 1, 2, and 3, 1 Thessalonians chapters 4 and 5, and Proverbs chapter 30 verses 17 through 19.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation. They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God, heavens existed long ago, and an earth formed out of water and by means of water, through which the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved and the elements will melt with fire? But according to his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
Final Exhortation and Doxology Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace, and count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also, our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
there are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware, lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
Chapter four, a life pleasing to God. Finally, brethren, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you learn from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are now doing, you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathens who do not know God, that no man transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things as we solemnly forewarned you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this disregards not man, but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. But concerning love of the brethren, you have no need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. And indeed, you do love all the brethren throughout Macedonia.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
But we exhort you, brethren, to do so more and more, to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands as we charged you, so that you may command the respect of outsiders and be dependent on nobody. the coming of the Lord. But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. 5.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
The second letter of Peter, chapter one, salutation. Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. the Christian's call and election.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
But as to the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people say, There is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a woman with child, and there will be no escape.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
But you are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 6. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. So then, let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
But since we belong to the day, let us be sober and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation." For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep, we might live with him. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
Final exhortations, greetings, and benediction. But we beg you, brethren, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we exhort you, brethren, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always. Pray constantly. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophesying, but test everything. Hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful and he will do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I adjure you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures. Three things are too wonderful for me, for I do not understand. The way of the eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
We ask you to please come and meet us with your grace because you are good. You are God. We love you. We belong to you. You've rescued us from death and you brought us into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You brought us into your kingdom. You brought us into your family. Help us to live as your beloved children. Help us to live with you as our father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
Help us to live as good citizens of your kingdom, taking care of one another, being responsible for each other, enjoying all of the rights of a true adopted son or daughter of you, God, our father. May we be praised and glorified. We thank you so much. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So, gosh, here we are, second letter of St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion and become partakers of the divine nature.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
Peter. Chapter one, there's a line in here that is, well, the whole thing, obviously, is very important. But here is St. Peter. At one point in verse one, sorry, chapter one, in verse four, I think it is here, Peter says this. He says,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
by which God has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and here's the line, and become partakers of the divine nature. This line is absolutely critical. It is also incredible. It is absolutely incredible. What is Peter talking about? He's talking about the fact that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
When we are baptized, when we are made into God's adopted sons and daughters, we become partakers of the divine nature, basically become a new creation. And I mean, we've all heard that we become temples of the Holy Spirit, right? Of course, we've heard that. One of the things that means, of course, is that God abides because God's presence abides in his temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 354: Partakers of the Divine Nature (2024)
another thing it means is that uh what was the temple for it wasn't just for the presence of god to be there it was for the place of worship right so if we're temples of the holy spirit also means that we're meant to be a place of worship that's why i believe saint paul had said offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and beloved your spiritual worship right so your body's a temple not only god's presence also worship there but also if you have the holy spirit of god
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
He was willing to, again, allow things that he doesn't like, like violence and like this destructive warfare or divorce, that kind of situation. But in our lives, this is the word of encouragement. In our lives, many of us have made the wrong decisions. I'm sorry, let me clarify. All of us have made the wrong decisions in our lives. And yet, what has God done?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
He hasn't said, well, you're disqualified now. You made the wrong choice. Therefore, I don't wanna go where you're going. You're done. And hey, it was a good run, but it's over now. He doesn't do that. What God does is he says, okay, you made a choice that's against my will. Ah. I can send you my spirit even now. Okay, you made a choice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
You made maybe even a permanent choice where here you are now in a state in life that you can't get out of. Okay, but this is not my wealth, not what I wanted, but I can still work with this. I can still give you my spirit. Ultimately, here's the word is that in 1 Samuel chapter 12, that Samuel is saying, even though you're choosing what God does not want, he is still gonna be with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
And that's just such a hard word to really allow into our hearts because on one side we can say, well, if that's the case, then I'll just keep choosing whatever I want if God's going to still be with me. On the other hand, we can say, are you sure? I don't know if that's the case. I still believe that I'm disqualified from the Lord's anointing. I'm disqualified from the Lord's spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
I'm disqualified from the Lord being present to me. And yet here is the truth that is revealed in 1 Samuel chapter 12, is that here's the people who are directly going against what God wants, and yet he is going to cooperate with them in their hardness of heart, out of the greatness of his own heart, out of the patience in his own heart, from the mercy that is unlimited in his own heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
Now, of course, what does he say? The last word here, he says that... This will be blessed. This will be a blessing provided that you and your king both are faithful to me. If not, it will end in catastrophe. It'll end in catastrophe. So yes, I can give you this thing that you've asked for. I don't want it, but I'll do it and I'll be with you. But even in this moment, you're not disqualified.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
Then if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves up to you. When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the hearing of the people and all the people wept aloud. Now Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen, and Saul said, What ails the people that they are weeping? So they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
But, but please, please know that from now on, you're called to be faithful. This is what conversion is all about. We recognize our brokenness and we recognize that I need God's grace. I need his help. And he says, okay, you have it. You have my mercy. You have my forgiveness. Okay.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
Now, like he said to the woman caught in adultery in chapter four of John's gospel, he just read it a couple of days ago. It's okay. And I'll go and sin no more. Okay. You're forgiven, but sin no more. Okay. That's not what I wanted. So I'm with you. I'm with you in your presence. Now move forward. You're not disqualified. I'm present to you. I can heal you. I can restore you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
Now let's move forward together. I think that's one of the messages here in Samuel's final farewell speech, even though we're At the same time, this is his last big speech that we get in 1 Samuel chapter 12. I am so grateful for you all to hang with me and stick with me here. What a gift to be able to be journeying in this way together. We all have broken lives. None of us are disqualified.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
We've all chosen things that God didn't want for us. And yet he's still present to you. If you're listening to this, he is still present to you. And I know I brought up even topics of violence or topics of divorce and topics that are really present in a lot of people's lives right now. recognize you are not disqualified. The Lord continues to be present to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
The Lord continues to call you and me and me forward. That's why we need to pray for each other because we hear those words of Jesus. Okay, you've been forgiven. Now go and sin no more. And sometimes even that is so daunting and sometimes that is so intimidating, but that is our call. So we need, we need God's grace. That's why we need to pray for each other. Please, please pray for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
And the Spirit of God came mightily upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled. He took a yoke of oxen, and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 107, and we're reading today from 1 Samuel chapter 11 and chapter 12. We'll also back to the Psalms. We are praying today, Psalm 55, as always.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
Then the dread of the Lord fell upon the people and they came out as one man. When he mustered them at Bezek, the men of Israel were 300,000 and the men of Judah, 30,000. And they said to the messengers who had come, Thus shall you say to the men of Jabesh-Gilead, Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have deliverance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
And when the messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, they were glad. Therefore the men of Jabesh said, Tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
And the next day Saul put the people in three companies, and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch, and cut down the Ammonites until the heat of the day, and those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together. Then the people said to Samuel, Who is it that said, Shall Saul reign over us? Bring the men, that we may put them to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
But Saul said, Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the Lord has wrought deliverance in Israel. Then Samuel said to the people, Come, let us go to Gilgal, and there renew the kingdom. So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal. There they sacrificed peace offerings before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
And there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. chapter 12 samuel's farewell address and samuel said to all israel behold i have listened to your voice and all that you have said to me and have made a king over you and now behold the king walks before you and i am old and gray and behold my sons are with you and i have walked before you from my youth until this day
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
Here I am, testify against me before the Lord and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? testify against me and I will restore it to you. They said, you have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man's hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
And he said to them, the Lord is witness against you and his anointed is witness this day that you have not found anything in my hand. And they said, he is witness. And Samuel said to the people, the Lord is witness who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
Now, therefore, stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the saving deeds of the Lord, which he performed for you and for your fathers. When Jacob went into Egypt and the Egyptians oppressed them, then your fathers cried to the Lord, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought forth your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
The Bible translation that I am using is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, and you can get that delivered directly to your inbox. Also, if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
But they forgot the Lord their God, and he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Jabin, king of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them. And they cried to the Lord and said, we have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies and we will serve you. And the Lord sent Jeroboam and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side. And you dwelt in safety. And when you saw that Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, came against you, you said to me, No, but a king shall reign over us, when the Lord your God was your king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
And now, behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked. Behold, the Lord has set a king over you. If you will fear the Lord and serve him and listen to his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
But if you will not listen to the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king. Now, therefore, stand still and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest today?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
I will call upon the Lord that he may send thunder and rain and you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord in asking for yourselves a king. So Samuel called upon the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. And all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
And all the people said to Samuel, Pray for your servants to the Lord your God that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil to ask for ourselves a king. And Samuel said to the people,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
Fear not, you have done all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart, and do not turn aside after vain things which cannot profit or save, for they are vain. For the Lord will not cast away his people for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart, for consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
Complaint about a friend's treachery. To the choir master with stringed instruments, a mascal of David. Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my supplication. Attend to me and answer me. I am overcome by my trouble. I am distraught by the noise of the enemy because of the oppression of the wicked, for they bring trouble against me, and in anger they cherish enmity against me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
Please consider yourself invited. You're not commanded. You don't need to do anything I say. You just are invited to hit click, subscribe. And also, if you want to comment, that'd be cool. If you want to rate this podcast, if you've been journeying with us for 107 episodes and it's blessed you, great. And if you don't like it, I guess you can. I'm really glad. Thanks for sticking it out.
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Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
My heart is in anguish within me. The terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear and trembling come upon me and horror overwhelms me. And I say, oh, that I had wings like a dove. I would fly away and be at rest. Yes, I would wander afar. I would lodge in the wilderness. I would wait for him who saves me from the raging wind and tempest. Destroy their plans, O Lord. Confuse their tongues.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
For I see violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go around it, on its walls, and mischief and trouble are within it. Ruin is in its midst. Oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace. It is not an enemy who taunts me, then I could bear it. It is not an adversary who deals insolently with me, then I could hide from him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
But it is you, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to hold sweet converse together within God's house. We walked in fellowship. Let death come upon them. Let them go down to Sheol alive. Let them go away in terror to their graves. But I call upon God and the Lord will save me. Evening and morning and at noon, I utter my complaint and moan and he will hear my voice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
He will deliver my soul and safety from the battle that I wage for many are arrayed against me. God will give ear and humble them. He who was enthroned from of old because they keep no law and do not fear God. My companion stretched out his hand against his friends. He violated his covenant. His speech was smoother than butter, yet war was in his heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. But you, O God, will cast them down into the lowest pit. Men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
We give you thanks. Lord God, even in the midst of not just enemies, but friends who have failed us, friends who have betrayed us, even in the midst of love that has run out, people who have promised, made covenants to us and promises to us, and then have failed to live up to those promises, have broken those covenants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
We know that you are faithful and you love us and you fight for us and you never break your promise and you never break a covenant. And so we give you thanks. you delight in us and you love us and you choose us and you sustain us. And so we thank you and we love you back. Help us to receive your love more and more this day and every day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
In Jesus' name we pray, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, amen. Wow, so gosh, here we are with 1 Samuel chapter 11 and 12. And what we have in chapter 11 is we get to see Saul as a great leader. We have to see Saul as an actual leader. And one of the things that give context, we have Nahash the Ammonite, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
That's amazing. But you can also rate this podcast and hopefully it will help other people find it and hear the Bible. As I said, today is day 107, and we're reading from 1 Samuel chapter 11 and 12, and we're praying Psalm 55. 1 Samuel chapter 11. Saul defeats the Ammonites. Then Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-Gilead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
So the member of the Ammonites, Philistines, these are some of the major characters who are the enemies of Israel at this point. And Nahash says to the men of Jabesh Gilead, basically other Jews, they say the men of Jabesh Gilead are afraid, terrified of Nahash the Ammonite. and say, we'll serve you. And Nahash says, well, if you serve me, let me gouge out your right eyes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
And that'll be a sign of disgrace that you gave yourselves up to me, that you basically, if a warrior was allowed to have his right eye gouged out, you realize how compromised you would be in battle. If you had a sword and shield, your sword would typically be in your right hand, your shield be in your left hand. So you'd have your shield in your left hand
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
kind of blind you from the left side because you have to hold it up. You won't be able to see anything on your right side where you'd have your sword side. And so this is kind of Nahash's way of saying, I would basically neuter you, hamstring you in such a way that you would never be able to rise up against me. If you want to belong to me, let's make it permanent, that kind of a situation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
So what does Saul do? Saul says, this is the deal. We're going to go to war. We're going to fight. We're going to battle against Nahash the Ammonite. And every person who belongs to Israel, you're going to fight too. He unites them, rallies them behind this challenge that Nahash had said to the men of Jabesh Gilead. And it goes well, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
And not only that, but Saul shows that he actually has some leadership capability. He shows that he has the spirit of God. Why? Because at the end of chapter 11, The people who fought say, hey, those people who stood against Saul, because we just made him our king, like basically, yes, he was anointed in private by Samuel, then elected in public in front of everybody.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
But here now, he has basically consecrated himself a king by the fact that he just led us all in battle into victory. And they say, everyone who was against you, Saul, let's kill them. And Saul does a great job. He says, no, let's not do that. Let them go. And we'll just renew the kingdom. We'll sacrifice peace offerings. And there he will be the leader, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
Of everyone, even those who opposed him originally. And so Saul shows a great amount of restraint and a great amount of wisdom in not just destroying those who were opposed to him. Good on you, Saul. Well done. Again, as we said yesterday, Saul is a complex character. He is not a hero in the story, but that doesn't mean he doesn't sometimes do heroic things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
And it doesn't just because he dies without the spirit of God in many ways, doesn't mean he doesn't have the spirit of God in this moment, in this time to accomplish this call that God has given to him. At the same time, here's the next lesson of Samuel's speech in chapter 12.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
My gosh, it is so powerful and it's so important for us to pay attention to what Samuel is saying in this final address in chapter 12. Here's what he says. He recounts the fact that In the past, what did God do? He led the family of Jacob, Israel, right, into Egypt, and they became slaves. And then people cried out to the Lord God. And what did he do? He sent Moses and Aaron to deliver them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
And then they had other enemies. After they wandered through the desert, they had other enemies, like Asisra, remember, in Judges, we heard all about this, and Jabin, the king of Hazor, and the Philistines, and the king of Moab, and the king of Israel. And what happened was they called upon the Lord and he sent leaders. He sent people to fight for them. Here's the Lord God taking care of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
And he sent Jeroboam and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel, myself, you know. And now what have you done? You've asked for a king. You don't want to rely upon. This is so important. Here is... Saul, who's been anointed king by God, the spirit of God has come upon Saul as king. Now, even Saul has demonstrated the fact that he can unite the people as king once again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
So all this stuff is happening, but Samuel is demonstrating this is not what God wants. He's allowing you to have this thing. He's allowing you to have this king. He's even giving that king strength. He's even giving that king power. power and giving him a role and giving him his spirit, but he doesn't want this. This is not part of his plan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
He is tolerating this because of the hardness of your heart. Now, this is so important for us because it highlights the ways in which, you know, we've read through Joshua. We read through judges. We read through those battles that the people of Israel were led into. And we can think sometimes mistakenly, we talked about this before, we need to be reminded of this again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
We can mistakenly think that that was what God wanted. No, that's what God allowed. So even though it says that God said, okay, go do X, Y, and Z when it comes to battle, when it comes to leading people into those places of violence, even though it says, well, God, you said to do this, that was not the original plan. Just like how God is giving the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God upon Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
And all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you. But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, O On this condition, I will make a treaty with you that I gouge out all your right eyes and thus put disgrace upon all Israel. The elders of Jabesh said to him, give us seven days respite that we may send messengers throughout the territory of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
And you think, well, no, this is clearly God's plan because he's giving the spirit upon Saul and Saul can lead into battle. He was anointed by Samuel, all these pieces. But God is saying, I'm merely doing this because of the hardness of your hearts. I'm doing this maybe some ways in spite of myself. You know, it's what we're going to hear later on in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 19.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
At one point, the people or the scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus about divorce. And Jesus says, no, divorce and remarriage is not allowed. It's committing adultery. And they say, Moses, you said you could divorce and marry another. And Jesus says, because of the hardness of your hearts, Moses said you could do this. One of the things we're going to find is that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 107: Samuel's Speech (2025)
God's call is always higher, but he sometimes allows us to stay lower, I guess, for lack of a better phrase. But what we have to do is keep our mind and our heart and our eyes set on the heights, set on what would God's original plan be. And this is so important, not just when it comes to the Bible. Not just when it comes to these areas of he was willing to let them have a king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
The righteous see it and are glad, the innocent laugh them to scorn, saying, surely our adversaries are cut off, and what they left the fire has consumed. Agree with God and be at peace. Thereby good will come to you. Receive instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
If you return to the Almighty and humble yourself, if you remove unrighteousness far from your tents, if you lay gold in the dust and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent bed, and if the Almighty is your gold and your precious silver, then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
You will make your prayer to him and he will hear you and you will pay your vows. You will decide on a matter and it will be established for you and light will shine on your ways. For God abases the proud, but he saves the lowly. He delivers the innocent man. You will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands. Proverbs chapter 3 verses 9 through 12.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Honor the Lord with your substance and with the firstfruits of all your produce. Then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, or be weary of his reproof. For the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights. God in heaven, we know that you love us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
You love us in our brokenness and in our weakness, and we can trust you, even when we do not understand what you are doing. Help us to trust you this day as we journey with you, as we live this day in your presence, as we live this day in your will. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
So Job's pal was speaking to him today. He's our friend, Job, and Eliphaz is his buddy, his pal. And Eliphaz has a common understanding of the role of suffering, the role of the tragedy that's come upon Job. And one of the reasons for suffering, and it actually is not inaccurate, one of the reasons for suffering is because We are reaping basically what we've sown.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Like scripture says, you will reap what you sow. If we sow in the vineyard of affliction, we will reap God's wrath. So there's that sense if we sow sin, then we reap sin. If we sow sin, we reap the consequences of sin. And so Eliphaz is saying that that must be the thing. Job, what you have to do is you have to repent. And once you repent, then God will be with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Then the Lord said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you. So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was and said to them, I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Once you repent, then God once again will hear your prayer because he doesn't hear your prayer now because you have done something evil. See, the things we believe almost always have an element of truth to them. That's one of the reasons why they're so convincing. They're not fully true, but they're partially true. And there is such a thing that there's a role of suffering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Sometimes the role of suffering is that it is the consequence of our own bad decisions or someone else's bad decisions. Sometimes God allows us to enter into suffering in order to wake us up, in order to get us to repent, in order to win. He would not necessarily spare our suffering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
our lives or spare our goals, our dreams, all these hopes, so we can get our soul, so that we can wake up and realize, I'm living far from God. So one of the fruits of suffering can be repentance, or it can be something that God is using to teach us, to teach us deeper wisdom about life that we could never, ever learn outside of suffering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Those are things for repentance as a consequence of our sins, or in order to teach us a deeper kind of wisdom that can only be found through suffering. that is true, but it's not the only truth. And we know the story because we've been reading from chapter one in the book of Job, that he was righteous. He was wise. He would sit in the city gates and people would come to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Now he's saying like, kids won't even listen to me now. Whereas the elders used to listen to me. So he was wise. He was righteous. He didn't have anything to repent of. And he did not experience this suffering because of something that he had done. It's a convincing argument that his friends are trying to make, but we know the true story is that Job was not guilty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
And so something else is at play right now. Something else is at work right now. It's one of the reasons why sometimes offering people platitudes, right? Offering people like, well, it must be this, or, you know, this is God's will. When we don't know if it's God's will and we don't know if it's his perfect will, it might be his permissive will, but not necessarily his perfect will.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
offering people platitudes like that can often be incredibly dangerous. In fact, it's one of the reasons why the best thing that Job's friends did for him was when he was in the depths of his suffering, they just sat with him for seven days and didn't say a word. That was the best thing they could have done for Job in his suffering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
And probably is maybe one of the best things they could do for him at this point in his suffering. But his friends are much like us as friends. Sometimes we get tired and we want to give an answer. Sometimes we get tired of just being with someone in their grief or in their pain, and we just want to talk our way out of it. We want to give them an answer. And sometimes there is no answer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Sometimes the answer is something we cannot offer. Sometimes the answer is something that can only come from God himself. And we're going to see that that's what happens in this story of the book of Job as we continue our journey, these 365 days, a Bible in a year. You guys, I'm so grateful for you all. And please know of my prayers for you every single day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Please be praying for me and pray for each other because this is a community of people. We can do this solo thing where we just kind of like listen on our own, but we also need to be praying for each other, knowing that every one of us is in The fight for our lives, right? Every one of us is in the fight of our lives. So let's hold each other up in prayer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
You know that I have served your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not permit him to harm me. If he said, The spotted shall be your wages, then all the flocks bore spotted. And if he said, The striped shall be your wages, then all the flocks bore striped. Thus God has taken away the cattle from your father and given them to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
If you are interested in getting email updates and whatnot, you can text the word Catholic Bible. It's all one word, Catholic Bible, to 33777. You can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year if you want to get the Bible reading plan. And please subscribe to this podcast. If this is helping you out, please share it with your friends or with someone you think it could bless them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
It has been a blessing to me to be with you. So my name is Father Mike. God bless you and I'll see you tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
In the mating season of the flock, I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the he goats, which leaped upon the flock, were striped, spotted, and mottled. Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, Jacob. And I said, Here I am. And he said, Lift up your eyes and see. All the goats that leap upon the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled. For I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go forth from this land and return to the land of your birth. Then Rachel and Leah answered him, Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father's house? Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has been using up the money given for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
All the property which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do. So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels, and he drove away all his cattle, all his livestock which he had gained, the cattle in his possession which he had acquired in Paddan Aram, to go to the land of Canaan, to his father Isaac.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father's household gods. And Jacob outwitted Laban the Aramean, in that he did not tell him that he intended to flee. He fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead. The God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, Take heed that you say not a word to Jacob, either good or bad. And Laban overtook Jacob.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
This is day 16, and we are continuing with our book of Genesis, our book of Job, book of Proverbs. We're hitting all these massive, massive books. It is day 16, so that means we are reading Genesis chapter 31 and chapter 32, continuing our story with Jacob and Laban and some other people. We're going to be reintroduced into Esau. We're also reading Job chapter 21 and chapter 22.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country and Laban with his kinsmen encamped in the hill country of Gilead. And Laban said to Jacob,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
what have you done that you have cheated me and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword why did you flee secretly and cheat me and did not tell me so that i might have sent you away with mirth and songs with tambourine and lyre and why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell Now you have done foolishly. It is in my power to do you harm.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
But the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, Take heed that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad. And now you have gone away because you have longed greatly for your father's house. But why did you steal my gods? Jacob answered Laban, Because I was afraid. For I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two maidservants, but he did not find them. And he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
now rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel's saddle and sat upon them laban felt all about the tent but he did not find them and she said to her father let not my lord be angry that i cannot rise before you for the way of women is upon me so he searched but did not find the household gods Then Jacob became angry and upbraided Laban. Jacob said to Laban, what is my offense?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me? Although you have felt all through my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two. These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your she-goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
That which was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. Thus I was. By day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes." These 20 years I have been in your house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
I have served you 14 years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages 10 times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we will read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, the daughters are my daughters. The children are my children. The flocks are my flocks and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne? Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me. So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
And Jacob said to his kinsmen, Gather stones. And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. Laban called it Jagar-Seduthah. but jacob called it galid laban said this heap is a witness between you and me to-day therefore he named it galid and the pillar mizpah for he said the lord watch between me and you
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
And Proverbs 3, verses 9 through 12, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Catholic edition. And I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to be able to follow along, not just kind of listen along, but also see, you can download your Bible in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible. Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
when we are absent from one another if you ill-treat my daughters or if you take wives besides my daughters although no man is with us remember god is witness between you and me then laban said to jacob see this heap and the pillar which i have set between you and me
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me for harm. The God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, the God of their father judged between us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
So Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac, and Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his kinsmen to eat bread, and they ate bread and tarried all night on the mountain. Early in the morning, Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he departed and returned home. Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's army. So he called the name of that place Mahanaim. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother, in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, instructing them, Thus you shall say to my lord Esau,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Thus says your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now, and I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, men servants and maid servants, and I have sent to tell you, my Lord, in order that I might find favor in your sight. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that were with him and the flocks and herds and camels into two companies, thinking, If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company which is left will escape. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
O Lord, who said to me, Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercy and all the faithfulness which you have shown to your servant. For with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Deliver me, I beg you, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and slay us all, the mothers with the children. But you said, I will do you good and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
So he lodged there that night and took from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau, 200 she goats and 20 he goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 milk camels and their colts, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 she donkeys and 10 he donkeys. These he delivered into the hand of his servants and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
every dove by itself and said to his servants pass on before me and put a space between drove and drove he instructed the foremost when esau my brother meets you and asks you to whom do you belong where are you going and whose are these before you Then you shall say, They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau, and moreover he is behind us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who follow the droves, You shall say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. And you shall say, Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he thought, I may appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterwards I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
You also can subscribe. Whatever app you're listening to this podcast in, just click subscribe and get those daily updates popped up. Speaking of daily updates, if you want to sign up for our email list, you can text the word Catholic Bible. As you know, that is two words, but we combine them. So it's Catholic Bible, all one word, no spaces, to the number 33777.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
So the present passed on before him, and he himself lodged that night in the camp. The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the hollow of his thigh and Jacob's thigh was pulled out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, let me go for the day is breaking. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. And he said to him, what is your name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed. Then Jacob asked him, Tell me I pray your name. But he said, Why is it that you ask my name? And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of that place Peniel, saying, For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved. The sun rose upon him as he passed Peniel, limping because of his thigh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh on the sinew of the hip. Job chapter 21 and 22. Job replies. Then Job answered, listen carefully to my words and let this be your consolation. Bear with me and I will speak. And after I have spoken, mock on.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient? Look at me and be appalled and lay your hand upon your mouth. When I think of it, I am dismayed and shuddering seizes my flesh. Why do the wicked live? Reach old age and grow mighty in power. Their children are established in their presence and their offspring before their eyes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Their houses are safe from fear and no rod of God is upon them. Their bull breeds without fail. Their cow calves and does not cast her calf. They send forth their little ones like a flock and their children dance. They sing to tambourines and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe. They spend their days in prosperity and in peace they go down to Sheol. They say to God, depart from us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
We do not desire the knowledge of your ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him? Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? The counsel of the wicked is far from me. How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes upon them, that God distributes pains in his anger?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
that they are like straw before the wind and like chaff that the storm carries away. You say God stores up their iniquity for their sons. Let him recompense it to themselves that they may know it. Let their own eyes see their destruction and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty. For what do they care for their houses after them when the number of their months is cut off?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
As I said, we are reading today, day 16, from chapter 31 and 32. Job 21 and 22 and Proverbs 3, 9 through 12. Let's get started. Genesis chapter 31 and 32. Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, Jacob has taken all that was our father's and from what was our father's he has gained all his wealth. And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
will any teach god knowledge seeing that he judges those that are on high one dies in full prosperity being wholly at ease and secure his body full of fat and the marrow of his bones moist another dies in bitterness of soul never having tasted of good they lie down alike in the dust and the worms cover them Behold, I know your thoughts and your schemes to wrong me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
For you say, where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked dwell? Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony that the wicked man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath? Who declares his way to his face, and who repays him for what he has done?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
When he is born to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb. The clods of the valley are sweet to him. All men follow after him and those who go before him are innumerable. How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless? Is it for fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
is not your wickedness great there is no end to your iniquities for you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing you have given no water to the weary to drink and you have withheld bread from the hungry the man with power possessed the land and the favored man dwelt in it You have sent widows away empty and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Therefore, snares are round about you and sudden terror overwhelms you. Your light is darkened so that you cannot see and a flood of water covers you. Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are. Therefore, you say, what does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness? Thick clouds and wrap him so that he does not see and he walks on the vault of heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 16: The Suffering of Job (2025)
Will you keep to the old way which wicked men have trod? They were snatched away before their time, their foundation was washed away. They say to God, depart from us, and what can the Almighty do to us? Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
And she says that we worship here, but you Jews say that you can only worship in Jerusalem. Who is it? You know, who's right? And Jesus points out that the day will come. He said it's true. The day will come when people will worship God in spirit and in truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
And that's a foreshadowing, right, of God's promise of his sacrifice, the sacrifice of his body and blood offered at every mass, which is so cool and so incredible. But today, the point of 1 Chronicles 22 and 21 from yesterday is this is going to be the beginning of centralized worship. You can only offer sacrifice in the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
And here's David collecting all these materials and instructing his son, add to these because you need to create a temple that is worthy of the Lord God. And that's we want to be as temples of the Holy Spirit. Those of us, if you've been baptized, you're a temple of the Holy Spirit. We want to be a temple worthy of the Lord God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
Then Hushai said to Absalom, This time the counsel which Ahithophel has given is not good. Hushai said, Moreover, you know that your father and his men are mighty men. and that they are enraged like a bear robbed for cubs in the field. Besides, your father is expert in war. He will not spend the night with the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
And so we just ask, Lord, renew me, renew my heart, renew my soul, renew your gift of grace inside of me so that I can truly live in such a way as a living tabernacle, as a living temple, be a place of your spirit where your truth and your life abides. So we keep praying for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
Behold, even now he has hidden himself in one of the pits or in some other place. And when some of the people fall at the first attack, whoever hears it will say, there has been a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
Then even the valiant men whose heart is like the heart of a lion will utterly melt with fear for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man and that those who are with him are valiant men. But my counsel is that all Israel be gathered to you from Dan to Beersheba as the sand by the sea for multitude and that you go to battle in person.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
So we shall come upon him in some place where he is to be found, and we shall light upon him as the dew falls on the ground. And of him and all the men with him, not one will be left. If he withdraws into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we shall drag it into the valley until not even a pebble is to be found there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel, for the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom. Hushai warns David to escape.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
And how we fit into that story today, it is day 135. We are reading three chapters today. First from 2 Samuel 17, then 1 Chronicles 22, and we're finally praying Psalm 36. As always, the Bible translation that I'm using is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. And I'm reading from the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
Then Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, Thus and so did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel, now thus and so have I counseled. Now therefore, send quickly and tell David, Do not lodge tonight at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means pass over, lest the king and all the people who are with him be swallowed up. Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at Ein Rogel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
A maidservant used to go and tell them, and they would go and tell King David, for they must not be seen entering the city. But Elad saw them and told Absalom. So both of them went away quickly and came to the house of a man at Bahurim, who had a well in his courtyard, and they went down into it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth and scattered grain upon it, and nothing was known of it. When Absalom's servants came to the woman at the house, they said, Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And the woman said to them, They have gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
After they had gone, the men came up out of the well and went and told King David. They said to David, Arise and go quickly over the water, for thus and so has Ahithophel counseled against you. Then David arose and all the people who were with him, and they crossed the Jordan. By daybreak, not one was left who had not crossed the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and went off home to his own city. And he set his house in order and hanged himself, and he died and was buried in the tomb of his father. Then David came to Mahanaim, and Absalom crossed the Jordan with all the men of Israel. Now Absalom had set Amasa over the army instead of Joab.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra the Ishmaelite, who had married Abigail, the daughter of Nahash, sister of Zeruiah, Joab's mother. And Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi the son of Nahash from Rabbah of the Ammonites, and Machir the son of Amiel and Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Ogallim, brought beds, basins, and earthen vessels, wheat, barley, meal, parched grains, beans, and lentils, honey and curds and sheep and cheese from the herd for David and the people with him to eat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
For they said, the people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
The site for the temple chosen continued. Then David said, here shall be the house of the Lord God and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel. David's preparations for the temple. David commanded to gather together the aliens who were in the land of Israel and he set stone cutters to prepare dressed stones for building the house of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
David also provided great stores of iron for nails for the doors of the gates and for clamps, as well as bronze in quantities beyond weighing, and cedar timbers without number, for the Sidonians and Tyrians had brought great quantities of cedar to David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
For David said, Solomon, my son, is young and inexperienced, and the house that is to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and glory throughout all lands. I will therefore make preparation for it. So David provided materials in great quantity before his death. David's charge to Solomon and the leaders of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And you can subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe. As I said, it is day 135. Also, good job. So good. What a gift. And we're reading 2 Samuel chapter 17, 1 Chronicles 22 and Psalm 36. Second book of Samuel chapter 17, the council of Ahithophel continued.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
Then he called for Solomon, his son, and charged him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. David said to Solomon, my son, I had it in my heart to build a house to the name of the Lord, my God. But the word of the Lord came to me saying, you have shed much blood and have waged great wars.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we will read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
You shall not build a house to my name because you have shed so much blood before me upon the earth. Behold, a son shall be born to you. He shall be a man of peace. I will give him peace from all his enemies round about for his name shall be Solomon. And I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name. He shall be my son and I will be his father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
I will establish his royal throne in Israel forever. Now, my son, the Lord be with you. so that you may succeed in building the house of the Lord your God as he has spoken concerning you. Only may the Lord grant you discretion and understanding that when he gives you charge over Israel, you may keep the law of the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
Then you will prosper if you are careful to observe the statutes and the ordinances which the Lord commanded Moses for Israel. Be strong and of good courage. Fear not and be not dismayed. To these you must add. You have an abundance of workmen, stonecutters, masons, carpenters, and all kinds of craftsmen without number, skilled in working gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Arise and be doing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
The Lord be with you. David also commanded all the leaders of Israel to help Solomon, his son, saying, Is not the Lord your God with you? And has he not given you peace on every side? For he has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land is subdued before the Lord and his people. Now set your mind and heart to seek the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
Arise and build the sanctuary of the Lord God, so that the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the holy vessels of God may be brought into a house built for the name of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
To the choir master, a Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord. Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart. There is no fear of God before his eyes, for he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. The words of his mouth are mischief and deceit. He has ceased to act wisely and do good. He plots mischief while on his bed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
He sets himself in a way that is not good. He spurns not evil. Your mercy, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like the great deep. Man and beast you save, O Lord. How precious is your mercy, O God! The children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life. In your light do we see light. O continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your salvation to the upright of heart. Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. There the evildoers lie prostrate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
We praise your name and we give you glory. We thank you for your justice because your justice is that you are right and you are true. You are fair and what we deserve, you are willing to give. But we also thank you, Lord God, for your mercy. And we know that in your mercy, you do not contradict justice, but in your mercy, you fulfill justice in yourself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
Moreover, Ahithophel said to Absalom, let me choose 12,000 men and I will set out and pursue David tonight. I will come upon him while he is weary and discouraged and throw him into a panic and all the people who are with him will flee. I will strike down the king only and I will bring all the people back to you as a bride comes home to her husband.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
And in giving your son as the sacrifice for my sin, as sacrifice for our sins, you show yourself to be a God of justice and mercy in your one heart, as you are one God in your one character. truly consistent, just, and merciful. And so we thank you. I thank you, God, for your justice, that you're not fickle. I thank you for your mercy, that you are love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
Please receive our thanks and praise this day. In Jesus' name, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, so here we are. Gosh, 2 Samuel chapter 17. Remember, this is like intrigue. This is all about Yeah, the stuff that goes on when there's civil war, when there's war going on. So we have Ahithophel, right? Who's a trusted counselor. He has great advice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
And the advice is, hey, just let me, I'm going to lead 12,000 men. We're going to just go kill your father. We're going to just destroy him. And then everyone else will be saved. Everyone else will be spared. We'll bring them back. And it'll be a celebration because it wasn't civil war that destroyed everybody. It was just the one king took care of him, done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
And a lot of people actually like you, Absalom. So that's going to be good, right? And then what happens? Well, Hushai, remember Hushai was the spy that David had sent to stay with Absalom and to present himself as Absalom's servant. As I served your father, David, now I serve you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
And Hushai, he not only has great advice, well, great advice for David, but it's advice that appeals to Absalom's vanity. Remember, Absalom is a very good looking man. He has hair that weighs a lot of weight from top of his head to the tip of his toe. He has no flaw in him and he has vanity, right? So what does Hushai say?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
Hushai says, okay, let's not let Ahithophel go and kill your father David because then Ahithophel has the victory. How about you, Absalom? How about you lead the people? And we have to do this because remember, your father David is a mighty warrior. His mighty men around him are valiant men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
And if you're going to let Ahithophel go and destroy this mighty warrior, this mighty man, that's not the way to go. Not only because of a bunch of reasons, but also because you know what's going to happen is you've never been in battle. You've never fought any wars. You've never... earned people's respect when it comes to being a conqueror. David is a mighty man. Everyone knows it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
His mighty men are valiant men. Everyone knows it. So you need to lead them, Absalom, yourself. And Israel gathered to you and then they will be able to basically put their trust in you, put their confidence in you and see you as the true king. And so Absalom more or less falls for Hushai's advice. And what happens? Ahithophel goes back to his home.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
He says, when Ahithophel saw that Hushai's advice was heeded and his was not, he went back to his home and got his affairs in order and he killed himself. Now, why did he do this? Not because he was embarrassed, not because he was pouting, because he realized Ahithophel is a smart guy. Ahithophel knows Hushai's advice will be followed and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
And it will bring about the destruction of Absalom that David's going to win based off of Absalom following Hushai's advice. And so he doesn't want to live as a traitor to the king who's coming back home pretty soon after basically David defeats his own son in battle. So it's just kind of one of these moments of intrigue and the moments of...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
You seek the life of only one man, and all the people will be at peace. And the advice pleased Absalom and all the elders of Israel, the council of Hushai. Then Absalom said, Call Hushai, the archite also, and let us hear what he has to say. And when Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom said to him, Thus has Ahithophel spoken. Shall we do as he advises? If not, you speak.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
of uh yeah just what it is to have a spy basically in your own in your own home and one last thing absalom makes amasa the captain of his army instead of joab now why does and then it goes on to say amasa was the son of a man who was this person who was married to this person was child of this person basically here's the connection amasa who is now absalom's chief or general captain of his army is a son of a niece of david so david had a niece and amasa was
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
son of that niece and is a cousin of Joab. Just in case you're wondering, I did not follow the family connection in all of that. That's the connection here. Now, as Absalom goes off into battle in pursuit of his father, we're getting to that tomorrow, but going to first Chronicles 22, remember that in first Chronicles 21, David had said, okay, we're going to make Jerusalem the place of the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
In fact, it was the site of Ornan's threshing floor, right? One thing that I failed to highlight yesterday, I just want to point this out, is that David said, hey, I want to offer, I'll buy this threshing floor from you. I want to buy this whole land because we're going to build a temple here. We're going to build a place of worshiping God, an altar here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
And Ornan says, no, no, let me just give it to you. And I'll give you my cattle as well. I'll give you the threshing sledges. You can burn those for the sacrifice. And David makes a really big point of highlighting the fact that he's like, no, no, I'm going to pay you for this because this should cost something. And there's something really true about this, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
A religion that doesn't cost us anything or following Christ that doesn't cost us anything is only going to go so deep. It's only going to go so deep in our lives. And David has an impulse for this. He kind of has an intuition for this. He realizes, nope, I have to actually buy this in order to be invested, right? You have skin in the game, essentially, is one of the ways people say it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
So David has bought this land. Now, this is going to be, this is Mount Moriah, right? So this is the place that the temple is going to be built. And I say the temple, I mean the temple. After this, at this point, this is a really critical moment because this site of the temple, up until this point, sacrifices were offered many different places. They were offered in Gibeah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
They're offered in Gilead. They're offered all over the place, Bethel. But at this point, sacrifice will only be offered in one place. that you have many synagogues, but only one temple. You don't offer sacrifice in synagogues. You don't worship in synagogues. You only worship in the temple in Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
And this is the beginning of David collecting all these materials and actually people who can work with these materials, craftsmen and whatnot, to build the temple. He can't build it, right? It's his son Solomon. That's why we read in 1 Chronicles 22 today that here's David saying to Solomon, having amassed
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
all these materials, I've gathered all these things, you have to add to them because you're going to build a temple to the glory of God. And the key piece for us, at least for today, is soon this temple is going to be the only place you can offer sacrifice. This is going to be the locus, the one place of offering sacrifice. and basically centralized worship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 135: The Counsel of Hushai (2025)
That's going to make a big difference and make a big deal when it comes to the lives of the people of Israel. Because remember in John chapter four, we covered that, gosh, it must've been a month ago now when we read John over a month ago, that in John chapter four, Jesus meets the woman at the well, right? The Samaritan woman.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Not only this, in the gospel, it talks about a great millstone. And now our translation here, the RSV, doesn't have the word great. But imagine what a great millstone is. So you know what a millstone would do is it would go around this circle, right? Obviously, and you would have either a human being or an animal that would kind of pull it around this centrifugal point, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
So a center point and the millstone was so big and so heavy that it would crush whatever's underneath it. So typically it would be, you know, grain, barley, that kind of thing. And we grind those, whatever was underneath the millstone into a fine powder. It was that heavy, over 2,000 pounds at least.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And so imagine having that great millstone, 2,000 pounds placed around your neck and then thrown into the sea. You go down pretty fast. It would be pretty drastic. And that's the seriousness with which Jesus takes sin. And that is so important for us, the seriousness with which Jesus takes sin. Now, moving on, in that same chapter, chapter 17, we have Jesus cleansing seven lepers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And we note this, you know, there's a number of times we have the parable before, the parable of the Good Samaritan. And we have here, there's Jesus passing through Samaria or between Samaria and Galilee. And there's 10 lepers. All of them get healed. One comes back. It was a Samaritan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Will he not rather say to him, prepare supper for me and put on your apron and serve me till I eat and drink and afterward you shall eat and drink? Does he thank the servant because he did what he was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, we are unworthy servants. We have only done what was our duty. Jesus cleanses 10 lepers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
We know about the Samaritans now because we've gone through the entire Old Testament and we know that those Samaritans, they had been those who had intermarried, you know, because when the Babylonians or Syrians came in, they had brought five nations with them and they intermarried with the Jews there and essentially corrupted their religion. They corrupted their following of the Lord God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And so the Samaritans in many ways were even worse kind of, I don't say enemies, but even worse enemies than the enemies of the Jews. Like they're worse than the Assyrians, worse than the Romans, worse than the Babylonians at some times because of the fact that they would see themselves as brothers and yet they were living as estranged family members, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And yet here is Jesus using them as good examples, right? Why? Well, we know that Jesus first came to save the Jews, right? He first came to fulfill the Old Testament covenant that the Lord God had made with the Jewish people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
But we also know that Jesus had made it clear at various times he had to be pushed sometimes, not had to be pushed, but he allowed himself to be pushed in certain moments in the Gospels. to reveal that it is not one's pedigree, right? It's not the birthright, not the fact that we're children of Abraham or sons of Abraham that enables us to experience the grace of Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
It is the fact that we're lost, the fact that we're miserable and that his mercy comes to meet us in our misery. And so even if someone is a Samaritan, even if someone is a Syrophoenician woman, even if someone is far, far from the Lord, you know, in the Acts of the Apostles, we're We have the Ethiopian eunuch.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Nothing has nothing to do with Judaism, except for the fact that he seems to be a God-fearer. And yet the gospel and the grace of God is for him and for you and for me, which is just incredible. So Jesus is highlighting these Samaritans as well. Now, keep moving on a little bit. One of the things I want to highlight is that these two men in chapters 18 and chapter 19.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
In chapter 18, there's the rich ruler. And whenever I describe the rich ruler, I describe him as the good kid. He's a church kid. He's someone who, as he says, you know, he's a rich young man and he wants to know what he has to do to inherit eternal life. He's a good church kid. Jesus says, you know the commandments. Yep, you bet I do. Lord, I've been following them all since my youth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 319. We're reading Luke chapters 17, 18, and 19, also Proverbs chapter 26, verses 13 through 16. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Now, not in Luke's gospel, but in another gospel, I think Mark's gospel, it says Jesus looking at him, loved him. And so here's this look of love between the Lord God and this rich young man, this good kid, this church kid. But when Jesus asks him, okay, you've given me stuff. You've done good things. That's great. That's wonderful. But now you have to give me your life. Now give me your heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Give me what really matters. He goes away sad. Now remember coming upon this once that it said that the term, we just read here in chapter 18, that he went away sad. That actually, this may be, I think this is accurate, that term for sad, grieved, is the same word that is used to describe the grief, the agony that Jesus went through in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
So he goes away sad, not just kind of bummed out. He goes away grieved. He goes away wounded. He goes away almost crushed, you would say. But he does go away. And that's the heart of this for every single one of us. You might have been a good church kid, maybe not. But what Jesus is asking for is not just, hey, obey the commandments. He's saying, I invite you. What's one thing you lack?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Okay, give away your riches. Give away what you're relying upon or trusting in, you know, that wealth. But more importantly than anything, come follow me. And he went away sad because he asked, that was too much. It was a bridge too far for the rich young man. On the other hand, in chapter 19, we have this guy named Zacchaeus who is not a church kid. He is not a good kid.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
He is the guy who would be the furthest person from a church or from a synagogue. In fact, he was a sinner and everyone knew he was a sinner. And yet what happens? Jesus sees him in the tree and says, Zacchaeus, come down with haste and I must stay at your house today. And it says he made haste, meaning he moved fast. He moved quickly and came down, and this is the key, and received him joyfully.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
On the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. When he saw them, he said to them, Go and show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Because so often, right, the rich young man, he went away sad. He went away grieved. He went away crushed. And sometimes we think that, like, oh, gosh, if I gave the Lord everything, that's me. I would walk away grieved. It would be so hard. It would be so sad. I'd have to, okay, fine, Lord, you can have everything in my life, and I'd just be miserable. But the opposite is true.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
The one who walked away was miserable. And the one who came down and met Jesus received him joyfully. Not only that, he literally, well, kind of figuratively, put his money where his mouth was. Behold, half my goods I give to the poor. Jesus doesn't even tell him to do this. He just says, I'm going to do this. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Now, here's the little pro tip. Zacchaeus, he was a tax collector, chief tax collector. He would have defrauded some people. So he's paying people back right at this point. And yet, here's the big dichotomy. The good kid, the church kid, walks away miserable because he can't give the Lord his heart. He's not willing to give the Lord his heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
The bad kid, the kid who was lost, the kid who everyone would have disqualified, he comes down and receives Jesus joyfully and gives him everything. And this is so key for every one of us. Now, whether you are a good church kid or not, whether you've been far away from the Lord or not, the call is the same. And the call is, come and follow me. The call is, come, give me your heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
What matters to you the most? What do you love the most? Come and follow me. And entrust that, your heart, to me. And so that's what we're praying. Because, you know, this isn't just about listening to the Bible. This is also about responding to the Bible. It's not just about hearing the word of God. It's about acting upon the word of God. And so to receive joy, Let's say that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Today, this afternoon, whenever you're, I don't know when you're listening to this, wherever you are and whenever you are, to be able to say, I hear the Lord's voice, call your name and say, come down. I want to stay at your house today. And come close to the Lord and receive him joyfully. Saying, Lord, I give you everything I love. And I give you what I love with. I give you my heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
I'm praying that that's what you're able to do today. Please pray for me that that's what I'm able to do today. Because we need each other's prayers. That's why, as always, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then said Jesus, Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, Rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
the coming of the kingdom. Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, he answered them, The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, Behold, here it is, or there. For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And he said to the disciples, The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, behold there or behold here. Do not go, do not follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the son of man be in his day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the son of man. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Likewise, as it was in the days of Lot, they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built. But on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from heaven and destroyed them all. So will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let him who is on the housetop with his goods in the house not come down to take them away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And likewise, let him who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed, one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together, one will be taken and the other left. And they said to him, Where, Lord?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
He said to them, Where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together. Chapter 18 The Parable of the Widow and the Unrighteous Judge And he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, In a certain city there was a judge, who neither feared God nor regarded man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Vindicate me against my adversary. For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, Though I neither fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her or she will wear me out by her continual coming. And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe. If you do, you receive daily episodes and daily updates right to your podcast app. It is day 319.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And will not God vindicate his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. Jesus blesses the children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him saying, let the children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. the rich ruler.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And the ruler asked him, Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. And he said, All these I have observed from my youth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And when Jesus heard it, he said to him, One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me. But when he heard this, he became sad, for he was very rich. Jesus, looking at him, said, How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Those who heard it said, then who can be saved? But he said, what is impossible with men is possible with God. And Peter said, behold, we have left our homes and followed you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
We're reading Luke chapter 17, 18, and 19, Proverbs chapter 26, verses 13 through 16. The gospel according to Luke chapter 17, some sayings of Jesus. And he said to his disciples, Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to him by whom they come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And he said to them, truly, I say to you, there is no man who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive manifold more in this time and in the age to come eternal life. A third time Jesus foretells his death and resurrection.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And taking the twelve, he said to them, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written of the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. They will scourge him and kill him, and on the third day he will rise. But they understood none of these things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. Jesus Heals a Blind Beggar Near Jericho As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging, and hearing a multitude going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And he cried, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, What do you want me to do for you? He said, Lord, let me receive my sight. And Jesus said to him, Receive your sight. Your faith has made you well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And immediately he received his sight and followed him, glorifying God, and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. Chapter 19 Jesus and Zacchaeus He entered Jericho and was passing through, and there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and rich, and he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not on account of the crowd because he was small of stature.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "'Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for I must stay at your house today.' So he made haste and came down and received him joyfully." And when they saw it, they all murmured, He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. the parable of the 10 pounds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near to Jerusalem and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. He said, therefore, a nobleman went into a far country to receive kingly power and then return. Calling 10 of his servants, he gave them 10 pounds and said to them, trade with these till I come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
But his citizens hated him and sent an embassy after him saying, we do not want this man to reign over us. When he returned, having received the kingly power, he commanded these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him that he might know what they had gained by trading. The first came before him, saying, Lord, your pound has made ten pounds more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
It would be better for him if a millstone were hung round his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times and says, I repent, you must forgive him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And he said to him, Well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, your pound has made five pounds. And he said to him, And you are to be over five cities. Then another came, saying, Lord, here is your pound, which I kept laid away in a napkin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow. He said to him, I will condemn you out of your own mouth, you wicked servant." You knew that I was a severe man, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Why then did you not put my money into the bank, and at my coming I should have collected it with interest? And he said to those who stood by, take the pound from him and give it to him who has the 10 pounds. And they said to him, Lord, he has 10 pounds. I tell you that to everyone who has will more be given, but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me. Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. And when he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, Go into the village opposite, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it, and bring it here. If anyone asks you, Why are you untying it? you shall say this, The Lord has need of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
So those who were sent went away and found it as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, Why are you untying the colt? And they said, The Lord has need of it. And they brought it to Jesus. And throwing their garments on the colt, they set Jesus upon it. And as he rode along, they spread their garments on the road.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
As he was now drawing near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
He answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. Jesus Weeps Over Jerusalem And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
For the days shall come upon you when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you and hem you in on every side and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation. Jesus cleanses the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers. And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people sought to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people hung upon his words.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
The book of Proverbs, chapter 26, verses 13 through 16. The sluggard says, there is a lion in the road. There is a lion in the streets. As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. It wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer discreetly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
The apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine tree, be rooted up and be planted in the sea and it would obey you. Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, come at once and sit down at table?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Father in heaven, we give you praise. Thank you so much. We give you honor and glory, and we just praise you for your son, Jesus, and the revelation of the gospel of Luke. Oh my goodness, Lord, thank you so much for Luke taking the time and taking all the effort. I can't even imagine, Lord, the effort that Luke put in to writing these words to be able to give us a picture of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
Jesus in his teaching, Jesus in his righteous anger against the scribes and Pharisees and those who were bought and sold in the temple. His righteous love and calling of people like Zacchaeus, people like the rich young man, people like us. So thank you, Father. Thank you for loving us. And thank you for Luke.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And above all, Lord, thank you for your Son and your Spirit, which are your gifts to us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Oh, gosh. So we just have three chapters in Luke, which are phenomenal. And we're getting, he walked into Jerusalem, right? So we know we're coming to the end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
We only have two days left with the Gospel of Luke. But there's something about this. I just want to highlight a couple points. You know, in chapter 17, very, very beginning, where it talks about if anyone should cause one of these little ones to sin, it always reminds me years ago when I was in seminary, there was a professor. His name is Dr. Chris Thompson. He taught us morality.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And maybe I've said this before because it just stuck with me so much. And he said, gentlemen, he's talking to all the guys who would hopefully be ordained priests. He said, gentlemen, when it comes to your life, when it comes to sin, when it comes to leading others into sin, I have one word for you. And that word is millstones.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 319: Come, Follow Me (2024)
And it was just this, it was very convicting because he just spoke with authority. He was a husband and a father and just a really morally upstanding man, not only super intelligent, but also incredible teacher, probably the best teacher I've ever had in my life. And that conviction that had the millstones, man, you cannot, you may not lead others into sin. And that has just sat with me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And these invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So here is this generation. Here are these people. about to go into the promised land. And while the Lord God is prohibiting Balaam from cursing the people of Israel, and he's forcing Balaam to bless the people of Israel, the people of Israel are being false to the Lord their God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
They are, as it says, playing the harlot. They are hooking up essentially with the daughters of Moab. So that means that these men of Israel were not only intermarrying if they did that, but they were also adopting the worship practices, the religious practices of the people of Israel. They were turning away from the Lord God. They were being unfaithful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
How fair are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel! Like valleys that stretch afar, like gardens beside a river, like aloes that the Lord has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters. Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters. His king shall be higher than Agag. and his kingdom shall be exalted. God brings him out of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
Meanwhile, God on the hill with Balaam is forcing Balaam to bless the people that are being unfaithful. This is the goodness, the goodness of God, but this is also the darkness of our hearts because the story that's told in chapter 25, you might not have gotten all the details It talks about this. One of the sons of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman. His name is Zimri. Her name is Cosby.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
Brought her to the tent of meeting. Now, The thing that the Bible even seems to back away from explicitly saying is that this gentleman, this guy, Zimri, and this Midianite woman, Cosby, were not just around the Temple of Meeting hanging out, that they were engaging in sexual relations in the very Tent of Meeting. So here's Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
So Aaron, high priest, his son, Eleazar, has a son, Phineas. And Phineas sees this desecration, this massive sacrilege happening in the holiest space, holiest place, God's presence, right? that this guy, Zimri, and this gal, Cosby, are engaging in this particular act in the presence of the Lord, in violation, obviously, on a bunch of levels.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And so he puts a spear through both of them as they're there on the ground in the tabernacle of the Lord. And then God declares, yeah, that was the right thing to do. So Eliezer is, sorry, I meant to say Phineas, is praised in other parts of the scripture.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
In the book of Psalms, it describes how Phineas rose up because here the people of Israel had not only turned away to worship of other gods, although that is... Deadly enough, but in such a way that violated in so many, so many horrible ways, the holiness of God in this chapter of 25, the book of Numbers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And then just one last note when it comes to Deuteronomy chapter 26, that we heard about the tithes and the first fruits. So good. Not only are the people of Israel commanded to give the tithes, the The tithe, right? That first 10%, the first fruits of their flocks, the first fruits of their field, the first fruits of the year, essentially, of the yield to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
But they're also called to give that tithe on the third year. For what? Not just for the Lord, but also for the sojourner or the stranger, right? The fatherless, the orphan, and the widow. Those who don't have anyone to care for them, here is God who says, no, you're going to care for them. And this is something really remarkable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And this is something that marks the Jewish people and it marks our Judeo-Christian heritage, which is we don't necessarily look to others. You don't necessarily look to a political system or to a government to take care of the poor among us. In fact, the commandment is this. It's, no, you take care of the poor. And imagine, what if all of us actually did what the commandment of the Lord was?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
What if all of us actually gave 10% of our yield not only for the worship of God, but for the service of those who could not care for themselves, those who are strangers among us, the fatherless, the widow, the orphan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
Imagine how different our parishes would be, how transformed our world would be if just on a regular basis we gave our first fruits of worship to God and first fruits of tithe to take care of those who could not take care of them. We wouldn't look to other people to take care of it. We would Look to ourselves. We look to our community. We look to our parish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And I think I really like how the government takes care of the roads. I love it. But I also think that if we're going to be followers of God's word, then maybe this is an invitation and a word of conviction. of saying, okay, to what degree am I being called to give my first fruits in worship, but also my first fruits to the care of the people around me, the stranger, the widow, the orphan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
He has, as it were, the horns of the wild ox. He shall eat up the nation's adversaries, and shall break their bones in pieces, and pierce them through with his arrows. He lurked, he lay down like a lion, and like a lioness, who will rouse him up? Blessed be everyone who blesses you, and cursed be everyone who curses you. Balaam's Fourth Oracle
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
This is something that only the Lord can convict in our hearts. And so I just invite us all to pray. And we could say, God, if you need to convict me because I'm not doing this, you have my permission. And if God, if I am doing this, and you just want to console me in that sense of like, keep it up and you're doing well, then you have my permission to console me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
Whether to console or convict the Lord God, you have my permission. Whatever I need, I will receive from your hand. Let's keep praying for each other because again, the word of God convicts us and the word of God moves us to belong more and more to him. I'm praying for you. Please keep praying for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you all tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 72, and we are reading today from Numbers chapter 24 and 25, from Deuteronomy chapter 26, and from Psalm 107. As always, I'm reading from the Revised, I can't even remember.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands together, and Balak said to Balaam, I called you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them these three times. Therefore, now flee to your place. I said, I will certainly honor you, but the Lord has held you back from honor. And Balaam said to Balak, did I not tell your messengers whom you sent to me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord to do either good or bad of my own will. What the Lord speaks, that will I speak. And now behold, I am going to my people. Come, I will let you know what this people will do to your people in the latter days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And he took up his discourse and said, The oracle of Balaam, the son of Baor, the oracle of the man whose eye is opened, the oracle of him who hears the words of God and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty falling down but having his eyes uncovered. I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
A star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. It shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth. Edom shall be dispossessed. Seir also his enemies shall be dispossessed, while Israel does valiantly. By Jacob shall dominion be exercised and the survivors of cities be destroyed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
Then he looked on Amalek and took up his discourse and said, Amalek was the first of the nations, but in the end he shall come to destruction. And he looked on the Kenite and took up his discourse and said, Enduring is your dwelling place and your nest is set in the rock. Nevertheless, Cain shall be wasted." How long shall Asher take you away captive?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And he took up his discourse and said, Alas, who shall live when God does this? But ships shall come from Kittim and shall afflict Asher and Eber, and he also shall come to destruction. Then Balaam rose and went back to his place, and Balak also went his way. Chapter 25 Worship of Baal of Peor While Israel dwelt in Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
These invited the people to the sacrifice of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said to Moses, Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the Lord, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And Moses said to the judges of Israel, Every one of you slay his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor. And behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the sons of Israel. while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the inner room and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman, through her body. Thus the plague was stayed from the sons of Israel. Nevertheless, those that died by the plague were 24,000.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
Remember, as always, the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to be able to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily episodes. Once again, today is 72. Today is day 72. My goodness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, the priest, has turned back my wrath from the sons of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the sons of Israel in my jealousy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
Therefore say, behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood. because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel. The name of the slain man of Israel, who was slain with the Midianite woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, head of a father's house belonging to the Simeonites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And the name of the Midianite woman, who was slain, was Cosbi, the son of Zur, who was the head of the people of a father's house in Midian. And the Lord said to Moses, Harass the Midianites and strike them,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
For they have harassed you with their wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cosby, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague on account of Peor. The Book of Deuteronomy Chapter 26 First Fruits and Tithes Moses Continued
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
When you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, and have taken possession of it, and live in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place which the Lord your God will choose to make his name to dwell there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, I declare this day to the Lord your God that I have come into the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us. Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. And you shall make response before the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
A wandering Aramean was my father, and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number. And there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us and laid upon us hard bondage. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil and our oppression.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And you shall set it down before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God. And you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you and the Levite and the sojourner who is among you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
Numbers 24 and 25 and Deuteronomy 26. We're praying Psalm 107. Not sure if I mentioned that earlier. Boy, oh boy. Here we go. Numbers chapter 24 and 25. Numbers 24. Balaam's third oracle. When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go as other times to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within your towns and be filled, then you shall say before the Lord your God,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment which you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, neither have I forgotten them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God I have done according to all that you have commanded me. Concluding Exhortation This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared this day concerning the Lord that he is your God, and you will walk in his ways and keep his statutes and his commandments and his ordinances and will obey his voice. And the Lord has declared this day concerning you that you are a people for his own possession as he has promised you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
and that you are to keep all his commandments, that he will set you high above all nations that he has made in praise and in fame and in honor, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God as he has spoken. Psalm 107 Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Many Troubles O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures for ever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his merciful love, for his wonderful works to the sons of men, for he satisfies him who is thirsty. and the hungry he fills with good things. Some sat in darkness and in gloom, prisoners in affliction and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
Their hearts were bowed down with hard labor. They fell down with none to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and gloom and broke their bonds asunder. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to the sons of men. For he shatters the doors of bronze.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
He cuts in two the bars of iron. Some were sick through their sinful ways and because of their iniquities suffered affliction. They loathed any kind of food and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress. He sent forth his word and healed them and delivered them from destruction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to the sons of men. and let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and tell of his deeds in songs of joy. Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters. They saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep. For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
They mounted up to heaven. They went down to the depths. Their courage melted away in their evil plight. They reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wit's end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
Then they were glad, because they had quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven. Let them thank the Lord for his merciful love. Praise wonderful works to the sons of men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
let them extol him in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders he turns rivers into a desert springs of water into thirsty ground a fruitful land into a salty waste because of the wickedness of its inhabitants
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
he turns a desert into pools of water a parched land into springs of water and there he lets the hungry dwell and they establish a city to live in they sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield By his blessing they multiply greatly, and he does not let their cattle decrease.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel encamping tribe by tribe. And the Spirit of God came upon him, and he took up his discourse and said, The oracle of Balaam, the son of Baor, the oracle of the man whose eye is opened, the oracle of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down but having his eyes uncovered.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, trouble, and sorrow, he pours contempt upon princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes. But he raises up the needy out of affliction and makes their families like flocks. The upright see it and are glad, and all wickedness stops its mouth. Whoever is wise, let him give heed to these things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
Let men consider the steadfast love of the Lord. Father in heaven, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for your blessing. Thank you, God, that we know that we have enemies in this world. We have enemies in the natural world. We have enemies in the spiritual world, in the supernatural world. And yet you are on our side. You fight for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And while others may desire to curse us, Lord Jesus Christ, in your name you bless us. In your own name, by your own power, by your own goodness, by your own love for us, you utter a blessing over every one of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And I ask you to please, Lord God, once again, this day when we're listening to these words, send your word of blessing into our lives, into our hearts, into the people that we love, people that we care about, the people that we have tried to help, but it seems like nothing helps. Lord God, speak your word of blessing over all of them and over all of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So one of the things we're going to go back to is we're going back to the book of Numbers, chapter 24 and 25. So remember that Balak... He had, king of Moab, he had asked that Balaam, son of Baor, that he would curse the people of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And Balaam decided to do this because he was offered the right price. And yet he was not able to curse. He said, I'm only going to say what God says. And so what he did is three, four times, four times, not three times. Well, it was three, but three plus one, four times Balaam says words of blessing over the people of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
And this is remarkable, not only because here is God who is telling this soothsayer, you know, telling this individual, Balaam, what to say. And the words that God speaks are blessings. But as this is happening, chapter 25 is happening. This is remarkable. Chapter 25 is the people of Israel are living on the plains of Moab, right? Because they're about to enter into the promised land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 72: The Plains of Moab (2025)
It's coming up in a few chapters. We're getting to the end of Numbers. We're getting to the end of Deuteronomy. And the next step after that is Joshua leading the people across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. But right now, they're in the plains of Moab. And what is happening? It says the people of Israel began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
I ask, when will you comfort me? For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke. Yet I have not forgotten your statutes. How long must your servant endure? When will you judge those who persecute me? Godless men have dug pitfalls for me, men who do not conform to your law. All your commandments are sure. They persecute me with falsehood. Help me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
They have almost made an end of me on earth, but I have not forsaken your precepts. In your mercy spare my life, that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth. Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your faithfulness endures to all generations. You have established the earth, and it stands fast. By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
If your law had not been my delight, I should have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life. I am yours. Save me, for I have sought your precepts. The wicked lie in wait to destroy me, but I consider your testimonies. I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commandment is exceedingly broad. Oh, how I love your law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your ordinances, for you have taught me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it to observe your righteous ordinances. I am sorely afflicted. Give me life, O Lord, according to your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And upon the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners, and you shall set it under the ledge of the altar so that the net shall extend halfway down the altar. And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. And the poles shall be put through the rings so that the poles shall be carried upon the two sides of the altar when it is carried.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
Accept my offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your ordinances. I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law. The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts. Your testimonies are my heritage forever. Yes, they are the joy of my heart. I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever to the end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
I hate double-minded men, but I love your law. You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in your word. Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God. Uphold me according to your promise that I may live. And let me not be put to shame in my hope. Hold me up. that I may be safe and have regard for your statutes continually.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
You spurn all who go astray from your statutes. Yes, their cunning is in vain. All the wicked of the earth you count as dross. Therefore, I love your testimonies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
We thank you for this. Even this prayer, Lord God, is Psalm 119, because what you do, Lord God, is this person, this psalmist, is us. On one hand, we say, I'm faithful to you, and you are good. On the other hand, it's like, gosh, Lord, please, that time is running out. Lord God, thank you. Help us to trust you even when we are at our wits end. Help us to let you shape and form us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
Help us give you permission to love us as you know we need to be loved. Help us to do that, Lord God. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. I'm in the middle of that prayer. I got a little distracted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
I was thinking, gosh, like, here's the beauty of the line in Exodus where we heard today in Exodus chapter 27 and 28, the description of what Aaron and his sons should be wearing, right? These are the priests, the Levitical priests. The priesthood can only come from the tribe of Levi. We're going to find out why in a little bit, but the priesthood can only come from the tribe of Levi.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And so it's a unique priesthood. A person doesn't discern whether they should be called to be a Levitical priest or not. They're either born into it or are not born into it. But there's something about the wording that the Lord God uses through Moses when it comes to the priestly garments and when it comes to even the way they'd make the priests would wear.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And that wording was really, really powerful. The wording was that it would be for God's beauty and for glory. that these garments would be made not for Aaron, they're not for his sons, but they're for glory and for beauty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
There's something so interesting, you know, as a priest myself, I, a New Testament priesthood, priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek and a priesthood according to Jesus Christ. Um, the vestments that priests wear sometimes, you know, I remember one, one day we had mass on campus. I work at the university of Minnesota Duluth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And one day after our Sunday night mass, this young man had just stumbled upon mass. He decided to join us halfway through and he said, Hey, can I ask you some questions? I'm like, sure. Yeah. What, what, I'm glad you joined us. He said, as he points to me in the vestments that I'm wearing, he says, what's with this? Like, you think this is like, why are you so special that you wear these?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
I was like, oh, oh, interesting. Because he saw the vestments that the priest wears that I was wearing at the time as something that highlighted my own uniqueness or my specialness. Like I'm the only one in the room here's wearing these vestments as opposed to what they're meant to be. What they're meant to do is they're for glory and for beauty. They're meant to highlight the Lord's glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
you shall make it hollow with boards as it has been shown you on the mountain so shall it be made the court and its hangings you shall make the court of the tabernacle on the south side the court shall have hangings of fine twined linen a hundred cubits long for one side
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
They're meant to highlight the beauty of God himself. They're not meant to accent, you know, here's Father Mike who's wearing these fancy robes. What they're meant to do is actually de-accent, un-accent, the opposite of accent. They're meant to emphasize that, nope, it doesn't matter who the priest is here. It doesn't matter his name. It doesn't matter his identity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day 44. Let's keep on going. Today, we are reading from Exodus chapter 27 and 28, Leviticus chapter 20, and we'll be praying Psalm 119 verses 57 through 120.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
What matters is the identity of Jesus Christ. What matters is that this is, he's, in a certain sense, when the priest puts on his vestments,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
he himself as a individual is lost and jesus can be seen that's it's meant to obscure the individuality of the priest and meant to highlight the uniqueness of jesus christ as the one great high priest who lives forever um and so here is in exodus chapter 27 and 28 you have this again wear these clothes like this not because aaron's awesome not because his sons are awesome
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
But because God is awesome, because this is for God's glory. This is for the beauty that belongs to him alone. So the next time you go to mass, you recognize the priest and he's wearing his vestments. Or even when you see a bishop and he has the bishop's hat, the mitre. Gosh, I'll say this and people will get mad at me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
I, one reason I'm so grateful the Lord has not called me to be Bishop because I don't want to wear one of those hats. I think they just look funny, but they go all the way back to here, right? Yep. And you can be mad at me about that, but you know, you thought it too. Um, and the turban of the old Testament priest, that's the hat, right? That's, that's the, uh,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
What signifies the fact that he is a kind of high priest in the old covenant. It's so beautiful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And so truly, I know, I'm just saying that like tongue in cheek when it comes to like fashion sense, because truly, just like the vestments are meant to obscure the individuality of the priest, the mitre, that hat of the bishop, is meant to obscure the individuality of that bishop and highlight the fact he belongs to something greater than him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And that's what the vestments are for, for God's glory and for beauty. Last little note. Gosh, we're going to read tomorrow morning, or tomorrow, whenever you get this, from the next part in Psalm 119. And that prayer is just so, so powerful. So we'll talk more about that tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
But it's important to note that not only with the priest's vestments, that it's meant to obscure his individuality and highlight the glory that belongs to God and the beauty belongs to the Lord. But you also noted that the 12 stones that the priest would carry over his heart
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
were of the 12 tribes of Israel, so that every time he approached the Lord, he wasn't just approaching as Aaron, he wasn't even just approaching as Aaron the high priest, he was approaching representing all of the people, the entire kingdom of Israel, the entire people of Israel, all 12 tribes. And they're meant to be over his heart, which reveals to us what it truly is to be a priest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
is to be a father and it is to carry the names of his sons and daughters in his heart as he approaches the Lord. That's the heart of the priesthood in so many ways. It's the heart of the father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And what's meant to be is that, well, here's what I do for all of our students, for my actual blood family and my friends, but also for this community of people who are going through the Bible in a year, your names are in this mysterious way are on my heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
their pillars shall be twenty and their bases twenty of bronze but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver and likewise for its length on the north side there shall be hangings a hundred cubits long their pillars twenty and their bases twenty of bronze but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
because as a New Covenant priesthood, as a New Testament priesthood, as a Catholic priest, what I'm called to be is called to be that spiritual father who has your names engraved over my heart so that every time I approach the Lord in worship, I am bringing you with me into his presence. And so just that's what your pastor does at your home parish. You're your priest in your home parish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
That's what he's doing too. Your names are inscribed and engraved over his heart so that every time he approaches the Lord, he's not just approaching the Lord as Father Joe or as Father Mike. He's approaching the Lord as a priest of God with your name inscribed and engraved on his heart. As I said, I'm praying for y'all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
This is kind of a, I apologize for my scattershot at the end of this, but it just was something that moved my heart and wanted to share that with you. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. Please pray for each other. This community, I think we need the community more than ever in these days. And so just keep lifting each other up in prayer. Continue with your discussion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
and for the breadth of the court on the west side there shall be hangings for fifty cubits with ten pillars and ten bases the breadth of the court on the front to the east shall be fifty cubits the hangings for the one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits with three pillars and three bases On the other side the hangings shall be fifteen cubits, with three pillars and three bases.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
For the gate of the court there shall be a screen, twenty cubits long, of blue and purple and scarlet stuff, and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework. It shall have four pillars, and with them four bases." All the pillars around the court shall be filleted with silver. Their hooks shall be of silver, and their bases of bronze.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
The length of the court shall be a hundred cubits, the breadth fifty, and the height five cubits, with hangings of fine twined linen and bases of bronze. All the utensils of the tabernacle for every use, and all its pegs, and all its pegs of the court shall be of bronze. The oil for the lamp.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And you shall command the sons of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may be set to burn continually. In the tent of meeting outside the veil which is before the covenant, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
Holy garments for the priests. Then bring near to you Aaron your brother and his sons with him, from among the sons of Israel, to serve me as priests, Aaron and Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And you shall speak to all who have ability, whom I have endowed with an able mind, that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood. These are the garments which they shall make, a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a cloak of checkerwork, a turban and a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons to serve me as priests." The ephod.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
and the skillfully woven band upon it to belt on it shall be of the same workmanship and materials of gold blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen and you shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of israel six of their names on the one stone and the names of the remaining six on the other stone in the order of their birth
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
One of the things you can do if you ever want to keep track with what we're reading. You can download your Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. That way you would know, like, how long is it going to take us to get through Psalm 119? You would know that if you downloaded the Bible in a Year reading plan. You would know that already.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
as a jeweler engraves signets so shall you engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of israel you shall enclose them in settings of gold filigree and you shall set the two stones upon the shoulder pieces of the ephod as stones of remembrance for the sons of israel The Breastpiece of Judgment And you shall make a breastpiece of judgment in skilled work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
Like the work of the ephod, you shall make it of gold, blue and purple, and scarlet stuff, and fine twined linen shall you make it. It shall be square and double, a span its length and a span its breadth. And you shall set in it four rows of stones. A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle shall be the first row.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
and a second row an emerald a sapphire and a diamond and the third row a jacinth an agate and an amethyst and the fourth row a beryl an onyx and a jasper they shall be set in gold filigree There shall be twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel. They shall be like signets, each engraved with its name for the twelve tribes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And you shall make it for the breastpiece twisted chains like cords of pure gold. And you shall make for the breastpiece two rings of gold and put the two rings on the two edges of the breastpiece. And you shall put the two cords of gold in the two rings at the edges of the breastpiece and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
the two ends of the two cords you shall attach to the two settings of filigree and so attach it in the front to the shoulder pieces of the ephod and you shall make two rings of gold and put them at the two ends of the breast piece on its inside edge next to the ephod and you shall make two rings of gold and attach them in the front to the lower part of the two shoulder pieces of the ephod at its joining above the skillfully woven band of the ephod
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And they shall bind the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it may lie upon the skillfully woven band of the ephod, and that the breastpiece shall not come loose from the ephod.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment upon his heart when he goes into the holy place to bring them to continual remembrance before the Lord. And in the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be upon Aaron's heart when he goes in before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the sons of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually. The Robe of the Ephod and you shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue. It shall have in it an opening for the head and a woven binding around the opening like the opening in a garment, that it may not be torn.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
On its skirts you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet stuff around its skirts with bells of gold between them, a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate round about on the skirts of the robe." Other Priestly Garments And you shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it like the engraving of a signet, holy to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
You can also subscribe to this podcast if you haven't yet, and you get an update every at some point in the course of the night or course of the day. And you get to listen to this whenever you want. Lastly, the Bible translation that I'm using is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And you shall fasten it on the turban by a lace of blue, and it shall be on the front of the turban. It shall be upon Aaron's forehead, and Aaron shall take upon himself any guilt incurred in the holy offering which the sons of Israel hallow as their holy gifts. It shall always be upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
and you shall weave the coat in checkerwork of fine linen and you shall make a turban of fine linen and you shall make a sash embroidered with needlework and for Aaron's sons you shall make coats and sashes and caps you shall make them for glory and beauty
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And you shall put them upon Aaron your brother and upon his sons with him, and shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them that they may serve me as priests. And you shall make for them linen britches to cover their naked flesh. From the loins to the thighs shall they reach.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And they shall be upon Aaron and upon his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the holy place. lest they bring guilt upon themselves and die. This shall be a perpetual statute for him and for his descendants after him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, say to the sons of Israel, any man of the sons of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Moloch shall be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
because he has given one of his children to Molech, defiling my sanctuary and profaning my holy name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And if the people of the land do at all hide their eyes from that man, when he gives one of his children to Molech and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his family and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in playing the harlot after Molech.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
If a person turns to mediums and wizards, playing the harlot after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. Keep my statutes and do them. I am the Lord who sanctify you. For everyone who curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
It's actually, I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension as we run through Exodus chapter 27 and 28, Leviticus 20 and Psalm 119 verses 57 through 120. Exodus chapter 27 and 28. The Altar of Burnt Offering. You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits broad. The altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
He has cursed his father or his mother. His blood is upon him. If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death. The man who lies with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness. Both of them shall be put to death. Their blood is upon them. If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
They have committed incest. Their blood is upon them. If a man lies with the male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall be put to death. Their blood is upon them. If a man takes a wife and her mother also, it is wickedness. They shall be burned with fire, both he and they. that there may be no wickedness among you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
If a man lies with a beast, he shall be put to death, and you shall kill the beast. If a woman approaches any beast and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the beast, they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them. If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a shameful thing,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness, he shall bear his iniquity. If a man lies with a woman having her sickness and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister or of your father's sister, for that is to make naked one's near kin. They shall bear their iniquity. If a man lies with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness. They shall bear their sin, and they shall die childless. If a man takes his brother's wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother's nakedness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
They shall be childless. You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out. And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation which I am casting out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
But I have said to you, You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey." He says, A man or a woman who is a medium or a wizard shall be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
The Lord is my portion. I promise to keep your words. I entreat your favor with all my heart. Be gracious to me according to your promise. When I think of your ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies. I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments. Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law. At midnight, I rise to praise you because of your righteous ordinances.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
I am a companion of all who fear you, of those who keep your precepts. The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love. Teach me your statutes. You have dealt well with your servant. O Lord, according to your word, teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. You are good and do good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
Teach me your statutes. The godless besmear me with lies, but with my whole heart I keep your precepts. Their heart is gross like fat, but I delight in your law. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces your hands have made and fashioned me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
And you shall make horns for it on its four corners. Its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze. You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes, and shovels and basins and forks and firepans, all its utensils you shall make of bronze. You shall also make for it a grating, a network of bronze.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
Give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word. I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. Let your mercy be ready to comfort me according to your promise to your servant. Let your compassion come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 44: Priestly Garments (2025)
Let the godless be put to shame because they have subverted me with guile. As for me, I will meditate on your precepts. Let those who fear you turn to me, that they may know your testimonies. May my heart be blameless in your statutes, that I may not be put to shame. My soul languishes for your salvation. I hope in your word. My eyes fail with watching for your promise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Before we get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thank you to all those who have supported the Catechism in a Year or the Bible in a Year podcast. We hear stories every day about how those shows have transformed people's lives, and because of your prayers and financial gifts, you are a significant part of that. You might ask a question, though.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
So they said to him, Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus then said to them, Truly, truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. he who comes to me shall not hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst but i said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and him who comes to me I will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. The Jews then murmured at him because he said, "'I am the bread which came down from heaven.' They said, "'Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, "'I have come down from heaven?'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Jesus answered them, "'Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me, not that anyone has seen the Father except him who is from God, he has seen the Father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven that a man may eat of it and not die." I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
And the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh. The Jews then disputed among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them, truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Maybe I've already shared this. I don't know. If you're sitting there thinking, Father, why do you have to say the same thing every time? And I already know this and I already know what day it is because I downloaded my Bible in a Year reading plan from ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year like 98 days ago. You can just hit that fast forward button a couple of times and man, all of a sudden,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
This he said in the synagogue as he taught at Capernaum. The words of eternal life. Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending where he was before? It is the Spirit that gives life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
The flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you that do not believe. For Jesus knew from the first who were those that did not believe and who it was that would betray him. And he said, This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
After this, many of his disciples drew back and no longer walked with him. Jesus said to the twelve, Will you also go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Jesus answered them, Did I not choose you, the twelve? And one of you is a devil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
He spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was to betray him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others and your ears to the merciless, lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of an alien.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
And at the end of your life you groan when your flesh and body are consumed, and you say, How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Man, Lord God, I just thank you so much. Thank you so much, God, for the gift of calling the Samaritan woman that she can have hope in her life. Thank you so much, Father, for the gift of revealing your love and who you are, that you have the authority to tell a paralyzed person, someone who is suffering for 38 years, to rise and walk.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
You're already there. We're reading the Gospel of John like we're doing right now. I'm just excited. I'm sorry. I need to calm it down. When we get to the Gospels, get to the New Testament, I love the Old Testament. It is incredible. It's incredible. The Hebrew covenant, the Hebrew story, the Hebrew scriptures, so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Lord God, thank you so much for revealing that you are equal to the Father, and yet you have the humility of only doing what the Father asks. And Jesus, thank you so much for the gift of yourself in the Eucharist. It's a gift that we cannot fathom and we can never thank you for enough. We receive our thanks, Lord God, today and every day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. As I mentioned yesterday, I said that today's reading is a reading that has changed my life. It has truly changed my life. And all of it, of course, as I mentioned, the woman of Samaria and we have the man who's suffering for 38 years. We have the official son. But here when we get to Chan chapter 6, it's remarkable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
We have the feeding of the 5,000. Incredible. We have the walking on water on the Sea of Galilee. Amazing. And then we get to this place where all these people, 5,000 people, this big crowd is wondering, who is Jesus? And they come to him and Jesus sees them coming. And he basically says, you're not here because you believe in me. You're here because you got fed. You just want more food.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
That's all that it is. My feeding you yesterday with five loaves and two fish didn't convince you to believe in me. Because if you believe in me, here's what you're going to do. You're going to realize that not only am I the one sent by the Father, but also if you want to have life... Here's what you need to do. You have to recognize that I'm the true bread that came down from heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Of course, they murmur against this. We know where he came from. We know his mom. We know his dad. We know his brethren. We know his relatives, that kind of situation. But Jesus makes it very clear. He says in John 6, verse 51, he says, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. Remember the manna that came down from heaven in the book of Exodus and Numbers? Yeah, that's awesome.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
But Jesus is saying, I'm the true bread, living bread that came down from heaven. And he goes on, if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh. Now, this is remarkable. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Because not only is Jesus saying that I'm the new bread came from heaven, but he also is making a connection between what we heard yesterday, which is when John the Baptist said, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Because remember this. What happened when you ate the flesh of the lamb? You were given freedom and life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Remember this, you had to eat the flesh of the lamb, be marked with the blood of the lamb, and you were given freedom and you were given life. And Jesus is saying so clearly here, if you eat the bread of heaven, which is my flesh, you will have what? You have freedom. You have life. And now, to think that, well, maybe that's just being symbolic. Maybe Jesus is being figurative in this case.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
The question is, what does Ascension do with these financial gifts? Great question. The answer is we make authentically Catholic podcasts and videos and other digital content to help people know the Catholic faith and grow closer to God. And we do it all for free.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
But there's something about even today's gospel of John chapter 4, 5, and 6 that I got to tell you right now, it's changed my life. It has changed my life, especially that last chapter, John chapter 6. So I will try to contain myself as we read the gospel of John chapters 4, 5, and 6, book of Proverbs chapter 5, verses 7 through 14. The gospel according to John chapter 4.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Well, you read verse 52. The Jews disputed, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? It does not sound like they're taking him figuratively. They are taking him literally. And if Jesus wanted to correct them and say, you guys, I'm not being literal. I'm being figurative. That's disgusting. He doesn't. In fact, from verses 53 all the way down to 58, Jesus is five times saying,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
reiterating the fact that he just said, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood. In fact, he goes on to say, he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. And if you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. That he says this five times, Jesus reiterates when they're taking him literally, he is saying, yep, absolutely. That is exactly what I'm saying.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
And they take offense at it. In fact, in verse 66, it says that as a result of this, many of his disciples drew back and no longer walked with him. I don't know if you know this, but this teaching, this is the teaching on the Eucharist. This is teaching that at the mass, what we have, that bread and wine actually becomes Jesus's body and blood, soul and divinity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
We don't say this because it's a recent invention. We say it because that's what he said. That's what he said. In fact, the Last Supper, Jesus doesn't say, this is like my body. This is like my blood. This is a symbol of my body. He says, this is my body. This is my blood. Do this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
You know, all the time we spent in Exodus, all the time we spent in Leviticus and in Numbers and Deuteronomy, where it was so important that we get the worship of God right. In the new covenant, Jesus makes it absolutely, unmistakably, undeniably clear how he wants to be worshiped. Or he says at the last supper, take this all of you and eat of it. This is my body. Do this in memory of me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Taking the chalice filled with wine, take this all of you and drink of it. This is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant. Drink of it. in memory of me for the forgiveness of sins. It's incredible that Jesus makes it absolutely clear. And as a result of this, people turned away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
I don't know if you know this, but this is the one spot in the entire gospel where you have actual disciples of Jesus leaving him over a teaching that he offers. There's people who leave him over fear. People leave him out of covering their own tails. But this is the only time when someone has ever left Jesus over one of his teachings. And that teaching is what?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
The teaching is about the Eucharist. That at the mass, what we have is Jesus truly, body, blood, soul, divinity. The stakes are so high. I know this is the longer one, but thousands of people are walking away. Hundreds of disciples maybe even are walking away that Jesus turns to his apostles and he doesn't say, oh, you guys stay here, stay here. Don't go anywhere.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
He says, are you also going to go? Will you go away as well? He basically, Jesus is saying, everyone can leave me. I'm not changing this teaching because we can't change the teaching that the mass, the Eucharist really is Jesus's body, blood, soul, and divinity. And I love Simon Peter's answer because Simon Peter doesn't act as if he understands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
He doesn't act as if he gets like, oh, of course, it's called transubstantiation where the accidents remain the same, but the substance changes. Peter looks at Jesus and he says, Master, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God. Basically, I have no idea what you just said, but I trust in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
And this is the big challenge for all of us. That the big challenge for all of us is that Jesus has revealed that he's given us himself in the Eucharist and that's how he wants to be worshiped. And if I don't want that, then I don't want him. If I don't want that, then I don't want him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
it's interesting i have a a family member um who uh after i was ordained a priest she wanted to convince me that i shouldn't be catholic anymore and so i out of out of kind of her heart right you know she um just wanted we had a lot of debates and at one point we were walking through this john chapter six this is the last thing here before we end
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Walking to John chapter six and she saw, yeah, I can see that's an interpretation. This is a legitimate interpretation. Some of you might say, wait a second. It says that Jesus says the spirit gives life. The flesh is of no avail.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Well, obviously that's not Jesus saying the flesh doesn't mean anything because he literally just said, if unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. In this case, Jesus is referring to flesh, meaning the fallen human nature. Just clarifying this. So we went through the whole thing and she said, I guess that's one interpretation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
I can see how that is one interpretation where Jesus is saying, making it very clear that the Eucharist really is him. And then that's what he's calling us to do. And I said, yes, that is one interpretation, but keep these two things in mind. For 1,500 years, every Christian believed that one interpretation. Keep that in mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Jesus and the woman of Samaria. Now when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again to Galilee. He had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
That's one interpretation, but listen, 100% of Christians for the first 1,500 years of Christianity all believed this interpretation. And that's massively important. Secondly, if this interpretation is wrong, That means that all Catholics worship a piece of bread.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
That means that all Catholics basically for the last 2000 years, which also means that the first 1500 years, every Christian was guilty of idolatry in the most horrible degree. Remember what happened in the golden calf episode that Moses is on the mountain of Mount Sinai and people turn to make a golden calf.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
I know how quickly God put a stop to that saying, oh, this is the Lord God who set us free from slavery in Egypt. And God stopped that immediately. And yet, do we really believe that if the Eucharist really isn't Jesus, that God allowed 100% of Christians to worship bread and worship wine as if it was actually him? God would never tolerate that kind of thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
And so what we are left with is, we're left with, this is the one interpretation that 100% of Christians believe for 1500 years, that in the mass, in the Eucharist, that is truly Jesus Christ. The bread and wine transformed into his body and blood. And he is in every tabernacle, in every Catholic church throughout the entire world. My invitation today, gosh, I'm praying for you all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Go to a Catholic church today. Kneel down in front of the tabernacle, that holy place where the body and blood of Christ are, and give him your heart. Hear him ask the question, will you walk away as well? And give the answer that Peter answered. Lord, I don't have anywhere else to go. You have the words of eternal life. We have all believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
I know it's a big teaching and it's a big maybe pill to swallow, but it's a long one too here today. But I hope you stuck through. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me, all of us, whether you're Catholic or not. This is the truth. This is the reality of what every Christian believed for 1,500 years of Christianity. Maybe, maybe Jesus is asking you to put your faith in his word even more today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Anyways, my name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Jacob's well was there and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
For Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself and his sons and his cattle? Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. The water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw. Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You are right in saying I have no husband, for you have had five husbands. The woman said to him, Jesus said to her, You worship what you do not know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
When he comes, he will show us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. Just then his disciples came. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, what do you wish or why are you talking with her? So the woman left her water jar and went away into the city and said to the people, come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
They went out of the city and were coming to him. Meanwhile, the disciples begged him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat of which you do not know. So the disciples said to one another, Has anyone brought him food? Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet four months? Then comes the harvest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
I tell you, lift up your eyes and see how the fields are already white for harvest. He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
They said to the woman, It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world. Jesus departs for Galilee. After the two days, he departed to Galilee. For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they too had gone to the feast. Jesus heals an official's son. So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him, Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. The official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus said to him, Go, your son will live.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was living. So he asked them the hour when he began to mend, and they said to him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, Your son will live, and he himself believed in all his household.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. Chapter five, Jesus heals on the Sabbath. After this, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, a pool in Hebrew called Bethsatha, which has five porticos. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
One man was there who had been ill for 38 years. When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, Do you want to be healed? The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry your pallet. But he answered them, The man who healed me said to me, Take up your pallet and walk. They asked him, Who is the man who said to you, Take up your pallet and walk?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, and there was a crowd in the place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, See, you are well. Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did this on the Sabbath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
But Jesus answered them, My father is working still, and I am working. This was why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his father, making himself equal with God. the authority of the Son. Jesus said to them, Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
For whatever he does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how you and I, or we, fit into that story today. Today is Day 100. You guys, we did it!
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Truly, truly I say to you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself and has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. The Testimony to Jesus I can do nothing on my own authority. As I hear, I judge. And my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
If I bear witness to myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness to me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony which I receive is from man, but I say this, that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John. For the works which the Father has granted me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing, bear me witness that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness to me. His voice you have never heard. His form you have never seen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
phenomenal well done you are almost a third of the way through you're definitely way over a quarter i don't do math well but today is day 100 and we have the second day of our messianic checkpoint we're reading through the gospel of john today is john chapter 4 5 and 6 three chapters in john's gospel we're also reading from proverbs chapter 5 verses 7 through 14 as always the translation that i am reading from is the revised standard version second catholic edition
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he has sent. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness to me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men, but I know that you have not the love of God within you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe who receive glory from another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. It is Moses who accuses you, on whom you set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
chapter six feeding the five thousand after this jesus went to the other side of the sea of galilee which is the sea of tiberias and a multitude followed him because they saw signs which he did on those who were diseased jesus went up into the hills and there sat down with his disciples now the passover the feast of the jews was at hand
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Lifting up his eyes then, and seeing that a multitude was coming to him, Jesus said to Philip, How are we to buy bread so that these people may eat? He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they among so many? Jesus said, Make the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down in number about five thousand. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated, so also the fish, as much as they wanted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, Gather up the fragments left over, that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the hills by himself. Jesus walks on the sea. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat and started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea rose because a strong wind was blowing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat. They were frightened, but he said to them, it is I.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
do not be afraid then they were glad to take him into the boat and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going the bread from heaven on the next day the people who remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there and that jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples but that his disciples had gone away alone however boats from tiberias came near the place where they ate the bread after the lord had given thanks
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
So when the people saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples, they themselves got into boats and went to Capernaum seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, When did you come here? Jesus answered them, Truly, truly I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him has God the Father set his seal. Then they said to him, What must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 100: This Is My Body (2025)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. To download your Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And if you have not yet subscribed on day 100, then we don't want you to subscribe. That's it. I'm done asking. Just kidding. I think I have to keep asking. But you know that there's no pressure. Also, this is a little pro tip.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
But then you have this devastating... So you have the guy's justice established. Then you have this devastatingly awful story about the daughters of Lot. And how the daughters of Lot basically have relations with their father so that they can continue their bloodline. And you find like, well, gosh...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
bible didn't say and that was wrong right sometimes what we have is we don't necessarily have the bible telling us that something was wrong that they did the wrong thing we have the bible showing us that they did the wrong thing why because the descendants of these uh incest essentially um are the moabites and the ammonites who became then the enemies of the israelites they became the enemies of the people of the chosen people of god
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
And so there is this way in which the scriptures are pointing out that this was exactly the wrong thing to do. And from this union, this sinful, evil union, there was these two peoples, the Ammonites and the Moabites, who were the enemies of the Israelites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
There are so many questions that come up in all these readings, including the questions of, well, at the one point, Lot offered his daughters to these men. How is that good? It wasn't good. And this is the key thing. Just because something's in the Bible doesn't mean that it's good. But we can still learn from it, even if it doesn't immediately make sense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
That goes to the book of Job today as we're following the story of Job and you have his friends. You had Eliphaz yesterday and Bildad today saying that Job, this is what we know. We know that God is just and he never ever allows evil to happen to someone who doesn't deserve it somehow. So just basically admit that you deserve it somehow, because we know God's just.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
And after that, you may pass on since you have come to your servant. So they said, do as you have said. And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said, make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf tender and good and gave it to the servant who hastened to prepare it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
And here's Bildad today, who's defending God's justice. At the same time, it doesn't help his friend. I don't know if you've ever had that happen where if someone who gives you kind of like the pat answer, right? They give you the memorized answer. This is the religious answer of why something horrible is happening in your life. And you're like, that doesn't help at all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
And that's going to be Job's response to him as well, which is just like, I appreciate. He doesn't even say he appreciates it. He is basically saying, but I know this. And we know this is true, too, because we read the beginning of the book of Job. Job says, but I'm righteous. I haven't done anything evil. I do believe God is just, but I don't get what's going on here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
And that's the big question that obviously the book of Job raises. If God is just, why is there so much evil in the world? Why do good people suffer? I want to spare you. I want to share with you, I guess, the story is going to end. It's not going to end with an answer. It's not going to end with here is why.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
I remember reading this book, the book of Job, for the first time, maybe in high school or college, thinking, okay, this is going to be the answer to the problem of evil. God's going to say, here is why. Here's why bad things happen to good people. Here's why there's suffering in the world. And I got to the end and realized, oh, that wasn't really an answer. And that's part of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
What's happening is we're going on the journey with Job. And so my invitation is rather than seeking an answer, like where's that nugget? Where's that kernel that says, this is why. My invitation for us all is to just journey with Job, to enter into his suffering and to allow his questions to be our questions and allow our questions to be his questions so that we can get his ultimate answer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Because there is an answer, even if it's not the answer why. I'll tell you a hint. The answer is not a why. The answer is who. But we're on our journey and we're continuing our journey today and tomorrow and the next day. If you have not yet downloaded your Catholic Bible in a reading plan, please visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. Please subscribe to this podcast.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
You can also like and share and all those kind of things. That'd be great. And you can also sign up for our email list by texting the word. Catholic Bible. That's two words, but it's combined into one word, Catholic Bible to the number 33777. As I said, my name is Father Mike, and I'm so grateful to be able to read the Bible with you and be on this journey with you as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Please know of my prayers this day and every day as we continue to do this Catholic Bible in a year. Man, oh man, God bless you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Then he took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate. They said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, She is in the tent. The Lord said, I will surely return to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife shall have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age. It had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure? The Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh? And say, Shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
At the appointed time I will return to you in the spring, and Sarah shall have a son. But Sarah denied, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid. He said, No, but you did laugh. Then the men sent out from there, and they looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to set them on their way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
The Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by him? No, for I have chosen him that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Then the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry which has come to me, and if not, I will know. So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
This is day nine. Let's get started. We are continuing our journey with Abraham in Genesis chapter 18 and chapter 19. We're also continuing our journey with the righteous suffering man Job by reading Job chapter 7 and chapter 8. We're also following the Lord's wisdom by reading Proverbs chapter 2. Now in the second chapter of Proverbs, reading verses 1 through 5.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Then Abraham drew near and said, Will you indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked. Far be that from you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? And the Lord said, If I find at Sodom fifty righteous people in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake. Abraham answered, Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for the lack of five?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
And he said, I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there. Again he spoke to him and said, Suppose forty are found there. He answered, For the sake of the forty, I will not do it. Then he said, O let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there. He answered, I will not do it, if I find thirty there. He said, Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Suppose twenty are found there. He answered, For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it. Then he said, O let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there. He answered, For the sake of the ten, I will not destroy it. And the Lord went his way when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, My lords, turn aside, I pray you, to your servant's house and spend the night, and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way. They said, No, we will spend the night in the street.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
But he urged them strongly so that they turned aside to him and entered his house, and he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house, and they called to Lot, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him, and said, I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof. But they said, Stand back.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
And they said, This fellow came to sojourn, and he will play the judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them. Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door. But the men put forth their hands, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
And they struck with blindness the men who were at the door of the house, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves groping for the door. Then the men said to Lot, Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone who you have in the city, bring them out of the place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, Up, get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city. But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city. But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him forth and set him outside the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
The Bible translation that I'm using and use every day is Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition. It's the RSV-CE. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension and also following the reading plan that you can also download. If you go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, you can get your own Catholic Bible in a Year reading plan by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
And when they had brought them forth, they said, Flee for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Flee to the hills, lest you be consumed. And Lot said to them, O no, my lords. Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot flee to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me, and I die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Behold, yonder city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there. Is it not a little one? And my life will be saved. He said to him, Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Make haste, escape there, for I can do nothing till you arrive there. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord of heaven. And he overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground. But Lot's wife behind him looked back and she became a pillar of salt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord, and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and beheld, and behold, the smoke of that land went up like the smoke of a furnace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
So it was that when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt. Now Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. So he dwelt in a cave with his two daughters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
And the firstborn said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come into us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring through our father. So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
He did not know when she lay down or when she rose. And on the next day, the firstborn said to the younger, behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him that we may preserve offspring through our father. So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
And he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ami.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
He is the father of the Ammonites to this day. We now continue with our readings from the book of Job.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Yesterday, Job responded to Eliphaz, his friend, who tried to convince Job that he must have done something wrong or he should not complain against the Lord. And Job responded to Eliphaz. And now Job continues to speak and he's spoken to by a second friend, Bildad. This is Job chapter seven and chapter eight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Job said, has not a man a hard service upon earth and are not his days like the days of a hireling, like a slave who longs for the shadow, like a hireling who looks for his wages. So I am allotted months of emptiness and nights of misery are apportioned to me. When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise? But the night is long, and I am full of tossing till dawn.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
You can get these updates on the podcast by simply subscribing, and you can also sign up for our email list by texting the word Catholic Bible to the number 33777. With all that out of the way, let's get started with Genesis chapter 18 and chapter 19. And the Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt. My skin hardens, then breaks out afresh. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. They come to their end without hope. Remember that my life is a breath. My eye will never again see good. The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more. While your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up. He returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him anymore. Therefore, I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I the sea or a sea monster that you set a guard over me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
When I say, my bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint, then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones. I loathe my life. I would not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
What is man that you make so much of him and that you set your mind upon him, visit him every morning and test him every moment? How long will you not look away from me, nor let me alone till I swallow my spittle? If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
For now I shall lie in the earth. You will seek me, but I shall not be. Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, How long will you say these things? And the words of your mouth be a great wind. Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the power of their transgression.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
If you will seek God and make supplication to the Almighty, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and reward you with a rightful habitation. And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great. For inquire, I beg of you, of bygone ages. Consider what the fathers have found. For we are but of yesterday and know nothing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
For our days on earth are a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding? Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water? While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant. Such are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man shall perish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
His confidence breaks in sunder and his trust is a spider's web. He leans against his house, but it does not stand. He lays hold of it, but it does not endure. He thrives before the sun and his shoots spread over his garden. His roots twine about the stone heap. He lives among the rocks. If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him saying, I have never seen you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Behold, this is the joy of his way and out of the earth others will spring. Proverbs chapter 2, verses 1 through 5.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding, yes, if you cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
He lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, three men stood in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, my Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree while I fetch a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Father in heaven, we thank you so much.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
We thank you for your word. We thank you for revealing your heart to us. We thank you for all of the gift that your word is when it's proclaimed to us. And we give you praise. We ask you to please in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, Father in heaven, receive our thanks, receive our praise now. Amen. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. You guys, oh man, confusing, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
Here is the story of Abraham and Sarah. They're blessed with a child. Isaac is going to be born to them. And then these three figures, these three figures that in some way are... types of the Trinity in some ways, but they're referred to as angels. We don't know who these personages are because Abraham is also standing before the Lord as they go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
These three people go down into Gomorrah or to Sodom. I mean, So we don't know necessarily who they are, but we know what their role is, and their role is to exact justice. And this is very, very important. Their goal was to enact justice, not vengeance. This is very, very important. Justice is giving someone what is their due, while vengeance is simply, again, taking out my anger upon somebody.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
And this justice is clearly established in the story today because you have God destroying an entire city. And Abraham challenges him on that and says, well, but Lord, if there's any righteous people, 50 and 45 and 30 and 20 and 10, would you still destroy it? Would you destroy those 10 for the sake of the unrighteous? along with the unrighteous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 9: Sodom and Gomorrah (2025)
And God says, No, I'm just I would not do that for the sake of those ten righteous. I would spare the city. In fact, you have, I guess in some ways you have Lot and his daughters and his wife who were somewhat righteous and a bit more righteous because their relationship with Abraham And the strangers save their lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
When it was told David, he sent to meet them for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, remain at Jericho until your beards have grown and then return. When the Ammonites saw that they had become odious to David, the Ammonites sent and hired the Syrians at Beth Rehob and the Syrians of Zobah, 20,000 foot soldiers and the king of Ma'aka with a thousand men and the men of Tob, 12,000 men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the host of the mighty men. And the Ammonites came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the gate. And the Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob and the men of Tob and Maaka were by themselves in the open country.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 128. We're reading from 2 Samuel chapter 10 and 1 Chronicles chapter 13. We're also praying Psalm 31, as always.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
When Joab saw that the battle was set against him both in front and in the rear, he chose some of the picked men of Israel and arrayed them against the Syrians. The rest of his men, he put in the charge of Abishai, his brother, and he arrayed them against the Ammonites. And he said, if the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
But if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. Be of good courage and let us play the man for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord do what seems good to him. So Joab and the people who were with him drew near to the battle against the Syrians and they fled before him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
And when the Ammonites saw that the Syrians fled, they likewise fled before Abishai and entered the city. Then Joab returned from fighting against the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem. But when the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they gathered themselves together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
And Hadadezer sent and brought out the Assyrians who were beyond the Euphrates, and they came to Halam with Shobak, the commander of the army of Hadadezer, at their head. And when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together and crossed the Jordan and came to Halam. And the Assyrians arrayed themselves against David and fought with him. And the Assyrians fled before Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
And David slew of the Assyrians the men of seven hundred chariots and forty thousand horsemen and wounded Shobak, the commander of their army, so that he died there. And when all the kings who were servants of Hadadazar saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became subject to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
The Ark Brought from Kiriath-Jerim. David consulted with the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, with every leader. And David said to all the assembly of Israel, If it seems good to you, and if it is the will of the Lord our God, let us send abroad to our brethren who remain in all the land of Israel, and with them to the priests and Levites in the cities that have pasture lands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
So David assembled all Israel from the Shehor of Egypt to the entrance of Hamath to bring the ark of God from Kiriath-sharim. And David and all Israel went up to Baala, that is, to Kiriath-Jerim, which belongs to Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord, who sits enthroned above the cherubim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
The Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
And they carried the ark of God upon a new cart from the house of Abinadab. And Uzzah and Ahio were driving the cart. And David and all Israel were making merry before God with all their might, with song and lyres and harps and tambourines and cymbals and trumpets. And when they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah put out his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and he struck him because he put forth his hand to the ark, and he died there before God. And David was angry because the Lord had broken forth upon Uzzah, And that place is called Perez Uzzah to this day. And David was afraid of God that day. And he said, how can I bring the ark of God home to me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
So David did not take the ark home into the city of David, but took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. And the ark of God remained with the household of Obed-Edom in his house three months. And the Lord blessed the household of Obed-Edom and all that he had.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
To the choir master, a Psalm of David. And you, O Lord, I seek refuge. Let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness, deliver me. Incline your ear to me. Rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me. Yes, you are my rock and my fortress. For your name's sake, lead me and guide me. Take me out of the net which is hidden for me. For you are my refuge.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
Into your hand I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. You hate those who pay regard to vain idols, but I trust in the Lord. I will rejoice and be glad for your merciful love because you have seen my lowliness. You have taken heed of my adversities and have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a broad place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, just let this be my invitation to you to subscribe to this podcast by clicking subscribe, and then it's done. As I said, it is day 128. I'm reading only three chapters today, 2 Samuel chapter 10, 1 Chronicles chapter 13, and Psalm 31. The second book of Samuel, chapter 10. The Ammonites and Syrians are defeated.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress. My eye is wasted from grief, my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow and my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my misery and my bones waste away. I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances. Those who see me in the street flee from me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
I have passed out of mind like one who is dead. I have become like a broken vessel. Yes, I hear the whispering of many, terror on every side, as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life. But I trust in you, O Lord. I say you are my God. My times are in your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors. Let your face shine on your servant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
Save me in your merciful love. Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I call on you. Let the wicked be put to shame. Let them go dumbfounded to Sheol. Let the lying lips be silent, which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt. Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you!
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
And I rot for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the sons of men. In the shelter of your presence you hide them from the plots of men. You hold them safe under your shelter from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown me his merciful love when I was beset as in a besieged city. I had said in my alarm, I am driven far from your sight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
But you heard my supplications when I cried to you for help. Love the Lord, all you his saints. The Lord preserves the faithful, but abundantly repays him who acts haughtily.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
And we're reminded by your word today to love the Lord, to love you. As David said, love the Lord, all you his saints. To love you, God, is our highest good. It's our highest duty. It's our highest call. It's our highest honor to be able not only to be loved by you, but to love you in return, which makes no sense whatsoever, God, that you would even care. Why would you even care that we love you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
and yet it matters yet our tokens of affection are even our small gestures of love our small gestures of faithfulness our gestures of worship even just this this podcast lord allowing us to hear your word you receive that you receive that as a gift of love to you and we think oh my gosh lord you're the one who's loving us by speaking your word into our minds and our hearts into our ears into our lives
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
And yet you see this and you receive it as our act of love to you, our act of thanksgiving, our act of worship to you to simply allow you to speak to us. So Lord, we just want to give you love in return for the love that you've given us. So please help us to love you this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
love the lord all you his saints be strong and let your heart take courage all you who wait for the lord in jesus name we pray in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen okay what a gift today is oh man we get another uh perspective into david's kindness into david's goodness here is the king of the ammonites and he died and so david
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
as a good king, thinking, I'm going to have diplomatic relations with the kingdoms or the nations that are around us in our area, in our general vicinity. And he sends these ambassadors to basically offer his condolences to the son of the deceased king. And what does Hanun do? Hanun, the new prince slash king of the Ammonites,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
After this, the king of the Ammonites died and Hanun, his son, reigned in his stead. And David said, I will deal loyally with Hanun, the son of Nahash, as his father dealt loyally with me. So David sent by his servants to console him concerning his father. And David's servants came into the land of the Ammonites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
He takes David's ambassadors and he shaves off half their beards and cut off their garments in the middle. So this is meant to obviously humiliate these men. You think about in the ancient world, if you were a grown man, you would typically have a beard. And that would be a sign of your age, be a sign of kind of some maturity, be a sign of even some honor in some places.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
And half your beard has been shaved off. And then not only that, but cut off their garments in the middle, cut off their garments down the middle, basically exposing their private parts and for all the world kind of a situation is the idea. And obviously, David, just he does well with those men even. They're sent back in shame and in disgrace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
And what does David goes out to meet them again, just such a gift of this man, this King, he's showing himself to be a noble person who knows how to interact with these, these men. He knows how to interact with his people. And he goes out to them and says, Hey, listen, just stay in Jericho for a while. Let your, let your. Beards grow back so you're not shamed publicly in front of the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
But then David gets the mighty men. Now, we've heard about the mighty men already because we've been reading 1 Chronicles. But this is the first time that the mighty men have actually been introduced when it comes to the books of Samuel. And so this is the introduction of the mighty men that we've heard about for the last number of days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
And the particular mighty man that is named here is Joab, right? So Joab is one of the kings, not kings, gosh, that's the wrong word. David's the king. He's one of the chiefs of the mighty men. And so he goes, leads them into battle against the Ammonites and the Syrians. And It says what all these mighty men need to have, as I talked about yesterday, they're men of bravery, men of valor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
There's men of excellence, right? They know what they're doing. They're men of wisdom and they're men of single-minded purpose. And so they are. And so they be of good courage, as Joab says, be of good courage and be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord do what is good in his sight. And so they go into battle and they win as one would expect.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
In 1 Chronicles chapter 13, we have a familiar story. We just heard a couple days ago about David saying, okay, I'm living here now in the city of David. I'm living in Jerusalem. And it makes sense that we need to bring the presence of God, the ark of God into the city of Jerusalem where we can have worship in the Lord's presence. And what do they do? They put it on a cart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
Now in 1 Chronicles, it does make the point that they put it on a new cart, which wasn't recorded in 2 Samuel. They put it on a new cart. And yet, remember that the Ark of God was never, ever meant to be transported on a cart, but only by that family of the tribe of Levi that was dedicated to carrying the Ark of the Covenant, not to be touched. And here is Uzzah who
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
does what we know he's going to do. He reaches out and he touches the Ark of the Covenant. And so here is David who says, we'll leave it here in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. And Obed-Edom and all his family and all his servants and all his everything are blessed beyond belief.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
But the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun, their lord, do you think because David has sent comforters to you that he is honoring your father? Has not David sent his servants to you to search the city and to spy it out and to overthrow it? So Hanun took David's servants and shaved off half the beard of each and cut off their garments in the middle at the hips and sent them away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
And so David's going to circle back around to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite, and he is going to bring the Ark soon. He's And that's one of the great gifts for all of us is that we want to live in the presence of God. At the same time, I mentioned this a couple days ago when it came to Uzzah's story, is that our disobedience, you know, when we sin and say, God, I know what you want.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
I want to do what I want to do. That leads to spiritual death, just like it led to the physical death of Uzzah. And yet, we're still called to live in God's presence. We're still called to, again, leap and dance before the Lord, to wait in stillness before the Lord, to pray and worship before the Lord in his presence. And so we just pray today, Lord, help me to live in your presence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
Help me to have a attentive, a mind that's attentive to you, that recognizes where you are, both in sacred spaces, like churches and sacred spaces and the Blessed Sacrament, but also in common spaces where you still exist. Lord, God still dwells.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
He still is present in all places, even right now, wherever you are, maybe listening in your car, maybe brushing your teeth, whatever you're doing right now to listen to the word of God. Just take a moment and stop right now and be aware that yes, absolutely, God is particularly present at the Ark of the Covenant. God is particularly present in the sanctuary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
God is particularly present in the Blessed Sacrament and in his word. but also God is present to you right now. Whenever we call upon his name, whenever we are even just aware that he is present, we realize he's been there the whole time and he will be there long after we have gotten distracted. But right now, God is present to you and to me. He is here and God, we just, we say, we love you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 128: Mighty Men of Valor (2025)
And now we pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
And when they declared, It is the living Lord himself, the sovereign in heaven, who ordered us to observe the seventh day, he replied, And I am a sovereign also on earth, and I command you to take up arms and finish the king's business. Nevertheless, he did not succeed in carrying out his abominable design. Judas prepares the Jews for battle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 312. We're reading the final chapter of Maccabees, the final chapter of the Wisdom of Solomon, and the book of Proverbs, chapter 25, verses 21 through 23.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
This Nicanor, in his utter boastfulness and arrogance, had determined to erect a public monument of victory over Judas and his men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
But Maccabeus did not cease to trust with all confidence that he would get help from the Lord, and he exhorted his men not to fear the attack of the Gentiles, but to keep in mind the former times when help had come to them from heaven, and now to look for the victory which the Almighty would give them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
encouraging them from the law and the prophets and reminding them also of the struggles they had won he made them the more eager and when he had aroused their courage he gave his orders at the same time pointing out the perfidy of the gentiles and their violation of oaths he armed each of them not so much with confidence and shields and spears as with the inspiration of brave words and he cheered them all by relating a dream a sort of vision which was worthy of belief
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
what he saw was this onias who had been high priest a noble and good man of modest bearing and gentle manner one who spoke fittingly and had been trained from childhood in all that belongs to excellence was praying with outstretched hands for the whole body of the jews Then likewise a man appeared, distinguished by his gray hair and dignity, and of marvelous majesty and authority.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
Antonius spoke, saying, This is a man who loves the brethren, and prays much for the people and the holy city, Jeremiah, the prophet of God. Jeremiah stretched out his right hand and gave to Judas a golden sword, and as he gave it, he addressed him thus, Take this holy sword, a gift from God, with which you will strike down your adversaries.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
Encouraged by the words of Judas, so noble and so effective in arousing valor and awaking manliness in the souls of the young, they determined not to carry on a campaign but to attack bravely and to decide the matter by fighting hand to hand with all courage because the city and the sanctuary and the temple were in danger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
Their concern for wives and children and also for brethren and relatives lay upon them less heavily. Their greatest and first fear was for the consecrated sanctuary. And those who had to remain in the city were in no little distress, being anxious over the encounter in the open country.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
The Defeat and Death of Nicanor When all were now looking forward to the coming decision, and the enemy was already close at hand with their army drawn up for battle, the elephants strategically stationed, and the cavalry deployed on the flanks, Maccabeus, perceiving the hosts that were before him and the varied supply of arms and the savagery of the elephants, stretched out his hands toward heaven and called upon the Lord who works wonders.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
For he knew that it is not by arms, but as the Lord decides, that he gains the victory for those who deserve it. And he called upon him in these words, O Lord, you sent your angel in the time of Hezekiah, king of Judea, and he slew fully a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of Sennacherib. So now, O sovereign of the heavens, send a good angel to carry terror and trembling before us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible into your reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash bible in a year. If you had done so, you would realize that today, as I said yesterday, and maybe even the day before, today is day 312.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
By the might of your arm, may those blasphemers who come against your holy people be struck down. With these words, he ended his prayer. Nicanor and his men advanced with trumpets and battle songs, and Judas and his men met the enemy in battle with invocation to God in prayers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
So, fighting with their hands and praying to God in their hearts, they laid low no less than 35,000 men and were greatly gladdened by God's manifestation. When the action was over and they were returning with joy, they recognized Nicanor lying dead in full armor. Then there was shouting and tumult, and they blessed the Sovereign Lord in the language of their fathers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
And the man who was ever in body and soul the defender of his fellow citizens, the man who maintained his youthful goodwill toward his countrymen, ordered them to cut off Nicanor's head and arm and carry them to Jerusalem. And when he arrived there and had called his countrymen together and stationed the priests before the altar, he sent for those who were in the citadel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
He showed them the vile Nicanor's head and that profane man's arm, which had been boastfully stretched out against the holy house of the Almighty. And he cut out the tongue of the ungodly Nicanor and said that he would give it piecemeal to the birds and hang up these rewards of his folly opposite the sanctuary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
And they all, looking to heaven, blessed the Lord who had manifested himself, saying, Blessed is he who has kept his own place undefiled. And he hung Nicanor's head from the citadel, a clear and conspicuous sign to everyone of the help of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
And they all decreed by public vote never to let this day go unobserved, but to celebrate the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is called Adar in the Syrian language, the day before Mordecai's day. The Compiler's Epilogue This then is how matters turned out with Nicanor. And from that time, the city has been in the possession of the Hebrews. So I too will here end my story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
If it is well told and to the point, that is what I myself desired. If it is poorly done and mediocre, that was the best I could do. For just as it is harmful to drink wine alone, or again, to drink water alone, while wine mixed with water is sweet and delicious and enhances one's enjoyment, so also the style of the story delights the ears of those who read the work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
But the ungodly were assailed to the end by pitiless anger. For God knew in advance even their future actions, that though they themselves had permitted your people to depart and hastily sent them forth, they would change their minds and pursue them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
For while they were still busy at mourning and were lamenting at the graves of their dead, they reached another foolish decision and pursued as fugitives those whom they had begged and compelled to depart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
It is the final day in the Old Testament. We are still going to hang out with Proverbs, of course, every single day. But, my gosh, this is it, you guys. You will be able to say, basically, you've read the entire Old Testament. By the end of today, within the next 20-ish, however long we have together minutes, that's congratulations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
For the fate they deserved drew them on to this end and made them forget what had happened, in order that they might fill up the punishment which their torments still lacked, and that your people might experience an incredible journey, but they themselves might meet a strange death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
For the whole creation in its nature was fashioned anew, complying with your commands, that your children might be kept unharmed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
The cloud was seen overshadowing the camp and dry land emerging where water had stood before, an unhindered way out of the Red Sea and a grassy plain out of the raging waves, where those protected by your hand passed through as one nation after gazing on marvelous wonders. For they ranged like horses and leaped like lambs, praising you, O Lord, who delivered them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
for they still recalled the events of their sojourn how instead of producing animals the earth brought forth gnats and instead of fish the river spewed out vast numbers of frogs afterward they saw also a new kind of birds when desire led them to ask for luxurious food for to give them relief quails came up from the sea
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
The punishments did not come upon the sinners without prior signs in the violence of thunder, for they justly suffered because of their wicked acts, for they practiced a more bitter hatred of strangers. Others had refused to receive strangers when they came to them, but these made slaves of guests who were their benefactors.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
and not so only but punishment of some sort will come upon the former for their hostile reception of the strangers but the latter after receiving them with festal celebrations afflicted with terrible sufferings those who had already shared the same rights they were stricken also with loss of sight just as were those at the door of the righteous man when surrounded by yawning darkness each tried to find the way through his own door
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
for the elements changed places with one another as on a harp the notes vary the nature of the rhythm while each note remains the same this may be clearly inferred from the sight of what took place for land animals were transformed into water creatures and creatures that swim moved over to the land fire even in water retained its normal power and water forgot its fire quenching nature
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
Flames, on the contrary, failed to consume the flesh of perishable creatures that walked among them, nor did they melt the crystalline, easily melted kind of heavenly food. For in everything, O Lord, you have exalted and glorified your people, and you have not neglected to help them at all times and in all places.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat. And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. For you will heap coals of fire on his head and the Lord will reward you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
Thank you for not only for your justice, but also for your mercy and how you teach us to love our enemies and do good for those who hate us. Thank you for that. Help us to be able to do it. Help us to even love our neighbors. Help us to even love our friends well, because... Lord, when it comes to love, it's what we're made for and it's something we struggle to do. So help us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
You would know that if you had downloaded the Bible in a Year timeline that I keep talking about all the time. Anyways, you also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates. As I said, it is day 312. We're reading 2nd book of the Maccabees, chapter 15, the book of Wisdom of Solomon, chapter 19, and Proverbs chapter 25, verses 21 through 23.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
Help us this day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, here we are. You guys, day 312. This is amazing. We've just concluded the second book of Maccabees. Tomorrow, you're going to have a twofer, of course.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
Whenever we have a new time period or a messianic fulfillment, we've had a twofer where Jeff and I get a chance to talk and introduce the gospel of Luke and then, you know, the whole era of the church coming up very soon. So that's coming tomorrow. Get ready, prepare yourself for that. But also it also, I want to highlight what a gift it is to have Jeff Cavins, isn't it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
I'm just, man, I, well, I can go on and on. I can gush. I'm not going to gush anymore, but let's go back to second Maccabees, the last chapter in second Maccabees. There's a line here that highlights the fact of what drives, drives? Drove. What really motivated the Maccabees, right? What really motivated those who were fighting? Here's Judas Maccabeus, who is encouraging the people to fight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
Again, not relying on their own swords or spears, not relying on their own strength of their arm, but relying upon the help that came from the Lord. But also, what is it for? What is it for? And this is chapter 15, verse 18. It said this, their concern for wives and children and also for brethren and relatives lay upon them less heavily.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
Their greatest and first fear was for the consecrated sanctuary. There's something about this that just highlights what is the motivation? Of course, they love their wives and their children. They love their relatives and brethren, obviously. but it weighed upon them less heavily than for the consecrated sanctuary. The thing was to defend the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
The thing was to be able to keep that place of worship of God pure. I mean, just think about this. What would our lives be like if that was our passion, if that was our pursuit, was, Lord, for your honor, for the honor of your name. Not that we would go over to violence, but I just mean that we would defend, that we would keep our worship pure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
pure, that we would, when it comes to offering the sacrifice of the mass, to be able to say, Lord, that's the most important thing. More important than, like I mentioned the other day, more important than hockey, more important than the idols in my lives, but even more important than the people I love is your temple. More important than the people I love is the Eucharist.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
You know, this is the foreshadow, I think, of how Jesus says to his disciples. He says, if you want to be my disciple, you've got to love me more than anything else. And that's where we're headed tomorrow. Tomorrow we're beginning the Gospel of Luke. And just what does it look like to follow Jesus? What does Jesus look like? My invitation for tomorrow and as we read through the Gospel of St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
Luke is... is that just to watch Jesus, to listen to how he acts and listen to how he lives, which is such a gift. Chapter 19 of the Wisdom of Solomon is obviously the conclusion in some ways to the story of Exodus. I mean, it's not really because we know that there's all these wilderness wanderings. But we have the Red Sea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
We have the people of Egypt who changed their mind when they told the Hebrews to leave and then they went in pursuit of them and how God continued to fight for his people and continued to bring them from this place of slavery to a place of freedom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
And I love this, this last line, "'For in everything, O Lord, you have exalted and glorified your people and you have not neglected to help them at all times and in all places.'" And when we know the story though, you guys, we know the story. We know that the story is not pretty. Like we mentioned yesterday, the story is not always beautiful and not always clean and neat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
The Second Book of the Maccabees, Chapter 15, Nicanor's Arrogance. When Nicanor heard that Judas and his men were in the region of Samaria, he made plans to attack them with complete safety on the day of rest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
And yet we can still affirm, you did not neglect to help them at all times and in all places, even if there was trouble, even if there was suffering, even when there was death, you did not neglect to help them at all times and all places. And that's what God does for us to help us to have that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
God, we just pray that you help us to have eyes to see this, that you're present even in the midst of our brokenness. Let's pray for each other, you guys, because I... I say this all the time, but I know that in this community, there are people right now, this is the worst day of their life. If that's you, you are not alone. You are not alone. We are praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
Brothers and sisters, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 312: Conclusion to the Old Testament (2024)
And when the Jews who were compelled to follow him said, "'Do not destroy so savagely and barbarously, but show respect for the day which he who sees all things as honored and hallowed above other days,' the thrice-accursed wretch asked if there were a sovereign in heaven who had commanded the keeping of the Sabbath day.'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
to love goodness, and to care for those who are around us. Lord God, help us to have hearts like yours, hearts that love justice, hearts that run away from evil, that hate evil, and hearts that are open to those around us who are in need. Lord God, Before you, we stand in need.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And so we ask you to send us your Holy Spirit to meet us in every one of our needs because you are the source of all goodness. You are the source of all truth. You are the source of all justice. And we need you. So come and be near us now. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Oh my gosh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
When Moses heard it, he fell on his face and he said to Korah and all his company, in the morning, the Lord will show who is his and who is holy and will cause him to come near to him. Him who he will choose, he will cause to come near to him. Do this, take censers, Korah and all his company, put fire in them and put incense upon them before the Lord tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
So here we are back up in Numbers 16. And the theme, I think, has been rebellion, right? We had back in chapter, I think it was chapter 12, we had Aaron and Miriam rebelling against Moses. Then we had the people after they went up in Canaan and they came back and those 10 scouts said, we can't possibly do this. They're rebelling against Moses. once again against Moses and Aaron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And today in chapter 16, we have this story of Korah and Abiram and Dathan, and they're rebelling against Moses and Aaron. Remember that it specifically says that Korah is the son of Kohath, the son of Levi. And if you remember this, the Kohathites were, they're of the tribe of Levi. That's why it says Kohath, the son of Levi. Remember there were the four families in the tribe of Levi.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
There was Aaron, the family sons of Aaron. Those are the priests. Then we had the Merorites and the Gershonites. And now we have also the Kohathites. Remember those other two families, those the Merorites and the Kohathites. Nope, Gershonites, you know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
We got a lot of names, you guys got a ton of names that their responsibility was to care for the like the tent to care for the poles of the tent to care for, like almost you would say like the structure. They're at the service of the tent of meeting that the service service of the tabernacle service of what ultimately will be the temple service.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
But the Kohathites were those who were responsible for caring for the holy objects. In fact, you might say second to the sons of Aaron, the Kohathites were closest to, you might say, the presence of the Lord and serving the Lord directly, meaning worshiping the Lord directly. But as you can see, that wasn't enough.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And so they said, well, why does it have to be the sons of Aaron who are the only ones who are able to offer sacrifice before God? Why can't we be priests too? And then we have this throw down. And I love this because in chapter 16, in verse four, when the Kohathites assemble against Moses and against Aaron, and they say that, why do you exalt yourselves above everyone else?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
Verse four says, when Moses heard it, he fell on his face, which means that he went to prayer. That Moses' response to this rebellion, essentially, And this rebellion of saying like you exalt yourselves over us. That's what they're going to say later on to you made a prince of yourself over us. that Moses' response is to pray. Now, he gets mad. It's not like he is a person without emotion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
But his first response is, okay, this person's attacking me. And unjustly, right? They're attacking him unfairly. But Moses turns to the Lord first. Of course, he comes back and says, okay, get these censers. We're going to offer an incense. We're going to offer worship before the Lord. And who's worship the Lord accepts, like that's going to be, you can be a priest then, essentially.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And we see how it goes, that the Lord God destroys the families of Korah and Dathan and Abiram and removes them from the face of the earth. And then even then, my goodness, so remarkable, the people rebel against God. Moses and Aaron again, even though this is clearly God's will, that he's exacting justice. Remember, this is a God of justice, not a God of vengeance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
This is very fair what's happening right now, because God has to make it absolutely clear that he is God. He is holy. He is alone, holy, and that only those who he has called those sons of Aaron can worship in the temple. And this is so, so key. So then they rebel. And what happens is Moses tells Aaron to get that incense and stand before the plague and the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And as he's making atonement for them through the incense, the burning fire, the plague stops. Now, there's a couple of things to note about this. The first is in chapter 16, it says that Dathan and Abiram, they say to Moses that they're not going to do it. They're not going to do this challenge.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the holy one. You have gone too far, sons of Levi. And Moses said to Korah, hear now, you sons of Levi, is it too small a thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to himself, to do service in the tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the congregation to minister to them?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
They said, is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? Remember, the promised land is a land described as a land flowing with milk and honey. Where they came from was Egypt. And again, yes, Egypt was a rich place, obviously. But they were slaves there. But they're describing their home.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
They're describing their place of slavery as a land flowing with milk and honey. And it is remarkable. To think how easy it is, as Jeff Cavins has noted, like these are people who are addicted. They're addicted to their past. They're addicted to this comfort. They're addicted to their former way of life. And they have to be cured of this addiction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
They're looking back at this place of slavery, a place of bondage. and saying that was the land flowing with milk and honey, which is absolutely remarkable. And to our eyes and to our ears, when we hear that, we think that is really, that is remarkable and crazy. And yet, isn't that how we can live as well?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
So often we can look back on our past, even if that was a past of sin, even if it was a past of a brokenness and a bondage and say, yeah, but you know, I mean, it was really fun or yeah, but you know, it was, I was happier than I ever was or something like this. And yet the Lord God is leading us. He's leading you and me through a desert, through battles, to a place of true freedom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
Now, if we go up to Deuteronomy, a couple of things we hear is once again, that God is not only a God of justice. That's going to be the last couple marks that he's going to clearly communicate that he's a God of justice, but also that he's a God who cares about those who are poor and that his people, those who belong to him, God says, there shall not be one poor person among you. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
Essentially, you're being brought into a land flowing with milk and honey, right? The promised land will be rich and bountiful with enough for everybody. But if there is someone who is poor, then you'll take care of them. If there's someone who's in need, then you'll take care of them. Even going so far as to saying that you might have to employ them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
Now, if this is a person who you're employing as an employee, that would be one thing. But sometimes people are so desperate that they might sell themselves into bondage, sell themselves into slavery. But even so, we said it before, we'll say it again. This slavery or this bondage, this service was only six years of service. And did you note how incredible this was on the sabbatical year, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
The seventh year, the year of covenant, that seventh year, you let this servant go free. And not only you let them go free, but you give them stuff to make a new life. You don't just say, okay, you were a servant for me for six years. Now go try to do it on your own. It was, you were a servant with me for six years. Now I'm going to give you what you need to start a new and free life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
Because that's how they're taking care of each other, even to the point where if that servant doesn't want to, he says, if he loves you or she loves you and loves your family, then they can stay. And they can stay to the end of their lives. It's just really remarkable and really powerful how the people of Israel were called to take care of those who couldn't take care of themselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And not only that, in this last note, But God says very clearly, you will do this with an open hand. You won't do this grudgingly. You won't do this resentfully. You won't even think badly about those who are poor among you. You will provide for them and help them and serve them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And in Deuteronomy chapter 16, I know I said last thing, but this is the true last thing, is we have the three major feasts, three major festivals of worship. We have the Feast of Passover. We have the Feast of Weeks, which is Pentecost. And we have the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles. And in all of this, what do we have? We have go before the Lord and worship him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
This is such an incredible piece of Deuteronomy 15 and 16. 15, care for the poor, love those people around you with justice and with mercy and with joy. And then in chapter 16, and also worship the Lord, your God. This is so key. Okay, you guys, I am praying for you. We're going to get to the end of this and we're going to see each other tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And would you seek the priesthood also? Therefore, it is against the Lord that you and all your company have gathered together. What is Aaron that you murmur against him? And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab. And they said, We will not come up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And I'm so excited about that, but let's keep praying for each other. My name is Father Mike. I I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, that you must also make yourself a prince over us? Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And Moses was very angry and said to the Lord, Do not respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, and I have not harmed one of them. And Moses said to Korah, Be present, you and all your company, before the Lord, you and they, and Aaron, tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And let every one of you take his censer and put incense upon it, and every one of you bring before the Lord his censer, two hundred and fifty censers. you also and Aaron each his censer. So every man took his censer, and they put fire in them, and laid incense upon them, and they stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
Then Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the congregation. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram are punished. And the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, Separate yourselves from among this congregation that I may consume them in a moment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And they fell on their faces and they said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin and will you be angry with all the congregation? And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the congregation, Get away from about the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Then Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And he said to the congregation, Depart, I beg you, from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with all their sins. So they got away from about the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
and dathan and abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents together with their wives their sons and their little ones and moses said hereby you shall know that the lord has sent me to do all these works and that it has not been of my own accord if these men die the common death of all men or if they are visited by the fate of all men then the Lord has not sent me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
But if the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
as always i'm reading from the revised standard version second catholic edition and as always also i'm using the great adventure bible from ascension if you want to get your own great adventure bible you can buy it i guess you could also download your own bible reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com bible in a year if you haven't yet subscribed subscribe to the podcast please do that that would be phenomenal as i said today is day 65 we are reading from psalm sorry numbers chapter 16 deuteronomy chapter 15 and 16.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And as he finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split asunder and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households and all the men that belonged to Korah and all their goods. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol and the earth closed over them and they perished from the midst of the assembly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And all Israel that were round about them fled at their cry, for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up. And fire came forth from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men offering the incense. Then the Lord said to Moses, Tell Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, to take up the censers out of the blaze, then scatter the fire far and wide.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
For they are holy, the censers of these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives. So let them be made into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, for they offered them before the Lord, therefore they are holy. Thus they shall be a sign to the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers, which those who were burned had offered, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar, to be a reminder to the sons of Israel. A plague strikes the rebels. But the next day, all the congregation of the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, You have killed the people of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
my name is father mike schmitz and you're listening to the bible in a year podcast where we encounter god's voice and live life through the lens of scripture the bible in your podcast is brought to you by ascension using the great adventure bible timeline we'll read all the way from genesis to revelation discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today it is day 65 and we are reading from numbers chapter 16 as well as from deuteronomy chapter 15 and 16 we're also praying today from psalm 97
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And when the congregation had assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting. And behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. And Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, and the Lord said to Moses, Get away from the midst of this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell on their faces.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And Moses said to Aaron, Take your censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them. For wrath has gone forth from the Lord, the plague has begun. So Aaron took it, as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. And behold, the plague had already begun among the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living. And the plague was stopped. Now those who died by the plague were 14,700, besides those who died in the affair of Korah. And Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting when the plague was stopped.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
Chapter 15, concerning the sabbatical year. At the end of every seven years, you shall grant a release. And this is the manner of the release. Every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord's release has been proclaimed. Of a foreigner, you may exact it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
But whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release. But there will be no poor among you. For the Lord will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance to possess, if only you will obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment which I command you this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
For the Lord your God will bless you as he promised you, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
Take heed, lest there be a base thought in your heart, and you say, the seventh year, the year of release is near, and your eye be hostile to the poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cried to the Lord against you, and it be sin in you. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
Because for this, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For the poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore, I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in the land. If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, He shall serve you six years.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And in the seventh year, you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this day. But if he says to you, I will not go out from you because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you, then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your bondsman forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
as well as praying through Psalm 97. The book of Numbers, chapter 16. Revolt of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Now Korah, the son of Izar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Pelleth, sons of Reuben, took men and they rose up before Moses with a number of the sons of Israel, 250 leaders of the congregation chosen from the assembly, well-known men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And to your bondswoman you shall do likewise. It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, For at half the cost of a hired servant he has served you six years. So the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do. Regulations Concerning Livestock All the firstling males that are born of your herd and flock, you shall consecrate to the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
You shall do no work with the firstling of your herd, nor shear the firstling of your flock. You shall eat it, you and your household, before the Lord your God year by year at the place which the Lord will choose. But if it has any blemish, if it is lame or blind, or has any serious blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. You shall eat it within your towns.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
The unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as though it were a gazelle or a deer. Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it out on the ground like water. Chapter 16 Keeping the Passover Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God. For in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God from the flock or the herd, at the place which the Lord will choose to make his name dwell there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction. For you came out of the land of Egypt in hurried flight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out from the land of Egypt. No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the flesh which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain all night until morning. You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns which the Lord your God gives you,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
but at the place which the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell in it. There you shall offer the Passover sacrifice in the evening at the going down of the sun at the time you came out of Egypt. And you shall boil it and eat it at the place which the Lord your God will choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. For six days you shall eat unleavened bread.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it. keeping the feast of weeks. You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
Then you shall keep the feast of weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place which the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe all these statutes. Keeping the Feast of Booths You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
When you make your ingathering from your threshing floor and your winepress, you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns. Seven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place which the Lord will choose.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the works of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place which he will choose, at the feast of unleavened bread, at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
Every man shall give as he is able according to the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you. appointing judges and officers. You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns, which the Lord your God gives you according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
You shall not show partiality, and you shall not take a bribe. For a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land which the Lord your God gives you. Forbidden forms of worship. You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the Lord your God which you shall make.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, you have gone too far for all the congregation are holy, every one of them. And the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
And you shall not set up a pillar which the Lord your God hates.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
The Lord reigns. Let the earth rejoice. Let the many islands be glad. Cloud and thick darkness are round about him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries round about. His lightnings lighten the world. The earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples behold his glory. All worshippers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols. Let all his angels bow down before him. Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments, O God. For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
The Lord loves those who hate evil. He preserves the lives of his saints. He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light dawns for the righteous and joy for the upright of heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 65: Revolt Against Moses (2025)
We thank you and we give you praise and we thank you for your justice. And you reveal that when you set up the people of Israel and when you gave them a law, when you gave them your law, you revealed your heart and your heart is true. You are true. You are truth, Lord God. And you are justice. And you call your people just like you call us to live justice, to do right, to walk humbly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
Why should be unclean? She just gave birth. I mean, that's life into the world. If you'd say a hundred percent, but the determining factor is when person is encountering something that has the power of life or death. That's my cumbersome way of pointing out that that is one of the things that can either render a person unclean or clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
Keeping in mind, never forget this, keeping in mind that unclean and clean are not moral states. They are simply states of, am I able to approach worship of the Lord or do I need to avoid worship of the Lord until I have a state of ritual cleanness once again? Not moral cleanness, but ritual cleanness. I hope that that helps.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
If it doesn't, you know, we have roughly 330 or so more days to talk about this kind of thing with each other and to pray for each other because that's what I'm doing for you. Please pray for me. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. My name is Father Mike. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
But the people thirsted there for water. And the people murmured against Moses and said, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? So Moses cried to the Lord, What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the rod with which you struck the Nile and go. behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb and you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah because of the fault finding of the sons of Israel. And because they put the Lord to the test by saying, is the Lord among us or not? Then came Amalek and fought with Israel at Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, choose for us men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
So Joshua did as Moses told him and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, but whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
But Moses' hands grew weary, so that they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat upon it, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and the other on the other side, so his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it. The Lord is my banner saying a hand upon the banner of the Lord. The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
This is day 37, so let's keep on rolling along. We're going to be reading today from the book of Exodus, continuing with our journey through Exodus, chapter 17 and 18, both of those chapters, as well as the book of Leviticus, chapter 12, which is a short chapter, but also, you know, kind of important, I guess. Sorry, that was bad. I guess. Are you kidding me? It's the whole thing's important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, his people, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
Now Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her away, and her two sons, of whom the name of the one was Gershom, for he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land, and the name of the other, Eleazar, for he said, The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh."
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God. And when one told Moses, Behold, your father-in-law Jethro is coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her. Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and did obeisance and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardships that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced for all the good which the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because he delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians when they dealt arrogantly with them. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, offered a burnt offering and sacrifices to God.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God. The next day, Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood about Moses from morning till evening. When Moses, his father-in-law saw that he was doing for the people, he said, what is this that you're doing for the people?
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
Why do you sit alone and all the people stand about you from morning till evening? And Moses said to his father-in-law, because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between a man and his neighbor and I make them know the statutes of God and his decisions. Moses' father-in-law said to him, what you are doing is not good.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
You and the people with you will wear yourselves out for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it alone. Listen now to my voice. I will give you counsel and God be with you. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God. And you shall teach them the statutes and the decisions and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
Moreover, choose able men from all the people such as fear God, men who are trustworthy and who hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace. So Moses gave heed to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and they judged the people at all times. Hard cases they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. Then Moses let his father-in-law depart and he went his way to his own country.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
as well as we're going to pray Psalm 73. So again, Exodus 17 and 18, Leviticus 12, and Psalm 73. As always, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, specifically speaking, the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to get that Bible, you can go to ascensionpress.com.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, say to the sons of Israel, if any woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days. At the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. then she shall continue for 33 days in the blood of her purifying.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
She shall not touch any hallowed thing nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying are completed. But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her menstruation, and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying for 66 days.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the door of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering. And he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her, and she shall be clean from the flow of her blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
This is the law for her who bears a child, either male or female. And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtle doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering, and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
Truly, God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs, their bodies are sound and sleek. They are not in trouble as other men are. They are not stricken like other men. Therefore, pride is their necklace.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
Violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out of fatness. Their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice. Loftily, they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongues strut through the earth. Therefore, the people turn and praise them and find no fault in them. And they say, how can God know?
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
is their knowledge in the most high behold these are the wicked always at ease they increase in riches all in vain have i kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence for all the day long i have been stricken and chastened every morning If I had said, I will speak thus, I would have been untrue to the generation of your children.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I perceived their end. Truly, you set them in slippery places. You make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors. They are like a dream when one awakes. On awakening, you despise their phantoms.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
You can also at ascensionpress.com download for free your Bible in a Year reading plan by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe. You're invited, encouraged, asked. I don't know. It'd be nice if you subscribe to this podcast by just clicking subscribe. It's relatively simple. Today, once again, we are reading from Exodus chapter 17 and 18.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked at heart, I was stupid and ignorant. I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides you.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to those who are false to you. But for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
We give you praise and glory. We ask that you please be with us right now and always. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As always, what a gift it is to be able to hear the word of the Lord. A couple things that are confusing sometimes. One is, let's go back to yesterday. Yesterday we had the manna from heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
We had the quail that were given. Again, we're going to hear about this upcoming again, but it's worth noting that The day before that, we had the crossing of the Red Sea. There are some people who will read some of these stories and they'll try to, I don't see if the word is demystify. When I say demystify, I don't mean they want to cut through what's hazy, what cut through what's unknown.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
I think they want to take out anything that is unknown. supernatural. And so there are many people, not a ton, but a number of people who are kind of like squeaky wheels who will say things like, well, the crossing of the Red Sea was just a natural phenomena where there was a mighty wind and it does this with a tide in the Red Sea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
It dries up a section of it and you can walk across it, this kind of thing. Or that there's a thing called manna, that there's bugs that secrete this thing overnight and you can find it in the desert in the morning. And that's what the manna was. And yet we realize this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
I remember years ago, there was a priest who had told the story about this Jewish mom and dad who had sent their son off to college. And as he was at college, one of the professors said, oh yeah, the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea wasn't really a miracle. It was a strong wind that blew the water to a lower level or, you know, a tide that blew it to a lower level, moved it to a lower level.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
So it was like two inches of water or so. And that's what they crossed upon and crossed the Red Sea through. And that's how the Egyptians died. And so this son, you know, kind of proudly announces this to his parents. And his father was, that's a miracle. His father said, that's incredible. That's a miracle. And the son said, what are you kidding me?
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
I just told you it was just wind, you know, two inches of water. And his dad said, no, it's a miracle is that all of the Egyptians and Pharaoh, they drowned in two inches of water. So it's one of those kinds of situations where the scripture itself testifies to the miraculous nature of what's going on. As we noted yesterday, what we have is on the sixth day, you gather double portion.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
And on the seventh day, that double portion doesn't spoil, but every other day, the double portion does spoil. Again, denoting the supernatural nature of this miracle, truly a miracle, not simply a natural phenomena, but something supernatural, a supernatural phenomena, which is worth noting. Not only the parting of the Red Sea, not only the feeding of with quail or with manna,
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
But all these ways in which the Lord God, even with the defeat of Amalek, you say, well, maybe they just fought hard. The people of Israel fought harder against the Amalekites. Well, sure. But also they won when Moses was interceding for them and raising the staff of the Lord above them. And they were being defeated when Moses stopped interceding.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
Exodus chapter 17 and 18. All the congregation of the sons of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim. But there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people found fault with Moses and said, give us water to drink. And Moses said to them, why do you find fault with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
or stopped raising the staff of the Lord above them. Same thing with the water at Meribah and Massah. It's the reality that we can try to demystify some things and say, was there a natural explanation? That's a real thing that Catholics do. Whenever someone claims that there's a miracle, the first step that the church does is say, ask the question, is there any natural explanation for this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
Is it possible that this happened simply through natural causes? That's the first question the church always asks. But if there is not, and these stories indicate that there are no natural explanations, then we realize, oh, when all natural explanations are eliminated, what's left is the supernatural. And that's what we have. We have God fighting for his people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
Once again, God fighting for his people. Now, one last note before we take a break and see each other tomorrow is in Leviticus chapter 12 today. as we went through this very short chapter in Leviticus, it talked about a woman being unclean after giving birth. And that's one of the things that can puzzle some people. So unclean does not mean immoral. Like unclean does not mean bad. It simply is.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
So the states of being clean and unclean in the Old Testament among the Jewish people It's not a moral state. It is not good or bad. It simply means can a person approach the temple? Can a person approach the sanctuary? Can a person approach the worship of God? Are they clean in that place where they can do this? Not again, not morally, but simply according to the category of clean or unclean.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
Or can they not if they're unclean? What is the determining factor for a lot of things that are clean and unclean? Like for example, for us as human beings, What would be the common denominator? Well, typically, virtually all of the factors that could make a person unclean have to do with life, have to do with life and death.
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Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
So if a person comes in contact with an animal's carcass, death, they're ritually unclean. Because that has life and death, right? So if you come in contact with death, you're ritually unclean. Also, when there are bodily fluids, those things are not in and of themselves morally good or evil, but they are associated with life. And so if a woman's menstruating, that's blood associated with life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God (2025)
It doesn't mean they're saying anything bad, and the Bible's not saying anything bad about this, but it's saying that, oh no, blood is associated with life. Same thing when it comes to giving birth. Same thing when it comes to other bodily fluids that are connected to life. The distinction between clean and unclean, especially if we hear that Leviticus chapter 12 and say, what the, why is this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
When we talked about the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan, and then what does he do? He goes into the wilderness to fight. That's what kings do. And that is what he's doing. Every single exorcism is Jesus taking back the father's kingdom from the evil one. And what happens is if I'm living, if we're living in the kingdom of the evil one, that means we belong to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
Even if we're made in God's image and likeness, if we're living under the dominion of the evil one, that means we're living under his dominion. And so what has to happen is these exorcisms. In fact, you know, I don't know if you know this, but in the rite of baptism in the Catholic church, there is a rite of exorcism.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
It happens every single baptism where we're saying, no, you're being claimed for the reign of Jesus Christ. You're being claimed for the kingdom of God. Therefore, first, before you're claimed for the kingdom of God, you have to be delivered from the kingdom of the evil one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
the kingdom of Satan, you know, and this is the thing, is wherever the gospel has been proclaimed, this is from the very beginning, wherever the gospel has been proclaimed, wherever Christ has been proclaimed, that always is accompanied by exorcisms.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
In fact, we have stories of exorcisms going obviously all the way back to the New Testament, but then early missionaries talk about every single time they encountered a new culture, they had to do exorcisms because they People just naturally are born into the kingdom, the dominion of Satan. We have to be delivered from this. So there's a man who is a, he's the world's first PhD in exorcism.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
He's a priest from Spain. And at one point he was doing studies on why were there so few exorcisms done in the middle ages, essentially. And his conclusion, at least his conclusion, was that it was because people were baptized. And so because they were baptized, they were transferred early, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
Baptized, typically baptized when they were infants, transferred right away from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God. And therefore, Satan had no hold on them. He could not possess them because they already belonged to the Lord Jesus Christ. But he said, even during those middle ages, wherever missionaries were sent out, they always still had to do exorcisms.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
But now there is this incredible rise in the need for exorcisms because two things. One is people are not baptizing, getting baptized. And so here's Satan who already owns them. And secondly, even those who are being baptized are denying the faith to such a degree. And they're choosing Satan to such a degree that there's a need for exorcisms once again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And that's not to scare anybody because especially if you're baptized, you're protected. I mean, that's the great news because why? Gosh, all we have to do is look in chapters five and chapter six, and we can see that here's Jesus and the disciples, the apostles, right? After they get back from doing all this mission work, they just want to go to a lonely place. They just want to be by themselves.
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Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
They haven't had time to eat. And they get out of the boat and there's so many people there. And it says that Jesus's heart was moved with compassion for them. And it's just so powerful to recognize that, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, he's the good shepherd. I mean, this is the same as we saw in the story of Jairus' daughter.
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Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And he begged him eagerly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, Send us to the swine, let us enter them. So he gave them leave. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine, and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned in the sea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
For us, we think, of course he'll heal a little girl, a 12-year-old girl. But in the ancient world, children were worth zero. I mean, we value children now in our modern age because of Christianity. But back in the day, children were kind of, they were not seen as necessarily having a lot of worth, right? Not only did he heal this child, sorry, raise her from the dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
Sorry, I didn't mean to minimize what the Lord had done. Raise her from the dead. He also heals this woman who had been sick for 12 years. And just is so good, so powerful, so beautiful that here he is exhausted with his disciples who are exhausted and they want to go just on a retreat, want to get some sleep, want to eat, feed themselves. And people meet them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And Jesus says, okay, you're going to go feed them. And this is so powerful. Where Jesus says to the apostles who now have gone out, right? They've cast out demons. They've proclaimed the gospel in the name of Jesus. And they say, yeah, they're hungry. Send them into the towns and villages to get something to eat. And Jesus says, you give them something to eat.
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Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And basically they say, we can't, we don't have enough. You know, for me as a priest, that's exactly how I feel all of the time. Jesus, they're starving. And he says, you give them something. I'm like, Jesus, I don't have anything. And that's what Jesus says. Okay, what do you have? What do you have? How many loaves do you have? He said, we have five loaves and two fish. And what happens?
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Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
They give what they do have to Jesus. And then Jesus blesses it and gives it back to them. And then they distribute it. And this is the model for us. This is the model for us. We give Jesus what we do have. He takes it. He blesses it. He hands it back to us. And then we just, we offer it. And in so many ways, that's what every one of us is called to do our entire life. Lord, I don't have enough.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
You're right. Give me what you do have. He receives it. He blesses it. He gives it back to us. And we just hand it out. We just distribute it. It's so, so important. So important for us. Jesus says in all of this, he says twice in today's readings, only in today's readings alone, Jesus twice says, do not be afraid.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And so, especially when we find ourselves overwhelmed, we find ourselves in storms, we find ourselves with little, we find ourselves lacking enough. And Jesus speaks to you today, just like he speaks to me. He is speaking to me through his word. Do not be afraid. Give what you have. Let him take it, bless it, give it back to you, and then hand it out. That's the model, and that's what we do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
Gosh, another day. What a gift to walk with Jesus for these days in this messianic checkpoint of the gospel of St. Mark. I am praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the man who had had the legion, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their neighborhood. And as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. But he refused and said to him, Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all men marveled. A girl restored to life and a woman healed. And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
There came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and begged him, saying, My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be well and live. And he went with him and a great crowd followed him and thronged about him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And there was a woman who had had a flow of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. she had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garments. For she said, if I touch even his garments, I shall be made well.
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Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And immediately the hemorrhage ceased and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone forth from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, Who touched me? And he looked around to see who had done it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
But the woman, knowing what had been done to her, came in fear and trembling, and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, Daughter, Your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
But ignoring what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not fear, only believe. And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James. When they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, he saw a tumult and people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, Why do you make a tumult and weep?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
The child is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand, he said to her, Talitha kumi, which means, Little girl, I say to you, arise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And immediately the girl got up and walked for she was 12 years old and immediately they were overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this and told them to give her something to eat. Chapter six, the rejection of Jesus at Nazareth. He went away from there and came to his own country and his disciples followed him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And on the Sabbath, he began to teach in the synagogue and many who heard him were astonished saying, where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to him? What mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon and are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house. And he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching. the mission of the twelve.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And he called to him the twelve, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals, and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, where you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
my name is father mike schmitz and you're listening to the bible in a year podcast where we encounter god's voice and live life through the lens of scripture the bible in a year podcast is brought to you by ascension using the great adventure bible timeline we'll read all the way from genesis to revelation discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today it is day 156. we are three days into reading from the gospel of saint mark today we're reading chapters five and six we're also praying from psalm 21 as always the bible translation that i'm reading from
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe in whatever podcast application you are typically familiar with, as long as that podcast application allows for subscribing to the podcast. As I said, today is day three of our Second Messianic Checkpoint, and we're reading from Mark chapter five and six. We're also praying Psalm 21. The Gospel of Saint Mark, chapter five.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And if any place will not receive you and they refuse to hear you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet for a testimony against them. So they went out and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them. the death of John the Baptist. King Herod heard of it, for Jesus' name had become known.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
Some said, John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, that is why these powers are at work in him. But others said, it is Elijah. And others said, it is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said, John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
For Herod had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her. For John said to Herod, It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to kill him, but she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man and kept him safe.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
When he heard him, he was much perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will grant it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And he vowed to her, Whatever you ask of me, I will give you even half of my kingdom. And she went out and said to her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist. And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard and gave orders to bring his head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. feeding the 5,000. The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while. For many were coming and going and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a lonely place by themselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
Now many saw them going and knew them. And they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. As he landed, he saw a great throng, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, This is a lonely place, and the hour is now late.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
Send them away, to go into the country and villages round about and buy themselves something to eat. But he answered them, You give them something to eat. And they said to him, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat? And he said to them, how many loaves have you? Go and see. And when they had found out, they said five and two fish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
Then he commanded them all to sit down by companies upon the green grass. So they sat down in groups by hundreds and by fifties and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. and he divided the two fish among them all. And they all ate and were satisfied.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men. Jesus walks on the sea. Immediately, he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd. And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And when it was evening, the boat was out on the sea and he was alone on the land. And he saw that they were distressed in rowing for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea. He meant to pass them by, but when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
Jesus heals the Gerasene demoniac. They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had come out of the boat, there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit who lived among the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, even with a chain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
But immediately he spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is I, have no fear. And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. Jesus heals the sick in Gennesaret. And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored on the shore.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And when they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized him and ran about the whole neighborhood and began to bring sick people on their pallets to any place where they heard he was. And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
In your strength the King rejoices, O Lord, and in your help how greatly he exalts. You have given him his heart's desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. For you meet him with goodly blessings, you set a crown of fine gold upon his head. He asks life of you. You gave it to him, length of days, forever and ever. His glory is great through your help.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
Splendor and majesty you bestow upon him. Yes, you make him most blessed forever. You make him glad with the joy of your face. For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High, he shall not be moved. Your hand will find out all your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you. You will make them as a blazing oven when you appear.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath and fire will consume them. You will destroy their offspring from the earth and their children from among the sons of men. If they plan evil against you, if they devise mischief, they will not succeed for you will put them to flight. You will aim at their faces with your bows. Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and we exalt your name and we do sing and praise your power and be exalted, Lord, in your strength and your goodness and your holiness because you have revealed your deepest character. Your character is that you love us. Your character is that you are love. You don't just love us, God. You are love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are an eternal exchange of love. Father, you so loved the world. Once again, we're reminded you so loved the world that you gave your only begotten Son, So that all who believe in him might not perish, but might have eternal life. You set us free. You set us free from slavery to sin and slavery to Satan, the evil one. Help us to live in that freedom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces, and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day, among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
Help us to live in your love and help us to receive the grace of your redemption that you offer to us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Gosh, okay, so I love this messianic checkpoint to you guys. Clearly, I'm very excited about this. Okay, we begin in chapter five by looking at Jesus doing another exorcism.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
Now, Jesus is going all over the place doing exorcisms. We're in chapter five and he's done like a gajillion already. Not only that, but later on in chapter six, Jesus is going to send out the 12, the apostles, and they're going to, in chapter six, verse seven, it says, he called to him, the 12, and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
So Jesus is sending out apostles the apostles, not just to heal, not just to preach, not just to teach, he's sending them out to do exorcisms. I mean, he's sending them out to have authority over unclean spirits. And so we have at the beginning of chapter five, Jesus healing the Gerasene demoniac, who it says very clearly that when Jesus says, what is your name?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
He says, legion and legion means many, right? And he gets exercised and goes into the pigs, which to the apostles and to Jesus doesn't really matter because why? Because swine are unclean animals. Pigs are unclean animals. But to the Gentiles who are living in the region, that's kind of a big thing. And 2,000 of them is kind of a big thing. And so they drive them out of the area.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
But for Jesus, one human being is worth vastly more, vastly more than 2,000 pigs, even if pigs were valuable. I mean, even if it was 2,000 sheep, one human being. I mean, what does Jesus teach us? He teaches us that not a sparrow falls to the ground from the sky without the Father knowing and noticing and caring. And he says, you are worth more than many sparrows.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
So this one man's deliverance from Satan, from the evil one, from evil spirits is worth vastly more than 2,000 swine. And that just shows us something about how the Lord cares for us. But also going back to the concept of exorcisms. We have to understand a biblical worldview. And that's why we're doing these 365 days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
That's why we're on day 156 out of 365 days is because we want to have a lens to look at the world the way the Bible teaches us to look at the world. And one of the things about this world is that this world is not just this world, right? There's matter, there's stuff, and that stuff is good. We go back all the way to Genesis chapter one. God sees all the stuff he makes and it's good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshipped him, and crying aloud with a loud voice, he said, What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me. For he had said to him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit. And Jesus asked him, What is your name? He replied, My name is Legion, for we are many.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
But we realize, we know this is true, that there's more to this world than just what we see. There is a spiritual world and we know there are enemies more than just our natural enemies or our physical enemies. There are principalities and powers. And ever since the fall, I mean, gosh, we're going through the Old Testament and what do we see? We see brokenness after brokenness after brokenness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 156: Jesus Casts Out Demons (2025)
And God is like a pinprick of light into all this brokenness. Because after the fall, this world belongs to the evil one. The biblical worldview is after the fall, the world is under the dominion of Satan. It's under the dominion of the evil one. And so when here is Jesus, and he's not just here to heal, and he's not just here to preach, and he's not just here to teach, he's here to fight, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
Hello, everybody. My name is Father Mike Schmitz. I want to let you know about a one-night-only opportunity we have in Newark, New Jersey on Monday, December 9th. It's right after the start of Advent. We're doing an Advent Night of Reflection and Q&A at the Newark Performing Arts Center. Again, Monday, December 9th. at 7 o'clock.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
Now, people involved in magic arts, if they wanted to, they could have just kept those magic arts. They could have just kept their shrines of Artemis. They could have just done whatever they wanted to do. And you know what would happen? Nothing. Nothing would be changed. And yet here we have these Christians, these new Christians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
who are so fully sold out for Jesus that they actually destroy the, I don't want to say the livelihood of these people who are selling idols, but they destroy the livelihood of those people who are selling idols. And again, feel sorry for those people, but what a gift. What incredible witness. They didn't put them out of business by making a new law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
They didn't put them out of business by having a riot or having a protest. They simply said, we are not participating in this destructive and this ultimately diabolical practice that other people do in this city. You can count us out of it. Because why? Because we're Christians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And again, I just think about how incredible it is when Christians stand together and they simply say, oh, we're not participating in whatever this evil thing is. The world around them has to change. No, it changes through sacrifice, 50,000 pieces of silver worth, but it changes nonetheless. So that's Acts of the Apostles chapter 19. We also have the second letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And in this, we get Paul's heart. My gosh. Paul's heart, who says, basically, you know, that last letter I wrote to you, I wrote it so that I didn't have to say these things to your face. I mean, he kind of sort of says that that's one of the interpretations of this. Paul is saying all those corrections that I offered you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
I said that because so that when I was with you, I didn't have to correct you. I said that so that when I was with you, you would have already changed. And I just would get to love you and not have to correct you. I'm paraphrasing, obviously. But what we see here is a snapshot of Paul's heart. He just loves these people in Corinth. And we know why.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
I mean, he lived there for a year and a half and he just gave his heart to them. He goes on to say in chapter two, verse one, for I made up my mind not to make you another painful visit. Because the first one was pretty painful. For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad? But the one whom I have pained.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And I wrote as I did so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should made me rejoice. For I felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And that's exactly, that's why he wrote them that first letter. And that's the call of every... Everyone who loves, really, every parent, every pastor, every Christian is, I might have to say these words that are hard to hear, but I'm not saying that because I want to beat anyone up. I'm not saying this because I want to be the policeman, God's policeman. I'm saying this because I love you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And that's what I think this podcast has been able to do. I think all the words of your pastors, all the words of your priests over the years, your deacons, your bishops, maybe your parents even, have been able to be spoken to you. And I think so many of us have heard God's words through this podcast and we've realized these are God's words of love for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve of them in all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
This is what my pastor's been trying to tell me. This is what my priest has been trying to tell me for all these years. This is what my parents were trying to tell me when I was a kid. And I finally was able to hear it because I heard God himself. I heard God's word itself spoken to me. And now I kind of sort of am beginning to get it that he loves me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And that's why he told me this, that he loves me and cares about me. And that's why he says these words. Hopefully that makes sense. Maybe it doesn't. Maybe you're like, nope, I'm just, I'm fine. I don't need this. Hopefully this is what's been happening to your life. I know it's what's been happening in my life. And I'm so grateful for these last 340 days because it has been an incredible gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
You have been an incredible gift, not only to me, but to each other, because I know you're praying for each other. I know you're praying for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And he entered the synagogue, and for three months spoke boldly, arguing and pleading about the kingdom of God. But when some were stubborn and disbelieved, speaking evil of the way before the congregation, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in the hall of Tyrannus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
If you're interested in finding out more about this, go to ascensionpress.com slash fathermiketour. Basically, a night of reflection, diving deeply into what it is that we're preparing for in the season of Advent. If you're interested at all, Monday, December 9th, 7 o'clock, Newark Performing Arts Center, go to ascensionpress.com slash fathermiketour. That's F-R-M-I-K-E tour. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. The Sons of Sceva And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you, by the Jesus whom Paul preaches. Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this, but the evil spirit answered them, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this became known to all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and fear fell upon them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. Many also of those who are now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And a number of those who practice magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily. The Riot at Ephesus
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
Now after these events, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. About that time, there arose no little stir concerning the way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together with the workmen of like occupation and said, Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable company of people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And there is danger, not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may count for nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship. When they heard this, they were enraged and cried out, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel. Paul wished to go in among the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. Some of the Asiarchs also, who were friends of his, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
Now some cried one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
some of the crowd prompted alexander whom the jews had put forward and alexander motioned with his hand wishing to make a defense to the people but when they recognized that he was a jew for about two hours they all with one voice cried out great is artemis of the ephesians and when the town clerk had quieted the crowd he said men of ephesus what man is there who does not know that the city of the ephesians is temple keeper of the great artemis and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
seeing then that these things cannot be contradicted you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash for you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess if therefore demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against any one the courts are open and there are proconsuls let them bring charges against one another
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly. For we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, there being no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother. To the church of God, which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's thanksgiving after affliction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken. For we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction we experienced in Asia.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
For we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from so deadly a peril and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us in answer to many prayers. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we have behaved in the world and still more toward you with holiness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God. For we write you nothing but what you can read and understand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 340. You know what that means, as there's 25 days left. What the heck? Are you kidding me? That's bananas. We're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 19, Paul in Ephesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
I hope you will understand fully, as you have understood in part, that you can be proud of us as we can be of you on the day of the Lord Jesus. The postponement of Paul's visit. Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first so that you might have a double pleasure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans like a worldly man, ready to say yes and no at once? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not yes and no, but in him it is always yes. For all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why we utter the amen through him, to the glory of God. Chapter 2. For I made up my mind not to make you another painful visit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did, so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice. For I felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
For I wrote you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. Forgiveness for the Offender But if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure, not to put it too severely, to you all. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
So you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. For this is why I wrote that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, to keep Satan from gaining the advantage over us, for we are not ignorant of his designs. Paul's anxiety in Troas.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
We're also reading the second letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapters 1 and 2, just the beginning of that letter, as well as Proverbs, chapter 28, verses 22 through 24. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
A miserly man hastens after wealth and does not know that want will come upon him. He who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue. He who robs his father or his mother and says, that is no transgression, is the companion of a man who destroys.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
Thank you so much for the gift of your son and the gift of your Holy Spirit. Oh my gosh. Lord God, thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit. It gives us the power to cry out, Abba, Father. That transforms us into your sons and daughters. Help us to always walk in your spirit. Help us to always walk in your will. Help us to always walk in your grace. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. The Holy Spirit, holy smokes. Acts of the Apostles, chapter 19. Paul goes to Ephesus, right? And here are these people who believe that they're disciples, and they are disciples of Jesus. Paul asks them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, no, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
That is a great description of so many Christians, how so many of us live. We know, yeah, we pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, of course. But do we live in the power of the Holy Spirit? We so often live like the Ephesians did before Paul showed up. where he spoke over them and prayed over them, and they received the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
To download your own Bible in-ear reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in-ear. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe, receiving daily episodes and daily updates. You know what I'm going to say. It is day 340. We're reading Acts chapter 19, 2 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2, the introduction, as well as Proverbs chapter 28, verses 22 through 24.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
Remember, at the very beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, what did Jesus Christ promise? He promised to send them the dynamite power of the Holy Spirit, and yet so many of us Christians, we live without that dynamite power. So many of us, we've heard that there was a Holy Spirit, but we never realized, we never realized
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
That God wants, what he wants to do is he wants to fill us with the power of his Holy Spirit and help us walk not only by our own strength, never by our own strength, but by his strength coming to us through the Holy Spirit. And I think it's just incredible. Now, later on in chapter 19, verse 11, that says God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And then it goes on to say, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick and diseases left them and evil spirits came out of them. This is one of the reasons why we as Catholics, we have religious objects. We have religious objects that we treat with veneration. It's not because we believe in any kind of superstition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
As much as it is, here is our objects, you know, handkerchiefs, aprons that touched Paul's body that then God communicates through stuff. God communicates his healing act. He's healing power. So we realize that here, this happens in scripture. That's why we have that in the Catholic church where, yeah, there are sacred objects.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And those sacred objects, like here in the Acts of the Apostles, communicate God's love. Now, again, it's God himself. It's not any kind of superstition. It's not any kind of sense of we trust in the power of the handkerchief. That's not it at all. It is God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
the fact that god uses stuff to reach us right we're made of stuff and spirit so that god works through stuff by the power of his holy spirit to reach our stuff and reach our spirit hopefully that made sense um also i love the story of the sons of skiva who are trying to exercise this person uh exercise this demon i mean and they say i drew you by the jesus whom paul preaches
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And the evil spirit says, Jesus, I know. And Paul, I know. But who are you? And then he beats them up, mastered all of them, overpowered them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. And everyone knew about this. There's something really, really powerful about that story. reality that the demons know the Christian, right? They know Paul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
The demons even more powerfully know Jesus, the only beloved son of God. And they respond, right? They respond to the holy name of Jesus by being obedient to his powerful name. But to play with that, to play with the name of Jesus is dangerous, right? To play with that idea that we can cast out without knowing Christ, that we could cast out any demons would be foolhardy to say the least.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
Now, we have people in Ephesus who practice magic. And what did they do? They brought their books together and burned them on the side of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to 50,000 pieces of silver. Think about this. How many times do we in our lives have something in our lives that don't belong there?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
They don't belong in the hands of a Christian, whether that be certain movies, certain music, so whatever the thing is, and it has a certain value to it. And here are these Christians in Ephesus. And what do they do? They have something in their presence, in their possession that should not be in their possession.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 19, Paul in Ephesus. While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples and he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, no, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. And he said, into what then were you baptized? They said, into John's baptism.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
They didn't go on eBay and say, I've got these magic books, but I'm not into magic anymore because I belong to Jesus. I'm a Christian. So I'm just going to sell these magic books. No, because you're not going to pass on evil to someone else. Just because you don't want evil in your life, it's not like you're going to make money off of selling these evil things to someone else. So what do they do?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
They simply destroyed them. 50,000 pieces of silver. This is a huge act of trust in the Lord, this huge sacrifice and trust in the Lord of saying, I'm going to divest myself of things that have value for the sake of Jesus Christ, who has ultimate value. And I think that's just, it's incredible. Now it goes on. Here's the artisans, right? Demetrius, Silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2024)
And they're all losing their business. Because why? Because people aren't worshiping Artemis anymore. They're worshiping Jesus Christ. This is a model. This is a model for what we should be as Christians. As Christians, we should be so fully handed over to the Lord that the culture around us has to change.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
It's very, very rare that someone has actually consecrated a Nazarite from birth and lives that way for their entire life. The three examples that we get is here, Samson, we get John the Baptist, and maybe, maybe, maybe Samuel, who is in the first book of Samuel. So we can introduce to him in 1 Samuel. We don't know necessarily if Samuel for sure is a Nazarite, but nonetheless, here we have Samson.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And Samson is not a good guy. Samson is the hero, right? He is that figure of the action hero. He is the person that I got to tell you, when I read my action Bible growing up, it was my favorite scenes were all the Samson scenes of this guy who was, you know, just ripped and jacked and, and the servant of God. And yet when you get to know the story, you realize, wow, Samson is not great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
Samson is strong, but he's not wise. Samson is consecrated, but he actually isn't living a consecrated life. We even see that in the fact that he not only killed the lion, right? He goes back and he eats out of, killing a lion's not, that's not bad. It's when he goes back and he eats honey from the carcass of the lion, right? He's touching a dead thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
We have, all of us have heard the rules when it comes to coming into contact with dead bodies. Not only that, but he also then gave his mom and dad honey that come from a dead thing. So he made them ritually unclean without even telling them. And there's that sense of even when he defeats the thousand people at Lehi, he's using the job one of an ass, right? Of a donkey.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And again, an unclean object. And so one of the things we recognize is that Samson, while strong, has a lot of weaknesses. One is that while he's consecrated, he's not living a consecrated life very clearly. But also while strong, he has so many weaknesses. And one of his weaknesses is his passion, his anger that has gotten him into so much trouble, even in the chapters we've read.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
but also his lust, which we're going to hear about in the next couple of chapters tomorrow. Not only his lust when it comes to Delilah, as that story unfolds, but also some other, at least one other occasion where it just kind of gets him into trouble. One of the things we recognize for all of us is that all of us have certain strengths, but also all of us have certain weaknesses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And those strengths do not make up for the weakness. We have to actually address the weakness. We can't just say, well, I'm strong in this area, therefore I can tolerate the weakness. What we get to do is we get to say, okay, Lord, I am strong in these areas. You made me strong in these areas. And yet I also recognize that I am in great, great need of purification.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
I'm in great need of strengthening in a number of other places. And so rather than a despairing over that, we come to the Lord with them or be dismissing those things. We, we come to the Lord with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
So my invitation for all of us is acknowledge our strengths, praise the Lord for the times where the spirit of the Lord does come upon us, but also address the weakness, neither despair because of it or nor dismiss the weakness, but bring them and entrust them to the Lord saying, God, um, However, whatever you want to do with this weakness, I give you permission to purify it for my life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
When they said no, they said to him, then say Shibboleth. And he said, Sibboleth, for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slew him at the fords of the Jordan. And there fell at that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites. Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city in Gilead. Ibsan, Elon, and Abdon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
I give you permission to release me from it. I give you permission to heal me of this, or I give you permission to just simply give me the strength to not let these weaknesses become my downfall, because that is what's going to happen with Samson. Spoiler alert. Oh, we keep praying for each other. Man, oh man, I love the book of Judges.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
It is so powerful and it is so good for us because, not because they're all great heroes that save the day and are incredible, but because they reveal us to us. And thank you, that's what God's word does. Thank you, God, for doing that. Please keep praying for each other. I'm praying for you and please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 93. We're reading from Judges chapter 12, 13, 14, and 15. There's no secondary book except for the book of Psalms, which we're praying Psalm 146 today, kind of jumping ahead. to Psalm 146.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
After him, Ibsan of Bethlehem judged Israel. He had 30 sons and 30 daughters he gave in marriage outside his clan, and 30 daughters he brought in from outside for his sons, and he judged Israel seven years. Then Ibsan died and was buried at Bethlehem. After him, Elon, the Zebulonite, judged Israel, and he judged Israel 10 years.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
Then Elon, the Zebulonite, died and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulon. After him, Abdon, the son of Hillel, the Periathanite, judged Israel. He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy donkeys, and he judged Israel eight years. Then Abdon, the son of Hillel, the Periathanite, died and was buried at Periathan in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
chapter thirteen the birth of samson and the sons of israel again did what was evil in the sight of the lord and the lord gave them into the hand of the philistines for forty years and there was a certain man of zorah of the tribe of the danites whose name was manoah and his wife was barren and had no children
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, behold, you are barren and have no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore beware and drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean. For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head for the boy shall be a Nazarite to God from birth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines. Then the woman came and told her husband, a man of God came to me. And his countenance was like the countenance of the angel of God, very terrible. I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name. But he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the boy shall be a Nazarite to God from birth to the day of his death. Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, O Lord, I beg you. Let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the boy that will be born.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. And the woman ran in haste and told her husband, Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me. And Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said to him, Are you the man who spoke to this woman? And he said,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
I am. And Manoah said, Now, when your words come true, what is to be the boy's manner of life, and what is he to do? And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, Please, let us detain you and prepare a kid for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, If you detain me, I will not eat of your food, but if you make ready a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord. For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, What is your name, so that when your words come true we may honor you? And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why do you ask my name?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
Seeing it is wonderful. So Manoah took the kid with the cereal offering and offered it upon the rock to the Lord, to him who works wonders. And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar while Manoah and his wife looked on and they fell on their faces to the ground. The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
As always, the Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe in your podcast app. If you have not yet done that, that would be a nice thing to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to his wife, Manoah, We shall surely die, for we have seen God. But his wife said to him, If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a cereal offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or announced to us such things as these. And the woman bore a son, and called his name Samson.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And the boy grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him at Mahanadan between Zorah and Eshtoel. Chapter 14, Samson's marriage at Timnah. Samson went down to Timnah and at Timnah, he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. Then he came up and told his father and mother, I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah, now get her for me as my wife.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
But his father and mother said to him, is there not a woman among the daughters of your kinsmen or among all our people that you must go and take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines? But Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she pleases me well. His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
At that time, the Philistines had dominion over Israel. Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah. And he came to the vineyards of Timnah, and behold, a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion asunder as one tears a kid, and he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well. And after a while, he returned to take her and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. And behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion and honey. He stripped it out into his hands and went on eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them and they ate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the carcass of the lion. And his father went down to the woman and Samson made a feast there for so the young men used to do. And when the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. And Samson said to them, Let me now put a riddle to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
If you can tell me what it is within the seven days of the feast and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments. But if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments. And they said to him, put your riddle that we may hear it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And he said to them, out of the eater came something to eat, out of the strong came something sweet. And they could not in three days tell what the riddle was. On the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife, entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
Anyways, day 93 today, Judges 12, 13, 14, and 15, praying Psalm 146. The book of Judges chapter 12, intertribal fighting. The men of Ephraim were called to arms and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, why did you cross over to fight against the Ammonites and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house over you with fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And Samson's wife wept before him and said, you only hate me. You do not love me. You have put a riddle to my countrymen and you have not told me what it is. And he said to her, behold, I have not told my father nor my mother. And I shall tell you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
she wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted and on the seventh day he told her because she pressed him hard then she told the riddle to her countrymen and the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down what is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And he said to them, if you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle. And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. And he went down to Ashkelon and killed 30 men of the town and took their spoil and gave the festal garments to those who had told the riddle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
In hot anger, he went back to his father's house and Samson's wife was given to his companion who had been his best man. Chapter 15, Samson defeats the Philistines. After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a kid and he said, I will go into my wife in the chamber, but her father would not allow him to go in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And her father said, I really thought that you utterly hated her. So I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she? Please take her instead. And Samson said to them, this time I shall be blameless in regard to the Philistines when I do them mischief.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches and he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and burned up the shocks and the standing grain as well as the olive orchards. Then the Philistines said, Who has done this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. And Samson said to them, If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged upon you, and after that I will quit. And he struck them hip and thigh with great slaughter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam. Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi. And the men of Judah said, Why have you come up against us? They said, We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
Then the three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us? And he said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them. And they said to him, We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hand of the Philistines.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And Samson said to them, Swear to me that you will not fall upon me yourselves. They said to him, No, we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will not kill you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
so they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock when he came to lehi the philistines came shouting to meet him and the spirit of the lord came mightily upon him and the ropes which were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire and his bonds melted off his hands And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey and put out his hand and seized it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And with it, he slew a thousand men. And Samson said, with the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey, have I slain a thousand men. When he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand, and that place was called Ramath-Lehi.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And he was very thirsty, and he called on the Lord and said, You have granted this great deliverance by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised? And God split open a hollow place that is at Lehi, and there came water from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned and he revived. Therefore, the name of it was called En-Hakor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And Jephthah said to them, I and my people had a great feud with the Ammonites. And when I called you, you did not deliver me from their hand. And when I saw that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hand and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
It is at Lehi to this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years. Psalm 146. Praise for God's help.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God while I have being. Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no help. When his breath departs, he returns to his earth. On that very day his plans perish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
The Lord watches over the sojourners. He upholds the widow and the fatherless. But the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The Lord will reign forever. Your God, O Zion, to all generations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
Praise the Lord. Father in heaven, we do give you praise and glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
We thank you so much for the gift of yourself, the gift of faith, the gift of your word that you've given to us every single day. These last 93 days, Lord, you keep speaking to us and you keep teaching us. You teach us not only about ourselves and about the history, but you teach us about your heart. You teach us about yourself. And so we ask that you please continue to
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
I'll allow our ears to be open, our hearts to be open, our minds to be shaped by who you are and what you call us to. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So we heard from a couple different judges. We had Jephthah, obviously. We had Ibsen, Elon, and Abdon, really briefly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And then we had Samson, who is probably, I would say, the most famousest of all the judges. One of the things to keep in mind is this theme. The theme is of couples who long for a child and Samson's parents are no different. This is one of those stories we're going to hear in just even a couple of days in first Samuel, the same thing with Hannah, the mother of Samuel who longs for a child.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
Here is Manoah and his wife. who long for a child, and here is the Lord God who blesses them with a child. And so again, whenever we have this theme, I think it's so important for us to stop and to pray for all couples that are in crisis pregnancies, couples that are unable to conceive or have been unable to conceive until this point.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
and it's just been so powerful so many people have reached out whenever we bring this up and i invite this community right the people who are going through the bible in a year to pray some things have powerful things have happened so many lives have been blessed particularly when it comes to those couples that are again as i said truly longing and praying desperate maybe even sometimes for a child here's the lord god who comes to manoa and his wife
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck Ephraim because they said, You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh. And the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, let me go over, the men of Gilead said to them, are you an Ephraimite?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
And he is consecrated as a Nazirite from birth, which is, we talked about the Nazirite vow back in Leviticus. We talked about how people would go off on a retreat. And at the end of that retreat, you know, during the retreat, they would basically retreat. That's our kind of common word for it. During that time, probably wouldn't shave, wouldn't really cut their hair, wouldn't drink.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses (2025)
They would have that retreat time. And at the end of it, they might cut off the hair that grew during that time, the beard that grew during that time, or maybe even shave their head and then burn that. Now, The Nazarite vow would be a very brief vow, right? For maybe a week, maybe four weeks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
And that plan for his children was that he would belong to them and they would belong to him and they would be able to actually live their lives in peace and in joy and in the love of his presence. And in this moment, the story reveals that they don't get to, they have a different path they have to follow. And that different path is then spelled out where we hear the curses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
Now, actually, it's singular. These are not curses. This is one curse. Only the serpent gets cursed, right? The next two things, what God says to Adam and what God says to Eve are not, strictly speaking, curses. They're more remedies. Yeah, they're painful, absolutely painful curses. Here is a pain in childbearing and broken relationships.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
Here is Adam who basically has to go to work at his horrible job every day and commute back and forth, living by the sweat of his brow. But that is not meant to be a curse. In fact, the scripture does not call it a curse. It's the remedy. Because why? Because Adam and Eve failed to choose love. They're made for love. Remember, they're made for labor, leisure, and love. They failed to choose love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
And love always involves sacrifice. And so now, for Eve to love, for the woman to love, she will bring forth life in pain and learn that love involves sacrifice. And for Adam to care for his wife and to care for his family, he will have to bring forth fruit of the earth in toil and sweat and And amongst thorns and thistles. And he will have to learn that to love requires sacrifice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
But the serpent said to the woman, You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband, and he ate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
And yet here is the key thing. How do we know that this is true? How do we know this is not God just bringing the smack down on Adam and Eve? Is because at the end, after God drives out the man and the woman out of the Garden of Eden, he places the cherubim, the flaming sword, to guard the way to the tree of life. Well, A, why does he guard the tree of life?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
My gosh, there's so much to say about this. Why does God guard the tree of life? Because if they eat of the tree of life, they'll never die. And so, well, God doesn't want them to never die. No, not like this. God doesn't want them to live in this brokenness forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
Like, yeah, maybe that their destiny originally was to be created and live in wholeness and holiness and to live forever in that wholeness and holiness. But since they're broken, God's saying, no, stay away from the tree of life because I don't want you to live forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
in this brokenness for eternity, I will now allow you to live in this world in such a way that you will end up dying so that you can be raised up. That's ultimately the key for this. But how do we know this? How do we know that God's still caring for his people? Because it says in chapter 3, verse 21, "...and the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
And one of the things that is, is here's God continuing to provide, continuing to care for the man and the woman. Yes, they have rebelled against him. Yes, they cannot any longer live in the Garden of Eden. But here is God still caring for them. And how does he clothe them? Garments of skins, leather garments, which means something had to die for God to be able to love Adam and Eve.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
And again, this profound reality, the connection between love and sacrifice, love and caring for another. Of course, we have then Genesis chapter four. And I know there's been so much said already about Genesis chapter three, but things escalate quickly. Humanity goes from eating a piece of fruit to brother killing brother. And we wonder, what is this? We have this story of Cain and Abel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
And we have Cain offering a sacrifice and Abel offering a sacrifice. And it says that the Lord God accepted the offering of Abel. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and his countenance fell. And we ask the question, well, why? Why did God accept Abel's offering and didn't accept Cain's offering? Ultimately, we don't know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
But one of the thoughts would be this, is that the nature of Abel's offering was he had brought out the first fruits of the flock. And the nature of Cain's offering is that he just gave God whatever. So Abel says he brought some of the firstlings of his flock, but for Cain, an offering of fruit from the ground. not necessarily first fruits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
Because of that, we can look at ourselves and say, how am I offering God? What am I offering God? Do I give God the best or do I just give God whatever's left? Because one offering is acceptable and gives glory to God. And the other offering might in some ways be meaningless, not because it's meaningless to God per se, but because it was meaningless to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
We just kind of gave God whatever was left. We can do this when it comes to our prayer, right? Is do I give God the first fruit? So I give God the first moment of my day. And that doesn't even have to be the first chronological moment of the day. It can be Do I first put that rock of, I will pray at this time in my calendar? And that doesn't get moved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. He said, He said, He said, The man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? The woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
That's the first pebble, first rock that goes into my daily calendar. That's giving God our first fruits. There's a challenge here because Cain was so angry with his brother. But God is saying, he says this powerful word. He says, if you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
That even when we are broken, even when we are angry, even when we are tempted, we do not have to sin. God is declaring that we do not have to sin. You can be the master of the evil that is within us. You can be the master of the evil that's within you. And so one of the things that we recognize right now is, okay, gosh, Lord, you created this world very good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
And humanity has sinned and turned against you. We've not trusted you. We might believe in you, but so often we don't belong to you. But you continue to care for us. And so now, as an act of love, love always involves sacrifice. And so I will now, in order to love you, I have to sacrifice something.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
And each day, what that means is I have to sacrifice some of my time to spend with you, to be in prayer. And I want to let that time that I sacrificed to you be not whatever's left, but I want that time to be the best, my first fruits. Anyways, it's so good to be starting this journey with you. It's so good to be underway and cracking open the Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
I cannot wait to be with you again tomorrow as we continue moving forward in this early world period of Genesis and just kind of continue to follow this incredible story that is part of your story and my story. My name is Father Mike. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
The Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle and above all wild animals. Upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your pain and childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. And to Adam he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you. And you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken. You are dust and to dust you shall return. The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
This is day two, so let's get started. Today, we'll be reading Genesis chapter 3 and Genesis chapter 4. So, after the great news of creation, or the good news of creation, what happened then? How did things get so terribly messed up? We'll also be reading from the book of Psalms, Psalm 104.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. And now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
And at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Now Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of the sheep and Cain a tiller of the ground.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel brought some of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it. Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go out to the field. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? He said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
And the Lord said, what have you done the voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground and now you are cursed from the ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand when you till the ground it shall no longer yield to you its strength you shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me this day away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will slay me. Then the Lord said to him, Not so. If anyone slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest anyone who came upon him should kill him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
The Bible that I'm reading from today and all this year is the RSVCE, the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you are interested in following along, not just listening along, but reading along, you can download your Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
and Mehujael the father of Methushael and Methushael the father of Lamech and Lamech took two wives the name of one was Adah and the name of the other Zillah Adah bore Jabal he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have cattle His brother's name was Jubal, and he was the father of all who play the lyre in pipe. Zillah bore Tubal-Cain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. Sister of Tubal-Cain was Naama. Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, hear my voice. You wives of Lamech, hearken to what I say. I have slain a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold. And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
For she said, God has appointed for me another child instead of Abel, for Cain slew him. To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty, who cover yourself with light as with a garment, who have stretched out the heavens like a tent, who have laid the beams of your chambers on the waters, who make the clouds your chariot, who ride on the wings of the wind, who make the winds your messengers, fire and flame your ministers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
You set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be shaken. You covered it with the deep as with a garment. The waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled. At the sound of your thunder they took to flight. The mountains rose. The valleys sank down to the place which you appointed for them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
You set a bound which they should not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth. You make springs gush forth in the valleys. They flow between the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst. By them the birds of the air have their habitation. They sing among the branches. From your lofty abode you water the mountains.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
The earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work. You cause the grass to grow for the cattle and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth fruit from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of men, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man's heart. The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon which he planted. In them the birds build their nests.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
The stork has her home in the fir trees. The high mountains are for the wild goats. The rocks are a refuge for the badgers. You have made the moon to mark the seasons. The sun knows it's time for setting. You make darkness and it is night when all the beasts of the forest creep forth. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
When the sun rises, they get them away and lie down in their dens. Man goes forth to his work and to his labor until the evening. O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures. Yonder is the sea, great and wide, which teems with things innumerable, living things, both great and small.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
Again, ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year to get the reading plan and to get these daily updates. Just subscribe in your podcast app, and we will keep popping up every single day for the next 365 days so you do not miss a day. You can also sign up for our email list by texting the word catholicbible Let's get started. Genesis 3 and 4.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
There go the ships and Leviathan, which you formed to sport in it. These all look to you to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up. When you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed. When you take away their spirit, they die and return to the dust.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
When you sent forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. May the glory of the Lord endure forever. May the Lord rejoice in his works, who look upon the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke. I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord. Let sinners be consumed from the earth and let the wicked be no more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
We give you glory and we love you. Thank you for sharing your word with us and thank you for giving us this clear vision of how you had created this world and how we had allowed sin to enter into it. Thank you for not abandoning us in the midst of our woundedness, but always following us into the wilderness, following us into the darkness so that you can be our light. Thank you, Father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
And we give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Gosh, things kind of messed up pretty quickly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
We went from yesterday where we had this incredible two stories of creation and the way in which God had not just made this macro universe, right, but also the way in which God had made even the smallest detail of care for the man and for the woman, of not only calling them to be with each other and calling them to enter into leisure and labor and love, but also his divine intimacy with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
And it's remarkable. So what do we got here? We have in Genesis 3, we have this incredible story. When I say incredible, I don't mean good incredible. I mean terrible, horrible, but powerful. And the temptation of...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
eve and i'm sure you maybe have heard some of this because there's so much to say about genesis chapter 3 and chapter 4. but the first thing we can note is that term that word that's used to describe satan it's the term that in other parts of the bible it means leviathan or sea monster or dragon so it's a it's a a fearsome creature right so it's not just a simple garter snake remember jeff cavins who had you know created the great adventure bible timeline
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
pointed this out. And part of that is because it reveals the fact that this serpent is powerful. This serpent is dangerous. And Eve would know that this serpent would be dangerous in that moment as well. And yet, he doesn't overtly challenge God's existence. He doesn't even overtly challenge God's authority to declare the tree to be off limits. But he does challenge God's trustworthiness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
When he says, did God really say? And she says, yeah, he said we couldn't eat of any of the trees or even touch the fruit of the tree. We can eat of any of the fruit of any of the trees except for this one. a tree of good and evil, and we can't even touch it, which is actually kind of, you think, that's not true.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
He never said you cannot touch it, although that would be a near occasion of sin, unless we die. And then here is Satan, this Leviathan sea monster who says, you'll certainly not die. God knows full well that if you eat of this, you'll be like him. And the implication is, and he doesn't want you to be like him. And so again, it's not a challenge of God's authority.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
It's not a challenge of God's existence. It's a challenge of God's trustworthiness. It's a challenge of, will you...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
belong to him or will you have to take out take your your life into your own hands and this is the contest this is the test for every one of us you know so often we can ask the question god why don't you reveal yourself more why don't you just show yourself to us and we would believe in you And the truth of the matter is God doesn't simply want us to believe in him. That's not the point.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
The point is not to believe in him. The point is to belong to him. And God could. He could reveal his goodness and his beauty and his power. He could reveal his existence. And we would still have to have the same exact decision, the same exact purpose.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
challenge, or I guess essentially test, we might say it, that Eve and I guess subsequently Adam had gone through, which is not, do you believe in God? The question is, do you belong to him? Will you obey him because you know that he loves you? And this is the thing, up to this point, all Adam and Eve had ever known is that God loved them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
And the first challenge here of the serpent is he doesn't actually love you. Because if he loved you, he would give you, he would allow you to eat this fruit. And think about how scripture describes this. The woman saw that the tree was good for food, delight to the eyes, and the tree was to be desired to make one wise. I mean, those are all good things. And so that's often what we do, isn't it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
Now, the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
We look at sin and we think, well, that's silly. That's ridiculous that the church says that's not allowed or that the Bible says that we ought not to do this or that kind of thing. Because look, it actually works. It seems like it would be a good idea. And yet when any decision, any option, any choice goes against God's will, we know that that is, we're making the decision.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
Like I don't belong to him anymore. So as scripture says, their eyes, both of them were open and they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Another translation said, made loincloths for themselves. And then what happens is then God comes along. Remember, this is the God who is so intimate with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
In the cool of the evening, they used to walk with him and he calls out, where are you? And Adam responds, I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself. Now, the very next line, I've heard it said, and I'll say it again, the way in which we hear the very next line tells us everything that we need to know about our vision of God. The very next line, God's next line, how we hear it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
The words are simple. The words are, who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? If we hear that, sometimes we can hear that as God's anger. We hear God's anger, his wrath in a voice that's like, who told you that you were naked? You know, kind of a thing. He's just so mad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve (2025)
Or we could hear the true heart of the father who would say, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I've commanded you not to eat? What we hear is the heartbreak of the father in his voice because he knows the plan he had for his children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
And yet there was a wise moment there where Abner did call back to say to Asahel, stop fighting, stop chasing after me, or I'll have to strike you down. He does. It's one of those really unfortunate things because this is ultimately going to be It's not going to end here. It doesn't end with chapter two. It continues as it always does. Violence begetting violence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
And so what we do is we recognize in this story what it's going to unfold. And this family is something that is, well, it's devastating. It's what violence does in virtually all of our lives. That violence rarely ends on its own, but it has to be ended. How has it ended? Well, in any number of ways, but at some point, what Jesus reveals is he takes violence upon himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Rather than afflicting violence, Jesus takes violence upon himself, suffers for the sake of the unrighteous, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, and puts an end in so many ways to that cycle. And Jesus gives us an opportunity to also be part of that cycle, not the cycle of violence, but the cycle of mercy and the cycle of allowing oneself to suffer for the other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
That's why our call to forgive is so clear in Jesus' proclamation and so clear in Jesus' teaching. Yet forgiveness is one of the hardest teachings of Christianity. So that's all that to say is we've got a lot of stuff going on in 2 Samuel and in 1 Chronicles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
And one of the things for today is we recognize, we recognize not only the importance of the family tree, the importance of the genealogy, which represents the promises of God, but we also recognize how deadly violence is because it rarely ends on its own. It has to be ended. And so in my heart today, I just say, okay, Lord, where are the places of anger?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Where are the places where I desire revenge or I desire to be vindicated myself because of what someone else did or what someone else has said? And how do I imitate Jesus and say, okay, in this moment, I let them go. In this moment, I set them free. In this moment, I'm not going to make them pay me back. I'm not going to hold it against them. In this moment, I am going to end this anger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
I'm going to end this violence. That's a thing that's hard for us to do. That's why we're praying for each other. I am praying for you. Please, as I said, pray for each other and pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Now Abner, the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, had taken Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim, and he made him king over Gilead and the Asherites and Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel. Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, was 40 years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. The Battle of Gibeon Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ashibosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. And Joab the son of Zerui, and the servants of David, went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
And they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool. And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men arise and play before us. And Joab said, Let them arise. Then they arose and passed over by number, twelve for Benjamin, and Eshbosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today, it is day 121. And we are reading today from 2 Samuel 2, from 1 Chronicles 2, more names, that. Thank the Lord. And we're also praying Psalm 24. If you're interested, the Bible translation that I am reading from is a revised standard version, second Catholic edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
And each caught his opponent by the head, and thrust his sword into his opponent's side, so they fell down together. Therefore that place was called Helkath Hazarim, which is at Gibeon. And the battle was very fierce that day, and Abner and the men of Israel were beaten before the servants of David. And the three sons of Zerui were there, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Now Asahel was as swift of foot as a wild gazelle, and Asahel pursued Abner. And as he went, he turned neither to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner. Then Abner looked behind him and said, Is it you, Asahel? And he answered, It is I. Abner said to him, Turn aside to your right hand or to your left and seize one of the young men and take his spoil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
But Asahel would not turn aside from following him. And Abner said to Asahel, Turn aside from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I lift up my face to your brother Joab? But he refused to turn aside. Therefore Abner struck him in the belly with the butt of his spear, so that the spear came out at his back, and he fell there and died where he was.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
And all who came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died stood still. But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner, and as the sun was going down, they came to the hill of Amah, which lies before Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon. And the Benjaminites gathered themselves together behind Abner and became one band and took their stand on the top of a hill.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Then Abner called to Joab, Shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that the end will be better? How long will it be before you bid your people turn from the pursuit of their brethren? And Joab said, As God lives, if you had not spoken, surely the men would have given up the pursuit of their brethren in the morning. So Joab blew the trumpet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
And all the men stopped, and pursued Israel no more, nor did they fight any more. And Abner and his men went all that night through the Arabah. They crossed the Jordan, and marching the whole forenoon they came to Mahanaim. Joab returned from the pursuit of Abner, And when he had gathered all the people together, there were missing of David's servants 19 men besides Asahel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
But the servants of David had slain of Benjamin 360 of Abner's men. And they took up Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was at Bethlehem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Sons of Israel and descendants of Judah. These are the sons of Israel, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. The sons of Judah, Ur, Onan, and Shelah. These three, Bathsheba, the Canaanitess, bore to him. Now Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he slew him. His daughter-in-law Tamar also bore him Perez and Zerah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Judah had five sons in all. The sons of Perez, Hezron, and Hamul. The sons of Zerah, Zimri, Ethan, Heman, Chalcol, and Dera, five in all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
I'm reading from the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and then you'll be subscribed and it'll be great. But as I said, it's day 121. So great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
the sons of carmi achar the troubler of israel who transgressed in the matter of the devoted thing and ethan's son was azariah the sons of hezron that were born to him jeremiel ram and chulubai ram was the father of amminadab and amminadab was the father of nashon prince of the sons of judah Nashon was the father of Salma, Salma of Boaz, Boaz of Obed, Obed of Jesse.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Jesse was the father of Eliab his firstborn, Abinadab the second, Shimeah the third, Nethanel the fourth, Radai the fifth, Ozem the sixth, David the seventh. And their sisters were Zerui and Abigail, the sons of Zerui, Abishai, Joab, and Asahal, three. Abigail bore Amasa, and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite. Caleb, the son of Hezron, had children by his wife, Azuba, and by Jeraoth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
And these were her sons, Jeshur, Shobab, and Ardon. When Azuba died, Caleb married Ephrath, who bore him Hur. Hur was the father of Uri. Uri was the father of Bezalel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
afterward hezron went in to the daughter of machir the father of gilead whom he married when he was sixty years old and she bore him segub and segub was the father of jair who had twenty-three cities in the land of gilead but gesher and aram took from them havath jair kenath and its villages sixty towns all these were descendants of machir the father of gilead after the death of hezron
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Caleb went into Ephrathah, the wife of Hezron, his father, and she bore him Ashur, the father of Tekoa. The sons of Jerameel, the firstborn of Hezron, Ram, his firstborn, Buna, Oren, Ozem, and Ahijah. Jerameel also had another wife whose name was Ataraa,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
she was the mother of onam the sons of ram the firstborn of jeremiel maaz jamin and eker the sons of onam shamai and jeda the sons of shamai nadab and abishur the name of abishur's wife was abihail and she bore him aban and molid The sons of Nadab, Seled and Apaim. And Seled died childless. The sons of Apaim, Ishi. The sons of Ishi, Shashan. The sons of Shashan, Alai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
The sons of Jada, Shammai's brother, Jether and Jonathan. And Jether died childless. The sons of Jonathan, Peleth and Zazah. These were the descendants of Jeremiel. Now Shashan had no sons, only daughters. But Shashan had an Egyptian slave whose name was Jarha. So Shashan gave his daughter in marriage to Jarha, his slave, and she bore him Atai. Atai was the father of Nathan and Nathan of Zebad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
We're reading 2 Samuel chapter 2, 1 Chronicles chapter 2, and praying Psalm 24. 2 Samuel chapter 2. David anointed king of Judah. After this, David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said to him, Go up. David said, To which shall I go up? And he said, To Hebron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Zebad was the father of Eflal and Eflal of Obed. Obed was the father of Jehu and Jehu of Azariah. Azariah was the father of Helez and Helez of Eliasa. Eliasa was the father of Sismai and Sismai of Shalom. Shalom was the father of Jechamiah and Jechamiah of Elishamah. The sons of Caleb, the brother of Jeremiel, Marashah, his firstborn, who was the father of Ziph,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
the sons of Marashah, Hebron, the sons of Hebron, Korah, Tapuah, Rekem, and Shema. Shema was the father of Raham, the father of Jerka'am, and Rekem was the father of Shammai. The sons of Shammai, Ma'on, and Ma'on was the father of Beth-Zur. ephah also caleb's concubine bore haran mozah and gezez and haran was the father of gezez the sons of jedai regem jotham geshan pellet ephah and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Ma'ahka, Caleb's concubine, bore Sheber and Tirhanah. She also bore Sha'af, the father of Machbanah, Sheva, the father of Machbanah, and the father of Gibeah. And the daughter of Caleb was Aksah. These were the descendants of Caleb. The sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah, Shabal, the father of Kiriath-Jerim, Salma, the father of Bethlehem, and Hereph, the father of Bet-Geder.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Shabal, the father of Kiriath-Jerim, had other sons, Heroah, half of the Menuhoth, and the families of Kiriath-Jerim, the Ithralites, the Puthites, the Shumathites, and the Mishraites. From these came the Zorothites and the Eshtolites. The sons of Salma, Bethlehem, the Netophathites, Atroth-Beth-Joab, and half of them Manahathites, the Zorites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
The families also of the scribes that dwelt at Jabez, the Tirathites, and the Shimeathites, and the Sukathites. These are the Kenites who came from Hamath, the father of the house of Rechab.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory today. We thank you so much for the unfolding of time. We thank you for the unfolding of the story, the story of salvation and the story of how, Lord God, you're willing to take time. You're willing to be patient, not only with us in our weakness, our littleness, in our falseness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
You're also willing to be patient with just the passage of time, with other people's decisions and the fact that we have to grow and it takes time to grow. And so we thank you. We thank you for being patient with us. We thank you for giving us time. And we thank you for allowing this time to be used.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
So we ask you, actually, not just to thank you, Lord, but we ask you, help us to use this time to grow. Help us to use this time not as wasted time, not as stalling out time, but as time where we can always find you, and you will always, always find us where we are in this moment. We give you praise, and we thank you and make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David brought up his men who were with him, every one with his household, and they dwelt in the towns of Hebron. And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So as I said yesterday, we have a lot of names in 1 Chronicles. And that's going to be how it is for the next few days. And I'm just so sorry about that. I'm not just sorry for you. I'm sorry for me. I'm sorry for myself that we have to do this, but it's going to be good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
In fact, one of the great things, incredible connection. I love it. The names all mean something, right? Because every name signifies not just one individual. It signifies their entire family. And so this is remarkable that we're getting a bit of the family tree. In fact, not just any family tree, we're getting the sons of Israel and the descendants of Judah specifically. And so what do we have?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
We heard today, sons of Hezron, this is in chapter two, verse nine, sons of Hezron that were born to him, Jermiel, Ram, and Shilobai. Then we go into Hezron, father of Ram, father of Aminadab, Aminadab, father of Nashon, Nashon, the father of Salma, of Boaz, of Obed, I don't know if those names and of Jesse and Jesse was the father of David, the King.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
I don't know if you know this, if you hear this, if you recognize this, but this is the exact order that we get in Matthew's gospel. Matthew, when he gives us the genealogy of Jesus, if you're ever at the Christmas Eve mass, we know we always read that genealogy of Jesus. We also read it a bunch of times when it comes to the Bible and it comes to church and mass and stuff. But this is the lineup.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
This is the genealogy. This is the story of leading not just from Abraham all the way to David, but then beyond that, from David to Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, the one who was promised from the very beginning. And it's just so good. And that's one of the reasons why when we read all of these names, yes, at times it can be who, what, but we recognize they mean something. They mean a ton today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
And not only that, we have one of those happy coincidences today where we have the connection between 2 Samuel 2 and 1 Chronicles 2, where, okay, remember, here is David, and David is the king of Judah, and he's going to battle against Shebosheth, the king of some of the other tribes of Israel. And David goes into battle with a couple people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Three of these people, in fact, are the sons of his sister, Zerui. And the three sons are Abishai, Joab, and Asahel. Asahel is described in 2 Samuel as being swift of foot, like faster than a deer. He's awesome, Asahel. But Asahel is doing something. He's chasing after Abner. And remember, Abner is this massively accomplished military folk person under King Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
And Abner looks back and says, okay, Asahel, stop chasing me because if I have to stand and fight you, I'm going to kill you because, well, he's going to. And he says, your brother Joab is going to hold this against me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
When they told David, It was the men of Jabesh-Gilead who buried Saul, David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-Gilead and said to them, Ish-bosheth made king of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
Basically, let's not have these officers in the militaries of these group of Ish-bosheths and Davids go at each other because not only are they in battle right now because of the people reigning over them, David and Ish-bosheths, but also don't, let's not add revenge to the list of things. And Asahel wouldn't give up chasing after Abner. So Abner, in self-defense, he kills Asahel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
And you know what happens next is Abishai and Joab, remember those two brothers of Asahel who just killed, the two nephews essentially of David, they chase after Abner trying to kill him. And Abner basically crawls out and says, let's end the cycle of violence right now. Now the cycle of violence is going to continue because it seems like that's how it goes, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
So just heads up, that is my disclaimer that, yeah, this is real, real stuff today on day 89, reading from Judges chapters 1, 2, and 3, Ruth chapter 1, and praying Psalm 133. The Book of Judges, chapter one, Israel's failure to complete the conquest. After the death of Joshua, the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me. Then they lifted up their voices and wept again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go. And where you lodge, I will lodge." Your people shall be my people and your God, my God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
Where you die, I will die and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you. And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, is this Naomi?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
She said to them, Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has afflicted me, and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. Psalm 133, the blessedness of unity, a song of ascents. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
It is like the precious oil upon the head running down upon the beard, upon the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you so much for your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
We thank you for these stories that you revealed to us because you revealed to us that even in the midst of trial, even in the midst of our unfaithfulness, once again, in the midst of unfaithfulness, you are faithful and you fight for us. You give us a deliverer whose name is Jesus Christ and it's in his name that we pray to you this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
amen in the name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit amen okay gosh oh man you can see how this is gonna this is gonna happen right okay a couple things to note about judges what's going to happen it's already happened a couple times is that the people of israel they disobey and they fall into distress then they repent and they're having renewal this is the thing it's it's this constant hamster wheel that we're going to see throughout the entire book of judges and it could become
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
a some source of frustration for a lot of people because it is this this complete you see it coming you you say what are you doing this is craziness it's the insane cycle right where you just keep doing the same thing expecting a different result there's disobedience which leads to distress the israel falls away they are not faithful they turn to other gods and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
And then God gives the power of the Philistines or the Amorites or the Amalekites or the Moabites into their hand. They call out, they repent. God raises up a redeemer and then they have renewal. And it's this pattern again and again. I want to highlight a couple things. One, it says at the beginning of the book of Judges, it says when they go into battle, they say Judah should go up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
Judah is the one who's going to go up into battle. I think this is powerful for many reasons, but one of the reasons was pointed out to me by Jeff Cavins. He had noted that the name Judah, as we've noted in the course of this Bible in a year, the name Judah means praise. And there's something so powerful about Judah going up first, Judah going into battle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
When you face a difficulty, when you face a struggle or a trial, to let Judah go up first is so powerful, to let our praise of the Lord go up first. But then in the book of Judges, it talks about the death of Joshua and the fact that after Joshua died, people were no longer faithful. While he was alive, people were faithful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
While the elders who lived in the time of Joshua were alive, people were faithful. But then came a generation that did not know the Lord. It did not know who God was. And that generation turned away from service of the Lord. As it says, and all that generation were gathered to their fathers, those who knew and saw the Lord's mighty works. What does that tell us?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
The Lord said, Judah shall go up. Behold, I have given the land into his hand. And Judah said to Simeon, his brother, come up with me into the territory allotted to me that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you. So Simeon went with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
It tells us that everything that Moses and Joshua had been commanding the people and reminding the people of, of never forget,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
never forget what god has done for you and also teach your children every single day what god has done for you he's done it for them too and they didn't they failed to raise up subsequent leadership leaders who are willing to be able to call those people back to faithfulness and so thus begins the cycle of disobedience into distress they repent and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
God raises up a redeemer, and then they're renewed. Again, it's kind of like we have some alliteration going on there, right? So disobedience into distress. They repent, they have a redeemer, and they have renewal. And so what you're going to hear is things like whenever there's a judge that's raised up, at the end of the judge doing their thing, it says the land had rest for such and such a time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
That land had rest means that during that next time, they were faithful. And so when it came to judges, we heard about these first three judges. We One of the things we're going to note about judges is don't think judges with gavels. Don't think someone in the long black robe. We're talking about people who are redeemers. We're talking about people who are generals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
We're talking about people who lead into battle. We heard the story of Ehud, right, who's basically an assassin who goes up against the king of Eglon, the king of Moab, and assassinates him in his upper chamber.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
So one of the things we recognize is that this is a very dark and violent time where here is this judge who's raised up, Ehud, who I don't want to say he's no more than an assassin, but at the very least, he is an assassin. Keep in mind, judge means redeemer. It means someone thinking like a savior. And that is what these 12 judges in the book of Judges, that's their purpose.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
That's what they serve as, even though, as we've already noted, they're not perfect. That doesn't mean what they're doing is good. It just means that what they're doing is effective when it comes to defeating their enemies. One last note on the book of Ruth. We only have four chapters in the book of Ruth. That's today and then the following three days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
We have one chapter each day for the next three days of the book of Ruth. One thing we note is here's Naomi, the wife of Elimelech. And what happens? They go into Moab. And while they're in Moab, what do they do? They have their two sons, Malone and Kilian, marry Moabite women. which is not something you want to be doing. And yet they do that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
It's one of those, again, once again, a frustrating moment. But there's always this grace. And I mean grace, and not just like it's graceful. I mean like grace from God. There is grace that's working in this as well. Because yes, even though Elimelech and Malone and Killian die, the women they've married, the Moabite women are... profoundly faithful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
This is one of the things we can be reminded of is that God is not against any people. He's not against any kind of people. What he is, he's for faithfulness. He is for bringing people into the covenant. And so here is Orpah and here is Ruth. And they're both of them They're both of them so moved by love for their mother-in-law, they both want to go with her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
Then Judah went up, and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated ten thousand of them at Bezek. They came upon Adonai Bezek at Bezek, and fought against him, and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Adonai Bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
It turns out only Ruth does go with her. And to keep this in mind, keep this in mind, there is nothing about ethnic battles that's going on in Book of Judges or in the Book of Joshua that is actually this ethnicity versus that ethnicity. It's not about that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
What it is about is about the true worship of the Lord and belonging to his covenant versus these forms of idolatry and these forms of essentially demon worship that are happening amongst those other people. Because what we're going to see is Ruth who says, your God will be my God. It actually is true that Ruth essentially converts. She becomes a member of the covenant community.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
and it's through ruth that we get the great king of israel david and it's through that line that we get the great actual great savior the great redeemer the great judge of the universe jesus christ comes from this line of this woman who started out as a moabite and died as a moabite but also died in covenant with the Lord. It's through that line. Again, we keep this in mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
This is not a battle of ethnicities or races or anything like this. This is a battle between the true worship of God and belonging in relationship with him versus false worship and belonging, essentially, again, belonging to demons. That is where we're at. And it's a big deal. And also, it's such a big deal that it took us 30 minutes to get here. So let's keep praying for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
And Adonai Bezek said, 70 kings with their thumbs and their great toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table, as I have done so, so God has repaid me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. And the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
And afterward, the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who dwelt in the hill country, in the Negev, and in the lowland. And Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron. Now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath Arba, and they defeated Shashai, and Achiman, and Talmai. From there, they went against the inhabitants of Debir.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
The name of Debir was formerly Kiriath Sefer. And Caleb said, He who attacks Kiriath Sefer and takes it, I will give him Aksa, my daughter, as wife. And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it, and he gave him Aksa, his daughter, as wife. When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field, and she alighted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, What do you wish?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
She said to him, Give me a present, since you have set me in the land of the Negev, give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. And the descendants of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of Palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negev near Arad. And they went and settled with the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
from a new book actually two new books we're reading from judges and from ruth um judges chapters one two and three as well as ruth chapter one we'll also be praying today from psalm 133 um as always you probably know this i'm reading from the revised standard version second catholic edition i'm using the great adventure bible from ascension if you want to download your own bible in a year reading plan
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah. Judah also took Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
And the Lord was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain, because they had chariots of iron. And Hebron was given to Caleb, as Moses had said, and he drove out from it the three sons of Anak. But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who dwelt in Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
So the Jebusites have dwelt with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day. The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel. And the Lord was with them. And the house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel. Now the name of the city was formerly Luz.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
We'll be right back.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
and the spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him please show us the way into the city and we will deal kindly with you and he showed them the way into the city and they struck the city with the edge of the sword but they let the man and all his family go and the man went to the land of the hittites and built a city and called its name That is its name to this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Bet-Shan and its villages, or Taanak and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Iblam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor but did not utterly drive them out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer, but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them. Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalol, but the Canaanites dwelt among them and became subject to forced labor. Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Akko or the inhabitants of Sidon or of Alab or of Aksib or of Helba or of Afik or of Rehob.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
But the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out. Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Bet Shemesh or the inhabitants of Bet Anah, but dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Bet Shemesh and of Bet Anath became subject to forced labor for them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
The Amorites pressed the Danites back into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the plain. The Amorites persisted in dwelling in Har Haras, and in Ajalan, and in Shal'adim. But the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily upon them, and they became subject to forced labor. And the border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akrabim, from Sila and upward.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
Chapter 2 Israel's Disobedience Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim, and he said, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you into the land which I swore to give to your fathers. I said, I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall break down their altars. But you have not obeyed my command.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
You can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year, and you can subscribe to this podcast in your podcast app, wherever you listen to this, wherever you're listening to my voice, and just hit that word that says subscribe. A couple of heads up kind of issues right now. This is one of those, the book of Judges is phenomenal, and it is phenomenal not because it's a great story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become adversaries to you, and their gods shall be a snare to you. When the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim, and they sacrificed there to the Lord. The Death of Joshua
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
When Joshua dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work which the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
And they buried him within the bounds of his inheritance at Timnath-Herez, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them, who did not know the Lord, or the work which he had done for Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
Israel's Unfaithfulness And the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals. And they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they went after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were round about them and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
They forsook the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to the plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the power of their enemies round about, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them, and they were in great distress. Then the Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the power of those who plundered them, And yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed down to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
But whenever the judge died, they turned back and behaved worse than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And he said, because this people have transgressed my covenant, which I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
From now on I will not drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, that by them I may test Israel, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did or not. So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out at once, and he did not give them into the power of Joshua. Chapter three, nations remaining in the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
Now these are the nations which the Lord left to test Israel by them. That is all in Israel who had no experience of any war in Canaan. It was only that the generations of the sons of Israel might know war, that he might teach war to such at least as had not known it before.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
It is more like you just kind of ventured into... Some really incredible and incredibly dark history. And so what's going to happen is in the next number of days, as we walk through the book of Judges, is we're going to hear some stories that are familiar, maybe like stories about Deborah, maybe stories about jail, maybe stories about Samson.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
These are the nations, the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who dwelt on Mount Lebanon from Mount Baal Hermon as far as the entrance of Hamath. They were for the testing of Israel. to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
So the sons of Israel went among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And they took their daughters to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods. Othniel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
And the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, forgetting the Lord their God, and serving the Baals and the Ashtaroth. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan Rishatim, the king of Mesopotamia. And the sons of Israel served Cushan Rishatim eight years.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
But when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel who delivered them, Othniel, the son of Canaz, Caleb's younger brother. The spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the Lord gave Cushan-Rashatayim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hand, and his hand prevailed over Cushan-Rashatayim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
So the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel, the son of Kenaz, died. Ehud. And the sons of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord strengthened Eglon, the king of Moab, against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites and went and defeated Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
And they took possession of the city of Palms. And the sons of Israel served Eglon, the king of Moab, 18 years. But when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord... the lord raised up for them a deliverer ehud the son of gerah the benjaminite a left-handed man the sons of israel sent tribute by him to aglon the king of moab and echud made for himself a sword with two edges a cubit in length
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
And he girded it to his right thigh under his clothes. And he presented the tribute to Eglon, king of Moab. Now, Eglon was a very fat man. And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people that carried the tribute. But he himself turned back at the sculptured stones near Gilgal and said, I have a secret message for you, O king. And he commanded silence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
And all his attendants went out from his presence. And Ehud came to him. as he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. And he arose from his seat, and Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the sword out of his belly, and the dirt came out. Then Ehud went out into the vestibule, and closed the doors of the roof chamber upon him, and locked them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
These are going to be some stories that we are, as I said, relatively familiar with. We might not be entirely familiar with all of the details, and the details are pretty horrible, and they get worse. The book of Judges begins in the dark and ends even darker.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
When he had gone, the servants came, and when they saw that the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, he is only relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber. And they waited till they were utterly at a loss, but when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took the key and opened them, and there lay their lord dead on the floor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
Ehud escaped while they were delayed, and passed beyond the sculptured stones, and escaped to Sirah. When he arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim. And the sons of Israel went down with him from the hill country, having him at their head. And he said to them, Follow after me, for the Lord has given your enemies, the Moabites, into your hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
So they went down after him, and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and allowed no man to pass over. And they killed at that time about ten thousand of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men, not a man escaped. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel, and the land had rest for eighty years.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
Shamgar After him was Shamgar, the son of Anath, who killed six hundred of the Philistines with an ox-goat, and he too delivered Israel. The Book of Ruth, Chapter 1 Elimelech's Family Goes to Moab In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi. And the names of his two sons were Malon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives. The name of one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
They lived there about ten years, and both Malone and Kilian died, so that the woman was bereft of her two sons and her husband, Naomi, and her Moabite daughters-in-law. Then she started with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each of you to her mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find a home, each of you, in the house of her husband.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2025)
Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, No, we will return with you to your people. But Naomi said, Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
This is really, really helpful. Volume one is available. Volume one is days one to 120. You realize there's 365 days. That means there's three volumes forthcoming. This physical book is available. Sometimes it's not available, right? Sometimes people buy all these books and they're not available in physical form, but they are available in ebook form. So Keep that in mind if you're interested.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
For days 121 to 243, which is volume two, for those of you who are keeping track, that's going to keep it out for that, volume two, in the spring of 2022. So that's coming out relatively soon, depending on when you're watching or listening to this. We also have the Bible in Your Notebook.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
The idea behind that is, so this is the Bible in Your Companion, has more information to kind of supplement the information that I'm giving, what you're listening to. Super helpful. The Bible in your notebook is so you can capture your thoughts. We have that. We also have, it's called the Insight Journal. An Insight Journal, I really like this. It's hardcover. It's really simple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
It's a really elegant, simple journal. The idea behind it, it's called Insight Journal, is as often as you read or hear something in scripture, That can easily go in one ear and out the other. And so the Insight Journal was created with the idea that God wants you to capture what he's telling you, what he's revealing to you. It is really, it would be really rare.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
It'd be kind of almost even unthinkable to imagine that here is God who has gone to all of this trouble to reveal himself, to reveal his heart, to reveal his goodness, and then reveal it to us and actually even calling us to listen to the Bible in a year and and not want us to remember what he revealed. But so often that's what happens. We just forget what he's revealed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
So the Insight Journal in the Bible in Your Notebook is also just an incredible opportunity to say, okay, this is what I wanna capture. This is what I don't want to forget as I'm moving forward. So that's really, really important. Okay, couple last things. As you're approaching this year, I just want to encourage you, don't get discouraged.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
Persevere to get some of these tools that can really help you. But more than anything, I think one of the tools that really helps most people is, I'm going to say the S word, subscribe. If you are willing to subscribe to this podcast, if you're starting it for the first time to get daily notifications of the new episodes. If you're already subscribed, you're going to get daily updates.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
So that's awesome. Just so, so good. Because It's one of those ways that it keeps us going because it showed up. I don't have to go hunting for it. It just presented itself. Now I'm going to listen. Also, if you're listening to The Bible in a Year on YouTube, be sure to subscribe. And this channel is The Bible in a Year YouTube channel. Ring the bell, all that stuff.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
And as many famous people have said, you lose your way when you lose your why, right? And so I want to share with you, why did we do this podcast? Why do we do this YouTube channel? Why do we want to go through the Bible in here? And the main reason is because I think we live in a world that can often be troubling. We live in a world that is broken. We live in a world that's good, but broken.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
Last thing, I think this is phenomenal. It is fantastic. It is maybe, as you would say, fantastico because... This year, the year 2022, we are also presenting the Bible in a Year in Spanish, which is incredible. It's the same reading plan. It's the same Great Adventure Bible timeline. It's the same Great Adventure Bible, but everything is in Spanish. Different narrator, which is great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
Different insights, which is even better. To be able to have the Bible in a Year in Spanish is an incredible gift, not only to the native Spanish speakers, but also to those people who are in ministry to Spanish speakers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
It just, how incredible is it to be able to hear the Bible in a language that you're trying to learn or a Bible that you want to get more even adept at being able to communicate the gospel to others who their native language or their first language is Spanish. What an incredible gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
So whether your first language is Spanish, whether you're trying to dive more deeply into Spanish, we have the Great Adventure Bible in Spanish, as well as this Bible in the Air in Spanish. If you want to subscribe to that, Or you can just find out more information about the Great Adventure Bible in Spanish. You can go to ascensionpress.com slash la biblia. That's L-A-B-I-B-L-I-A, la biblia.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
But I just want a last word. I know I've probably said that already. This last year has been an incredible gift. It's been an incredible journey. incredible community. I am looking forward to being part of this community this upcoming year as well. Not merely as the narrator, but as someone who I know my heart and I know my mind, that my heart needs to be penetrated by God's word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
My mind needs to constantly, constantly be transformed and renewed. And so I cannot wait to re-begin. And I hope that you join me for this upcoming journey not expecting perfection, because perfection is not an expectation, but just planning on never losing our way because we never lose our why. Maybe your why is because the Lord has placed it in your heart. that it's time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
It's time to let him talk to you. You might have been doing a lot of talking to the Lord over the course of your life, and now I think it's time for him to talk to us. So, I don't know. I just want to let you know that I truly am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to go on this journey with you. See you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
And a lot of times we don't know the story and we don't know actually how does God fit into a world that's good, but broken, right? How do we fit into a world that's good but broken? How do we interact with people who are also good but broken? So we go to the Bible and in God's word, we find not just his story, which is the most important thing in the world. We also find our story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
We're actually going to kind of have a relaunch, some tips and offer some steps you can take if you are either restarting the Bible in a Year, or if you were starting it fresh and you wonder like, how do I do this? Like, how do you actually go through the Bible in a Year on a podcast or on any kind of listening device or through YouTube, like how do I do this kind of thing?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
We don't just find our story. We find our place in his story. And what the Bible does, what opening yourself up to the word does is is it reshapes our lens. It gives us the opportunity to actually see the world through God's eyes and actually see God through God's eyes as he's revealed himself to be. Too often, I think so many of us have this distorted view of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
We have a distorted view of ourselves. We have a distorted view of other people. And one of the things the Bible does is it corrects that. It's got corrective lenses, right? It gives us a restored vision of here's God saying, this is what I'm really like. God's saying, here's what you really are. Yes, broken, but don't forget how good you are. In fact, don't forget how worth you are to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
What's your worth to God? Well, God himself says that you are worth his very death. And also, we get a restored vision of what it is to be human so we can see other people as God sees them as well. And so the Bible in here is meant to be that, is an opportunity just day by day, piece by piece, bit by bit, moment by moment, to have that lens of our vision and our heart reshaped.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
So we can not only see how God sees, but also love how God loves. That's what's behind the whole thing. Next is, so what's the Great Adventure Bible? Well, Jeff Gabins created this thing called the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. And his experience was probably like a lot of ours. And that was, he was reading through the Bible, you know, start with Genesis, great. Exodus, great story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
And then you hit Leviticus and you lose the story. And so one of the things he did when he was a pastor, he was raised Catholic, left the Catholic church for a while, became a pastor. And then he came back to the Catholic church and brought this Great Adventure Bible Timeline with him. When he came back, he brought a way to say, how can we read the Bible so that we don't lose the narrative thread?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
How can we read the Bible in such a way that we get the story while we're reading all the words? I think sometimes, right, we miss the forest for the trees. We miss the story for all the details that kind of distract us from the story. They're very important words, obviously. They're very important other books of the Bible. But he narrowed down to essentially 14 time periods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
over 16 books of the Bible that if you stick with these time periods, if you stick with these books, you'll get the whole story. And so what we did is, people at Ascension, really smart people, really holy people, what they did is they sat down, took Jeff's Great Adventure Bible timeline, that reading plan, and said, okay, now here's the story. Where do the other books fit in the story?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
So when you're reading Leviticus, you actually are reading Leviticus in context. When you're reading Deuteronomy, you're reading Deuteronomy in context. And so even the prophets, oh my gosh, over this last year, I got to tell you, I have always read the prophets. I mean, for what, 30 years now, but I have always read the prophets out of context.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
This was a incredibly new thing for me to be able to read the prophets and say, oh, that's right. This is the context, not only for the book of the, you know, different prophets, but But for each chapter that we were reading and going through, and that is just a gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
We've done it for a year and we want you to join us this upcoming year. And so over the course of this last year, we've learned some things. Some of the things we learned are what works when it comes to the Bible in a year, what doesn't work when it comes to trying to get through the Bible in a year. And so to begin, a couple of words. One is thank you. Thank you for even being interested.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
And I don't know why it's taken me so long to read the prophets in context because, man, it's been a lot of years being lost when it comes to the prophets. So that's the idea. That's kind of the philosophy behind the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. We also provide a Great Adventure reading plan. So the Bible in a Year reading plan is what you can get.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
You go to the websites and all those things, all the things that we linked online. Um, but when you get there, you can get your, you know, Bible in a year reading plan at ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. And it has like, you know, each day, here's the time period. Here is the reading we're having. And it goes all the way down. Here's the day we're on. That was so helpful for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
I had to print it off more than once because apparently I like to lose things. But after I, what I would start doing is every single day I would go through, I'd mark off another day. Just put a blue marker, line through the whole thing. This is my completed, when I finally got to day 365, making those marks, those...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Today, we're going to do something a little bit differently.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
It's so satisfying to realize that you're not just kind of listening and just trudging through and not getting anywhere. To realize you're actually getting somewhere every single day. It's so, so incredible to be able to have the reading plan to be able to follow along with. Now, what that reading plan does
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
is it, again, as I said, follows the narrative books of the Bible, but also fits the other books in context. So that first day is book of Genesis, right? The very beginning of the Bible. It's the beginning of the story. But the ancillary book is the book of Job. And one of the reasons for that is because Job belongs to the early world. It's the context of Job.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
It's long before any of the covenants with the Lord, long before any of the prophets had showed up. It's that early world. So book of Job fits right there. And so check that out later on. But here's another thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
not only do i every day when i go through this i check off the day but it's really helpful to develop habits now i mentioned that people lose their way when they lose their why and self-discipline is good but it only goes so far at some point our discipline runs out But our why never really runs out. Like the reason why we're doing something never really runs out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
So before we go any further, my invitation for you is going to be this, is going to be ask yourself the question or even ask the Lord the question, why do I want to do this? Why do I want to go through the Bible like this in such a way that actually changes the way that I see the world, that I see the Lord and I see myself? Why does that matter to you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
You could say, well, because it changes the way I see God, see the world and see myself. Great. That's awesome. But why does that matter to you? Because the day will come when it's, I don't feel like it. So what is your why? I think that some people rely a lot on motivation and that's not a problem, but we have to realize that motivation is not about having a lot of passion about something.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
If you found this page, if you found this podcast, I really, truly believe that that is because God is doing something in your heart. Even if you're simply searching, that's no small thing. That's actually a significant thing. In fact, what we believe as Christians is that every time we pray, it's always a response.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
Motivation is having a motive. So what is your motive? Another way to say it is what is your why for wanting to read the Bible? For me, It was this, it was, I want to see the way the Lord sees. I want to love the way the Lord loves. That's it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
I found myself getting distracted and distressed by all the other voices that I was listening to and by all the chaos in our culture, our country, in our church. And I thought, I bet, I know the Lord has something to say about this. And I got to tell you, as often as I return to the word like this, in this way that we've been doing it, we will do it for 365 days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
When I return to the Lord's word like this, I have to, I tell you, there's a sense of peace. There's a sense of calm. There's this sense of, this isn't just the wisdom of the world. This is the wisdom of the word. that has penetrated my life. So how do you, you have a why, but then how do you develop a habit? One of the things that I love to have is the habit. And so I always pick a time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
And that's the thing is, if we're going to do something consistently, we need to know when we're going to do it. And so my invitation is pick a time. And now I invite people, don't pick a time that you will do on your best day. Pick a time you can do on your average day. Maybe not on your worst day, but on your average day. And in that, I invite you to integrate the podcast into your daily life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
That's a fancy way of saying, give yourself permission to listen wherever it helps you to listen. So as an example, I know some people who they sit in their favorite chair or they sit at their kitchen table and they've got their Bible in front of them and they've got their pens and they've got their earphones in or maybe they're playing on the speakers on their phone or whatever that thing is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
And that's how they do it. That's what helps them get through. And so they never lose sight because they're listening and reading. Super good. If that's what helps you, perfect. But create that space that helps integrate, right? So it penetrates. But I know others who say, you know, my morning routine is I get up, I press play, start brushing my teeth, and that's how I move on.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
Or my drive to work. On the way to work is I listen to God's word. On the way home, I pray about what I heard on the way there. Super good. But the way I have to invite people to make this a habit is to pick that time, pick that space. that place that really, really helps them that they're going to return to on a regular basis. Now, clearly, not everyone drives to work on Saturdays and Sundays.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
So another thing to keep in mind is not all of the habits, not all of the places or the times are going to work every single day of the week. That's not a problem. If they work for the majority of your week, they'll work for the majority of your year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
to give yourself permission not only to listen to God's word wherever it helps you, but also to realize that you're listening on the pace that you need to listen. So don't worry at all, at all about needing to be perfect. And that's one of the big, big things is, gosh, so many people at the beginning of last year, when we first started listening to the Bible, doing the Bible in the air,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
they would get discouraged. They would get discouraged because it became quickly apparent to them that they couldn't be perfect. That is not a problem because that's not the expectation. I want to say that again. Not being perfect is not a problem because being perfect is not the expectation. For us, we are going to fail, but even failure is not final. Failure is not fatal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
Failure just means I get up the next day and press play. In fact, one of my good friends, his name is Father Ben. Father Ben has always said this, and it's been true in my life, and I think it's probably true in your life. He says, the hardest day to read your Bible is the day after the day you don't read your Bible. He says the hardest day to pray is the day after the day you neglect to pray.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
So every time we search for the Lord, it's actually not us initiating that search. It's always, always us responding to his searching for us. And so I just want to encourage you. So you hopefully realize that if you find yourself here, that's because God has moved in your heart in some unique way. So that's the first thing. We just have to acknowledge that, that God cares about you. You're loved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
And so what's going to happen is you're going to hit a random Monday or a Saturday or a Sunday, whatever the day is, or a weekend or a whole week, maybe even a month where you just didn't do it. You don't have to start over. All you have to do is, okay, I stopped on day 18. That means I'm on day 19. Press play. That's it. So simple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
One of the evil one's tricks, one of the evil one's temptations is to say if you can't do it perfectly, then it's not worth doing. but no one's expecting you to do it perfectly. If you're expecting to do it perfectly, then you get to tell yourself that's not one of the expectations. If you miss a day, you miss a week, you miss a month, just press play, pick it up where you left off.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
In fact, I know so many people over the course of this last year who have said, they said something along the lines of, I'm actually doing the Bible in three years because just my life's kind of busy. And so I usually get through about three or four podcasts in a week. That's awesome. That's great. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
Because they're getting through three or four more parts of the Bible in a week than they would if they didn't, if they just quit. They keep that in mind. In fact, I was talking with a man maybe a couple weeks ago. He's an older man. He's probably in his 90s and at least late 80s. And he has said that he started praying in the last year, started Bible in a year last year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
And he said it's changed his entire life. Just 15 minutes, 20 minutes a day. He said it changed his entire life. And I think that is incredible. He's not making holy hours. He's not, you know, like 60 minutes long, not an hour and a half. It is 15 minutes, 20 minutes. Maybe those longer days, a little longer than that. but that has changed everything. It's not over the top. It's just consistency.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
And as I've said a thousand times, consistency beats intensity every single time. If you drop the ball, just pick it up and keep going. It is not a problem. Don't make it a problem. Having issues is not an issue. Having problems is not a problem. Not being perfect. Being perfect is not an expectation. So don't hold yourself to that. I just want to encourage you in that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
Just, in fact, one of the best things is coming face to face with, oh, I didn't do, I missed a week. Okay, great. You have permission. Just press play. No problem. God loves you. You've heard his word last week. Just start hearing his word this week. No big deal. But at the same time, I want to offer you some encouragement. And this encouragement is not just like, go, you can do it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
The encouragement is, how do we keep doing it? How do we persevere? Well, I think sometimes we have these tools. So as an example, one of the tools is actually the Great Adventure Bible. And this is what I've been using. I'm so excited to restart this year because when I've been narrating the Bible, I didn't write in my Bible. I just read, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
I'm so excited to now this upcoming year to listen and to write in my Bible, to follow along in that way that just, you know, I don't have to get all the names right. Don't have to get all the words right. I get to just listen to some words. knucklehead in my ears, getting all the words right and writing down. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to use this tool, the Great Adventure Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
I'm so excited about this. But also we have this thing called the Bible in Your Companion. The Bible in Your Companion, it's got a lot of information that can really, really help because I kind of go through a lot of information, but there's some stuff I don't cover right in the commentary because just like there's so much to talk about. But for example, we're in the
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
you matter, okay? So that's number one. Number two is, so why in the world would we even have the Bible in the year? You know, there are times when the year gets long. There are times when we make commitments and we start out really fresh with a lot of steam, like we start out like gung-ho, ready to go, and then we lose our way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Preparing for the Bible in a Year Journey
patriarchs concluding the patriarchs and introducing the exodus egypt and exodus they will have a here's a key events and figures in this new timeline to be able to have this what changes what changes from patriarchs to egypt the exodus has some questions you can reflect on has um basically they just have even as pictures and some maps in here that can be really really helpful some prayers to help you kind of dive more deeply into the word and ask the lord to open up your hearts
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries. A man who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy at the testimony of two or three witnesses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the man who has spurned the Son of God and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
But recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on the prisoners, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised. For yet a little while, and the coming one shall come and shall not tarry. But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and keep their souls.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
She opens her mouth with wisdom and her teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praises her. Many women have done exceedingly, but you surpass them all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
We are reading Revelation 2 John chapter 18, 19, and 20, the letter to the Hebrews chapters 9 and 10, as well as Proverbs chapter 31 verses 26 through 29. The Revelation to John chapter 18, the fall of Babylon. After this, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his splendor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
We thank you for 364 days of hearing your word and letting ourselves be shaped by your word. Thank you for speaking to us. Thank you for continuing to call us your children. Thank you for even speaking to us of judgment that is coming. We ask you, Lord, please help us always, always to repent of our sins, to come back to you. Help us always, always.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
to not rely on our own faithfulness because Lord God, we know that we are not, we're not faithful, but you are faithful. And so please help us to belong to you, help us to be faithful to you. Even when we sin, help us to rely upon the right sacrifice of your son, the blood that takes away sins because Lord God, when your son has offered himself, he offered himself to you for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
So please receive the sacrifice of your son and Once again, bestow that mercy upon us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, so Revelation's getting intense, obviously. Getting really intense. Chapters 18, 19, and 20 here. One of the things that comes up is the fall of Babylon, chapter 18.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
And the term Babylon is used obviously a bunch of times. And so I'm just going to offer, you know, these books are so rich. They're so deep that 10 minutes of commentary is not enough. Obviously. Um, there's some incredible, uh, incredible commentary books that are around. In fact, there's, there's one book of commentary called, uh, the Ignatius Catholic study Bible, new Testament.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
It's the second Catholic edition, you know, so that's good. But, uh, It's really good because it has all the details, all the little notes can be so incredibly important and helpful, but they have a longer note about Babylon and what Babylon is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
In fact, one of the interesting notes they have when it comes to chapter 18 in the fall of Babylon is they know the several images and expressions in this chapter, chapter 18 here, are taken from the judgmental oracles of the prophets, especially Jeremiah's condemnation of ancient Babylon. from Jeremiah 50 and 51.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
So if you remember, and you do, the history of Babylon and the history of the Babylonian exile and evil Babylon, there's all these connections with what happens here in chapter 18 and what Jeremiah had prophesied back in the book of the prophet Jeremiah, which is remarkable. Now, another guy, St. Caesarius of Arles, he once said this. He said,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Babylon and the harlot, whose smoke goes up forever, are none other than the lustful, the adulterous, and the arrogant. So he was saying, he was making a point, like in a sermon, right, in a homily, that he was saying that it doesn't have to be a place, right? It doesn't have to be a city I'm talking about.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Now, John, in Revelation, is likely talking about a specific city, which we'll talk about in just a second. But here is St. Caesarea of Arles, who is saying that, listen, this can be in our own hearts. Babylon and the harlot, he says, whose smoke goes up forever are none other than the lustful, the adulterous and the arrogant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
So if you wish to escape such punishments, have no desire to commit such grave sins. For in the present age, Babylon is always going to destruction and burning up in part. And that's this. That's really interesting and fascinating. Now, question, of course, who or what is Babylon? There are many theories, obviously.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
And the two primary theories are that Babylon is a symbol of Rome or Babylon is a symbol of Jerusalem. And there's an ancient, I mean, gosh, and there's so much evidence that it could be either. And that's the crazy part is that here is Rome. I mean, think about all of the blood of the martyrs that the Roman Empire shed in those first centuries of Christianity and the first decades of Christianity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
And at the same time, remember, in the Old Testament, here is the way in which the prophets spoke about Jerusalem as being unfaithful, as being unresponsive to God's promises. And there are a number of reasons that you could make a case for Rome being the Babylon or Jerusalem being Babylon. And what that ultimately means, though, for us is it's important, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
And he called out with a mighty voice, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. It has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, a haunt of every foul and hateful bird. for all nations have drunk the wine of her impure passion. And the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich with the wealth of her wantonness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Obviously, it matters whether this is Rome or Jerusalem. In some ways, you could say it could be both. But what we're really talking about when you and I are reading Revelation, yes, we're reading something from the past. We're reading about the revelation of John of this judgment that came upon the ancient peoples. But we're also reading about our own lives. That's why St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Caesarius of Arles had his words about pointing out that, One of the reminders of Revelation is for us is that sense of, am I being faithful? Am I walking in the Lord? Because God will judge us, right? And yes, he's merciful. He's also just. And we're going to hear tomorrow in our conclusion that God at some point will set everything right. And we want to be the people that he vindicates, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
That he sets right. And so there's this praise of God and rejoicing in heaven in chapter 19. And that rejoicing where they say hallelujah and that hallelujah literally means praise the Lord. You want to be among those people who are able to praise the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
You know, and there's the, as I said, you know, there's the thousand years and Satan's locked up and then he's released for a little bit of time. And those are very important things. But ultimately we have this, this, and the end of chapter 20, the dead are judged as it says, and there's a resurrection from the dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
If those who are first resurrected are those who are martyrs and, and they get to reign with the Lord and they get to serve as priests with the Lord. And then everyone else, everyone else who's died is resurrected. Yeah, I don't know if you know this, you're getting your body back.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
That is the ancient Christian belief is that in the resurrection, you get your body back, whether your body is restored to you for glory or whether it's restored to you for shame, you know, whether it's restored to you for the praise of God or whether it's restored for the sake of destruction in hell, everyone gets their body back.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
and there's that second death lake of fire if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life he was thrown into the lake of fire remember it says multiple times they'll be judged by what they've done in chapter 20 verse 12 and 13 it says and i saw the dead great and small standing before the throne as the end books were opened also another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged by what was written in the books by what they had done
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
And the sea gave up the dead in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead in them and all were judged by what they had done. And that's the reality is that our decisions matter. Our decisions make a difference. They don't just echo in time. They also echo in eternity. And so we say, Lord, for all those things that I've done, where I failed you, please cover me with your blood. And that is Hebrews.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Oh my gosh. How incredible is this? How incredible is it? That yes, there's judgment, but here in the letter to the Hebrews, we have this absolute declaration that Christ's blood takes away our sins. Now here's an interesting part. That's just, I don't know if you've ever noticed this. We have the celebration of Christmas, obviously the incarnation, Jesus Christ becomes one of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
We have the celebration of the passion. and Easter. So you have Good Friday and Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. It's the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus, which is incredible. And just here's God's love for us. But we also have the Feast of the Ascension. And so many of us, we underestimate the Ascension. And yet here's what the Hebrews is all about.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
It talks about the old covenant, right? And here's the old temple. And here's what the priests would do. Once a year, they would go in to the temple. And in that place, they would offer up the sacrifice of blood and goats, bulls and goats, that kind of thing. But here is this absolute key in chapter 9, verse 11. It says, What he just described there. Oh my gosh, is the ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues. For her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Rendered to her as she herself has rendered, and repay her double for her deeds. Mix a double draft for her in the cup she mixed, as she glorified herself and played the wanton.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
I sometimes get lost in the ascension as being, here's Jesus ascending to heaven and telling the disciples, the apostles, hey, wait for the promised Holy Spirit and that'll come upon you. And that's it, he's just leaving. But he wasn't just leaving. What was he doing? He was entering into the sanctuary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
He was entering into heaven with the sacrifice of himself presented before God for the, oh my gosh, this is insane. Just like the priest would go into the Holy of Holies As Jesus ascends into heaven, he is the great high priest entering into the actual holy of holies. Remember, the temple was made as a copy, as a foreshadow of what actually exists in reality in heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
When the high priest goes into that copy, he's bringing with him something that's limited. But when Jesus Christ, the great high priest entered into heaven, he brought a sacrifice that is unlimited. His one sacrifice once for all. Hopefully that makes sense. It is remarkable and incredible. And we get to conclude our story tomorrow. It has been an incredible journey to be able to walk with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
So please know that this journey is not over because we can continue to walk with each other, not just tomorrow, but even the day after tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that, because I will be praying for you. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
So give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, A queen I sit, I am no widow, mourning I shall never see. So shall her plagues come in a single day, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she shall be burned with fire. For mighty is the Lord God who judges her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
And the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and were wanton with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. They will stand far off in fear of her torment and say, Alas, alas, you great city, you mighty city Babylon. In one hour has your judgment come. And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls, fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet, all kinds of scented wood, all articles of ivory, all articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots and slaves, that is, human souls.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
the fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you and all your delicacies and your splendor are lost to you never to be found again the merchants of these wares who gained wealth from her will stand far off in fear of her torment weeping and mourning aloud alas alas for the great city that was clothed in fine linen in purple and scarlet adorned with gold with jewels and with pearls
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
In one hour, all this wealth has been laid waste. And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, what city was like the great city? And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, alas, alas for the great city, where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
In one hour she has been laid waste. Rejoice over her, O heaven, O saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, So shall Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence and shall be found no more, and the sound of harpists and minstrels, of flute players and trumpeters shall be heard in you no more. And the craftsmen of any craft shall be found in you no more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
And the sound of the millstone shall be heard in you no more. And the light of a lamp shall shine in you no more. And the voice of the bridegroom and bride shall be heard in you no more. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery. And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who have been slain on earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Chapter 19 The Rejoicing in Heaven After this, I heard what seemed to be the mighty voice of a great multitude in heaven crying, "'Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just. He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants.' Once more they cried, "'Hallelujah!
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.' And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God, who is seated on the throne, saying, Amen, Hallelujah. And from the throne came a voice, crying, Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him small and great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty thunder peals, crying, Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
It was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, Write this, Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are true words of God. Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, You must not do that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The Rider on the White Horse Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
His eyes are like flames of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name inscribed which no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, followed him on white horses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
From his mouth issues a sharp sword with which to strike the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. the beast and its armies defeated.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly in midheaven, Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who sits upon the horse and against his army. and the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had worked the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and who worshipped its image.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with brimstone, and the rest were slain by the sword of him who sits upon the horse, the sword that issues from his mouth, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh. Chapter 20, The Thousand Years Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be let out for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Also, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God. and who had not worshipped the beast or its image, and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years. Satan's doom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth, that is Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea, and they marched up over the broad earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
But fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever. The dead are judged. Then I saw a white throne and him who sat upon it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
The Earthly and the Heavenly Sanctuary. Now, even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary. For a tent was prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of offering. It is called the holy place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Behind the second curtain stood a tent called the holy of holies, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, which contained a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron's rod that budded and the tables of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
These preparations having thus been made, the priests go continually into the outer tent, performing their ritual duties. But into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 364. And there are 364 unbirthdays. We're reading the Revelation of John, chapter 18, 19, and 20.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
By this, the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary is not yet opened as long as the outer tent is still standing, which is symbolic for the present age.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various baptisms, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
but when christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come then through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands that is not of this creation he entered once for all into the holy place taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood thus securing an eternal redemption
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant." For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it is established.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Hence, even the first covenant was not ratified without blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people saying, this is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you. And in the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Christ's sacrifice takes away sin. Thus, it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites. but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy place yearly with blood not his own, for then he would have to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Hebrews, the letter to the Hebrews, chapters 9 and 10, as well as the book of Proverbs, chapter 31, verses 26 through 29. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. and just as it is appointed for men to die once and after that comes judgment so christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
Chapter 10, Christ's Sacrifice Once for All For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
If the worshippers had once been cleansed, they would no longer have any consciousness of sin. But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sin year after year. for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. as it is written of me in the roll of the book. When he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings. These are offered according to the law. Then he added, behold, I have come to do your will.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, then to wait until his enemies should be made a stool for his feet. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, maybe for the next trip, visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also... You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe, receiving daily episodes and daily updates. It is day 364.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 364: Christ's Sacrifice Once for All (2024)
For after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds. Then he adds, I will remember their sins and their misdeeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. a call to persevere.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
Saul was lying within the encampment while the army was encamped around him. Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Joab's brother Abishai the son of Zeruih, Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul? Then Abishai said, I will go down with you. So David and Abishai went to the army by night.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
And there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment with his spear stuck in the ground at his head. And Abner and the army lay around him. Then said Abishai to David, God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore, let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 117. Congratulations for getting all this way. We're reading from 1 Samuel chapter 26, just one chapter in 1 Samuel today, as well as praying Psalm 56.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
But David said to Abishai, Do not destroy him, for who can put forth his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? And David said, As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go down into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should put forth my hand against the Lord's anointed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water and let us go. So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head, and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
Then David went over to the other side and stood afar off on top of the mountain with a great space between them. And David called to the army and to Abner, the son of Ner, saying, Will you not answer, Abner? Then Abner answered, who are you that calls to the king? And David said to Abner, are you not a man who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your Lord, the king?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
For one of the people came in to destroy the king, your Lord. This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die because you have not kept watch over your Lord, the Lord's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is and the jar of water that was at his head. Saul recognized David's voice and said, "'Is this your voice, my son David?'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
And David said, "'It is my voice, my lord, O king.' And he said, "'Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What guilt is on my hands?' Now therefore let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is the lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering. But if it is men, may they be cursed before the lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
For they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the lord, saying, Go, serve other gods. Now therefore let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the lord. For the king of Israel has come out to seek my life like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains. Then Saul said, And David made answer, Here is the spear, O king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
Let one of your young men come over and fetch it. The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord gave you into my hand today, and I would not put forth my hand against the Lord's anointed. Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the Lord, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
Then Saul said to David, Blessed be you, my son David. You will do many things and will succeed in them. So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
As always, the translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan so you know exactly what the reading will be every single day, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
Trust in God under persecution. To the choir master, according to the dove on far-off Terebinthes, a mictum of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath. Have mercy on me, O God, for men trample upon me. All day long foes oppress me. My enemies trample upon me all day long, for many fight against me proudly. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you, in God, whose word I praise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
In God I trust without a fear. What can flesh do to me? all day long they seek to injure my cause all their thoughts are against me for evil they band themselves together they lurk they watch my steps as they have waited for my life so recompense them for their crime in wrath cast down the peoples o god You have kept count of my tossings, put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
Then my enemies will be turned back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. In God whose word I praise, in the Lord whose word I praise. In God I trust without a fear. What can man do to me? My vows to you I must perform, O God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
I will render thank offerings to you, for you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
We thank you for this day. We thank you for this brief time, briefer than normal, this time of just exposing ourselves to your word and to hear your voice. Thank you for reminding us of the virtue of mercy. Thank you for reminding us of the virtue of reverence. And thank you for reminding us of the virtue of faithfulness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
In your name, we ask you to please help us to be merciful, to be reverent, and to be faithful. In Jesus' name we pray, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So we have this. Here is Saul in chapter 24, who repented of trying to kill David when David cut off the hem of his cloak in the cave when he was relieving himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
But here is back at it again in chapter 26, Saul seeking David's life. And yet here is David with these three critical virtues. David has the virtue of mercy. He has the virtue of reverence. He has the virtue of faithfulness. And this is so key, right? So David, who's saying that, no, it's not my job to take justice or revenge upon the Lord's anointed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking subscribe. That is why the button is there, and that is why I keep saying it basically every day for the previous 116 days, and this day, Day 117. is no difference. As I'm saying, as I was saying, it is day 117. We're reading from 1 Samuel chapter 26, and we're praying Psalm 56. 1 Samuel chapter 26. David again spares Saul's life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
And as I've treated Saul, may the Lord treat me. As I've held his life to be precious, may the Lord hold my life to be precious. There is something in that, you know, we see an echo or a pre-echo really of what Jesus is going to talk about when he gives us the Our Father. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
Here's David reversing that in some ways saying like, as I am treating others, please Lord treat me. And it's just so, so good. He shows this virtue of mercy. Then he shows this virtue of reverence because he recognizes why is he preserving the life of Saul? Why is he preserving the life of the man who's made himself? David's enemy. And there's only one reason.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
And the reason is because Saul remains the Lord's anointed. And so even though Saul's not living in a virtuous way, Saul is living in an evil way. And yet David has reverence for things of God. And since Saul has been anointed, since Saul has been consecrated, He belongs to God, even if he's not living like it. And so there's something about this virtue of reverence. And third, faithfulness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
Because here is David who's walking in faithfulness. In fact, we've highlighted this many times that his psalms, his prayers, often have to do with the fact that he does not know the next step. He does not know how God is going to deliver him. He doesn't know how God is going to free him. He does not know how God is going to fight for him. But David continues to walk in faithfulness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
And that's a big piece of what it is to walk in faithfulness. It's, I don't know the next step, or I don't know where this ultimately is going to lead, but I know that I'm walking with God. And so for all of us today to be able to say, okay, how do I cultivate these virtues, the virtue of mercy, the virtue of reverence and the virtue of faithfulness? Because all of us have battles as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
And for David, it was an unfair battle. He literally did nothing wrong up to this point. There's no reason why Saul should seek his life except for Saul's own envy. And in the midst of that, that incredible injustice and that incredible, this is not fair moment. Here is David who says, okay, in the face of this injustice, I will continue to show mercy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
In the face of Saul treating me as if I'm nothing, I will show him reverence. And in the face of not knowing where this is leading, I'm going to walk in faithfulness. And that's such, again, for all of us, even though this reading today is briefer than most of them, it also has a message of power for us. We're almost to the end of 1 Samuel. We only have a couple days left.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
And yet we're walking with David for a long time to come because we have Second Samuel, we have First Chronicles coming up in just a couple of days. And so we're going to be walking with David because David, yes, he walks as a man of faith, but also he walks as a human being, as walks as a man who also has weaknesses. And so as Saul is soon to be replaced as the king by David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
So David is his weaknesses, his woundedness, and his unfaithfulness is going to be highlighted as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
and so we need to take the lesson not only from david the virtuous but also david the fallible and david the weak and so because yeah as we are some days virtuous and some days we're weak some days we are faithful and some days we are not faithful and that's one of the reasons why we always every single day just pray for each other i know that you're doing this and this is remarkable that you're this community of people so many of us who are going through this
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
You are praying on each other's behalf. I think that's probably the only reason why here we're at day 117 and we still have people who are showing up every single day and they're just letting the Lord speak to them, letting him illuminate our minds, letting him shape our vision and letting him put his fire of love into our hearts. So please, let's keep praying for each other. I am praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hakilah, which is on the east of Jeshimon? So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph with three thousand chosen men of Israel to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul encamped on the hill of Hakilah, which is beside the road on the east of Jeshimon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: Reverence and Faithfulness (2025)
But David remained in the wilderness, and when he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness, David sent out spies and learned of a certainty that Saul had come. Then David arose and came to the place where Saul had encamped, and David saw the place where Saul lay with Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
In fact, he blesses Judah. Judah is the fourth born and he gives him a particular blessing. He says that the mace will not depart from Judah's legs. Judah is a lion's wealth. Judah is the one. Basically, Jacob is saying, He's prophesying in many, many ways. Maybe by his power of his blessing, this is how the future unfolds. But he says that Judah, your brother, shall praise you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
And he goes on to say that the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until he comes to whom it belongs. And to him shall be the obedience of all the peoples. Okay, who does that sound like? Well, that is our Lord. It's a prophecy. It's actually what we come to understand as a prophecy of Jesus. Jesus comes from the tribe of Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
David comes from the tribe of Judah. So David would be a prophecy of David as well, because David is a Judahite.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
but then later on obviously jesus is in the line of david and so that kingdom that he establishes on earth and in heaven the kingdom of heaven that jesus is christ the king uh is a reminder and it begins here or at least it's prophesied here as well as the prophecy of king david the second thing is such a powerful reminder for all of us
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father's bed. Then you defiled it, you went up to my couch. Simeon and Levi are brothers, weapons of violence are their swords. O my soul, come not into their counsel. O my spirit, be not joined to their company, for in their anger they slay men, and in their wantonness they hamstring oxen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
The very last story, essentially of Joseph's story in this last story of Genesis, after Israel dies, after Jacob dies, they bury him right back in Canaan. And the brothers are concerned now that, well, now our father is dead. And the only reason maybe that Joseph didn't kill us or treat us horribly for what we did to him was because our father was alive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
And Joseph hearing this, hearing their lack of trust in him, hearing the fact that they Do not trust his love for them or his forgiveness of them. He breaks down and weeps. And he says this powerful line. He says, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, that many would be saved. And this is what we know about God's permissive will, right? God's will is over everything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
And yet we know that there's God's perfect will, which is his plan A, the things he directly wills. And there's God's permissive will, which are the things he allows. It's not the things he wants to happen, but it's the stuff he has allowed to happen. Those are things like evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
He doesn't want evil to happen, but he allows it to happen because he wants to preserve our freedom and because he knows he can bring about a greater good. And this is Joseph pointing out that, pointing that out very clearly. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good so that many could be saved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
And this is the mystery of trust that we're called to enter into ourselves as well, because that is what God's calling us to do, to be able to say, okay, Lord, in all things, I trust you. even if someone's doing evil to me. You don't want that to happen. You're allowing it to happen because you know you can bring a greater good out of it. Again, not because God doesn't care.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Remember, the refrain the entire time in this story of Joseph is that the Lord was with him, and yet the Lord was with him. Here's Joseph rejected, and yet the Lord was with him. Here's Joseph falsely accused and forgotten and abandoned, and yet the Lord was with him. And that's so critical, so key for us to remember this as we move on into the age of the Exodus in Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
And the last point is from our friend Job. I don't know if you noticed this, but one of the struggles of the book of Job is that it addresses the problem of evil, but doesn't answer the problem of evil. God never gives a why of like, here's why I allow suffering to happen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Now, again, our theology would reveal to us that maybe in some whys would be to preserve our freedom and because God can bring a greater good out of it. That's great. But God never says why, he just responds to Job with a bunch of questions. But he responds to Job, not just with questions, he responds to Job with himself. And this is the key of the entire book of Job.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
At the end of the book of Job, he says, I had heard of you beforehand, but now I have seen you with my eyes and therefore I repent and I will speak no more. Basically, the answer to the problem of pain is God himself. The answer to the problem of suffering is God himself. You know, if we had a question for God, like, God, why this? You know, and he maybe give us an answer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
And then we come up the next day with, okay, but God, why this? And he'd have to give us an answer again. But God has spoken definitively, especially when it comes to suffering, by offering himself. And this is the mystery of the cross. This is the mystery of the crucifixion. That God could give us a reason why. He could tell us, here's the story behind everything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Or he could say, I'm no stranger to suffering. All that you have experienced, all that has collapsed against you, all that has come down on your head, I have also allowed to come down on my head. That just like God responded to Job by showing Job his face, God has responded to all of us by showing us the face of Jesus, particularly Job.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
the broken and rejected, the beaten and the crucified face of Jesus. This is God's answer to the problem of pain. And the answer is himself. That's the secret of the book of Job. That's the secret of our friend Job. is that God does give an answer. But the answer isn't logic. The answer isn't reason. The answer isn't just have faith. The answer is himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's sons shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, you have gone up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
And he gives himself to us today as well. My friends, I am praying for you. And I'm so grateful that you and I are on this journey together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
of this bible in a year again as we said it is day 26 going into day 27 tomorrow entirely new page entirely new um period we're going to the egypt in the exodus as we say goodbye to the patriarchs we will not say goodbye to each other in fact we're going to double down our prayers for each other because we know that sometimes things get even more difficult.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Tomorrow, we're starting the book of Exodus and Leviticus and continuing on in the Psalms. But today, right now, keep praying for each other. Keep praying for me. And I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
He stooped down, he lurked as a lion, and as a lioness, who dares rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet. until he comes to whom it belongs, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Binding his foal to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washes his garments in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea, he shall become a haven for ships, and his border shall be at Sidon. Issachar is a strong donkey, crouching between the sheepfolds. He saw that a resting place was good and that the land was pleasant. So he bowed his shoulders to bear and became a slave at forced labor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backward. I wait for your salvation, O Lord. Raiders shall raid Gad, but he shall raid at their heels. Asher's food shall be rich, and he shall yield royal dainties. Naphtali is a deer let loose that bears comely fawns.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
It is day 26. This is our last day in the book of Genesis and our last day with our friend Job. We're going to be reading Genesis chapter 49 and 50. Job 41 and 42, and Psalm 17. If you want to be able to follow along with this, you can download the Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring. His branches run over the wall. The archers fiercely attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him sorely, yet his bow remained unmoved. His arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob, by the name of the shepherd, the Rock of Israel."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
by you, the God of your father, who will help you, by God Almighty, who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of the eternal mountains.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
The bounties of the eternal hills may be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him who was separated from his brothers. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and at evening dividing the spoil. All these are the 12 tribes of Israel. And this is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with blessing suitable to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Then he charged them and said to them, I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron, the Hittite. In the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought from the field of Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife. And there I buried Leah. The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites. When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people. Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days were required for it, for so many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found favor in your eyes, I speak, I beg you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, My father made me swear, saying, I am about to die. In my tomb, which I have hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Now therefore let me go up, I beg you, and bury my father, then I will return. And Pharaoh answered, Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear. So Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and sorrowful lamentation. And he made a mourning for his father seven days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
When the inhabitants of the land of the Canaanites saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians. Therefore the place was named Ebel Mizraim. It is beyond the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them, for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil which we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph saying, your father gave this command before he died. Say to Joseph, forgive, I beg you, the transgressions of your brothers and their sin because the evil they did to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
I will be reading from the Revised Standard Version, the Catholic Edition. I'm actually using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension for the reading. Once again, we are going to be reading today from Genesis 49 and 50. This is our final step, not only in Genesis, but also in the period of the patriarchs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
And now we pray you, forgive the transgressions of the servants of the God of your father. Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, Fear not, for am I in the place of God?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus he reassured them and comforted them. So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house. And Joseph lived 110 years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Their children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born upon Joseph's knees. And Joseph said to his brothers, I'm about to die, but God will visit you and will bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Then Joseph took an oath of his sons of Israel, saying, God will visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook or press down his tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Can he make many supplications to you? Will he speak to you in soft words? Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever? Will you play with him as with a bird or will you put him on a leash for your maidens?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide up him among the merchants? Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? Lay hands on him. Think of the battle. You will not do it again. Behold, the hope of a man is disappointed. He is laid low even at the sight of him. No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up. Who then is he that can stand before me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Who has given to me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. I will not keep silence concerning his limbs or his mighty strength or his large frame. Who can strip off his outer garment? Who can penetrate his double coat of mail?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
who can open the doors of his face round about his teeth in terror his back is made of rows of shields shut up closely as with a seal one is so near to another that no air can come between them they are joined one to another they clasp each other and cannot be separated his sneezings flash forth light and his eyes are like the eyelids of dawn
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
If you're following along with the Bible in a year reading plan, you know that we went through the early world for the first five days. That was Genesis chapter one through 11. And then we started with the patriarchs and that's Genesis 12 through today, Genesis 50. Also in that same timeframe, we have the book of Job.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Out of his mouth go flaming torches, sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, and it's from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth. In his neck abides strength, and terror dances before them. The folds of his flesh cling together, firmly cast upon him and immovable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
His heart is hard as a stone, hard as a nether millstone. When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid at the crashing they are beside themselves. Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin. He counts iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee, for him sling stones are turned to stubble. Clubs are counted as stubble.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
He laughs at the rattle of javelins. His underparts are like sharp potsherds. He spreads himself like a threshing sledge in the mire. He makes the deep boil like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment. Behind him, he leaves a shining wake. One would think of the deep to be hoary. Upon earth, there is not his like, a creature without fear. He beholds everything that is high.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
He is king over all the sons of pride. Then Job answered the Lord, I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I did not know. Hear, and I will speak.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
I will question you, and you declare to me, I had heard of you by the hearing of my ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken to me what is right as my servant Job has.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Now therefore, take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
So Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Namathite went, and did what the Lord had told them. And the Lord accepted Job's prayer. And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
So again, once I, once again, we're reading Genesis 49 and 50, Job 41 and 42 and Psalm 17.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Then came to him all his brothers and sisters, and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy, and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money, and a ring of gold. And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
And he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters, and he called the name of the first Jemima, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren Hapuk.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
And in all the land, there were no women so fair as Job's daughters, and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. And after this, Job lived 140 years and saw his sons and his sons' sons four generations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Hear a just cause, O Lord. Attend to my cry. Give ear to my prayer from the lips free of deceit. From you, let my vindication come. Let your eyes see the right. If you try my heart, if you visit me by night, if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me. A mouth does not transgress. With regard to the works of men, by the word of your lips, I have avoided the ways of the violent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
My steps have held fast to your paths. My feet have not slipped. I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God. Incline your ear to me. Hear my words. Wondrously show your mercies, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand. Keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings, from the wicked who despoil me, my deadly enemies who surround me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
They close their hearts to pity, with their mouths they speak arrogantly. They track me down, now they surround me, they set their eyes to cast me to the ground. They are like a lion, eager to tear, as a young lion lurking in ambush. Arise, O Lord, confront them, overthrow them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Then Jacob called his sons and said, gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall befall you in days to come. Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob, and hearken to Israel your father. Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the first fruits of my strength, preeminent in pride and preeminent in power.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Deliver my life from the wicked by your sword, from men by your hand, O Lord, from men whose portion in life is of the world. May their belly be filled with what you have stored up for them. May their children have more than enough. May they leave something over to their babies. As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. When I awake, I shall be satisfied with beholding your form.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Father in heaven, we thank you so much. We give you praise and glory. We thank you for sharing your word with us. We thank you for revealing your heart to us. We thank you for letting us journey with the patriarchs, with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, with Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel. We thank you for letting us be part of the story of Joseph and his tragedy, but also your triumph through tragedy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Lord God, we thank you for Our friend Job, we thank you for what you've revealed in our journey with him and his pain and his suffering. What you reveal about yourself and our pain and our suffering. And we thank you, Lord, for always... reminding us that we can trust you in even the darkest times. Help us to trust you in even the darkest times.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
We ask this, Father, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Wow. So there's two things I want to highlight. Again, we're coming to the last day, the last day of the patriarchs, and tomorrow we're starting an entirely new journey.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 26: God Responds to Job (2025)
Well, we're continuing the journey, essentially, with the age or the period of Egypt and the exodus. But before we go there, I want to highlight two, three things, three quick things. First is you might've noticed that in the second to last chapter of Genesis, Israel or Jacob, he doesn't bless his first three sons. There's a particular reason for it, but Jacob does not bless the first three sons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And he asks for this wisdom and right understanding in discernment and judgment. And he gets given this, this great gift. And we see him play it out. We see this played out in one of the, I remember this story from when I was a little kid. It just was so striking of the two women who both had children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
One of the children had died and there was this debate, you know, she said, and then she said, and who's right. And then Solomon, he's the tiebreaker here by employing and utilizing the wisdom that God had given to him, which is also good. It's also good. And yet, at the very beginning of 1 Kings 3, we get thrown this line, or maybe not thrown a line, we are given a line.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And Solomon said, You have shown great and merciful love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and merciful love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. And now, O Lord my God,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And that line is that David had married the daughter of Pharaoh. Now, this isn't necessarily completely proscribed, right? Not completely prohibited. But we're going to see what happens in that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
We're going to see what happens because of this when it comes to marrying the daughter of Pharaoh, that this begins Solomon's expansion essentially when it comes to his own household and the way in which Solomon is wanting to make alliances with the nations around him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
by marriage and by his marriage to many many of the daughters of influential people around them and this is the first time we get this sense that here is solomon who's doing something and it's going to come around and it's not going to be good it's not going to be helpful And he's not going to show himself to truly be wise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Now, we talked about this yesterday that, or maybe two days ago, gosh, time flies, you guys, that here is Solomon who, yes, he is wise, but he's not necessarily good. Here is Solomon who has the wisdom to be able to discern right and wrong, but he doesn't necessarily always do the right and avoid the wrong. And so this is one of the first chinks in his armor that we see with King Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And always there's, we can know the right thing to do, but just knowing the right thing to do does not get us to do it. And we can believe the right things, but believing the right things doesn't always get us to the place where we do the right things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And so here we are in a place today, knowing that we need God's grace, not just to know the truth and not just to be wise, but also to choose the truth and to live in wisdom, to live in life and to choose life. for ourselves and for our family members. So we need God's grace and we need prayers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
So we pray for ourselves, obviously, because if we're not sustained by God's grace, then the people around us will suffer for that. And we also pray for each other. And this community of people walking through the Bible in a year, You guys, this is a, it's a, it's a genuine community. It might be virtual, might be online. It might just be in your ears.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
But I know that for everyone who's listening to this is praying to the Bible in a year with us. It's in your hearts. It's, it's a real thing that you've committed. I mean, it's day 145 for crying out loud. This is not, this is not a fad for you anymore. This is, this is your life right now. And these are your people. And these are people are walking with you and praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
You have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in, and your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people that cannot be numbered or counted for multitude.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 145, and we are reading from 1 Kings 3. We're also reading 2 Chronicles 4-5. We are praying Psalm 64 today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this great people of yours? It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And God said to him, because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right. Behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days. And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings and made a feast for all his servants. Solomon's wisdom in judgment. Then two harlots came to the king and stood before him. The one woman said, Oh my Lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Then on the third day after I was delivered, this woman also gave birth and we were alone. There was no one else with us in the house. Only we two were in the house. And this woman's son died in the night because she lay on it. And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me while your maidservant slept and laid it in her bosom and laid her dead son in my bosom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, it was dead. But when I looked at it closely in the morning, behold, it was not the child that I had born. And the other woman said, No, the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours. The first said, No, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine. Thus they spoke before the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Then the king said, The one says, This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead. And the other says, No, but your son is dead, and my son is the living one. And the king said, Bring me a sword. So a sword was brought before the king, and the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means slay it. But the other said, It shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide it. Then the king answered and said, Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means slay it. She is its mother.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to render justice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
As always, the Bible translation that I am using is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition, and I am using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking subscribe, and then that'll be done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
He made an altar of bronze, 20 cubits long and 20 cubits wide and 10 cubits high. Then he made the molten sea. It was round, 10 cubits from brim to brim and 5 cubits high, and a line of 30 cubits measured its circumference. Under it were figures of gourds for 30 cubits, compassing the sea round about. The gourds were in two rows, cast with it when it was cast.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
it stood upon twelve oxen three facing north three facing west three facing south and three facing east the sea was set upon them and all their posterior parts were inward its thickness was a hand-breadth and its brim was made like the brim of a cup like the flower of a lily it held over three thousand baths
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
he also made ten lavers in which to wash and set five on the south side and five on the north side in these they were to rinse off what was used for burnt offering and the sea was for the priests to wash in and he made ten golden lampstands as prescribed and set them in the temple five on the south side and five on the north
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
he also made ten tables and placed them in the temple five on the south side and five on the north and he made a hundred basins of gold he made the court of the priests and the great court and doors for the court and overlaid their doors with bronze and he set the sea at the south-east corner of the house Huram also made the pots, the shovels, and the basins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
So Huram finished the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of God, the two pillars, the bowls, and the two capitals on top of the pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on top of the pillars, and the 400 pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were upon the pillars.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
he made the stands also and the levers upon the stands and the one sea and the twelve oxen underneath it the pots the shovels the forks and all the equipment for these huram abi made of burnished bronze for king solomon for the house of the lord In the plain of the Jordan, the king cast them in the clay ground between Sukkoth and Zerudah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Solomon made all these things in great quantities so that the weight of the bronze was not ascertained. So Solomon made all the things that were in the house of God, the golden altar, the tables for the bread of the presence, the lampstands, and their lamps of pure gold to burn before the inner sanctuary as prescribed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
The flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of purest gold, the snuffers, basins, dishes for incense, and firepans of pure gold, and the sockets of the temple, for the inner doors to the most holy place, and for the doors of the nave of the temple, were of gold. Chapter 5 Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of the Lord was finished.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated, and stored the silver, the gold, and all the vessels in the treasuries of the house of God. The Ark of the Covenant brought into the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
As I said, we are reading from 1 Kings chapter 3. We're reading 2 Chronicles 4 and 5. We're praying Psalm 64 because it is day 145. The first book of Kings, chapter three. Solomon prays for wisdom. Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers' houses of the sons of Israel in Jerusalem, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is in Zion. And all the men of Israel assembled before the king at the feast, which is in the seventh month,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
and all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark. And they brought up the ark, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent. The priests and the Levites brought them up. And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who had assembled before him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
So the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place underneath the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark so that the cherubim made a covering above the ark and its poles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And the poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from the outside. And they are there to this day. There was nothing in the ark except the two tables which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel when they came out of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Now, when the priests came out of the holy place, for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without regard to their divisions, and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, and their sons and kinsmen, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with a hundred and twenty priests who were trumpeters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. And when the song was raised with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments in praise to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
The house, the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint. Preserve my life from dread of the enemy. Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the scheming of evildoers who wet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows, shooting from ambush at the blameless, shooting at him suddenly and without fear. They hold fast to their evil purpose.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
They talk of laying snares secretly thinking, who can see us? Who can search out our crimes? We have thought out a cunningly conceived plot. For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep. But God will shoot his arrow at them. They will be wounded suddenly. Because of their tongue he will bring them to ruin. All who see them will wag their heads. Then all men will fear.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
They will tell what God has wrought and ponder what he has done. Let the righteous rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
He took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem. The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
We thank you for revealing your heart to us. We thank you for continually turning our hearts to you because our hearts can be so easily turned away from you. And so, Lord, I just, at this moment right now, God, I just want to speak to you about this psalm that we just prayed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
and how clearly the righteous find a place in your temple, how the righteous find a place in your heart, how the righteous find a place in you. And Lord, so often we are not righteous. So often we are the opposite of that. We are unrighteous. We are false, and we're fickle, and we're sinners. And yet you still take us back even then, even when we're not righteous, even when we are disasters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
You still love us, and you never give up on us. Help us to never give up In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Okay, gosh, okay, let's, if we can do this, I keep doing this, I think I've done it for the last couple days, where we start in Chronicles and go in kind of the reverse order from Chronicles to Kings, but I just want to highlight in 2 Chronicles, this is Solomon doing his greatest life's work. This is the greatest thing Solomon will have done in his entire life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Remember that King David did a number of great things. King David united the tribes into a kingdom. King David had defeated all the enemies around Israel. King David had amassed all this wealth for the people of Israel, and not only for the people of Israel, but for the building of the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And now Solomon is doing the single greatest task, the single greatest chore or assignment, a call that he had in his life, and that was to build the temple. And he does it so well. He does it incredibly well. This is for God's glory. And the chronicles that Solomon does this excellently.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
that um everything is not i mean just think about we have the finest um materials to build with we have solomon building the temple according to the model that was given when it came to the tabernacle right when it came to the to the tent of meeting you have solomon who's lining all of these structures with gold and with silver he makes these massively huge bronze doors
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed in burnt incense at the high places. And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings upon that altar, At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall give you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And not only that, but keep this in mind, Solomon is then sacrificing regularly massive, massive amounts of animals, essentially. He's giving the Lord the sacrifice that he believes the Lord desires. He knows he is sacrificing to the Lord what he believes he deserves. And so Solomon is doing so well. Last little, well, two little points here of 2 Chronicles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
You have the chronicler highlight who carries the ark first. from where it was to the holy place, to the most holy place, it was the Levites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Not only, remember that when David had originally wanted to bring the ark from the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite, right, he was going passing through that area, and what happened, Uzzah stretched out his hand and he touched the ark, it was on a wagon, and he died.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
Here is Solomon, he learning from his father's mistakes and he is having the Levites carry the ark like they ought to be carrying the ark. And that's so important. And that seems to be honored by God. Why? Because as they install the ark, into the most holy place. As they complete the temple, what happens is the cloud of glory fills the space.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And this reminds us of the cloud of glory that led the people of Israel out of Egypt and into freedom, out of Egypt and through the wilderness, that the cloud of glory that would rest upon the Ark of the Covenant, upon that tent of meeting, upon that tabernacle, is filling this space.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And you have the sense of like, here is God saying, yes, here's God affirming, that's maybe the word I was thinking of, or confirming what Solomon had done and what the people had done in coming together and giving free will. Remember, David took up a free will offering and giving freely the sacrifice to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And this is just so, so massively important because on one hand, we have our own sacrifices, right? We have the things that we're going to do. Here's what I'm going to do for God. And yet we wonder sometimes, okay, God, are you receiving what I'm offering? Do you even want what I'm offering? The Shekinah, we possibly could be the Shekinah glory cloud, like to call it the glory cloud.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
It possibly could be that this is a sign of God's favor and not just a sign of God's presence, a sign of God's acceptance, you know, as I said, a confirmation and affirmation of what they're doing and not simply a sign of his presence where they're like, okay, yes, we've done the right thing. We have offered to the Lord what he deserves and we even have offered to the Lord what he desires.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
And that is just a remarkable thing. But this concludes, essentially, in Chronicles at least, Solomon's high point, right? His greatest task. He'll do other things, but this concludes the greatest task of Solomon's life. And we might talk about that later on in the next couple of days. But going back to 1 Kings and Solomon, we have him praying. We covered a couple of days ago, praying for wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
One thing to note is that Solomon prays for wisdom at Gibeon at the place of sacrifice before the temple in Jerusalem becomes a place of sacrifice. He is sacrificing the Lord. He's praying to the Lord and he's giving to the Lord a sign of his heart. He's giving the Lord a sign of his life. That's what sacrifices are, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 145: Solomon Builds the Temple (2025)
They're a sign of our desire to give ourselves to the Lord by giving him something valuable. And that's what is at the heart of virtually every sacrifice is it's rather than myself being sacrificed. I am sacrificing something on my behalf. I'm sacrificing something that is of importance to me. And Solomon is doing this. And here's the Lord comes to him and says, what do you want?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
And the church is going to be able to answer that question. And it's just a really beautiful thing. Again, I'm not trying to make too much too strong of a case there, but it's just, it's compelling and it's worth praying about. I would say that. One quick note about Romans. What's happening in the letter of St. Paul to the Romans?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Well, one of the things that's happening is, there's many things obviously, but one of the things that's happening is there's this call to love. Now, St. Paul has been talking this whole time about freedom, that if you're free from the law, then you're not bound to the law, right? You're now living by the law of love. You're now living by the law of the spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
And so that doesn't mean though that you have license. That doesn't mean you can just do anything because you have to Love each other. As he says in chapter 13, verse 8, owe no one to anything except to love one another. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. And this is a very, very interesting piece.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
He applies this to the reality that there is some contention, there's some discussion over, okay, so are there foods that you can eat? Like, are there foods that Christians can't eat? For example, are there foods that were offered in pagan temples that now Christians can't eat because they were part of a religious ceremony governed to a false god?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
And the idea is some people would say, no, that's completely fine. No big deal. Just eat the meat. And others would say, no, that's scandalous because that meat was offered to an idol. It was offered to a false God. And so St. Paul is saying, okay, whether you eat it or whether you don't eat it, that's irrelevant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
The most important thing is, does your eating of this meat hurt the faith of someone else? Or does your not eating of this meat hurt the faith of someone else? So take into account the people around you. And again, you can do whatever, basically. He's saying you can kind of do whatever in this case. In this case. Keep that in mind. In this case.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
But if what you choose to do is going to hurt the faith of your brother or your sister, then don't do it. Why? Out of love for them. And that's just, it almost seems like too easy. It almost seems too common sense. It almost seems too clear.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
And yet when we try to apply that to our own lives, isn't that, it's just so difficult because it's, does that mean I don't do anything or I'd start to have to do everything because this is gonna scandalize my brother or sister? Let me say no, but we just come back down to this. The law is the law of love. If this is gonna help my brother or sister, then why not do it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
If it's gonna hurt my brother and sister, then why would I do it? Again, it means living a dynamic life, meaning it's not just kind of rigid. It's not just a bunch of rules. It's about saying, will this help or will this hurt? If it hurts, I won't do it. If it helps, maybe I will. I hope that makes sense. But Romans chapter 13 and 14, what we just read today, it's just, it's full of gems.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
So there was much joy in that city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
It's full of gold. It's full of just absolute, absolute beauty. And one last note, St. Paul says in chapter 13, he says, salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. And that's just, that's the last word. We'll let that be the last word today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Just to live as in daylight, to walk in the light and to recognize that the Lord loves you. God loves you who are listening right now. He's very proud of you. The Father is very, very proud of you. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
simon the magician but there was a man named simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the nation of samaria saying that he himself was somebody great they all listened to him from the least to the greatest saying this man is that power of god which is called great and they listened to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 329. We're reading from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 8, as well as St. Paul's letter to the Romans, chapters 13 and 14. And Proverbs chapter 27, verses 15 through 17.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized, he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. And Simon answered, Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Rise, and go toward the south, to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert road. And he rose and went.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a minister of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning. Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the spirit said to Philip, Go up and join this chariot.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, Do you understand what you are reading? And he said, How can I, unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this, As a sheep led to the slaughter, or a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken up from the earth. And the eunuch said to Philip, Please, about whom does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
And as they went along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What is to prevent my being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast. Receive daily episodes and daily updates. You have, you know, I don't know, 35.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
And when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught up Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus, and passing on, he preached the gospel to all the towns till he came to Caesarea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 13, being subject to authorities. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. He is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be subject not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
For the same reason, you also pay taxes. For the authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing. Pay all of them their dues. Taxes, to whom taxes are due. Revenue, to whom revenue is due. Respect, to whom respect is due. Honor, to whom honor is due. Love for one another. Owe no one anything except to love one another. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
The commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this sentence. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. an urgent appeal. Besides this, you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. Chapter 14 Do not judge one another. As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions. One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld, for the master is able to make him stand. One man esteems one day as better than another, while another man esteems all days alike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Let everyone be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. He also who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God. While he who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Either way, you can subscribe now and it won't be too late. As I said, it is day 329 and we are reading Acts of the Apostles chapter 8, St. Paul's letter to the Romans 13 and 14 and the book of Proverbs chapter 27 verses 15 through 17. The Acts of the Apostles chapter 8. And Saul was consenting to his death. Saul persecutes the church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God, for it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God. So each of us shall give account of himself to God. Do not hinder a brother. Then let us no more pass judgment on one another, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. If your brother is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. So do not let what is good to you be spoken of as evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
For the kingdom of God does not mean food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. He who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make others fall by what he eats.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
It is not right to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Happy is he who has no reason to judge himself for what he approves. But he who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not act from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
a continual dripping on a rainy day, and a contentious woman are alike. To restrain her is to restrain the wind, or to grasp oil in one's right hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Thank you for being with us today. Thank you for feeding us with your word, with your spirit. Thank you for being present to us and shaping our hearts and lighting them on fire. Help us to love you and to love our neighbor as ourself. Help us to love each other well. In Jesus' name, we pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So, gosh, you guys, oh my goodness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Acts of the Apostles, incredible. I want to highlight a couple things. One is, it might be odd that we started with chapter 8, verse 1, and it starts with the word and, which basically connects chapter 7, verse 60. And so you might have thought, wait, what? What happened again? This was when Stephen had been stoned and they laid the cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
And Stephen cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. The next verse, and Saul was consenting to his death. So that's kind of like if you're wondering, wait, what? That's what. And right after this, in basically the same verse, chapter 8, verse 1, continued, it says, on that day, a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
So here, starting with Stephen, then other Christians were then persecuted. And that is... In one verse, verse one of chapter eight, and Saul is consenting to his death. That's one. The next thing, on that day, a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem. That's two, persecution. And then three, same verse here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
And they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Now, those three movements, here is Saul consenting to Stephen's death. Secondly, here's the persecution arising in Jerusalem. Thirdly, here is the scattering of Christians throughout the region of Judea and Samaria. Remember what Jesus had said.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
And on that day, a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul laid waste to the church. And entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Philip preaches in Samaria.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
So you'll receive the Holy Spirit and then you will proclaim, basically bring the gospel starting here in Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. And this is Jesus' words being fulfilled, but what is the context in which they're being fulfilled? The context is persecution. I think sometimes, gosh, we need to pray about this, especially as Christians in the 21st century.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
We need to pray about this. Sometimes we think, well, if I'm gonna have the blessing of God, if I'm gonna live out the plan, the will of God, it's gonna be prettier, right? It's gonna be more... There's gonna be less pain. There's gonna be less persecution. There's gonna be only blessing. What happens?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Here, verse one of chapter eight, Saul consenting to Stephen's death, church being persecuted, and that sparks the next step of evangelization. That sparks the next step of the growth of the church, not just in Jerusalem, but throughout Judea and Samaria, and then further persecution will spark even more growth to the ends of the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
And that's one of the things we just have to realize that suffering, that obstacles, that persecution doesn't mean things have gone wrong. That doesn't mean automatically that things have gone wrong. Sometimes that's just how it goes. And that's incredible. And so we have a little piece here of Philip, one of those who were sent. And he's sent out and he begins preaching the word in Samaria.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
And it comes upon this man named Simon, who is a magician who amazed everybody. But then all of a sudden they see the power of the Holy Spirit. Even Simon himself becomes a Christian. Peter and John, they come to that same region in Samaria. And this is where we have the term simony, S-I-M-O-N-Y.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Simony is the buying and selling of religious things or buying and selling of sacred things or the buying and selling of like blessings, that kind of idea. It is a sin. And that comes from chapter eight of the Acts of the Apostles, where here's Simon, the magician, who says, I want to buy the power of the Holy Spirit from the apostles. And Peter has some very stern words for him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
And so the church also has very stern words for anyone who would want to buy or sell holy things or buy or sell blessings. It's a it's a sin called simony named after Simon, which is kind of fun. I mean, you imagine your name becoming the name of a sin. I don't know. It's fascinating to me. But the conclusion of chapter eight of the Acts of the Apostles is one of my favorite stories.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
It's Ethiopian eunuch, Ethiopian eunuch, right? So here's this man and he's a eunuch. So basically he is unable to become a Jew because of his status as being a eunuch, he is not allowed to be a person of the covenant, of the old covenant, right? But he is a God-fearer. He has come to Jerusalem to worship, even though he can't participate fully in the worship of the people of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
And so he's fascinated by the book of the prophet Isaiah here. And Philip, I love this, Philip, the Holy Spirit moves Philip to go up to the chariot. And Philip asks him the question, do you understand what you're reading? And the response of the Ethiopian eunuch is, no. How can I, unless someone guides me? This is so important for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
The book we've been reading, you know, the 73 books we've been going through, we're not done yet. We have 30 plus days, but the 73 books we've been going through, they are God's infallible word. Absolutely. The infallible word of God. Absolutely. But. We all know that they can be misinterpreted. We all know that God's word can be used and distorted. It can not even just be distorted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
It can just be misunderstood. And so here's God's infallible word. What God's infallible word needs for us to impact our lives in a way that's infallible is it needs an infallible interpreter of the word. And so an infallible book without an infallible interpreter is a worthless book because if I can get the interpretation wrong, then it's kind of useless, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
So what we need is what the Ethiopian eunuch pointed out. How am I supposed to understand this unless someone can guide me, unless someone can teach me? And that is the role of the church. Here's the role of Philip in this case. And it's just incredible to realize that God has given us that. He's not only given us the infallible word of God, he's given us the teaching office of the church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to a city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs which he did. For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch (2024)
He's given us what they call the magisterium to be able to guide the discernment, to guide the interpretation, to guide our understanding of the church. We're gonna see this actually play out in the next couple chapters. After Saul has his conversion, there's gonna be a number of moments where It's like, how do I understand this? How do we understand baptism? How do we understand circumcision?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time. So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath Haraloth. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them. All the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war had died on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And Joshua asks the question, are you for us or are you for our adversaries? Are you for us or are you for our enemies? And the answer of the angel of the Lord is so unique. He just says, no. I love this. This is so powerful. He just says, no. And what he is indicating is one of the things he's indicating is he says, basically, the question we can say is, is God on our side?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And the response is, well, not yes or no, but the response is, that's not the question. That's not the right question. The question really should be, are we on God's side? I think that might've been something Abraham Lincoln had once said, something along those lines.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
What's revealed in this is not only our need to be on God's side and not wanting to just make God agree with us and be on our side, but it also reveals that this battle really isn't going to be simply against the Canaanites. This battle, these subsequent battles are not merely against the Philistines or against any of the other Amorites or Jebusites or any of these other people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
The battle truly is a cosmic battle. One of the things that gets revealed to us about those, whether they be the Moabites or the Jebusites or the Canaanites or the Philistines, is not only that they were quote unquote different, they're not just different. They were living a life, they were building a culture truly upon wickedness, upon the denigration of the human person.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
I mean, truly, where you would offer in these communities, we already experienced this, they would offer human sacrifice, sacrifice of their own children to the god Moloch. And so there's this cosmic battle happening. Or again, it's not against the people. It's not against those other people. It's against a cosmic thing. And St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Paul will later on go on to say, our battle is not with flesh and blood, but is with principalities and powers. And that's one of the things that's revealed here with Joshua's vision is that this isn't merely armies coming together. This isn't merely let's drive out this people. What it really is, is a cosmic battle. And again, with eyes of faith, we can see that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
With eyes that don't have faith, we question that. And that's one of the things we're going to continue to run into again and again, where there's things that are happening in scripture that if we read them and listen to them through the eyes or ears of faith, from the perspective of faith, we say, okay, Lord, I trust you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
But if we read them or listen to them, take them in through the perspective of distrust, the I don't know if there's too much that we can really allow to penetrate our hearts. Even this last story of Achan, where Achan takes some of the plunder, essentially, from the destruction of the city of Jericho.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And it even says that so he and his whole family and everything he owns is going to be destroyed. Now, we could look at that and say, gosh, that's so brutal. That's so violent. It's so unfair. And yet... And yet it wasn't as if that was lost on the people. Like the tragedy of that wasn't lost on the people of Israel. But what happened was here's this one man's sin that does what?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
That comes at the price of 36 people's lives. If you remember that it was because of Achan's sin that they lost the battle of Ai. And at the battle of Ai, 36 Israelites died. And so you think this is towards the level of justice, but it's not like a triumphant kind of justice. It's not like, yeah, let's get this guy. Let's destroy Achan and destroy his whole family and everything he has.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
It's not a moment. It's not a happy moment. In fact, they named the place where he dies. They named the place where this justice is extended or doled out. They name it the Valley of Achor, A-C-H-O-R. The Valley of Achor means trouble. Trouble is what Achor means. or sadness or despair. It's our shame. It's a moment of our shame because it's not a great moment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
It's not a moment where the people of Israel are saying, yeah, get Achan. This is terrible. We were so mad at him. What it is, is here's the valley of a horror, which is the valley of our shame, the valley of our trouble. And so just keep, as we read this, like, let's look at from the perspective of the people of Israel. Here is the justice that we have to dole out, but it is not a happy moment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people that were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the sons of Israel walked 40 years in the perished because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
No one considered it to be a happy moment. And so again, when we read through the eyes of faith, we see that. If I read through the eyes of cynicism or skepticism, I can't see that. But later on, what's going to happen is we're going to read the book of the prophet Hosea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And one of the things that the Lord says through the prophet Hosea about this valley of a whore is he's going to say this because he references it in Hosea chapter two. He says, I will take your valley of a whore, your valley of trouble, your valley of shame and make it into a door of hope. That here's what the Lord can do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
He can transform even this low point in the people's lives, in our lives, in the lives of our families, this low point that no one wanted, but we had to do, and transform it into a door of hope. And so just as a kind of a quick teaser before we get to the book of Hosea, which is going to come up, you know, in a couple of weeks or months, to recognize that every one of us has a valley of a whore.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Maybe it's something someone has done to us. Maybe it's something that we've chosen. We brought upon ourselves trouble. We brought upon ourselves shame. We brought upon ourselves something that we just absolutely hate about our reality, about our lives. Well, Hosea promises, That even that, even this low point, even this thing you say, I can never, ever get away from this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
This will haunt me for the rest of my life. It'll come with me for the rest of my life. That the Lord God says, actually, that's not true. I can take this valley of horror, this valley of trouble, this valley of shame. and I can transform it into a door of hope. So that's my prayer for every one of us today, is we all have a valley of trouble and we all have a valley of shame.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
We all have things in our past that have wounded us and continue to linger and hold on to us. to surrender that today and say, okay, God, I gave you permission. Transform my valley of a whore, my valley of trouble, my valley of shame into a door of hope. If I surrender it to you, you can change it. And so that's what I'm praying.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
I'm praying that that's what happens, that every one of us can do that today. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me that I can do that because I have my valleys as well. And we'll just keep praying for each other. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you again tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 82, and we are on the second day of the time period of conquest and judges. We are reading today from Joshua chapter 5 through chapter 7.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
To them the Lord swore that he would not let them see the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. So it was their children whom he had raised up in their stead that Joshua circumcised. for they were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
When the circumcising of all the nation was done, they remained in their places in the camp till they were healed. And the Lord said to Joshua, This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. the Passover at Gilgal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
While the sons of Israel were encamped in Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at the evening in the plains of Jericho. And on the next day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And the manna ceased on the next day when they ate the produce of the land and the sons of Israel had manna no more, but ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us or for our adversaries? And he said,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
No, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped and said to him, What does my Lord bid his servant? And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Put off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so. Chapter 6 Jericho Taken and Destroyed
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Now Jericho was shut up from within and from without because of the sons of Israel. None went out and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given into your hand Jericho with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
and seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark and on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times the priests blowing the trumpets and when they make a long blast with the ram's horn as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet then all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city will fall down flat and the people shall go up every man straight before him
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
sticking, as I mentioned yesterday, with the book of Joshua pretty much for the next eight or so days until day 88, where we'll conclude Joshua, and then day 89, move over to Judges. We're also praying today from Psalm 125. I am reading, as always, from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord. And he said to the people, Go forward, march around the city, and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Lord went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the ark of the covenant of the Lord following them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
and the armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets and the rear guard came after the ark while the trumpets blew continually but joshua commanded the people you shall not shout or let your voice be heard neither shall any word go out of your mouth until the day i bid you shout then you shall shout. So he caused the ark of the Lord to compass the city going about at once.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp. Then Joshua rose early in the morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord and the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord passed on blowing the trumpets continually.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And the armed men went before them and the rear guard came up after the ark of the Lord while the trumpets blew continually. And the second day they marched around the city once and returned into the camp. So they did for six days. On the seventh day, they rose early at the dawn of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Only Rahab the harlot and all who were with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers that we sent. But you keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them, you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing of destruction and bring trouble upon it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
But all the silver and gold and vessels of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord. They shall go into the treasury of the Lord. So the people shouted. And the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people raised a great shout and the wall fell down flat so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Then they utterly destroyed all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep and donkeys with the edge of the sword. And Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, go into the harlot's house and bring out from it the woman and all who belong to her as you swore to her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
so the young men who had been spies went in and brought out rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her and they brought all her kindred and set them outside the camp of israel and they burned the city with fire and all within it only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of the lord
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
But Rahab the harlot and her father's household, and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she dwelt in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Joshua laid an oath upon them at that time, saying, Cursed before the Lord be the man that raises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast that you're currently listening to on day 82 for crying out loud if you've not yet subscribed. We just all wonder. We just wonder, like, what is it we need to do? What is it we need to do after 82 days to get you to subscribe?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates. So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land. Chapter 7. The Sin of Achan and its Punishment But the sons of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things. For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And the men went up and spied out Ai. And they returned to Joshua and said to him... Let not all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not make the whole people toil up there, for they are but few. So about three thousand went up there from the people, and they fled before the men of Ai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And the men of Ai killed about thirty-six men of them, and chased them before the gate as far as Shebarim, and slew them at the descent. And the hearts of the people melted and became as water." Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel, and they put dust upon their heads.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all to give us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan. The Lord said to Joshua, Arise, why have you thus fallen upon your face? Israel has sinned. They have transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
They have taken some of the devoted things. They have stolen and lied and put them among their own stuff. Therefore, the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies because they have become a thing for destruction. I will be with you no more. unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Up, sanctify the people and say, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, for thus says the Lord God of Israel, There are devoted things in the midst of you, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you. In the morning, therefore, you shall be brought near by your tribes, and the tribe which the Lord takes shall come near by families.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And the family which the Lord takes shall come near by households, and the household which the Lord takes shall come near man by man. And he who is taken with the devoted things shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he has done a shameful thing in Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel near tribe by tribe and the tribe of Judah was taken. And he brought near the families of Judah and the family of the Zerahites was taken. And he brought near the family of the Zerahites man by man and Zabdi was taken.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Chances are you've already subscribed and we are really, really grateful for that. As I said today, we are reading from Joshua chapter 5 through chapter 7 and praying Psalm 125. The book of Joshua chapter five. The sons of Israel are circumcised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And he brought near his household man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, was taken. Then Joshua said to Achan, My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and render praise to him, and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And Achan answered Joshua, Of a truth, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I did. When I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shiner and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And behold, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and behold, it was hidden in his tent with the silver underneath. And they took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the sons of Israel, and they laid them down before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah and the silver and the mantle and the bar of gold and his sons and daughters and his oxen and donkeys and sheep and his tent and all that he had and they brought them up to the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, Why did you bring trouble upon us? The Lord brings trouble on you this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his burning anger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Therefore, to this day, the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor. Psalm 125, the security of God's people, a song of ascents.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from this time forth and forevermore. For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their hands to do wrong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Do good, O Lord, to those who are good and to those who are upright in their hearts. But those who turn aside upon their crooked ways, the Lord will lead away with evildoers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Peace be in Israel. Father in heaven, we give you praise and we thank you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
We thank you for sharing this story with us. Thank you for being part of our stories as we, like Aiken, as we can be unfaithful, knowing exactly what you've asked us to do. So often, Lord, we turn away and do what we want to do. Lord, the heart of every sin is knowing what you want and yet doing what we want in violation of that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
When all the kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites that were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the sons of Israel until they had crossed over, their heart melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And so we come back to you knowing that in our guilt, you meet us with your mercy. In our shame, you meet us with your reconciliation. So please, Lord God, transform our valley of Achor into a door of hope. Hope for our lives, hope for our children, for our families, hope for our culture, hope for our world, hope for your people. In Jesus' name we pray.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So, gosh, oh man, there's so much. You know, in the narrative book here of Joshua, there are so many things to cover. One thing, just to kind of recap, you noticed that when they entered the Promised Land, right, so they crossed the Jordan River, That was yesterday. And today they're into the promised land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And the Lord said to Joshua, who replaced Moses, that we need to circumcise all of the men. Now, this is remarkable because remember those, even the scripture even indicates that those who were set free from slavery in Egypt had been circumcised. But during the wilderness journey, during those 40 years, they didn't circumcise anyone. And there's almost this sense of why is that? Why would that be?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Well, part of it is there's being fully delivered here in the scripture today from this history of their slavery. They're being released in this particular way that scripture indicates that says, no, you have a new life. There's this covenant that's being renewed. As often as the Jewish man is circumcised, he's brought into that covenant, that covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
And so that's what happens is like you're breaking free from this history of your slavery and being brought into a relationship of love right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
and so that's the first thing and then another thing is the recognition of that the men here of fighting age who are circumcised would be very vulnerable as we know that from back in story of genesis where the families of simeon and levi had basically entered into covenant with the men of the family who had raped a dinah and then killed them all in their vulnerability after they had been circumcised and so here they are why didn't they get circumcised in the plains of moab on the other side of the jordan
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
Well, there's a certain element of trust, and that's, I mean, the very reality of circumcision when it comes to Abraham is all about the sense of I am making myself vulnerable in a very particular way out of trust for God, which is just really, again, once again, really remarkable. Next is they celebrate the Feast of Passover, and the next day the manna ceases, and there's something about that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 82: The Valley of Achor (2025)
The Lord cared for them all throughout their wilderness wanderings, their desert journey, And that's over now. And now he will care for them in a different way. But they've been trained. Remember, they've been trained by being fed by the Lord. And so now that manna is ceasing. Now, the last two quick things I want to highlight. At one point, this angel of the Lord appears to Joshua.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
or it's a current promise about a future reality, but you're going to have to continue to fight. You're going to have to continue to serve your brothers and sisters here, the other tribes of Israel. And I think there's something just really powerful about that, that imagine here's your home. Oh, great. This is our land. Yes, it is. But keep moving with us because we are not done yet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
And that's something that is way on our hearts so often is like, I want to be done. I just want to be able to have like, put my stake in the ground and say, okay, this is home. These are my roots. This is, I'm done. And for Ruben and Gad and Manasseh, okay, they got, this is your home, but you can't be here yet. Speaking of here's your home, but you can't be here yet is the last point.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
And we have the story of Moses and he recounts, he said, I begged the Lord at that time, Lord, your God, you've only begun to show your servant to your greatness and your mighty hand. What God is there in heaven or earth or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours? Let me go over. I pray that I may see the good land beyond the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
But he says, the Lord was angry with me because in Numbers 21, Moses is going to strike a rock twice when God did not tell him to do that. In fact, he told him to do something else. And Moses in anger struck a rock twice. And because of that, he, as the leader was held to a higher standard. And because of that rash act, he was not able to cross over into the Jordan. And this is, that's the,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
They shall have charge of all the furnishings of the tent of meeting and attend to the duties of the sons of Israel as they minister at the tabernacle. And you shall give the Levites to Aaron and his sons. They are wholly given to him from among the sons of Israel. And you shall appoint Aaron and his sons and they shall attend to their priesthood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
Something that can be a difficult teaching for us is that here is Moses who was very faithful for a long time, a long, long time. And yet, even in the midst of that, there are consequences to his actions. He was not displeasing to the Lord. God loved Moses. God loves Moses. And Moses was a faithful man, but there also are consequences to our actions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
And so you have Moses saying, I plead with you once more, you know, oh Lord, let me go over. And God basically says, do not bring this up anymore. He says, speak no more to me of this matter. Go up to the top of Pisgah, this top of this mountain and look and behold the promised land, but you're going to die here. Now, that can seem harsh to us, but at the same time, it is true, isn't it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
That the leaders among us and the teachers among us are held to a higher standard. And Moses is one of those, and he was held to a higher standard. Not a standard of perfection. but a higher standard nonetheless. And so we recognize all of us that, my gosh, Lord, please help me. Because if you have a family, you're held to a higher standard. You're the mom or the dad of that family.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
If you're a teacher, you have a higher standard. James chapter three, verse one says that. Not many of you should aspire to be teachers because you'll be held to a more strict judgment. all of us are in some ways responsible for others. And so here's Moses who in his responsibility, he failed that task. Nonetheless, he still was loved by the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
It just meant that he couldn't enter the promised land. Sometimes the answer to our prayer is no. And today, the answer to Moses' prayer was no. And yet, God is faithful. And God still loves Moses, and God still loves you, and God still loves me. I'm praying for you. As we continue this journey through the Bible, we are going step by step, just like the children of Israel, through the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
And yeah, we can only do this if we pray for each other. So I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you again tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
But if anyone else comes near, he shall be put to death. And the Lord said to Moses, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the sons of Israel instead of every firstborn that opens the womb among the sons of Israel. The Levites shall be mine, for all the firstborn are mine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
On the day that I slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated for my own all the firstborn in Israel, both of man and of beast. They shall be mine. I am the Lord. Census of the Levites. And the Lord said to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, Number the sons of Levi by father's houses and by families. Every male from a month old and upward you shall number.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
So Moses numbered them according to the word of the Lord as he was commanded. And these were the sons of Levi by their names, Gershon and Kohath and Merari. And these are the names of the sons of Gershon by their families, Libni and Shemii. And the sons of Kohath by their families, Amram, Ishhar, Hebron and Uziel. And the sons of Merari by their families, Mali and Mushi.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today it is day 54 and today we're going to be reading from numbers chapter 3 and deuteronomy chapter 3 keeping a pace with those two stories those two books as well as praying psalm 87. the bible translation that i'm using is the revised standard version the second catholic edition i'm using the great adventure bible from ascension if you want to download your own bible into your reading plan
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
These are the families of the Levites by their fathers' houses. Of Gershon were the families of the Libnites and the families of the Shemaites. These were the families of the Gershonites. Their number, according to the number of all the males from a month old and upward, was 7,500.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
The families of the Gershonites were to encamp behind the tabernacle on the west, with Eliasaph, the son of Lael, as the head of the father's house of the Gershonites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
And the charge of the sons of Gershon in the tent of meeting was to be the tabernacle, the tent with its covering, the screen for the door of the tent of meeting, the hangings of the court, the screen for the door of the court which is around the tabernacle and the altar and its cords, all the service pertaining to these.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
Of Kohath were the family of the Amramites, and the family of the Isurites, and the family of the Hebronites, and the family of the Uzielites. These are the families of all the Kohathites. According to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, there were 8,600 attending to the duties of the sanctuary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
The families of the sons of Kohath were to encamp on the south side of the tabernacle, with Elizaphan, the son of Uziel, as the head of the father's house of the families of the Kohathites. And their charge was to be the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, the vessels of the sanctuary with which the priests minister, and the screen, all the service pertaining to these.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
And Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, was to be chief over the leaders of the Levites, and to have oversight of those who had charge of the sanctuary. Of Merari were the family of the Malites and the family of the Mushites. These are the families of Merari. Their number according to the number of all the males from a month old and upward was 6,200.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
And the head of the father's house of the families of Merari was Zuriel, the son of Abihel. They were to encamp on the north side of the tabernacle. And the appointed charge of the sons of Merari was to be the frames of the tabernacle, the bars, the pillars, the bases, and all their accessories, all the service pertaining to these.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
Also the pillars of the court round about with their bases and pegs and cords. And those to encamp before the tabernacle on the east, before the tent of meeting toward the sunrise, were Moses and Aaron and his sons, having charge of the rites within the sanctuary. Whatever had to be done for the sons of Israel, And anyone else who came near was to be put to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of the Lord by families, all the males from a month old and upward, were 22,000. redemption of the firstborn. And the Lord said to Moses, Number all the firstborn males of the sons of Israel, from a month old and upward, taking their number by names.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
And you shall take the Levites for me, I am the Lord, instead of all the firstborn among the sons of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstlings among the cattle of the sons of Israel. So Moses numbered all the firstborn among the sons of Israel as the Lord commanded him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
In all the firstborn males, according to the number of names from a month old and upward, as numbered were 22,273. And the Lord said to Moses, Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the sons of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle, and the Levites shall be mine. I am the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
And for the redemption of the two hundred and seventy-three of the firstborn of the sons of Israel, over and above the number of the male Levites, you shall take five shekels apiece, reckoning by the shekel of the sanctuary the shekel of twenty gerahs, you shall take them, and give the money by which the excess number of them is redeemed to Aaron and his sons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
So Moses took the redemption money, and those who were over and above those redeemed by the Levites from the firstborn of the sons of Israel, he took the money, 1,365 shekels, reckoned by the shekel of the sanctuary. And Moses gave the redemption money to Aaron and his sons, according to the word of the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
Simply visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can download that for free. And make sure you subscribe on your podcast app to receive the daily episodes. But let's get started. The book of Numbers, chapter three, the sons of Aaron. These are the generations of Aaron and Moses at the time when the Lord spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
Moses continued. Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan. And Og, the king of Bashan, came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. But the Lord said to me, Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
So the Lord our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people, and we struck him until no survivor was left to him. And we took all his cities at that time. There was not a city which we did not take from them, sixty cities, the whole region of Argab, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
all these cities were fortified with high gates walls and bars besides very many unwalled villages and we utterly destroyed them as we did to sihan the king of heshbon according to every city men women and children but all the cattle and the spoil of the cities we took as our booty
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
So he took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon. The Sidonians called Hermon Sirion, while the Amorites call it Sinir. All the cities of the table land and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as Seleka and Edrei,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, for only Og, the king of Bashan, was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the common cubit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
When we took possession of this land at that time, I gave it to the Reubenites and the Gadites, the territory beginning at Aroar, which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead with its cities. The rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, that is, all the region of the Argab, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
The whole of that Bashan is called the land of Rephaim. jair the manasite took all the region of argab that is bashan as far as the border of the geshurites and the makathites and called the villages after his own name havath jair as it is to this day
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
To Makir I gave Gilead, and to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead as far as the valley of Arnon, with the middle of the valley as a boundary, as far over as the river Jabbok, the boundary of the Ammonites. The Arabah also, with the Jordan as the boundary, from Chinareth as far as the sea of Arabah, the salt sea, under the slopes of Pisgah on the east.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
And I commanded you at that time, saying, The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. All your men of valor shall pass over armed before your brethren, the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
But your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, I know that you have many cattle, shall remain in the cities which I have given you, until the Lord gives rest to your brethren as to you, and they also occupy the land which the Lord your God gives them beyond the Jordan. Then they shall return every man to his possession which I have given you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
And I commanded Joshua at that time, Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So will the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you are going over. You shall not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you. Moses views Canaan from Pisgah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
These are the names of the sons of Aaron, Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests whom he ordained to minister in the priest's office But Nabab and Abihu died before the Lord, when they offered unholy fire before the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
And I begged the Lord at that time, saying, O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what God is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as you? Let me go over, I pray. and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that excellent hill country and Lebanon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
But the Lord was angry with me on your account and would not listen to me. And the Lord said to me, let it satisfy you. Speak no more to me of this matter. Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward and behold it with your eyes. for you shall not go over this Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
But charge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land which you shall see.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
A Psalm of the sons of Korah, a song. On the holy mountain stands the city he founded. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things are said of you, O city of God. Among those who know me, I mention Rahab and Babylon. Behold, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia. This one was born there, they say.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
And of Zion it shall be said, This one and that one were born in her. For the Most High himself will establish her. The Lord records as he registers the peoples. This one was born there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
Even in the midst of the depths, even in the midst of darkness, you are faithful and we can trust in you. Amen. Amen. We make this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Okay, quick, I want to highlight a couple of quick things. One is in Numbers chapter 3. What do we have? We have the tribe of Levi.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
Remember that among the other tribes of Israel, the tribe of Levi was set apart, right? They had set themselves apart. You have ordained yourselves this day, you know, when Levi, the tribe of Levi, rose up against the other people of Israel who had worshipped the golden calf. One thing that I think I may have not been clear about is the following. I
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
that while all of the tribe of Levi was set apart for service in the tabernacle or service in the temple, not every one of the tribe of Levi was a priest. And I think this is important. All priests have to be Levites, but not all Levites are priests. That is an important note because I think that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
sometimes we can fall into the trap of thinking that, oh, if you serve in the tabernacle, if you're a Levite, you're therefore a priest. That's not exactly the case. And here in Numbers chapter three, it spells that out. It spells out that there were a number of the tribe of Levi who were set to particular tasks, right? So You have the sons of Levi, Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
So Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests in the lifetime of Aaron their father. duties of the Levites. And the Lord said to Moses, bring the tribe of Levi near and set them before Aaron the priest that they may minister to him. They shall perform duties for him and for the whole congregation before the tent of meeting as they minister at the tabernacle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
And so they're all given different tasks to do. So the family of Gershon is on the west side of the tabernacle, and they're given charge over the screen and the tent of meeting and its covering. And you have Kohath, and it's on the south side, and they're given a number of tasks that have to do with the ark and the table and the lampstand. And so what we realize is that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
all levites are there for the service of the temple but not all are serving in the same particular way and it is noted by the lord god here in numbers chapter 3 that you only the levites are those allowed to this have this temple service and among that tribe of levi right is the sons of aaron and those are the ones who are the priests working in the the service of offering up the worship or offering up
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
performing out those rights and duties in the tabernacle. The other duties that have to do with maintaining and making sure that everything's running well, that has to do with those other families of the tribe of Levi. I hope that that makes sense. It is a often missed little piece that us as modern Christians can sometimes not understand or realize.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
So again, all priests are from the tribe of Levi. Not all Levites are priests. The next thing to kind of highlight is Deuteronomy chapter 3. I just want to pull out two quick things. The first is that the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of Gad and the tribe of Manasseh, they're given land in what they call the Transjordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
So this is before they've crossed over the Jordan River and entered into the Promised Land. Their land there in Transjordan is given to them. That's where those tribes dwelt. That's where those tribes ultimately are going to exist. But the Lord God through Moses says, okay, this is your land, but you have to keep coming with us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 54: The Tribe of Levi (2025)
You have to keep journeying with us over the Jordan River because we still have battles to fight. We still have the promised land to obtain. And so we need you to go with us across the Jordan. And after you've taken the land, you can come back to this land. This is going to be your land. And there's this element of here's a gift. This is almost like a future promise that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
the church is not the first line of defense against poverty. The church isn't the first line of defense against someone living a life of desolation, that it's actually the family. And so if you're going to be a Christian and you're not taking care of your own family, then you're failing in religion. In fact, he says you're worse than an unbeliever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children following the truth, just as we have been commanded by the Father. And now I beg you, lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we follow his commandments. This is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you follow love."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
A Christian who doesn't take care of their own family when they can is worse than an unbeliever, which is convicting for so many of us who might be separated from our families and might be distant from our families and say, okay, how can I do that now in this life, in this day, and in this age will be a call for all of us. I love the fact that St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Paul writes to Timothy in chapter four and he says, train yourself in godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is a value in every way. And I like it because I find myself going for a run, doing some workouts, exercising this. And Paul says bodily training is of some value. So he doesn't denigrate it. But then he highlights the fact that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
But at the same time, godliness, right? Training in the spirit is a value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. And that is a good reminder that we just are called to not just have fitness in our lives, are called to have wealth in our lives, success in our lives, but to be the kind of men and women that God has created and redeemed us to be.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
The last thing here is the good fight of faith. And here is Paul exhorting Timothy you know, who is young, who is comparatively young, this young Bishop essentially of Ephesus. As for you, man of God, shun all of this, which all of what? Well, love of money, which is the root of all evil. Remember that money is not the root of all evil, but the love of money is the root of all evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
And through this craving, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs. I've seen this so many times. I maybe haven't seen it in older people. It's probably present, but I work with college students and I see this desire to be successful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
I see this desire to accumulate wealth, be the thing that just drives so many of our students from a life of prayer and from a life of service. to becoming distant and cold to the Lord because they're like, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna get after it, I'm gonna crush the day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
And instead of giving God their first fruits and pursuing that training and godliness is this pursuit after wealth, this pursuit after money, the love of money, the root of all evils. And some by craving this have wandered away from the faith. But then that's when Paul says, but you men of God shun all this aim at righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
And then bam, here's the line. Fight the good fight of the faith and take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. And this is so important. Take hold of the eternal life. to which you are called. My brothers and sisters, you and I have been called to the eternal life. So why not fight for it? I mean, truly, here we are on day 357. You've been fighting for 357 days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
You've been listening to the Lord's word for 357 days. Take hold of the eternal life that God has in store for you, that he wants for you, that he wills for you, that he's given you in Christ Jesus and through the power of the Holy Spirit. Fight for it. This is the most precious gift
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
And by doing so, to follow the commandments, to love one another as God has loved us, and to be worthy of the gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Look to yourselves, that you may not lose what you have worked for, but may win a full reward. Anyone who goes ahead and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Thank you so much for being on this journey together with me, with each other. Let's keep fighting. I'm praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
He who abides in the doctrine has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into the house or give him any greeting, for he who greets him shares his wicked work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Final Greetings Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink, but I hope to come and see you and talk with you face to face that our joy may be complete. The children of your elect sister greet you. The Third Letter of John Salutation The Elder, to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Gaius commended for his service.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
And while we fit into that story today, it is day 357. We're reading 2 John and 3 John. the entirety of both of those letters of St. John, as well as the conclusion of the first letter of Paul to Timothy, reading chapters 4, 5, and 6. Also, we are reading Proverbs chapter 30, verses 29 through 33.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you, and that you may be in health. For I know that it is well with your soul. For I greatly rejoiced when some of the brethren arrived and testified to the truth of your life, as indeed you do follow the truth. No greater joy can I have than this, to hear that my children follow the truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Beloved, it is a loyal thing you do when you render any service to the brethren, especially to strangers who have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey as befits God's service, for they have set out for his sake and have accepted nothing from the heathen. So we ought to support such men that we may be fellow workers in the truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Diotrephes and Demetrius. I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge my authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, accusing me falsely with evil words. And not content with that, he refuses himself to welcome the brethren and also stops those who want to welcome them and puts them out of the church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. He who does good is of God. He who does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has testimony from everyone and from the truth itself. I testify to him too, and you know my testimony is true. Final greetings. I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk together face to face.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Peace be to you. The friends greet you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
False Asceticism Now, the Spirit expressly says that in later times, some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, though the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. For then it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. a good minister of Jesus Christ. If you put these instructions before the brethren, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the words of the faith and of the good doctrine which you have followed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Have nothing to do with godless and silly myths. Train yourself in godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in the Year reading plan for this last week and a half, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in the Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and... Or you know what?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
the saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance for to this end we toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living god who is the savior of all men especially of those who believe command and teach these things Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Till I come, attend to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given to you by prophetic utterance when the elders laid their hands upon you. Practice these duties, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Take heed to yourself and to your teaching.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Hold to that, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as you would a father. Treat younger men like brothers, older women like mothers, younger women like sisters, in all purity. Honor widows who are real widows.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
If a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn their religious duty to their own family and make some return to their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God. She who is a real widow and is left all alone has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, whereas she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Command this, so that they may be without reproach. If anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age having been the wife of one husband and she must be well attested for her good deeds as one who has brought up children shown hospitality washed the feet of saints relieved the afflicted and devoted herself to doing good in every way
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
but refuse to enroll younger widows, for when they grow wanton against Christ, they desire to marry, and so they incur condemnation for having violated their first pledge. Besides that, they learn to be idlers, gadding about from house to house, and not only idlers, but gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, rule their households, and give the enemy no occasion to revile us. For some have already strayed after Satan. If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her assist them. Let the church not be burdened so that it may assist those who are real widows.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages. Never admit any charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Actually, hold out. Hold out. You don't want to give in now. It's been 357 days. You do not want to crack at the last minute. So just please don't subscribe. Don't be part of this. Just kidding. You are part of this. And we are so grateful. It is day 357. We are reading 2 John, 3 John, 1 Timothy chapters 4, 5, and 6, and Proverbs chapter 30, verses 29 through 33.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. Men's Deeds, False Teaching, and True Riches The sins of some men are conspicuous, pointing to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
So also, good deeds are conspicuous, and even when they are not, they cannot remain hidden. Chapter 6. Let all who are under the yoke of slavery regard their masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be defamed. Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brethren.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Rather, they must serve all the better, since those who benefit from their service are believers and beloved. Teach and urge these duties. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching which accords with godliness, He is puffed up with conceit. He knows nothing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
He has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words which produce envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, and wrangling among men who are depraved in mind and bereft of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. There is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
But if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
the good fight of faith. But as for you, man of God, shun all this. Aim at righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
In the presence of God who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
And this will be made manifest at the proper time by the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
As for the rich in this world, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches, but on God, who richly furnishes us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good deeds, liberal and generous, thus laying up for themselves a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life which is life indeed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Personal Instructions and Benediction O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. For by professing it, some have missed the mark as regards the faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Three things are stately in their tread, four are stately in their stride. The lion, which is mightiest among beasts, and does not turn back before any, the striding cock, the he-goat, and a king striding before his people. If you have been foolish exalting yourself, or if you have been devising evil, put your hand on your mouth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
The second letter of John, salutation. The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, in truth and love. truth and love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
For pressing milk produces curds, pressing the nose produces blood, and pressing anger produces strife.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Thank you for your word. Thank you for calling us your children and making us into your children and your beloved son, Jesus Christ. We ask you to please help us to walk in faith, help us to walk in hope, and help us to walk in love in all things, in all ways. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
So as we noted before, the second letter and third letter of John are quite short. And yet the same themes apply where John is saying, okay, this is the key. This is the key. Love. That's it. And not only love in this idea of affective love, like affection. Affection is fine. Affection is good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
But John is talking about effective love in the same way that Jesus, when he preached love, he's talking about effective love, love that actually clothes the naked, love that actually does something. That's effective, right? Not just affection, which is a feeling, which is great. Love is felt, but it's more than a feeling. We recognize that love to truly be the love that God has must be effective.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
And that's one of the reasons why, as John reminds us, this is love, that we follow his commandments. So important. This is love that we follow God's commandments. And that's not only is it love, but also it is doctrine. It's truth. And so John talks about this truth and love. And that's these are two things that must go together. Truth without love is a hammer, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
Truth without love is just a sledgehammer. But love without truth is ineffectual. Love without truth is syrup, essentially. And neither of those actually does a lot of good. Neither of those build up. And what we're called to do is belong to the Lord and help in building up the people around us. Anyways, that's John.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
And the next time we see John, we're going to be hitting the book of Revelation, which is basically the day after tomorrow, which is kind of awesome. But we also have the conclusion of the first letter of St. Paul to Timothy. Now, remember, writing to Timothy, Timothy's living in Ephesus. And so the Ephesian Christians have got a number of things wrong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
And one of the things that they had gotten wrong is they started to have this, as the header of chapter four says, have a false asceticism. They were denying certain things. They were forbidding marriage. They were enjoining abstinence from some foods. And Paul is writing to Timothy saying, no, no, no, remember, Marriage is good. Marriage is a gift from God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
And also, remember, in the new covenant, you can eat all foods. Whatever food you have, you can eat those foods. It says, nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for then it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. There are also, this is the thing, there's also some people who were not living very noble lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
In fact, there's groups of older men who were, the stories are that they might have been walking around drunk all the time. There were older women who were widows, but they were wealthy widows. And so they're basically kind of living off of the generosity of the church. And they were giving the church a bad name. Not only were they giving a bad name, they were also gossiping.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
And that is, as we know, gossip is deadly to community. Gossip is deadly to relationships. And so here's Paul writing to Timothy saying, listen, those men, correct them, but correct them as you would correct a father, right? So you're not just lambasting them in front of everybody. And these women, remember, we need to give our support to true widows, those who actually are in need.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 357: Truth and Love (2024)
And those who are willing to take the gifts that we're giving them and not just live idly, but live nobly. And that's this key. It's really hard. It's one of those calls that we have, which is not simply to kind of throw charity wherever, but to apply it where it's needed. In fact, the reminder that St. Paul gives to Timothy to pass on to everyone in Ephesus is this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
runs to the battle line. And that is just, again, pray about this. Pray about, God, when do you want me to race toward the battle line? When do you, call me to wait, but when do you want me to race toward the battle line? And here is the last thing. David is a man after God's own heart in this battle. He does not say, I want to fight because I want to win all the prizes that Saul had promised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
He doesn't say, I want to fight because I want glory. He doesn't say, I want to fight because I want to be the person who does all the great things. He says, I'm fighting because this person is insulting the name of the living God. That he says, the worst thing about Goliath is not just the fact that he's a Philistine and they've been oppressing the Israelites. but that he is insulting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
He's offending the name of the true and living God. And that's what made something rise up in David. It was defending the Lord's honor. It was his love for God that brought him to the battle line. And I just think that is really incredibly remarkable. So we have all these lessons from just one chapter of 1 Samuel 17. I promise that in the future I won't go so deeply into.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
I just really like this chapter. One chapter, but still 20 minutes, roughly. You guys, thank you so much for your prayers. I recognize, you know, it's day 110, and I always ask you to pray. And I just, I can tell, I can tell. I feel so honored to be part of this community as we're journeying through the scriptures in this next time period of the royal kingdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
We've been, this is our day five into this, you know, on day 110. And I'm just, yeah, honored. Thank you so much for your prayers. Please know of my prayers for you. Let's keep praying for each other because of the fact that we can't do this on our own, especially when we need to face giants. We can't do this on our own. And so we need each other. And so we'll pray for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had greaves of bronze upon his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. And the shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron, and his shield-bearer went before him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 110, day 110. We're reading from 1 Samuel chapter 17, only one chapter today, but it is the epic showdown, the battle between... Shepherd Boy David and Mighty Warrior Goliath. So that's 1 Samuel chapter 17.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, Why have you come out to draw up for a battle? Am I not a Philistine and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And the Philistine said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistines, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul, the man was already old and advanced in years.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
The three eldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle, and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, the next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth between Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening. And Jesse said to David his son, Take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers. Also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See how your brothers fare, and bring some token from them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took the provisions and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the encampment as the host was going forth to the battle line, shouting the war cry. And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle army against army.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him. All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the man who kills him, the king will enrich with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel. And David said to the men who stood by him, What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? And the people answered him in the same way, So shall it be done to the man who kills him. Now Eliab, his eldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled against David. And he said, Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle. And David said, What have I done now? Was it not but a word? And he turned away from him toward another and spoke in the same way, and the people again answered him as before. When the words which David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth. But David said to Saul, Your servant used to keep sheep for his father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And when there came a lion or a bear and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if it arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has killed both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, seeing that he has defied the armies of the living God. And David said,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
We're also praying Psalm 12 today. As always, the Bible translation that I'm using is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition. I'm using actually the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go, and the Lord be with you. Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And David belted on his sword over his armor, and he tried in vain to go, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, I cannot go with these, for I am not used to them. And David put them off. Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's bag or wallet. His sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And the Philistine came on and drew near to David with his shield-bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and comely in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, Then David said to the Philistine,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with the javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth. that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with the stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaarim as far as Gath and Ekron. And the Israelites came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp, and David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem. But he put his armor in his tent."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, go into your app and click subscribe. And then everyone will be happy. And I'll be able to not remind you of doing this ever again. But I probably will tomorrow. Just letting you know. Just a heads up on that one. Probably say it again tomorrow. But today is day 110. I don't know why I'm saying it like that. Day 110.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
When Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As your soul lives, O king, I cannot tell. And the king said, Inquire whose son the stripling is. And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And Saul said to him, Whose son are you, young man?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
To the choir master, according to the Sheminith. A Psalm of David. Help, Lord, for there is no longer anyone that is godly, for the faithful have vanished from among the sons of men. Everyone utters lies to his neighbor with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts, those who say, with our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us, who is our master? Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan, I will now arise, says the Lord. I will place him in the safety for which he longs. The promises of the Lord are promises that are pure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
Silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. Do, O Lord, protect us. Guard us forever from this generation. On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And we give you just thanks. Thank you, God, for all that you've given to us. The very fact that our existence comes from you. I mean, you are the ground of all being, Father in heaven. You are the source of everything. That you are being itself. And just the fact that we get to exist is because you share your being with us. You share the gift of existing with us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
If you were to forget us for a moment, Lord God, we would cease to exist. And so thank you. Thank you for remembering us at all times. Thank you for holding us in existence at all times. Thank you for being so faithful and being such a good dad. Help us to not forget you. Help us to remember you and remember your love. Remember your faithfulness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
Help us to walk in faithfulness as we walk in thankfulness as well this day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So I don't know if I've ever said this before, but 1 Samuel chapter 17 is literally one of my favorite chapters in the entire Bible. I love the story of David and Goliath, and for so many reasons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And I love the fact that when here comes Goliath, right, and he challenges the armies of Israel, basically, you know, we don't need to have both our armies kill each other. How about let's just have one person go against one person and then whoever wins that army wins. It's a style of warfare that existed back in the day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And it's, I mean, it spares a lot of people's lives, which is pretty great thing. It's very high stakes though, obviously. But here's what I love about this is when David is sent from Bethlehem, right from his, his father, Jesse sends him to bring food to his brothers. David hears this and something in David is like, well, Someone's got to fight. Someone's got to do something.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
Remember how Jonathan was that you have the armies of Israel who are hiding in holes and Jonathan sees this and he's like, we have to go into battle. We have to do something against these Philistines. Here's David who has the same kind of heart. He's the same kind of person. David, here's this challenge. Here's my favorite part. Not my favorite part. Here's a favorite part.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
My gosh, you guys, let's stop for a second. Day 110. Well done. Phenomenal work. Just what a gift. Here we are reading from 1 Samuel chapter 17, praying Psalm 12. 1 Samuel chapter 17, David and Goliath. Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle and they were gathered at Socor, which belongs to Judah and encamped between Socor and Azekah and Ephesdamim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
where David's saying, you know, someone's got to fight, someone's got to fight. And his oldest brother, Eliab, hears him. And here's what he says. Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption, the evil of your heart. You just come down to see the battle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And David's, you know, so the older brother, classic older brother right there, right? Just, I know what's going on. You just wanted to see the show. You just wanted to talk big. And I love David's response because he says, what have I done now? Was it not but a word? And I just like, as a younger brother, I'm like, what? why are you so mad at me? I was just talking, you know, so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
I also have a great older brother, great younger brother. They're all great. Anyways, back to our story. What we have is then David with his just boldness and courage, where David says to the king, let your heart not fail because of him, because of Goliath. Let no man's heart fail because of Goliath. I'll go down and fight with this Philistine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
As a kid, he's like, no, hey, king, I know that, you know, you've led people to battle. I know you've been fighting for the people. I know you've been fighting the Philistines, but don't let your heart be troubled. I've got this. And I just think this is incredible. This shows us the heart of David that he's willing. And here's, okay, we keep moving, keep moving forward. Next favorite part.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
When Saul says you can't fight against him because you're a youth and he's been a warrior since his youth. And David describes how he spent his summers. And basically David says, yeah, I tend my father's sheep. You know, that's not just sitting around all day playing a liar like he played for Saul. He's not just sitting around all day playing Xbox and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
What he's doing is he is spending his time day and night defending these sheep against lions and against bears. And he's like, and he says, yes, that's what I, I do say. Here's the thing is so powerful. David has been training for this moment by, uh, doing his dad's will, right? Jesse sent him out to guard the flocks. And so here's David as a kid who's in charge of protecting the sheep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
He's in charge of protecting the flocks. And so what that means is he means, it means he has to fight against lions and bears, maybe even tigers. Oh my. And what he has to do there is place his life on the line and learn how to fight against And because he did that, then he can do this now. And this is so, so important for every one of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
We realize we don't, none of us know the battles that we're going to have to face in the future. All we know is the task that is at hand. And the great lesson for us is when we do the task that is at hand, we are preparing ourselves. We're being prepared for the battle that we're going to be facing in the future.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And if I avoid the task at hand, if I avoid doing my daily duties, essentially another way to say it, If I avoid the battles of now, I won't be prepared for the battles of later. David did not avoid the battles earlier on so that he was able to rise up in the moment when all Israel needed someone who was not just willing, but also able to face the giant. And I just think, think about this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
You and I are going to have giants in our lives. And so what we're called to do is, okay, face the battles of today so that we can be prepared to conquer the giants of tomorrow. Then Saul clothes David with his own armor, gives him his own sword and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
and remember saul is a shoulder and a head in the shoulder taller than anyone else and so this would not fit david he was not i assume not that tall his height is not mentioned once in scripture and so we recognize this is not going to fit him and he's not used to it he is not trained with these weapons he's trained with his sling he's trained with his staff
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
Last thing, maybe second to last thing. So David, yes, two last things. Here we go. There's a moment when David goes out against the Philistine. He goes out against Goliath. And it says in verse 48, it says, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. This is just critical.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. Sometimes I dawdle. Sometimes you might dawdle as well. Sometimes I hesitate. And sometimes you might hesitate as well, especially when it's time to move. It's time to go. It might be time to fight. It's time to act right now. And I hesitate and I wait and I linger and I maybe stroll up to the battle line. And David here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 110: David and Goliath (2025)
And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the valley of Elah and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side with a valley between them. And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
It is because that's my name. My name is Father Mike. And I am so grateful that we are taking this journey together. I'm praying for you and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
He was a lad with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought an ill report of them to their father. Now, Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a long robe with sleeves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they only hated him the more. He said to them, Hear this dream which I have dreamed. Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf. His brothers said to him, are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to have dominion over us? So they hated him yet more for his dreams and for his words. Then he dreamed another dream and he told it to his brothers and said, behold, I have dreamed another dream.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
And behold, the sun, the moon and 11 stars were bowing down to me. but when he told it to his father and to his brothers his father rebuked him and said to him what is this dream that you have dreamed shall i and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you and his brothers were jealous of him but his father kept this saying in mind
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
Now his brothers went to pastor their father's flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, are not your brothers pastoring the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them. And he said to him, here I am. So he said to him, go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock and bring me word again. So he sent him from the valley of Hebron and he came to Shechem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
And a man found him wandering in the fields and the man asked him, what are you seeking? I am seeking my brothers, he said. Tell me, I beg you, where are they pasturing the flock? And the man said, They have gone away, for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
They saw him afar off and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, here comes the dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we shall say that a wild beast has devoured him and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
This is day 19, so let's keep on going. Today we're reading actually only one chapter of Genesis, Genesis chapter 37. It is the beginning of the story of our friend... Our friend Job is there, our friend Joseph. And we're also reading Job chapter 27 and 28, and then Proverbs chapter 3, verses 25 through 27.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands saying, let us not take his life. And Reuben said to them, Shed no blood. Cast him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand upon him, that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore, and took him and cast him into the pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it. Then they sat down to eat, and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh on their way to carry it down to Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
Then Judah said to his brothers, What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh. And his brothers heeded him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
Then Midianite traders passed by, and they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver, and they took Joseph to Egypt. When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes and returned to his brothers and said, The lad is gone, and I, where shall I go?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
Then they took Joseph's robe and killed a goat and dipped the robe in the blood, and they sent the long robe with sleeves and brought it to their father and said, This we have found. See now whether it is your son's robe or not. And he recognized it and said, It is my son's robe. A wild beast has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, No. No. I shall go down to Sheol to my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
Job chapter 27 and 28. Job maintains his integrity. And Job again took up his discourse and said, as God lives, who has taken away my right and the almighty who has made my soul bitter. As long as my breath is in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips will not speak falsehood and my tongue will not utter deceit. Far be it from me to say that you are right.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we will read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
Till I die, I will not put away my integrity from me. I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go. My heart does not reproach me for any of my days. Let my enemy be as the wicked, and let him that rises up against me be as the unrighteous. For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life? Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times? I will teach you concerning the hand of God. What is with the Almighty I will not conceal. Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves. Why then have you become altogether vain? This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage which oppressors receive from the Almighty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
If you're interested in getting this Bible in your reading plan that we are going through, you can just go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year, and you can download that. I have it right in front of you. You can put it in your Bible, and you can follow along with us every single day. I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, Catholic edition of the Bible right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword, and his offspring have not enough to eat. Those who survive him the pestilence buries, and their widows make no lamentation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
though he heaps up silver like dust and pile up clothing like clay he may pile it up but the just will wear it and the innocent shall divide the silver the house which he builds is like a spider's web like a booth which a watchman makes he goes to bed rich but will do so no more when he opens his eyes and his wealth is gone Terrors overtake him like a flood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
In the night, a whirlwind carries him off. The east wind lifts him up and he is gone. It sweeps him out of his place. It hurls at him without pity. He flees from its power in headlong flight. It claps its hands at him and hisses at him from its place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
surely there is a mine for silver and a place for gold which they refine iron is taken out of the earth and copper is melted from the ore men put an end to darkness and search out to the farthest bound the ore in gloom and deep darkness They open shafts in a valley away from where men live. They are forgotten by travelers. They hang afar from men. They swing back and forth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
As for the earth, out of it comes bread, but underneath it is turned up as by fire. Its stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of gold. That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon's eye has not seen it. The proud beasts have not trodden it. The lion has not passed over it." Man puts his hand to the flinty rock and overturns mountains by the roots.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
He cuts out channels in the rocks and his eye sees every precious thing. He binds up the streams so that they do not trickle and the thing that is hidden he brings forth to light. But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know the way to it, and it is not found in the land of the living.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
The deep says, it is not in me, and the sea says, it is not with me. It cannot be gotten for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire. Gold and glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal. The price of wisdom is above pearls.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
The topaz of Ethiopia cannot compare with it, nor can it be valued in pure gold. From where does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air. Abaddon and death say, we have heard rumor of it with our ears. God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
And I'm using actually the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. It's just really, really good, especially when it comes to some of the details regarding notes, some of the details when it comes regarding maps, and also when it comes to the whole actual Great Adventure Bible timeline. This Great Adventure Bible is really, really helpful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
For he looks to the end of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he gave to the wind its weight and meted out the waters by measure, when he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder, then he saw it and declared it. He established it and searched it out. And he said to man, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
and to depart from evil is understanding. Proverbs 3, verses 25-27 Do not be afraid of sudden panic, or of the ruin of the wicked when it comes. For the Lord will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught. Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. God, you are good, and we give you praise. Thank you so much for your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
We ask that you please send your Holy Spirit to enliven our minds, to enliven our hearts as we belong to you more and more this day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So you guys, here we are. Only one chapter from Genesis, but today we get introduced kind of for the first time, basically.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
We heard his name once or twice before this, but for the first time we hear the story of Joseph. And he is beloved by Israel because he is the son of Rachel. And Joseph is not only that little brother, apparently, who is not necessarily entirely well-liked by his brothers. Actually, I'm laughing about it. But at the same time, we realize this is the brokenness that happens.
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Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
Gosh, is that like the key word? I brought it up every day in our journey of these last 19 days in the scripture is the word brokenness. But here's what we have. We have Joseph being 17 years old. So his older brothers are quite older. Quite a bit older. They can be. And what happens is because Israel loves their little brother more than them, here is jealousy. Here is envy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
And this is kind of the key, isn't it? When there is something unjust happening, At first, we're maybe righteous in noting that this is wrong. This isn't how it should be. But then something can happen and something can twist inside of us where we're not merely fighting for justice anymore, but now we're fighting out of a place of resentment, fighting out of a place of jealousy or envy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
And that's what we see happen. You go from a place where like, okay, here's our little brother who, I mean, gosh, at this point, he's the youngest son. At this point, he's the 11th. So Benjamin hasn't been born yet. As far as we know. And here is, because later on Joseph's going to find out, oh, there's a little brother named Benjamin. I didn't even know him.
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Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
His brothers go from this place of Joseph, who is not going to have a lot of power. He's not going to have a lot of authority. He's not the firstborn. He is the 11th born. And yet, because of this distortion, because of this jealousy that turns to envy, that turns to resentment, there seems to be no stopping what we will do when we feel resentment.
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Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
You can subscribe to this podcast by just clicking subscribe. It'd be super good if you did that, because then you would get the updates without any extra work from yourself. If you want to get an e-report on our email list, you can text the word Catholic Bible to the number 33777.
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Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
When we feel that someone else has something that we believe is ours. That, in so many ways, is the root of resentment. When we believe someone else has something that we believe is ours or should be ours. In this case, it was their father's love. So they're not wrong. They're not wrong, but they are wrong in choosing to be resentful.
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Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
And that resentment leads them to the place where they're literally willing to kill, to murder their youngest brother, a 17 year old. And you think, I would never do that. I could never get to that place. And yet, jealousy distorted into envy, distorted into resentment could lead us to do anything.
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Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
And so as we just read this story, one of the things we do, we pay attention to the brokenness, not to say, oh my gosh, I can't believe they were so broken back then. We read these stories so we know our family tree, but also so we know our own hearts. Because this is where God not only reveals his heart to us in his word, it also reveals our hearts to ourselves.
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Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
because we recognize that if I leave my, I recognize if I leave my jealousy unchecked, it becomes this envy that can become resentment, that can become deadly. And I don't want to be that kind of person. And I know that you don't want to be that kind of person. So what do we do?
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Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
We say, okay, Lord, if that jealousy has come up, if that envy has taken root in my heart, if resentment, where I think that someone else has something that ought to belong to me, then what I need to do So I need to turn to you. I need to tell the truth. And that truth is that their life is a gift. And it is not something that I can say is owed to me.
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Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
And in so many ways, the love of the people around us is not something that I can say is owed to me. When it is given, it just has to be received with gratitude. But it can't be something that is asserted or claimed or, or demanded. Just like this life. I can't believe that this life is something that is owed to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
Once again, as I said today, it is day 19, reading Genesis 37, Job 27 and 28 in Proverbs chapter three, verses 25 through 27. Genesis chapter 37. Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's sojournings in the land of Canaan. This is the history of the family of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers.
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Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
It is merely something that I can, when it's given to me, I can receive it with gratitude, but I can't demand it. I can't force it. It is simply a gift. So today is a gift for all of us, for every single one of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
And so as we launch forward into this day on this 19th day of this Bible in a year podcast, we just give thanks to the Lord because the cure for resentment, the cure for jealousy and envy is gratitude. And so Lord God, thank you. Thank you for this day. If you want to follow along, you can download the Bible in a year reading plan by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
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Day 19: Joseph and His Brothers (2025)
If you want to get updates, just text the words Catholic Bible, but with no spaces, Catholic Bible, all one word, to the number 33777. And as always, please pray for each other. Please pray for each other. You are not alone. And yet, you know, we know that He can feel alone pretty easily, pretty darn easily. And so another day, God's word. I was going to say, my name is Father Mike.
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
And one of the things we just get to pause in the scripture and allow scripture to speak into our hearts and to convict our hearts, because there are so many times when you and I, we choose evil and we think it just ends with us. It's just my choices, my personal thing, my whatever, my decision. But how often do others suffer because of my sins? How often do others suffer because of your sins?
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Then the king said to Amasa, Call the men of Judah together to me within three days, and be here yourself. So Amasa went to summon Judah, but he delayed beyond the set time which had been appointed him. And David said to Abishai, Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom. Take your lord's servants and pursue him, lest he get himself fortified cities and cause us trouble.
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
And so again, yes, we need to tell the full truth about Absalom, the full truth about David, and the full heinousness of what both of these men had done. But in light of that, we also get to ask the truth. We ask the question that reveals the truth of our own lives. How often have others suffered because of my sins?
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Because I know if you're like me, if you're honest like me about this, that is a hard question to answer. Not because it's hard to imagine where someone might have suffered because of our sins. It's a hard question to answer because it is hard to face the truth. It's hard to face this truth. We can only do it with God's grace.
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
We can only actually face, I think, the truth of our brokenness with God's help or else it's too much. It's too overwhelming. And so what we need to do is not just face the truth on our own. We face the truth with each other.
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
And that's one of the reasons why we pray for each other is because as we hear these stories and we think of these women, these 10 women who were violated and then who had to live the consequences of someone else's evil choice. I think of all the people in our lives who endured the consequences of others, of our evil choice. And so we pray, Lord, help us to never do that again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Help us to never make choices that hurt other people ever again. And when we do, help us to turn back to you, God. Help us to turn back to the Lord and to allow him to make us new. Then in spite of our past, to give us a future. So we pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
And there went out after Abishai, Joab, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men. They went out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba, the son of Bichri. When they were at the great stone, which is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet him. Now Joab was wearing a soldier's garment, and over it was a belt with a sword in its sheath fastened upon his loins.
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
And as he went forward, it fell out. And Joab said to Amasa, Is it well with you, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. But Amasa did not observe the sword which was in Joab's hand. So Joab struck him with it in the body and shed his bowels to the ground without striking a second blow, and he died.
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Then Joab and Abishai his brother pursued Sheba the son of Bichri. And one of Joab's men took his stand by Amasa and said, Whoever favors Joab and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab. And Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the highway, and anyone who came by, seeing him, stopped.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today, it is day 138. We are reading today from 2 Samuel chapter 20, 1 Chronicles chapter 25. We are praying tonight. today, right now, from Psalm 39. As always, the Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I am using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
And when the man saw that all the people stopped, he carried Amasa out of the highway into the field and threw a garment over him. When he was taken out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab to pursue Sheba, the son of Bichri. And Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel of Beth Ma'aka. And all the Bichrites assembled and followed him in.
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
And all the men who were with Joab came and besieged him and Abel of Beth Ma'aka and cast up a mound against the city and it stood against the rampart. And they were battering the wall to throw it down. Then a wise woman called from the city, Here, here, tell Joab, come here that I may speak to you. And he came near her, and the woman said, Are you Joab? He answered, I am.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Then she said to him, Listen to the words of your maidservant. And he answered, I am listening. Then she said, They were wont to say in old time, Let them but ask counsel at Abel. And so they settled the matter. I am one of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city which is a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up the heritage of the Lord?
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Joab answered, Far be it from me, far be it, that I should swallow up or destroy. That is not true. But a man of the hill country of Ephraim, called Sheba the son of Bichri, has lifted up his hand against King David. Give up him alone, and I will withdraw from the city. And the woman said to Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Then the woman went to all the people in her wisdom, and they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. So he blew the trumpet, and they dispersed from the city every man to his home. And Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Now Joab was in command of all the army of Israel, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was in command of the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and Adoram was in charge of the forced labor, and Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was the recorder, and Sheba was the secretary, and Zadok and Abiathar were priests, and Ira, the Jerite, was also David's priest.
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
David and the chiefs of the service also set apart for the service certain of the sons of Asaph and of Haman and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with lyres, with harps, and with cymbals.
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
The list of those who did the work and of their duties was of the sons of Asaph, Zechur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asheralah, sons of Asaph under the direction of Asaph, who prophesied under the direction of the king.
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Of Jeduthun, the sons of Jeduthun, Gedaliah, Zerui, Jeshiah, Shimei, Hashabiah, and Mattathiah, six, under the direction of their father Jeduthun, who prophesied with the lyre in thanksgiving and praise to the Lord. Of Haman, the sons of Haman, Bukaya, Mataniah, Uziel, Shebuel, and Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliatha, Gidalti, and Ramamti-Ezer, Josh-Pekashah, Malothai, Hothir, Mahazioth.
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
All these were the sons of Haman, the king's seer, according to the promise of God to exalt him. For God had given Haman fourteen sons and three daughters. They were all under the direction of their father in the music in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres for the service of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Haman were under the order of the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
And if you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. If you want to subscribe to this podcast, you can click on subscribe and you will be subscribed. As I said, it is day 138, reading 2 Samuel chapter 20, 1 Chronicles 25, and Psalm 39. The second book of Samuel chapter 20, the rebellion of Sheba.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
The number of them, along with their brethren, who were trained in the singing to the Lord, all who were skillful, was two hundred and eighty-eight. And they cast lots for their duties, small and great, teacher and pupil alike." The first lot fell for Asaph to Joseph. The second to Gedaliah, to him and his brethren and his sons, twelve. The third to Zechur, his sons and his brethren, twelve.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
The fourth to Izri, his sons and his brethren, twelve. The fifth to Nethaniah, his sons and his brethren, twelve. The sixth to Bukayah, his sons and his brethren, twelve. The seventh to Jesharalah, his sons and his brethren, twelve. The eighth to Jeshiah, his sons and his brethren, twelve. The ninth to Metaniah, his sons and his brethren, twelve.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
The tenth to Shimei, his sons and his brethren, twelve. The 11th to Azarel, his sons and his brethren, 12. The 12th to Hashabiah, his sons and his brethren, 12. To the 13th, Shubael, his sons and his brethren, 12. To the 14th, Mattathiah, his sons and his brethren, 12. To the 15th, Jeremoth, his sons and his brethren, 12. To the 16th, to Hananiah, his sons and his brethren, 12.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
To the 17th, to Joshbekashah, his sons and his brethren, twelve. To the eighteenth, to Hanani, his sons and his brethren, twelve. To the nineteenth, to Malathai, his sons and his brethren, twelve. To the twentieth, to Aliathah, his sons and his brethren, twelve. To the twenty-first, to Hothir, his sons and his brethren, twelve. To the twenty-second, to Gedalti, his sons and his brethren, twelve.
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
To the twenty-third, to Mahazioth, his sons and his brethren, twelve. To the twenty-fourth, to Ramamti-Ezer, his sons and his brethren, twelve. Psalm 39, prayer for wisdom and forgiveness, to the choir master, Jude Jedithun, a psalm of David. I said, I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue. I will bridle my mouth, so long as the wicked are in my presence. I was mute and silent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
I held my peace to no avail. My distress grew worse. My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue, Lord, let me know my end and what is the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is. Behold, you have made my days a few hand breaths and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight. Surely every man stands as a mere breath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Surely man goes about as a shadow. Surely for naught are they in turmoil. Man heaps up, and knows not who will gather. And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Make me not the scorn of the fool. I am silent. I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it. Remove your stroke from me. I am spent by the blows of your hand.
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
When you chasten man with rebukes for sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to him. Surely every man is a mere breath. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry. Hold not your peace at my tears, for I am your passing guest, a sojourner like all my fathers. Look away from me, that I may know gladness before I depart and be no more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Now there happened to be there a worthless fellow whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite. And he blew the trumpet and said, we have no portion in David and we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse, every man to his tents, O Israel. So all the men of Israel withdrew from David and followed Sheba, the son of Bichri.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and we thank you and we know that you love us and we know that we can trust in your love for us, even in the midst of darkness, even in the midst of failure, even in the midst of discipline. Lord God, as Psalm 39 says, that even when your hand is heavy upon us, even when your hand is heavy upon us, in discipline, in correction, we know that we can trust you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Help us to see your fatherhood in your discipline, to not give in to the temptation to see a tyrant when you are actually a good father, to not see a dictator when you're actually a good dad. But help us to receive the discipline that you allow to come our way, to receive the discipline that you bring into our lives so that we can have a change of heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
We can have a change of direction so that we can become more and more like you, our God, our father, our dad. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So in 1 Chronicles chapter 25, it's kind of, I think there's a really awesome connection today because what do we have?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
In Chronicles 25, it talks about the temple musicians and it describes the sons of Asaph, right? And of, sorry, not just Asaph, of Asaph, of Heman, or Heman, but hard for me not to say Heman, of Heman and Jeduthun, which is great, not only because we have all the names of their sons who were part of this, What were they set apart for? They were set apart for certain kinds of service.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
What was the service? The service was prophecy in song, like praise of God in song. They're the temple musicians. And so you have these three sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Jeduthun. And then we read Psalm 39, which is a Psalm of Jeduthun. So that's, I thought, wow. Wow. That's really, that's pretty cool. Pretty neat. Great connection today. But in 2 Samuel, what do we have?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
In 2 Samuel, we have a rebellion against King David, right? So David has now, I mean, in the previous chapter, in chapter 19, David has been hailed as he's the king. We're unanimous in this. Yes, we want him as our king. All of Israel, they were competing to say, who can... claim David sooner, who can honor David more when he's crossing the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
And they were resentful of Judah because they got to, you know, honor David by crossing over the Jordan with him. And now there's this guy, Sheba, the son of Bichri, who is what? A Benjaminite, right? Benjamin, tribe of Benjamin, same as King Saul, former King Saul. And he claims, no, you guys leave King David. I'm the new king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
And so all these tribes of Israel who had just been fighting to be the ones to honor David, a lot of them go over to follow Sheba, the son of Bichri. And again, it just goes to show the fickleness of the human heart. This is us. This isn't just way back when. This is completely us. You know, someone promises more. Someone promises better.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Someone is, you know, the idea of like new is always better. So we've had Saul. We've had David. Let's go with Sheba, the son of Bichri. And it doesn't go well, not only because they're able to defeat Bichri pretty handily. And how they defeat him is they go to the city, Abel of Beth Ma'aka. And they're gonna, Joab is gonna tear down the whole thing. They're gonna destroy the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
But the men of Judah followed their king steadfastly from the Jordan to Jerusalem. And David came to his house at Jerusalem, and the king took the ten concubines whom he had left to care for the house, and put them in a house under guard, and provided for them, but did not go into them. So they were shut up until the day of their death, living as if in widowhood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
And it says this wise woman calls and says, listen, we don't, we don't have a dog in this fight. Like we don't have a horse in this race. And so if you spare us, we'll get you Sheba. We'll give you a Sheba of son of Bichri. And so that's what they do. The people of the city, rather than having their city destroyed,
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
They essentially kill this man who was the revolutionary, who was the upstart, who was the one who wanted to become the new king. And they win, you know, the forces of David. They win. But here's what happens. I said Joab. She calls Joab, this wise woman. Why didn't she call Amasa? Because remember, Amasa was made the head of David's army.
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Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Well, we heard the story that David had sent Amasa to do the fighting, to do the battle. And Joab, who... did not like being replaced, I imagine, one would imagine, he essentially sneaks a knife into Hamasa's gut and it says he spills his bowels to the ground.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
Again, this violent and backstabbing and front-stabbing kind of situation where Joab, who was used to being the right hand of the king, basically makes it so he once again is the right hand of the king by slaying Hamasa. One more thing about this, and that is violence begets violence and evil doesn't stop with us. And this is one of the big key things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
There is a moment, there is a one verse of injustice. There's one verse of the consequences of evil here. And it's verse three in chapter 20. It says, David came to his house in Jerusalem and the king, King David, took the 10 concubines whom he left to care for the house. Remember those 10 concubines?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
David had left them to care for the house while he took all the other concubines, all the other wives with him. And while he was gone, what did Absalom do? Absalom had sexual relations with them in the sight of all the people. And so he dishonored his father in sight of the people. He raped these women in the sight of all the people. And so what does David do?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
He put them in a house under guard and provided for them, but he did not have sexual relations with them ever again. Because you can see this place that he knew that would not be lawful to do that kind of thing, but also he didn't want to put them away. They did nothing wrong. So they were shut up. They were essentially sequestered until the day of their deaths.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
And one of the things that this highlights is we hear this and go, that is unjust. And absolutely, you're completely right. Here, these women who are caught in the crossfire are used by these men first as concubines to David. Then as these pawns that Absalom was using to shame David, he used it to shame David by violating them. They did nothing, nothing wrong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
And one of the things we have to realize, if there's a deeper spiritual lesson in this, is how often others suffer because of our sins. Because this is just one of the things, right? They suffer because they're suffering because of Absalom's sins, and they're also suffering because of David's sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 138: The Effect of Sin on Others (2025)
But here's the thing is we can look at Absalom and David and say what they did was absolutely wrong. Yes. Now David didn't do the wrong thing and caring for them and yeah, difficult situation, but he did something wrong earlier and Absalom clearly did something absolutely evil and
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
Hey everyone, before we get started today, I want to let you know the Bible in a Year has brought the Word of God to so many people. As you know, you're part of this community, changing lives in so many incredible ways. We're humbled to play this role in God's plan and consider it our ongoing mission to keep bringing the Word of God to as many people as possible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
And what's happened is right before this, leading up to this, there has been a kind of a split in that community And there's a number of circumstances that led to that kind of split. And so they're not necessarily seeing each other as they should see each other.
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I think that there's something about that, that when we get the context for the letters, sometimes they become much more clear. It's kind of like the writings of the prophets where we can read them and say, I'm kind of getting stuff. But if we know the context more, here's what's going on at the time, then we recognize, oh, here is how not only this applied then and what they're talking about here,
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
And they're not really seeing the role of the Old Testament and the fulfillment of God's promises in the Old Testament as they should right now. And so that's what some of the things Paul is going to be addressing as he unpacks the heart of the gospel throughout the course of this letter to the Romans.
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But here's how it applies now. And I think so much more accessible and so much more like, as you say, oh, this is for me, not only for a community 2000 years ago, but this is for me. This is for us. This is for now.
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
And he begins by talking about how in chapter one, here are people who do not know who God is, but they should. The Gentiles, right? So there are Gentiles, Romans, here are people who were not raised Jewish. They didn't have the law, but that's not an excuse for them because they could look around the world and they could see that God exists.
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
They can see the beauty of creation and say, wait, there was a creator here. Nonetheless, they are exchanging. God himself for an image. They're exchanging the creator for a creature. And that exchange leads them to commit, as Paul describes, very serious sins. In verses 26, he begins to describe them. And these are sexual sins. It doesn't limit that.
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
He goes on in verse 29 to talk about all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, even says disobedience to parents is being part of this whole thing. Because one of the things we know to be true is when we turn away from God, our intellect is darkened even further.
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
When we turn away from God, the human heart almost knows no boundaries when it comes to the evil that we can devise and the evil that we can choose. And so here is Paul beginning by talking about how those Gentiles, those who weren't raised Jewish, they need the Lord. They need the gospel. And actually they need to have the obedience of faith because they have no excuse.
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Not only that, but also Jeff's joining us today, as you know. And Jeff also wants to introduce another thing. It's a companion, essentially, to the Bible in the Year.
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
They would know, you should know that some of these things you ought to never do. In chapter two, he's gonna go on to talk about how the Jews should have known better as well. But that's for tomorrow. Okay, we just started today. And ah, what a gift. What an incredible beginning today. I know that there's also the episode with Jeff and I introducing this last age, this age of the church right now.
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
You can also subscribe to this podcast if you're so inclined to do this on the homestretch. Because that's kind of where we are. This is kind of the beginning of the homestretch. I don't know. I don't wanna talk about it as if it's over yet because we still have a bunch of days left. You've done so well. By the way, this might not be day 322 in a row for you, which is phenomenal.
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
If you haven't checked that out already, please check that out. I am praying for you, I promise. And please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
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Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
Yeah, and I love that you pointed that out because for many reasons, but one of those reasons is I think we can look back and say, well, you know, Paul's story is over and Peter's story is over and Barnabas and Timothy, all those stories are written now. They've been lived. Those lives have been lived and now they're enjoying the reward.
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But we can realize that when they were writing these words, you know, here's Paul writing his prison letters. He was in the midst of uncertainty. He had no idea how it would all hash out. He had no idea how it would turn out. And so I think a lot of times we can look at that back then and think like, oh, that would have been so great.
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Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
And yet to be in that moment would be to be in a situation that was completely filled with uncertainty. It would be completely filled with, I have no idea what's going to happen next. I mean, honestly, when St. Paul goes to the list of all the ways in which he has, you know, basically suffered for the sake of the gospel, any one of those moments would be enough for it.
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a lot of us to be okay i'm gonna tap out here like i might not want to go any further because of the fact that i don't know okay i'm stranded you know he's shipwrecked what's gonna happen i mean he just says it as if i was shipwrecked a couple times you know as opposed to i would tell the whole story if it was me i'd be like okay there i was and here's the i had no idea what's coming next he just mentions it in passing as if there wasn't any uncertainty and yet of course there was because
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Just like us, Peter and Paul and all the apostles and other early disciples of Jesus, they lived in the same broken world and same fragile world and same dangerous world that we live in.
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Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
And so it's so good to listen to our older brothers and sisters and see their lives and see how they're living because we recognize that, okay, that same danger, that same uncertainty, that same suffering is ours as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
That's not a problem. That's not even a beginning of a problem. It's only an imaginary problem. When people say that, oh, I need to be right on top of things every day. I mean, if you are doing that, great job, well done. But if you haven't done that, That is an imaginary problem. That's not even a real thing. You showed up today, and that's all you need to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
Well, that makes so much sense, especially even the role, particularly of confirmation, because you have the apostles, who had been baptized, the apostles who had been essentially ordained at the Last Supper, the apostles who had been given the gift of being able to forgive sins here at the resurrection of Jesus at the end of John's Gospel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
On day 322, reading Acts chapter 1, Romans chapter 1, Proverbs 26, verses 24 through 26. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1. The promise of the Holy Spirit. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
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And yet still, they lacked this power of the Holy Spirit in this unique way, this power of Pentecost, the power of confirmation. And so, yeah, they had the Holy Spirit, and yet there was a certain charism of the Holy Spirit, a certain mark, a certain power of the Holy Spirit that had not yet been given to them. And so someone could say, well, I've been baptized. I have the Holy Spirit.
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You are right. You are correct. You do. And yet there's more. And that's what did Jesus say? He says that anyone, bad fathers, bad parents you might have who would, you know, you wouldn't even give your son a scorpion if they asked for an egg. But how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks him? And, uh, that's an incredible thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
Not only can you ask the Holy father to give you the Holy spirit now where you're listening to this, but also in that sacramental, that sacramental way, that way of power that comes through the sacraments of the church that Jesus had given to us is just. So essential and so powerful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
I'm glad you thanks for that reminder, because that's one of those where I think sometimes I just assume I just assume sometimes that, well, everyone's been confirmed or they've said yes to their confirmation. That happens to where we have we have people who, yeah, I was confirmed when I was however old.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
But they have not yet in some ways really cooperated or again said yes to that and said, okay, Lord, you gave me the gift of the Holy Spirit. I have allowed that gift to lie dormant in me. All it takes is essentially a good confession.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
And asking the Lord, come alive now in my life in the same way that you came alive in the lives of the apostles and the lives of those who were sent out and had lived radical lives, transformed witnesses to Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
So what I'm saying is the end of this year is not going to be the end of Bible in a Year.
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Of course, I was going to guess. You were going to guess.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking of the kingdom of God. And while staying with them, he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
Right, yeah. Maybe it'd be more appropriate for me to say the capstone would be that, that sense of, and here is not only now, here is into eternity, that vision, not only glimpse of the church on earth, but here's the church in heaven. Here's the bride in heaven, the bride of Christ, which is so good. Yeah, that's going to be a fun one. One of the things I noticed that is,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
And now we fit into that story today. We've just concluded the Gospel of Luke. And now today we're heading into that last age, last stage, last time period known as the church. But before we get to that, I want to let you know that there is a gifting campaign happening when it comes to the Bible in a Year. The Bible in a year has brought the word of God to so many people.
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A bit of a challenge is a lot of times when we have our daily mass readings, our readings from scripture, they're a number of verses long, but not too long. Because if they get too long, then we kind of get a little bit lost. There's so much content there that it's easy to be overwhelmed. If there were times in the Old Testament where people who are joining us were overwhelmed by
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
wow, this whole new story or this whole new kind of thing. The epistles of Paul are one of those places and the epistles of the others and the book of Revelation are one of those texts of scripture where we're going to go through chapters at a time. And it's one of those where I think...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
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If there's ever a time that you might want to follow along in your Bibles as we're reading, as you're listening, this might be one of those moments where you want to kind of like mark down something or write it down or you have a journal like, you know, Jeff, you have the Insight Journal, that kind of sense of being able to, I need to capture this right now because there's so much and there's so much.
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that the commentary section of the Bible in a Year podcast isn't able to cover everything. But I know that, I'm so convinced, just what has happened for the last 300 plus days is going to happen for the remainder of this year. And that is that even when it's a fire hydrant of just information and it can be overwhelming, the Lord is still speaking.
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And he's speaking not just to all y'all, he's speaking to you personally, individually, and he is going to help you hear what you need to hear this time. And Jeff, I remember when I went to Israel with you the first time, Uh, it was like drinking from a fair host. It was just, man, there's so much here. And I kind of got panicked.
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I had a little bit of anxiety of, I need to take everything in as much as I can until I realized I made the decision. I don't know, halfway through the pilgrimage, maybe I'm coming back. And when I made that decision, okay, I'm coming back, I was able to calm down because it was, okay, I don't need to take it all in right now.
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I'll take in whatever is given to me today, whatever is given to me at this moment, and I'll be back. And so I'll get more next time. And I think maybe for this community, that could be a really good solution. a thing as well, where you're just like, I'm getting overwhelmed by this, but you know what? It's okay. I'm coming back. I'm coming back to these letters.
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
the ascension of Jesus. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
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Yeah, so you can get that at ascensionpress.com slash companion, as well as if you want to be part of the gifting campaign to support the ministry, ascensionpress.com slash support. So those are the two words to remember, slash support and slash companion. And yeah, I think, Jeff, that's our advertisement for today, right? It is. That's a wrap. That's it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
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And
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
so far ascension has been able to add the podcast to youtube you might have found it that way maybe you're watching right now on youtube and also we're working on translating it into different languages so you could have the bible in a year in other languages than english but of course this takes a significant investment to bring projects like these you know free of cost to our listening communities and we want to keep them free of cost to all those people who participate because we want to get the word of god out there
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Honestly. And I'm glad you said that because there have been so many people who have been listening with us and they've said, I feel more confident now than maybe I've ever felt. Confident in the Lord, confident in my faith that I actually know who he is. And that sense of, you might even say, even increased faith where I just, I trust him.
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And I find myself in a world of insecurity, I can rely upon him in a very secure way. And Yeah, when we get to the end, we know that he has won it for us, and so we win. I'm so grateful. Jeff, I don't know if you have any last words for this entry into the time period, or if that might have been the last word, because that's a really good last word, or if you have anything else for us.
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Well, thanks for joining us today, everybody. We have the final... time period, the church launching off. And so, Jeff, my gosh, this has been incredible. Yesterday, most likely, people finished the Gospel of Luke, which is that, I don't want to say capstone, but in some ways, the capstone of everything we've been leading to. And now we're heading into the age we're living in, essentially.
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I'm with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Matthias chosen to replace Judas.
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That means a lot, Jeff, especially, well, you just, you probably know you're not only a friend and a brother, also in so many ways, a mentor. And I just, yeah, that just means a lot. Whole heck of a lot, as we'd say, and I'm grateful. And also, not only am I grateful for you, but also for the entire team of people who have made this work. And also for this community.
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So y'all, this is our last intro into our time periods. And so this is the home stretch, but it's not the... There's still days and days to come. So especially when you're battling that faithfulness, you know, in the upcoming weeks might be really busy for you. Know that we're walking with you and we're praying for you.
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I know that the whole team of people at Ascension are praying for every single person who's part of this community because they tell me, they let me know, like we're a regular basis. We get together as a company and we pray for those who are listening to the Bible in the air. I know that they're praying for you. I know Jeff is praying for you. And I too, I am praying for you. Please pray for me.
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Please pray for us. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
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We're going to be reading about the early church, but we're in the age of the church. And so what can people expect as they launch into these last number of days?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John, and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
In those days, Peter stood up among the brethren, the company of persons was in all about 120, and said, Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us, and was allotted his share in this ministry.
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
Now this man bought a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language, Akildama, that is, field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation become desolate, and let there be no one to live in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
And his office let another take. So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
And they prayed and said, Lord, you know the hearts of all men. Show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was enrolled with the eleven apostles.
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Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
As you know, you're part of this community, changing lives in so many incredible ways. We're humbled to play this role in God's plan and consider it our ongoing mission to keep bringing the word of God to as many people as possible. So what I'm saying is the end of this year is not going to be the end of Bible in a year. So far, Ascension has been able to add the podcast to YouTube.
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures. The gospel concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including yourselves, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints, grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Prayer of Thanksgiving.
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Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
Well, you mentioned too, this is the launching. You know, that sense of, you mentioned, there were two words I just cued in on. One was explosion, which is, yeah, I mean, as Jesus even says in Acts chapter one, He says, you'll receive the power or the dynamis of the Holy Spirit. And that explosion, that's what happens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
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Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds.
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
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Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
But then the launching of the first Christians, launching of the church into the world to change the world, essentially, to redeem the world. Gosh, it just, yeah, as you said, the story of the Acts of the Apostles is where we get introduced to some of these people who I mean, the apostles, obviously, that Jesus recruited, but also you have Paul and you have Barnabas.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I want you to know, brethren, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.
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Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
You have some of those characters that were part of that mission early on that were launched from this Acts of the Apostles time period and did exactly what you're saying. They went out and brought the gospel of mercy and hope and good news to the world. And we seemed unstoppable in so many ways, even though they definitely encountered opposition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. The Power of the Gospel For I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
And because of that, we have to rely on generous contributions from listeners like you to help defray these costs and to enable us to continually provide new audiences with this life-changing content. So if you would like to help support the Bible in a Year mission, you can go to ascensionpress.com support. That's ascensionpress.com support.
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Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith, as it is written, He who through faith is righteous shall live. God's wrath against man's wickedness. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature, namely his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions.
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Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
Yeah.
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Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
You know, it's so interesting too, because as you're pointing that out, here's Rome, which is the world superpower at this time. And Peter and Paul, they don't stay away from Rome. They don't stay away from the place where everything's going down. I mean, you imagine that in so many ways. Up until this moment, the story is centered on the Holy Land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct.
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Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
Yes, the people of Israel had been exiled, whether that be Egypt or Babylon. But the idea was, we'll stay here. And now they're launching, once again, launchpad. They're launching from that place where Christ walked and that place that was the land of the promised land. into new lands to bring the Evangelion, the real good news to the world. I just think it's a shift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
You might have found it that way. Maybe you're watching right now on YouTube. And also, we're working on translating it into different languages so you could have the Bible in a year in other languages than English. But, of course, this takes a significant investment to bring projects like these free of cost to our listening communities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
though they know God's decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but approve those who practice them. He who hates dissembles with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart. When he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
I mean, it's a fulfillment, obviously. Jesus is the fulfillment. But this shift in how is the promise going to be fulfilled, not simply by retaining the land and staying here, but it's we're going to the heart of the, in some ways, the heart of the beast, you know, by going to Rome and going all over the place and bringing that good news wherever they went.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
That's awesome.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
We give you praise. Thank you for not only for this new day, thank you for this new age, this new step we're taking in the age of the church, the age in which we're living currently, that we're hearing described in these first chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, in this first chapter of the letter of St. Paul to the Romans.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
We thank you, Lord God, not only for your son and for salvation, we thank you for the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of us and enables us not only to pray, but also to hear your word and let it transform our hearts. We ask you, Lord, to please come and fill us with your Holy Spirit, just like the apostles gathered together, united with each other and united with Mary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
Sorry, I was kind of flabbergasted. I was like, what? I knew the Remus and Romulus part, but I never made that connection with Rome. St. Peter and St. Paul. Yeah. And especially when it comes to redemption, when it comes to renewal, when it comes to restoration, this is the mission.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
We ask you to send your Holy Spirit upon us this day that we can be filled with your Spirit so we can bring your gospel and bring you, you, we want to bring you, Lord, to the world. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
And here is, you know, Rome that had done so much damage is being in some ways redeemed by the, that get restored by the two twins. We'll say twin apostles of Peter and Paul. Um, how, how much, you know, one of the things that's going to happen is he's mentioned acts. The apostles is, um,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
amen gosh you guys this is so good oh my gosh okay so here we are in the acts of the apostles and this is the age of the church as we noted before the acts of the apostles written by luke himself and so this is just an extension as jeff pointed out i think at the very beginning of the gospel of luke he pointed out that luke and acts at one point were all one just complete first book second book and we've separated them of course because it makes sense um but they're still here and so what do we have well a couple things
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
is the context, but we're also reading the letters of Paul, we're reading the letters of Peter and John, all the New Testament letters as well. Is there anything that you would say, unless you want to stay on Acts of the Apostles for a second more, but is there anything you would say that, okay, here's some things to pay attention to when reading some of these epistles?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
we have the ascension of Jesus. Now, the end of Luke's gospel, he talks about the ascension a bit. And in the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke talks about it again. He gives us different details. Here's one detail that I love highlighting because it's just, it's remarkable. I just, I think it's phenomenal. And it's this, is that here they are, Jesus leads them after the resurrection.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
They've been with him 40 days. And Jesus leads them outside the city of Jerusalem. And they know who he is now. They know that he is the Messiah. They know that he is the king who has come to establish the kingdom of God. And so they ask him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? This is what they've been praying for. He is the promised one, right? He is the king, the Messiah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
And we want to keep them free of cost to all those people who participate because we want to get the Word of God out there. And because of that, we have to rely on generous contributions from listeners like you to help defray these costs and to enable us to continually provide new audiences with this life-changing content.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
You guys, we know the whole story already. We know that God had promised he was going to establish a kingdom on the earth and that this kingdom would never end and that through this kingdom, he would bless the entire world. So, the apostles, knowing that Jesus is who he says he is, they ask the big question, the $25,000 question. When are you going to do it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
When will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And Jesus answers very cryptically. He says, basically, it's not for you to know the times or seasons, which the Father has appointed. So, basically, I'm not telling. But the next thing he says is, he says, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Basically, Jesus, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? And Jesus says, you are. Jesus, you're the Messiah. Are you going to restore the kingdom? You are. You're going to restore the kingdom. The Holy Spirit will come upon you. Remember, the Holy Spirit will come upon you in power.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day one of the church, and it's day 322. We're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter one. We're reading the letters of St. Paul to the Romans, chapter one, as well as Proverbs 26, verses 24 through 26.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
That word for power in verse eight of chapter one, you shall receive power is the Greek word dynamis or dynamis, right? It's where we get the word dynamite. And this is the power of the Holy Spirit, the kind of power that can blast holes in the Rocky Mountains and carve roads through mountains, right? So this is the kind of dynamite power that Jesus promises. Now, that's chapter two.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
That might be tomorrow. We'll see. We'll see if we read that tomorrow. Of course, we're going to. But Jesus is promising the dynamite power of the Holy Spirit, not little fun snaps, you know, like little kind of firecrackers, but dynamite power. and you'll receive dynamite power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And then you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, here in town, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
Especially you. Well, two and a half hours further away from the center than you. Yeah, well, you know, even it's Acts 1, right, where Jesus says, you'll be my witnesses here in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, to the ends of the earth. And then as you're saying that, just telescopes for the rest of the book of Acts to that exact same pattern. That's phenomenal. It's incredible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
Here in the city, in all Judea and Samaria, we know where those places are, and to the ends of the earth. It's so important for us to understand this. The word witness is the word, Greek word, martis, or martyr, right? It's the word where we get the word martyr from. You'll be my witnesses. You'll be my martyrs. You'll be the ones who bear witness to my life, death, and resurrection.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
And not only that, I know that our people who are listening, journeying with us, one of the things that is noted by Luke in writing the Acts of the Apostles is that A lot of times what caused that explosion, what caused that launching was persecution. It was as a result of this persecution, the Christians, they went out and they began to proclaim Christ in other places.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
You'll bear witness to mercy triumphing over evil. You'll be the ones bearing witness to grace triumphing over having triumph, having victory over disgrace. You're the ones who will bring hope where there is no hope. Now, this is the remarkable thing. We've been reading the Bible for 322 days. Whether that's been 322 consecutive days or not, it doesn't matter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
And that's just, that can be backwards for us. We think like if it's going to be blessed, it's going to... It's going to be blessed in a way that just I like. It'll be blessed in a way that just fruits everywhere, but it's often not only the fruit of Christ and his Holy Spirit, also the fruit of suffering that's going to be giving new life to the church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
But what matters is the Lord has led us to this moment where we know who the Lord is. We know who God is. We know the story. We know that we're part of the story. And here's Jesus making, you know, that intro we always do every single day. We point out how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. We say every single day when we do this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
So if you would like to help support the Bible in a year on mission, you can go to ascensionpress.com support. So that helps us move forward, helps us keep the Bible in the Year online in perpetuity, as well as developing those new programs and those new initiatives to bring the Bible in the Year to more people. If you want to support that, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash support.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
The truth of the matter is, this is where we fit. Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom? No, you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will. I cannot emphasize this enough. We, for 300 plus days, have allowed the Lord to shape our hearts, to shape the way we look at the world, the way we look at ourselves, the way we look at each other and at him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
And now he is calling us to not only know his mission, but to join his mission. Now he's not only calling us to have knowledge of, here's what God has done, but to be a part of what God is doing. My friends, this is incredible. This is an invitation that is just like Jesus walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee and seeing Simon and Andrew say, hey, come follow me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
Seeing James and John, come follow me. Walking up to Matthew, the tax collector, and saying, come follow me. Jesus today is saying, you know the story. You know who I am. You know you can trust me. Now come and follow me. And this is so important. So it's so critical and it's so massively unnecessary for every single one of us. Now, quickly, when it comes to the St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
Paul's letter to the Romans, this is, it's St. Paul's masterpiece. And when I talk to any scripture scholar, they basically say St. Paul's letter to the Romans or the letter to the Hebrews can be some of their favorite things to read at all, completely. Paul's writing to the Romans. He's never been there yet. He hasn't ever been to this community. He didn't found this community.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, because then you would know that today is day 322, and we're reading Acts 1, Romans 1, Proverbs 26.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
He wants to come see them. He wants to visit them. He wants to help them, wants to sustain them. And also he wants them to sustain him and to encourage him. He even says that in chapter one, verse 12. But he also talks about how he's not ashamed of the gospel. I love this. Such a powerful, powerful line. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel. This is verse 16 in chapter one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
Well, that sense of, you said, you know, that in the letters of Paul, epistles of Paul, all the letters in the New Testament, they're going to be teaching us theology. So there is that teaching of here is how Jesus is the fulfillment and here is what we believe. But also there's going to be a specific context. Whenever Paul is writing his letters, he's
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 322: The Ascension (2024)
It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Now, this is one of the issues that's happening in Rome. is that there is a Christian community made up of both of Jewish Christians and of Gentile Christians, right? So those who were not raised Jewish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Church (with Jeff Cavins) (2024)
He's addressing them to a certain group of people, typically about a challenge or typically about their experience or some kind of way in which, whether it be the Corinthians. And here's what I've heard is going down in your community. Here's where you need to start living these new lives or even to Timothy. encouraging him to be the Christian he's being called to be and living in this world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
But he's asked this of us. And in our abundance, to give in abundance is one of the things that is just such an incredible blessing. When we're surrounded by abundance, to give out of that abundance is such a gift. And that's what that Feast of Booth is all about.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
But in chapter 30, it talks about the keeping of avows and talks about the difference between if someone, a man, makes a vow, he shall keep the vow. And if he doesn't, that shall be on his head. He has bound himself, and that's a real thing. And when a woman makes a vow, Same kind of thing. But it does talk about the dynamic between men and women.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
If a woman is widowed or she's not married and she's not living under her father's home or in her husband's home, then she is in control of her own vows. But there is this, you know, as we said from Genesis chapter three, there is this balance when it comes to the life of the people of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
And that balance has to do with the fact that while men and women, male and female, are created equal in their dignity, equally made in God's image and likeness, oftentimes because of the fall, there is this sense of imbalance, right? There's this sense of what we don't like. I mean, we would say that, and not just don't like, but there is an unfairness in some ways.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
The law here, when it comes to her father or her husband being able to kind of cancel out her vow, isn't because that's the perfect thing or that's the way it ought to be. It's ascribing that's how life is in a broken world. And that's important for us to understand that it's not saying, okay, this is ideal world. In fact, let's talk about it like this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
All of the laws, we recognize every one of the laws is not written for an ideal world. All the laws of Deuteronomy, we've been going through almost the entire book in a couple of days, we'll be completely done with this book. All the laws of Leviticus, all the laws of Numbers, are given to the people of Israel because they're living in a broken world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
You don't need to give laws to people that are not living in a broken world, but we're trying to give, here's God giving that next step, that way of like, okay, when you're living in relationship with each other, when you're living in relationship with me, your tendency, your temptation is going to be to go beyond, to use each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
Your temptation is going to be to ignore me or to not give the Lord what is his due. And so these laws are here because your temptation is going to be to use each other, to manipulate each other, to dominate each other. And so these laws are there to put a cap on that. It's put a limit to that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
On the first day of the seventh month, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. It is a day for you to blow the trumpets and you shall offer a burnt offering, a pleasing order to the Lord. One young bull, one ram, seven male lambs, a year old without blemish. Also their cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
So that's kind of like one of the ways we can understand some of the laws that are, they don't fit in our time and place necessarily. Now, going on. When it comes to vows, though, we note that a vow is defined as a promise made to God. And that promise is binding. That vow is a promise made to God that's binding upon us. Now, it's not the same thing as a simple resolution.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
Like say, I want to read the Bible every day. And then you don't. And it's not like you are bound by that. And yet we recognize that any time we make a promise to God or a vow to God, it is going to be relatively, I was going to say relatively serious. And you can take that word relative out and say, really, it is going to be really serious.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
So much so that here is the book of Numbers that talks about how If you're released from your vow, then it will not be held against you. Which is to say that if you're not released from your vow, you don't live up to your vow, then it will be held against you. Because this is a serious thing. It is a serious thing to make a promise
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
to the Lord, which is one of the reasons why Jesus talks about rash oaths. He talks about taking the vow lightly. He said, don't swear upon the hair on your head because you can't make one hair white or black on your own. Don't swear upon the temple. Don't swear upon the footstool or on earth because it's God's footstool, upon heaven because it's where It's God's throne.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
But Jesus wasn't prohibiting the use of vows. He was highlighting the fact that the use of vows had proliferated in the early first century when Jesus was walking this earth. And what he was doing was he was highlighting the fact that we need to be very careful when we are making vows to the Lord because we're taking our lives into our hands when we do this kind of a thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
Now, all that is to say that in Deuteronomy chapter 29, here is the Lord who's renewing, making a new covenant in many ways with the people of Israel in the plains of Moab. Because they're about to head into the promised land. Moses is about to come to the end of his life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
And so here is this renewal of the covenant and the renewed invitation and command of the Lord God to say, do not turn to other gods because this is what you're going to want to do. I've said this so many times. I might sound like a broken record because the temptation is always going to be, let me just fit in. Let me just look like everyone else.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
But here is the Lord God who says you can't look like everyone else because you're not, not because you're special, but because you're mine. And that's the key for today as we move into the end of this Day 75 Bible in a Year podcast. Remember, you can't be like everyone else, not because you're special, but because you belong to him. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
Let's pray for each other as we continue on this incredible, incredible journey. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
three-tenths of an ephah for the bull, two-tenths for the ram, and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs, with one male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you, besides the burnt offering of the new moon and its cereal offering, and the continual burnt offering and its cereal offering, and their drink offering, according to the ordinance for them, a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 75. Oh my gosh, 75 is a phenomenal milestone. I think it's worth celebrating the fact that you made it to this day. We are reading from Numbers chapter 29 and 30, Deuteronomy chapter 29.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
offerings on the day of atonement. On the tenth day of this seventh month, you shall have a holy convocation and afflict yourselves. You shall do no work, but you shall offer a burnt offering to the Lord, a pleasing odor. One young bull, one ram, seven male lambs, a year old. they shall be to you without blemish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
And their cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for the bull, two tenths for the ram, a tenth for each of the seven lambs, also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the sin offering of atonement, and the continual burnt offering, and its cereal offering, and their drink offerings. offerings at the Feast of Booths.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, you shall have a holy convocation, you shall do no laborious work, and you shall keep a feast to the Lord seven days. And you shall offer a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord. Thirteen young bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
They shall be without blemish, and their cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three-tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bulls, two-tenths for each of the two rams, and a tenth for each of the fourteen lambs. Also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering, its cereal offering, and its drink offering, on the second day."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
twelve young bulls two rams fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish with the cereal offering and the drink offering for the bulls for the rams and for the lambs by number according to the ordinance also one male goat for a sin offering besides the continual burnt offering and its cereal offering and their drink offerings
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
on the third day, eleven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, with the cereal offerings and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs by number, according to the ordinance. Also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering, and its cereal offering, and its drink offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
on the fourth day ten bulls two rams fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish with the cereal offerings and the drink offerings for the bulls for the rams and for the lambs by number according to the ordinance also one male goat for a sin offering besides the continual burnt offering its cereal offering and its drink offering
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
On the fifth day, nine bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, with the cereal offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs by number according to the ordinance. Also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering and its cereal offering and its drink offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
on the sixth day eight bulls two rams fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish with the cereal offering and the drink offering for the bulls for the rams and for the lambs by number according to the ordinance also one male goat for a sin offering besides the continual burnt offering its cereal offering and its drink offerings
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
On the seventh day, seven bulls, two rams, 14 male lambs a year old without blemish, with the cereal offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs by number according to the ordinance. Also one male goat for a sin offering. Besides the continual burnt offering, its cereal offering and its drink offering. On the eighth day, you shall have a solemn assembly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
We're also praying Psalm 113. One of the things to keep in mind is we are getting to these last chapters in Numbers and the last chapters in Deuteronomy. And so to pay attention of like as the story kind of wraps up this desert wandering time period We're going to hear some rules. Gosh, that's a surprise. But we're also going to hear the ending of the story when it comes to the desert wanderings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
You shall do no laborious work, but you shall offer a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord, one bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish, and the cereal offering and the drink offerings for the bull, for the ram, and for the lambs by number according to the ordinance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
Also, one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering and its cereal offering and its drink offering. And Moses told the sons of Israel everything, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Chapter 30, The Keeping of Vows Moses said to the heads of the tribes of the sons of Israel, This is what the Lord has commanded.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
When a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
Or when a woman vows a vow to the Lord, and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father's house in her youth, and her father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she has bound herself, and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
But if her father expresses disapproval to her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself, shall stand. and the Lord will forgive her, because her father opposed her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
And if she is married to a husband, while under her vows or any thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she has bound herself, and her husband hears of it, and says nothing to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her pledges by which she has bound herself shall stand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
But if on the day that her husband comes to hear of it, he expresses disapproval, then he shall make void her vow which was on her, and the thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she bound herself, and the Lord will forgive her. But any vow of a widow or of a divorced woman, anything by which she has bound herself shall stand against her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
And if she vowed in her husband's house or bound herself by a pledge with an oath, and her husband heard of it and said nothing to her and did not oppose her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she bound herself shall stand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
But if her husband makes them null and void on the day that he hears them, then whatever proceeds out of her lips concerning her vows or concerning her pledge of herself shall not stand. Her husband has made them void, and the Lord will forgive her. Any vow and any binding oath to afflict herself her husband may establish or her husband may make void.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
But if her husband says nothing to her from day to day, then he establishes all her vows or all her pledges that are upon her. He has established them because he said nothing to her on the day that he heard of them. But if he makes them null and void after he has heard of them, then he shall bear her iniquity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
These are the statutes which the Lord commanded Moses as between a man and his wife and between a father and his daughter while in her youth from within her father's house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
The Book of Deuteronomy Chapter 29 The Covenant Renewed in Moab These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he had made with them at Horeb. And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
Not so much today, but keep that in mind as these times, as I mentioned before, the timelines are converging, right? Numbers telling the whole story from the beginning of Mount Sinai and the wandering through the wilderness. But then Deuteronomy being that look back that Moses has been able to proclaim to the people of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and those great wonders. But to this day, the Lord has not given you a mind to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. I have led you 40 years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out upon you and your sandals have not worn off your feet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
You have not eaten bread and you have not drunk wine or strong drink that you may know that I am the Lord, your God. And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them. We took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manasites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
Therefore, be careful to do the words of this covenant that you may prosper in all that you do. You stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God, the heads of your tribes, your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives and the sojourner who is in your camp, both he who hews your wood and he who draws your water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God makes with you this day, that he may establish you this day as his people, and that he may be your God as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
Nor is it with you only that I make this sworn covenant, but with him who is not here with us this day, as well as with him who stands here with us this day before the Lord our God, You know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them. Beware, lest there be among you a man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away this day from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart. This would lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. The Lord would not pardon him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy would smoke against that man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
And the curses written in this book would settle upon him and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven. And the Lord would single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
And the generation to come, your children who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes from a far land would say when they see the afflictions of that land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
and the sickness with which the Lord has made it sick, the whole land brimstone and salt, and a burnt-out waste, unsewn and growing nothing, where no grass can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Adma and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath. Yes, all the nations would say. Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What means the heat of this great anger?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
and then giving them that new law, or not the new law, but the law once again, knowing their hearts and knowing that they need to be reminded of the great laws of God. So the Bible translation we are reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
Then men would say, It is because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt and went and served other gods and worshipped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book. and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath and cast them into another land as at this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may all do the words of this law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations and his glory above the heavens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down upon the heavens and the earth. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
We thank you for this day. We thank you for the gift of your word. We thank you for the gift of your heart because you share your heart with us by sharing your word with us. In a special way, we give you praise for sharing the word made flesh, Jesus Christ, with us and giving us access to your heart, Father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
in jesus christ and the power of your holy spirit you give us access to your heart and we give you praise for that especially as we're coming closer and closer to the end of this desert wanderings and coming into the the period of conquest and judges we ask you to please give us courage give us strength give us a persistence and a perseverance to be able to continue to listen to your word to allow it to shape our heart and above all to give us your holy spirit that we can have
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
If you want to download your Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And if you have not yet subscribed in your podcast, please do that. But don't let me tell you what to do. Once again, we are reading today from Numbers chapter 29 and 30, Deuteronomy chapter 29, and as I said, Psalm 113. Deuteronomy chapter 29, offerings at the feast of trumpets.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
access to your heart and that we have the courage to pursue you with everything we are. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Well, one of the things I've noticed is that I say man, oh man, a lot at the end of these things. After I get done with the prayer, I say, man, oh man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
And I apologize for that because it's probably really annoying. One of the things we heard today, but man, oh man, one of the things we heard in Numbers chapter 30 Well, Numbers 29, we have a review of these are the gifts, these are the feasts. We have the Feast of Booths, we have the Feast of Trumpets, the Feast of Day of Atonement.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
You might have noticed that on the Day of Atonement, it is day they say you shall afflict yourselves. It's the only day that it says you shall afflict yourselves. It is the day of, as it says, the Day of Atonement. aptly named, because it is a day of sorrow for sins. And so the people would take upon themselves, remind themselves of their sins and offer those sacrifices.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
We heard all about the sacrifices for those three different feasts, trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Booths. One of the things you might have noticed is the repetition on the offering at the Feast of Booths. The one thing that changed every day, beginning on the first day, was there were 13 young bulls. And then the second day, 12, and the third day,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
11, and then so on and so forth, down to the seventh day. And eighth day, you shall have a solemn assembly. Seventh day, seven bulls, and that's the last thing. On the eighth day then, a solemn assembly, you offer to the Lord one bull, one ram, seven male lambs. And it changes because you're marking these days. One of the things about the Feast of Booths is that they're giving so many.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 75: The Keeping of Vows (2025)
You can hear this. I mean, the first day, 12 young bulls, two rams, 14 male lambs with all the cereal offerings and the drink offerings. Why? Because it's a feast of abundance. It's one of the great feasts of saying, Lord, you've given us so much. So we are going to give back so much. Not that the Lord needs this. And this is so important for all of us. He doesn't need this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
We don't know what happened to him. And so they have this uncertainty. And in the midst of their uncertainty, what do they do? They try to take control. And this is, oh my goodness, this is the lesson for all of us. Here is God who allows us to walk and invites us to walk in faith. He invites us to walk in the And yet in the midst of that uncertainty, what do we do? We say, well, what can I take?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
How can I take control of this situation? Because I'm tired of waiting and I'm tired of the uncertainty. I'm tired of not knowing. And so I'm going to take matters into my own hands. So that's the first thing. The first thing is, what's the impetus? What's the motivation for these people? It was not they wanted to rebel against God. This is very, very important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
They didn't say, we defy the God who brought us out of Egypt. They simply say, basically, we don't know what happened to this Moses. So what we're going to do is we're going to take matters into our own hands. We're going to take control of the situation. So that's the first thing to understand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
The second thing is, I think, very, very important, is that when Aaron makes the golden calf, how do the people respond? They are not acting as if they are turning away from the God who led them out of Egypt to a different God. What they're saying is, this, O Israel, is the God who led you out of Egypt. It's so fascinating that instead, they're not completely,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
I guess whole hog, I don't know what the term would be. They're not completely rejecting the God who delivered them out of slavery in Egypt, but they're ascribing to this image, the golden calf, the very role of God. So they're saying, this is the God who delivered you out of slavery. And this is the thing that's so often for us. So often for us, we turn to idols, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
We turn to other sources of trust or confidence. We take good things, make them into ultimate things. Why? Because we're uncertain and we want to take control. But then secondly, they do this in this, and we do this in this such a unique way where it's not... I'm turning away from God, but instead it's, I'm making a God of my own, a God that I can control.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
I'm making a God that I'm still saying that, no, this is the God, but it's one that I can put away when I'm done with him and take him out when I need him. You know, I think about this. How often do we treat God like that? Say, no, no, I know who you are. Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God, God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Trinity. Like, yes, I know this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
But then we treat God as a toy. We treat God as that kind of like, again, that idol. The idea is like, he's on the shelf. When I need him, I take him off the shelf. When I don't really want him around, I put him back on the shelf. And that's what you can do to a God that you've made on your own, is that you can isolate him. You can dismiss him when you want to, when you feel like it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And then he's there when you need him. But that's idolatry. And as someone has once said, that the human heart is an idol-making factory. And I believe that that is true about my heart. And that is true probably about your heart. Because if we have the broken human heart that we all have, we can trade in uncertainty for control, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And this is the heart of, in so many ways, what God is trying to do and break through to the people. One of the reasons, one of the things we're going to see as they journey through the wilderness in the book of Numbers and Deuteronomy, what we're going to see is here's God training his people to trust him. That they're not in control. Just like you and I are not in control.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
But God allows us, he calls us, and he calls us to walk in faith. Why? Not just so that, like, I don't want you to know what's next, what's happening next. It's, I want you to walk in faith so that you can learn, you can trust me. I know that you live in uncertain times. I know that what's going on in the world is uncertain. I know what's going on in your life is uncertain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And I know the temptation is to turn to something that you can control and put your faith in that. But here is the true God who says, no, I'm the true God. You can't control me, but you don't have to because I love you. Last thing, the last thing to note here, not only is to note that Aaron, it clearly says in Exodus that Aaron fashions the golden calf and then Aaron's excuses. They gave me gold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And Aaron said to them, Take off the rings of gold which are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people took off the rings of gold which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron, And he received the gold at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a molten calf.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
I threw it into the fire and there came out this golden calf. Like, okay, bro, whatever. But is the birth of Levitical priesthood. Up until this point, in the people of Israel, the father of the family was the priest of the family. So that Passover that we had at the very beginning of the book of Exodus, that Passover sacrifice was done by the father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
From now on, the Levites are going to be the priests. That priesthood was taken away from the, by nature, fatherhood. and is now given to the Levitical priesthood. That's why we have, obviously, the book of Leviticus, right? Because it's the Levitical priesthood coming from here, Exodus chapter 32, where the tribe of Levi becomes the tribe of priests.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And that's going to do a lot, obviously, to shape the future of the people of Israel. And it's also going to do a lot to reveal to us now in the new covenant what it is to be a priest as well. And so there we are, gosh, what a gift we have to be able to not only hear this story of Exodus chapter 32, but also of Leviticus 23, where we have the feasts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
We talked about them a couple of days ago, the feasts of tabernacle, the feasts of Passover, the feast of weeks. And so, and also the feast of Yom Kippur, the feast of the day of atonement, which we already talked about before. So again, some of these things, hopefully as we keep reading them again and again, the And that's not a mistake. That is on purpose and that is for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
So that we didn't just hear about something once and then we just kind of like, what was that? That we hear about it again and again. And we are going to hear about these feasts again, again, and again. And oh my gosh. So as we continue to pray with each other and we continue to pray for each other, recognize that our hearts can make idols out of almost anything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And so we pray for each other so that So that we have freedom and we have trust that even in the midst of uncertainty in our world, in our lives, in our hearts, that we have the confidence to follow after the Lord God as he truly has revealed himself. Pray for each other. Please pray for me. I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you again tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 47. We are reading from Exodus chapter 32, Leviticus chapter 23, and we are praying Psalm 79. Psalm 79. I keep forgetting to say that. I keep forgetting to mention that the Psalms are prayers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, Go down, for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them. But of you I will make a great nation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
But Moses begged the Lord his God and said, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, with evil intent he brought them forth to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
Turn from your fierce wrath and repent of this evil against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people. And Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tables of the covenant in his hands, tables that were written on both sides, on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There is a noise of a war in the camp. But Moses said, It is not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tables out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf which they had made and burnt it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it upon the water and made the sons of Israel drink it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And Moses said to Aaron, What did this people do to you that you have brought a great sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my Lord burn hot, you know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And I said to them, let any who have gold take it off. So they gave it to me and I threw it into the fire and there came out this calf. And he said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword on his side, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And when we don't just read the Psalms, we pray the Psalms, much like the rest of scripture. But there's something about the Psalms. There's something about that particular genre in the Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. And Moses said, Today you have ordained yourselves for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, that he may bestow a blessing upon you this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
The next day Moses said to the people, You have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. So Moses returned to the Lord and said, Alas, this people have sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I beg you, out of your book which you have written.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
But the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has sinned against me, him I will blot out of my book. But now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord sent a plague upon the people because they made the calf which Aaron made.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, say to the sons of Israel, the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, my appointed feasts are these. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
the passover these are the appointed feasts of the lord the holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them in the first month on the 14th day of the month in the evening is the lord's passover and on the 15th day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the lord seven days you shall eat unleavened bread on the first day you shall have a holy convocation you shall do no laborious work but you shall present an offering by fire to the lord seven days
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
where it's it's meant to be a prayer and so hopefully um that's the sense that you get and hopefully that's what's been happening if it hasn't well we have a lot of psalms to go so as you probably already know the bible translation that i'm reading from is the revised standard version second catholic edition i'm using the great adventure bible from ascension you can also follow along by downloading your own bible in a year reading plan
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
On the seventh day is a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. The offering of first fruits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, When you come into the land which I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, that you may find acceptance on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. And the cereal offering with it shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil to be offered by fire to the Lord, a pleasing odor. And the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And you shall eat neither bread nor grain, parched or fresh, until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. the feast of weeks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And you shall count from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven full weeks shall they be, counting 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a cereal offering of new grain to the Lord. You shall offer from your dwellings two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
They shall be baked with leaven as first fruits to the Lord. And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish and one young bull and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to the Lord with the cereal offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire, a pleasing order to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits as a wave offering before the Lord with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. And you shall make proclamation on the same day. You shall hold a holy convocation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
You shall do no laborious work. It is a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. The Feast of Trumpets And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
You shall do no laborious work, and you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. the day of atonement. And the Lord said to Moses, On the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present an offering by fire to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
When I say follow along, I mean, you get to see where we are and get to see where we're headed. But that reading plan is found at ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year, ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. And when you do that, you can check it off and you can check off every day and you can see that we're on page two and we're moving on to day two of page two, which is actually day 47.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And you shall do no work on this same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whoever is not afflicted on this same day shall be cut off from his people. And whoever does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest. And you shall afflict yourselves on the ninth day of the month, beginning at evening. From evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath. the Feast of Booths. And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month, and for seven days, is the Feast of Booths to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
On the first day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. Seven days you shall present offerings by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly. You shall do no laborious work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
these are the appointed feasts of the lord which you shall proclaim as times of holy convocations for presenting to the lord offerings by fire burnt offerings and cereal offerings sacrifices and drink offerings each on its proper day besides the sabbaths of the lord and besides your gifts and besides all your votive offerings and besides all your free will offerings which you give to the lord
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
on the fifteenth day of the seventh month when you have gathered in the produce of the land you shall keep the feast of the lord seven days on the first day shall be a solemn rest and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest and you shall take on the first day the fruit of goodly trees branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations. You shall keep it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
All that are native in Israel shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the sons of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
O God, the heathen have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in ruins. They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the air for food, the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth. They have poured out their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those round about us. How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealous wrath burn like fire? Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you and on the kingdoms that do not call upon your name, for they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his inhabitation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
Do not remember against us the iniquities of our forefathers. Let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God, our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us and forgive our sins for your name's sake. Why should the nations say, where is their God? Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
Anyways, you can also subscribe in your podcast app. All that being said, Today, moving on to the story of the golden calf in the book of Exodus chapter 32.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
Let the groans of the prisoners come before you according to your great power. Preserve those doomed to die. Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbors the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord. Then we, your people, the flock of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever. From generation to generation, we will recount your praise. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
We thank you for this prayer. We thank you for revealing to us the brokenness of our own hearts. When we hear the story of the Exodus and the story of the golden calf, we know, Lord God, that our hearts are idol-making machines and we can turn to anything instead of turning to you. Help us always, always to be faithful to you, not just in great things, but also in small things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
Lord God, we want to belong to you. We want to be yours. Help us to be yours fully. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. So, this is the famous story of the golden calf. Here's Moses on the mountain, and he's at Mount Sinai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 47: The Golden Calf (2025)
He's received the Ten Commandments, written as it specifically says, very, very clearly says, written by the very hand of God. And yet, meanwhile, down in the camp, what happens? There's a couple of things that are very important for us to highlight. One is that the people become upset. They become uncertain, right? Because here's Moses, the one who led them out of Egypt, he's nowhere to be seen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
He says, if anyone thinks he's religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, the man's religion is vain. I think that's fascinating, isn't it? Where we think, what does our speech have to do anything to do with belonging to true religion? belonging to the Lord for real in the depths of our heart. Well, St. James will go on tomorrow. We're going to hear about this more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
He'll go on to talk a little bit more about how our speech reveals the truth of our heart and how we will be reliable for every word that is uttered. And I think it's really remarkable. If anyone thinks he's religious, does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, that man's religion is vain. And again, I can go back to this because how often do we say words that ought not to be said?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
oh my gosh we just we just say stuff say things of gossip we say things of detraction we say things again we take the lord's name in vain all these pieces and we realize that when we do that we are demonstrating that we don't belong to the lord this is just bonkers
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, will receive anything from the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Again, taking care of those that no one else is taking care of. That is what true religion is all about. And then we have, of course, we have this big teaching in James, which is faith without works is dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
And this is really interesting. I don't want to be polemical about this, but it is really important. When St. Paul is writing about works, he's talking about works of the law. Remember that whenever St. Paul is writing and he's saying, you're not justified by works, you're justified by faith. Yes, he's talking about works of the law. He's talking about Old Testament covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
The Old Testament covenant does not justify anyone. The New Testament covenant is what justifies. Jesus does justify us, right? Again, through grace, we're justified. We're saved by grace through faith. Working itself out in love is the full formulation of the Catholic vision of what salvation really is. Saved by grace, God's gift through faith. Yes, that response to God's gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
working itself out in love, because as scripture makes it absolutely clear today, faith without works is dead. And that faith cannot save us. In verse 24, you see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. You know, I know, and I don't mean to make this into an argument. But one of the principles of the Protestant Reformation was faith alone, sola fide.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
And the hard thing, this kind of a challenging thing here, is the only time those words, faith and alone, are put together in the scriptures are right here in chapter two of James, verse 24, when James says, you can see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. And so it's worth highlighting, again, what I'm trying to do here is, like I said a couple days ago,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
I'm not trying to make a case. I'm not trying to convince anyone. Actually, I kind of am. I really believe that Jesus founded the Catholic Church. And so, of course, I am. And I believe that every person will find the fullness of faith in the Catholic Church. And so, but all my Protestant brothers and sisters, all of our friends who are separated brethren in Christ,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Basically, I'm not trying to beat you over the head about this. I do, I do believe that the Lord Jesus is calling you to become Catholic, but that's not the point. The point right now is just to explain a little bit about, wait a second, we've heard in Galatians, we've heard in Corinthians, we've heard these other places where St. Paul is saying that it's all about faith and not about works.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
And yet my story is that I hear you Catholics talking about works all the time. Well, this is one of the places where if you want to know where do Catholics get the truth that we need both faith and works. We're not saved by works. We're not saved by works. That's important. But where is the place that Catholics get the idea that we need faith and works? Well, here we are.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
This is one of the many places in James chapter two that comes from. Again, not trying to cause an argument, not trying to beat anyone about the head by this, but just trying to show here's where we get that from. And as I said, I love the Lord Jesus and I love our brothers and sisters who are Catholic, those who are not Catholic.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
But I do think, I think that everybody in the world should be Catholic. That's all I, That's all I'm saying. St. Paul's letter to the Philippians. Ah, just consider, consider how St. Paul makes it so clear that everything else in life is worthless when compared to Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
In fact, he says, whatever gain I had, this is chapter three, verse seven, whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. And he goes on to make it even more intense. He says,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him. This is so important. Why? Because that word refuse is actually the word for, we'll say dung, we'll say dung.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
I count everything, every gift in the world, every good thing I can do in the world, every possession I could possibly have, every accomplishment I could possibly have, I count that all to be fertilizer, we'll say, compared to knowing Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
not having a righteousness on my own based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Ah, so, so important. So good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds, and I'll weave it into that story today. It is day 350. You know what that means. You can do math. There's only 365 days in the year. And so that means we're a few days away from the conclusion of this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation, because like the flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass, its flower falls and its beauty perishes. So will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Trial and Temptation Blessed is the man who endures trial.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Again, we're not saying one or the other, not saying faith or works. We're saying faith and works are so, so incredibly important. But also I love this, St. Paul's last exhortation. This is chapter four, verse four. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. The last words that St. Paul has for us today in his letter to the Philippians are also just so good about what we feed ourselves with.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
He says, finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there's any excellence. anything worthy of praise, think about these things. There's this thing called the law of exposure. It's a psychological principle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
The law of exposure is those things that you think about, those things you expose yourself to, those are the things that shape your heart and they shape your mind. That's one of the reasons why for the last 350 days, we've been listening to God's word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
The law of exposure is that if we think about things that are pure and good and beautiful and excellent, then those things take root in our lives and we become like them. And that's what we've been striving after. Again, not just to learn more about God, although that's so important, but to be transformed, to be like him, because that's what he desires. He desires us to have hearts like him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
And so that's what I'm praying for. I'm praying to all of us separated brethren and those who are not even Christian yet, maybe those who are on their way in RCIA to get baptized. that all of us one day may be united in Christ Jesus our Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit in one body, giving glory to the Father. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Know this, my beloved brethren, that every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Therefore, put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls." Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets, but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man's religion is vain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Chapter two, warning against partiality. My brethren, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
For if a man with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your assembly and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in and you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, have a seat here please, while you say to the poor man, stand there or sit at my feet, have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
We're actually, we've departed from the historical books. Now we've concluded the Acts of the Apostles yesterday. And today we're starting exclusively, essentially letters and then the book of Revelation at the end in a little over a week from now. But today we're reading James chapter one and two, as well as Philippians chapters three and four. That's the conclusion of the letter of St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Listen, my beloved brethren, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme that honorable name by which you are called?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not kill.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
If you do not commit adultery but do kill, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty." For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Yet mercy triumphs over judgment. Faith without works is dead. What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish fellow, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by works.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. And he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way, was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same thing to you is not irksome to me and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evil workers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the true circumcision who worship God in spirit and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Paul to the Philippians. and Proverbs chapter 30, verses one through six. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if any other man thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness on my own based on law,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. pressing toward the goal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Let those of us who are mature be thus minded, and if in anything you are otherwise minded, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brethren, join in imitating me, and mark those who so walk as you have an example in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Their end is destruction. Their God is the belly and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. But our commonwealth is in heaven and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself. Chapter 4. Exhortations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates for the last 15 days of this podcast. You can do it if you like. If you don't, that is just fine. You need to stay 350. We're reading from James chapter one and two, Philippians chapters three and four, and Proverbs chapter 30, verses one through six.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Therefore, my brethren, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, stand firm in this way in the Lord, my beloved. I entreat Iodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. And I also ask you, who are a true co-worker, help these women, for they have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do, and the God of peace will be with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Acknowledgement of the Philippians Gifts I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I complain of want, for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
In any and all circumstances, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all things in him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
For even in Thessalonica, you sent me help once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit which increases to your credit. I have received full payment and more. I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Final greetings and benediction. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Sayings of Agur. The words of Agur, son of Jaca of Massa. The man says to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ukal, surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name and what is his son's name? Surely you know. Every word of God proves true. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
The Letter of James Chapter 1 Salutation James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greeting. Faith and Wisdom Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Another day. Thank you, Lord, for another day, for this next step, for the letter of James, for the conclusion of St. Paul's letter to the Philippians. We thank you, God. We ask you to please help us to put these into practice. Help us to put this instruction into action in our lives. Help us to be not only hearers of the word, but also doers of your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Lord God, let this time we've spent listening to your word, not simply wash over us and we just forget it and are unchanged by it, but help us to put this into practice, to put the love in our hearts into action in our lives and help us to do all of this in the name of Jesus and for the glory of God, the Father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, praise God. Oh my gosh. So we left behind, as we said yesterday, Acts chapter 28. And today we're starting the letter of James, very short letter, only two days, chapters one and two, and tomorrow will be chapters three, four, and five. But James, who is James?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
James is, as he says, servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. James is most likely, according to St. Jerome, James was the son of Clopas and Mary, the wife of Clopas. It says very clearly in scripture that Mary, the wife of Clopas, was the mother of James and Joses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
And so there is a, I'd say a more recent tradition that, well, we could go through this whole thing, but we would say this, that the ancient tradition of the church has always been that Mary was a virgin, that she had no other children other than Jesus. We talked about this a couple of the times when we hit the gospels.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
And how it said the brothers of Jesus is actually the Greek word adelphoi, which means, could mean brothers, means relatives, could mean cousins. So the earliest tradition of the church was that Jesus had no other brothers. And that here again, even St. Jerome in third and fourth century was like, no, no, James is a cousin of Jesus. He's an adelphoi of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
And he is the son of Mary, wife of Clopas, who is already indicated in scripture. So that's who James is. James is the Bishop of Jerusalem. We got that going. Okay. Okay. So, he's writing in Jerusalem to the tribes of the dispersion, basically to all those Jewish Christians who are outside Palestine, outside that region. And this is, I love how Jeff talks about the letter of James.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
He has a Bible study in it. I think it's called Pearls of Wisdom or something like this. And it is so good because James is so good. And the Bible study is great because Jeff's great. But The Bible study is really great because the letter of St. James is just phenomenal. Where, oh my gosh, he begins by saying, count it all joy when you meet various trials.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
For the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And this is so, so incredible. I don't know what even to highlight because St. James talks about So many things in these first two chapters that are worth reflecting on and praying for.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
It's almost like the New Testament version of the book of Proverbs, where almost every line is another little gem, another little, as Jeff talks about it, another pearl where we can take and just apply to our lives. For example, we would say this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
We would say in verse 12, blessed is the man who endures the trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he's tempted, I'm tempted by God for God cannot be tempted with evil. And he himself tempts no one. And then it's just really important for us to recognize this. It's so important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 350: Faith and Works (2024)
Another one, verse 19, know this, my beloved brethren, that every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger for the anger of man does not work for the righteousness of God. Just another gem. And what a gift we recognize also. that St. James talks about true religion and false religion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
He was given the responsibility of distributing money to the poor and buying stuff that was needed. He was given a place of responsibility that everyone would have known, oh, this is Judas. Of course we know Judas. And yet he had this secret life. He had this secret in his heart. And I just wonder if Judas had not confided in someone, if Judas hadn't realized that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
You know, for whatever reason, we don't know the reason why he betrayed Jesus. I mean, people have speculated on this, but we don't know why. If he had just turned to someone, turned to one of the brothers and said, you guys, here's what I'm wrestling with. Or even this, maybe better, turned to Jesus and said, Jesus, here's what I'm thinking about doing. Is this wrong? Is this right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
Obviously, it was wrong to hand Jesus over. But just think about a number of times people just try to go on their own. We try to live on our own. We try to live this life of the Christian on our own. And yet, whenever we try to do that and hide the depth of our heart because we're protecting ourselves, we think we're protecting others, it almost always ends in disaster.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
You have Peter's denial foretold as well. And Peter is so sure of himself. Peter says, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. And Peter gets revealed to him by Jesus. Actually, Peter, you're weaker than you think. Peter, you need more help than you realize. I'll tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
And yet we also have these words of promise. That's words of conviction, right? Oh my gosh, one of you will betray me. Peter, even though you say you'll lay down your life for me, you have denied me three times. But then here is Jesus who talks about, no, I'm going to prepare a place for you. Where I'm going, you know the way. And there's powerful lines. I'm the way and the truth and the life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
I will come back to you and take you to myself. And it's so powerful and so good and so incredible. And also we have this promise. The last couple of things. We have the promise of the Holy Spirit. In fact, I love this because in John's gospel. Jesus says, I will give you another consoler, another consoler. What does that mean? That means that he is the first consoler.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
And I love, someone had once pointed this out to me, that if the Holy Spirit is the other consoler, another consoler, that means Jesus is the first consoler. And this is the, are the arms of the Father reaching out to embrace us. That one arm being the Son and one arm being the Holy Spirit, the arms of the Father, our dad in heaven who reaches out to embrace us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
And yet we have the choice whether we wanna live in that embrace or not. And that's why Jesus' words of power, Jesus' words of abide in me, is I abide in you. He says, without me, you can do nothing, which is just so convicting. Oh my goodness, gosh. Without me, he says, you can do nothing. He doesn't say you can do less, although that's how I interpret it in my head too often.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
He came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, Jesus answered him, Peter said to him, Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no part in me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, He who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but he is clean all over, and you are clean. But
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
In my head, I have Jesus saying, without me, you won't be able to do as much as you can do with me. But he says, without me, you can do nothing. but in me, all things, all things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
Ah, I don't know what you're struggling with today, what kind of battles you're facing right now, what kind of challenges you're in the middle of right now, what kind of fears and anxieties are dominating your heart or at least threatening to dominate your heart. But right now, what we're called to do is we're called to find ourselves abiding in the heart of our Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
So I'm praying for you that you do that. And please pray that I can do that. That no matter what the circumstance, no matter what the situation, whether it's been revealed that I'm a Judas or been prophesied that I'll be a Peter, we pray for each other that we always will abide in Christ's heart and abide in his presence. Because the truth of the matter is,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
At one point, and many points maybe in our lives, we are that Judas who betrays the love of Jesus. And we are that Peter who denies that we've ever been close, that we know this God who has given him his everything for us. So help us, God, in heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
Let's pray for each other, you guys, that when we do find ourselves as the betrayer, as the denier, as the one who has walked away or run away, that we allow the grace of Jesus to bring us back. Keep praying for each other. Please pray for me. I'm praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
not all of you for he knew who was to betray him that was why he said you are not all clean when he had washed their feet and taken his garments and resumed his place he said to them do you know what i have done to you you call me teacher and lord and you are right for so i am if i then your lord and teacher have washed your feet you also ought to wash one another's feet
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Truly, truly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of you all. I know whom I have chosen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
It is that the scriptures may be fulfilled, He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. I tell you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly I say to you, he who receives anyone whom I send receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. Jesus foretells his betrayal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
into that story today it is day 103 we have three more days including today of the gospel of saint john so we're reading from john chapter 13 14 and 15. the context today is the last supper so um jesus is going to be saying a lot of words he's giving a lot of teachings here at the last supper in john 13 and 14 and 15. we're also reading from proverbs chapter 6 verses 6 through 11
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
When Jesus had thus spoken, he was troubled in spirit and testified, Truly, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me. The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was lying close to the breast of Jesus. So Simon Peter beckoned to him and said, Tell us who it is of whom he speaks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
So lying thus close to the breast of Jesus, he said to him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, It is he to whom I shall give this morsel when I have dipped it. So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, What you are going to do, do quickly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
Now no one at the table knew why he had said this to him. Some thought that because Judas had the money box, Jesus was telling him, buy what we need for the feast, or that he should give something to the poor. So after receiving the morsel, he immediately went out and it was night. The New Commandment When he had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in him God is glorified.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you, where I am going, you cannot come. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Jesus foretells Peter's denial. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus answered him, where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow afterward. Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
Jesus answered, Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly I say to you, the cock will not crow till you have denied me three times. Chapter 14 Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you also may be. And you know the way where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. Henceforth you know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father and we shall be satisfied. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
As always, the Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. The promise of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
If you love me, you will keep my commandments and I will ask the father and he will give you another consoler to be with you forever. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you desolate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
I will come to you, yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me, because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, "'Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?' Jesus answered him, "'If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words, and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me.'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
You also can subscribe to this podcast, since that way you get to receive daily episodes every day, because that's what daily means. That means you get them every day. Once again, we're reading from the Gospel of John, chapter 13, 14, and 15, Proverbs chapter 6, verses 6 through 11.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
You heard me say to you, I go away and I will come to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
He has no power over me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here. Chapter 15 Jesus, the True Vine I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full." This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
You are my friends, if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. This I command you, to love one another. the world's hatred. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
The Gospel of John Chapter 13 Jesus Washes the Disciples' Feet Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And during supper, when the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all this they will do to you on my account because they do not know him who sent me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my father." It is to fulfill the word that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
But when the counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the father, even the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father, he will bear witness to me. And you also are witnesses because you have been with me from the beginning. The book of Proverbs chapter six, verses six through 11. Go to the aunt, O sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her food in summer and gathers her sustenance and harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a vagabond and want like an armed man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
Father, we thank you. You are our good dad. And because Jesus Christ has sent the counselor, has sent the redeemer, he is the redeemer, he has sent the consoler, he has spent the spirit of truth into our hearts. We can call you dad because you look at us and you call us your sons and your daughters. And so this day, this day we praise you and we give you thanks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
This day we also come to you with our need because we know that you are a good dad. and you see us in the midst of our needs and you come to us with your help.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
Father in heaven, help us to never have mercenary hearts that just come to you when we need, but help us to have hearts like yours, hearts like your son, hearts like Jesus, where we love you in the midst of all seasons and all circumstances, where there's nothing that can stop us from doing your will and nothing that can stop us from abiding in the presence and in the heart and the grace of your son, Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
Help us to abide in you this day and every day. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So in John chapter 13 and 14 and 15, we have not only the washing of the disciples feet, right? So that's incredible teaching of Jesus where he's revealing that no servant is greater than his master and that as I have done, so you also must do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
And that's an incredible reminder of the The reality that Jesus said, I did not come to be served, but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many. But he also foretells his betrayal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
And one of the things that I think is remarkable, and we might repeat this as we get back to this messianic checkpoint multiple times, is that when Jesus announces his betrayal, he says, truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me. And then the next line in chapter 13, verse 22, it says, the disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. Now, I think about this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
There are 12 men here, 13, including Jesus, but 12 men here. And they have been camping. They've been living together day and night, honestly, for the last two and a half, three years. But they know each other really well. They would have to know each other very well at this point. And yet, when Jesus prophesies that one of them will betray him, None of them have any idea who it is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 103: Judas' Secrecy (2025)
They're at a loss, in other gospels it says, at a loss as to whom Jesus meant. And you think about, here's what Judas must have been living like. Judas must have been living such a private life, even in the midst of these brothers of his, even in the midst of these other apostles. that day and night, again, once again, he was even given the responsibility of the money box, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
And yet their lives on either sides of this day where Isaac and Rebecca meet was just like our lives, where they're walking in faith, where they're walking in trust, walking not knowing, is this the right decision? Is this the right direction? Am I doing the right thing? And yet God's providence is at work always.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
when we don't necessarily understand what he's doing in any given situation, to continue to give him praise then is the invitation. That is the challenge. That's what we're called to do this day and every day. Of course, our lives can often resemble the life of our friend Job, where he just keeps coming back to the Lord and just speaking to the Lord from the heart and saying, God, I would get it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
I would understand if... I had done something wrong. That makes sense. But this doesn't make sense. It just seems like you don't care. Coming back to that refrain. God, do you not care? Are you fighting against me? Are you fighting for me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
That's one of the reasons why it's so important for every one of us and every day to let our eyes, our heart, our attitude be shaped by scripture, because we realize that it is one thing to praise God when we see his presence. It's one thing to praise God when we understand his work, his providence. But it is another thing to say, I am in the darkness. I do not get this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
And yet you're calling me to keep putting one foot in front of the other. My brothers and sisters today, that's what God's calling one foot in front of the other. One foot in front of the other. Maybe today's a day where you can see his work. You can see his presence. You can understand his providence and give God glory for that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
But maybe today's a day where you just have to keep walking forward in the darkness. And we never forget in the darkness what we knew was true in the light. We walk with Isaac and Rebecca. We walk with Job. And we walk in faith. Please know if we keep praying every single day, this community of people walking through the Bible together, this Bible in a year is going to be, it is an adventure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
It's going to be an incredible, maybe even say great adventure, great adventure for all of us. If you're just joining us now, you can get updates by texting the word Catholic Bible to 33777. You can also download the Bible in a year reading plan. If you go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year, be sure to subscribe and please be sure to pray for each other. None of us can do this alone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
We're on this journey. We've started. We have so far to go, but we are well on our way. We have each other and we do have the grace of God, which we absolutely need right now and in every moment of our lives. My name is Father Mike, and I am praying for you. Please pray for me. See you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his house, who had charge of all that he had, Put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred and take a wife for my son Isaac.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
The servant said to him, perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came? Abraham said to him, see to it that you do not take my son back there. The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my birth and who spoke to me and swore to me, your descendants, I will give this land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
He will send his angel before you and you shall take a wife for my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine. only you must not take my son back there. So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Then the servant took 10 of his master's camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. And he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time when women go out to draw water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
And he said, O Lord, God of my master Abraham, grant me success today, I beg you, and show mercy to my master Abraham. Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Let the maiden to whom I shall say, please let down your jar that I may drink.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
And who shall say, drink, and I will draw water for your camels, let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown mercy to my master. Before he had done speaking, behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her water jar upon her shoulder and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
The maiden was very fair to look upon, a virgin whom no man had known. She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up. Then the servant ran to meet her and said, please give me a little water to drink from your jar. She said, drink my Lord. And she quickly let down her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
This is day 12. Let's get started. Let's keep going. Actually, man, oh man, this has been a... incredible gift. I am reading today from Genesis chapter 24, just that one chapter from Genesis, and also from Job chapter 13 and 14. We're getting closer and closer to the middle of the book of Job, and that is going to be kind of a crux moment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, I will draw water for your camels also until they have done drinking. So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to the well to draw and drew for all his camels. The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether the Lord had prospered his journey or not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
When the camels had done drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing a half a shekel and two bracelets for her arms weighing ten gold shekels and said, Tell me whose daughter you are. Is there room in your father's house for us to lodge in? She said to him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor. She added, We have both straw and food enough and room to lodge in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
the man bowed his head and worshiped the lord and said blessed be the lord the god of my master abraham who has not forsaken his mercy and his faithfulness towards my master as for me the lord has led me in the way to the house of my master's kinsman Then the maiden ran and told her mother's household about these things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Rebecca had a brother whose name was Laban, and Laban ran out to the man to the spring when he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister's arms. And when he heard the words of Rebecca, his sister, thus the man spoke to me. He went to the man, and behold, he was standing by the camels at the spring. He said, Come in, O blessed of the Lord. Why do you stand outside?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
For I have prepared the house and that place for your camels. So the man came into the house, and Laban ungirded the camels, and gave him straw and food for the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him. Then food was set before him to eat, but he said, I will not eat until I have told my errand. He said, speak on. So he said, I am Abraham's servant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
The Lord has greatly blessed my master and he has become great. He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, men's servants and maid servants, camels and donkeys. And Sarah, my master's wife, bore a son to my master when she was old, and to him he has given all that he has.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
My master made me swear, saying, You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I dwell, but you shall go to my father's house and to my kindred and take a wife for my son. I said to my master, perhaps the woman will not follow me. But he said to me, the Lord before whom I walk will send his angel with you and prosper your way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
And you shall take a wife for my son from my kindred and from my father's house. then you will be free from my oath when you come to my kindred. And if they will not give her to you, you will be free from my oath. I came today to the spring and I said, oh Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if now you will prosper the way which I go, behold, I am standing by the spring of water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Let the young woman who comes out to draw to whom I shall say, please give me a little water from your jar to drink. And who will say to me, drink, and I will draw for your camels also. Let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master's son. Before I had done speaking in my heart, behold, Rebecca came out with her water jar on her shoulder and she went down to the spring and drew.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
I said to her, please let me drink. She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder and said, drink and I will give your camels drink also. So I drank, and she gave the camel's drink also. Then I asked her, Whose daughter are you? She said, The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bore to him. So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her arms.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
We're also reading from Proverbs chapter 2, verses 16 through 19. I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, the Catholic edition, and I'm using actually the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Then I bowed my head and worshipped the Lord and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to take the daughter of my master's kinsman for his son. Now then, if you will deal loyally and truly with my master, tell me, and if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left. Then Laban and Bethuel answered, The thing comes from the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
We cannot speak to you bad or good. Behold, Rebekah is before you. Take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master's son, as the Lord has spoken. Let the maiden remain with us a while, at least ten days. After that she may go. But he said to them, do not delay me since the Lord has prospered my way. Let me go that I may go to my master. They said, we will call the maiden and ask her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
And they called Rebecca and said to her, will you go with this man? She said, I will go. So they sent away Rebecca, their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant and his men. And they blessed Rebecca and said to her, Our sister, be the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and may your descendants possess the gait of those who hate them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
If you want to follow along in your own Bible, whether it's the Great Adventure Bible or whatever Bible you have around, you can download your Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Again, that's ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also sign up. You can subscribe to this podcast.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Then Rebecca and her maids arose and rode upon the camels and followed the man. Thus the servant took Rebecca and went his way. Now Isaac had come from Bir Lahairoi and was dwelling in the Negev. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening and he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, there were camels coming.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
And Rebecca lifted up her eyes and when she saw Isaac, she alighted from the camel and said to the servant, who is the man yonder walking in the field to meet us? The servant said, it is my master. So she took her veil and covered herself and the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into the tent and took Rebecca, and she became his wife, and he loved her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Behold, my eye has seen all this. My ear has heard and understood it. What you know, I also know. I'm not inferior to you, but I would speak to the Almighty and desire to argue my case with God. As for you, you whitewash with lies. Worthless physicians are you all. Oh, that you would keep silent and it would be your wisdom. Hear now my reasoning and listen to the pleadings of my lips.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Will you speak falsely for God and speak deceitfully for him? Will you show partiality toward him? Will you plead the case for God? Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him as one deceives a man? He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality. Will not his majesty terrify you and dread of him fall upon you? Your maxims are proverbs of ashes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Your defenses are defenses of clay. Let me have silence and I will speak. Let come on me what may. I will take my flesh and my teeth and put my life in my hand. Behold, he will slay me. I have no hope, yet I will defend my ways to his face. This will be my salvation, that a godless man shall not come before him. Listen carefully to my words and let my declaration be in your ears.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Behold, I have prepared my case. I know that I shall be vindicated. Who is there that will contend with me? For then I would be silent and die. Only two things grant to me. Then I will not hide myself from your face. Withdraw your hand far from me and let not dread of you terrify me. Then call and I will answer. Or let me speak and do reply to me. How many are my iniquities and my sins?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Make me know my transgression and my sin. Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy? Will you frighten a driven leaf and pursue dry chaff? For you write bitter things against me and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth. You have put my feet in the stocks and watch all my paths. You set a bound to the soles of my feet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Just click that little subscribe button and you'll get an update every single day. You can also sign up for our email list by texting the word Catholic Bible to the number 33777. That's Catholic Bible to 33777. As I said, we are reading today from Genesis 24. We get to kind of follow new people. Abraham. is still around, but Isaac is now around as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten. Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and withers. He flees like a shadow and continues not. And do you open your eyes upon such a one and bring him into judgment with you? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Since his days are determined and the number of his months is with you and you have appointed his bounds that cannot pass, look away from him and desist that he may enjoy like a hireling his day. For there is hope for a tree if it be cut down that it will sprout again and that its shoots will not cease.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Though its root grow old in the earth and its stump die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant. But man dies and is laid low. Man breathes his last, and where is he? As water falls from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up, so man lies down and rises not again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Till the heavens are no more, he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep. O that you would hide me in Sheol, and that you would conceal me until your wrath be passed, that you would appoint me a set time and remember me. If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my service, I would wait till my release should come. You would call and I would answer you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
You would long for the work of your hands. For then you would number my steps. You would not keep watch over my sin. My transgression would be sealed up in a bag and you would cover over my iniquity. But the mountains fall and crumble away and the rock is removed from its place. The water wears away the stones, the torrents wash away the soil of the earth, and so you destroy the hope of man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
You prevail forever against him and he passes. You change his countenance and send him away. His sons come to honor and he does not know it. They are brought low and he perceives it not. He feels only the pain of his own body and he mourns only for himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
You will be saved from the loose woman, from the adventurous with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. For her house sinks down to death and her paths to the shades. None who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life. God of heaven, we thank you so much for your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
We thank you for sharing your heart with us through your scripture. And we ask that you please help us always to see with your eyes and to love always with your heart. In Jesus' name we pray. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. You know, it's so interesting how powerfully we rely upon God's grace or how necessary our dependence is upon what God does in our lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
The story of the servant of Abraham finding Isaac a bride is all about God's providence. It's all about the depth of our need. Imagine this servant who is going to a far off land where he knows literally nobody. And he has this prayer. The prayer is, but Lord, without you, I can't do anything. But without you, I'm just wandering in the darkness. I'm wandering in complete unknown.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
And we get to see what his story is and how this story unfolds that God had promised to bless the world through Abraham and his descendants. And so now we're going to meet some of the descendants. We go on to the story of the marriage of Isaac and Rebecca in Genesis chapter 24. Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Everything is simply just me on my own, and me on my own is not enough. And yet God is present. And it's interesting because one of the things we are confident about is when we can see God's providence working. So we have this story, right? In retrospect, we have the story of Isaac and Rebekah becoming husband and wife.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
And they're going to later on become the mother and father of Israel, of Jacob and Esau, of course. And in retrospect, we can see God's providence and how this worked. And the prayer of the servant was answered. And it's clearly Rebekah is, you know,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
Intended for, for Isaac and it's seems so neat and seems so clear and we can praise God when we understand and we can see his providence in the get it. Cause we see him being active. We know that he's there. But we have to understand that God's providence is always working, even when we don't see it, even when we're unaware of it, even when we don't understand it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 12: Isaac and Rebekah (2025)
But God's providence is working in every single situation. The one thing about reading these stories of our forefathers, our ancestors in the faith, is it all seems so neat. It all seems so tidy. It seems so clean. And yet...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Half of chapter 13 is the story of how Amnon essentially rapes his sister Tamar. And you can see in this played out the mystery of sin. This is just the mystery of sin that it says that Amnon made himself sick over this. How much he loved her. There's not another word that we can translate in 2 Samuel. The word is lust, really. He doesn't love his sister Tamar. He simply wanted to use her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
He was lusting over her. Although scripture, again, there's limited words. So it just says he loved his sister Tamar. And then we have Amnon's buddy who says, here's the trick. Here's how to get this woman into your presence in private so you can just do whatever you want with her. And here is Tamar, who is just simply serving her brother.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And this is just, gosh, I know this is a painful chapter for so many people who have been in this situation. Even chapter 11 being a painful situation when we talk about the story of David and Bathsheba. And this is one of the words I just want to speak to all of our sisters here who have experienced that exploitation of someone like Amnon or someone like David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And that sense of being able to say, I've been in that situation, but here is the story of sin. Amnon basically takes his sister. And this is just the mystery of sin, not just sexual sin, but the mystery of almost any sin where here is Tamar who says, don't do this. Basically, she's arguing for her dignity and she's arguing so powerfully for her dignity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
She's basically saying, if you talk to our father, David, we can be married. I don't know all the situations and outs of how that would work with half brother, half sister kind of situation. But here's Tamar who at least offers something of dignity, right? Something of like, treat me like a human being.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Treat me like someone who's worthy of respect, worthy of dignity by marrying me, not by simply taking advantage and raping me. But he would not listen. And he was stronger than her. And he forced her and he lay with her. And then the verse 15 says, then Amnon hated her with a very great hatred so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And again, this is part of the mystery of sin, not just every, not just sexual sin, but almost every sin where we finally get what we've been pining after, coveting, lusting after, and we finally get it. And then we hate. There is this sense of shame. There's a sense of disgust. Now, Amnon treated Tamar horribly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And now he feels horribly and he despised her presence because she's a sign of his shame. And she says, don't, please don't put me away because you've just done this. You've done, you've defiled me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Essentially right here is Tamar who, yeah, she wasn't, I don't see merely, wasn't merely raped, but here Amnon in that culture, he had destroyed not only Tamar's present, he had destroyed her future because now how can she be someone's wife? Because again, in that culture, you marry a And here is Tamar, who's now been defiled by her brother, basically used up and discarded.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And again, let's go back to this place of just place of grace. We're called upon Jesus now because there are so many people who are listening that this, you've experienced this. You have experienced this firsthand where someone violated you. And just in Jesus name, I just want you to know. That Tamar's story is horrible.
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Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, please let my sister Tamar come and make me a couple of cakes in my sight that I may eat from her hand. Then David sent home to Tamar saying, go to your brother Amnon's house and prepare food for him.
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Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And because you can see her cry of her heart where she says, not only have you used me up, now you're throwing me away. And I know that so many people who have been used like this, they feel they're used up. They feel they're disqualified. They feel they can't ever be loved again. And that's not true.
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Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
We, in Jesus' name, I just want to pray in Jesus' name over you, listening to this, hear my words in your ears and let the words of God penetrate your hearts, is that you are not unlovable. Even if someone has used you and abused you, you are not unlovable. You're not disqualified from being loved truly and forever. You're not disqualified that you're present.
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Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Your past has been marked by true wounds and true ugliness and true evil, but your future is restorable. Your future is redeemable. Your future is a future full of hope because our God is a God who takes things that are broken and makes them whole again. He takes things that are lost and he finds them. He takes things that are dead and he gives them life again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And if you feel yourself, you know, this is for everybody, whatever your experience has been, if you feel broken and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
jesus desires to make you whole if you feel lost he desires to find you and if you feel dead he wants to raise you up and give you a future full of hope just hear these words this is true about how god's love for you and your future your life is not over not by a long shot as we return to our story it says in verse 21 when king david heard all these things he was very angry
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Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And then he goes on to say, Absalom also hated Amnon. And then as we see, Absalom waits two years and then he kills, he avenges his sister by killing his half-brother Amnon. There's a couple of things to pay attention to here. One is here's Absalom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 131, day 131, which is also Ascension. one of my favorite Psalms. And we are reading not from that Psalm, but from 2 Samuel chapter 13, also 1 Chronicles chapter 17.
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Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
This is going to be the beginning of Absalom becoming a rebel against King David and beginning to try to get the people of Israel on his side against his father's. That's one critical thing. But the thing that's maybe even more critical is this is the first time we see David, actually in chapter 11, right? Remember he was on mission and he wasn't living on mission.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
He was called to go out and fight, but he wasn't fighting. He was staying back in Jerusalem, sitting in the palace, and then he falls into adultery, falls into murder. Here's David again in verse 21. When King David heard of all these things, he was very angry. But if you notice something, it doesn't say that he did anything. He didn't do anything.
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Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house where he was lying down and she took dough and kneaded it and made cakes in his sight and baked the cakes. And she took the pan and emptied it out before him, but he refused to eat. And Amnon said, send out everyone from me. So everyone went out from him. Then Amnon said to Tamar, bring the food into the chamber that I may eat from your hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
David was angry with his son Amnon, who had raped his daughter Tamar. He was angry, but he didn't do anything. And this is one of those things particularly important for all of us. Remember David, who would pray. He would say, God, is this the fight you want me to enter into? Or is this the fight you want me to stay away from? He would ask God and God would say, yeah, go up or no, stay back.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
But here's David who is angry and then he just goes about his business. He's angry, but he's not a dad. He's not engaging with his sons who have done this horrible, his son has done this horrible thing, not defending his daughter who had to live through this horrible thing. David is angry, but he does nothing. He doesn't even ask God, should I engage in this battle or avoid this battle?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And that's for all of us. Gosh, we're gonna see the consequences of this in the next couple of chapters, the next few days. But this will be one of the marks of David's life. is when it came to his own family, he started living off mission in chapter 11. And it seems like right now he stays off mission.
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Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
His heart is still the heart of man after God's own heart, but his actions, his actions do not live up to his high call. And so I just ask God for myself and for you, for all of us, that we all have a high call. We've been made into the children of the father. You have a high call and we are made people who have hearts after God's own heart. And yet we don't always live up to that call.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And so we just need to pray for each other and pray for the wounded among us and pray for the broken among us and pray for the lost among us and pray for those who are dead among us, that God can heal us, make us whole, find us and bring us back to life. I'm praying for you. Please pray for each other and pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And Tamar took the cakes she had made and brought them into the chamber to Amnon, her brother. But when she brought them near him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, come lie with me, my sister. She answered him, no, my brother, do not force me for such a thing is not done in Israel. Do not do this wanton folly. As for me, where could I carry my shame? And as for you,
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Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
you would be as one of the wanton fools in Israel. Now therefore I beg you, speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you. But he would not listen to her, and being stronger than her, he forced her and lay with her. Then Amnon hated her with very great hatred, so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her.
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Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And Amnon said to her, Arise, be gone. But she said to him, No, my brother, for this wrong in sending me away is greater than the other which you did to me. but he would not listen to her. He called the young man who served him and said, put this woman out of my presence and bolt the door after her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Now she was wearing a long robe with sleeves, for thus were the virgin daughters of the king clad of old. So his servant put her out and bolted the door after her. And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long robe which she wore. And she laid her hand on her head and went away, crying aloud as she went. And her brother Absalom said to her, Has Amnon your brother been with you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Now hold your peace, my sister. He is your brother. Do not take this to heart. So Tamar dwelt, a desolate woman, in her brother Absalom's house. When King David heard of all these things, he was very angry. But Absalom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad, for Absalom hated Amnon because he had forced his sister Tamar. Absalom avenges his sister.
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Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
After two full years, Absalom had sheep sharers at Baal Hazor, which is near Ephraim, and Absalom invited all the king's sons. And Absalom came to the king and said, Behold, your servant has sheep sharers. Please let the king and his servants go with your servant. But the king said to Absalom, No, my son, let us not all go, lest we be burdensome to you.
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Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
He pressed him, but he would not go, but gave him his blessing. Then Absalom said, If not, please let my brother Amnon go with us. And the king said to him, Why should he go with you? But Absalom pressed him until he let Amnon and all the king's sons go with him. Then Absalom commanded his servants, Mark when Amnon's heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, strike Amnon, then kill him.
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Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Fear not. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and be valiant. So the servants of Absalom did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king's sons arose and each mounted his mule and fled. While they were on the way, tidings came to David. Absalom has slain all the king's sons and not one of them is left.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And the Psalm today that we're praying is Psalm 35. As always, the translation that I am reading is from, is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition, I am specifically reading from the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Then the king arose and tore his garments and lay on the earth and all his servants who were standing by tore their garments. But Jonadab, the son of Shimea, David's brother, said, Let not my lord suppose that they have killed all the young men, the king's sons. For Amnon alone is dead. For by the command of Absalom, this has been determined from the day he forced his sister Tamar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Now therefore, let not my lord the king so take it to heart as to suppose that all the king's sons are dead. For Amnon alone is dead. But Absalom fled. And the young man who kept the watch lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, many people were coming from the Horonaim road by the side of the mountain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And Jonadab said to the king, Behold, the king's sons have come, as your servant said, so it has come about. And as soon as he had finished speaking, behold, the king's sons came and lifted up their voice and wept. And the king also and all his servants wept very bitterly. Absalom flees. But Absalom fled and went to Telmai, the son of Amihud, king of Geshur.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And David mourned for his son day after day. So Absalom fled and went to Geshur and was there three years. And the spirit of the king longed to go forth to Absalom, for he was comforted about Amnon, seeing he was dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Now when David dwelt in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent. And Nathan said to David, Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you. But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, Go and tell my servant David, Thus says the Lord, You shall not build me a house to dwell in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I led up Israel to this day, but I have gone from tent to tent and from dwelling to dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Now therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a name like the name of the great ones of the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
and I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall waste them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel, and I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover, I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe, and that would be wonderful. As I said, it is day 131. We are reading from 2 Samuel chapter 13, 1 Chronicles chapter 17, and praying Psalm 35. 2 Samuel chapter 13, Amnon defiles Tamar. Now Absalom, David's son, had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar. And after a time, Amnon, David's son, loved her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
When your days are fulfilled to go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build the house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
I will not take my merciful love from him as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever." In accordance with all these words and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. David's Prayer And this was a small thing in your eyes, O God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
You have also spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come and have shown me future generations, O Lord God. And what more can David say to you for honoring your servant? For you know your servant. For your servant's sake, O Lord, and according to your own heart, you have wrought all this greatness and making known all these great things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
There is none like you, O Lord, and there is no God besides you. According to all that we heard with our ears, what other nation on earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to be his people, making for yourself a name for great and terrible things and driving out nations before your people whom you redeemed from Egypt?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
and you made your people Israel to be your people forever, and you, O Lord, became their God. And now, O Lord, let the word which you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house be established forever, and do as you have spoken, and your name will be established and magnified forever, saying, The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel's God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And the house of your servant David will be established before you, for you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him. Therefore, your servant has found courage to pray before you. And now, O Lord, you are God, and you have promised this good thing to your servant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Now, therefore, may it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you, for what you, O Lord, have blessed is blessed forever. Psalm 35, Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies, a Psalm of David. Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help.
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Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers. Say to my soul, I am your deliverance. Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life. Let them be turned back and confounded who devise evil against me. Let them be like chaff before the wind with the angel of the Lord driving them on. Let their way be dark and slippery with the angel of the Lord pursuing them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
For without cause they hid their net for me. Without cause they dug a pit for my life. Let ruin come upon them unawares and let the net which they hid ensnare them. Let them fall therein to ruin. Then my soul shall rejoice in the Lord, exulting in his deliverance. All my bones shall say, O Lord, who is like you, who deliver the weak from him who is too strong for him?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
the weak and needy from him who despoils him. Malicious witnesses rise up. They ask of me things that I do not know. They repay me evil for good. My soul is forlorn. But I, when they were sick, I wore sackcloth. I afflicted myself with fasting. I prayed with my head bowed on my bosom as though I grieved for my friend or my brother.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
I went about as one who laments his mother, bowed down and in mourning. But at my stumbling they gather in glee. They gathered together against me. Cripples whom I did not know slandered me without ceasing. They impiously mocked more and more, gnashing at me with their teeth. How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from the ravages, my life from the lions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Then I will thank you in the great congregation. In the mighty throng I will praise you. Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foe, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause. For they do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land they conceive words of deceit. They open wide their mouths against me. They say, Aha, aha, our eyes have seen it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And Amnon was so tormented that he made himself ill because of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin and it seemed impossible to Amnon to do anything to her. But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother. And Jonadab was a very crafty man. And he said to him, O son of the king, why are you so haggard morning after morning? Will you not tell me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
You have seen, O Lord. Be not silent. O Lord, be not far from me. Bestir yourself and awake for my right, for my cause, my God and my Lord. Vindicate me, O Lord, my God, according to your righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me. Let them not say to themselves, Aha, we have our heart's desire. Let them not say we have swallowed him up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Let them be put to shame and confusion altogether who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me. Let those who desire my vindication shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, Great is the Lord who delights in the welfare of his servant. Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and we thank you because we do find ourselves in battles. We find ourselves called upon to act, called upon to speak, called upon to refrain from acting and called upon to be silent. All these different times, Lord, it's so confusing sometimes how we should act and how we should not act. When we should move, when we should not move.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Lord, especially when you've entrusted your children to our care. It's hard to know when discipline is called for and when mercy is called for. It's hard to know when justice is called for and when forgiveness and clemency is called for. And so, God, we just ask for your wisdom in making decisions, your wisdom in assisting others, your wisdom in serving others, and your wisdom in leading others.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Because God is often complex. Life is often complex. And the next step is not always absolutely clear. And so we pray for wisdom, to know what to do, to know how to move forward, to know how to be yours, and to know how to actually help the people around us. Help us to be the kind of people who can help the people around us. I make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
amen gosh man oh man we so let's first start with first chronicles because it's a little bit easier we have the it's not a redo right you know redux of second samuel where david says hey i hear i'm living in a house of cedar and god's living in a tent and nathan says go ahead do whatever you want but then you know comes to him and says no you don't have to make me a name you have to make me a house i'm gonna make you a house i'm gonna build of you a great name and then david's prayer is so good because he realizes
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
God says, I took you from the fields. I took you from leading sheep and I made you the king over all Israel. And there's something so powerful about that. David realizes that he has been blessed. He's been called to greatness. He truly has been called to greatness. He's been given a mission. Remember this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Remember when David first met Samuel and Samuel comes before all of Jesse's sons and God points out and says, no, David's the one. David is the one that I want to be anointed to be king of my people Israel. He's a man after my own heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Remember what God had said about David when he said, the man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks into the heart and he saw something in David's heart that that was chosen, right? That he anointed him. We have to note this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
We have to note that first Chronicles chapter 17, where God reaffirms the fact that David's dynasty will endure forever, that his son will be on the throne and there'll be a kingdom through which this family blesses the entire world. I bring all those good things up about David that again, the Lord reminding, no, I have anointed David in first Chronicles that of him, I will make a great nation and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
I remind us of this because we know in 2 Samuel 11 that David commits adultery with Bathsheba and sexually exploits her. We know that he arranges for the murder of her husband Uriah. We know that in chapter 12, David is busted by Nathan the prophet and that David repents of this sin and yet there's still consequences to his sin. And one of the consequences is here in chapter 13.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
Amnon said to him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister. Jonadab said to him, Lie down on your bed and pretend to be ill. And when your father comes to see you, say to him, Let my sister Tamar come and give me bread to eat and prepare the food in my sight that I may see it and eat it from her hand. So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 131: Hope for the Future (2025)
And here in chapter 13, we have one of David's sons, Absalom, another who has a sister, Tamar, one of David's daughters, Tamar. And he has a half-brother, Amnon. So another son of David is Amnon. And we've got the story, right, where here is Amnon who is lusting after his half-sister, Tamar. So they have the same dad, different moms. And it's just, it's horrible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
I beg you, do not torment me. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the desert. Jesus then asked him, What is your name? And he said, Legion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
For many demons had entered him, and they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them leave. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how he who had been possessed with demons was healed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged him that he might be with him. But he sent him away, saying, Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. a girl restored to life, and a woman healed. Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue, and falling at Jesus' feet, he begged him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
As he went, the people pressed around him, and a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years and had spent all her living upon physicians and could not be healed by anyone came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her flow of blood ceased. And Jesus said, Who was it that touched me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
When all denied it, Peter said, Master, the multitudes surround you and press upon you. But Jesus said, Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone forth from me. And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him, declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And he said to her, Daughter, Your faith has made you well. Go in peace. While he was still speaking, a man from the ruler's house came and said, Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. But Jesus, on hearing this, answered him, Do not fear. Only believe, and she shall be well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it? And he looked around on them all and said to him, Stretch out your hand. And he did so, and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus. Jesus chooses the 12 disciples.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And when he came to the house, he permitted no one to enter with him except Peter and John and James and the father and mother of the child. And all were weeping and bewailing her, but he said, Do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But taking her by the hand, he called, saying, Child, arise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 315. Oh my gosh, what a great gift. We're reading Luke chapter 6, 7, and 8. We're also reading Proverbs chapter 26, verses 1 through 3.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And her spirit returned, and she got up at once, and he directed that something should be given her to eat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened. The book of Proverbs chapter 26 verses 1 through 3.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool. Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight. A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and thank you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Thank you for this day. Thank you for your word. Thank you for continuing to call us back to yourself so that we can not only hear your word, but also see your word, your word made flesh in action. Lord God, as we hear the description of how your son, Jesus Christ, has lived and walked among us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
we see your heart, your heart for those who are forgotten, your heart for those who are neglected, your heart for those who even are enemies. And God, we know how often we've made ourselves your enemy. And what we see is we see your love. We see you commanding us to love our enemies because when we were your enemies, you loved us. When we had rebelled against you, You died for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
You gave your life for us. Help us to live our lives for you this day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Gosh, I might have mentioned this yesterday. One of the problems with going through all four Gospels is I can't remember what I highlighted in the previous three. Also, there's so much action.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
We go through three chapters today and every one of these chapters has so much. They are what they call action-packed. And so here we are. But I want to highlight this. We had in Matthew's gospel, we had the Sermon on the Mount. This is in Luke's gospel, what's called the Sermon on the Plain. It's very, very similar to the Sermon on the Mount.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
It's kind of an abbreviated form of what Jesus must have preached multiple times, right? He must have taught this wherever he went, the Beatitudes, right? The blessings and woes. There's something about this and also about the teaching of love for enemies. When Jesus teaches about love for enemies, he is asking us to do something that is radically different.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Now, in our day and age, mercy is a virtue, right? In our day and age, we recognize that we've been so shaped for the last 2,000 years by Christianity that we recognize that graciousness, we recognize that mercy are virtues. They're things that can be a virtue of honor, some kind of behavior that's worth praising. And yet, mercy was not until Christianity. Mercy was not considered to be a virtue.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
It was considered to be a weakness. Why would you? Why would you ever allow someone to do something evil and let them get away with it? Why would you ever forgive someone? Why would you take those who were actually your enemies and pray for them? Why would you love them? That doesn't make any sense. And it's true. It doesn't make any sense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Unless, unless there's a higher law, a higher law than justice. We have talked about this so many times in the old Testament. One of the things that God reveals is that he is a God of justice so that yes, we need to pay back what we owe and that we are owed what other people need to pay us back with. and there's even a higher call. In the midst of justice, this higher call is mercy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
In these days, he went out to the hills to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his disciples and chose from them 12, whom he named apostles, Simon, whom he named Peter,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And mercy is very interesting. You know, the Latin word for mercy is misericordia. Misericordia, right? That's the word. That is where love meets our need. That is where love meets us in our misery. That misericordia, right? That misery. When, you know, we've said this before, I will say it a thousand times again, is that mercy is the love that we do not deserve.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Mercy is love and we need to be loved the most and we deserve to be loved the least. So even you have this story of the centurion, right? And he is in the village and he has a slave who needs healing and the people come to Jesus and they say, he's worthy for you to do this because he loves our people. He built us a synagogue. And yet the man, the centurion, he knows his state.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
He knows the truth about himself. And he actually says, Lord, I'm not worthy that you should come and enter under my roof. You know, on one side, the people are saying that, oh, the centurion is worthy, but the centurion, he knows his own heart and he knows actually the truth is I'm not, I'm not worthy. And this is an echo we have of John the Baptist, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Yesterday, when we read the story of the baptism of Jesus, John the Baptist himself said this, I'm not worthy that he should untie the thongs of my sandals. You know, our world would say, no, no, no, John, come on, you know, don't get down on yourself or no, hey, centurion, don't get down on yourself. You are worthy. And the centurion and John, they know the truth. The truth is, I'm not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
I'm not worthy of this love. I'm not worthy of this gift. I'm not worthy of this mercy, but I need it. I need it. And that's every single one of us. God, I'm not worthy of your mercy. but I need it. And so because God is so good, he gives us what we need. And that's amazing. Isn't that incredible? You know, we have to keep that in balance, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
That balance those things that we know in tension, because it is very easy for so many of us, so many of us to forget the worth we have in our Lord, the worth we have just because we're made in God's image and likeness, the worth he bestows upon us by his grace. And we can focus on our sin, our brokenness. And so we can forget our goodness because we're focused on our brokenness. On the other hand,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
We can be so focused on our goodness that we forget our brokenness. And so there's that fine line that we're called to walk. It's able to say, Lord, I'm good in the fact that you have made me and you make things good. Ontologically is the fancy word. Ontologically, I'm good. Morally, I am not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
and Andrew his brother, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. Jesus teaches and heals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
that I have been made into your beloved creature or even I've been baptized, I've been made into your son or daughter, but I don't always live like that. So yes, you've called me to great heights, but I've not yet risen to those heights. You know, I've not lived up to that gift you've given me. You know, it's interesting because I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, as I said,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Jesus saying about John the Baptist, he says, he's a prophet. And not only is he a prophet, but he goes on to say in verse 28 of chapter seven, I tell you among those born of women, there is none greater than John. Yet he was leased in the kingdom of God is greater than he. And it's just really interesting to think, like, what does that mean? None born of woman is greater than John.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Yet, those who are least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Have I mentioned this before? How could Jesus say this? Well, he could say this for a number of reasons, but here's my interpretation. John the Baptist was not baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. John the Baptist wasn't given the gift of being adopted by the Father. He was given many gifts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Again, the greatest prophet. No one greater. I mean, you guys, we know all the prophets. You know all the prophets by now. You know how great they were. You know how incredible they were. Here's John, who's the greatest. And yet, the gift given to you and to me in our baptism, where God makes us into his beloved sons and daughters, he adopts us as his beloved sons and daughters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
As we said yesterday, that God speaks over you and says, you are my beloved son. You're my beloved daughter. With you, I'm well pleased. That gift means that you have been raised greater than John the Baptist, higher than John the Baptist. Not because you and I are more virtuous than him, but because the grace of God resides in you. The Holy Spirit abides in you. As St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Peter says later on in the New Testament, he says, you've been made partakers of the divine nature. In your baptism, you made partakers of the divine nature, meaning you shared the very nature of God with him. He shares it with us. Incredible, incredible. And this is part of the call to how do I live up to that, God? On my own, I cannot. On my own, I cannot. But with you, all things are possible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And so one of the things we do is we continue to pray and ask God for help to help us to live up to this call, help us to live up to what he's given us, help us to live up to our baptism. And we need God's grace to be able to do this. Ah, man, what a day, an incredible gift. My name's Father Mike. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. I said that backwards. I'm praying for you. I really am.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And he came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him for power came forth from him and healed them all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
blessings and woes. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For so their fathers did to the prophets. But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Love for enemies But I say to you that here, love your enemies, and do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your coat as well. Give to everyone who begs from you, and of him who takes away your goods, do not ask them again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on daily, oh, clicking on subscribes, subscribing, subscribes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much again. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend expecting nothing in return. And your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judging Others Judge not and you will not be judged. Condemn not and you will not be condemned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put into your lap. for the measure you give will be the measure you get back. He also told them a parable. Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone, when he is fully taught, will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye, when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite!
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye. a tree and its fruit. For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
The good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, produces good, and the evil man, out of the evil treasure, produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Hearers and Doers Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation upon rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built. But he who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, against which the stream broke and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Chapter 7, Jesus Heals a Centurion's Slave After he had ended all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now a centurion had a slave who was dear to him, who was sick and at the point of death. When he heard of Jesus, he sent him to elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his slave.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And when they came to Jesus, they begged him earnestly, saying, He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he built us our synagogue. And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
You can subscribe to this podcast. It's a wonderful thing. You don't have to do it. Do what you want. Anyways, we're reading Luke chapter six, seven, and eight. It's day 315, and we're reading Proverbs chapter 26, verses one through three. The Gospel according to Luke, chapter six, a teaching about the Sabbath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Therefore I did not presume to come to you, but say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I am a man set under authority with soldiers under me. And I say to one, go, and he goes. And to another, come, and he comes. And to my slave, do this, and he does it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
When Jesus heard this, he marveled at him and turned and said to the multitude that followed him, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave well. Jesus raises a widow's son at Nain. Soon afterward, he went to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
As he drew near to the gate of the city, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, Do not weep. And he came and touched the beer, and the bearers stood still. And he said, Young man, I say to you, Arise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and he gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people. And this report concerning him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. The disciples of John told him of all these things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And John, calling to him two of his disciples, sent them to the Lord, saying, Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another? And when the men had come to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another? In that hour he cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many that were blind he bestowed sight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And he answered them, Go, and tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me. When the messengers of John had gone, he began to speak to the crowds concerning John.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
What did you go out into the wilderness to behold? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in king's courts. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who shall prepare your way before you. I tell you, among those born of women, none is greater than John. Yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. When they heard all this, the people and the tax collectors justified God having been baptized with the baptism of John.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him. To what then shall I compare the men of this generation? And what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, we piped for you and you did not dance. We wailed and you did not weep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, He has a demon. The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Yet wisdom is justified by all her children. A sinful woman forgiven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grain fields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and sat at table.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner, when she learned that he was sitting at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Now, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, What is it, teacher? A certain creditor had two debtors, one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
When they could not pay, he forgave them both. Now, which of them will love him more? Simon answered, The one, I suppose, to whom he forgave more. And he said to him, You have judged rightly. Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, Your sins are forgiven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And Jesus answered, have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and took and ate the showbread, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him. And he said to them, The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. The man with the withered hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, Who is this who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Chapter 8. Some Women Accompanied Jesus. Soon afterward, he went on through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities. Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their means. the parable of the sower.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And when a great crowd came together, and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path and was trodden underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
and some fell among thorns and the thorns grew with it and choked it and some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold as he said this he called out he who has ears to hear let him hear the explanation of the parable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, to you, it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others, they are in parables so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. Now, the parable is this. The seed is the word of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
The ones along the path are those who have heard, then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy, but these have no root. They believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life and their fruit does not mature. And as for that in the good soil, they are those who hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bring forth fruit with patience. A lamp is not hidden.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
No one, after lighting a lamp, covers it with a vessel, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that shall not be made manifest, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Take heed then how you hear, for to him who has will more be given, and from him who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away. the true kindred of Jesus. Then his mother and his brethren came to him, but they could not reach him for the crowd. And he was told, Your mother and your brethren are standing outside desiring to see you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
But he said to them, My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it. Jesus calms a storm on the sea. One day he got into a boat with his disciples and he said to them, let us go across to the other side of the lake. So they set out and as they sailed, he fell asleep and a storm of wind came down on the lake and they were filling with water and were in danger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
And they went and woke him saying, master, master, we are perishing. And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves and they ceased and there was a calm. He said to them, Where is your faith? And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, Who then is this, that he commands even wind and water, and they obey him? Jesus heals the Gerasene demoniac.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
On another Sabbath, when he entered the synagogue and taught, a man was there whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath so that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, Come and stand here. And he rose and stood there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 315: The Virtue of Mercy (2024)
Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. And as he stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes and he lived not in a house, but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, what have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
He strikes the rock twice in anger and it changes everything because he and Aaron do this. the word of the Lord comes to them and says, you're not going to be entering into my inheritance. You're not going to be leading these people into the promised land. And that can seem really unfair, especially since here is Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And he is, he, you know, from the beginning, he has been pretty, pretty faithful. He's been the one who has been delivering God's message so clearly and so well. And so faithfully, he's been interceding on behalf of the people before God. And he's been bringing God's word back to the people and, And yet it's this lapse that is so serious. Why is it serious?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And the heifer shall be burned in his sight, her skin, her flesh, and her blood, with all her dung, shall be burned. And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet stuff and cast them into the midst of the burning of the heifer. Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. And afterwards he shall come into the camp and the priest shall be unclean until evening.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Well, because we recognize that the actions of a leader, they don't have to be perfect, but they are judged in a different sense. And this is the sense that God even says, you were there essentially to witness to my righteousness. You were there to witness to my mercy and my justice. And you didn't, you acted in anger in front of everybody.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And instead of it being clearly a miracle, now it just looks like you hit a rock and water came forth. But not only this, we recognize that St. Paul later on will say, and the rock was Christ. The rock in the wilderness was Christ. And so here is Moses in this mysterious way, striking the symbol of Jesus. So we recognize, again, the seriousness of this, which is just remarkable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Lastly, when it comes to before the death of Aaron, we have this passage through Edom refuse. Remember, the Edomites are the descendants of Esau. Remember, Esau and Jacob were the two brothers. And Jacob stole Esau's birthright or he sold the blessing and he exchanged, you know, a pot of red stuff for the birthright.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And so here are the people of Israel saying, Hey, we're family, you know, we're long lost cousins. Can we go through your land? We're not going to leave the highway. And the people of Edom are like, yeah, you're not, we don't believe you. If you come through here, we're going to destroy you because you're going to probably take, try to take our land. And so they were refused.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
They refused Israel passage through there. And again, it just shows the depth to which brokenness has entered this family. And moving on, just last little note when it comes to Deuteronomy. And in this chapter of Deuteronomy, chapter 21, part of us can see, oh gosh, these laws can be so challenging. At the same time, these laws, you guys are so wise. Now, keep this in mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
I know that when it says, when you go out to war against your enemies and you see a beautiful woman of your enemy, you can take her for your wife. You're like, what the heck? Are you kidding me? Why? Well, because that's how it went back then, right? That's how kind of life was. But here is how God's word comes into this reality of life and says, but here's the thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
You are going to treat her in a particular way. She's not just your property. She's not your captive. She's not your slave. So first she's gonna shave her head and trim her nails. What is that a sign of? That's a sign of like, okay, she's leaving behind her old life and she's entering this new life. And then she's gonna put off the clothes of her captivity and reign in your house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Okay, she's not a slave. If she comes to your house and you're making her your wife, you're gonna be family now. And she's not second class in your home. Thirdly, she's gonna mourn her father and mother a full month. You're gonna give her time
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
to like you would give anyone you cared about time to mourn the loss of their family the loss of their past life and also if you find her displeasing again that that language just bothers us so much bothers me a lot if you find her displeasing you can divorce her and whatnot but he says but you will not sell her for money she's not your slave she was your wife and you shall not treat her brutally or shall not treat her poorly
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
If you divorce her, eventually you will divorce her as a fully equal member of your family. She would actually have been your wife. So, so you see what's happening here is the recognition of your hearts. Our hearts are broken and we are, we are a mess and you're going to want to do it like this, but here's the limitation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
You're going to want to take, you know, the beautiful captive woman as yours. But if you do, you actually have to take her as your wife, not as your slave, not as a Make her your full wife. So I see the wisdom here is here's God's word meeting our brokenness. And even the next thing, if a person has two wives, is allowing for this, like, yep, you are a mess. You should only marry one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
He who burns the heifer shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. And they shall be kept for the congregation of the sons of Israel for the water for impurity, for the removal of sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
That's Genesis chapter two, right from the very beginning of the story. But if you have more than one wife and one is loved and the other unloved, Here's the deal. If the one who's loved gives birth to your second son, you're not going to say, well, I love this second son's mother more, so I'm going to give him the inheritance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
No, even the disliked wife, even the gosh, even saying this, you guys, I'm so sorry, but even the disliked wife. No, the law is this. The firstborn son gets the inheritance. That's it. Regardless of how you feel, regardless of what your temptation is going to be to do, you're going to do it like this. And it's just so interesting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
The last, again, last two pieces, I'm so sorry, I'm going to make this overly long, but the last two pieces here have to do with a rebellious, stubborn and rebellious son that could ultimately be stoned. What is this? You know, when it comes to laws, there are some laws that are oriented towards remedy, right? There's some punishments that are oriented towards remedy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
That's meant to say punishments that are saying, okay, here's the punishment. Now you're not going to do that again. You've been changed interiorly. There are some punishments that are revenge, right? You're taking revenge upon this person. Maybe justice, we'll say. But there are some punishments that are meant to be deterrents. And this is one of those.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Talking about a rebellious, a stubborn and rebellious son who, when he's been corrected, when he's been chastened, will not heed to his parents. And it talks about him being stoned to death. that is, and it goes on to say, all Israel shall hear of this and fear the Lord. And so this is the kind of punishment that is meant to be a deterrent. And we might say, well, that's not wise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
I don't think that's actually fair, or I don't think that actually works. Nonetheless, that's why it exists, is this is a punishment that's meant to be a deterrent. Lastly, before we break for the day, the last thing is If a man is committed to sin, deserving of death, and he's put to death, you hang him on a tree. His body should not remain overnight on the tree, but you bury him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And this is this moment. You might not see this as justice and mercy meeting, but this is justice and mercy meeting. If someone is doing something deserving of death and he's killed, capital punishment, you know, justly, essentially, that's justice. But also you're not going to leave his body there for animals to destroy, to animals to tear apart, to treat him shamefully, humiliate him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
You're going to bury him before nightfall. And that's mercy. And there's something about this that, again, this is God's word coming into a brutal and violent world and making it slightly less brutal and slightly less violent. I think if we understand that whenever we read these commandments from Leviticus to Numbers to Deuteronomy, all these things,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
We recognize this is God's word coming into a brutal and vicious world and saying, let's make it a little less brutal, a little less vicious. For cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree. Wow, those words point to Jesus. In fact, St. Paul comments on this Deuteronomy chapter 21 in Galatians chapter three. And he says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And then he quotes Deuteronomy 21. He says, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. And he's done this so that the blessing of Abraham might come upon us Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of spirit through faith. So Jesus became accursed, right? Curses anyone who hangs on a tree.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And he who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be to the sons of Israel and to the stranger who sojourns among them a perpetual statute. Laws concerning the dead. He who touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day and so be clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Jesus took the curse that belongs to us and put it on himself so as to bring us into the blessing. So you have this in the middle of, at the end of this chapter 21, Deuteronomy, middle of Deuteronomy, You have this word that's going to come to pass in Jesus so powerfully and so fully and so beautifully that, yep, it curses anyone who hangs on a tree.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And here's Jesus who lets himself be hung on a tree, lets himself accept the curse so that you and I could receive the freedom, could receive the blessing. Gosh, such a gift. I am praying for you all and I hope you're praying for me, please. Let's pray for each other as we continue this journey. It is day 68. You've got it in the record books. Here you are moving on as we move forward.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
We'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 68, and we are reading today from Numbers chapter 19 and chapter 20, kind of a big chapter. 19 obviously is important. All the chapters of the Bible are important, but Numbers chapter 20 is kind of critical when it comes to the story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean. Whoever touches a dead person, the body of any man who has died and does not cleanse himself, This is the law when a man dies in a tent. Everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And every open vessel which has no cover fastened upon it is unclean. Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword or dead body or a bone of a man or a grave shall be unclean seven days. For the unclean, they shall take some ashes of the burnt sin offering and running water shall be added in a vessel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Then a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it upon the tent and upon all the furnishings and upon the persons who were there and upon him who touched the bone or the slain or the dead or the grave. and the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and at evening he shall be clean. But the man who is unclean and does not cleanse himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, since he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. Because the water for impurity has not been thrown upon him, he is unclean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And it shall be a perpetual statute for them. He who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. And whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and anyone who touches it shall be unclean until evening. Chapter 20, The Waters of Meribah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there. Now there was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people contended with Moses and said,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Would that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord. Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness that we should die here, both we and our cattle? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them. And the Lord said to Moses, take the rod and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron, your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
So you shall give drink to the congregation and their cattle. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock. And he said to them, here now, you rebels, shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his rod twice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
We're also reading from Deuteronomy chapter 21 in Psalm 100. We'll be praying Psalm 100. As always, I am reading from The Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. The translation it is is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. If you want to get your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can download that for free from ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank and their cattle. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in me to sanctify me in the eyes of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
These are the waters of Meribah, where the sons of Israel contended with the Lord, and he showed himself holy among them. passage through Edom refused. Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom. Thus says your brother Israel, you know all the adversity that has befallen us, how our fathers went down to Egypt and how we dwelt in Egypt a long time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers. And when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us forth out of Egypt. And here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory. Now let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, neither will we drink water from a well. We will go along the king's highway.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your country. But Edom said to him, You shall not pass through, lest I come out with sword against you. And the sons of Israel said to him, we will go up by the highway. And if we drink of your water, I and my cattle, then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
But he said, you shall not pass through. And Edom came out against them with many men and with a strong force. Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory. So Israel turned away from him. The death of Aaron. And they journeyed from Kadesh. And the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, Aaron shall be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor, and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And Aaron shall be gathered to his people, and shall die there. Moses did as the Lord commanded. And they went up Mount Hor in the sight of the congregation. And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them upon Eleazar his son. And Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Moses continued, If in the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess, anyone is found slain lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him, then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure the distance to the cities which are around him that is slain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer which has never been worked and which has not pulled in the yoke.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water which is neither plowed nor sown and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley and the priests the sons of levi shall come forward for the lord your god has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the lord
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And lastly, if you've not yet subscribed, in your podcast app to this particular podcast, please feel free to do that. Again, it is day 68. We're reading from Numbers 19 and 20, Deuteronomy 21, and we are praying Psalm 100. Numbers chapter 19 and 20. Chapter 19, Ceremony of the Red Heifer. Now the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, this is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
and by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled and all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley and they shall testify our hands did not shed this blood neither did our eyes see it shed
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Forgive, O Lord, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and set not the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, but let the guilt of blood be forgiven them. So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
women taken captive, when you go forth to war against your enemies and the Lord your God gives them into your hands and you take them captive and see among the captives a beautiful woman and you have desire for her and would take her for yourself as wife, then you shall bring her home to your house and she shall shave her head and pair her nails and she shall put off her captive's garb and shall remain in your house and bewail her father and her mother a full month.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
After that, you may go into her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. Then if you have no delight in her, you shall let her go where she will. But you shall not sell her for money. You shall not treat her as a slave since you have humiliated her. Write of the firstborn son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other disliked, and they have born him children, both the loved and the disliked, and if the firstborn son is hers that is disliked, then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the disliked who is the firstborn.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the disliked, by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For he is the first issue of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his. rebellious sons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chastise him, will not give heed to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of the city at the gate of the place where he lives. And they shall say to the elders of this city, this our son is stubborn and rebellious.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard. then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones so you shall purge the evil from your midst and all israel shall hear and fear miscellaneous laws and if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death Psalm 100 All Lands Summoned to Praise God A Psalm for the Thank Offering
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name. For the Lord is good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
His mercy endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations. Father in heaven, we know that you are good and you are faithful and that your faithfulness does endure for all generations. We ask you to help us to be faithful. Lord God, help us to see your faithfulness, your mercy, your justice, your truth, your goodness in all of your words.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
We ask you please allow your word to shape our eyes, our minds, our vision. and shape our hearts. Help us to love what you love, to hate what you hate, and above all, help us to love you and to love our neighbor as ourself. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
So as I noted before we started, that chapter 19 and chapter 20 are gonna be interesting. Chapter 19, obviously, is gonna be about worship, as well as about laws concerning the dead, which is really so cool. Two things to note about chapter 19. One is it says that you take that red heifer and burn the entirety of the red heifer, and then you throw three things upon it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Tell the sons of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect. in which there is no blemish, and upon which a yoke has never come. And you shall give her to Eleazar the priest, and she shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him. And Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of her blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
You would throw the cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet stuff, whatever that is, right? Scarlet stuff. But the hyssop is going to be important. Why? Because later on, it is hyssop that Jesus Christ on the cross, he's offered to Wine on a sponge stuck onto a spring of hyssop. Now, this isn't the first time we've seen that hyssop in part of this. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Because the people of Israel, they painted the lentils and the doorposts of their homes with the blood of the lamb. Wow. Using hyssop. And so here is Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, who's on the cross. His blood is, um,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
pouring out of him and that sprig of hyssop has reached up to him so there's this connection between the passover and this but also with this ceremony of the red heifer that do you see the hyssop once again we see that kind of thing we think oh jesus again why because that ceremony of the red heifer is all about forgiveness it's all about being made uh from being going unclean to being clean from being estranged from the community to being brought back into the community
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
Later on in that same chapter 19, it says laws concerning the dead and talks about anybody who touches the body of a dead person and all these rules, which makes so much sense. In fact, the wisdom of this being, you know, there could be a plague. It could be an illness that you could catch that could kill you. So you have to wait a while.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And but in that process of waiting, not only do you have to wash yourself. germ-wise, but also ceremonially, which is unique. One of the things that is important is that it says you could walk over a grave and not know it. Later on in the Gospels, Jesus is going to say that you Pharisees are whitewashed tombs. On the outside, you seem like, oh, no, this is clean. This is pure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
But inside, you're full of dead men's bones. There's this connection there that goes back all the way to Numbers where it has this instruction about if you come into contact with even the top of the grave, you walk upon it, then you are unclean. Later on, it gives us a foreshadowing or foreshadowing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
It's a connection with what Jesus talked about when it comes to things on the outside might seem clean, but if interiorly they are not clean, then they're not clean, right? In the heart. So going into chapter 20 of Numbers, this is where we pick up the narrative once again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
We keep going back and forth when it comes to Numbers of here's the story, and then we jump back and say, here's some more rules. Then we go back to the story. Chapter 19, more rules. Chapter 20, here's the story. And this story is critical. This is the story where the people of Israel, they're at the desert of the wilderness of Zin, right? The desert of Zin. And they don't have any water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2025)
And so they complained to Moses and Aaron. God says to Moses, speak to this rock in the front of the congregation and I will pour forth water for the entire congregation as well as for their animals. And what does Moses do? He loses his temper. And instead of speaking to the rock and having this incredible miracle in front of everyone, he just spoke to the rock and it brought forth water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
Guidance, there's some kind of restraint once again placed upon people when A, either they are engaged in sexual acts with one another and B, when they're in community with each other. And this is just the part of the genius of God's word is that God's word is saying, okay, we're going to show restraint. And that restraint is not for restraint's sake alone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And it's also not because like, oh, gross, like that's not what uncleanness means. It doesn't mean like, ugh, gross. Uncleanness simply means, okay, whether this is an issue of blood, issue of semen, issue of whatever this is, those are things that can bring forth life, not gross. But because they bring forth life, we have to be careful around them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And that's so important for us to rediscover as 21st century people. That because there are the things that are so connected to life, we need to be careful around them. Doesn't mean that we have to do exactly what they did back in Leviticus. I mean that these particular laws have passed away in the new covenant, but we need to be careful around them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
Just like we need to be careful around other people in Exodus chapter 22 and beyond.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And there's also the time periods that as we're walking through the time period of the Egypt and Exodus, it's really helpful. Next, if you want to be able to follow along so that you can know what's happening, what's going to be happening, what we're going to be reading any given day. You can download your Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
one of the things these rules are doing these laws that god is giving his people is he's revealing his heart his heart is that of a just god just god who's trying to raise up a just people and that is absolutely critical for us to understand that we're called to be just people who belong to a just god but even more than that we're also called to be the kind of people
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
who treat sacred things as it's sacred, who treat important things as important, who treat dangerous things because sex is dangerous. I mean, like it or not, I mean, it's a good thing, but it's also a thing that we take our lives into our hands in the midst of this. And we need to treat these holy things These dangerous things, these big things as holy and dangerous and big.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And that is part of what God is revealing in Exodus 22 and in Leviticus chapter 15. We will continue our journey tomorrow with day 41 over this little first little hump. I don't know if that's a hump at all, but we made it past the first day of 40. I'm going into the second half of Second set of 40. Why not? Let's call it that. It'd be so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
Man, let's keep praying for each other because you know by now, already a month plus into this journey that some days it's easy. Some days it's easy to press play and just on your drive to work or where you're praying or whatever. wherever you are. Sometimes some days is really easy and some days it is tough. Some days it's easier to do anything other than allow God's word to be proclaimed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And so let's pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. And let's keep on that community of people in this Bible eating podcast. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
Also, if you haven't subscribed to this podcast yet, please do that because that really will probably help you. And I know it helps us. Let's keep on going. This is Exodus chapter 22. Exodus 22, laws of restitution. If a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. He shall make restitution.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. If the stolen beast is found alive in his possession, whether it is an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he shall pay double. If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no blood guilt for him. But if the sun has risen upon him, there shall be blood guilt for him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
When a man causes a field or a vineyard to be grazed over or lets his beast loose and it feeds in another man's field, he shall make restitution from the best of his own field and in his own vineyard. When fire breaks out and catches in thorns so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or the field is consumed, he that kindled the fire shall make full restitution.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
If a man delivers to his neighbor money or goods to keep and it is stolen out of the man's house, then if the thief is found, he shall pay double.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
if the thief is not found the owner of the house shall come near to god to show whether or not he has put his hand to his neighbor's goods for every breach of trust whether it is for ox for donkey for sheep for clothing or for any kind of lost thing of which one says this is it the case of both parties shall come before god He whom God shall condemn shall pay double to his neighbor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
into that story today. This is day 40. Oh my gosh, day 40 already. You guys, we've been trucking along and this is one of the things that has been such a blessing, has been being able to journey with you and has been able to, I know that it's been a tough road for a lot of people these first 40 days, first 39 days. We have reached our kind of our Lent in the sense of like 40 days, kind of like
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
If a man delivers to his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep and it dies or is hurt or is driven away without anyone seeing it, an oath by the Lord shall be between them both to see whether he has not put his hand to his neighbor's property and the owner shall accept the oath and he shall not make restitution. If it was hired, it came for its hire. Social and Religious Laws
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the marriage present for her and make her his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equivalent to the marriage present for virgins. You shall not permit a sorceress to live Whoever lies with a beast shall be put to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
Whoever sacrifices to any God save to the Lord only shall be utterly destroyed. You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or orphan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
If you do afflict them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry and my wrath will burn and I will kill you with the sword and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless. If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor. You shall not exact interest from him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
If ever you take your neighbor's garment and pledge, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down. For that is his only covering. It is his mantle for his body. And what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear for I am compassionate. You shall not revile God nor curse a ruler of your people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
you shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses the firstborn of your sons you shall give to me you shall do likewise with your oxen and with your sheep seven days it shall be with its dam on the eighth day you shall give it to me you shall be men consecrated to me therefore you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field you shall cast it to the dogs
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
Leviticus chapter 15 concerning men's bodily discharges. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, say to the sons of Israel, when any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean. And this is the law of his uncleanness for a discharge. Whether his body runs with his discharge or his body is stopped from discharge, it is uncleanness in him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
Every bed on which he who has the discharge lies shall be unclean, and everything on which he sits shall be unclean. And anyone who touches his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and will be unclean until the evening. And whoever sits on anything on which he who has the discharge has sat shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be unclean until the evening.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And whoever touches the body of him who has the discharge shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And if he who has the discharge spits on one who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And any saddle on which he who has the discharge rides shall be unclean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until the evening, and he who carries such a thing shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. Anyone whom he that has the discharge touches without having rinsed his hands in water shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
I don't know. There's something there. There's something there that'll preach. But basically, that faithfulness that you've experienced and that you've held on to, even if this isn't literally day 40 for you, maybe you're catching up. Maybe this is like 50 days into the program or into the Bible reading, but you're here on day 40. That is completely fine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And the earthen vessel which he who has the discharge touches shall be broken, and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water." And when he who has the discharge is cleansed of his discharge, then he shall count for himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his body in running water, and he shall be clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And on the eighth day he shall take two turtle doves, or two young pigeons, and come before the Lord to the door of the tent of meeting, and shall give them to the priest, and the priest shall offer them one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord for his discharge.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And if a man has an emission of semen, he shall bathe his whole body in water and be unclean until the evening. And every garment and every skin on which the semen comes shall be washed with water and will be unclean until the evening. If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them shall bathe themselves in water and be unclean until the evening.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
Concerning women's bodily discharges. When a woman has a discharge of blood, which is her regular discharge from her body, she shall be in her impurity for seven days. And whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening. And everything upon which she lies during her impurity shall be unclean. Everything also upon which she sits shall be unclean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And whoever touches anything upon which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. Whether it is the bed or anything upon which she sits, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until the evening.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And if any man lies with her and her impurity is on him, he shall be unclean seven days and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, all the days of the discharge she shall continue in her uncleanness, as in the days of her impurity she shall be unclean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
every bed on which she lies all the days of her discharge shall be to her as the bed of her impurity and everything on which she sits shall be unclean as in the uncleanness of her impurity and whoever touches these things shall be unclean and shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
But if she is cleansed of her discharge, she shall count for herself seven days. And after that, she shall be clean. And on the eighth day, she shall take two turtle doves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest to the door of the tent of meeting. And the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And the priest shall make atonement for her before the Lord for her unclean discharge. The law concerning discharges. Thus you shall keep the sons of Israel separate from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling my tabernacle that is in their midst. This is the law for him who has a discharge and for him who has an emission of semen becoming unclean thereby.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
In fact, it's one of the things that is encouraged. I think striving for perfection is fine, but striving for what I can do is probably even better because what the Lord requires of us is to do simply what we can. He never asks us to do what we can't. He is there to do what we can't. And yet he calls us to do what we can. So regardless of what day it actually is for you, today is day 40.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
Also for her who is sick with her impurity, that is for anyone, male or female, who has a discharge and for the man who lies with a woman who is unclean. Psalm 76, Israel's God, judge of all the earth. To the choir master with the stringed instruments, a Psalm of Asaph, a song. In Judah, God is known. His name is great in Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
His abode has been established in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion. There he broke the flashing arrows, the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war. Glorious are you, more majestic than the everlasting mountains. The stout-hearted were stripped of their spoil. They sank into sleep. All the men of war were unable to use their hands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both rider and horse lay stunned. But you, you are awesome. Who can stand before you once your anger is roused? From the heavens you pronounced judgment. The earth feared and was still when God arose to establish judgment to save all the oppressed of the earth. Surely the wrath of men shall praise you. The residue of wrath you will bind around you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
Make your vows to the Lord your God and perform them. Let all around him bring gifts to him who is to be feared, who cuts off the spirit of princes, who is awesome to the kings of the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you thanks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
Thank you so much for your word. Thank you for sharing with us your heart. And even in your law today, Lord God, even in your law that can seem so distant, can seem so dry, can seem so otherworldly and even so confusing, we thank you because it reveals your heart. And we ask that you please continue to reveal your heart to us as we reveal our hearts to you. You are the Lord and we are yours.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
Help us to be yours. more and more every day. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Well, here we are. That can be a very, very challenging reading we just went through. A couple readings, in fact. The first one from Exodus chapter 22, less challenging, but kind of more commonsensical, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And that's exactly what we're talking about. What is happening in the readings that we're going to be diving even more deeply into in the next number of days, both with Exodus and Leviticus, are all about the laws, the laws of the people of Israel. And the good news about that is not that this is the time where people get hung up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
The good news is not that this is just simply something that's distant from us. but is that this is revealing something about God's heart. So we go back to Exodus chapter 22, right? And we have, here are some social laws. These are laws for restitution. These are social and religious laws.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And what's happening, remember this, rewind a couple of days, where we heard Jethro, Moses' father-in-law say, okay, Moses, you're sitting here in judgment all day long and you're trying to be just to these people. And yet you're making them wait and you're putting a burden upon their lives by them having to wait for you to know what is right and what is wrong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And so, you know, collect other people around you who will know, who will be able to judge. But here we have written down kind of the principles of judgment. And their principles according to justice. And this is so, so key. Their principles according to justice. So we have these laws of restitution.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
So, which we talked about before, those laws of restitution have to do with justice, not vengeance. Our hearts are inclined towards vengeance, right? If you do that one thing to me, I want to do double back to you. But the laws of justice say, no, there's a limit. There's a limit here to vengeance. And what's that reveal? It reveals the very heart of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
God who says that he reveals that he is just, that he is justice itself. And so as we go through the next couple chapters, I mean, almost for the rest of the book of Exodus, what we're going to see is What we're going to see is here's what's fair. What we're going to see is, okay, if you want to live in harmony with each other, you have to pursue justice more than vengeance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And we're reading from Exodus chapter 22, Leviticus chapter 15, and Psalm chapter 76. Couple of reminders. The Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. It's awesome. It works really, really well at helping us with those notes. There's extra notes in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And this is going to be the restraint that's placed upon the people of Israel. And we're going to dive more and more deeply into this so importantly. because it is important to live like this in order to have real community. And that's in Leviticus chapter 15 about bodily emissions. We talked about this before, but bodily emissions are important. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
They're important because the life is in the blood, right? They're important because they refer to very intrinsic and necessary parts of our relationships. So there are four kinds of bodily emissions that are described in Leviticus chapter 15, two for a man, two for a woman. For the first one for a man would be basically would most likely be some kind of like venereal disease type of situation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
The second kind would be emission of semen. The third, the first for a woman, it would be her discharge during menstruation. And then the fourth would be a chronic issue of blood, which would not be due to menstruation, but due to something else, most likely due to some kind of venereal disease for her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
And so we have is like your two like completely fine things, emission of semen and menstruation, completely fine. And you have two others, which would be linked most likely to some kind of disease. Why would there be rules about this when it comes to uncleanness? Why would there be rules about this when it came to coming in contact with these things? Well, one is because.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 40: Laws of Justice (2025)
But the body is sacred and because the emissions of the body refer to life, but also because this particular kind of emissions, the body have to do with sex, have to do with reproduction, have to do with relationships. And if you realize this is that there is some kind of
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
He says, okay, basically, you know, at some point, the time is going to be up. At some point, at some point, the landowner is going to return. At some point, you're going to look for figs on the fig tree and there needs to be fruit. And that's what Jesus is saying. At some point, I'm going to come again and I need the fruit to be there. Moving on, just because it's so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
When Jesus cleanses the temple, there's something powerful about this because not only is he revealing that his father's house, this temple area is a house of prayer, but also when you were baptized, you're made into a temple of the Holy Spirit. You're made a temple of the Holy Spirit. And so now the living temple, you're walking around as a living temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And one of the things that Jesus does is he cleanses the temple. And so we have to allow ourselves not only to bear fruit in his name, but also to be cleansed by him, recognizing that what does Jesus say is not my father's house. My house shall be called the house of prayer for all the nations. You've made it a den of robbers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And so in my life, again, if God has made my body into a temple of the Holy Spirit, he made your body a temple of the Holy Spirit. That means with our body and in our bodies, we need to use them to glorify him. So much so that that's actually God's destiny for us in eternity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
Because in chapter 12, it tells the story about the Sadducees coming to Jesus and challenging the idea of the resurrection of the body. Now, the Sadducees and the Pharisees disagreed on a number of things. The Sadducees only believed in the first five books of the Bible, the first five books of Moses, and they didn't pay attention to any of the other books, at least didn't consider them inspired.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
Say, the Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately. And they went away and found a colt tied at the door out in the open street and they untied it. And those who stood there said to them, What are you doing, untying the colt? And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus, and threw their garments on it, and he sat upon it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And so they had some disagreements when it came to between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Among those disagreements were about the resurrection of the body, about angels, that kind of thing. And here's the Sadducees coming to Jesus and posing this hypothetical question that what if this woman marries all seven brothers because that was the law of Moses?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
whose wife is she in this so-called resurrection of yours? And Jesus, you know, he gives him a harsh burn. He says, is not this why you are wrong? You know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. But basically in heaven, there is no marriage because marriage is meant to get you to heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
Marriage is meant to be the one of the ways in which you die to yourself out of love for Christ and love for others. that conforms you to Christ and helps you be what St. Paul writes in Ephesians chapter five. Like when he says, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and laid down himself for her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And so that laid down his life for her and that call to lay down our lives for spouses, that purifies and sanctifies. And it's so good that the burn that Jesus has on the Sadducees. Lastly, gosh, there's so much to talk about. That's why I'm so sorry. We're going a mile a minute, aren't we?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
But the last little snippet before chapter 13 is about the widow's offering and how Jesus is watching people put large amounts of money into the treasury. And then this one woman comes up and she's got two copper coins, which make one penny. And he says, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living. You know, the tithe historically is a 10th, right? It's a 10th of one's income. And so the idea behind that is that one would give the first 10% of their income, the first 10%. No, that's not necessarily what we believe as Catholics.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
We believe that we're obliged to support the church and the mission of Christ to whatever degree we can. So there's not a number attached to it in the Catholic church. but we are still encouraged, right? To give whatever that first, those first fruits are. And maybe it's a 10th, maybe it's more than a 10th, maybe it's less than a 10th, but here's this poor widow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And what she does is she doesn't just give the first 10%. Here she is. And she's giving her last 10%. I mean, this woman is not just giving that first fruits. She's giving her very last fruits, her final fruits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And that's the key for so many of us, is once you've mastered this recognition of, okay, my first fruits belong to Jesus, to then have to experience that conviction of, you know what, and so do my final fruits. From my first to the last, from the beginning to the end, Everything I have belongs to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And here's Jesus praising this woman who just puts in one penny, one penny, but all she had, not out of her abundance, but out of her absolute need. So when it comes to the Lord today, how can I give him my first fruits? How can I give him my final fruits? How can I love him not just in word or in speech, but also in deed and in truth?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And many spread their garments on the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed cried out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest! And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
How can I love him with my entire life today, with my first fruits, my final fruits? We can only do this with God's grace because again, all the fruits of the spirit, again, they're fruits of the spirit. They're not fruits of the flesh. They're not fruits of my own wanting to do this or willing or working hard at it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 159. We are almost at day 160, which is pretty great. And we're reading from the Gospel of St. Mark, chapters 11 and 12. We're also praying Psalm 67.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
These are the fruits of a life that has been conformed to Jesus and is handed over to him. We can only do that with God's grace. So let's pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And when he had looked round at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. Jesus curses the fig tree. On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And he said, May no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples heard it. Jesus cleanses the temple. And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And he taught and said to them, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations? But you have made it a den of robbers. And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and sought a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the multitude was astonished at his teaching. And when evening came, they went out of the city. The Lesson from the Withered Fig Tree
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, Master, look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered. And Jesus answered them, Have faith in God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it and you will. And whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. Jesus' authority is questioned. And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, and they said to him, By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them? Jesus said to them, I will ask you a question.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? Answer me. And they argued with one another. If we say from heaven, he will say, Why then did you not believe him? But shall we say from men? They were afraid of the people, for all held that John was a real prophet. So they answered Jesus, We do not know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
As always, the Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition, and I am using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And Jesus said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Chapter 12, The Parable of the Wicked Tenants. And he began to speak to them in parables. A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it and dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again, he sent to them another servant and they wounded him in the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others, some they beat and some they killed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally, he sent him to them, saying, They will respect my son. But those tenants said to one another, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours. And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
Have you not read this scripture? The very stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. And they tried to arrest him, but feared the multitude, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. the question about paying taxes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians to entrap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, "'Teacher, we know that you are true and care for no man, for you do not regard the position of men, but truly teach the way of God.'" Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or should we not?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
You can also subscribe to this podcast if the application in which you listen to this podcast is subscribable to, is it possible to subscribe, if that's a thing. As I said, today is day 159. We're reading, as you can know, we're getting close. We're getting close to the end of the story. There's only 16 chapters in Mark's gospel. It's the shortest gospel of all of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, Why put me to the test? Bring me a coin and let me look at it. And they brought one. And he said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this? They said to him, Caesar's. Jesus said to them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they were amazed at him. the question about man's resurrection.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but leaves no child, the man must take the wife and raise up children for his brother. There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and when he died, he left no children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And the second took her and died, leaving no children, and the third likewise, and the seven left no children. Last of all, the woman also died.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
in the resurrection whose wife will she be for the seven had her as wife jesus said to them is not this why you are wrong that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of god for when they rise from the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong. the first commandment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, Which commandment is the first of all? Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said to him, you are right, teacher. You have truly said that he is one and there is no other but he.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. And after that, no one dared to ask him any question. a question about the Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, declared, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand till I put your enemies under your feet. David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son? And the great throng heard him gladly. Jesus denounces the hypocrisy of the scribes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And in his teaching he said, Beware of the scribes who like to go about in long robes and to have salutations in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. they will receive the greater condemnation. The widow's offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the multitude putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums and a poor widow came and put in two copper coins, which make a penny.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And he called his disciples to him and said to them, truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury for they all contributed out of their abundance. but she, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had, her whole living.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And we are already at chapter 11. So we have, including today, three days. And including today, we have six chapters. And so we are with Jesus as he enters into Jerusalem, as he continues this journey to the cross. But it doesn't end there, as we know. It goes through the cross, to the grave, to the resurrection. And so we walk with Jesus today in Mark chapter 11 and 12 and in Psalm 67.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
The nations called to praise God, to the choir master with stringed instruments, a psalm, a song. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. The earth has yielded its increase. God, our God, has blessed us. God has blessed us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
Let all the ends of the earth fear him. Father in heaven, you have blessed us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And gosh, Lord, every single day, you give us the blessing of a new day. Every single day, you give us the blessing of your mercy. Your mercies are new every single morning, Lord God. And you give us a new day every single morning, a new day to... Honor you a new day to know you better, a new day to let you love us. And that is, Lord God, it all comes down to this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
It all comes down to, will we let you love us? Will we let you be the Lord of our lives? Will we allow ourselves to reveal your image? And will we receive your inscription upon our hearts that we love you with everything we have and everything we are and love our neighbor as ourselves? Lord God, help us first to be loved as fully as we possibly can by you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
Help us to give you permission once again to love us this morning, to forgive us this morning, and to give us your grace. Help us to give you the permission to claim us as yours. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy spirit. Amen. Okay. So here we go. We have in chapters 11 and 12, this is a shift, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
So what's happening is Jesus has gotten to Jerusalem. He is going to stay in Jerusalem through the passion, through his death and resurrection this whole time. So, you know, tomorrow we're taking those next steps and tomorrow we're going to start the conspiracy to kill Jesus, the last supper, Peter's denial, Gethsemane. But today we're in the days leading up to Jesus' betrayal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And so in chapter 11, we can recognize that the stakes are getting higher and higher. And Jesus' teachings here in Mark's gospel are becoming more and more pointed. What I mean by that is, as Jesus rides into the city of Jerusalem on a colt, right? And they're saying, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is the kingdom of our father, David, that is coming. Hosanna in the highest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
He enters the temple and he goes into the place of the temple. And then what happens is now that Mark puts this intermediary story of Jesus cursing the fig tree the next day and goes back to the temple. In other gospels, it doesn't necessarily have that. It just kind of depicts Jesus going into the temple and cleansing it right away. But that is what this is all about.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
Jesus is letting people know, letting the people of Israel, the people of the covenant, the people that we've been walking with in the Old Testament this whole time, letting them know, okay, you are God's people. Are you living like you're God's people that you have been chosen among all the nations of the world that through you, God will bless the entire world? Are you living like this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And he's asking for the fruits. And this is why we have this really kind of strange image of Jesus. Looks like he's having a bad day. He's hungry, goes to the fig tree and he wants to get some figs, but doesn't find any figs on it. And even Mark even pointed out that Peter must have told him, It wasn't the season for figs. And yet Jesus curses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
He says, may no one ever eat the fruit from you again. And the next day they go back to it and it's withered to the roots. Now, this is not just Jesus having a bad day because this is Jesus, right? This is Jesus teaching his disciples something very, very clearly. And he's using this opportunity of looking for figs on a fig tree and not finding any as their teaching moment. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
The Gospel of St. Mark, chapter 11. Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. And when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethpage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, go into the village opposite you and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, why are you doing this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
Because he's teaching them. that the people of Israel are the fig tree and they're supposed to be demonstrating the fruit of belonging to the one God. They're supposed to be demonstrating the fruit to the nations. And this is everything we've been hearing about in the Old Testament up until this point is, okay, you've been made into my people. Now bear fruit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
We know that this is the case because of the very next parable that Jesus tells in chapter 12, the parable of the wicked tenants, that here's the landowner. He builds a vineyard, plants a vineyard, builds a tower, all these things, leases it to tenants. Those tenants, again, once again, are the Jewish people, the Jewish leaders who basically saying, yeah, the time for harvest is here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
Where is the fruit? Show me the money. And they're not doing this. They're not handing over any of the fruit of what is essentially the landowner, AKA God himself, his land, his vineyard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And this is the case for every single one of us is that Jesus is pointing out to those people at the time, pointing out, okay, if you belong to me, it's great because the reason you belong to me is because I love you. But also, also, The reason you belong to me is to bear fruit. The reason you belong to me is so that I can bless the world through you. So demonstrate the fruit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
And this is just so, so key. In John's gospel, Jesus makes this really clear as well. He says, by this is the Father glorified, that you remain in me and bear much fruit. This is the key, that a fruitless disciple of Jesus, the question you have to ask is, are they even a disciple of Jesus? A disciple of Jesus that doesn't bear fruit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
You have to ask the question, are they even a disciple of Jesus? Now, that doesn't mean that they're someone who has converted millions or converted thousands or converted hundreds. It basically means, but where's the fruit in your life? And the fruit can be other people's conversions. Yes, but it also can be the fruits of the spirit, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
Things like love, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control. Those things are the fruits of the spirit. And if we belong to Christ, we should be able to show him, oh, here are the fruits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 159: Bearing Fruit (2025)
no again this is not the sorry i'm going on a tangent but i please come with me on this one this doesn't mean that we've created those gifts those fruits in ourselves but they are the natural or supernatural outgrowth of a life rooted in jesus those things like again love peace patience kindness gentleness self-control those um chastity self-control those things are the fruits of a life lived in christ and when jesus looks for fruit on the fig tree and doesn't find any
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
Now, Paul starts out chapter nine talking about generosity because he's been asking these Corinthians, these Christians in Corinth to be willing, maybe for the first time, maybe, we'll say this, in a new way, to be generous. He points out to other communities, other churches around where St. Paul has been a missionary to, he's been the evangelist of, that they are very generous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
And he's asking the Corinthians to also be generous, but not, and I love this, in chapter nine, verse six, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And this is a really big thing. We can be willing to serve.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
I know this is true about me. I can be willing to give. I can be willing to serve. But sometimes I just get this, you know, This attitude and I, okay, I'll serve, I'll show up, I'll do the thing you're asking me to do, but I'm not going to, I'm not going to make it easy for you. Like, I'm not going to give you the impression that I enjoy this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
I'm going to give you the impression that I'm doing this because you asked me to do something I don't want to do, but here I am because I'm a generous person, et cetera, et cetera. And St. Paul is saying, no, no, no, no, none of that. None of that. If you're going to give, be a cheerful giver. And it's a good reminder for me, maybe for you too.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
But going on, Paul has to defend his ministry because what's happened, of course, is that there are these, I like how the RSV says superlative apostles. Other translations talk about the super apostles. And these super apostles are those who have basically kind of relied upon their credentials in maybe in some ways to usurp what St. Paul has taught to the people in Corinth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
As I made my journey and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone about me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, "'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' And I answered, "'Who are you, Lord?' And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
And so he has to pull out his credentials once again. And one of the things that I think is really interesting is when St. Paul is talking about his credentials and not just his credentials, but talking about this battle against these people who have made themselves his enemies, it's very clear that St. Paul is not carrying on a worldly war. He even says that in chapter 10, verse 3.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
He says, the weapons of our warfare, this is verse four, are not worldly, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. And this is important because this is not just in the context of St. Paul, who was arguing against people who are teaching falsely about Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
But even it's true about, you know, so often we want to be wise in the ways of the world, which is not horrible, but we also have to have a wisdom of Christ, the mind of Christ. So here's what he says in verse five, we destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God. And here's this key and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
And this is really important to take every thought captive to obey Christ. And the question we get to ask ourselves is as a Christian, do I take every thought captive? Like, or do I just kind of let my thoughts be whatever I let my mind wander. And that doesn't mean that I'm like disciplined the entire time. And I can't sometimes let my mind rest. What it means is what do I feed my mind?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
To take every thought captive means that I don't just treat every idea as equal to every other idea. To take every thought captive doesn't just mean I allow every thought unfiltered to go into my mind or every thought unfiltered to come out of my mouth. That is kind of important. to take every thought captive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
I think that's a good prayer for us today, to be able to recognize that we must not acquiesce, right? We have to take every thought captive. Now, going beyond this, there are so many things to be able to point out. One is St. Paul's, you know, his disposition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
He makes a point, we've already pointed this out, but that people would say, his letters when he writes to us, wow, he's really strong, but in person, he doesn't seem so intimidating. That's an interesting kind of side note. But there is something that happens when it comes to these other false apostles that bring up something in Paul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
This is in chapter 11, where he basically says, what you must not do is you must not compare yourselves. That comparison, because he's going to say, I'm essentially, I'm not going to compare myself to these super apostles either. And he basically warns against this wound. Maybe it's even a sin of comparison.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
And I just think there's something really important because even though he goes on in the end of chapter 11 to describe all that he's been through. He even says, this is dumb. He says, basically, I'm a fool for even pointing this out because this doesn't add to my credentials.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
The only credential I need to rely upon is that the grace of God, in the grace of God, Jesus Christ has called me to be an apostle. That's it. And he goes on to say that I'm jealous for you. That's why I'm writing all this. Not because I'm fighting against these other false apostles, not because I'm jealous of those false apostles, but I'm jealous of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
Now those who were with me saw the light, but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, Rise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do. And when I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
Not because I'm comparing myself to these false apostles, but because I actually love you. We heard about this yesterday when St. Paul was leaving Ephesus and how those people that he loved, loved him back. And here in Corinth, you just wonder, hmm, he loves them as well. Did they love him back the way that the Ephesians loved him back? Maybe they did.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
But it's definitely true, definitely true that St. Paul, the reason he's writing this whole thing is because he's jealous of them. He's jealous of their hearts. He's jealous for them because he loves them. He cares about them. And that's why he's willing to fight for them. And that's the truth for us too.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
Gosh, there's so many people in our lives that are walking away from the Lord or don't even care. And they might say, just leave me alone. Stop talking about the Lord. Stop asking if I've listened to the Bible in a year. Stop whatever. And you say, ah, the only reason I'm asking is because I'm jealous for you. The only reason I'm asking is because I know the Lord loves you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
The only reason I'm asking is because I love you. Yet still, it's easy to get shot down in the midst of trying to love someone who might not want to be loved that way. So to have the strength to keep moving forward, we need God's grace. And so we need to pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
And when Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me, and standing by me said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight. And in that very hour I received my sight and saw him. And he said, The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the just one, and to hear a voice from his mouth. Who
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
for you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now, why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. Paul tells how he was sent to the Gentiles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me, make haste and get quickly out of Jerusalem because they will not accept your testimony about me. And I said, Lord, they themselves know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
And when the blood of Stephen, your witness was shed, I also was standing by and approving and keeping the garments of those who killed him. And he said to me, Depart, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. Paul and the Roman Tribune Up to this word they listened to him. Then they lifted up their voices and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he ought not to live.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
And as they cried out and waved their garments and threw dust into the air, the tribune commanded him to be brought into the barracks and ordered him to be examined by scourging to find out why they shouted thus against him. But when they had tied him up with the thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
When the centurion heard that, he went to the tribune and said to him, What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman citizen. So the tribune came and said to him, Tell me, are you a Roman citizen? And he said, Yes. The tribune answered, I bought this citizenship for a large sum, Paul said, I was born a citizen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him instantly, and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him. Paul before the chief priests and council.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
and Proverbs chapter 29, verses five through seven. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is a revised standard version, second Catholic edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
But the next day, desiring to know the real reason why the Jews accused him, he unbound him and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
Now, it is superfluous for me to write to you about the offerings for the saints, for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
But I am sending the brethren so that our boasting about you may not prove vain in this case, so that you may be ready as I said you would be, lest if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we be humiliated, to say nothing of you, for being so confident.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
So I thought it necessary to urge the brethren to go on to you before me and arrange in advance for this gift you have promised, so that it may be ready not as an exaction, but as a willing gift. The point is this. He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work. As it is written, He scatters abroad, He gives to the poor, His righteousness endures forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your resources and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for great generosity, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the rendering of this service not only supplies the wants of the saints, but also overflows in many thanksgivings to God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
Under the test of this service, you will glorify God by your obedience and acknowledging the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others. While they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. Chapter 10, Paul defends his ministry.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
my name is father mike schmitz and you're listening to the bible in a year podcast where we encounter god's voice and live life through the lens of scripture the bible in a year podcast is brought to you by ascension using the great adventure bible timeline we'll read all the way from genesis to revelation discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today it is day 343 another palindrome day we're reading from the acts of the apostles chapter 22 as well as the second letter of saint paul to the corinthians chapters 9 10 and 11
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
You can also, little known fact, in the last 20 some days of this Bible in a Year podcast, you can still subscribe to the podcast and you would be subscribed. It would be day 334. Nope. And day 343 for you, we're reading Acts chapter 22, 2 Corinthians chapters 9, 10, and 11, and Proverbs chapter 29, verses 5 through 7. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 22.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
I, Paul, myself, entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold to you when I am away, I beg of you that when I am present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of acting in worldly fashion. For though we live in the world, we are not carrying on a worldly war.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
For the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. Look at what is before your eyes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that as he is Christ's, so are we. For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I shall not be put to shame.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
I would not seem to be frightening with letters, for they say his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech of no account. Let such people understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
Not that we venture to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves, but when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding. But we will not boast beyond limit, but will keep to the limits God has apportioned us to reach even to you. For we are not overextending ourselves as though we did not reach you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
We were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. we do not boast beyond limit in other men's labors. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our field among you may be greatly enlarged so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you without boasting of work already done in another's field. Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
For it is not the man who commends himself that is accepted, but the man whom the Lord commends. 11. Paul and the False Apostles I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me. I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his coming, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
I think that I am not in the least inferior to these superlative apostles. Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not in knowledge. In every way, we have made this plain to you in all things. Did I commit a sin in abasing myself so that you might be exalted because I preached God's gospel without cost to you? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
And when I was with you and was in want, I did not burden anyone, for my needs were supplied by the brethren who came from Macedonia. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boast of mine shall not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
And what I do, I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
So it is not strange if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. Paul's sufferings as an apostle. I repeat, let no one think me foolish, but even if you do accept me as a fool so that I too may boast a little.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
What I am saying, I say not with the Lord's authority, but as a fool in this boastful confidence, since many boast of worldly things, I too will boast. For you gladly bear with fools being wise yourselves. For you bear it if a man makes slaves of you or preys upon you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say we were too weak for that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
But whatever anyone dares to boast of, I'm speaking as a fool. I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one. I'm talking like a madman with far greater labors, far more imprisonments with countless beatings and often near death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
Brethren and fathers, hear the defense which I now make before you. And when they heard that he addressed them in the Hebrew language, they were the more quiet. And he said, I am a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as you all are this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
A night and a day I have been adrift at sea, on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren." in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I do not lie.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in a wall and escaped his hands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. An evil man is ensnared in his transgression, but a righteous man sings and rejoices. A righteous man knows the rights of the poor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
Thank you so much for your word. We thank you for the opportunity to be reminded. And that's the key, Lord. So often we forget who you are. We forget who we are in your name. Lord God, we also forget that you're present to us and that you desire us to be close to your heart, regardless of our circumstances, regardless of our situations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
Regardless of the season of our life, whether that's an early season, we have so much ahead of us, a midday season where we're just kind of in the doldrums, or at the end, the twilight of our lives. Lord God, you are present, you're active, you're doing something now in us, in whatever circumstance, in whatever situation, and in whatever season we are. You are doing something in us now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
So please, Lord God, help us to give you permission. Help us to allow you to do what it is you are trying to accomplish in us this day, this moment, this situation, this circumstance, this season, in this most holy name of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, so here is St. Paul. I don't know if you noticed last week there was a little cliffhanger in chapter 21 where it said that Paul stands up, he's in Jerusalem. The whole mob comes around and they, Paul has to defend himself. And then it says, there's a great hush.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
He spoke to them in Hebrew language saying, and then we just ended. And then here we are in chapter 22. Here's what he said. Brethren and fathers, hear the defense, which I now make before you. They realized he was speaking Hebrew. And so they even more, they were hushed, hushed, hushed. They were even hushier. They're even more hushed, held them more quiet. And St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
Paul tells not only of his pedigree, he also tells of his conversion, right? So that he studied under Gamaliel. We heard about Gamaliel earlier in the Acts of the Apostles where the church, the Sanhedrin, the council, right? They were coming against the early apostles, Peter and John and those others.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
And Gamaliel said, you know, if you fight against them and they're from God, you might find yourself fighting against God. But if it's not from God, it'll burn out on its own. So Gamaliel, one of the chief rabbis, one of the most popular, famous, influential rabbis of the time. Here's Paul, who's one of his students. And then he tells his conversion story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women as the high priest and the whole council of elders bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brethren, and I journeyed to Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. Paul tells of his conversion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
And this is, again, just an incredible kind of situation. But people don't necessarily respond to it. So what happens? The Romans come and they're about to scourge him. And then he, Paul pulls out his Roman card, his citizenship card, which is, you know, it's not his get out of jail free card, but it is a couple of times his get out of scourging free card. So that's good for Paul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
Actually, Paul is going to use this Roman citizenship to journey all the way to Rome with the idea that maybe he'd be able to even preach the gospel before Caesar. So this is one of those situations where God uses everything in our past to be able to forge a way for our future, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
God uses everything in our past, something that maybe Paul at one point thought was useless or was thought was maybe he even thought it was foolish that he had this thing that he was born a Roman citizen. Because he was living in a Jewish world, right? He was living as a student, to become a rabbi at some point.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
But maybe now that he's reaching out to the Gentiles, this Roman citizenship that he was born with took on a new value that he never could have imagined it having earlier on. I don't know, I don't know if that's true, but it's worth considering. In 2 Corinthians, we also have some St. Paul telling a little bit about his pedigree, but that's in chapter 11, where St. Paul says, are they Hebrews?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 343: God Uses Paul's Past (2024)
So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. And in that, right, we have St. Paul, who, again, God uses our past, even things we're not in control of, being born a Roman citizen, being born Jewish. He uses those things we're not even in control of to pave a way for our future if we are willing to surrender those things to him, to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
So Monica knew that Augustine's great mind would not be something she could change because he was super smart. He was incredibly intelligent and she was of average intelligence, I imagine. She couldn't convince him. So what she did was she just prayed. She prayed, God, you're the only one who can convince him. You're the only one who can save the soul of my son who is rejecting Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
He's rejecting the truth. She goes into the church in Milan and there's a bishop there named Ambrose and And a similar kind of situation where Monica is praying and weeping over her son. And Ambrose at one point, when Monica tells the story, Ambrose says, there is no way that the child of so many tears could ever possibly be lost.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And just gave her that confidence to continue to pray for her son, just like Eli had given Hannah the confidence to pray for a son. And ultimately, Augustine came to faith and he met Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, the one who had prophesied that Monica's tears would not be wasted, her prayers would not be wasted, but they would be heard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And since Ambrose is quite the smart cookie, he helped lead Augustine closer and closer to the Lord. And Augustine had a massive conversion experience. and basically was one of the most, maybe if not the most influential theologian in the history of 2000 years of Christianity. There's others who are incredibly influential, but it all started with a mother's prayer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
It all started with a mom's prayer, but it didn't end with a mom's prayer here with Hannah. And with Samuel, what happens? Hannah gets everything she prayed for. Hannah gets everything she longed for. Hannah gets the son that she wanted. And then what does she do with her son? This is remarkable. Like this is something that we need to stop and just marvel at.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Hannah gets the desire of her heart, which is to have a child.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
and she says even before he's conceived that if you give me this child lord i will give him back to you and she actually follows through she follows through with this i mean think about how you know and we've talked we've prayed so many times as a community here in this bible in a year for moms who longing to get pregnant for couples who are longing to get pregnant for those who are in crisis pregnancies and there can be such a desperation and i don't i'm not making light of that in any way shape or form
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
But I know that there can be almost a single-mindedness that can overtake families or overtake couples when they desire to have a family. And everything becomes about charting and everything becomes about the latest test and everything becomes about everything we can do to achieve pregnancy, everything we can do to have a child.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And in some ways, and again, this is someone from the outside, so please forgive me. In some ways, when we have a desire like that, it can sometimes become the new God in our life. It can sometimes become the only thing we want in life. And so that's all of us, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other was Penina. And Penina had children, but Hannah had no children. Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
But here's Hannah, who just like so many couples as part of this community, she prayed and she did everything she could and God blessed her with a child. And her response was, God, this child is yours. It wasn't to possess. It wasn't to grasp. It wasn't to own. It wasn't to say, okay, God, now this child is mine and no one else gets him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Her response was to say, God, this blessing, the blessing of this son of mine is actually your gift. And so I'm merely a steward of him until he's weaned. And then I'm giving him back to you, which is just heartbreakingly heroic, heartbreakingly loving, heartbreakingly incredible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
How many of us with because we all have longings of our hearts, we all have these things in our lives that we desire so much to possess that when we finally get them, we finally get them. We no longer see them as being on loan from the Lord. We no longer see them as being a gift from the Lord. we see them as, you know, quote unquote, ours.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And we can cling to those things in such a way that what was meant to be a gift ultimately can become a curse. What's meant to be a gift can ultimately become the thing that makes our hearts smaller, not larger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And so for all of us, whether it's with a child or in family or work or whatever that thing is, as we've said before many times, the heart is an idol-making factory, and we can make an idol out of anything, and especially out of really, really good things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And so we are checked by Hannah today, and we recognize that, okay, here's Hannah who prayed for a son, prayed for a child, like so many are praying. We're praying with you too. We're supporting you in this. But she didn't hold on. She didn't grasp. She received the gift and loved the gift with all of her heart. And she kept God center. One of the last things we have here today is that Eli.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Eli, we're going to see him as we move forward. But Eli is not necessarily a great guy. Eli has his sons, Hophni and Phinehas. and Hophni and Phinehas and the other priests there, what were they doing? They were taking from the sacrifice that belonged to the Lord and stealing the best parts, essentially.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Instead of saying, yes, we'll do it according to what was prescribed in Deuteronomy and in Leviticus, And after the gift is offered, we'll take the portion left over. That's what belonged to the priests. They would claim the best portion before it was given to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And not only that, they would also, as it's very, very clearly said in scripture today, Hophni and Phinehas would lay with women and have sexual relations with them before the tabernacle of the Lord. Remember, there was...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
There was an earlier Phineas in the book of Numbers who, when the priests, well, not the priests, but this man and this woman were having those relations in front of the tabernacle of the Lord, he speared them to the ground. This is a very, very, very serious thing. And in doing so, he stopped the plague from wiping out the people of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Penina his wife and to all her sons and daughters, but And although he loved Hannah, he would give Hannah only one portion, because the Lord had closed her womb. And her rival used to provoke her sorely to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
What Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, were doing was awful. And what Eli does is he just corrects them and then lets them be. He just says a word to them and then goes on his way. He doesn't actually follow through with his discipline, his charge, his responsibility.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And so what happens is the man of God, this unnamed anonymous man of God comes to Eli and says, here's because of what you're doing, not just because of your sons, but because you had the responsibility to stop your sons from doing this and you didn't. Now the blessing will pass away from your house and in your family and your father's family and will go to a different family.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 96. We just finished Judges yesterday. We're now starting a new book. The new book is 1 Samuel. Actually, you might remember this from yesterday or the day before.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And that's what's going to happen in the next couple chapters as we move forward in this first book of Samuel. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. Please pray for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Again, whenever we bring up these deep, deep heart things like Hannah and her desire for a child and so many, so many, I've gotten so many messages, so many letters, so many emails from couples who, since we prayed, you guys, since this Bible in your community prayed for those moms, for those husbands, for those couples that many of them have achieved pregnancy. Now, not all, obviously, not all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
But we can rely on prayer and we do rely on the prayers of each other. So do not stop praying for each other. I will not stop praying for you. Please do not stop praying for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
So it went on year by year, as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. And Elkanah her husband said to her, Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons? After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. And she vowed a vow and said, and no razor shall touch his head. As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart, only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. And Eli said to her, How long will you be drunken? Put away your wine from you. But Hannah answered, No, my lord, I am a woman sorely troubled. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Do not regard your maidservant as a base woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation. Then Eli answered, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have made to him. And she said, Let your maidservant find favor in your eyes. Then the woman went her way and ate, and her countenance was no longer sad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
They rose early in the morning and worshipped before the Lord. Then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. And she called his name Samuel, for she said, I have asked him of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And the man Elkanah, in all his house, went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow. But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and abide there forever. Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Do what seems best to you. Wait until you have weaned him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Only may the Lord establish his word. So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. And the child was young. Then they slew the bull, and they brought the child to Eli.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And she said, O my Lord, as you live, my Lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition which I made to him. Therefore, I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord. And they worshipped the Lord there. Chapter 2.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Can't even remember when I said it, but we only have three days of 1 Samuel. We'll be reading 1 Samuel 1 and 2 today, and then 3 and 5 tomorrow, then 6 through 8 the next day. But after that, in just four short days from today, or I guess three days, I don't know how to count, we are starting the Gospel of John, and we're going to be reading
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Hannah's Prayer Hannah also prayed and said, My heart exalts in the Lord. My strength is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. There is none holy like the Lord. There is none besides you. There is no rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Let not arrogance come from your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has born seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low, he also exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the dung heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Against them he will thunder in heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
the lord will judge the ends of the earth he will give strength to his king and exalt the power of his anointed eli's wicked sons then elkanah went home to ramah and the boy ministered to the lord in the presence of eli the priest Now, the sons of Eli were worthless men. They had no regard for the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant would come while the meat was boiling with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot, all that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. So they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, Give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but raw. And if the man said to him, Let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as you wish, he would say, No, you must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Thus, the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt. Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy girded with a linen ephod. And his mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
through the gospel of john in seven days which i am just absolutely i'm pretty stoked about that if i can use the word stoked i will because i'm pretty stoked about that but today as i said it's day 96 we're reading first samuel chapter 1 and chapter 2 we're praying psalm 149 as always i'm using the revised standard version second catholic edition i'm reading the great adventure bible from ascension if you want to download your own bible in your reading plan
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, "'The Lord give you children by this woman for the loan which she lent to the Lord.' So then they would return to their home." And the Lord visited Hannah, and she conceived, and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew in the presence of the Lord. Eli tries to correct his sons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Now, Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel and how they lay with the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And he said to them, Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings with all the people. No, my sons, it is no good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
If a man sins against a man, God will mediate for him. But if a man sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him? But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to slay them. Samuel's Virtues Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men. a prophecy against Eli's household.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, Thus the Lord has said, I revealed myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh. And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me. And I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Why then look with greedy eye at my sacrifices and my offerings which I commanded, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves upon the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel? Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares, I promise that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever. But now the Lord declares,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Then, in distress, you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity which shall be bestowed upon Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever." The man of you, whom I shall not cut off from the altar, shall be spared to weep out his eyes and grieve his heart, and all the increase of your house shall die by the sword of men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And this, which shall befall your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you, both of them shall die on the same day. And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and shall say, put me, I beg of you in one of the priest's places that I may eat a morsel of bread.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the faithful. Let Israel be glad in his maker. Let the sons of Zion rejoice in their king. Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with timbrel and lyre. For the Lord takes pleasure in his people. He adorns the humble with victory. Let the faithful exult in glory. Let them sing for joy on their couches.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands to wreak vengeance on the nations and chastisements on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written, This is glory for all his faithful ones.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
If you haven't yet, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily episodes. Today, just three chapters, which is a nice little break from the last couple of days where we've been going through heavily and quickly through Joshua and through Judges.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
We do lift up your name and we want you to be glorified. Father, God, you are good and you are glorified this day and every day, whether we acknowledge it, whether we even notice or recognize your great glory. Lord God, you are... You're the source of all goodness and all goodness on its own gives you praise. Every beautiful thing praises you because you are the source of all beauty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Every true thing praises you because you are the source of all truth. Every good thing praises you even if it praises you in ignorance because you are the source of all goodness. And so help us to always, always recognize that. your hand and your sustaining power in goodness and truth and beauty. Come to us in our need with your power.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Come to us in our brokenness with your healing and come to us in our weakness with your strength. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, gosh. 1 Samuel, what a gift. Now, you probably know this, but 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel are two different books, but originally they're the same book, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Kind of like 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles. It's just that they were writing on scrolls, and the scrolls get a little bit too unwieldy and a little too cumbersome, so they have to divide them up into separate books. So right now we're in 1 Samuel. Eventually we're going to get to 2 Samuel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
But 1 Samuel starts out by telling us the origin of this young man, Samuel, which is just phenomenal, right? We have Hannah, Hannah and her husband who continually go up to worship the Lord in Shiloh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Now, here's an important thing we haven't yet noted that when the Israelites were wandering throughout the wilderness in the desert, in the wilderness, in the desert, that they would worship the Lord at the tabernacle, right? At the tent of meeting. And anywhere. But God said that when you go into the promised land, there is a place you worship me that I will point out to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And that place immediately was Shiloh. Shiloh ultimately changes to be the place is Jerusalem. And Jerusalem is the only place that sacrifice is able to be offered later on. But right now, the tent of meeting, the tabernacle, where the Ark of the Covenant is kept, and where the menorah, the altar of the showbread, those are kept at Shiloh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
So here's Hannah and Elkanah, and they go up to worship God like you would.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
at Shiloh so as we have seen a number of times already there is a wife who is loved by her husband and yet she desires to have a child now keep this in mind that Elkanah has two wives Penina and Hannah and again once again the bible never endorses polygamy in fact the bible makes it really clear that a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they should become one flesh not one flesh and then another set of one fleshes almost every time that there is this
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
But today, here we are, 1 Samuel chapter 1 and chapter 2, and then praying Psalm 149. The first book of Samuel, chapter one. Samuel's birth and dedication. There was a certain man of Ramathizophim, of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuth, an Ephraimite. He had two wives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
Polygamy, almost there's always something wrong. Actually, not almost, always there's something wrong. In this case, Penina would be cruel to Hannah. So, moving on. Hannah in the temple then, in the tabernacle of the Lord, in the tent of meeting, she's praying. And it's so interesting how... The Bible reveals that Eli sees her and thinks she's drunk.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
And how reminiscent that is, or actually maybe even foreshadowing that is, of another story. Later on in the history of the church, there's a woman named Monica. Monica has a, this is in the third or fourth century. Monica has a young son, a son whose name is Augustine. And Monica was a Christian. And Augustine was raised as a, I mean, raised in his mother's home. His father was not a Christian.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
His father was a pagan. And Augustine was captivated not only by his own wisdom, but he's captivated by praise. He's captivated by popularity and by fame and by influence and by his own intelligence. And he turned away from Christianity, never embraced it himself. And his mother, Monica. would continually bring him things to read.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2025)
I remember reading the story about how Augustine first read the Gospels, which were written originally in Greek, and threw him across the room, essentially, because it was kind of really rudimentary and rustic Greek, and he was accustomed to incredibly eloquent Greek and beautiful Greek. And he said, how could this possibly be God's word? You know, it's not even that great in human words.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
bible in a year and you follow along with us while you're reading we'll follow along with us while you're listening anyways oh my gosh what a gift to be with you god bless today and my name is father mike praying for you
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
He was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore, it is said, like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, and Akkad, all of them in the land of Shinar. From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh. There he had both Ir, Kela, and Rezin between Nineveh and Kela, that is the great city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
Egypt became the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lihabim, Naphtuhim, Pashusim, Kazluhim, whence came the Philistines, and Kaphtarim. Canaan became the father of Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth. and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvidites, the Zemurites, and the Hamathites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
Afterward, the families of the Canaanites spread abroad, and the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma, and Zeboim as far as Lasha. These are the sons of Ham by their families, their languages, their lands, and their nations."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born. The sons of Shem, Elam, Ashur, Arpashad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. Arpashad became the father of Shelah, and Shelah became the father of Eber. To Eber were born two sons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
and how we fit into that story today this is day five so let's get started we are reading today um from genesis chapter 10 and chapter 11 the last chapters in the early world period as well as reading psalm 2. the translation that i always use in these podcasts is the revised standard version the catholic edition i'm using the great adventure bible from ascension
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
The name of the one was Pelig, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother's name was Jaktan. Joktan became the father of Amodad, Shelef, Hazemarfeth, Jera, Hadaram, Uzal, Dikla, Obal, Ibama El, Sheba, Ofer, Havilah, and Jabab. All these were the sons of Joktan. The territory in which they lived extended from Misha in the direction of Sefar to the hill country of the east.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
These are the sons of Shem by their families, their languages, their lands, and their nations. These are the families of the sons of Noah according to their genealogies in their nations. And from these, the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood. Now the whole earth had one language and few words.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
And as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, behold, they are one people and they have all one language. And this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do now will be impossible for them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad, and from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. These are the descendants of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arpashad two years after the flood. And Shem lived after the birth of Arpashad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
When Arpashad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. And Arpashad lived after the birth of Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters. When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. And Shelah lived after the birth of Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters. When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
And Eber lived after the birth of Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters. When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Rehu. And Peleg lived after the birth of Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters. When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Sarug. And Reu lived after the birth of Sarug 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
When Sarug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nehor. And Sarug lived after the birth of Nehor 200 years and had other sons and daughters. When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. And Nahor lived after the birth of Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters. When Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
Now these are the descendants of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran was the father of Lot. Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
Speaking of, if you want to follow along with this reading plan, you can download your Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And you can also subscribe in your podcast app. And lastly, you can also sign up for our email list and get updates and notifications by texting Catholic Bible, all one word, Catholic Bible to 33777.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
She had no child. Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. Psalm 2, God's promise to his anointed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and his anointed saying, let us burst their bonds asunder and cast their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord has them in derision.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury saying, I have set my king on Zion, my holy mountain. I will tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and trembling. Rejoice, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way. For his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Father in heaven, thank you so much for your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
Thank you for revealing yourself to us in this story, in the story of the Tower of Babel. We thank you for revealing yourself in even the stories of these genealogies of how the first people on this planet continued to create families. And we ask you to please, as you reveal brokenness in families, let us reveal the brokenness in our own families.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
As you reveal how you've worked through broken people, Help us to trust you in our brokenness, because we know that you can use all things for your glory, that you can use all things, even for the salvation of the world. You use broken things to make things new, and you use wounded things to make things whole again. And so we just praise you, Father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. So we had the story of not only the genealogies in chapter 10, but also the Tower of Babel in chapter 11. One of the things about this is, is it's remarkable because it seems like this is the last story, the last two chapters before we meet Abram and Sarai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
So Abraham and Sarah, we're going to meet them in tomorrow. But today it's the last two chapters in the early world period that are here in the great adventure Bible. And so we have the story of obviously the descendants of Noah, you know, Shem, Ham and Japheth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
and how those all sons play out but there's one particular person that is he sticks out for me because his name is nimrod um and because that's just kind of a i remember that was like an insult when i was a kid i think if someone was doing something stupid call them a nimrod i don't know why but that's what it is but nimrod in chapter 10 sounds like he's a pretty impressive human being in fact it says he was the first on earth to be a mighty man he was a mighty hunter before the lord
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
And he created this kingdom, essentially, Babel, Erech, Akkad, all of them in the land of Shinar. So Babel is Babylon, right? So that's the understanding is ancient Babel is what would come to be ancient Babylon. And Nimrod being the very first
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
Once again, we are reading today Genesis chapter 10 and chapter 11 and Psalm 2. Let's get started. Genesis 10 and 11. These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood. The sons of Japheth, Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshach, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer, Ashkenaz, Rephath, and Torgamer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
of all the people who would establish like a kingdom, all the very first of all the people who would ultimately, in many interpretations, would become a tyrant in his quest for ambition and his quest for power and his quest for control. So Nimrod sounds like, in our translation, the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, sounds like that's a pretty impressive guy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
And he was an impressive guy. Sounds like he was a positive person, almost like a hero. And yet, as the story unfolds, we realize that in the heart of Nimrod was what was in the heart of the people who created the Tower of Babel. And that is this kind of ruthless ambition. It's this ambition, not for excellence, but an ambition for power. And this is the difference for a lot of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
I mean, because there's a clear teaching in scripture, a clear teaching from our Lord that excellence is actually to be sought after, that to truly be great is a great thing. Like the desire to be a great saint. I came across the story recently of St. Maximilian Kolbe saying, And on the eve of his ordination, he had written out his goals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
And among his goals, his number one goal, he said, I want to be a saint, to be a great saint. I want to be a saint and a great saint. So that kind of ambition to be a saint and a great saint even is something that I think the Lord puts in our hearts. The Lord puts that in our hearts and he wants us to cultivate that. He wants us to really pursue that because that's true excellence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
That's actually being who we are made to be and being that person well. That gives glory to God. The opposite of that kind of excellence is what we see with Nimrod. It says like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord. Now that word, that term before the Lord could be taken as like, you know, in the Lord's sight, just kind of as if his strength came from God and it was an honor to God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
But there are some ancient Christian commentaries that say that before the Lord went in opposition of the Lord, that in spite of the fact that God had given him these incredible gifts as a descendant of Noah, that Nimrod had used that to accumulate power, to accumulate control, and simply for his personal self-ambition. And again, why would we think this is possibly a good interpretation of this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
Because of chapter 11, where it says, now the whole world had one language and few words. And the people in the land of Shinar, remember that's Nimrod's area. That's where he created his kingdom. It says that they said, come, let us build a city with a tower in its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves. See, the key is not that they wanted to build a big tower. That's fine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
That, in fact, could be impressive. In fact, think about the incredible churches that have been built to honor the Lord, to be places of a sanctuary for the people of God to be able to come together as brothers and sisters, as sons and daughters of the Father, and give the Father glory. Like, incredibly beautiful churches. around the whole world. Like that, that's great. That's phenomenal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
That's incredible. To build something excellent is not the point. That's not the problem. They say, let us build this and let us make a name for ourselves. And that's the difference between excellence and ambition. That's the difference between wanting to have a life that glorifies the Lord and a life that simply glorifies myself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
You know, as we continue these first days, I mean, gosh, we just only started this journey to the Bible. This is going to be incredible. One of the things we can always ask ourselves is, Lord, am I striving to live up to that call to excellence? Am I striving to live like St. Maximilian Kolbe in his prayer of make me a saint and a great saint, Lord?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
not for my own glory, but because that's who you made me to be. And I can glorify you, God, when I am the saint you called me to be and created me to be and redeemed me to be. When we do not pursue that, then there's something in us that is unsettled. There's something in us that is not, we're not being the people we're meant to be.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
At the same time, we might find ourselves pursuing and racing and chasing, and we might realize that I'm chasing after the wrong thing. I'm racing for the wrong reason. What I'm chasing after is my own fame. What I'm chasing after is my own glory. What I'm chasing after is I want to make a name for myself. I want to be known.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
Our call as disciples of Jesus Christ is we allow him to give us gifts and And then we use those gifts for his glory and for the betterment of the people around us, right? It's just, you know, it's like what, in one chapter from now, when God speaks to Abram, we'll hear this tomorrow, God speaks to Abram and says, I will make of you a great name. I will give you a great name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
The sons of Javan, Elisha, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. From these the coastland peoples spread. These are the sons of Japheth in their lands, each with his own language, by their families, in their nations. The sons of Ham, Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush, Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Ramah, and Sabtaka. The sons of Ramah, Sheba, and Adan. Cush became the father of Nimrod.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
And that's what we want to strive after, not the fact that I wanna make a great name for myself, but I'll receive. I will receive the name that the Lord has for me. I want to glorify his name. Always, we want to pursue that excellence. We want to be the people that we're called to be. I mentioned this many times. St. Francis de Sales has this saying, be who you are and be that well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
Be who God made you to be and be that well, but to pursue excellence. rather than merely pursuing power, influence, fame. That's what the Lord has placed in our hearts. So like St. Maximilian Kolbe, let's make our resolution today that not to be like a Nimrod, not to be a Nimrod in opposition of the Lord, defiant, wanting to make a name for ourselves. But like St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
Maximilian Kolbe saying, Lord, make me a saint and make me a great saint. This has been a great couple days just beginning our journey together, so I want to let you know I'm continuing to pray for you. Please keep praying for me, and we will continue to walk together in the Lord's Word for the rest of this year, and it's going to be phenomenal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 5: Tower of Babel (2025)
If you haven't yet, you can text the word Catholic Bible to the number 33777 for updates and whatnot. If you haven't subscribed yet to this podcast, please, I invite you to do that. If you haven't gotten your personal download of the Bible reading plan, just go to ascensionpress.com.com.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, Thinking, David cannot come in here. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David, and David said on that day, Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack the lame and the blind who are hated by David's soul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
He was kind of part of the leader of bandits. Then he went to live with the Philistines for a while. Now he's back in Hebron and he's the king of Judah. And now finally, He's the king of the 12 tribes of Israel. He was 30 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for 40 years, right? In Hebron, he reigned over Judah seven years and six months.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
And in Jerusalem, he reigned 33 years over all Israel and Judah. And there's a couple of things I just want to highlight. One is... that when David then became the king of all Israel, he decided to make Jerusalem the capital city. And so at the time, there were Jebusites living in that city that he wanted to be his capital.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
And so they taunted him by saying, oh yeah, you know, the blind and the lame are going to drive you out, David. So then David basically busts in there and takes over the city of Jerusalem. And apparently it's relatively simple, but maybe it wasn't. It seems very simple because we got like three verses where it seemed very, very simple for David and his men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
to make Jerusalem his stronghold and call it the city of David. And so David became great. And not only was David great, but Hiram, it says, Hiram, the king of Tyre, sent messengers to David with cedar trees, carpenters, masons. Basically, they built David a house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
And so there's this king who lives on the sea coast in the region of Tyre, and he sends resources to build this other king a palace, essentially. Basically, you know, there's something remarkable when one king recognizes the power and the greatness of another king. And David immediately, as soon as he's taking rule over these 12 tribes of Israel, the people around him are noticing this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Now, in this chapter, this one chapter, chapter five, David does two things. One is great and one is not great. The one that's great is that the Philistines heard that the Israel had anointed David king over all Israel. And so they decided they wanted to fight the new king. And David does what? He does what he has consistently done up till this point. He asks of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
He inquires of the Lord, shall I go up against them? And God says, yes. And so they go to fight. Then they have another battle. And David asks again, do I go up to fight them? And God says, no. Do not go up to fight them, but instead basically go to the rear and defeat them that way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
But the consistent thing that we've seen when it comes to David is he consistently, when he does something right, he's always asking God first. And this is one of those things that Gosh, so many of us, you know, we just, we have our days, right? We just, I know what to do. I get up, I brush my teeth. I do my whole thing and I get to work and I get to school, like wherever it is I have to go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
And I just go do that thing because, you know, I've already decided that's what I'm going to do, which is fine. I mean, it's kind of efficient, I guess. But do we ever stop and ask, God, is this where you want me to go? We talked about it before, you know, days and days ago when it was, you know, God, you want me to fight this battle or not? Do you want me to fight a different battle?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Do you want me to just lay low? Do you want me to avoid this fight? All those things we can pray and ask God for direction. But even when it comes to the daily movements of our lives. You know, we see that person and we just ask, God, do you want me to reach out to that person right now? We see that family. Okay, God, are you calling me to reach out to this family right now?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
And it's one of those things where, you know, God doesn't always speak in that clear, clear voice, but sometimes he just gives us an opening as long as we give him the question, as long as we give him the room for grace. And David does that consistently. That's one of David's keys to greatness. But on the other hand, on the other hand,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
we see that David is going to also start descending into disobedience as well. In verses 13 and 16, remember in chapter 5 here, it talks about David's many wives. He took more wives and concubines from Jerusalem after he had come from Hebron and has a bunch of kids from them. But this is so important. This is in direct disobedience to Deuteronomy chapter 17, verse 17. In Deuteronomy 17, 17 says,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
god had said through moses the king shall neither multiply wives for himself lest his heart turn away and so um we recognize that many people would have seen this as being david being blessed to have many kids is to be blessed i mean that is that's that was true then it is true now so david and others might see this like wow so many blessings so many children so great and yet what we are going to see in the following chapters after this as david gets more and more established
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
is we're going to find that most of David's problems don't just come from his enemies outside of Israel. Most of his problems come from this family. This family that he has been building now through all of these different wives and all of these different concubines And we're going to see that here is just this seed for David's destruction, the seed for David's downfall.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Yes, he is still a great king. He is still doing well when he inquires of the Lord, but he also is not perfect. And we're going to see that on display so very clearly. Now, obviously, you and I are called to be even greater than King David. David was not a child of God. He was not baptized. He didn't have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling inside of him the same way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Therefore it is said, the blind and the lame shall not come into the house. And David dwelt in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built the city round about from the millow inward. And David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 124. We're reading from 2 Samuel chapter 5, as well as 1 Chronicles chapters 7 and 8. We're also praying from Psalm 27. As always, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Yes, the Spirit of God came upon him in the anointing. but he did not have the same spirit of God that we have in our baptism. And so, in fact, in many ways, we are greater than King David in God's eyes. And some of you know this mysterious way. How do you say that? I'm not sure how to completely convey it, but we are now God's adopted children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
What we shall later be has not yet been revealed, 1 John says. but that means that we too have our strengths and we too have our weaknesses. And just like David was not one monolithic greatness and that was just one monolithic broken person, we also are a mixture.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
And the big, big decision we're all going to have is, do we continually come before the Lord and say, okay, God, what battle do you want me to fight? God, where do you want me to help? God, where do you want me to serve? God, where do you want me to repent? God, where do you want me to move forward? God, where do you want me to stand still?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Because it's when we ask God those questions, just like David, that things are blessed. And it's when we just say, I know what you said, God, but I'm going to do my own thing. That's when things...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
are no longer blessed that's when things get dire i know here we are so that's why we need to pray for each other because all of us are a mixture of both the strength and the weakness of grace and of the fallen human nature and so we pray for each other please pray for me i am praying for you my name is father mike i cannot wait to see you tomorrow god bless
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David and cedar trees, also carpenters and masons, who built David a house. And David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem after he came from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
And these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem. Shemua, Shabab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibar, Elishua, Nepheg, Jephiah, Elishema, Eliadah, and Eliphelet. Philistine attack repulsed. When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up in search of David. But David heard of it and went down to the stronghold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand? And the Lord said to David, Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand. And David came to Baal-perazim, and David defeated them there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
And he said, The Lord has broken through my enemies before me like a bursting flood. Therefore, the name of that place is called Baal-perazim. And the Philistines left their idols there, and David and his men carried them away. And the Philistines came up yet again and spread out in the valley of Rephaim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
And when David inquired of the Lord, he said, You shall not go up, go around to the rear, and come upon them opposite the balsam trees. And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then bestir yourself, for then the Lord has gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines. And David did as the Lord commanded him, and struck the Philistines from Geba to Gezer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Descendants of Issachar. The sons of Issachar, Tola, Pua, Jashub, and Shimran, four. The sons of Tola, Uzi, Raphia, Jeriel, Jemai, Ibsam, and Shemuel, heads of their fathers' houses, namely of Tola, mighty warriors of their generations, their number in the days of David being 22,600.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
the sons of uzi israhiah and the sons of israhiah michael obadiah joel and ishiah five all of them chief men and along with them by their generations according to their fathers houses were units of the army for war thirty six thousand for they had many wives and sons Their kinsmen belonging to all the families of Issachar were in all 87,000 mighty warriors enrolled by genealogy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Descendants of Benjamin. The sons of Benjamin, Bela, Bechar, and Jedael, three. The sons of Bela, Esbon, Uzi, Uziel, Jerimoth, and Eri, five. Heads of fathers' houses, mighty warriors, and their enrollment by genealogies was 22,034, the sons of Bekar, Zemira, Joash, Eleazar, Eleonai, Omri, Jeremoth, Abijah, Anathoth, and Elameth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. And you can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe. Simple as that. As I said, it is day 124. We're reading 2 Samuel chapter 5 and 1 Chronicles 7 and 8 and Psalm 27.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
All these were the sons of Bekar, and their enrollment by genealogies according to their generations as heads of their fathers' houses, mighty warriors, was 20,200. The sons of Jediahel, Bilchan, and the sons of Bilchan, Jayush, Benjamin, Ehud, Chenna'ana, Zethan, Tarshish, and Ahishahar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
All these were the sons of Jediahel, according to the heads of their fathers' houses, mighty warriors, 17,200, ready for service in war. And Shupim and Hupim were the sons of Ir, Hushim, the sons of Aher. Descendants of Naphtali, the sons of Naphtali, Jaziel, Guni, Jezer, and Shalom, the offspring of Bilhah. Descendants of Manasseh, the sons of Manasseh, Asriel, whom his Aramean concubine bore.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
She bore Machir, the father of Gilead, and Machir took a wife for Hupim and for Shupim. The name of his sister was Ma'akah. And the name of the second was Zelophehad. And Zelophehad had daughters. And Maaka, the wife of Makir, bore a son, and she called his name Peresh. And the name of his brother was Sheresh. And his sons were Ulam and Raham. The sons of Ulam, Badan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
These were the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, son of Manasseh. And his sister, Hamolacheth, bore Ishbud, Abiezar, and Mala. The sons of Shemida were Achiyan, Shechem, Likhi, and Anayim. Descendants of Ephraim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
The sons of Ephraim, Shulathah, and Bered his son, Tahath his son, Eleadah his son, Tahath his son, Zabad his son, Shuthalah his son, and Ezer and Eliad, whom the men of Gath, who were born in the land, slew because they came down to raid their cattle. And Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
And Ephraim went into his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Beriah, because evil had befallen his house. His daughter was She'erah, who built both lower and upper Bet-Haron, and Uzen-She'erah, Raphah was his son, Resheph his son, Telah his son, Tahan his son, Ladan his son, Amichud his son, Elishamah his son, Nun his son, Joshua his son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Their possessions and settlements were Bethel and its towns, and eastward Naaran, and westward Gezer and its towns, Shechem and its towns, Aya and its towns. Also along the borders of the Manassites, Bet-Shan and its towns, Taanak and its towns, Megiddo and its towns, Dor and its towns, in these dwelt the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel. Descendants of Asher
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
The sons of Asher, Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and their sister, Sarah. The sons of Beriah, Heber, and Malkiel, who was the father of Beerseth. Heber was the father of Japhlet, Shomer, Hotham, and their sister, Shua. The sons of Japhlet, Pesach, Bimchal, and Ashvath. These are the sons of Japhlet. The sons of Shemer, his brother, Rokha, Jehuba, and Eram.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
2 Samuel 5, David anointed king of all Israel. Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, behold, we are your bone and flesh. In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you that led out and brought in Israel. And the Lord said to you, you shall be shepherd of my people Israel. and you shall be prince over Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
The sons of Halem, his brother, Zophah, Imnah, Shelesh, and Amal. The sons of Zophah, Suah, Harnapher, Shual, Beri, Imrah, Bezer, Hod, Shammah, Shilsha, Ithran, and Be'ira. The sons of Jether, Jephunneh, Pispah, and Arah. The sons of Ula, Arah, Haniel, and Riziah. All of these were men of Asher, heads of fathers' houses, approved, mighty warriors, chief of the princes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Their number enrolled by genealogies for service in war was 26,000 men. Chapter 8 Descendants of Benjamin in Detail Benjamin was the father of Bela his firstborn, Ashbel the second, Ahara the third, Noha the fourth, and Rapha the fifth. And Bela had sons, Adar, Gerah, Abihud, Abishua, Naaman, Achoah, Gerah, Shephaphon, and Huram. These are the sons of Ehud.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
They were heads of fathers' houses of the inhabitants of Geba, and they were carried into exile to Menahath. Naaman, Ahijah, and Gerah, that is, Heglam, who was the father of Uzzah and Ahihud. And Sheharim had sons in the country of Moab after he had sent away Hushim and Baara, his wives. He had sons by Hodesh, his wife, Jobab, Zebiah, Misha, Malchum, Jehuz, Sakiah, and Mirmah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
These were his sons, heads of father's houses. He also had sons by Hushim, Abitub, and Elpaal. the sons of al-pa'al iber misham and shemed who built ono and lod with its towns and beriah and shema they were heads of fathers houses of the inhabitants of ajalan who put to flight the inhabitants of gath and ahio Shashak, and Jeremoth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Zebediah, Erad, Eder, Michael, Ishpa, and Johah were sons of Beriah. Zebediah, Meshulam, Hizki, Heber, Ismerai, Isleah, and Jobab were the sons of El-Paal. Jaqim, Zikri, Zabdi, Eli-Anai, Zilitai, Eliel, Adaiah, Beriah, and Shimrath were the sons of Shema'i. Ishpan, Eber, Eliel, Abdon, Zichri, Hanan, Hananiah, Elam, Anthodijah, Ifdei, and Penuel were the sons of Shashak.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Shemshirai, Shechariah, Athaliah, Jarashiah, Elijah, and Zichri were the sons of Jeroham. These were the heads of fathers' houses, according to their generations' chief men. These dwelt in Jerusalem. Jeiel, the father of Gibeon, dwelt in Gibeon, and the name of his wife was Maaka. His firstborn son, Abdon, then Zur, Kish, Baal, Nadab, Gedor, Ahio, Zekar, and Mikloth. He was the father of Shemiah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Now these also dwelt opposite their kinsmen in Jerusalem with their kinsmen. Ner was the father of Kish, Kish of Saul, Saul of Jonathan, Melchishua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal. And the son of Jonathan was Meribbaal, and Meribbaal the father of Micah, and the sons of Micah, Pithon, Melech, Teriah, and Ahaz. Ahaz was the father of Jehoiada, and Jehoiada was the father of Alameth. Asmaveth and Zimri.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Zimri was the father of Mozah. Mozah was the father of Benaiah. Rapha was his son. Eliassah his son. Azel his son. Azel had six sons. and these are their names, Azrekam, Bocharu, Ishmael, Shearia, Obadiah, and Hanan. All these were the sons of Ezel, the sons of Eshek his brother, Ulam his firstborn, Jeush the second, Eliphelet the third.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
The sons of Ulam were men who were mighty warriors, bowmen, having many sons and grandsons, one hundred and fifty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and foes, they shall stumble and fall. Though a host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war arise against me, yet will I be confident.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent. He will set me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies round about me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
And I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing and make melody to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud. Be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, seek my face. My heart says to you, your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Cast me not off, forsake me not, O God of my salvation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up. Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me and they breathe out violence. I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
Wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
My gosh, Lord God, thank you. Thank you for your word and thank you for letting us see in chapters one through chapter eight of the book of Chronicles, the ways in which you have unfolded this family. You've gone back and helped us review, Lord God. You've helped us review the lives of your family, the lives of the Jewish people,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
those fathers and sons, those sisters and daughters, those people that you have called out of nothingness to be yours, to be a people peculiarly your own, Lord God. And so we ask you, please help us, help us to be yours as well, because you've called us from obscurity. Lord God, you've called us from nothingness into being. You've called us from being into being your children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
We're so grateful for you, Lord God. Please receive our praise, receive our thanks, and please be with us this day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, we're coming to an end of the names, I promise. We're gonna get back to the story. We're gonna get back to the story in 1 Chronicles, but... First, here we are in 2 Samuel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
A couple of things happen. Now, you might have caught this, but there might have been something that slipped past you. David has been king now for about seven years or so, seven and a half years, but he's been king only over Judah, the one tribe, his own tribe, right? The family that he's from, the tribe he's from. It's now that Ish-bosheth, right? Yesterday, he was murdered. He was assassinated.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 124: King David Rules (2025)
And so now the other tribes of Israel are coming to David. And finally, when he's 30 years old. Remember, he was anointed to be the king of Israel by Samuel amongst his brothers when he was maybe 15 years old. Now, this is 15 years later. And David, after having been a soldier or general even in Saul's army, leading people into battle when he was a buddy youth, then he was a guy on the run.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Before we get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thank you to all those who have supported the Catechism in a Year or the Bible in a Year podcast. We hear stories every day about how those shows have transformed people's lives, and because of your prayers and financial gifts, you are a significant part of that. You might ask a question, though.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
But then that also means that we have to be his ally. You know, how many times in the Gospels does Jesus say something to the effect of, like in Matthew 25, I was naked and you clothed me. I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me to drink. I was in prison and you visited me. In Matthew 25, Jesus makes that case so clearly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
And one of the things that reveals to us is we get to be the hands and feet of the Lord. that yes, he absolutely is present. And yes, he absolutely is calling us to act in this world. And so again, as we launch into this day, whatever time of day you're listening to these words, the word of God, to be able to say, okay, God, you're present. You're active.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Help me to help me to be present to you and help me to be active in your name. So second Maccabees chapter 11, also in wisdom of Solomon chapter 11, there's Hopefully you are just getting as much grace from this book as I am. There are so many things. Let's just highlight two things today, or maybe three. We have chapter 11, verse 10, and it's talking about God, how good God is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
So it says, you know, when it says you, it's talking about the Lord God. And it says in verse 10, for you tested them as a father does in warning, but you examined the ungodly as a stern king does in condemnation. So here is the people of Israel. Here's the Lord God who's in covenant with them, right? So he is their God, they are his people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
And us as Christians, he is our father, we are his children. Verse 10, you tested them as a father does in warning, but you examine the ungodly in those foreign nations as a stern king does in condemnation. And there's two ways, again, we can see God coming to us. Two ways we can see God approaching us. And one is as that father does in warning, that he tests us. He doesn't want us to fail.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
The Second Book of the Maccabees, Chapter 11 Lysaeus Besieges Betzer Very soon after this, Lysaeus, the king's guardian and kinsman, who was in charge of the government, being vexed at what had happened, gathered about eighty thousand men and all his cavalry and came against the Jews.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
He doesn't want us to fall. He doesn't want us to be crushed. He wants us to become strong. He wants us to become faithful. And so we're tested as a father does in warning versus examining the ungodly as a stern king does in condemnation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
And he goes on to say in verses 15 and 16, it says that, "...in return for their foolish and wicked thoughts, which led them astray to worship irrational serpents and worthless animals." You sent upon them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them. What is that a reference to?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
I believe that's a reference to their wandering in the wilderness when the people were punished by their grumbling against the Lord, by being bitten by seraph serpents. That sense of here they are in bitterness, here they are in resentment, here they are in complaint, and the Lord God allowed them. Yes. I mean, this is really interesting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
I don't know if we mentioned this way back when, when we were going through Numbers and Deuteronomy, and we had that story of the seraph serpents that had bit a number of the people of Israel. But one thing is the reality. I remember hearing someone point this out. It wasn't that God created serpents to come upon the people of Israel to bite them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
It was that they were already there, but God had been protecting them. God had been holding those serpents back. And then when they grumbled against him, because I don't want to belong to you, Lord, I don't want to trust you, Lord. Then God allowed, says, okay, well, in that case, I am going to remove my withholding of the serpents. Does that make sense?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
And again, I don't know if we talked about this last, earlier this year or how many days ago it was. But there's an element there that is so powerful to realize how many dangers the Lord keeps from us on a daily basis, on a moment-to-moment basis. Anyways, as we talked about this, verse 16 is the key verse.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Again, at the end of verse 15, you set upon them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them. Here's the verse, that they might learn that one is punished by the very things by which he sins. That is, if that's not wisdom, I don't, I go. Man, oh man. They may learn that one is punished by the very things by which he sins. How many times have we reached out to something that was a sin?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
The thing that we thought, this will give me a momentary joy. This will give me momentary happiness. And yet we realize that we are punished by the very things through which we sin. It comes back to us because it's not good for us. The is not because they're really actually awesome and God doesn't want us to experience awesomeness. No, it's because they're not good for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
And yet, what does God do? This is the theme here in chapter 11 and chapter 12 and following, that is God calls us back. And the verse, the phrase, I mean, that he uses again and again in Wisdom of Solomon is little by little. that God calls them back little by little.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
He intended to make the city a home for Greeks, and to levy tribute on the temple as he did on the sacred places of the other nations, and to put up the high priesthood for sale every year. He took no account whatever of the power of God, but was elated with his ten thousands of infantry and his thousands of cavalry and his eighty elephants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Even in chapter 12, verse eight, it says, but even these you spared, those who had done horrible things, even these you spared since they were but men and sent wasps as forerunners of your army to destroy them little by little. You could have destroyed them completely at any given moment, But you didn't. In verse 10, it says, by judging them little by little, you gave them a chance to repent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Again, this theme, this idea, this truth, that God, you correct little by little those who trespass. This is actually chapter 12, verse 2. Therefore, you correct little by little those who trespass and remind and warn them of the things wherein they sin, that they may be freed from their wickedness and put their trust in you, O Lord. I just marvel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
I marvel at how many times God has been so patient with me. How many times God has been so patient with us that he corrects us little by little rather than just destroying us immediately. Why does he do this? That we might learn how to put our trust in him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
man you guys we can't do this on our own as we know we know this we get reminded of it every single day and so we need god's grace we need each other and once again i just want to invite you know more and more as we're coming to the end of these 365 days it's not like we can't keep going of course we can make another round trip around the sun here with each other but one of the things i keep hearing being reminded of is the community and i keep saying this almost every day now i guess and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
is that we are journeying with people who are in the highs of life and the lows of life. And so we need, we need, absolutely need to pray for each other. Please know that you're being prayed for. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Invading Judea, he approached Bet-Zur, which was a fortified place about five leagues from Jerusalem, and pressed it hard. When Maccabeus and his men got word that Lysaeus was besieging the strongholds, they and all the people, with lamentations and tears, begged the Lord to send a good angel to save Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
The question is, what does Ascension do with these financial gifts? Great question. The answer is we make authentically Catholic podcasts and videos and other digital content to help people know the Catholic faith and grow closer to God. And we do it all for free.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Maccabeus himself was the first to take up arms, and he urged the others to risk their lives with him to aid their brethren. Then they eagerly rushed off together, and there, while they were still near Jerusalem, a horseman appeared at their head clothed in white and brandishing weapons of gold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
And they all together praised the merciful God and were strengthened in heart, ready to assail not only men, but the wildest beasts or walls of iron. They advanced in battle order, having their heavenly ally, for the Lord had mercy on them. They hurled themselves like lions against the enemy and slew 11,000 of them and 1,600 horsemen and forced all the rest to flee.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Most of them got away stripped and wounded, and Lysaeus himself escaped by disgraceful flight. And as he was not without intelligence, he pondered over the defeat which had befallen him and realized that the Hebrews were invincible because the mighty God fought on their side.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
So he sent to them and persuaded them to settle everything on just terms, promising that he would persuade the king, constraining him to be their friend. Maccabeus, having regard for the common good, agreed to all that Lysaeus urged, for the king granted every request in behalf of the Jews which Maccabeus delivered to Lysaeus in writing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
The letter written to the Jews by Lysaeus was to this effect. Lysaeus, to the people of the Jews, greeting. John and Absalom, who were sent by you, have delivered your signed communication and have asked about the matters indicated therein. I have informed the king of everything that needed to be brought before him, and he has agreed to what was possible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
If you will maintain your goodwill toward the government, I will endeavor for the future to help promote your welfare. And concerning these matters and their details, I have ordered these men and my representatives to confer with you. Farewell. The 148th year, Dios Corinthians 24. The king's letter ran thus. King Antiochus, to his brother Lysaeus, greeting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Now that our father has gone on to the gods, we desire that the subjects of the kingdom be undisturbed in caring for their own affairs. We have heard that the Jews do not consent to our father's change to Greek customs, but prefer their own way of living and ask that their own customs be allowed them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Accordingly, since we choose that this nation also be free from disturbance, our decision is that their temple be restored to them and that they live according to the customs of their ancestors. You will do well, therefore, to send word to them and give them pledges of friendship so that they may know our policy and be of good cheer and go on happily in the conduct of their own affairs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
to the nation the king's letter was as follows king antiochus to the senate of the jews and to the other jews greeting if you are well it is as we desire We also are in good health. Menelaus has informed us that you wish to return home and look after your own affairs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Therefore, those who go home by the 30th day of Xanthicus will have our pledge of friendship and full permission for the Jews to enjoy their own food and laws just as formerly, and none of them shall be molested in any way for what he may have done in ignorance. And I have also sent Menelaus to encourage you. Farewell. The 148th year, Xanthicus 15th.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
The Romans also sent them a letter, which read thus, Quintus Memmius and Titus Manius, envoys of the Romans, to the people of the Jews, greeting. With regard to what Lysaeus, the kinsman of the king, has granted you, we also give consent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
But as to the matters which he decided are to be referred to the king, as soon as you have considered them, send someone promptly, so that we may make proposals appropriate for you. for we are on our way to Antioch. Therefore, make haste and send some men so that we may have your judgment. Farewell. The 148th year, Xanthicus 15th.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
The Wisdom of Solomon Chapter 11 Wisdom prospered their works by the hand of a holy prophet. They journeyed through an uninhabited wilderness and pitched their tents in untrodden places. They withstood their enemies and fought off their foes. When they thirsted, they called upon you, and water was given them out of flinty rock and slaking of thirst from hard stone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
For through the very things by which their enemies were punished, they themselves received benefit in their need. Instead of the fountain of an ever-flowing river, stirred up and defiled with blood in rebuke for the decree to slay the infants, you gave them abundant water unexpectedly, showing by their thirst at that time how you punished their enemies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
For when they were tried, though they were being disciplined in mercy, they learned how the ungodly were tormented when judged in wrath. For you tested them as a father does in warning." but you examined the ungodly as a stern king does in condemnation. Whether absent or present, they were equally distressed, for a twofold grief possessed them and a groaning at the memory of what had occurred.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
For when they heard that through their own punishments the righteous had received benefit, they perceived it was the Lord's doing. For though they had mockingly rejected him, who long before had been cast out and exposed, at the end of the events they marveled at him, for their thirst was not like that of the righteous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
In return for their foolish and wicked thoughts, which led them astray to worship irrational serpents and worthless animals, you sent upon them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them, that they might learn that one is punished by the very things by which he sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
For your all-powerful hand, which created the world out of formless matter, did not lack the means to send upon them a multitude of bears or bold lions or newly created unknown beasts full of rage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
or such as breathe out fiery breath or belch forth a thick pall of smoke or flash terrible sparks from their eyes not only could their damage exterminate men but the mere sight of them could kill by fright even apart from these men could fall at a single breath when pursued by justice and scattered by the breath of your power but you have arranged all things by measure and number and weight for it is always in your power to show great strength and who can withstand the might of your arm
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
because the whole world before you is like a speck that tips the scales and like a drop of morning dew that falls upon the ground. But you are merciful to all, for you can do all things, and you overlook men's sins that they may repent. For you love all things that exist, and you loathe none of the things which you have made. For you would not have made anything if you had hated it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
How would anything have endured if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, who love the living. Chapter 12 For your immortal spirit is in all things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Therefore you correct little by little those who trespass, and remind and warn them of the things wherein they sin, that they may be freed from wickedness, and put their trust in you, O Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Those who dwelt of old in your holy land, you hated for their detestable practices, their works of sorcery and unholy rites, their merciless slaughter of children, and their sacrificial feasting on human flesh and blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
These initiates, from the midst of a heathen cult, these parents who murder helpless lives, you wanted to destroy by the hands of our fathers, that the land most precious of all to you might receive a worthy colony of the servants of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
But even these you spared, since they were but men, and sent wasps as forerunners of your army to destroy them little by little, though you were not unable to give the ungodly into the hands of the righteous in battle, or to destroy them at one blow by dread wild beasts or your stern word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 308. We are reading 2 Maccabees chapter 11, as well as Wisdom chapter 11 and chapter 12, Proverbs chapter 25, verses 8 through 10.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
But judging them little by little, you gave them a chance to repent, though you were not unaware that their origin was evil and their wickedness inborn and that their way of thinking would never change. For they were an accursed race from the beginning, and it was not through fear of anyone that you left them unpunished for their sins. For who will say, What have you done?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Or who will resist your judgment? Who will accursed you for the destruction of nations which you made? or who will come before you to plead as an advocate for unrighteous men. For neither is there any God besides you whose care is for all men, to whom you should prove that you have not judged unjustly. Nor can any king or monarch confront you about those whom you have punished.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
You are righteous, and rule all things righteously, deeming an alien to your power to condemn him who does not deserve to be punished. For your strength is the source of righteousness, and your sovereignty over all causes you to spare all. For you show your strength when men doubt the completeness of your power, and rebuke any insolence among those who know it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
You who are sovereign in strength judge with mildness, and with great forbearance you govern us. For you have power to act whenever you choose. Through such works you have taught your people that the righteous man must be kind, and you have filled your sons with good hope because you give repentance for sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
For if you punished with such great care and indulgence the enemies of your servants and those deserving of death, granting them time and opportunity to give up their wickedness, with what strictness you have judged your sons, to whose fathers you gave oaths and covenants full of good promises.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
So, while chastening us, you scourge our enemies ten thousand times more, so that we may meditate upon your goodness when we judge, and when we are judged, we may expect mercy. Therefore, those who in folly of life lived unrighteously, you tormented through their own abominations. for they went far astray on the paths of error, accepting as gods those animals which even their enemies despised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
They were deceived like foolish infants. Therefore, as to thoughtless children, you sent your judgment to mock them. But those who have not heeded the warning of light rebukes will experience the deserved judgment of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
For when in their suffering they became incensed at those creatures which they had thought to be gods being punished by means of them, they saw and recognized as the true God him who they had before refused to know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Therefore, the utmost condemnation came upon them. The book of Proverbs chapter 25 verses 8 through 10.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year because you do have about a page and a half left. So, you know, it's not too late to get in on the action and on the show.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
What your eyes have seen, do not hastily bring into court. For what will you do in the end when your neighbor puts you to shame? Argue your case with your neighbor himself, and do not disclose another's secret, lest he who hears you bring shame upon you, and your ill repute have no end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Father in heaven, we give you praise. We thank you so much.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Lord God, the prayers that we just lift up today, we ask that you please hear the cries of our hearts. You know our pain and you know our suffering. You know our longing and you know our desperation. We are so often so desperate in this life and we know that you hear us. We know that you care. And so, Lord God, on behalf of every person who cries out desperately today, I ask you to please hear
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Not only hear their prayers, because we know you hear their prayers, but let them know. Let them know that you hear their voice. You know their pain. You know their grief. You know their desperation. And be with them now. Be with us now. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your Holy Spirit given to us that fills us and guides us. gives us courage to take another step today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Help us to take another step today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So what a gift, holy smokes. So again, 2 Maccabees chapter 11, more history as well as God's intervention in the ways of the world. Isaiah, the king's guardian and kinsman, right? So King Antiochus, He thinks he's going to put the hammer down on the Jews.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
And what does he realize? He doesn't realize that Maccabeus means hammer. So jokes on you, Lysaeus. And here's what happens. Judas Maccabeus, once again, here's the Lord who reveals his presence, reveals his action in the lives of the people of Israel who are defending their land. And what do we have in chapter 11, verse 8? Well, they're still near Jerusalem and Lysaeus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Maccabeus is praying and rousing everyone up to fight. They see that there is a horseman up here at their head, clothed in white and brandishing weapons of gold. And they all together praise the merciful God and were strengthened in heart, ready to assail not only men, but the wildest beasts or walls of iron. They advanced in battle order, et cetera, et cetera. Ah, this is important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Here's what happens. God shows up and he's present. And then the people also have to fight. They have what's described in verse 10 as a heavenly ally, for the Lord had mercy upon them. But they hurled themselves like lions against the enemy. There's an element here where it's good for us to be reminded constantly, of course, of the Lord's presence and the Lord's action, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
The Lord's love for us and that he is there, even when we don't see that vision of a horseman clothed in white and brandishing weapons of gold. but he's present. We keep saying this again and again, because second Maccabees reveals it again and again. But one of the things that happens as well is here is the Lord's warrior. And then the warriors of Israel are called upon to fight, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. And it is today, day 308. We're reading 2 Maccabees chapter 11, Wisdom 11 and 12, Proverbs 25, verses 8 through 10.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
So that sense of It's not, okay, Jesus, take the wheel. I'm gonna let go of the steering wheel and just whatever happens. It's, Lord, help me in this moment. I'm gonna steer the car. Lord, help us at this moment. We're gonna take up arms and hurl ourselves like lions against the enemy. There's something so important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 308: Little by Little (2024)
Today, as you and I are thrust into the day, as we're launched into today, we know that God is present. And we know that, God, please help us to do your will. That's been our prayer this whole time because we don't want to miss God's will. We don't want to get it wrong. But at the same time, God expects us. God is going to move. God expects us to move as well. God is there as our ally.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
And it's really interesting how the young man and Joshua come to Moses because Eldad and Medad, who are not among the number of the 70, even though they were registered and they received the Holy Spirit, they're prophesying. And here's Moses' response. With that, everyone of the Lord's peoples were prophets.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
And here we are, you know, when you were baptized, if you've been baptized, you were anointed a priest, prophet, and king. You're a kingdom priest and you are a prophet of the Lord and a king or queen. That means that God has sent his Holy Spirit upon you to anoint you as prophet. And so the question we always have to ask is, am I exercising my blessing, my anointing of being a prophet?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at. Now the manna was like coriander seed, in its appearance like that of gum resin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
So that's Numbers chapter 11. Remember this, that this is the beginning of their desert wanderings. And Deuteronomy chapter 10, which we heard today, is the end of the desert wanderings and is Moses kind of summing up the story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
This first chapters of Deuteronomy is Moses giving a recap and he does the recap of the second set of tables of stone or the second tablets of the 10 commandments, putting them in the Ark of the Covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
But one of the things in this key, key line, key section of Deuteronomy chapter 10, the essence of the law, and it goes on to say many, many times, the Lord has set his heart in love upon your fathers and chosen their descendants after them. You above all peoples, he has set his heart in love upon you. And this is the word that God speaks over every one of us today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
The Lord has set his heart in love upon you. That's why the commandments exist. That's why these commandments have been given. That's why you and I have been invited into being part of this Bible in a Year podcast, because the Lord has set his heart upon you. Yes, originally, it says very clearly, Deuteronomy, God has set his heart upon the people of Israel, the Jewish people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
He has set his heart upon them. But it's through the Jewish people that God has been able to bless the entire world. And that's you and that's me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
And that means that he's expanded that blessing and he has set his heart in love upon you, which is why we keep the commandments, which is why we pray, which is why we are opening our hearts and our minds to his word today, because he has set his heart in love upon you. We are not the ones who first love him. He is the one who first loves us. That is so good. God loves you. God loves you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
Just make it purely personal. Hear this last word. God has set his heart upon you. He set his heart in love upon you. So let's pray. Let's pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. This is a community of people who are on day 61 of this journey. So support each other. I know you have a lot of discussion groups going on.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
I know there's a lot of prayer groups that talk about what we've been reading, what we've been hearing. Keep that going. This is such a blessing, such an incredible blessing to be able to be with you. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
The people went about and gathered it and ground it in mills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent, and the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. Moses said to the Lord, Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people upon me? Did I conceive all this people?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
Did I bring them forth, that you should say to me, Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries the sucking child to the land which you swore to give to their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep before me and say, give us meat that we may eat. I am not able to carry all this people alone. The burden is too heavy for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
If you will deal thus with me, kill me at once. If I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness. the seventy elders. And the Lord said to Moses, Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
And I will come down and talk with you there, and I will take some of the spirit which is upon you and put it upon them. And they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone. And say to the people, Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat. For you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, Who will give us meat to eat?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
For it was well with us in Egypt. Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall not eat one day or two days or five days or ten days or twenty days. but a whole month until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before him saying, why did we come forth out of Egypt?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
Today is day 61, and we are reading from Numbers chapter 11 and Deuteronomy chapter 10. We'll also be praying Psalm 33 today. As always, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. You can get that Bible wherever you get Bibles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
But Moses said, the people among whom I am number 600,000 on foot. And you have said, I will give them meat that they may eat a whole month. Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them to satisfy them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to satisfy them? And the Lord said to Moses, Is the Lord's hand shortened?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not. So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered 70 men of the elders of the people and placed them round about the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was upon him and put it upon the 70 elders.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
And when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, but they did so no more. Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other named Medad. And the spirit rested upon them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
And Joshua, the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, My Lord Moses, forbid them. But Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his spirit upon them. And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp. the quails.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and it brought quails from the sea, and let them fall beside the camp about a day's journey on this side and a day's journey on the other side round about the camp, and about two cubits above the face of the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
And the people rose all that day and all night and all the next day and gathered the quails, he who gathered least gathered ten homers, and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. While the meat was yet between their teeth before it was consumed, The anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
Therefore, the name of that place was called Kibroth Hatavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving. From Kibroth Hatavah, the people journeyed to Hazeroth, and they remained at Hazeroth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
Moses continued. At that time, the Lord said to me, hew two tables of stone like the first and come up to me on the mountain and make an arc of wood. And I will write on the tables, the words that were on the first tables, which you broke and you shall put them in the arc.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
You can also download your Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Also, before we start, if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, go ahead and click on that subscription button. I don't know why it's taking you 61 days to do it, but this could be the day that changes everything. As I said, today is day 61.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
So I made an arc of acacia wood and hewed two tables of stone like the first and went up the mountain with the two tables in my hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
and he wrote on the tables as at the first writing the ten commandments which the lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly and the lord gave them to me then i turned and came down from the mountain and put the tables in the ark which i had made and there they are as the lord commanded me
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
The sons of Israel journeyed from Baroth-Banek-Jachan to Mozarah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried, and his son Eleazar ministered as priest in his stead. From there they journeyed to Gogodah, and from Gogodah to Jubathah, a land with brooks of water. At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
to stand before the Lord, to minister to him, and to bless in his name to this day. Therefore Levi had no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord God said to him. Moses continued, I stayed on the mountain as at the first time forty days and forty nights, and the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
And the Lord said to me, Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. the essence of the law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I command you this day for your good?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens and the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love upon your fathers and chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples as at this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
You shall serve him and cling to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrible things which your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven for multitude."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise befits the upright. Praise the Lord with the lyre. Make melody to him with the harp of ten strings. Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts. For the word of the Lord is upright. and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
We're reading Numbers chapter 11, Deuteronomy chapter 10, and Psalm 33. The book of Numbers chapter 11, complaining in the desert. And the people complained in their hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes. And when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle. He put the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke and it came to be. He commanded and it stood forth. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the sons of men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
From where he sits enthroned, he looks forth on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. A king is not saved by his great army. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength. A war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his merciful love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and shield. Yes, our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name. Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
We know that in the challenges of life, you are there. In the challenges where we rely upon our own strength, our own wisdom, you call us ever more deeply and ever more resolutely to rely upon your strength and to rely upon your wisdom. Yes, God, you ask us to use our own. The strength we have and the wisdom we have, you have given them to us as gifts and yet,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
You know that on our own, we are bound to fail. And so you offer us your strength. You offer us your wisdom and you give it to us for free. It is your gift of grace. And so this day, this day, we accept your gift. This day, we accept the gift of your strength and your wisdom. And we ask that you please transform our hearts and help us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
Set us free from what binds us and give us the power to lift up those around us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So Numbers chapter 11 is a big chapter. It's kind of, it's one of those chapters
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
So the entire Exodus, I remember hearing this in seminary and they repeated it every time I studied the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures, that the Exodus is the watershed event in the life and history of the people of Israel. And that was that even that line, it was the watershed event. The Exodus is the watershed event in the history of the people of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
And this is still part of it, that being released from slavery in Egypt and and heading out into the wilderness, heading out into the desert. What do we have in chapter 11? We have these stories of the people of Israel who are rebelling, the people complaining in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
And they're not just complaining in the sense of like book of Lamentations, not complaining in the sense of like the book of Psalms. Even we've prayed a number of Psalms where people are crying out to God saying, God, what is going on? Why is this happening to us? but it's a different kind of complaint.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
It's not just the complaint of a, you might say it like this, like, you know, a child going to their parent and saying, please, can I have this thing? Or why can't we go wherever? It's the complaint of rebellion. And that's at the heart of the whole thing. It's not merely, hey, we're really hungry right now. It's the complaint of rebellion. But think about this. Here are the people of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
Then the people cried to Moses and Moses prayed to the Lord and the fire abated. So the name of that place was called Taborah because the fire of the Lord burned among them. Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving, and the people of Israel also wept again and said, Oh, that we had meat to eat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
They're being fed every single day. And yes, it's with manna. And yes, it's manna for breakfast, manna for lunch, manna for supper. And there's been nothing but manna. But think about how the people responded to this. They say, would that we were back in Egypt. Remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing? Honestly, let's think about this. When we were slaves, we got to eat for free.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
No, you didn't. You were slaves. And yes, you got to have cucumbers and you got to have onions and garlic. And I love garlic, but... It was at the price of your freedom. It was at the price of you being a non-people in the midst of the people of Egypt. And now here you are God's people and here you are free and here you are being brought by God's care. He's feeding you every single day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
And you're saying, we wish we were still slaves. And how much is that like ourselves? That, gosh, we can, I don't know how many people I've spoken with who have said things like, well, if I became a Christian, if I become Catholic, will I be happy? If I go to confession, will I feel better? If I give my life to Christ, will things go well for me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
And I'm like, okay, man, all those things are great. I wanna feel better and I wanna be happy and I want things to go well for me. But that's never been the promise of those who belong to the Lord. Like health and wealth have never been the promise of those who belong to Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus says, come after me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
If you want to be my disciple, you have to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. but you'll be free, but you won't be a slave. You'll have life and you'll be able to belong to the Lord and be his. And yet, but you'll have problems. And in this world, you'll have trouble, but take heart, I've overcome the world. And yet, we can still sometimes say,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 61: Complaining in the Desert (2025)
Man, I was happier when I could eat garlic and onions and melons and leeks. We can trade our freedom. We can trade our freedom for anything. We can trade our freedom for comfort. We can trade our freedom for garlic. Later on... Moses is able to share the burden with the 70 elders and the 70 elders received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God that has come upon Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
One last note in chapter nine, verse 11, just so powerful. Again, I saw that under the sun, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the men of skill, but time and chance happened to them all. Oh, so good. It is, again, it's not sometimes just a matter of you're the smartest in the room.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
You're the strongest in the room. You're the fastest in the race. It's just sometimes chance. Sometimes it's just to have this opportunity. And why did I lose? Well, because the time was up. Time and chance happens to all of us. And again, that is so good because rather than giving into our desire to control, we get to have the call to surrender rather than the desire to control.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
We have the invitation to trust. And yes, of course, we want to be as fast as we can be as strong as we can be as wise as we can be as good as we can be. Ultimately, when it comes down to it, the call in every one of our lives is to trust the Lord and surrender to him. That's so, so good. Oh my gosh. What a gift it is to be able to journey through Ecclesiastes with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
This is our second to last day in Ecclesiastes tomorrow. We're finishing up with the last three chapters of Ecclesiastes. And then the day after tomorrow, as I said, we're jumping in to our second messianic checkpoint with the gospel of Mark. I am so excited. I'm praying for you guys. Please, please pray for me and pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing hidden from the king which he could not explain to her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings which he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 152, and we are reading from 1 Kings 10, Ecclesiastes 8-9, and Psalm 8.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
and she said to the king the report was true which i heard in my own land of your affairs and of your wisdom but i did not believe the reports until i came and my own eyes had seen it and behold the half was not told to me your wisdom and prosperity surpassed the report which i heard happy are your wives happy are these your servants who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel. Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness. Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
Never again came such an abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
moreover the fleet of hiram which brought gold from ophir brought from ophir a very great amount of almagwood and precious stones the king made of the almagwood supports for the house of the lord and for the king's house lyres also and harps for the singers no such almagwood has come or been seen to this day
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked, besides what was given to her by the bounty of Solomon. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, besides that which came from the traders and from the traffic of the merchants and from all the kings of Arabia and from the governors of the land. King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold. 600 shekels of gold went into each shield. And he made 300 shields of beaten gold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
Three minus of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
The throne had six steps, and at the back of the throne was a calf's head, and on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing besides the armrests, while twelve lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver. It was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. For the king had a fleet of ships from Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
Once every three years, the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. Thus, King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And the whole earth sought the presence of King Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, and you can subscribe to this podcast by clicking on Subscribe. And that you know the drill.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
Every one of them brought his present articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year. And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. And Solomon's import of horses was from Egypt and Cu, and the king's traders received them from Cu at a price. A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
And so through the king's traders, they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face shine and the hardness of his countenance is changed. Keep the king's command and because of your sacred oath, be not dismayed. Go from his presence. Do not delay when the matter is unpleasant for he does whatever he pleases.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
for the word of the king is supreme and who may say to him what are you doing he who obeys a command will meet no harm and the mind of a wise man will know the time and way for every matter has its time and way although man's trouble lies heavy upon him For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
No man has power to retain the spirit or authority over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. All this I observed while applying my mind to all that is done under the sun, while man lords it over man to his hurt. God's ways are inscrutable. but it will not be well with the wicked.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
Neither will he prolong his day like a shadow because he does not fear before God. There is a vanity which takes place on earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
And I commend enjoyment, for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink and enjoy himself, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
As I said, it's first Kings chapter 10 today. So we're getting closer and closer to the end of King Solomon's reign. We're going to see the queen of Sheba and we're going to see how everyone's coming to see Solomon because of all of his wisdom and because of Now he's just, man, the guys are wealthy. He is rich. He is super rich. We're also coming closer and closer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night one's eyes see sleep, then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even the way wise man claims to know it, he cannot find it out. Chapter 9 Acceptance of Life as it Comes
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God, whether it is love or hate, man does not know. Everything before them is vanity, since one fate comes to all, to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
As is the good man, so is the sinner. And he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that one fate comes to all. Also, the hearts of men are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, but the memory of them is lost. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and they have no more forever any share in all that is done under the sun. Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
Let your garments be always white, let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol to which you are going. Wisdom superior to folly. I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siege works against it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
But there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heeded. The words of the wise, heard in quiet, are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
Psalm 8 Divine Majesty and Human Dignity To the Choir Master According to the Gitteth A Psalm of David O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You whose glory above the heavens is chanted by the mouth of babies and infants, you have found a bulwark because of your foes to steal the enemy and the avenger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
The day after tomorrow, we're encountering our second messianic checkpoint. So just the day after tomorrow, we're going to begin Mark chapters one and two. So excited to go back to the gospels after it's been a while since. It's been a minute since we had the gospel of John. But the day after tomorrow, we are in the gospel of Mark. So good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have established, What is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him little less than the angels and you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
How majestic is your name? Gosh, and you've revealed your name to us, which boggles the mind, Lord God, and fills our hearts today. You not only have the majestic name, not only do you have the glorified name, but you have revealed your name to us, and you've also revealed
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
what the psalmist says, what David says, that we can look at the world around us and the universe, the billions upon billions of stars, the space that you've created. And yet what is man that you care for him? Who are we that you're mindful of us, that you're constantly attentive to us. And yet you are God because you have made us in your image and likeness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
And in Christ, you have made us your children. And so we just thank you. Thank you so much for being attentive to us. Thank you so much for creating us. Thank you so much for
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
sustaining us and redeeming us please receive our thanks this day lord in jesus name in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen okay so again a lot of review when it comes to solomon's life at the end of solomon's life the wisdom of solomon when he visits the queen of sheba or she visits him really and other kings that come to visit him him with hiram
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
the ruler up in Tyre who knows how to sail things well. We've heard these stories before. It's so good. I love the fact that we're getting a review of Solomon's life that we just heard in 2 Chronicles, now here in 1 Kings. It's just, and not only is it a review, because you know, remember when we were back, way back when in Deuteronomy and the book of Numbers, that was some review stuff, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
That was kind of retelling the story. But it's so accurate here in terms of when I say accurate, what I mean is, And virtually word for word. I mean, yesterday, Solomon's prayer in the temple two days ago. Gosh, how long ago? Time flies, you guys.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
How long ago was when here's Solomon's prayer of dedication of the temple and how they dedicated the temple, how it's virtually identical in Second Chronicles and in First Kings. Same thing with today in First Kings 10 and Second Chronicles about the visit of the Queen of Sheba, which is so good. Just great review for all of us, as well as Ecclesiastes 8 and 9.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
There are so many things that I just want to highlight about Ecclesiastes because it just seems to be one of those situations where the wisdom books are speaking wisdom, you know, that the wisdom books are telling us, are guiding us in a way of living life wisely. Once again, it can be really negative. It can come across as being negative. But it's not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
What it is, is an honest assessment of how life actually is. That God's ways are inscrutable. We don't know what happens. That here's a sinner who gets ahead and here's a righteous person who doesn't get ahead. And yet the same fate happens to them all. We all end up just dying. Remember, one of the big, big takeaways, one of the big lessons for the book of Ecclesiastes is
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
We're also, as I said, 1 Kings 10, Ecclesiastes 8 and 9, we're praying Psalm 8. The first book of Kings, chapter 10. Visit of the Queen of Sheba. Now, when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
is this, if all there is is this world, if all there is is this life, it's meaningless. If all there is is this life, then this life is meaningless because it all ends in death. If all there is in this world is this world, this world is meaningless because it just ends in death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
Basically, if we choose to live a life apart from God and there's nothing after this, then it simply is meaningless because nothing actually matters. Nothing truly endures. And yet, We know that while time will erase all things, there is something more than time. That's that recognition as the author of Ecclesiastes brings up again and again, that the day will come when no one knows your name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
The day will come when you're completely forgotten. In fact, that's the last story that the wise one tells in chapter nine. He says, here's an example of wisdom under the sun. Great city, few men in it. Great king came against it, besiege it. It was going to destroy the city. But this poor wise man, his wisdom delivered the city. And yet I don't even know his name. Nobody knows this person's name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
And that is, man, so good for us to know. I remember years ago, I have a spiritual director and my spiritual director, he stopped and we were talking and he said, you know, you're going to be forgotten really soon. He was kind of out of nowhere. We were just talking about stuff. And he's like, you know, you're going to be forgotten really quickly. And I was like, oh, yeah, Father, I know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
He's a priest. He's a hermit. Basically lives up in northern Minnesota. And he meets with priests for spiritual direction, some other people for spiritual direction. And he just had that word that, you know, you're going to be forgotten pretty quickly. He said, you know, you're not Thomas Aquinas. And I was like, oh, Father, absolutely. I am very much aware of this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
And I don't have any problem with that at all. And I think it's because this wisdom of Ecclesiastes, you know, I think that any person who's living in this life has thought about their life and the impact of their life has already come to that place of, yeah, I get it. I get it. At some point, very soon, I will be completely forgotten, even by the people who are close to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 152: Being Forgotten (2025)
That's just how life goes. And that recognition of being able to be at peace with this is such a gift. It's a gift to any one of us to be able to be at peace with this because I know and we know that, yes, if all there is is this life, then this life doesn't mean anything. But this life is not all there is. And this life matters. Your life matters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And after there had been much debate, Peter rose and said to them, Brethren, you know that in the early days God made choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us. And he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And yet the Orthodox belief is that, no, Jesus is fully God and fully man. So the Council of Nicaea in 325 says, there are stories of a guy named Jolly Old St. Nicholas that St. Nick himself was at the Council of Nicaea. And it's legend. Maybe it didn't happen. Some people are like, it happened. Some people are like, it didn't happen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And I'm in the middle where I'm like, let's just tell the story. It's kind of fun. But the idea is here is St. Nicholas who himself would have been disfigured because he suffered for the faith. He himself had been tortured because he believed that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. And he's debating Arius. At one point, it says that he punched him in the face or slapped him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
I don't know, one of those things. And that's why I think, I guess it's fun to know about jolly old St. Nicholas because he just, you know, knows when to throw down with a heretic like Arius. But, you know, it wasn't established fully. Is Jesus fully God, fully man? Yes, the Christians believed that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
But what about those problematic passages where Jesus seems to indicate the Father is greater than I? But he also says the Father and I are one, so that seems to indicate equality. And it is not resolved until when? Until the Church came together with the bishops and the Pope, and they say, okay, it seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us, bam, here, Jesus is fully God, fully man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Later in the Council of Constantinople, that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one divine being in three divine persons. Like that... That's a thing that comes from the Catholic Church coming together and saying, this is the doctrine, this is the dogma. And the first time we have that is here in chapter 15, the Council of Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Because we realize that if you don't have to get circumcised, then yeah, let's not do that. But if you do, then you are risking your entire salvation. By not getting circumcised. So the answer that they're going to come up with here better be right, right? It better be infallibly right or else everyone who is uncircumcised, even if they're baptized, will not be able to enter heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And so thanks be to God, God gave us this church and this church actually can teach us things that God himself didn't reveal through scripture and didn't reveal in the person of Jesus, but does reveal through the teaching of the church. Does that make sense? This is so important. And even though we know this, we know this, we know the church is imperfect. I mean, think about this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
They're very after this and they announce this great news to the Gentile believers and they're so excited, they're pumped. And then Paul and Barnabas are going to go on another missionary journey and Barnabas wants it to take John Mark. And Paul thought it best not to take with them the one who had withdrawn from them and had not gone with them to the work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And there arose a sharp contention between the two of them so that they separated from each other. Remember, Barnabas, the son of encouragement. It was, oh my gosh, I imagine like the right-hand man of Paul. Maybe they were each other's right hand. I don't know, but there's brothers in the Lord, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Maybe I always picture them as best friends because as they're going through day after day of this mission work, that... You hope and pray that they liked each other. You hope and pray that they lived like brothers. But in this moment, they disagreed so vehemently with each other about whether John Mark should come with them or not, that they separated from each other. He broke up the band.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Yoko Ono here is John Mark. John Mark, who was Barnabas's cousin. Now, later on, we praise God. We praise God for this. Later on, they reconcile. Later on, Paul and Barnabas are close again. Later on, Paul even calls John Mark his son. And yet at this moment, here's the church that is imperfect and yet can teach accurately, can teach infallibly. And that is essential. I hope that makes sense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Now therefore, why do you make trial of God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will. And all the assembly kept silence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
I hope that makes sense. It just, you know, chapter 15 just highlights the need for the visible church to exist. And not only that, but that it has the authority to teach us. Some people say, I remember people asking this, they say, where is that written? Where's that written down? You know, okay, you have to go to mass on Sundays. Okay, where's that written down?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And I would say, well, there's a lot of indication in scripture, but A, why do you need to written down? Where would it have to be written in order for you to believe it? Because it could be written in the Bible. That's great. We believe the Bible is the word of God. But could it also be written in church documents?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Could it also be written by the church who gave us the New Testament, who gave us these 73 books? Could it be written by that authority? And we'd accept that authority. Now, speaking of authority, moving on to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and 12. You know, here's our first challenging letter, our first challenging section of St. Paul when it comes to men and women.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And it's important to understand that as we move into this, when St. Paul is talking about the head, he's not talking about better. He's talking about source. It goes on, he says, I want you to understand, head of every man is Christ. Jesus is the source. Head of every woman is her husband. That husband's the source. Head of Christ is God. That God, the Father, is the source.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Now, this is very important to get that right right away. I want you to understand, the head of every man is Christ. The head of every woman is her husband. The head of Christ is God. Now, we have to understand this last piece. The head of Christ is God. Question. We just covered this a second ago. Is Jesus Christ God? Is he inferior to God the Father? The answer, of course, is absolutely not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 336. We are reading from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 15. from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapters 11 and 12, as well as Proverbs chapter 28, verses 10 through 12.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
So Jesus Christ is not inferior to God the Father. Is Jesus Christ co-equal, co-eternal with the Father? Absolutely. So they are both God from God, light from light, true God from true God, right? So Jesus Christ and God the Father are completely equal in honor and dignity and glory. Yes. Are they the same? No, right? The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
The Holy Spirit is not the Son. The Holy Spirit is not the Father. They're all co-equal, one God. So that's the context for everything comes after this. So when St. Paul says, oh, the husband is the head of the wife, is he saying that that means she's inferior to her husband? Well, no, unless he means also that Jesus is inferior to the Father. And he does not mean that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Keep that, keep this in mind. Very important that what he's talking about, he's talking about order. We believe that the Trinity is a communion of persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, loving each other, not the same, but loving each other with this fierce pouring out themselves in love and also receiving that love and submitting to one another, submitting to one another out of love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
This is just, it's incredible to even just begin to imagine what and who the Holy Trinity is. And what St. Paul's imagining, envisioning, he's right about this in Ephesians as well, envisioning is this same kind of dynamic between husband and wife in their marriage. Is that that relationship, that dynamic is, okay, yes, not the same. The man is not the woman. The woman is not the man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied, Brethren, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
They're not the same. And yet they are co-equal. And so what do they do? They say, okay, let's have order here. And the order that he's offering is, Here is that the husband is the head of the household, essentially, right? Now, what does that mean? What does it not mean? Well, it doesn't mean that he makes all the decisions. That's not what that means.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Because obviously, scripture indicates and clearly reveals that men and women are equal, but they're not necessarily the same. You might say, people have poetically said, if the husband is the head of the household, the wife is the heart of the household. And just like St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Paul will go on to describe later on in this next chapter, he's saying, okay, the head and the heart can't say to each other, I don't need you. The foot can't say to the hand, I don't need you. The eye can't say to the ear, I don't need you. They're different, but they're equal. Does that make sense? This whole context is all together. It's all united together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And if we start to understand, we start to falsely believe, falsely understand, incorrectly understand that St. Paul is making a distinction and saying one is better than the other. The idea of having authority does not mean superiority. The idea of surrendering oneself or submitting oneself does not mean inferiority. That is not the context. And we know this because of verse three, where when St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Paul says the head of Christ, the head of Jesus Christ is God. Right, order, not inferiority and superiority. We know this. Okay, so does that make sense? We need to drill this in because I know that there are some women who, when they heard this, they automatically shut down or they put up their dukes, right? They kind of like put up the walls and defensives. I'm like, I'm ready to fight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
I'm ready to throw down. You talked about St. Nick and Arius, you know, fighting. We're going to fight, Father, like right here. Like, no, no, no. Ah, so important. And we know this again. It's reiterated because in verse 11 and 12, it said, Nevertheless, in the Lord, woman is not independent of man, nor man of woman. We need each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
For as woman was made from man, speaking of Genesis chapter 2, so now man is born of woman. And all things are from God. So keep that in mind. This whole thing in mind is that we need each other. Now, the church was hate. I mean, think, where do we even get the idea that men and women are equal? We get that from the Bible. The Judeo-Christian worldview is men and women are equal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
The only place in the world, the only religion in the world, the only philosophy in the world that's ever taught that is this, the books we've been reading, these 73 books that we're reading in this one year. So keep that in mind. Keep that in mind. Oh, my gosh. It's so important for us. Okay. What's he talking about head covering then?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And with this, the words of the prophets agree, as it is written, After this I will return, and I will rebuild the dwelling of David which has fallen. I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up, that the rest of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who has made these things known from of old.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Well, in the ancient world, a woman that went without her head covered was most likely a prostitute. Um, just, there you go. So, so here, here's St. Paul saying, yeah, eat whatever you want, drink whatever you want, unless it's gonna lead someone to sin. So here's some women who are like, in that case, I'm taking off the veil covering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
I don't have to go outside with this veil because I'm not living under the law anymore. I'm living in the spirit. And he's like, ah, yeah, but listen, that's gonna be hurtful to some other people. It's not actually very honoring because you're gonna lead people to think that all the women who are Christians going without veil head coverings are prostitutes. And so does that make sense?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Okay, gosh, I should have spent less time on this, but the abuse at the Lord's Supper, so horrible, but yet St. Paul reiterates that Jesus Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. That is, when we celebrate the Mass, it is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. How do we know this? Because of this, horrible thing. St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Paul says in chapter 11, verse 27, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup unworthily is guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. That is his body and blood. In fact, that idiom, profaning the body and blood of the Lord, means you're guilty of his murder. And that's really important. That's one of the reasons why every single one of us has to go to confession before we go to communion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
If we're aware of mortal sin, if we're aware of serious sin, we have to go to confession before receiving Holy Communion. You know, And that's why there are debates of coming before the Lord, going to Mass and receiving Holy Communion if someone is in public and obstinate opposition to the commands of God, that they may not receive Holy Communion. Typically, we police ourselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
It's like, I'm not going to go forward. If I go forward, I'll maybe cross my arms over my chest to receive a blessing. But yeah, it's tough because as St. Paul says, this is why people are dying even. And it's a big deal. I spent too much time talking about the beginning of chapter 11. I think it's important, though, because our sisters, you need to know that we are equal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
You know, the church, I was going to say this last word, not only the gifts of the Holy Spirit. How amazing is that? Tomorrow we're going to talk about the greatest of these is love. Okay, that's going to be amazing. But the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you guys, we need to have these gifts together. Okay, the world hated the church. Originally, why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Because the world said, men and women are different. And church was like, yeah, yeah, men and women are different and they're equal. And the world hated the church for that because we said men and women are equal. Now, the world says men and women are not different. Men and women are the same.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And the world hates the church again because the church still says men and women are equal, but also men and women are not the same. They were not equal. We're complementary. And so it's so interesting, right? How the world changes, yet the church continues to be hated. Church continues to be hated. But what can we expect? Jesus said it would happen. Okay, long day. Sorry about that, guys.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
My name's Father Mike. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the pollution of idols and from unchastity and from what is strangled and from blood. For from early generations Moses has had in every city those who preach him, for he has read every Sabbath in the synagogues. the council's letter to the Gentile believers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas and Silas, leading men among the brethren, with the following letter. The brethren, both the apostles and the elders, to the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greeting."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Since we have heard that some persons from us have troubled you with words unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us in assembly to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things, that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from unchastity. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. And when they read it, they rejoiced at the exhortation. And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, exhorted the brethren with many words and strengthened them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brethren to those who had sent them. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others also. Paul and Barnabas separate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, Come, let us return and visit the brethren in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are. And Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And there arose a sharp contention, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Head Coverings I commend you, because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled dishonors her head. It is the same as if her head were shaven. Verse 2. Verse 3. That is why a woman ought to have a veil on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, in the Lord, woman is not independent of man, nor man of woman.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
For as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman, and all things are from God. Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not nature itself teach you that for a man to wear long hair is degrading to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her pride? For her hair is given to her for a covering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
If anyone is disposed to be contentious, we recognize no other practice, nor do the churches of God. Abuses at the Lord's Supper But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better, but for the worse. For in the first place, when you assemble as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I partly believe it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
It is day 336, reading Acts 15, 1 Corinthians chapters 11 and 12, as well as Proverbs chapter 28, verses 10 through 12. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 15. The Council at Jerusalem. But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
For there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you meet together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal, and one is hungry and another is drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. the institution of the Eucharist. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
In the same way also the chalice after supper, saying, Partaking of the Eucharist unworthily. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened, so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together to be condemned. About the other things I will give directions when I come. Chapter 12, Spiritual Gifts. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be uninformed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
You know that when you were heathen, you were led astray to mute idols, however you may have been moved. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says Jesus be cursed, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit. To another faith by the same Spirit. To another gifts of healing by the one Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
To another the working of miracles. To another prophecy. to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as He wills. one body with many members.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member, but of many.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, reporting the conversion of the Gentiles, and they gave great joy to all the brethren.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
If the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
But as it is, God has arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? but earnestly desire the higher gifts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
He who misleads the upright into an evil way will fall into his own pit, but the blameless will have an excellent inheritance. A rich man is wise in his own eyes, but a poor man who has understanding will find him out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
We also thank you for the ways in which your word challenges us, the ways in which your word convicts us. We thank you for questions. We thank you for things that arise in your word that are difficult to wrap our minds around and difficult to understand. We ask you in those moments, in these moments, to extend your Holy Spirit in the name of your son, Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Give us hearts that are open to being taught. Give us hearts that are open to seeing things the way you see them, the way the things are. Help us to trust you with everything, not just your word, but also your will in our daily lives. Help us to trust you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, It is necessary to circumcise them and to charge them to keep the law of Moses. The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
So Acts chapter 15 is a pretty critical chapter. Now, I Obviously, a lot of things are critical. But what's going on? This is one of the things that St. Paul is going to be writing about. He wrote about it to the Romans. He writes about it to the Ephesians. He writes about it to the Galatians. He writes about it to the Corinthians a little bit. But it's this thing called the Judaizers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
So the Judaizers were what? They were folks who had been Christian. We might have talked about this before. But they were Jews who had become Christian. And they held on to the idea that, okay, if Gentiles are going to become Christian, that's fine. If they're brought into the New Covenant, that's great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
But they first have to be brought into the old covenant in order to be brought into the new covenant. See, because think about this. That's all the first Christians came from the old covenant, right? They were part of the people of God that God established his covenant with in the Old Testament.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And so one of the ways, the way that if you're a man, you're brought into the old covenant, you're brought in through circumcision. And so here are the Judaizers. And what they thought was, well, that makes sense. If we're going to have Gentiles come into this new family in the new covenant and then they're brought in first like we were, circumcised, then baptized. That's just, that's the stages.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
That's how we did it. That's how they should do it. And the big question was, do those Gentile converts have to first be circumcised before they're baptized? And you realize that they didn't, I mean, the apostles didn't know. Jesus didn't say anything about this. There's nothing about this in the Old Testament. In fact, if there's anything in the Old Testament, it says you got to be circumcised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
And so they don't have an answer. There's not an answer that God said in his word. There's not an answer that God said through the person of Jesus. So what do you do? In fact, it says there arose no little dissension among them. I love this. In chapter 15, verse 7, it said, after there had been much debate, much debate, like they argued about this. There were fights, we'll say.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
In my family, we call them discussions. There were discussions. There were debates. There were fights here about we need to get them circumcised. We don't need to get them circumcised. But who determines that? I mean, this is the big question. This is the reason why we need the church and not just an invisible spiritual church. This is the reason why we need the authority of the church, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
Think about this. In this section, in chapter 15, we have the first church council. It's called the Council of Jerusalem. We have the next church council. You know, we have Council of Nicaea, the Council of Ephesus. We have the Council of Constantinople. We have the Second Vatican Council. Those church councils look exactly like chapter 15.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
The apostles, aka the bishops, their successors, and the Pope, aka the successor of St. Peter, they come together, they debate, like they argue about this, they fight about this. In fact, there's legends, I'm not sure if this is actually accurate, but there's legends that there was a guy named Arius in the 325, right? Arianism had taken over the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 336: The Council at Jerusalem (2024)
This idea that Jesus Christ isn't fully God, but is only partly God. He's like part God, part man, kind of like Hercules situation. And Arius, because there's some scriptures that indicate, well, maybe, you know, Jesus says the Father is greater than I. I mean, maybe that means, who knows what that means. Maybe that doesn't mean he's fully God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Yeah, but they're noisy and they're messy and they're, yeah, but they won't be noisy and messy for long or forever at least. Maybe you're alone and you're like, I can't enjoy this time alone. Well, yeah, but you've been given silence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
You've been given the gift of, of quiet and peace and time to think, um, freedom, maybe even to travel or freedom to serve that there are so many people who, ah, they have other obligations because their lives are full of family. I'm just trying to spin this and I don't mean to spin it in a, in a way that is overly Pollyanna ish, but are overly naive by that sense of, okay, so I'm single and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Yes, I'd love to have a family. Yes, I'd love to have a spouse, you might say. But okay, but I also am free. I'm free to serve people who would not be able to be served by me if I had a family or by me if I had a spouse. And so to be able to say that, to see that and say, okay, let me take joy in what I do have, not be sorrowful of what I don't have. Last couple of things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
There is just this great verse in chapter seven, verse 10, that says, And basically, Coleth is pointing out, the author of Ecclesiastes is pointing out, yeah, you're not being smart when you say that. You're not being wise when you ask the question, Back in the day, why was it so much better than today? Because that is not the case. I think it was Augustine, St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Augustine, who had once said something along the lines of, do not wish for the good old days, essentially, because back in the good old days, you wouldn't have thought they were the good old days. Something along those lines. Yeah, that was a, that was a pretty much a butchering of his quote.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
But the last, last little note, verse 21 in chapter seven, it says, do not give heed to all the things that men say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. It says, do not give heed to all things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you or anybody cursing you. Because that can really make us sad. It can really ruin our day. Here's someone saying something negative about you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
my eyes and my heart will be there for all time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
But he goes on to say, Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. And I just think about how often does someone's, not even like overly cruel comment, but just, you know, a slightly critical comment, how often can that ruin our day? It can just kind of be that sliver that gets under our skin that just bothers us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
And as for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever as I promised David your father saying, there shall not fail you a man upon the throne of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
And think of all the times we have said those kinds of things or other people. And now it's not just merely a matter of like, well, you've done it too. But I think it's a matter of wisdom. And the wisdom is this. Someone could say about me, they could say, oh, yeah, he's not that. I mean, he's fine. He's not that smart or he's fine, but he's not that whatever the positive thing is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
And that could really, you know, I could let that be a burr under my skin. I could let that be something that really bothers me. But how many times do I offer my own my own assessment of someone's podcast or someone's show or someone's whatever it is that they're doing? And I don't really even mean anything. It's just I'm just sharing my opinion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
So again, it's not even just a matter of like, Hey, you do it too, but it's a matter of, okay, let me think when I do it, do I really, does it mean that I've really taken the time and have come down to the conclusion? Here's my assessment of this person as a person, or here's my assessment of this person as whatever it is that they're doing. Like, nope, I was probably just.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
being a little bit too loose with my criticism. And it probably didn't really mean anything when I said it. So maybe when someone is saying it about me, maybe take it with a grain of salt. I don't know if that makes any sense. It made sense to me when I was thinking about it. And this is one of those times where you say, yeah, Father Mike, you were off today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
And I'd say, okay, maybe I just have to think of the seventh chapter of Ecclesiastes verse 21. Just think, Yes, today, not the most articulate. What a gift. I'm so grateful we have 365 of these because, you know, it's day 151. You get to get a chance to kind of redeem yourself on day 152. But today is the day that the Lord has made. And so we rejoice and are glad in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
We rejoice and praise the Lord. And we rejoice and pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for each other. And please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 151, day 151. We're reading 1 Kings chapter 9, and then two chapters out of Ecclesiastes chapters 6 and 7. We're also praying Psalm 7.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them. And the house which I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
and this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house? Then they will say, because they forsook the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Therefore, the Lord has brought all this evil upon them. At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king's house, and Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, they did not please him. Therefore he said, What kind of cities are these which you have given me, my brother? So they are called the land of Kabul to this day. Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents of gold. Other works of Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
And this is the account of the forced labor which Solomon levied to build the house of the Lord and his own house and the millow and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had gone up and captured Gezer and burnt it with fire and had slain the Canaanites who dwelt in the city and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife. So Solomon rebuilt Gezer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
and lower Beth-haron, and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
All the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the sons of Israel,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
their descendants who were left after them in the land whom the sons of israel were unable to destroy utterly these solomon made a forced levy of slaves and so they are to this day but of the sons of israel solomon made no slaves they were the soldiers they were his officials his commanders his captains his chariot commanders and his horsemen
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
These were the chief officers who were over Solomon's work, 550, who had charge of the people who carried on the work. But Pharaoh's daughter went up from the city of David to her own house, which Solomon had built for her. Then he built the mill.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Three times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he had built to the Lord, burning incense before the Lord. So he finished the house. Solomon's Fleet King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-Geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
And Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon. And they went to Ophir and brought from there gold to the amount of 420 talents.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
If you're interested, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. Also, you can download your own Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast to receive daily episodes every single day for 365 days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Frustration of Desires. There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy upon men. A man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires. Yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity. It is a sore affliction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years so that the days of his years are many, but he does not enjoy life's good things and also has no burial. I say that an untimely birth is better off than he. For it comes into vanity and goes into darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Even though he should live a thousand years twice told, yet enjoy no good, do not all go to one place? All of the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. For what advantage has the wise man over the fool, and what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
This also is vanity and a striving after wind. Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. The more words, the more vanity. And what is man the better? For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun? A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart is made glad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
The heart of the wise is in the house of the mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. it is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools for as the crackling of thorns under a pot so is the laughter of the fools this also is vanity surely oppression makes the wise man foolish and a bribe corrupts the mind
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick to anger, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools. Say not, Why were the former days better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it. Consider the work of God, who can make straight what he has made crooked. In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider. God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
As I said, it is day 151. We're reading 1 Kings 9, which is going to sound like yesterday, like a review of 2 Chronicles because it is. It's a review of the other things that Solomon has done and specifically the Lord's second appearance to Solomon we're going to hear about as well as diving more deeply into Ecclesiastes and this incredible, incredible wisdom book.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
inequalities of life. In my vain life, I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evil doing. Be not righteous over much and do not make yourself over wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Be not wicked overmuch, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for he who fears God shall come forth from them all. Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers that are in a city. Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. Do not give heed to all the things that men say, lest you hear your servant cursing you,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Your heart knows that many times you have yourself cursed others. All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me. That which is, is far off and deep, very deep. Who can find it out? I turned my mind to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the sum of things and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness, which is madness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
And I found more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. Behold, this is what I found, says the preacher, adding one thing to another to find the sum, which my mind has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
but a woman among all these I have not found. Behold, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many devices.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Plea for help against persecution. Ishigayon of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush a Benjaminite. O Lord my God, in you I take refuge. Save me from all my pursuers and deliver me, lest like a lion they rend me, dragging me away with none to rescue.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause, let the enemy pursue me and overtake me, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my soul in the dust. Arise, O Lord, in your anger. Lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies. Awake, O my God. You have appointed a judgment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you, and over it take your seat on high. The Lord judges the peoples. Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me. O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous. You who try the minds and hearts, O righteous God. My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
God is a righteous judge and a God who has indignation every day. If a man does not repent, God will wet his sword. He has bent and strung his bow. He has prepared his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and brings forth lies. He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole which he has made.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends. I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High. Father in heaven, thank you so much. God, thank you so much. Thank you for your word and thank you for your wisdom that you share with us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
where Koalath, the preacher, examines, what is the goodness of life? And what should I set my heart on? And what is it dangerous to set your heart on? That is today, 1 Kings 9, Ecclesiastes 6 and 7, and then praying Psalm 7. The first book of Kings, chapter 9, the Lord's second appearance to Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Thank you for allowing us to ask questions and to question reality. Thank you for letting us, inviting us to question reality. goodness and question righteousness and question the mystery of evil and our own mystery of evil in our own hearts. Thank you for allowing us to come before you with all these questions and with all this brokenness that's not just around us, but is also in us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Thank you for sharing your word, the words of Koala, the words of the preacher. who gets to ask big questions and invites us into asking those big questions. We give you praise and we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, so here we are with 1 Kings chapter nine. We're getting to the end of the reign of King Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
And so we see a bunch of building, because he is Solomon the builder. We see a bunch of activity that he's doing. And we see, again, a picture of Solomon kind of getting towards the end of his life. And so what we're gonna see in the next two days 1 Kings 10 and 1 Kings 11 is the ultimate, I would say this, the wise one, the wise one ending his wise life in foolishness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
The builder, the great builder ending his life in ruins. And that's going to be more of Solomon's story as we continue our journey with him for the next couple of days. Even though, as we know, God has warned him. And that second dream that God appeared to him saying, yeah, I will bless you. I will be with you. I will establish your throne like at the throne of your father forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Just do not turn away and serve other gods. And we're going to find that Solomon does not take that to heart. He might for a day. He might for a week. He might for a couple of years. But you know, so often it's not how we start, it's how we end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
And speaking of not how we start, not how we end, Ecclesiastes can be a very troubling, very confusing book, but also can be very inspiring if we just receive it the right way. For example, when it comes to endings and beginnings, here's the author Colette, here's the author Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes saying, yeah, the day of your death is better than the day of your birth. Like what?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting. Ah, better sorrow than mirth. It's just like, okay, I don't understand. What are you trying to say? One of the things that the author, the wise one is trying to point out is we recognize that all things are going to have an end. We recognize that all things are going to have an end. Then we live with clarity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
We can then live with purpose. But if I'm just focusing on the beginning, if I'm just focusing on the start without focusing on the ending, then I will probably live incredibly foolishly. I will live a life of folly as we're going to see that so many people in the scripture and in our lives, what do they do? What do we do? We have good beginnings. We don't always have great endings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
And so the wise one is saying, yeah, the day of death is better than the day of your birth. It puts things in perspective. Was it Stephen Covey who had said, begin with the end in mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
as a way to live wisely because i know what's coming or i have an idea of what i where i want to end up therefore i'm going to live in a way that's intentional trying to get towards that place part of the wisdom of ecclesiastes but another thing it begins with chapter six calls it's where he says it's the frustration of desires and says there's an evil under the sun
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
It lies heavy upon men that here's a person to whom God gives wealth and possessions and honor. He lacks nothing they desire, but he doesn't have the power to enjoy them. But a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity. Now, there's a possibility that this can be, yeah, they've been given all these gifts and all this work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
When Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king's house and all that Solomon desired to build, the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. And the Lord said to him, I have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house, which you have built and put my name there forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
They've been blessed in so many ways, but someone else enjoys the fruits of their labor. That being a vanity, a meaninglessness, a vapor. But there's also a thing called anhedonia. If you know what anhedonia is, it is an inability or unwillingness to enjoy oneself. You know, hedonism is, you know, taking pleasure, right? It's a kind of a idea, a mindset that's oriented towards pleasure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
Anhedonia is, you know, if you're anhedonic, the opposite of hedonism. It's an inability or unwillingness to enjoy oneself. to have gifts, to be surrounded by gifts, to be surrounded by life, to be surrounded by, as it says in scripture here, possessions and wealth and honor, but not have the ability to enjoy it. Not letting oneself say, oh my gosh, I can actually take joy. I can laugh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
I can rejoice in what I have. That's a burden. That is a burden to be anhedonic. And so we have to, I think so many of us, we can be like this. We can fall into that trap where it's just like, nope, I got to get back to toil. I got to get back to work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 151: Wisdom and Folly (2025)
I got to get back to the thing because I'm worried about the bills and I'm worried about the mortgage and I'm worried about these things that are real, right? Obviously. But maybe you have kids and maybe God's calling you to stop and just, okay, enjoy the fact that you have kids.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength. But with the temptation will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. So important. Oh my gosh, so important. Now, St. Paul in this section of, we already jumped to 1 Corinthians. I apologize if you didn't catch that jump. We have 1 Corinthians 9 and 10.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
One of the things Paul is making a claim to, he's making his claims to the rights of an apostle. And he basically says, you know, when he went to Corinth, he worked as a tent maker. That was his trade, was it? He made tents. And so he didn't ask for any money, didn't ask for any support from anyone, essentially. He just simply worked. And here is Paul, though, saying that, remember, I could have.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
And remember that it's a real thing that. You pay people who give you good service, right? You don't muzzle an ox when it's treading out the grain. That the priests in the temple, they eat of the sacrifices. Remember, we went through the whole Old Testament. How did the priests, they don't get any land, they have the inheritance, but how do they eat?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Well, they eat because they take a portion of what's given in the temple. What St. Paul is saying is, I can too. I also can demand that since I brought you the gospel, I served you, I can demand that you take care of me. But he says, but I have made no use of any of these rights. And nor am I writing this to secure any such provision. I'm trying to let you know that... I love you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
I'm trying to let you know that I care about you. I'm trying to let you know that I'm not going to make any demands on you that are excessive, that aren't for your own sake. And this is just so important. But not only does St. Paul have rights, he has responsibilities. And he says, though I'm free from all men, I've made myself a slave to everyone that I might win more of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
He listened to Paul speaking, and Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, "'Stand upright on your feet.' And he sprang up and walked. And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lyconian, "'The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men.'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
To the Jews, I became like a Jew. To those under the law, like under the law. Those outside the law, like outside the law. I become all things to all men that I might by all means save at least some. And then he talks about this is the end of chapter nine, which is one of my favorite. It just, it's one of those I just keep coming back to.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Not only because I like the idea that I am or was an athlete at one point, but because it's so true. Here's St. Paul. Do you not know that in a race, all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? There are no participation trophies in heaven, apparently. So run that you may obtain it. Run that you may win. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Again, think about that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Think about the people that compete in the Olympics, how hard they work, how much they say no to themselves, how much they say no to certain kinds of foods or drink or alcohol or tobacco, whatever those things are, how much they say yes to working long, hard hours, how much they say yes to sleep, how much they say no to going out, all these pieces in order to do what?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
It says, in order to win a perishable wreath, but win imperishable. Now, if an Olympic athlete is striving for a gold medal more than I'm striving for heaven, this is why I love this, because it just pierces me to the heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
If an Olympic athlete is striving more for a gold medal that no one is going to remember next month, if they're striving more for that medal harder than I am for heaven, who's the fool here? Say, well, yeah, but you know, all things in moderation. You don't win a gold medal in the Olympics through moderation. You don't. Champions don't practice moderation. They don't.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 335. We're reading from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 14, from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapters 9 and 10. As well as the book of Proverbs chapter 28 verses seven through nine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
They have a single-minded devotion. They're single-minded in their goal. And yes, there's such a thing as prudence. Yes, there's such a thing as sense. And yes, virtue lies in the middle. But that isn't having moderate virtue. That's having extreme amounts of virtue. So St. Paul says, I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I pummel my body and subdue it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Remember, they keep going back to fasting. They keep going back to prayer. This is normal for the apostles. This is normal for disciples in the early church. I pummel my body and subdue it. So people think like, wow, Catholics talk about mortifications. We talk about doing penances. And that's strange. It's not strange. It is not strange at all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
I pummel my body and subdue it lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified because yes, heaven is a gift. It is free. God's grace is a gift. It's free, but I can disqualify myself. I can disqualify myself by saying no to God's will at some point. So through fasting and prayer, through relying upon God, through pummeling our body and subduing it, everything for your glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
And go back to this. if someone striving after Olympic gold medal is working harder, striving for that thing more than I am for heaven, then something is off. And so I've just asked God, please help me. Help me to strive for heaven like a champion strives for the championship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Help me to strive for heaven like a state high school cross-country runner strives for the state high school, even to make it to state. They work harder than so many of us do when it comes to our faith. Lord God, please help us to be faithful. Lord God, please help us to be faithful. Help us to strive after you. Help us to strive out of not fear, but out of love for you, out of a desire to
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, because he was the chief speaker, they called Hermes. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in the front of the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the people. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out among the multitude, crying, Men, why are you doing this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
to always be with you forever. Not simply a desire to not be separated from you, but a desire to be with you. Let that motivate every one of our actions from this day, from this moment, until the last moment, until the final day, until the day we step into your presence. God, we ask you this. Please help us. My friends, I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
We also are men, of like nature with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
In past generations, he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways, yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. With these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the people, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
And when they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they believed. the return to Antioch in Syria. And they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Atalia.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
And from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled. And when they arrived, they gathered the church together and declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to our food and drink?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a wife as the other apostles and brethren of the Lord and Kepha? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? Do I say this on human authority?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year rating plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast to receive daily episodes and daily updates.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Does not the law say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain. Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope, and the thresher thresh in hope of a share in the crop.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
If we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits? If others share this rightful claim upon you, do not we still more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing this to secure any such provision.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Just this, that in my preaching, I may make the gospel free of charge, not making full use of my rights in the gospel. the responsibilities of the apostle. For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all that I might win the more. To the Jews, I became as a Jew in order to win Jews.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being without law toward God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Well, I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I pummel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. Chapter 10, warnings from Israel's history.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
And you would know that today is day 335. We're reading Acts of the Apostles chapter 14, 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and 10, and Proverbs chapter 28 verses 7 and 8 and 9. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 14, Paul and Barnabas in Iconium. Now at Iconium, they entered together into the Jewish synagogue, and so spoke that a great company believed, both of Jews and of Greeks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same supernatural food and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural rock which followed them and the rock was Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness. now these things are warnings for us not to desire evil as they did do not be idolaters as some of them were as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to dance we must not indulge in immorality as some of them did and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
We must not put the Lord to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful. and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it therefore my beloved shun the worship of idols i speak as to sensible men judge for yourselves what i say
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar? What do I imply then?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
That food offered to idols is anything? Or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
all to the glory of God. All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience, for the earth is the Lord and everything in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. But if someone says to you, this has been offered in sacrifice, then out of consideration for the man who informed you, and for conscience's sake, I mean his conscience, not yours, do not eat it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
For why should my liberty be determined by another man's scruples? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, The book of Proverbs, chapter 28, verses 7 through 9.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
He who keeps the law is a wise son, but a companion of gluttons shames his father. He who augments his wealth by interest and increase gathers it for him who is kind to the poor. If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
We give you glory. We ask you to hear our prayers and we ask you to please help us to not turn away from your law. Help us to always be attentive to your word. God, we ask that you open our eyes to see your will and your presence in all places and all things and all events. Help us to open our ears, Lord God. We ask you to please open our ears so we can hear your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
and we can hear the voices of our brothers and sisters and respond in love. Give us hearts like yours, Lord God. You love perfectly. You love infinitely. You love well. Help us to love more perfectly. Help us to love like you. Help us to love well. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided. Some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Acts of the Apostles, we have Paul and Barnabas, and they're continuing their journey incredibly. So chapter 14, they go to Iconium and Lystra and Derbe. They go all over the place. And this one city in the city of Lystra, there is a man. He's been unable to walk his entire life. He's never walked. And the Lord Jesus heals them through Paul and Barnabas' ministry.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
And so what happens is they want to worship them as Zeus and Hermes, which horrifies Paul and Barnabas. I mean, it's remarkable. Again, when it comes to human beings, we're so fickle, right? We see this in the gospel every time we go to Palm Sunday and they're saying Hosanna to the King of David. And then on Friday, they're saying crucify him. Here is another great example.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
In this city, the city of Lystra, they want to worship Paul and Barnabas. And then some Jews come to that city from Antioch and they persuade the people and they stone Paul. Like the same person they were about to worship as a god, they then stone him. And again, it just, it shows us It shows us the truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
The truth is the praise of men and the shame of men or the praise of men and the blame of men, the accusation of men and the fame that belongs to human beings or comes from human beings. None of it matters. It's so fickle. It comes, it goes. And the same people who will say, we want to worship you today, will literally kill you tomorrow. That's what they did to Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
And this is, in this city of Lystra, this is what they do to Paul. This is what we can expect as Christians. We never expect the world to love us. That's it. Never expect the world to love you if you're going to belong to Jesus. This is just the reality. Not only that, but prepare ourselves. We have to prepare ourselves for suffering. So Paul, after he leaves, he returns.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
He says they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch. What did he do? He and Barnabas said in verse 22 of chapter 14, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Now, a translation that I love is, we use it at mass, it's called the New American Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
I say I love it just because I'm very familiar with it. But that translation says that it is necessary that through many sufferings, we enter the kingdom of God, something like that. That reality, here is St. Paul saying this after he's just been stoned. He says it's necessary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
It is necessary that we enter the kingdom of God through suffering, through tribulations, through many tribulations, in fact. And this is so important because here is Paul and Barnabas and they're strengthening the souls of the disciples by telling them this, by reminding them of this. that we entered the kingdom of God through many tribulations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
So if I find myself in tribulation, I can surrender to that and say, okay, Lord, I mean, I can fight it too, which is, you know, that makes sense. That's a dignified thing to do. If we find ourselves in places of injustice, yes, of course, we're going to be able to fight that. You can always fight for justice. You can always fight for good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to molest them and to stone them, they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lyconia, and to the surrounding country. And there they preached the gospel. Paul and Barnabas in Lystra and Derbe. Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was a cripple from birth who had never walked.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
But also we recognize sometimes where no matter what we do, no matter how much we fight, we're still in the midst of that tribulation, whether that be sickness or loss or grief, whatever the thing is. In And through many tribulations, we must pass in order to be saved. This is how Paul and Barnabas strengthen the souls of the apostles, is letting them know this is common to everyone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
Speaking of common to everyone, there is a line in the readings today where St. Paul says this. It's remarkable. I want to go in order, but I'm not going to go in order. We're going to go to chapter 10 first, where St. Paul says, he says, there is no temptation that has overtaken you that is not common to men. This is chapter 10, verse 13.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
There is no temptation that has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength. but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
And this is just, this is important for all of us because there are some of us, there are some of us who would say the temptations that I experience are just too much or the suffering that I have to go through is just too much. And yes, there are different levels and different kinds of temptations, different kinds and different levels of sufferings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
And yet, one of the things the Word of God is declaring to all of us right now is that we're more alike than we are different. We're more alike than we are different. There is no temptation that's overtaken you that's not common to everyone. You might say, well, no, in my case. No, no, no, there is no in my case. Because the truth of the matter is every single one of us
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 335: Run the Race (2024)
must endure many sufferings, must go through many tribulations in order to be saved. It's just how it goes. And therefore, no temptation has overtaken you. That is not common to everyone you know. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength. Again, it's not just, well, didn't you just bear down and grit your teeth and white knuckle this whole thing? It's no, no, no.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Hey everyone, before we get started today, I wanna say a quick thank you for all your prayers and support for this podcast. It's been such a gift. This whole Ascension team has been so humbled to hear about the impact of this show in your lives. We have heard unbelievable stories of renewed faith, of conversion, of grace, and we're praying for each other, so please keep those prayers coming.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob. Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah. We found it in the fields of Ja'ar. Let us go to his dwelling place. Let us worship at his footstool. Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy. For your servant David's sake, do not turn away the face of your anointed one. The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back. One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Today is the last day of Joshua, and we're finding what happens at the very end of his time serving the people of Israel and serving the Lord and helping the people become, as prepared as they possibly can be to dwell in the promised land. If you want to subscribe to your podcast, you can do that. And that would be helpful for all of us involved in this whole thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies which I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit upon your throne. For the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever. Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provisions. I will satisfy her poor with bread.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy. There I will make a horn to sprout for David. I have prepared a lamp for my anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but upon him his crown will shed its luster.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
We thank you so much for bringing us through the book of Joshua, bringing us through this story, this history of the way in which you have fought for your people and the way in which you are calling us to faithfulness, the way in which you are reminding us of the dignity of being your sons and daughters, the dignity of being chosen by you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
but also the responsibility of having been chosen by you to be faithful, to trust in you. Father, we ask you to please help us, help us to trust in you, help us to be faithful to you because you are faithful. Your love is unstoppable. And we ask you to please help us to live and walk in that love every day, especially this day. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I noted, this is the last day. I mean, noted a couple times. This is the last day of the book of Joshua. And this last chapter is maybe one of my favorites of the entire book that we've just journeyed through.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
where here is the renewal of the covenant and just like moses before him joshua's last words are words of challenge their words of saying listen i know you i i know that you are fickle i know that you will fall away i know that you probably will fail to follow the lord you will fail to belong to him But I know this too. I know that God will not fail.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
I know that God will not falter in his love and his choice of you. And I love this. It's just so powerful. And we'll close with this because we took in the story and we heard all the lessons and we know what happened. But this piece where Joshua is speaking these words and he's inviting the people, maybe even challenging them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And he says, now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the rivers and in Egypt and serve the Lord. And if you be unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve. That's so key. That's so key for us. Because sometimes we just put off. We put off deciding.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
We put off deciding that, no, I belong to Jesus Christ. I belong to the Lord God. And so we have these other false gods. We have these other idols in our lives. And we just put off. Again, if you be unwilling to serve the Lord, then choose this day whom you will serve. Choose whatever your God's gonna be. Is it gonna be money? Is it gonna be fame? Is it gonna be comfort? Is it gonna be whatever?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Just choose today so that you can stop pretending, right? And then he says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, which is not just a nice set of words to stitch on a pillow or to put over your entryway to your home, but our word is to live by. Yeah, I think it's great to put them on a pillow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
I think it's wonderful to put them on a piece of wood over the doorway to your home or over the window in your home. They are great words to live with in your sight, but they are even more powerful words to live by. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. What a gift. Oh my gosh. Lord, I thank you for this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And I thank you all for listening to this and for the journeying with us, journeying with me through the Bible together. It has been a gift so far. It is day 88 today. And now tomorrow, day 89, which means 10 days away from our first crack at the gospel of John, which is just, talk about gifts, man, oh man. I am praying for you. Please keep praying for me. Pray for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Without anything further, once again, it is day 88. We're reading Joshua chapter 22, 23 and 24 and Psalm 132. The book of Joshua chapter 22, the Eastern tribes return. Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh and said to them, You have kept all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
You have not forsaken your brethren these many days down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the Lord your God. And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brethren as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your home in the land where your possession lies, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you on the other side of the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Take good care to observe the commandment and the law which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you. to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cling to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their homes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And if you're able, please consider giving a small financial gift to support the production of this show. This show is free to everyone, to anyone, but it's not free to make. And so if you wanna find out how to make a gift, Visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given a possession in Bashan, but to the other half Joshua had given a possession beside their brethren in the land west of the Jordan. And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them, he said to them, Go back to your homes with much wealth, and with very many cattle, with silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and with much clothing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren. So the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, parting from the sons of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of the Lord through Moses. an altar of witness by the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And when they came to the region about the Jordan that lies in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of great size.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And the sons of Israel heard say, behold, the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh have built an altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan in the region about the Jordan on the side that belongs to the sons of Israel. And when the sons of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the sons of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war against them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Then the sons of Israel sent to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, and with him ten chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, every one of them the head of a family among the clans of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And they came to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, and they said to them, Thus says the whole congregation of the Lord, What is this treachery which you have committed against the God of Israel in turning away this day from following the Lord by building yourselves an altar this day in rebellion against the Lord?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Have we not had enough of the sin at Peor, from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves, and for which there came a plague upon the congregation of the Lord, that you must turn away this day from following the Lord? And if you rebel against the Lord today, he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
But now, if your land is unclean, pass over into the Lord's land where the Lord's tabernacle stands and take for yourselves a possession among us. Only do not rebel against the Lord or make us as rebels by building yourselves an altar other than the altar of the Lord our God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Did not Achan, the son of Zerah, break faith in the matter of the devoted things and wrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel? And did he not perish alone for his iniquity? Then the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel, the mighty one, God, the Lord, the mighty one, God, the Lord, he knows.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And let Israel itself know if it was in rebellion or in breach of faith toward the Lord, spare us not today for building an altar to turn away from following the Lord. Or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or cereal offerings or peace offerings on it, may the Lord himself take vengeance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
No, but we did it from fear that in time to come, your children might say to our children, what have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? For the Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no portion in the Lord. So your children might make our children cease to worship the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Therefore, we said, let us now build an altar, not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you and between the generations after us that we do perform the service of the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
lest your children say to our children in time to come you have no portion in the lord and we thought if this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come we should say behold the copy of the altar of the lord which our fathers made not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifice but to be a witness between us and you
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord by building an altar for burnt offerings and cereal offering or sacrifice other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
When Phineas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the Reubenites and the Gadites and the Manassites spoke, it pleased them well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the Manassites, Today we know that the Lord is in the midst of us, because you have not committed this treachery against the Lord. Now you have saved the sons of Israel from the hand of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 88. It is the last day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Then Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, and the chiefs, returned from the Reubenites and the Gadites in the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the sons of Israel, and brought back word to them. And the report pleased the sons of Israel. And the sons of Israel blessed God and spoke no more of making war against them, to destroy the land where the Reubenites and the Gadites were settled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
The Reubenites and the Gadites called the altar witness. For they said, it is a witness between us that the Lord is God. Chapter 23, Joshua exhorts the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
A long time afterward, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, Joshua summoned all Israel, their elders and heads, their judges and officers, and said to them,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
i am now old and well advanced in years and you have seen all that the lord your god has done to all these nations for your sake for it is the lord your god who has fought for you behold i have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain along with all the nations that i have already cut off from the jordan to the great sea in the west
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
the Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight, and you shall possess their land as the Lord your God promised you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Therefore, be very steadfast to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, that you may not be mixed with these nations left here among you, or make mention of the names of their gods, or swear by them, or serve them, or bow down yourselves to them, But cling to the Lord your God as you have done to this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to withstand you to this day. One man of you puts to flight a thousand since it is the Lord your God who fights for you as he promised you. Take good heed to yourselves, therefore, to love the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
we are reading from the book of joshua we're reading uh joshua chapter 22 23 and 24. we're also praying psalm 132 as always i am reading from the revised standard version second catholic edition and i'm using the great adventure bible from ascension if you want to download your own bible in a year reading plan to follow along with us prepare your day to know what you're going to be reading or hearing from you can visit ascensionpress.com bible in a year if you did that you would know that tomorrow we're starting the book of judges
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
For if you turn back and join the remnant of these nations left here among you and make marriages with them so that you marry their women and they yours, know assuredly that the Lord your God will not continue to drive out these nations before you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
But they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a scourge on your sides and thorns in your eyes till you perish from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you. And now I'm about to go the way of all the earth. And you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God promised concerning you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
All have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed. But just as all the good things which the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things until he has destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
If you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land which he has given to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Chapter 24 The Tribes Renew the Covenant Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Your fathers lived of old beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor, and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the river and led him through all the land of Canaan, and I made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And I gave Esau the hill country of Syir to possess. But Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it. And afterwards I brought you out. Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. And the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And when they cried to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon them and cover them. And your eyes saw what I did to Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness a long time. Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived on the other side of the Jordan. They fought with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you. Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel, and he sent and invited Balaam, the son of Baor, to curse you. But I would not listen to Balaam, therefore he blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the men of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I gave them into your hand, and I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites. It was not by your sword or by your bow."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
I gave you a land on which you had not labored, in cities which you had not built, and you dwelt therein. You eat the fruit of vineyards and oliveyards which you did not plant. Now therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And if you be unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
Then the people answered, Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God. But Joshua said to the people, you cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you after having done you good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
and the book of Ruth. So we're kind of taking a turn in the sense of turning back to what we haven't done for maybe the last eight days or so, which is having multiple books proclaimed to us, multiple books read to us. In the next four days, starting tomorrow, we're reading through Ruth chapter one through chapter four, one chapter a day, following her story, as well as Judges, as I said.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And the people said to Joshua, No, but we will serve the Lord. Then Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. He said, Then put away the foreign gods which are among you and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel. And the people said to Joshua,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God. And he took a great stone and set it up there under the oak in the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, "'Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us.'"
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
for it has heard all the words of the Lord which he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God. So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance. the death of Joshua and Eleazar. After these things, Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And they buried him in his own inheritance at Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work which the Lord did for Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
The bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the portion of ground which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 88: Joshua's Last Words to Israel (2025)
And Eleazar the son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah, the town of Phinehas his son, which had been given him in the hill country of Ephraim. Psalm 132, the eternal dwelling of God in Zion, a song of ascents. Remember, O Lord, in David's favor, his humility, how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the mighty one of Jacob, I will not enter my house or get into my bed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
That word legacy, it's just been kind of turning around in my heart and my mind lately and what you're describing. I was just thinking of that, both with your mother-in-law and your grandfather here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
That's awesome. The, um, you mentioned your, you had your, your first, I had my picture Bible, but at one point, um, I had, I knew I was in high school and the paper was probably 1991, I think was when it was. Uh, so 30 plus years ago or 30 less, I don't know, 29. I'm not sure. I'm not good at math. Let's read the Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
I had asked my parents for Christmas for a Bible of my own, like an adult Bible. I remember specifically saying, can I have an adult Bible, like a big kid's Bible? And it was this New American Bible that has been, I've duct taped it. This is like the, I think the fourth of duct taped together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
But just like, even I look back through this and I think like, here are not just my markings, like just my notes inside the Bible that I'll go back to when I was in high school. And reading is particularly, you mentioned when it came to having that word of hope that you know is inside.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
You don't even have to necessarily even pick it up sometimes just to be like, nope, there it is, that's God's word to me. I remember just how many times going to confession, even in high school, and having the priest say, okay, go home and read Psalm 51. And so just like, this is the Bible that I got to know, Psalm 51, this Psalm of David,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
in his repentance and asking for forgiveness and being forgiven. The Lord washed me more and more from my sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And it's just like the Bible almost falls open to that page in so many ways because it's like even back in high school, these priests would direct me to read the Bible even after confession as that sense of like, not just as your penance, but also get back to the Lord's word, let him speak through you words that you don't even necessarily have in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And that's the thing too, is like right when we read the Lord's word, that he's giving us words that we don't even have sometimes. That if I could say, if I could pray a prayer of repentance, it would sound like this, but I don't have those words. And so I can pray them because God has given us the words. It's just so incredible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Yeah, I'm overwhelmingly excited about it for not only for like anyone who's going to be listening to this and going to be journeying with us, but for even the people that I know that are in my life. So I have a sister and a brother-in-law. I have a couple of sisters and brothers-in-law, but one in particular who got the Great Adventure Bible maybe, I guess, maybe three or four months ago now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Yeah, no, and thank you for that because that was the whole, you know, it was kind of the revolutionary part of this. There are, I think, a number of Bible in a Year reading plans. There are probably even a number of Bible in a Year podcasts that exist.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
But I don't know of any that, A, follow the narrative books, and B, have, like you said, the sprinkling of those other books and trying to have them as much in context as possible because I mean, gosh, we think about, like you said, here are the prophets. Well, just to kind of dive in, that's kind of what we do at mass, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
We have the lectionary and all of a sudden in the first Sunday of Advent, we're here's Isaiah 63, 64. And then the second Sunday of Advent, we have Isaiah 40. And like, okay, well, what is the context for this? And so the idea behind this whole thing that we wanted to do was contextualize the entire Bible, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
To have that, here's part of the story, and here's Isaiah speaking into this problem that's going on with the kingdom of Judah. And that sense of being able to say, the call to repentance is now specific to these people, but also obviously timeless in the sense that it's our call as well. So right off the bat, if anyone's downloaded the Bible in a Year reading plan,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
You can see that after day 11, we have, you know, Genesis 1 through 11, or day 5, Genesis 1 through 11, with some Psalms in there and Proverbs and whatnot. And then we kick off, here is the story of the patriarchs or the era of the patriarchs. And you have Genesis 12. And we start at the beginning of the book of Job as well. That's kind of like this, okay, this...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
this parallel track of not only the unfolding of the patriarchs, but also here's the story of this man, this man Job, who asks the most ancient of questions, if God is good, then why do I suffer? If God is good, then... Why am I going through what I'm going through? And so it's just this remarkable, I think it's really cool.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And also when we get to Exodus, that's when we begin Leviticus, which would be then kind of this, again, simultaneously as we unfold the law in Leviticus, we also are hearing the story of God setting his people free in Exodus and saying, okay, I need to give you some structure to your lives as I begin to build you up into a new people. And just, I mean, really excited about that, how that all will,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
and maybe a little longer than that. I think it was April. Who knows? Time, it just all happens. But she not only got the Great Adventure Bible, but she also was like, hey, what's a good Bible study? I'm like, okay, the Great Adventure Bible timeline, you need to do it. So she and her husband
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
fit together. So we'll be reading every day, as I said, something from the narrative books until we get halfway into the year, give or take. We're going to be really living with the prophets because there's more prophets than there are narrative books. But up until then, we have some narrative and then we have those, I don't want to say ancillary books or supplementary because they're all still...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
verifiably the word of God. Exactly. With some commentary and not a ton of commentary in the sense of it's not necessarily a study every day, but it's meant to kind of pull out some nuggets every day of just, here's something that might be difficult to understand, or here is something that just it's worth reflecting on, or it's worth like, let's just underline and highlight
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
this phrase or this idea in this particular section that God is trying to communicate to us. And so it's meant to be in some ways a guided tour as well as it's just proclamation. And that's one of the things I love about the idea of the podcast is, here is the word of God proclaimed out loud. And I think in so many ways that I know for myself, I learn best through my ears.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And especially the word of God, what I've found is it gets to my heart more quickly when it goes through my ears. I don't know why, but maybe it's because the word of God's meant to be proclaimed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Yeah, no, thanks. That's a great question. Because my hope originally was this vision of changing one's vision. Like really was that, was allowing oneself to be like shaped, fashioned by the word of God. So that was it. I mean, that was my first vision. That's all I can see this as, as just like we're allowing God himself to fashion us with his word. So we're looking at the world differently.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
started it and I was over at their house a couple days ago and I picked up her Great Adventure Bible and I saw that that ribbon was still somewhere in the book of Genesis and I'm like, oh, I'm so grateful because the podcast is gonna help people who are trying to get through, who just like, you know, you kind of bottom out sometimes or you just kind of get,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
But then I was thinking more and more about it and thinking, you know, there's a certain rootedness as well that I just would love for more and more Catholics to become more deeply grounded, not just in, not quote unquote, just in the word of God, but in God's will itself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
I think a lot of times, not only do we struggle to know how to read the Bible, I think a lot of us struggle with knowing how to pray. And so not just here's a fashion, my worldview, but also this is now allow me to find myself and my rootedness in hearing God's word proclaimed and then meditating on God's word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Like really, truly to be able to turn that, transition this, not just from information, but to real transformation by the power of prayer. So I'm meditating on God's word and it's actually, changing not only the way I see the world, that's the vision stuff, but it's changing how I now relate with the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Like I really talk to God in a new way because his heart has been revealed to me by what he's done through these narrative books, what he's done through his word, what he's done through his prophets. And then thirdly, I have the sense I'm becoming more and more convicted as we get closer and closer to this, kind of the kickoff date, is the community that I believe this will form online.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
I think the online community of people going through, that you've experienced this when it comes to the Great Adventure, well, all of your Bible studies, that you have a group of people coming together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
That's phenomenal. And so that sense of they're probably together, but there's that certain element, I think, of all the people who will be listening, that there's a sense of like, okay, I'm not doing this alone. Here I am on day 63, I'm gonna continue, not only because I'm getting formed and I'm getting more deeply related to the Lord, but also because I am not alone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And my hope is that there's a community of people that are praying with each other and praying for each other as we're listening to the Word of God and journeying through the Word of God. Yeah, that's my third hope. So there's three things, that vision, that rootedness, and prayer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And then that there's a community of people that comes out of this that's willing and able to support each other in prayer and intercession and brotherhood and sisterhood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
the log jam becomes so much that it's like, oh, how do I break through to the next book and keep on moving?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Because that's one of the things that I found when it came to reading the Bible and when it came to doing the Great Adventure Bible timeline is that sometimes it was like, oh, shoot, I can't sit down right now or I'm not finding the time or making the time to sit down and reading through the next section.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
oh that's that's incredible because because it is that sense of here is the story but i'm finding my story in the story and i'm finding myself so it's not it's not in just an ancient book well full of wisdom um but it is speaking to me right now and calling me to do to act in a certain way right now right that sense of i think again we both have experienced that when it comes to um i know that when i first started reading the bible a lot of what i was looking for was answers i was looking for
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
not just into some of the big questions of life. I was looking for answers of like, what should I do? What can I do right now? God, are you calling me this way or that way? And I wanted to play the Bible roulette, you know, where it's just like flip open the book and I put my finger down the page and it's like, go be a priest now or don't go be a priest, marry Karin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
You know, like the sense of like, I didn't find that to ever be to be the case. What about my life, Lord? Jesus wept. Yeah. But in that, over the course of time realizing, just because I wasn't getting an answer to that specific question in the specific way that I wanted, Every time I went back to the word of God, God was calling me forward.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Not just like, here's another thing to know, but here is my voice. And gosh, and you've taught me so much about this, but in so many ways, you know, Jesus says, I know my sheep and they know me and they recognize my voice and they do not recognize the voice of strangers, but they do recognize my voice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And the more and more I think that we expose ourselves to God's word, the more and more we know like, oh, this is the voice of God versus no, that is the voice of a counterfeit or that's the voice of the destroyer or the thief, the liar. And yeah, I think so many of us can be really held hostage by those false voices.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
I think too many of us maybe are held hostage by the voice of the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
That the whole idea behind the podcast is like, okay, no, you just get to let the word of God, like kind of wash over you in a different way. Um, and to be able to not just get through it, that's not the point, but the, to allow it to get through to you really, uh, by the word of God being proclaimed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And too few of us know how to really, really, truly identify the voice of our Lord, the voice of the shepherd, who calls us to, obviously, repentance, but calls us to freedom, calls us to life, and reminds us, like your mother-in-law had said, Jeff, here is what God wants to say about you, about how he sees you and his love for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
But they're big.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
So I prefer to underline and to bracket in my Bible. I will write in the front and I'll write in the back. So you mentioned how you have some dates, some key moments in your life. I have on some of the pages, intro pages, I have things like... some things that the Lord spoke to me through his word and through other people that I just like, here is these images.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And they're almost a little bit too close. I don't know if I can say them out loud. And so I do write, but I don't necessarily always write little notes in the margin. But I know you do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Yep, absolutely. And I have so many. Oh, gosh. And also, I like, because of you as well, highlighter. So I have different colors of highlighter when it comes to like, here's breaking down some ideas. I mean, there are so many areas in here. Every one of the gospels is just marked with pink and blue and yellow and... It's great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
So, so not only for the people who will be listening, but also for my family members who, um, you know, all of us at times can struggle to like, let's keep on going. Let's keep on moving through the word of God and let it keep changing us. Um, and let it keep shaping our lens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Yeah. Well, no, I'm glad you asked that question. Before that, though, I do want to emphasize what you just said, which is, so when I'm reading, I'm reading from The Great Adventure book. And one of the things that can happen is I can hear it and then like, oh, that was really good. But if I don't have a way of capturing it, then it can elude me the next day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And I'm like, oh yeah, I remember this. But I, so what I need to do is even as I'm hearing, I need to go back and say, okay, that, like you said, here's the underline, here's the highlighting. Here's even that notation because it's one of those things where we can take in a lot of stuff, but at some point the sieve gets a little leaky. And so I need to go back and say that was this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
I need to have an actual tangible record of even what I heard, which I think is just so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Well, it's almost like one of those, um, that's like map my run type apps where, you know, you take the phone with you and you go on a bike ride, you go on a run or whatever. And then it says, this is where you were. And it's kind of good to be able to look back and say, I know where I was, but no, this is the route I took. And on this corner, that's right, that's that big hill right there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And there's something about it that you have a record of where you've been that then we have a greater sense of where we're going and what God is doing, as opposed to not having any record, just our memories. And how many times does scripture talk about, like, remember, remember, remember what the Lord has done. Remember how he delivered your ancestors from slavery. Remember these things, because
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
why because we forget god has to tell us to remember so often because we forget so often um yeah so it's just that's uh i think that having that that written recorded record is
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Actually, as we kick off this podcast, this Bible in a Year podcast, one of the things that I think needs to be said before anything else is that this Bible in a Year podcast is following basically a...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Well, even as you noted, I mean, there are so many times where I'll listen to people who are coaching when it comes to parishes, and one of the things that happens in some of these coaching seminars or these great parishes, like Amazing Parish being one of those things, they talk about how often staffs on parishes don't necessarily talk about their faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
They don't actually talk about their relationship with the Lord. They are just doing the business of running a parish or serving their parishioners. And so this could be one of those really like, what do you call like easy access, like low barrier of entry kind of ways for like having that discussion of saying like on the way to work, I listened to the podcast at, you know,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
1.5 speed and I got through the whole thing in 10 to 15 minutes or whatever the thing it takes because there's an opportunity there. I've actually, you know, when you mentioned that on the way to work, that was the thing I remember talking with this man named Todd and Todd owns a CrossFit gym. in Baxter, or he used to before he moved down to Florida with his family.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And he was saying, he's like, hey, I joined the gym with my sister and brother-in-law, they were there, and they said, hey, come along with us. And so I'm talking to Todd, and at one point, he's talked about his commute to work at four in the morning to be there before the 5 a.m. class. And I said, what do you do on that drive?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
He's like, oh, no, no, no, that's the favorite part of, my favorite part of the day is my drive in. I was like, how come? He's like, because I listen to the Bible. And I'm like, really? And he's like, yeah, I just love, that's part of my devotions every morning as I'm driving to my gym and I'm listening to God's word and it just shapes the rest of my day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And even him saying that sparked our conversation about, I mean, he knew I was a priest and everything, but it gave like permission to be able to talk about the deeper things because he had been shaped that morning by God's word and just, it was living inside of him. And I think that that is one of the goals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Yeah, well, the idea behind the whole thing was, so what I found myself doing is I found myself listening to a lot of, you and I have talked about this in various phone calls over the last six months, but one of the things I found myself doing was, I was taking in all this input.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Love to hear their ideas. Well, it's such an, yeah, that's the thing is like, I think out of this community are gonna be a lot of ideas of what works, what doesn't work, what's worked for some people and some families, what's worked for some individuals. And I think that that could be a,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Again, I just am looking forward to the community that's going to be formed out of this interceding on behalf of each other, but also giving each other ideas of like, here's how, I mean, like you mentioned, you can share podcasts. So here is a poignant reading from scripture that like struck someone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
They actually have the ability to share, share to their family members, share to friends, share to social media and say, this was something that struck me today of God's word. that has changed my day, has changed my heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Right. Fine. Let's give yourself permission to do that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Well, yeah, because you want to keep it clean. Do you bullet journal?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
I was listening to a lot of different voices when it came to different podcasts and YouTube videos, people who are teachers who I think like, you have something good to say, you have something wise to say that is enlightening and is informative, and it's actually forming me. But what I found was that there were times when I would listen to some of these people who, again, I'm grateful for,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
But in that, I started doing that a bunch of years ago, probably also from you. And you see people's layouts or their spreads and you're like, oh, I need to make it perfect. And then you get to the place where you have to cross stuff out and like, well, I need a new journal now, because I had to cross stuff out, it doesn't look perfect.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
But when you start writing in your Bible and you're like, oh, I misspelled this word. I had to cross it out and re-correct. Like, oh, it's okay. Like, it's completely fine to be able to mark up your Bible and not have it look pristine because, I mean, also that's kind of life in many, many ways.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
I've ruined my Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Yeah. One last thing before we might have to end and our time right now. But you mentioned you holding up the Bible timeline and the whole the color coded and we get to the messianic age being the gold. One great thing about this is we had looked at this and said, wait, we have these 14 narrative books.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
If we're going to be doing this chronologically, we won't get to the New Testament until, I don't know, somewhere around November. And that doesn't seem right. And so what we were able to do was we were able to insert Messianic checkpoints. And so roughly three-ish months into the timeline, three months into the podcast, we have a week of
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
the gospel and we go through one gospel in roughly a week every quarter and so that that sense of like being able to even just kind of like zoom out and say okay you know what what has been said which is here is the old testament hidden or revealed in the new and the new testament hidden in the old these messianic checkpoints being opportunities of like i i'm so excited about them too because i just keep imagining and just anticipating
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
the community of people who will be listening and going through the Bible with us to be able to take in an entire gospel in a week and just to allow it to just like that was the story. That was how Mark, how Peter proclaimed the gospel via Mark. And here's how Matthew proclaimed the gospel via his gospel. And just I love this, how it's going to happen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
but I wasn't thinking with the mind of Christ. And so then what I would do is I would listen to scripture because I love audio books. And so one of the audio books I have is the Bible. And I found that when I would listen to the Bible I wouldn't just get more information.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And just to know that around the world, there are Catholics who are going to be hearing the entire gospel in one week. at four different times throughout the course of the year. And it's like, it's genius. Whoever thought of that, give them a raise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
to just sort of give the historical okay there's here's where you're going to be walking and this is where most people get lost right you know right which i'm excited for and really honored that you're willing to do that because again if there's anyone that i i sound like i began this whole thing with maybe too much praise not true not too much praise i want to end up with too much praise but i don't think any one person has taught me more about scripture than you have and um that's yeah that's nine years of theology undergrad and major seminary
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And even studying afterwards, I don't think there's anyone who's taught me more. And so I'm so grateful for your willingness to do that as well, not only to create this, but also to continue to contribute to it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
So good. Ah, thank you. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
we pray for all of those who are going to be going through it and and how do people get in touch how do people get in touch yes so um they can uh go to wherever they listen to their podcast and they can subscribe just go to bible in a year podcast with father mike schmitz um they can also text the word catholic bible which is two words but scrunch them together with no spaces catholic bible to the number three three seven seven seven
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
I wouldn't just be reminded of a story or introduced to a new story that maybe I had forgotten or whatever the thing is, a new element. But it was that my lens, my worldview was being shaped. And I don't know if you, I'm sure you've heard the story of Saint Ignatius of Loyola when he had broken his leg and he was convalescing in I think his sister-in-law's house or something like this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Or they can download the Bible reading plan by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. It's all one word again, Bible in a year, ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. And they'll get the reading plan and they'll get updates. And it's, yeah, that's the best way to get in contact and get connected.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Father, we ask that you please hear this prayer and receive our thanks, receive our praise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Thank you for not withholding yourself from us, but for giving yourself to us so fully through your word and through your word made flesh by giving us sacred scripture, by giving us sacred tradition, by giving us this teaching office of the church that we can just, we can stand upon your promises, we can stand upon your truth, we can stand upon your all that you've revealed to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And we just give you praise and thank you for this. Thank you for giving us this opportunity. Thank you for the technology that exists, that not only are we able to have this conversation now, but we're able to, wherever we are, have access to your word proclaimed to us. Thank you for this opportunity to do this Bible in a Year podcast.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Talk later. Thanks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And he used to read romance novels or stories of like the glory of knights and whatnot. And he'd also read stories of the saints and life of Jesus. And he said that after he read those stories of those knights, he said, during while I was reading them, I felt like charge it up. I wouldn't want it to live like that. But afterwards, I kind of like a sugar crash.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
It's kind of like this disappointment he experienced versus reading the life of Christ. He was lifted up, but then afterwards he was sustained. It was like the sense of like, this was something not just inspiring, not just powerful, but it was something that was good and true and beautiful that had lasting effect.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And that's what I found was I found that when I listened to scripture, that it had this lasting effect in me that because it had shaped my lens of looking at the world and reminded me of like, I just, here's an example. I was reading the book of Judges and that sense of the last line of, in those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and I want to welcome you to the Bible in a Year podcast. With me today is Mr. none other than the illustrious, the inimitable, the incomparable, the infamous, Mr. Jeff Cavins. Hey, good to be with you. Jeff, I'm so grateful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
template that you designed that that you came upon when it came to the great adventure bible timeline which has probably i don't want to just start this whole thing off by by going over the top but for me i've said this many times i've told this to anyone who asks or anyone who will listen uh that that uh great adventure bible timeline was the most significant um most significant tool that i've ever encountered that ever um i've ever used that has gotten me more uh
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
In that sense of man, the lawlessness kind of a sense or people who are striving after the Lord but then unfaithful to him and this how God continued to work with their brokenness was one of the things that just, again, it kept reminding me as a touch point, it kept shaping how I was,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
living through like, I don't know, pandemic times and living through just trying to be with others in the midst of their brokenness and their crises of their lives. And it just, again, it wasn't just like I got a nugget of, here's a nugget of truth, or here's a little kernel of something good. It was more like, again, my lens or the way I was looking at the world and really interpreting,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
what I was going through, living through was being shaped. It was being like fashioned. And so that was a really big conviction of like, I think we need to do this from a real solidly Catholic perspective. And I don't think of a more powerful perspective than to go through it via the Great Adventure Bible Timeline.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Well, I think that you nailed it when you said that one of the things The Great Adventure Timeline does, and I think this podcast is shooting for, is to get the story, not just the stories. And I love that because so we were talking before we started recording about like our original, our first Bibles. And I went to get my first Bible and I
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
saw next to it, my actual kind of first Bible, my first Bible is this one. It's the picture Bible, which is like a comic book Bible. It's awesome. It is this, like every page is, here's the- Did you underline? Did you highlight? Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. So I have underlined, highlighted notes. But this was, I got this for my first Holy Communion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
So when I was in second grade, still have it, and I lent it to my little sister, her first Holy Communion, and then lent it to my little brother, took it back after he got done with it. And now what I do for all of my nieces and nephews is,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
there is a new version of this called the Action Bible that they know, their parents know, that Uncle Father Mike is going to give them an Action Bible to all the second graders when they get it. Because part of it is, like you said, it can be so daunting for us as anyone, as Christians, specifically as Catholics, because I don't want to get it wrong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
I think one of the things that as Catholics we have is going for us and kind of going against us is we don't want to get it wrong. We don't want to read it and misinterpret it. We don't want to read it and misunderstand it. And so it's kind of like there's hesitation. And so what I've always wanted to do with my nieces and nephews is get them started by having something that's accessible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And then the really cool thing is my oldest nephew I think he was the first one that I ever gave the Action Bible to. He went to one of our camps for Inch in Your High, so sixth grade. And at camp, we said, you know, all campers, what we want you to do is we want you to get your Bible, your actual Bible, and read 10, 15 minutes a day. And Max is his name. Max just he started doing it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
There's nothing has been better to get me more deeply into the Bible than the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. And I'm just really grateful, not only for you and for that, but also that here you are now as we begin this Catholic Bible or the Bible in a Year podcast, that we get to use this thing that has changed my life, maybe more than any other study I've ever done in my entire life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
I mean, he would have it in the car when his parents were driving him to this and that. And he'd just read the Bible. I remember being so struck by a couple of things. One was years later. He's a senior this year. So a couple of years ago, one of his cousins, one of my nieces, second grade, got the Action Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And then her parents got her like a pack of trivia cards based off the Action Bible, just kind of like and it was. Things like this. The first question was, who am I? And it had a list of identifiers. And the first identifier of this person, guess who I am, was son of Kush. And Max, here he is as a, probably at that point, maybe 15 or 14 year old, maybe 15 year old. He was like, oh, King Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
I'm like, what? Oh my gosh, how did you know that? He's like, well, it's in the Bible. And I, you told us that camp to read it 10 to 15 minutes a day. So of course I do. And I was just like, man, oh man. And even just last weekend, I was talking with him
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
And the way that even just starting at sixth grade, and now he's in 12th grade, those six years of regular, not perfect, but regular exposing himself to scripture, he just knew so much. We just came out in a normal conversation of just, oh, this is such and such about scripture. And that's the thing is like,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
that's the goal right that's one of the things we we want is um for all catholics not just those who have gone through the great adventure and not just those who um you know as you said social media or here on our campus um but all catholics to be able to say this is accessible to me and i know it like it gets in my bones um right so my question for you i'm gonna throw this back to you is um when did you first let the word of god like when did it first like impact you and get in your bones
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: Bringing the Bible Back to Catholics (with Jeff Cavins)
Well, your grandfather, so he was a Catholic pastor? Bible reader?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
For he finds fault with them when he says, The days will come, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I paid no heed to them, says the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law into their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow or everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
You can also subscribe to this podcast because why stop saying it now? It is day 363. We're reading Revelation, not Revelations. Why did I say Revelations? It's not plural. It's singular, although... It's pretty great. Revelation chapter 15, 16, and 17, Hebrews, letters to the Hebrews, chapter 5, 6, 7, and 8, as well as Proverbs chapter 31, verses 23 to 25.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. In speaking of a new covenant, he treats the first as obsolete and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them. She delivers sashes to the merchant. Strength and dignity are her clothing and she laughs at the time to come
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
Thank you so much for this opportunity to be once again together in these final days of the Bible in a year. We thank you for all the prayers that we've uttered on behalf of each other. We thank you for, thank you for this time. There are no words, Lord God. We just thank you. Just thank you. Receive our hearts. Receive our praise. Receive the glory that belongs to you now and forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
In Jesus' name we pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Just, I know that we have Revelation and we have Hebrews to go through, but this last chapter, Proverbs chapter 31, you know, that wife, the description of this wife, some things I love about this is, in verse 24 it says, she makes her linen garments and sells them and delivers her sashes to the merchant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
She can be an entrepreneur, which is great. Strength and dignity are her clothing. That's something, something, something so good. I'm just like, ah, man, I think of, you know, my mom, I think of my sisters that is in women that I've just have been really helped by and strength and dignity are her clothing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
And that is an app description, an incredible description of, I know the women in my family. It's so good. And the last line here, and she laughs at the time to come. What does that mean? It points to how often we can be worried and just tremble at the thought of the future. But she laughs at the time to come. Why? Because strength and dignity are her clothing. She trusts in the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
And so she doesn't need to be afraid of the future. And that's the truth for us too. Anyone who belongs to Christ, you don't need to be afraid of the future. So speaking of the future and speaking of the past and speaking of the book of Revelation, We have in chapter 17, we have the story of the harlot and the beast. And it talks about here's the woman, the harlot, and the beast.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
And the beast has the seven heads and ten horns that carries her. And it says that in chapter 17, verse 9, it calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads of the beast are seven hills on which the woman is seated. There are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen. One is, the other has not yet come. When he comes, he must reign only a little while. So what is that?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
And consensus typically is that the seven hills, Rome is a city built on seven hills. And also, but also there's a rabbinic tradition that says that Jerusalem is also a city built on seven hills. And so I think, okay, either one. But knowing that here are the Christians who are undergoing incredible persecution from the Roman empire at this point.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
you recognize that if you begin with these kings or these emperors, these rulers, that the first one being Caesar, that the one they're talking about here, the sixth one would be Nero or Domitian. And there's an interesting kind of thing because here they are describing this. And so in some ways we say, oh my gosh, what is this beast? And what are these hails? And what is this harlot?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
The revelation to John, chapter 15, the angels with the seven last plagues. Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and wonderful, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is ended.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
And when's that going to happen? Well, the author, St. John, he's saying, no, he's not describing something that necessarily will happen. He's describing something that has already happened. And that's why he's speaking in this code. He's saying, you just figured this out. This is what we're talking about right now. And the point is this, where it applies to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
This persecution is going to be limited. It is going to be devastating, but it is going to be limited. That Jesus Christ continues to reign. It goes on to say, even though all this power here at the end of chapter 17, it says in verse 16, it says, And the 10 horns you saw, they and the beast will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, devour her flesh and burn up her fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose. Basically, it's all going to be over. All this great city of the city of Rome, this persecutor of the world, that's going to end at some point. That Satan's time is powerful on earth. but his time is short. And that same is true for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
There are sufferings, there's gonna be times of great persecution, but it will not end in absolute destruction. Even if it ends with our lives, it will not end with absolute destruction. God is giving us this word of hope through in the midst of this description of destruction in the book of Revelation. In the letter to the Hebrews, oh gosh, this is incredible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
You know, we've already established that Jesus is higher than the angels. He's higher than Moses. He's also talking about he's higher than the priests. He's higher than the priesthood. That Jesus is the new and eternal priest. In fact, remember, you know this already because this is so great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
And that's why, as they're writing to the Hebrews here, they're writing to a bunch of people who know the story. They know the story like you know the story. Maybe they know it a little better, but you've heard the whole story. And they know that the priesthood, it only comes from the line of Levi, right? The priesthood of Aaron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
And so Jesus though, as the author says, we know that he wasn't in the line of Aaron. He was a tribe of Judah. So Jesus belongs to a different kind of priesthood. The priesthood of Melchizedek, which we saw back in Genesis and heard about in Psalm, in the book of Psalms, Genesis 14 and in Psalms 110. That Jesus has a priesthood that does not pass away. That's not bound by a genealogy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
A priesthood that he doesn't have to offer up a sacrifice for himself like the priests would do in the old covenant for themselves daily and yearly. Because he was spotless, he offered a sacrifice of himself once and for all. And I love this. Chapter 7, verse 26.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people. He did this once for all when he offered up himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and wonderful are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
Indeed, the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever. And chapter eight talks all about how he is the mediator of a new covenant. You are part of that covenant right now. This is the great news. You're part of that covenant right now. I just thank God so much for this community.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
I thank God so much for this journey. Thank God so much for all the people who have been part of this. And you've just been so faithful. Even if you fell off, you're back on. Here you are on day 363, back together, praying for each other. Because we cannot, we cannot do this alone. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
Just and true are your ways, O King of the ages. Who shall not fear and glorify your name, O Lord? For you alone are holy. All nations shall come and worship you, for your judgments have been revealed. After this I looked, and the temple of the tent of witness in heaven was opened, and out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues, robed in pure bright linen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
Chapter 16 The Bowls of God's Wrath Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God. So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth and foul and evil sores came upon the men who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
The second angel poured his bowl into the sea and it became like the blood of a dead man and every living thing died that was in the sea. The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the fountains of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of water say, Just are you in these your judgments, you who are and were a holy one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
For men have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is their due. And I heard the altar cry, Yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and just are your judgments. The fourth angel poured his bowl on the sun and it was allowed to scorch men with fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
Men were scorched by the fierce heat and they cursed the name of God who had the power over these plagues and they did not repent and give him glory. The fifth angel poured his bowl on the throne of the beast and its kingdom was in darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores and did not repent of their deeds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east. And I saw, issuing from the mouth of the dragon, and from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet, three foul spirits like frogs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is he who is awake, keeping his garments, that he may not go naked and be seen exposed. And they assembled them at the place which is called in Hebrew Armageddon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, and a great voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake, such as had never been since men were on the earth, so great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
And God remembered great Babylon to make her drain the cup of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And great hailstones, heavy as a hundredweight, dropped on men from heaven, till men cursed God for the plague of the hail, so fearful was that plague.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
Chapter 17 The Great Whore and the Beast Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who is seated upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the dwellers on earth have become drunk. and he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
And on her forehead was written a name of mystery, Babylon the Great, mother of harlots and of earth's abominations. And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly. But the angel said to me, Why marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
The beast that you saw was and is not and is to ascend from the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to behold the beast because it was and is not and is to come. This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman is seated.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
They are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen. One is, the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must remain only a little while. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth, but it belongs to the seven and it goes to perdition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
And the 10 horns that you saw are 10 kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour together with the beast. These are of one mind and give over their power and authority to the beast. They will make war on the lamb and the lamb will conquer them for he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. And those with him are called and chosen and faithful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
And he said to me, the waters that you saw where the harlot is seated are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. And the 10 horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the harlot. They will make her desolate and naked and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and giving over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman that you saw is the great city which has dominion over the kings of the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this, he is bound to offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
And one does not take the honor upon himself, but he is called by God, just as Aaron was. So also, Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, You are my son. Today I have begotten you. As he says also in another place, You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. Spiritual Growth About this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of God's word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, free as a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil. Chapter 6 The Peril of Falling Away
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrines of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God with instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
For land which has drunk the rain that often falls upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to be incursed. Its end is to be burned. Though we speak thus, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things that belong to salvation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love which you showed for his sake in serving the saints as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, Surely I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. Men indeed swear by a greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 363, another palindrome day, maybe our final palindrome day of the year. We're reading Revelation chapter 15, 16, and 17, as well as Hebrews chapter 5, 6, 7, and 8. Just... Piece of cake.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he interposed with an oath so that through two unchangeable things in which it is impossible that God should prove false, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
And to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness. And then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, and has neither beginning of days nor end of life. But resembling the Son of God, he continues a priest forever. See how great he is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
Abraham, the patriarch, gave him a tithe of the spoils. And those descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brethren, though these also are descended from Abraham. But this man, who has not their genealogy, received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. Here tithes are received by mortal men, there by one of whom it is testified that he lives. One might even say that Levi himself, who received tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him. Another priest, according to the order of Melchizedek.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
Now, if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need would there have been for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named according to the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
for the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe from which no one has ever served at the altar for it is evident that our lord was descended from judah and in connection with that tribe moses said nothing about priests
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest not according to a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of him, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
On the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect. On the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. This makes Jesus the surety of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to god through him since he always lives to make intercession for them for it was fitting that we should have such a high priest holy blameless unstained separated from sinners exalted above the heavens
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
It's going to be super short. We're also reading Proverbs chapter 31, verses 23 through 25. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people. He did this once for all when he offered up himself. Indeed, the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever. Chapter 8, Mediator of a New Covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
Now, the point in what we are saying is this. We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent, which is set up not by man, but by the Lord. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Hence, it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary, for when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, See that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 363: The New Covenant Priesthood (2024)
But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Peace be to you and peace be to your house and peace be to all that you have. I hear that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David. When David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and then they waited. And Nabal answered David's servants, Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who are breaking away from their masters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 116, and today we are reading one chapter from Samuel, again, 1 Samuel chapter 25. and the death of Samuel and the rise, well, the next step in David's life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where? So David's young men turned away and came back and told him all this. And David said to his men, Every man belt on his sword, and every man of them belted on his sword.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
David also belted on his sword, and about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage. But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master, and he railed at them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields as long as we went with them. They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know this, and consider what you should do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
For evil is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is so ill-natured that one cannot speak to him. Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep ready dressed and five measures of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs and laid them on donkeys.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
And she said to her young men, Go on before me, behold, I come after you. But she did not tell her husband Nabal. And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her and she met them. Now David had said,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
surely in vain have i guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him and he has returned me evil for good god do so to david and more also if by morning i leave so much as one male of all who belong to him When Abigail saw David, she made haste and alighted from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
She fell at his feet and said, Upon me alone, my Lord, be the guilt. Please let your handmaid speak in your hearing and hear the words of your handmaid. Let not my Lord regard this ill-natured fellow Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I, your handmaid, did not see the young men of my Lord whom you sent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Now then, my Lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, seeing the Lord has restrained you from blood guilt and from taking vengeance with your own hand, Now then, let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my Lord be as Nabal. And now let this present which your servant has brought to my Lord be given to the young men who follow my Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Please forgive the trespass of your handmaid, for the Lord will certainly make my Lord a sure house, because my Lord is fighting the battles of the Lord. And evil shall not be found in you so long as you live. If men rise up to pursue you and seek your life, the life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
and the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. And when the Lord has done to my Lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you prince over Israel, my Lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my Lord taking vengeance himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
We're also praying from the book of Psalms, and we're praying Psalm 50, sorry, 63. My goodness. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can get that at ascensionpress.com Bible in a Year, and you wouldn't even need me to say this. Yeah, I would know right away. You would know right away that what we're praying is Psalm 63 today. Goodness gracious.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
And when the Lord has dealt well with my Lord, Remember your handmaid. And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me. Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you who have kept me this day from blood guilt and from avenging myself with my own hand. For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Unless you had made haste and come to meet me truly by morning, there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male. Then David received from her hand what she had brought him, and he said to her, Go up in peace to your house. See, I have listened to your voice, and I have granted your petition. So Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light. And in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And about ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil. the Lord has returned the evil doing of Nabal upon his own head. Then David sent and wooed Abigail to make her his wife.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
And when the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife. And she arose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. And Abigail made haste and rose and mounted on a donkey and her five maidens attended her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
She went after the messengers of David, and she became his wife. Ahinoam of Jezreel. David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. Saul had given Michal, his daughter, David's wife, to Palti, the son of Laish, who was of Galim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Psalm 63. Comfort and assurance in God's presence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, you are my God. I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where no water is. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your merciful love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
I will lift up my hands and call on your name. My soul is feasted as with marrow and fat, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips. When I think of you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night, for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. My soul clings to you. Your right hand upholds me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth. They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be prey for jackals. But the king shall rejoice in God. All who swear by him shall glory. For the mouths of liars will be stopped. Father in heaven, we give you praise and we give you honor. We thank you for all your ways.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
We're also reading from the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to also subscribe to this podcast, you can. You have my permission to do that if you'd like. Once again, as I said, it is day 116. We're reading 1 Samuel chapter 25. We're praying Psalm 63. 1 Samuel chapter 25. Death of Samuel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
We thank you for the ways in which you send people to us, either to encourage us to holiness or to keep us from evil. We thank you for all those people, Lord, that have ever, ever prayed for us, ever stood up for us, that ever stood up to us so that we can be called to greatness and be deterred from folly, deterred from evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Lord God, we thank you for all the people that you've brought into our lives who encourage us to get closer to you and all those you brought into our lives who encourage us to stay far, far away from what is wrong. Lord God, thank you for all the Abigails that you brought into our lives. and may you be praised, and may they be blessed forever and ever. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So what we hear, we get, you know, David, as we've noted before, as we're going to see many, many times after this, David is not a perfect human being. David is in many ways a hero of the Old Testament, right? He becomes the archetype.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
When we read Chronicles, we're going to see David as the archetype of the future Messiah, right? He's going to be the foretaste, the... The type of the future Messiah, but he's not a perfect human being. And in today's scripture, we have, you know, the story here of how David and his men have been guarding Nabal's shepherds and said, hey, how about a little something for the effort, eh?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Kind of a situation. And Nabal is a pretty arrogant human being. He's, well, he rejects this and not just rejects it, but he is pretty rude, I guess we'll say that. He's pretty rude in the way in which he rejects David's request for some sustenance for the men who guarded the men of Nabal. Now, keep this in mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
is that even the men who were guarded, right, the shepherds of Nabal, they said that David's men were not only good at guarding them, they not only protected them in the wilderness, but they also were good to them. I mean, it's a matter of what you recognize is even though the people who are following after David are relatively rough, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
They're the people who they were maybe down on their luck when they joined up with David in some ways. They are following the lead of their leader and their leader is a just and upright human being. And so that's a good thing. And that's one of the things we can keep this in mind is how our leaders are typically. That's how we are. Not always. Obviously, it's not a hard and fast rule.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
It's not a one-to-one kind of situation. But oftentimes we look to those who lead us to know how to act. And that's one of the reasons why we're so grateful that Abigail here in this scripture passage, Abigail was willing to stand up to David. She didn't stand up to David, but she was willing to stand up to the evil that was in David's heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
I don't think she could have in that context maybe stood up to David, but she did intercede. And in doing this, she demonstrates her wisdom. She demonstrates her courage. There is so much virtue in her, so much goodness in her. In fact, there is this blessing called the nuptial blessing that's in the marriage rite in the Catholic Church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
And the blessing over the bride says, may she be as the women whose praises are sung throughout scriptures. May this bride be of the same kind of quality as the woman whose praises are sung throughout the scriptures. And Abigail is one of those women. Abigail is one of those women who is just filled, filled with wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
And she is filled with courage because she faces down this David who is coming to kill her husband. She is very brave, and she's very wise. And also, as Scripture says, she's very beautiful. Now, on the other hand, here's Nabal, who's described as churlish and ill-behaved, and I love it. The fact that Scripture gets to use the word churlish to describe Nabal, which is awesome.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Now Samuel died and all Israel assembled and mourned for him. And they buried him in his house at Ramah. David and Abigail. Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. And there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Also, he's a Calebite, so he's got that going for him, which is nice. But what we have is, as we said, as our leaders go, so often we take our lead from them, hence leader. And so here's David is going down the wrong path. He's going to take vengeance because of a personal insult.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Later on, we're going to see David be insulted, and he's not going to take vengeance on that because he's learned something by this point. But in this moment, he is still that young and still brash and still is willing to do rash, take rash actions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
And so we're grateful to Abigail for having stood in David's way, not just so Nabal could continue to live because he's not going to continue to live, as we heard, but so that David wouldn't be guilty of And again, we just think about all of the people in our lives, all the people who have stood up to us and said, hey, how about not doing that?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Or all the people who have said, hey, I think it's time to move forward. We talked about this yesterday a little bit, where there is that sense of what are the battles that we're called to fight? What are the battles we're called to avoid fighting? There are some people, and this is a great example of when, yeah, here is Abigail.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
who is able to stand in front of David and say, this is not a battle you wanna fight. This is not a thing you want to do. I can think of so many people in my life who have, I was on my way to do something that even I knew wasn't right. I knew I was, I'm just gonna do this thing, I don't care. And someone was willing to stand up and say, ah, buddy, I don't think you wanna do this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
And I'm so, so grateful for all the times I've had good friends, all the times I've had good family members who have said that, that stood up to me and said, I don't think you want to do this. And so grateful to the Lord for allowing me to listen to them and be hopefully wiser and less guilty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Or there's also those times where there's a person who stands up and says, hey, maybe this is a battle you're called to fight. Like we talked about yesterday. Again, this is the thing. It's so good. We have to keep our ears open. We have to keep our heart open to be stopped by the Lord and to be spurred on by the Lord. We listen to the voices of the people around us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
And in the midst of that, we ask, okay, what part of this is the Lord speaking? How much of this is the Lord's voice? Because as we know, No one of us knows everything, and we need all of us. We need a community. That's why God has given us the church, and that's why he's given us each other on this Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
For this whole 365 days, we are this community coming together and praying for each other and hopefully supporting each other and praying and interceding on behalf of each other so that when it's time to move, we can help each other move. When it's time to not move, we can help each other avoid conflict. moving. That's what I'm praying for. And that's hopefully we're praying for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
I am praying for you. Please, please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 116: David and Abigail (2025)
Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was of good understanding and beautiful, but the man was churlish and ill-behaved. He was a Calebite. David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. So David sent 10 young men and David said to the young men, go up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. And thus you shall salute him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
So when Job's three friends come and then the fourth friend we heard from yesterday, the three friends come and the fourth young man who thinks he knows a lot of stuff come to Job. They're all spouting off the kind of things that I guess, yeah, smart people would say. Things like, you know, sometimes pain, sometimes suffering is a result of our sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Sometimes God allows our brokenness, God allows our wounds, our suffering as a way to call us back from evil, as a way to wake us up and to get us to repent. Sometimes those who do the right are blessed and those who do evil are not blessed. And yet their logic, while it's somewhat sound, is not accurate in Job's case. And then the final friend, of course, he is also not accurate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
This young man Elihu, he basically again says, how can you yell at God? How can you contend with the Lord? And now finally, God himself shows up. I remember when I read this book of Job for the very first time when I was in high school, I was looking for an answer. I was looking for the clear answer of like, why do bad things happen to good people? Job is clearly a good person.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
The Bible even says so. God himself says so. So why do bad things happen to Job? And here is God and he shows up and God seems to have a little bit of an attitude in terms of saying, hey, Job, tell me, what do you know about the eagle? What do you know about the lion? Hey, if you had a wild ox, would that wild ox be your servant? Or would you not have any idea what to do with a wild ox?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Not to mention this behemoth. God talks about a behemoth today. Tomorrow he's going to talk about a Leviathan. These creatures that we don't exactly know what they are. Maybe the behemoth is something like a hippopotamus. I'm not sure. No one really knows. But God is pointing out to things like, Job, there's so much beyond you. He's not pointing this out to Job to say, Job, stop asking questions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
And they said to Pharaoh, We, your servants, are shepherds, as our fathers were. They said to Pharaoh, We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now we pray you, let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, your father and your brothers have come to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
He's not saying, Job, stop coming back to me and wrestling with me. But he is also putting Job in context. And the context is, Job, there are so many more elements to this story that you do not know. He's not telling Job to be quiet and sit down. But he is revealing to God in a way that only God can do this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Because when his friends in Elihu, when they brought up some of these same points, it wasn't the same. God is revealing to Job that there is a bigger story happening. And even if you can't understand the meaning of this moment, this moment has meaning. That Job, even if you can't understand why you're going through this right now, There is a purpose that I have for it all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
In Jesus, what Jesus reveals about our suffering is not only that suffering can be an opportunity for us to repent, not only that our suffering can be an opportunity for us to learn and grow in wisdom, not only that our suffering can be a thing that breaks our heart and makes us more compassionate, makes us gentler with people, more patient with people, more merciful with other people, but also that our suffering can be redemptive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Now, Job doesn't know this yet. God knows this from all eternity because God knows everything. Yeah, Job doesn't. And so God, when he's questioning Job, it sounds like he's being kind of sarcastic. Sounds like he's being kind of snarky and putting Job in his place. But really what's happening is he is putting Job in his place, but in the way that only God can do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
His friends couldn't do this because they're not righteous. His friends couldn't do this because they don't know the whole story. Only God can reveal this to Job. that yes, some suffering is oriented towards repentance. Some suffering is oriented towards wisdom and growing in knowledge. Some suffering is oriented towards breaking our hearts and making us gentler, better people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
But also some suffering can be oriented towards redemptive suffering that not only transforms us, but also can be offered up to God for the salvation of the world. Now that doesn't come out explicitly in the book of Job. The Old Testament is revealed in the New, and the New Testament is hidden in the Old. Every one of us is in a great battle, a great struggle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
And so all of us need people around us who are patient. All of us need to learn wisdom. All of us need to repent. And all of us need to be reminded that God knows the full story, even when we cannot, cannot possibly see the full story. And part of that full story is God can use our suffering For not only his glory, he can use our suffering for our redemption and for the redemption of the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
That is the mystery of the cross. Let's continue to pray for each other because it is easy to talk about the cross. It is not easy to carry your cross. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know of any able men among them, put them in charge of my cattle. Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and set him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Jacob, How many are the days and the years of your life?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my sojourning are a hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food according to the number of their dependents.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
now there was no food in all the land for the famine was very severe so that the land of egypt and the land of canaan languished by reason of the famine and joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of egypt and in the land of canaan for the grain which they had bought and joseph brought the money into pharaoh's house
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone. And Joseph answered, give your cattle and I will give you food in exchange for your cattle if your money is gone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
So they brought their cattle to Joseph and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds and the donkeys. And he supplied them with food in exchange for all their cattle that year. And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to him, We will not hide from my Lord that our money is all spent, and the herds of cattle are my Lord's.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
It is day 25. Let us keep on rolling. We are reading from Genesis chapter 47 and 48. We are just a few chapters from the end of the very first book of the Bible. reading Genesis 47 to 48. We're also two chapters from the end of Job at the end of this day, reading Job chapter 39 and 40. We're also leaving the Proverbs for a little bit. We're jumping into the book of Psalms.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
There is nothing left in the sight of my Lord but our bodies and our lands. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and with our land we will be slaves to Pharaoh. And give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate. So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
For all the Egyptians sold their fields because the famine was severe upon them. The land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he made slaves of them from one end of Egypt to the other. Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance which Pharaoh gave them. Therefore they did not sell their land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Then Joseph said to the people, behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you and you shall sow the land. And at the harvest, you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh and four fifths shall be your own as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your households and as food for your little ones. And they said, you have saved our lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
May it please my Lord, we will be slaves to Pharaoh. So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt, and it stands to this day that Pharaoh should have a fifth. The land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh's. Thus Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they gained possessions in it. And they were fruitful and multiplied exceedingly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years. And when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and promise to deal loyally and truly with me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place. Joseph answered, I will do as you have said. And he said, swear to me. And he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed. After this, Joseph was told,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your descendants after you for an everlasting possession. And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
And the offspring born to you after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. For when I came from Paddan, Rachel, to my sorrow, died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath. And I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem. When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, who are these?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Joseph said to his father, they are my sons whom God has given me here. And he said, bring them to me. I pray you that I may bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see your face. And behold, God has let me see your children also.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Then Joseph removed them from his knees and bowed himself with his face to the ground. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand towards Israel's right hand, and brought them near him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
We're going to be reading Psalm 16. If you want to know, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, Catholic edition of the Bible. I'm also actually reading from the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you're interested in getting your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, and you can download that for free.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand upon the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands, for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph and said, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has led me all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
And in them, let my name be perpetuated in the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the hand of Ephraim, it displeased him. And he took his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn. Put your right hand upon his head. But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
So he blessed them that day, saying, By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh. And thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh. Then Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you, and will bring you again to the land of your fathers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Moreover, I have given to you, rather than to your brothers, one mountain slope, which I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow. The Lord questions Job Do you know when the mountain goats spring forth? Do you observe the deer bringing forth their young? Can you number the months that they fulfill?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
And do you know the time when they bring forth, when they crouch, bring forth their offspring and are delivered of the young? Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open. They go forth and do not return to them. Who has let the wild donkey go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey? To whom I have given the step for his home and the salt land for his dwelling place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
He scorns the tumult of the city. He hears not the shouts of the driver. He ranges the mountains at his pasture and he searches after every green thing. Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your crib? Can you bind him with a furrow of ropes? Or will he harrow the valleys after you? Will you depend on him because his strength is great? And will you leave to him your labor?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
do you have faith in him that he will return and bring your grain to the threshing-floor the wings of the ostrich wave proudly but are they the pinions and plumage of love for she leaves her eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beasts may trample them she deals cruelly with her young as if they were not hers
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Also, if you haven't yet, please subscribe to this podcast app. I know it's day 25, but why haven't you subscribed? It's day 25, for crying out loud. Lastly, if you want to get on our email list and get updates and be part of this community, you can text the word Catholic Bible to the number 33777. As I said, today we are reading from Genesis chapter 47 to 48, Job 39 and 40, and Psalm 16.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding. When she rouses herself to flee, she laughs at the horse and his rider. Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with strength? Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrible. He paws in the valley and exults in his strength.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
He goes out to meet the weapons. He laughs at fear and is not dismayed. He does not turn back from the sword. Upon him rattle the quiver, the flashing spear and the javelin. With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground. He cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet. When the trumpet sounds, he says, aha. He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of the captains and the shouting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high? On the rock he dwells and makes his home in the fastness of the rocky crag. From there he spies out the prey. His eyes behold it afar off. His young ones suck up blood and where the slain are, there is he.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
And the Lord said to Job, shall a fault finder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it. Then Job answered the Lord, behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, Deck yourself with majesty and dignity. Clothe yourself with glory and splendor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Pour forth the overflowings of your anger and look on everyone that is proud and abase him. Look on everyone that is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together. Bind their faces in the world below. Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can give you victory. Behold, behemoth, which I made as I made you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
He eats grass like an ox. Behold his strength in his loins and the power of his muscles of his belly. He makes his tail stiff like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are tombs of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron. He is the first of the works of God. Let him who made him bring near his sword. For the mountains yield food for him, where all the wild beasts play.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Under the lotus plant he lies, in the hiding place of the reeds and in the marsh. For his shade the locust trees cover him. The willows of the brook surround him. Behold, if the river is turbulent, he is not frightened. He is confident, though Jordan rushes against his mouth. Can one take him with hooks or pierce his nose with a snare?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Genesis chapter 47 and 48. So Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, My father and my brothers with their flocks and herds and all that they possess have come from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen. And from among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to his brothers, What is your occupation?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
The book of Psalms chapter 16, a song of trust and security in God, a mictum of David. Preserve me, God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. I have no good apart from you. As for the saints in the land, they are noble, in whom is all my delight. Those who choose another God multiply their sorrows.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Their libations of blood I will not pour out or take their name upon my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your godly one see the pit. You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. In your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you praise. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your will. We thank you for your son, Jesus Christ. Lord God, the New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament and the Old Testament is revealed in the New.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
All this time we're spending in the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew scriptures, we give you praise for and we thank you for because you're revealing to us that you work with us and that you want us to be your children. Help us to be your children every single day, no matter what, in rain, in sun, when we're suffering and when we are in rejoicing. Help us to always say yes to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We are getting close to the end of our time with our friend Job. And one of the things that strikes people as being somewhat difficult to understand is how Job has been, he's been essentially, he might say like unjustly, meaning like undeservedly punished.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 25: Job's Questioning (2025)
He's been brought to a place of suffering even though he did nothing to deserve it. And God even knows that, God says that. No, my servant Job is righteous. He hasn't. He hasn't done anything wicked. He has been just and righteous before God. And yet God in his mystery and his wisdom has allowed Satan to deprive Job of so many things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
David is imparting his hard words. earned wisdom, his hard earned knowledge of, um, yeah, Adonijah. He had turned against you. He turned against me and he had gathered a number of people to himself. Some of the people who will get, they will want to get close to you, King Solomon. People like Joab, like Shimei, who had cursed David when he was on the run from Absalom. These kinds of people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Here is David who says, okay, it's your job, Solomon, when I'm gone to deal with these people, to deal with these men in a way that is just. So there's that. And so then the rest of this chapter, chapter 2 in 1 Kings, is spent with Solomon trying to essentially mete out the justice that his father advised him to do. But here's something I think is so important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
On the last day of David's life or last day where he's talking to King Solomon, he gives him some advice. And I've heard it said that when it comes to parenting, Children, pay more attention to the example that we give than the advice that we offer. If that makes any sense. That children, pay more attention to the example that we set rather than the advice that we offer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
And so here is David's last word saying, okay, make sure you keep God's ways and his statutes and his commandments and his judgments and his testimonies. That is great advice. That is great advice. And yet David's life was, yeah, he kept God's commandments in many ways. Yes, he broke God's commandments as well. He repented of those times, which is why he is a man after God's own heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
But what Solomon could see in his father, David, was that his father, as I mentioned yesterday and a couple of times before this, is that his father was distant. His father was not engaged in the affairs of the family. That his father's heart, although it in many ways belonged to the Lord, was divided when it came to the Lord. And so, yeah, great advice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
how he dealt with the two commanders of the armies of Israel, Abner the son of Ner and Amasa the son of Jether, whom he murdered, avenging in time of peace blood which had been shed in war and putting innocent blood upon the belt about my loins and upon the sandals on my feet. Act therefore according to your wisdom."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul. He's taking him so, so important. His last words and be strong and courageous. Prove yourself a man. All these things. So good. And yet. David's example was a divided heart. Yes, again, we have a sense that David belonged to the Lord, yes. But also that David didn't necessarily witness to that to his family.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
He did not necessarily witness to that. He didn't, what you would say, like he didn't mentor his children. He didn't disciple his children. Another way to say it is he didn't father his children. He was pretty distant, as we noted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
And what we're going to find is in the next chapters following Solomon's life, that he's going to live, he's going to follow his father's example rather than follow his father's advice. And that's going to be a really key thing. Okay, so keep that in mind. Keep back your heads over the course of the next couple of days. But then we have this story where this is remarkable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Where Adonijah goes to Bathsheba and says, I have a small request, a small request to ask you. I want you to go to King Solomon and ask that I can have Abishag the Shunammite. Now, here's a couple things to highlight. A couple of things to highlight is this is not a small request. It is not a small request at all. Why would Adonijah want to have as a wife Abishag the Shunammite?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Well, because she was one of King David's concubines. Now, again, scripture makes a point of saying that David did not have relations with her. But here is a power play, another power play from Adonijah. See, if I can make as my wife, one of my father, the king's concubines, then once again, here is a last ditch effort Adonijah is making at usurping the throne of his brother.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Now, I've read commentaries that would indicate that Bathsheba clearly would know this. Yep, she's gonna go before King Solomon and she's gonna tell him this. She's gonna make the request of King Solomon on behalf of Adonijah, but she's going to do this Because she knows. She's already demonstrated that she knows how things in court are run. She knows who to talk to.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
She conspired with Nathan the prophet to make sure that her son Solomon got on the throne and whatnot. So she's going to King Solomon because she knows that he needs to know that Adonijah is still plotting Against King Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
And so what on the surface of the text, it looks like just looks like, yeah, she's carrying out, you know, this request from Adonijah kind of maybe blind or kind of ignorant to his to his plan to his plot. But that would it's so unlikely that that's the case and more likely that she's saying, oh, OK, OK. So you think I'm going to do your dirty work for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
I'm going to ask the king for this favor. Well, I'm going to ask him for the favor. And when I ask him, he will know what you're plotting. And so she essentially knew that. Now, here's something I just think is so important to pay attention to. In the previous chapter, when Bathsheba went into the presence of King David, her husband, What did she do? She bowed down. She did obeisance to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
But do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace, but deal loyally with the sons of Barzillai, the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table, for with such loyalty they met me when I fled from Absalom, your brother. And there is also with you Shimei, the son of Gerah, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse on the day when I went to Mahanaim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
And then she rose when he told her to rise. But when Bathsheba comes in the presence of her son, the king, something else very distinct happens. She walks into the king's presence and he rises up to meet her and bows down to her. And he sat on his throne. He had a throne set for his mom and she sat at his right hand. Now that's because, think about this, in the ancient kingdom, who is the queen?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
In the ancient kingdom, who's the queen? The queen is not the wife of the king because the king has many wives. The queen is the mother of the king. Because he only has one mom. He has many wives, but one mom. Therefore, the mother of the king is the queen. When she came before David, she bowed down. When she came before David, she did obeisance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
But when she comes before her son, the king, he gets up and does her honor. And he makes her to sit at his right hand. Now, this is going to be important because that's the role called the Gebirah. That's the queen mother. Gebirah is the queen mother in Hebrew. And what's going to happen is what we have in the New Kingdom, right? In the New Testament, people sometimes ask, why do we honor Mary?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Well, we honor Mary for a number of reasons. But one of the reasons we honor Mary is because this is how the Lord had baked it in to the kingdom of Israel. Now, keep in mind, the church, the new kingdom on earth and heaven as well, is meant to be the fulfillment of the ancient kingdom of Israel. And so while there's one king and there's one queen, that is the mother of the king,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
In the new kingdom, who is the king? The king is Jesus Christ himself for all eternity, right? He is the fulfillment. That's why Chronicles keeps pointing to David as the prototype and Solomon is a prototype now who's building the temple. That's why we hung out with 2 Chronicles chapters 2 and 3 today. But he has a mom and that mom is the queen. And we see that in Revelation chapter 12.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
where John looks into heaven and he sees a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon at her feet and a crown of 12 stars around her head. And what the church has consistently believed is that John's vision, as he looked into heaven in Revelation chapter 12, is of the queen mother. Now, obviously, the queen is not at the same height, the same authority as the king at all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
No way, shape or form, because our king is Jesus himself, God himself. And Mary is a mere human being.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
And yet, just like we see King Solomon arise to meet his mom, to meet the queen mother, bows down to her, has her sit on his right hand, that there is an element here where in the new covenant, in the new kingdom, here is Jesus who has a role of honor, not of worship at all, but a role of honor for the queen mother. As he gives her honor, we give her honor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
And that's just a small thing of like people, again, they ask, why do you pay so much attention to Mary? We'd say because just as the king in the Old Testament would give his mom, the queen mother honor. So we in the New Testament know that the king, Jesus Christ, our Lord and God himself would give his mom, the queen mother honor. honor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Again, not worship, whole different thing, but to give honor. And so that's what we do. And so that's why we're cruising right along. It was such a gift today to be able to just be with each other and to be able to hear this advancement of the kingdom. Now, the kingdom is going to break soon, but in the meantime, we can take some lessons from Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
We can see what's happening in his building of the temple. We can see what's happening in his exercise of wisdom. That's coming tomorrow. And so until then, we're going to keep praying for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
We'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 144. We're reading from 1 Kings 2 and 2 Chronicles 2-3. So three chapters in the Old Testament, including the fourth hidden special chapter of Psalm 62 that we're going to pray today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
But when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put you to death with the sword. Now therefore, hold him not guiltless, for you are a wise man. You will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol. death and burial of David. Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
And the time that David reigned over Israel was 40 years. He reigned seven years in Hebron and 33 years in Jerusalem. So Solomon sat upon the throne of David, his father, and his kingdom was firmly established. Adonijah's intrigue. Then Adonijah, the son of Haggith, came to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, and she said, Do you come peaceably? He said, Peaceably.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Then he said, I have something to say to you. She said, Say on. He said, You know that the kingdom was mine and that all Israel fully expected me to reign. However, the kingdom has turned about and become my brother's, for it was his from the Lord. And now I have one request to make of you. Do not refuse me. She said to him, say on. And he said, please ask King Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
He will not refuse you to give me Abishag, the Shunammite, as my wife. Bathsheba said, very well, I will speak for you to the king. So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. And the king rose to meet her and bowed down to her. Then he sat on his throne and had a seat brought for the king's mother, and she sat on his right.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Then she said, I have one small request to make of you. Do not refuse me. And the king said to her, Make a request, my mother, for I will not refuse you. She said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah, your brother, as his wife. King Solomon answered his mother, And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Ask for him the kingdom also, for he is my elder brother, and on his side are Abiathar the priest and Joab the son of Zeruiah. Then King Solomon swore by the Lord, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if this word does not cost Adonijah his life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Now therefore, as the Lord lives, who has established me and placed me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day. So King Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he struck him down, and he died. Solomon consolidates his reign.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
And to Abiathar the priest, the king said, Go to Anathoth, to your estate, for you deserve death. But I will not at this time put you to death, because you bore the ark of the Lord God before David my father, and because you shared in all the affliction of my father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
So Solomon expelled Abiathar from being priest to the Lord, thus fulfilling the word of the Lord which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. When the news came to Joab, for Joab had supported Adonijah, although he had not supported Absalom, Joab fled to the tent of the Lord and caught hold of the horns of the altar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
And when it was told King Solomon, Joab has fled to the tent of the Lord, and behold, he is beside the altar. Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, strike him down. So Benaiah came to the tent of the Lord and said to him, The king commands, come forth. But he said, No, I will die here. Then Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
As always, the Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
The king replied to him, Do as he has said, strike him down and bury him, and thus take away from me and from my father's house the guilt for the blood which Joab shed without cause.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
the Lord will bring back his bloody deeds upon his own head, because without the knowledge of my father David, he attacked and slew with the sword two men more righteous and better than himself, Abner, the son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa, the son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
so shall their blood come back upon the head of Joab and upon the head of his descendants forever. But to David and to his descendants and to his house and to his throne, there shall be peace from the Lord forevermore. Then Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, went up and struck him down and killed him, and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension, using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
The king put Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, over the army in place of Joab, and the king put Zadok, the priest, in the place of Abiathar. Then the king sent and summoned Shimei and said to him, Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and dwell there, and do not go forth from there to any place whatever. For on the day you go forth and cross the brook Kidron, know for certain that you shall die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Your blood shall be upon your own head. And Shimei said to the king, What you say is good. As my lord the king has said, so will your servant do. So Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days. But it happened, at the end of three years, that two of Shimei's slaves ran away to Akshish, the son of Maaka, king of Gath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
And when it was told Shimei, Behold, your slaves are in Gath, Shimei arose and saddled a donkey and went to Gath to Akshish to seek his slaves. Shimei went and brought his slaves from Gath. And when Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and returned, the king sent and summoned Shimei and said to him,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Did I not make you swear by the Lord and solemnly admonish you, saying, Know for certain that on the day you go forth and go to any place whatever, you shall die? And you said to me, What you say is good, I obey. Why then have you not kept your oath to the Lord and the commandment which I charged you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
And if you've not yet subscribed to this podcast, you can do that and you'd be subscribed and it would be phenomenal. It is day 144. We're rereading from the first book of Kings chapter two, Second book of Chronicles chapters two and three, and we are praying Psalm 62. The first book of Kings chapter two, David's instructions to Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
The king also said to Shimei, You know in your own heart all the evil that you did to David my father. So the Lord will bring back your evil upon your own head." but King Solomon shall be blessed and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever. Then the king commanded Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck him down and he died.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Now Solomon purposed to build a temple for the name of the Lord and a royal palace for himself. And Solomon assigned 70,000 men to bear burdens and 80,000 to quarry in the hill country and 3,600 to oversee them. And Solomon sent word to Huram, the king of Tyre, As you dealt with David my father, and sent him cedar to build himself a house to dwell in, so deal with me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, and dedicate it to him for the burning of incense of sweet spices before him, and for the continual offering of the showbread, and for burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths and the new moons, and the appointed feasts of the Lord our God, as ordained forever for Israel."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
The house which I am to build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to burn incense before him?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
So now, send me a man skilled to work in gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue fabrics, trained also in engraving, to be with the skilled workers who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom David my father provided. Send me also cedar, cypress, and elgam timber from Lebanon. for I know that your servants know how to cut timber in Lebanon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
And my servants will be your servants to prepare timber for me in abundance, for the house I am to build will be great and wonderful. I will give for your servants, the hewers who cut timber, 70,000 cores of crushed wheat, 20,000 cores of barley, 20,000 baths of wine, and 20,000 baths of oil. Huram agrees to help Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Then Huram, the king of Tyre, answered in a letter which he sent to Solomon, Because the Lord loves his people, he has made you king over them. Huram also said, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who has given King David a wise son, endued with discretion and understanding, who will build a temple for the Lord and a royal palace for himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Now I have sent a skilled man, endued with understanding." Huramabi, the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
He is trained to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, blue, and crimson fabrics, and fine linen, and to do all sorts of engraving and execute any design that may be assigned him with your craftsman, the craftsman of my lord David, your father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Now therefore, the wheat and barley, oil and wine of which my Lord has spoken, let him send to his servants and we will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon and bring it to you in rafts by sea to Joppa so that you may take it up to Jerusalem. census of the aliens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Then Solomon took a census of all the aliens who were in the land of Israel after the census of them, which David, his father had taken. And there were found 153,600, 70,000 of them. He assigned to bear burdens, 80,000 to quarry in the hill country and 3,600 as overseers to make the people work. Chapter three, Solomon builds the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
When David's time to die drew near, he charged Solomon, his son saying, I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong and show yourself a man and keep the charge of the Lord, your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper and all that you do and wherever you turn.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father at the place that David had appointed on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. These are Solomon's measurements for building the house of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
The length in cubits of the old standard was 60 cubits and the breadth 20 cubits. The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was 20 cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and its height was 120 cubits. He overlaid it on the inside with pure gold. The nave he lined with cypress and covered it with fine gold and made palms and chains on it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
He adorned the house with settings of precious stones. The gold was gold of Parvaim. So he lined the house with gold, its beams, its thresholds, its walls, and its doors, and he carved cherubim on the walls. And he made the most holy place. Its length corresponding to the breadth of the house was 20 cubits, and its breadth was 20 cubits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
he overlaid it with six hundred talents of fine gold the weight of the nails was one shekel to fifty shekels of gold and he overlaid the upper chambers with gold in the most holy place he made two cherubim of wood and overlaid them with gold The wings of the cherubim together extended twenty cubits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
One wing of the one of five cubits touched the wall of the house, and its other wing of five cubits touched the wing of the other cherub. And of this cherub one wing of five cubits touched the wall of the house, and the other wing also of five cubits was joined to the wing of the first cherub. The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits. The cherubim stood on their feet facing the nave.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
and he made the veil of blue and purple and crimson fabrics and fine linen, and worked cherubim on it. In front of the house he made two pillars thirty-five cubits high, with a capital of five cubits on top of each. He made chains like a necklace, and put them on the tops of the pillars, and he made a hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
He set up pillars in front of the temple, one on the south, the other on the north, that on the south he called Jachin, and that on the north Boaz. Psalm 62, song of trust in God alone, to the choir master according to Jeduthun, a psalm of David. For God alone my soul waits in silence. From him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly moved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
How long will you set upon a man to shatter him, all of you, like a leaning wall or a tottering fence? They only plan to thrust him down from his eminence. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be shaken.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
On God rests my deliverance and my honor, my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Men of low estate are but a breath. Men of high estate are a delusion. In the balances they go up. They are together lighter than a breath. Put no confidence in extortion. Set no vain hopes on robbery.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
If riches increase, set not your heart on them. Once God has spoken, twice I have heard this, that power belongs to God and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
that the Lord may establish his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, If your sons shall heed to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you a man on the throne of Israel. Moreover, you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Yes, to you, Lord God, belongs steadfast love. To you belongs power. You love us with a love that doesn't change. You love us with a love that is constantly dynamic and constantly activated. Lord God, you're not a God of potency. You're a God of actuality. You're not a God of dreams. You're a God of reality. And in all things, we trust you. In all things, we praise you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
And this day, as you speak to us, once again, we continue to trust in you. Please hear our prayer, and please make yourself known by every one of us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, so here we are at the end of David's life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 144: David's Last Words (2025)
Now, yesterday, in 1 Kings chapter 1, at the end of his life, but these are David's final words that he gives to his son Solomon. And gosh, there's a couple of things to pay attention to. One is that David's last words are, hey, make sure you kill these people or make sure that you show some kind of leniency, some kind of clemency to others. But what is David doing?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
when we hear in the new testament these people like stephen today going over the story of salvation and you know the host maybe you knew the whole story beforehand maybe uh you know most of the story but here as stephen goes through he goes all the way back to the call of abraham from you know of the chaldees and going to the promised land and his son and his son gets circumcised and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
And all these things happen. Then his son's son, Joseph, gets sold. And the whole shebang, we get to hear the whole story. And why? We get to hear the whole story because this is the story of how God has called you now to say yes to him in the same way that God called the people of Egypt. the people of Israel to say yes to him. But Israel said yes, and Egypt hardened their hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him in possession and to his posterity after him, though he had no child. And God spoke to this effect, that his posterity would be aliens in a land belonging to others who would enslave them and ill-treat them four hundred years. but I will judge the nation which they serve, said God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
And basically here is Stephen saying, don't harden your hearts. You are a stiff neck people. Verse 51, stiff neck people, uncircumcised in hearts and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit. And it's not just a comparison with Israel and Egypt, but is that comparison of also those in the wilderness, their fathers, those who are Hebrews, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
who turned away from the Lord God who saved them to worship false gods, you know, the golden calf and whatnot. And so it's so, so powerful because Stephen is saying that's what you're doing right now. You are. Here's the God who saved you. He saved you through his life, death and resurrection here in Jesus Christ. And you are hardening your hearts. You're turning away from this gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
And I love this. This last, I mean, I don't love it because it's the martyrdom of Stephen. You don't love that. But it's so powerful and so beautiful. It's incredible. In verse 54 of chapter 7, it says, Now when they heard these things, they were enraged, ground their teeth against him. It goes on to say,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
In verse 57, they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together upon him. Basically covered their ears because he is saying, I see in heaven, I see the glory of God. I see Jesus standing right at the right hand of the Father, at the right hand of God. And they're plugging their ears. We don't want to hear what you have to say.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
How often, gosh, you guys, how often is that the case where that could be us? That could be us saying, I don't know if I want to hear God's word. I don't know if I want to hear what God has to say to me today. because I've already hardened my heart. But that's also sometimes what happens around us. Here's Stephen, who has, as I said, has the face of an angel who is full of grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
He's full of mercy. This moment, he's basically being just like Jesus as he says, Father, forgive them. Don't hold this sin against them. And yet even that innocent Stephen, even that holy Stephen, they don't want to listen to. They plug their ears and rush upon him and stone him to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
and as we say we saw here there's a young man named saul whose name will later on be changed to paul and uh and he's consenting to stephen's martyrdom says stephen's execution here so a lot of stories in this and just remarkable you guys if there's ever there are some parts of new testament writings that i just i love that i love more than others you know it's just because there's they hit you hit you in the right way
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Yeah, it was yesterday or the day before where we were reading in chapter eight, what should we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? How it talks about what should separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ, tribulation or distress, persecution or famine, nakedness, peril, the sword. That's chapter eight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
In chapter five, we talked about God proves his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. But if there's another chapter that I love is chapter 12. Chapter 12 of the letter of St. Paul's letter to the Romans. Chapter 12, verse 1 and 2. I love it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
I appeal to you, brethren, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. You know, I don't know if you think some of our Catholic friends who are part of this community, you might recognize some of this language in a couple of the Eucharistic prayers, like at Mass.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
we ask god god make us an acceptable sacrifice to you like make of us an acceptable sacrifice to you in the course of the sacrifice of the mass and so you might recognize that but some of our non-catholic friends i want to let you know that at mass that's one of the things we pray for we pray that not only we're offering the sacrifice of jesus the once for all sacrifice of jesus
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
but are also saying, Lord, help us to be part of that. As St. Paul says here in Romans chapter 12, verse one, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spirit to worship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
And after that, they shall come out and worship me in this place. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob and Jacob of the 12 patriarchs. And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
And then the next verse, two, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind so that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. That is, again, so essential. It's necessary for us because we think the way the world thinks, then it is highly unlikely that we're thinking the way God thinks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Lastly, in this one, verse chapter 12, the last lines from verse 9 all the way to the end of verse 21. It's often read at weddings. I don't know if you ever have ever realized this. A lot of weddings that I'll do when they choose the New Testament reading, they choose Romans chapter 12 verses 9 through 21, where it says that love be genuine, hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
It goes on, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor. It goes on, and it's just so important if, man, these are the sections of the Bible sometimes you just like highlight, go back and write notes on the side is where you kind of pray and say, okay, God, how do I do this? How do I bless those who curse me? How do I live in harmony with one another?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 328. We are reading from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 7, all about Stephen, and Romans, St. Paul's letter to the Romans, chapters 11 and 12, as well as Proverbs, chapter 27, verses 13 and 14.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
How do I not be haughty? How do I associate with the lowly? And it goes on and on as you note, as you know, because you just listened to it. Last thing. Oh gosh, you guys, what a gift. Isn't this the craziest gift to be able to go through the whole Bible like this? Chapter 11, I kind of skipped over chapter 11, but you can't skip over it. Here's St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Paul who's saying, listen, the people of Israel, they've not been abandoned. It's not that God has rejected them. That's not the case at all. And so any kind of trace of anti-Jewish sentiment, any kind of anti-Semitism, that has no place because Romans chapter 11 talks about God's plan, his love, his call, the gifts are irrevocable. That's chapter 11, verse 29. He's not taken back his love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
He's not taken back his gifts. He's not taken back his call from the people of Israel. He is calling them forward though. Of course he is calling them to receive Jesus as the Lord, but he hasn't taken back his promises. He has not taken back his blessing. And that's very, very important for us to realize that you and I, we have been grafted onto the tree of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
So it's not like, oh, there's a whole new tree here, this Christian tree that's next to the Jewish tree. Nope. As St. Paul says, it is that root. The root is the story that Stephen told today. The root is all the way back to Abraham, this faith of our fathers. And we've been grafted onto this tree. We're not by nature Israelites, but we have St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Pope Paul VI, at one point he said, spiritually, we are all Jewish because we've been grafted onto the tree. And so we pray for our Jewish brothers and sisters that not only they realize that the promise is still theirs, but the fulfillment of that promise is also theirs. That fulfillment of the promise being Jesus Christ. our Lord. So we pray for those who don't believe in Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
We also pray for each other. I definitely, every single day, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
But God was with him and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and over all his household. Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan and great affliction. And our fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent forth our fathers the first time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
And at the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh. And Joseph sent and called to him Jacob, his father, and all his kindred, seventy-five souls. And Jacob went down into Egypt. And he died, himself and our fathers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
And they were carried back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt till there arose over Egypt another king who had not known Joseph.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
He dealt craftily with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants that they might not be kept alive. At this time, Moses was born and was beautiful before God. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house. And when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds. When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking the Egyptian.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
He supposed that his brethren understood that God was giving them deliverance by his hand, but they did not understand. And on the following day, he appeared to them as they were quarreling and would have reconciled them, saying, Men, you are brethren, why do you wrong each other? But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday? At this retort, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight, and as he drew near to look, the voice of the Lord came, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. And Moses trembled and did not dare to look, and the Lord said to him, Take off the shoes from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
I have surely seen the ill-treatment of my people that are in Egypt and heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt. This Moses, whom they refused, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? God sent both as ruler and deliverer by the hand of the angel that appeared to him in the bush.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up. This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke with him at Mount Sinai and with our fathers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Only two verses for those of you who know that you like the slow drip of the Proverbs as opposed to having entire chapters of Proverbs. We just get, you know, little verses here and there. The Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
And he received living oracles to give to us. Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron, Make for us gods to go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands. But God turned and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets, Did you offer to me slain beasts and sacrifices? Forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
and you took up the tent of moloch and the star of the god rephan the figures which you made to worship and i will remove you beyond babylon our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness even as he who spoke to moses directed him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations which God thrust out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked leave to find a habitation for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
As the prophet says, Heaven is my throne, and earth my footstool. What house will you build for me, says the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things? You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one, whom you have now betrayed and murdered. You who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it. the stoning of Stephen. Now when they heard these things, they were enraged, and they ground their teeth against him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together upon him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. And every single day delivered to your place where you listen to podcasts, you get the podcast. Ha! Here we are. Day 328.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he knelt down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
And when he had said this, he fell asleep. The letter of St. Paul to the Romans, chapter 11.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Israel's rejection is not final. I ask then, has God rejected his people? By no means. I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. But what is God's reply to him? I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
What then? Israel failed to obtain what it sought. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened as it is written. God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that should not see and ears that should not hear down to this very day. And David says, let their feast become a snare and a trap, a pitfall and a retribution for them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever. the salvation of the Gentiles. So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means. But through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Now, if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean? Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole batch. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. But...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
If some of the branches were broken off and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness of the olive tree, do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember, it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. You will say, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
We're reading Acts chapter 7, Romans chapter 11 and 12, and Proverbs chapter 27, verses 13 and 14. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter seven. Stephen's speech to the council. And the high priest said, is this so? And Stephen said, brethren and fathers, hear me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
But you stand fast only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God. Severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
And even the others, if they do not persist in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree? Israel will be saved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brethren. A hardening has come upon part of Israel until the full number of the Gentiles come in, and so all Israel will be saved as it is written. The Deliverer will come from Zion. He will banish ungodliness from Jacob. And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that by mercy shown to you, they also may receive mercy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
To him be glory forever. Amen. Chapter 12, The New Life in Christ. I appeal to you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me, I bid everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
For as in one body we have many members and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them, if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
He who teaches in his teaching, he who exhorts in his exhortation, he who contributes in liberality, he who gives aid with zeal, he who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. Marks of the true Christian. Let love be genuine. Hate what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Never flag in zeal. Be aglow with the Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be conceited.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran and said to him, depart from your land and from your kindred and go into the land which I will show you. Then he departed from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. No, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him drink.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
For by so doing, you will heap burning coals upon his head.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. The book of Proverbs chapter 27 verses 13 and 14.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Take a man's garment when he has given surety for a stranger and hold him in pledge when he gives surety for foreigners. He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice rising early in the morning will be counted as cursing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and thank you so much.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for the gift of these readings today. Help us to be yours. Help us to hear your words and put them into practice this day and every day. Help us receive your grace and be grateful for the fact that you have saved us and grafted us into the tree of Israel. Thank you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. We bless you. Please receive our praise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
Please receive the blessing. In Jesus' name, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. I want to keep this relatively brief because, you know, it's been kind of long these days, but I can't go anywhere without referencing Proverbs 27, verse 14. Oh my gosh, did you catch this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice rising early in the morning will be counted as cursing. You bless your neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning is like cursing them. I love that because, you know, it's good to be happy in the morning. I think that's fine. But there are times when you're like, bro, it's early, too early.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred (2024)
And your excitement and your blessing early in the morning is received like a curse. Does that make sense? I think that's pretty fun. Pretty fun proverb there. We have Acts chapter seven. As I mentioned, it's Stephen, not only Stephen's martyrdom, Stephen's speech. How incredible is this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
But the two things are, some of the first words that the Lord is reiterating to Joshua, and those first words that the Lord is reiterating to Joshua are the words that not only does Joshua need to hear, but the people of Israel will need to hear these words as well. And those words are, be strong and of good courage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Be strong and of good courage, repeated often throughout these first couple chapters, gonna be repeated again throughout scripture. But in chapter one, especially, there's this line where God says, have I not commanded you? Like, listen, you're going to do what I've asked. You're going to do what I've commanded. So be strong and of good courage. Be not frightened, neither be dismayed. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And there is something about this that we recognize that when God is with us, there is a change. There is something completely different that even in the midst of struggles or trials, in the midst of battles, even in the midst of failure, when God is with us, we can still be strong and of good courage. We can be strong and of very good courage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Moses has just died and Joshua is now the new leader of the people of Israel as he leads them from the wilderness, across the plains of Moab, over the Jordan River, into the promised land. And today we're reading Joshua 1 through 4 and praying Psalm 123. The Book of Joshua, Chapter 1. God Commissions Joshua.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Because the Lord is the God of our hearts. And to have courage, the word courage comes from the Latin word cor, which is C-O-R, which means heart. And so to be discouraged is to lose heart, but to be encouraged is to be given strength at heart. So to be of good courage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
is to let our hearts not be afraid, let our hearts not be weary, let our hearts not be discouraged, but to know that God is with us, again, in the midst of trials, in the midst of struggles, in the midst of battle, and even in the midst of failure, we can be those people like Joshua, like the people of Israel who are called to be. very strong and of good courage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
The other thing is, why can we be strong and of good courage? Because it says that, Lord, your God is with you. And I love the fact that here, as the people of Israel are passing through the Jordan River on dry ground, remember that these are the children of the people who passed through the Red Sea on dry ground. So these people had never seen this miracle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
They've heard of the miracle their parents had lived through. But they themselves did not pass on dry ground through the Red Sea. And so what is God doing? He's giving them an experience of his power.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
He's giving them an experience of his might and giving them an experience that they can now, as they go into the promised land, that they can look back on and say, no, God has brought us to this place. This is the way he wants us to walk. And this is where he wants us to be. And he is willing to act for us. He's willing to fight for us. And we know this because we saw it with our own eyes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
But here's the thing. Even when we've seen things with our own eyes, even when we know what God has done for us personally, we can so quickly forget. We can, yeah, be strong of our courage. I'm with you. But we can even forget those. We can even forget miracles in our lives. If you've ever had something like a miracle or a true miracle happen in your life, you know that this is the case.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
We are often tempted to forget in the dark what we knew was true in the light. We're often tempted to forget in the new trial what we learned in the old trial. We're often tempted to forget that God is fighting for us when we're in the midst of the battle. And so what is the command?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
The command is take these stones from the center of the Jordan and stack them up, pile up into an altar, reminding the people as long as they live, where did these stones come from? They came from the middle of the river. That's how deep down the Lord went for us. And as often as you see this pile of stones, this altar of stones, what you can see is that's what he did for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
And I'll never forget it. It's one of the reasons why when we're going through this Bible in a year, one incredible thing you can do for yourself. is to write down the insights that you receive when you listen to the Bible, when you read the Bible. Write them down, capture them down somewhere that you can always come back to them because it's so easy to forget.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
So if you stack up those stones, basically another way to say it is here you are writing down those insights, you're stacking up those stones that came from an impossible place, that came from a place where God was and where he was fighting for you, where God was and he was revealing his heart to you, where God was and you knew that he was present to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
To write down those lines, write down those actions of God, write down those reminders.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
They will be kind of like your 12 stones from the middle of the Jordan that are stored up in your journal, that are stored up in the margins of your Bible, that are stored up in a safe place that you can always go back to and be reminded of the reason why we can be strong and have good courage because he is with us. We are praying for you. I am praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
I know so many people are telling me, gosh, Father, whenever you say you're praying for us and please pray for you, I do. And I am so grateful because I am praying for you as well. We're praying for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, as I promised to Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day 81. It is the first day in a new time period, the time period of the conquest and judges. And it's a little bit different because we're We're going to be reading four chapters from Joshua.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the All the land of the Hittites to the great sea toward going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and of good courage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to the law all which Moses my servant commanded you. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Be not frightened, neither be dismayed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Preparations for Taking Over the Land Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, Pass through the camp and command the people, Prepare your provisions. For within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, Remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land. Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
But all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brethren and shall help them. until the Lord gives rest to your brethren as well as to you, and they also take possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Then you shall return to the land of your possession, and shall possess it, the land which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise. And they answered Joshua, All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage. Chapter two, spies sent to Jericho. And Joshua, the son of Nun, sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies saying, go, view the land, especially Jericho. And they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab and lodged there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
And it was told the king of Jericho, Behold, certain men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land. Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land. But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Actually, for the next, give or take, I don't know, seven days or so, we're going to be taking a chunk of chapters, meaning like, I don't know, anywhere from two to four chapters each day to get through the book of Joshua in the next, give or take, eight days. People who are better than me at math will know. Father, it's exactly eight days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
And she said, True, men came to me, but I did not know where they came from. And when the gate was to be closed at dark, the men went out. Where the men went, I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them. but she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with stalks of flax which she had laid out in order on the roof.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. Before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land and that the fear of you has fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted and there was no courage left in any man because of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
For the Lord your God is he who is God in the heaven above and on earth beneath. Now then, swear to me by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house and give me a sure sign and save alive my father and my mother, my brothers and sisters and all who belong to them. and deliver our lives from death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
And the men said to her, Our life for yours, if you do not tell this business of ours, then we will deal kindly and faithfully with you when the Lord gives us the land. Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she dwelt in the wall. And she said to them, Go into the hills, lest the pursuers meet you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
and hide yourself there three days until the pursuers have returned then afterward you may go your way the men said to her we will be guiltless with respect to this oath of ours which you have made us swear behold when we come into the land you shall bind this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down and you shall gather into your house your father and mother your brothers and all your father's household
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
If anyone goes out of the doors of this house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid upon anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath which you have made us swear. And she said, According to your words, so be it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Then she sent them away, and they departed, and she bound a scarlet cord in the window. They departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until their pursuers returned, for the pursuers had made search all along the way and found nothing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Then the two men came down again from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they told him all that had befallen them. And they said to Joshua, Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands, and moreover all the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of us. Chapter three, Israel passes over the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
From day 81 to day 88, we'll be reading through the book of Joshua. This is day 81, Joshua chapter 1 through chapter 4. We're also going to be praying Psalm 123. As always, the Bible translation that I am reading is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Early in the morning, Joshua rose and set out from Shittim with all the sons of Israel, and they came to the Jordan and lodged there before they passed over.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
At the end of three days, the officers went through the camp and commanded the people, when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it, that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Yet there shall be a space between you and it, a distance of about two thousand cubits. Do not come near it. And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. And Joshua said to the priests, Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
And the Lord said to Joshua, This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. And you shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
And Joshua said to the sons of Israel, Come here and hear the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will, without fail, drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is to pass over before you into the Jordan. Now, therefore, take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
And when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be stopped from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water, the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest, the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
And those flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the salt sea, were wholly cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho. And while all Israel were passing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan. Chapter 4. Twelve Stones Set Up at Gilgal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
When all the nations had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests' feet stood, and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you lodged tonight.
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Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
And if you'd like to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, and that will be yours forever, yours to keep. Our gift to you. If you haven't subscribed yet, the question is why? But you could subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily episodes.
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Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Then Joshua called the twelve men from the sons of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel, that this may be a sign among you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
When your children ask in time to come, what do these stones mean to you? Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the sons of Israel immemorial forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
And the men of Israel did as Joshua commanded and took up 12 stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel, as the Lord told Joshua. And they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged. and laid them down there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood, and they are there to this day. For the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
people passed over in haste. And when all the people had finished passing over, the ark of the Lord and the priests passed over before the people. The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh passed over armed before the sons of Israel as Moses had bidden them. About 40,000 ready, armed for war, passed over before the Lord for battle to the plains of Jericho.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him, as they had stood in awe of Moses all the days of his life. And the Lord said to Joshua, Command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant to come up out of the Jordan. Joshua therefore commanded the priests, Come up out of the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
And when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up on dry ground, and the the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks as before. The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
And those twelve stones which they took up out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. And he said to the sons of Israel, When your children ask their fathers in time to come, what do these stones mean? Then you shall let your children know. Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over. So all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
As noted before, if you got to the podcast episode that introduces this time period of conquest and judges, you know what we're about to do. You know what we're about to face. You know what the people of Israel are about to encounter. We are leaving Deuteronomy chapter 34. We come to the end of Numbers chapter 36. And now we're taking the next step.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God till he have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us. For we have had more than enough of contempt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Too long our soul has been sated with the scorn of those who are at ease, the contempt of the proud.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
We glorify your name and we just are reminded, Lord God, of your goodness. We're reminded of your faithfulness and we're reminded of the need to be reminded. We're reminded of the need to remember, Lord God, this day. As we hear these words, as we pray and let your word shape us, Lord God, let our lives be a memorial.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
Let our lives be one that our hearts be one, our minds be one that remembers who you are and what you have done in this world and in our lives. Help us never, ever to forget your goodness and to never, ever forget your presence. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
So the book of Joshua gets off to a pretty fast start, you know, establishing Joshua as the new Moses. And one of the things that establishes Joshua as the new Moses is not only Moses. I mean, we heard in numbers, we heard in Deuteronomy how Moses had said, you're going to be following Joshua, basically. And then we have God himself saying, yeah, you're going to be following Joshua. So he's being
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
installed essentially as the new leader of the people of Israel. He's been installed as the new leader of the people of Israel over the Jordan and into the promised land. And this is part of it, right? How the waters get stopped and how the Jordan River is halted because of the presence of the Lord in the Ark of the Covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 81: Israel Crosses the Jordan (2025)
One of the things that is so important for us, I want to highlight two things because we're deep in the story right now and we're going to be following this narrative and it's going to be just so good already.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, and that's so interesting because even though, like you said, even though here's Samson who has been set apart as the Nazirite, he regularly seems to break this vow. He regularly seems, I mean, even, even the story of Samson and the lion before the Samson and Delilah that he, you know, even eats honey out of the dead carcass of the lion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And as a Nazirite, those who would make a Nazirite, how he wouldn't come into contact with it, but he doesn't seem overly preoccupied with others. And that's one of the things that we realize is some of these judges, they're not, as you said, not merely, are they not judge Judy? They're not all
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
great like they're not they do the job but they're not necessarily kind of like some of the other characters we've met in the course of this this bible the scripture time is that even though they're called by god and even though god can use them not everything they do is like hey go do that and not everything they do is the role model example for us to follow and samson's very
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
He's consistent in that line of people who have been called by God, the spirit of the Lord is upon them, set apart by the Lord for service, but not always faithful to that being set apart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And yet, there's going to be not just green means go, like in the sense of easy or in the sense of just kind of go up and take the land. There's going to be some struggle that is kind of really marks, I think, this time of conquest and judges. I mean, obviously, conquest would involve struggle, but this time period isn't clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Well, that, as you said, there's a couple of different ways to be tempted to read this. One is God is on trial. And the other is, this is about something else or someone else, as opposed to God is not on trial here. And also this is about me. And this is a, this is like we talked about before. Scripture can be a mirror. It can be that flashlight spotlight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
It can be that sandpaper that in this, this is one of those cases where it's a mirror where we hold this up and say, okay, I know, I know personally, whenever, uh,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
i read the story of samson and he didn't realize the spirit of god had left him it's just one of those haunting lines in the chapters describing oh yeah he wakes up you know and his hair is gone samson the philistines are here but he didn't realize the spirit of god had left him and it's like oh my goodness lord i just uh i don't ever want that to happen and and that's the like that unique like you said the unique piece of
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
The people of Israel is they're not the biggest of the nations. They're not the best. They're not the whatever, but they're chosen. And that's what makes God has chosen to be among them. He's chosen to reveal his heart to them. He chosen to use them to bless the world. And that's what makes them unique.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And it's one of those things, I think, if anything, we take away from these first however many days we've been journeying through the Bible is is that even though God is with his people, it's not always very clean. You know, it's not that one of those situations where it's just, oh, God's with us, therefore the road is smooth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And if we don't say as Christians now in this age, the age of the church that God has chosen us, not because of our beauty or our power or wisdom or our strength. but because he loves us and wants us to expand his blessings to the world. And we have to live like that, or else, like you said, we're just like everyone else.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
But God will. And just as haunting as the line, Samson did not realize the spirit of the Lord had left him, is the promise of the next line. After his eyes are gouged out and after he's there to just grind the mill, it says, but Samson's hair began to grow. And that kind of piece, again, there's that sense of promise here that it's not the end of the story yet.
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Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And when he prays, Lord God, give me the strength once more to defeat the Philistines. Give me the strength to do what you've created me to do. And like you said, there's so much grace, even if there has been presumption, even if there had been sin, but even if the spirit of the Lord left him, but his hair began to grow and he called upon the Lord and the Lord answered in a powerful way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And that's for us, again, this is the mirror and this is a microcosm of the good news and not only microcosm of the story of Israel, but also of our story, hopefully.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
It is oftentimes marked by a certain struggle and certain even catastrophe.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
It doesn't lead to covenant faithfulness and doesn't even lead to happiness. There's that sense of, and that's what we see. I mean, the book of Judges, it's one of my more, I'm inspired by the book of Judges in many ways, but mostly because it reveals to me that, okay, this is, things can get worse, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
No matter how bad I'm living in right now, realizing, and you know, whatever culture, country, nation, history, whatever it is, you read Judges and realize, okay, things can get worse because they're pretty dark through that entire book of Judges. Yes, God is working in the story, but we're also... choosing to not be faithful in this story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
So he raises up, I like how you mentioned that they're not Judge Judy. These judges are, they're more along the lines of like a William Wallace or a Frederick Douglass or a Harriet Tubman in the sense of these people that God gets to, chooses to use in order to, again, bring his people back to this place of strength again, bring these people back to a place of fidelity and faithfulness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And that's on Facebook, right? That's every Thursday on Facebook? And that's recorded then? It gets posted later on?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Which is gonna be super helpful for people because again, as you said, these books, this section, this time period will bring up so many questions and that's one of them. And so I'm really grateful for you to be there. Jeff, as we conclude this episode, any last takeaways as we launch into this next time period?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
That's awesome. Yeah, just that again, once again, living these stories, avoiding the temptation of making God on trial and avoiding the temptation of making this be about someone else or some other people. This is not impersonal. This is incredibly, incredibly personal for all of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Speaking of on this journey, I'm so grateful that you are still with us after all these days, after all these months, you're still journeying through scripture with us, this Bible in your podcast. And so please know that I am praying for you. Please be praying for me. And also as part of this community, keep praying for each other with Jeff Cavins. My name is Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
and how we fit into that story today. Once again, today we are joined by Jeff Cavins, who's going to introduce the next time period. We've gone through a number of time periods already from the early world to the patriarchs, to the desert wanderings, Exodus in Egypt. And now we're coming on to the next time period, which is conquest and judges.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And we're entering into this time period where Israel is about to cross the Jordan River and heading on in to the promised land. And whatever happens now is going to be the content of the next number of days as we're going into Judges and the book of Joshua. And that's what we have.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah. And then the Lord had said to the Levites, he said that you won't have any land to inherit because I'm your inheritance. That the Lord himself is your inheritance. Now you mentioned just a second ago that journey through numbers. And then at the end, Deuteronomy there, Moses's words were saying that this was bootcamp and it was training. It was, it was getting them ready.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And in some ways, you know, I think about it like as a retreat too, but maybe not a, maybe bootcamp is a way better phrase, a better way to understand this. It's kind of that sense of okay, you've been protected, isolated in many ways out in the wilderness, but you're going to have to go into this land where you can't forget me. You have to remember what I've done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And as you said, a big call is to pass on to your children, teach your children about me because you have to be unique amongst these people. Again, in the wilderness, maybe you've been protected from infiltration. Although we actually had seen a number of stories towards the end of the book of numbers where they weren't necessarily protected.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
They did intermingle with the peoples that they were among. But this is going to be showtime, like you said, and that sense of, okay, how are you going to move forward? If this is the land, the promised land, there's going to be a certain way to live.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
But then for us, then there's gonna be a certain, a certain attitude we need to have when we're reading these stories, because that's going to be, that's going to determine, I think a lot when it comes to whether we're approaching these stories, the scripture, this history, God's working with cynicism and skepticism, or whether we're going to approach this time period with, with faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
So Jeff is joining us today as the expert, helping us to kind of get ourselves situated and having a context for these next number of days as we're going through this new time period. Welcome, Jeff, once again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
So it's so important and powerful. Also, not to stop reading. There was, you know, in this last section that we had when it came to Desert Wanderings, there is a section in Deuteronomy where the Lord talks about the blessings and the curses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And I know that for many people who contacted me after this, as part of this community journeying through scripture, they contacted me saying like, this is really disturbing. I don't like the fact that, that God has said, if you are faithful, you have these blessings. And if you're not faithful, there's these curses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And because they said, it just seems like here's God trying to instill the fear of God in them or trying to like maybe buy their affection or buy their faith because of, again, this kind of coercion kind of situation. And yet again, when you keep reading the very next day, which I understand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
I understand that coming from a modern perspective, we, again, as you mentioned, from the perspective where God is on trial, and if I don't understand it, it must be because I know of unfair judges. Here's a God who reveals he's a good dad, but I know of bad dads, that kind of situation where We get all mixed up like this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
But the next day is the following chapter where the Lord says, basically, or Moses says that, and those are the blessings and curses. But here is what God would say. Yes, he visits those curses upon you so that you can once again come to repentance. And it's this sense of, it's never about the curse. It's never about the end isn't meant to be destruction. The end is meant to be
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
I will allow these curses to come upon you. I'll allow this destruction to visit upon you so that you can come back. And that's what we're going to see, right? Even here in Joshua and Judges, this kind of almost this cycle of unfaithfulness and then destruction and then repentance and
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Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
They keep forgetting, right? There's this silence in the land where God blesses them. And then, as you said, it seems like on this repeat thing of like this, I just forget and I just turn away and I let myself drift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And one of the big, big things it seems like is that if they would just remember, if they would just, I know this is, it reminds me in so many ways of in the Christian life, how we're called to not just make the decision one time, for Jesus to be the Lord of my life. But every day is that sense of, okay, let me remember, what has God done in my life? Let me remember, he's present here right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Conquest & Judges (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Let me remember, what is he calling me towards? And then everything in my life becomes under his dominion and that he gets to be the leader of the life. And yet, again, the big temptation for all of us is to forget this. And what happens is, you know, go off the rails.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And then all of a sudden you're in the wilderness. And then all of a sudden you're being reminded of who you are as a people. So it's so important here that the tribes of Israel are being divided up into their families, right? Into the families of Israel. And what that does is it reminds them, oh, this is my identity. Not only am I one of the tribes of Israel, I'm this tribe of Israel, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And not only is it this kind of generic tribe or generic family, but it's not. It's this specific family under this specific head of the family. And there's something so powerful about knowing your identity here. And so God is giving them order. He's giving them their identity. And again, they're ordered all around the tabernacle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
The presence of God is at the center of everything they are and everything that they do. Why? Because they were formerly slaves and God is training them to be the kind of people who can live freely, people who can live freely.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
live well right they can they can actually not abuse freedom but will actually live in freedom now obviously the story is a lot bumpier than that they do not necessarily do this but he is shaping them and forming them into the kind of people that can be free so that's the order of the camp and judah goes up first right praise goes up first
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And that's a lesson for all of us when it comes to how we begin our day. It's so important for us to at least take a moment to praise God and to let praise go up first and even to praise his faithfulness. So in the book of Deuteronomy today, in Deuteronomy chapter two, we have a number of times where here is Moses and he's recapping their journey.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
If you want to be able to follow along and see where we're going, you can download your Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to the podcast app. Once again, reading from Numbers chapter 2, Deuteronomy chapter 2, and Psalm 85. Numbers chapter two, order of encampment and marching.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And they go through the land of the Edomites, right? And they say, he says, don't, don't attack them. Why? Because Edomites are the descendants of Esau. Remember Esau is the brother of twin brother of Jacob, AKA Israel. And so no, they're your family. So you're not going to attack them and you're going to dwell peacefully with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And they're going to sell you food and water and you're going to buy it and you're going to And you're going to like it. And then we're going to go into the land of Ammon. And that is the land of Lot, right? Lot, the nephew of Abraham. Because you're not going to attack them either. Because they're your family. They're a distant family. But still, not only are they your family.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
but i gave them this land i gave esau in his descendants the edomites this land i gave lot and his descendants the ammonites this land and so i am faithful and i'm going to give you your land too but it's not this land and that's again so so vitally important for all of us to understand uh this this depth of we can praise god for his faithfulness
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And then Moses recounts the battle that is there in Numbers chapter 21. We'll get to that in roughly 18 or 19 days from now. But against Sihon, the king of the Amorites. And again, one of the things that can bother us, we could say, this is so great. Here is the people of Israel being led past the Edomites. No wars. That's awesome. That's so good. And there's peace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And led past the Ammonites and the descendants of Lot. And that's good. And there's peace. But then we're going to encounter... We're going to encounter violence, and that can really disturb us because we're not necessarily accustomed to associating violence with God. I mean, that's one of the things that we are typically not accustomed with.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And at the same time, we have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. And there are ways to understand this. But the first thing I have to do is say, okay, I'm going to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. If I'm not really comfortable with the notion, with the idea, with the reality that as the people of Israel came into possession of the promised land, they had to fight for it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And if I'm not comfortable with that, I invite you to hang on still. Hang on still because there is an explanation. It's not to explain it away, but it is to understand more deeply what is it that God is doing in the midst of a violent world. God does not desire violence for its own sake at all. He doesn't desire death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
In fact, in the book of Wisdom, he says, God does not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. So we know that the heart of God is not one that rejoices in violence at all, at all, and doesn't rejoice in death at all, at all. But we live in a broken world and in a violent world. We live in a world where... That is what we do to each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
There is depth of explanation about this. My invitation for all of us is to hold on. Hold on because there is an explanation coming. But also there is a lot of violence coming too. And that's part of our story. It's kind of like when we have a family and we'd say, you know, we have great times. We also have some big fights. We have some really great, you know, heroes in our family.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
We also have some kind of some scoundrels in our family. We have some great moments of glory in our families and we have some great moments of shame in our families. And this is the family of God. And the family of God is very, very similar. So as I said, please hang on because it all is going to make sense. I promise it is all going to make sense. In the meantime, let Judah go up first.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, the sons of Israel shall encamp each by his own standard with the ensigns of their father's houses. They shall encamp facing the tent of meeting on every side.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
In the meantime, let praise go up first. In the meantime, we situate our lives like the Israelites situated their tents and their families and their tribes around the tabernacle. We center God in the midst of our lives. And when he's in the midst of our lives and praise goes up first, then there's nothing that can stop us because he's at the center and we're on his side.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Keep praying for each other. You guys, it's day 53 and we're moving along, but it sometimes can get easy to get bogged down, easy to get distracted, easy to get off track. So let's stay on track and let's give God the praise that is due today. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Those to encamp on the east side, toward the sunrise, shall be of the standard of the camp of Judah by their companies, the leader of the people of Judah being Nashon, the son of Amminadab, his host as numbered being 74,600. Those to encamp next to him shall be the tribe of Issachar, the leader of the people of Issachar being Nethanol, the son of Zohar. his host being numbered 54,400.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 53, and we are continuing along with our journey into Numbers and Deuteronomy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Then the tribe of Zebulun, the leader of the people of Zebulun being Eliab, the son of Helon, his host as numbered being 57,400. The whole number of the camp of Judah by their companies is 186,400. They shall set out first on the march.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben by their companies, the leader of the people of Reuben being Eleazar, the son of Shediur, his host as numbered being 46,500. And those to encamp next to him shall be the tribe of Simeon, the leader of the people of Simeon being Shelumiel, the son of Zerushadai. his host as numbered being 59,300.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Then the tribe of Gad, the leader of the people of Gad being Elisaph, the son of Reul, his host as numbered being 45,650. The whole number of the camp of Reuben by their companies is 151,450. They shall set out second. Then the tent of meeting shall set out with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camps,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
as they encamp so shall they set out each in position standard by standard on the west side shall be the standard of the camp of ephraim by their companies the leader of the people of ephraim being elishima the son of amihud his host as numbered being forty thousand five hundred
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And next to him shall be the tribe of Manasseh, the leader of the people of Manasseh being Gamaliel, the son of Petazur, his host as numbered being 32,200. Then the tribe of Benjamin, the leader of the people of Benjamin, being Abedan, the son of Gideonai, his host as numbered being 35,400. The whole number of the camp of Ephraim by their companies is 108,100.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
They shall set out third on the march." On the north side shall be the standard of the camp of Dan by their companies, the leader of the people of Dan being Ahiezar, the son of Amishadai, his host as numbered being 62,700. And those to encamp next to him shall be the tribe of Asher, the leader of the people of Asher being Pagiel, the son of Okran, his host as numbered being 41,500.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Then the tribe of Naphtali, the leader of the people of Naphtali being Ahira, the son of Enan, his host as numbered being 53,400. The whole number of the camp of Dan is 157,600. They shall set out last, standard by standard. These are the sons of Israel, as numbered by their fathers' houses. All in the camps who were numbered by their companies were 603,550.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
As I mentioned yesterday, one of the things that happens at the very beginning of numbers is kind of a lot of numbers and a lot of details. We're going to pick up the narrative in a couple days, but... In the meantime, Deuteronomy has Moses giving us the narrative. He is giving us that kind of big overview of the journey of the people of Israel through the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
But the Levites were not numbered among the sons of Israel, as the Lord commanded Moses. Thus did the sons of Israel. According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so they encamped by their standards, and so they set out, every one in his family, according to his father's house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
The Book of Deuteronomy Chapter 2 The Years in the Wilderness Then we turned, and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, as the Lord told me. And for many days we went about Mount Sair. Then the Lord said to me, You have been going about this mountain country long enough. Turn northward.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And command the people, you are about to pass through the territory of your brethren, the sons of Esau, who lived in Seir, and they will be afraid of you. So take good heed and do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land. No, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
You shall purchase food from them for money that you may eat, and you shall also buy water of them for money that you may drink. For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows you're going through this great wilderness. These 40 years, the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing. So we went on.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Away from our brethren, the sons of Esau, who lived in Seir, away from the Arabah road to Eleth and Ezion Geber. And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab. And the Lord said to me, Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot for a possession.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim. Like the Anakim, they are also known as Rephaim. But the Moabites called them Emim. The Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their stead as Israel did to the land of their possession, which the Lord gave to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Now rise up and go over to the brook Zered. So we went over to the brook Zered. And the time from our leaving Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the book Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them from the camp until they had perished.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
So when all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people, the Lord said to me, This day you are to pass over the boundary of Moab at Ar. And when you approach the frontier of the sons of Ammon, do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
that also is known as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there, but the Ammonites called them Zamzumim, a people great and many and tall as the Anakim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And he's going to do it in basically, I don't know, like one verse. Actually, he will do it in a couple different chapters. But there is even one of the verses in chapter two of Deuteronomy where Moses just basically says, and we were there for 38 years. And it was kind of like, oh, it was over just like that. So what we have is in Numbers, we're having the setup. We have the scene.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
But the Lord destroyed them before them, and they dispossessed them and settled in their stead, as he did for the sons of Esau who lived in Seir when he destroyed the Horites before them, and they dispossessed them and settled in their stead even to this day. As for the Avim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Kaphtarim, who came from Kaphtor, destroyed them and settled in their stead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Rise up, take your journey and go over the valley of Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon and his land. Begin to take possession and contend with him in battle. This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples that are under the whole heavens, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
The Defeat of Sion, the King of Heshbon So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemath to Sihon the king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, Let me pass through your land, and I will go only by the road. I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. You shall sell me food for money that I may eat, and give me water for money that I may drink.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Only let me pass through on foot, as the sons of Esau who lived in Seir and the Moabites who lived in Ar did for me, until I go over the Jordan into the land which the Lord our God gives us." But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as at this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land. Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jehaz.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And the Lord our God gave him over to us, and we defeated him and his sons and all his people, and we captured all his cities at that time and utterly destroyed every city, men, women, and children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
We left none remaining, only the cattle we took as spoil for ourselves with the booty of the cities which we captured, from Arwer, which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon, and from the city that is in the valley as far as Gilead. There was not a city too high for us. The Lord our God gave all into our hands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Only to the land of the sons of Ammon you did not draw near, that is, to all the banks of the river Jebok and the cities of the hill country and wherever the Lord our God forbade us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
The Book of Psalms, Psalm 85.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Prayer for the Restoration of God's Favor. To the Choir Master. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. Lord, you were favorable to your land. You brought back the captives of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people. You pardoned all their sin. You withdrew all your wrath. You turned from your hot anger. Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your merciful love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. Let me hear what the Lord God will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints, to those who turn to him in their hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and faithfulness will meet. Righteousness and peace will kiss each other. Faithfulness will spring up from the ground and righteousness will look down from heaven. Yes, the Lord will give what is good and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
We have all the tribes of Israel, right? There's the 12 tribes of Israel. They're gathered around the tabernacle. That's what we're looking at for Numbers. And then in Deuteronomy, it is the story of Numbers, but just kind of retold because Deuteronomy is the end of the wilderness journeys. And it begins with Moses. Well, it is Moses basically summing up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Father in heaven, we thank you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for trusting us and entrusting your word to us. We thank you for sharing who you are. We thank you for sharing that you are faithful to your promises, that you are faithful to your people. And we thank you for giving us the opportunity today to come into contact with you through the power of your word proclaimed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And we thank you in the midst of confusion. We thank you in the midst of not being inspired. Or we thank you in the midst of clarity and in the midst of being illuminated and inspired and moved forward by your grace and your spirit. Because Lord God, whenever your word is proclaimed, whenever it's read or heard, We know that you are present and we know that you are telling us something.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
You're revealing something of your heart to us and you're revealing something of our hearts to ourselves. So Lord God, where there is confusion, give us clarity. And where there is dullness, give us inspiration. Where there is a lack of zeal, give us a great joy and a love for you this day and every day, Lord God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
we ask this of you in the mighty name of your son jesus christ our lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen so we have as i said yesterday there's good news and there's bad news we have the book of numbers which at at first glance could seem like okay so just you're just organizing uh when you how you camp and that's true and ask also how they march so as we noted before
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
the tent the center of the camp is the tabernacle right the presence of god and right around them right around that where the presence of god are the levites and that then to the east to the west to the north and to the south are the 12 tribes of israel and we got the numbering of them but also it's important to know not just the numbering of them but to know the order you might have noticed this and we talked about this back in the book of genesis
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
that the first of the tribes was judah in fact you might have even recognized the name of the leader of the tribe of judah he was nashon the son of aminadab and you like how would i recognize that name well you'd recognize that name if you knew matthew's gospel the opening of matthew's gospel
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Matthew gives a genealogy, and the genealogy is from Abraham all the way down to Joseph, all the way down to Jesus, essentially. And we go through a list of names of the tribe of Judah, because here's Jesus who comes from the tribe of Judah. And so that first tribe, remember Judah was the fourth of Israel's sons. He wasn't the first son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
And yet he was selected as the one who would receive essentially, yeah, that birthright blessing, that the blessing to the whole world would come through the tribe of Judah. But it's interesting to note, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but But you note that Judah was first on the east next to the tabernacle, but also Judah would be the first to march.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Here is our journey and here is the law that the Lord is calling you to live. So that's what we're reading today. Again, Numbers chapter 1, Deuteronomy chapter 2, and then we're praying Psalm 85. As always, the Bible translation that I'm using is the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
They'd be the first to march whenever they would go up into battle. They'd be the first to march as they go out into the wilderness. And there's that phrase, I remember Jeff Cavins teaching me this years ago, the phrase, let Judah go up first. And so Judah goes up first. Well, Judah, the name Judah means praise. And that is so fitting for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
Here's God, again, in Numbers chapter two, which we could just think, okay, bunch of names, bunch of numbers, bunch of directions, north, south, east, west, doesn't really tell me a lot. Actually, it tells us a ton. Not only does it tell us that God is a God of order, right? that these are people that he's bringing together. Remember, they were formerly slaves, and they don't have any order.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 53: The Twelve Tribes of Israel (2025)
So when we have the Levitical laws, when we have the laws of Deuteronomy once again being proclaimed by Moses as we go forward in these next couple days, remember that God is making them into a people, a people who have the strength to be free. Think about how difficult it would be to live your entire life for generations, generations of slaves. And then all of a sudden you have your freedom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
The Lord desires us to even just, I just want what God wants. I want to choose what God wills. And that is the heart of holiness. And that is the heart of the person who is a man or woman after God's own heart. It's hard to be that way. It's hard to obey when we don't understand. It's hard to obey when we'd rather do other things. It's hard to listen to the voice of the Lord and respond.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
And because of that, we need his help. We actually can't do it without his grace. And so we pray for ourselves. We pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please, as we keep journeying, please pray for me. This is an incredible community of people who just continue to pray for each other. I know you are doing that. And I know, I can recognize, I experience your prayers for me. And I'm so glad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
Hopefully, you know my prayers for you. And hopefully, it's helping you take that step at a time to have a heart like the heart of the Father. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
And Saul said to the Kenites, Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them, for you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites, and Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless, they utterly destroyed. The Lord rejects Saul for his disobedience. The word of the Lord came to Samuel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 109, and we are reading from 1 Samuel chapter 15 and 16. We're also praying Psalm 61 is always the Bible translation that I am using and reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
I repent that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. And Samuel was angry and he cried to the Lord all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, Saul came to Carmel. And behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
and samuel came to saul and saul said to him blessed be you to the lord i have performed the commandment of the lord and samuel said what then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen which i hear saul said
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed. Then Samuel said to Saul, Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night. And he said to him, Say on. And Samuel said, Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
The Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent you on a mission and said, Go, utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
And Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now, therefore, I beg pardon my sin and return with me that I may worship the Lord. And Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
As Samuel turned to go away, Saul laid hold upon the skirt of his robe, and it tore, and Samuel said to him, The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. And also the glory of Israel will not lie or repent for he is not a man that he should repent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
Then he said, I have sinned yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel and return with me that I may worship the Lord, your God. So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord. Then Samuel said, Bring here to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
I am actually reading from the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to get that, you can track it down at ascensionpress.com or at amazon.com or wherever Bibles are sold. Maybe Bible.com. I don't even know. Let me buy a Bible.com. It's slapped on there. I don't know. If you want to download your Bible in a year reading plan, you can also visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed a gag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death. But Samuel grieved over Saul, and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
Chapter 16, David anointed as king. The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul, seeing I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons. And Samuel said, how can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
And the Lord said, take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. and invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do, and you shall anoint for me him whom I named to you. Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, Do you come peaceably? And he said, Peaceably.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature because I have rejected him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel, and he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one. Then Jesse made Shammah pass by, and he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one. And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
And Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these. And Samuel said to Jesse, are all your sons here? And he said, there remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, send and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he comes here. And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
And the Lord said, arise, anoint him for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. David plays the liar for Saul. Now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
And Saul's servants said to him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our Lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the liar. And when the evil spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well. So Saul said to his servants, Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
You also, if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, click on subscribe and then you'll be subscribed and your whole life will change for the better, I think. I mean, I'm not making any promises. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. As I said, today is 109 and we are reading from 1 Samuel chapter 15 and 16 and praying Psalm 61. 1 Samuel 15. Saul defeats the Amalekites, but disobeys.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
One of the young men answered, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the Lord is with him. Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, Send me David your son who is with the sheep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread, and a skin of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son to Saul. And David came to Saul and entered his service, and Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
And whenever the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. Psalm 61, assurance of God's protection to the choir master with stringed instruments, a Psalm of David. Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer. From the end of the earth, I call to you when my heart is faint.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me dwell in your tent forever. Oh, to be safe under the shelter of your wings. For you, oh God, have heard my vows. You have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. Prolong the life of the king. May his years endure to all generations. May he be enthroned forever before God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
Bid steadfast love and faithfulness watch over him. So will I ever sing praises to your name as I pay my vows day after day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and thanks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
And we just give you glory today and just honor you for who you are and all that you've done. We give you thanks not only for calling us to be yours, but also for being so patient with us. Even in our disobedience, Lord, there are consequences to our sins. There's consequences to us saying no. And yet you continue to give us mercy. You continue to restore us. You continue to be with us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
In our weakness, you are strong. In our faithlessness, you are faithful. And so we praise you and we honor you and we love you. Thank you so much. May you be praised and glorified and loved all the more in Jesus' name. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, here we go. We're reading 1 Samuel 15 and 16.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
Again, just like yesterday, so many things that are happening.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
once again we see the achilles heel of saul and you're going to get so sick of me saying this maybe you already are sick of me saying this the achilles heel of saul is that he is inordinately preoccupied with what other people think of him the sin of vanity is not just thinking like oh my gosh i look so great the sin of vanity is not being obsessed with one's appearance necessarily
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
The sin of vanity at its heart is an inordinate preoccupation with what other people think. So yes, we have to be concerned with what other people think. That's actually just being kind. That's being aware of the fact that there are such a thing as other people in this world. And so we should be sensitive to what other people are thinking.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
The sin of vanity is being inordinately preoccupied with what other people think. And here, once again, is King Saul, who goes and fights the Amalekites. And he's told very, very clearly, here's what you need to do. This destruction of everything and destruction of everything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
uh the king the people and all the animals and what does king saul do yep he destroys all the people but then he spares the life of the king which is so strange very interesting why he does this and then next he takes the best of the flocks takes the best of the herds takes the best of the animals and he uses the excuse of saying we're going to sacrifice these to god and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
And this is something so remarkable about this because we've said it before when it came to the book of Leviticus and it comes to some of the other books that instruct how God is to be worshiped. But sometimes we can say, oh, I'm going to give this thing to God where he's actually asked us to do something else with it. What we've done when it comes to worship is we've taken what we want to offer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
And Samuel said to Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint you king over this people Israel. Now, therefore, listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, I will punish what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
We've taken what we want to give. And we make that our gift as opposed to taking what God has asked us to do and simply doing that. In fact, it's one of those things where very consistently, I know this in my life, if it's very clear that God is asking me to do one thing, but that's the thing I don't want to do, I can be willing to do really a bunch of other really difficult things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
So as an example, I don't know, I'm trying to think, but way back to say Lent or something like this, at the beginning of the season of Lent, where we oftentimes, we entered a season of prayer and fasting and almsgiving. If it's very clear that God is saying, okay, here's what I want you to do. I want you to sacrificially give in this area.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
And I really don't want to sacrificially give in that particular area. Maybe that's, you know, my time or my resources and money, that kind of thing. And so what I'll do is a bunch of other really hard things and say, this is all really good too, right? I know God in my heart of hearts, you're asking me to do this one thing, but that's not what I wanna do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
So I'll do a bunch of other hard things, thinking that that makes up for it. And here's maybe something along the lines of what King Saul is doing, what the people of Israel are doing. God has told them, destroy all of the flocks, all the herds, all the animals. And they say, no, no, no, no. What we're going to do is we're going to take those great things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
We'll destroy all the bad stuff, all the stuff that we don't want anyways. We're going to keep the good stuff and then give God some of those things. And you just think, okay, that's why we have this incredible, incredible saying from Samuel. He says, has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams. There's something so, so critical and so key for us to let that into our minds and to our hearts is that one of the principal virtues, one of the principal actions any of us can do is obedience.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
In fact, if you ever have studied any of the religious communities or any of the lives of those men and women who have really conformed their hearts and their wills to the heart and will of God, they will tell you that the heart of holiness is often obedience and not just, I'm going to do this incredible thing. I'm going to do this great thing. I'm going to do this holy thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
Well, the holiest thing in many ways is that heart of obedience. What has God asked me to do? I only do that. What has God told me to not do? I don't do that. You know what I'm saying? It's just so important because here is King Saul, who once again is, I guess, once again loses the kingdom. I don't know if it's once again, but he loses the spirit of God in this and through his disobedience.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
And it ends in catastrophe as we're going to continue to see. Also, this is the scene where David is anointed as king. Just one quick note on King David, or on anointed David, young David who's anointed. Remember God has said to Saul through Samuel, I will choose another who is after my own heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
And when Samuel is sent before Jesse and Jesse's sons, he sees the oldest son, and the oldest son looks a lot like King Saul. He is handsome, just like King Saul. He is tall, like King Saul. He looks like a king, like King Saul looked like a king. And yet God says to Samuel, no, I have passed over him. I've rejected him. Why? Because do not look at his appearance or the height of his stature.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
and utterly destroy all that they have, do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Talim, 200,000 men on foot, 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2025)
The Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. And this is so critically important for all of us. Again, when we assess ourselves, when we present ourselves before the Lord, I can look a certain way on the outside. But what the Lord desires is that heart of obedience. The Lord desires a heart just like his.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
Then we have the death of Isaac and the account of Esau's descendants. Why does God do this? Why does God include this whole chapter on the descendants of Esau since that wasn't exactly the line of blessing? Remember, because Israel got the blessing, so he passes it on to his 12 sons who become the 12 tribes of Israel, right? The kingdom, the nation of Israel. So why do we follow Esau's sons?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
Well, one is because what God is revealing to us in chapter 36 is he's revealing that even though Esau did not receive the blessing, Esau is a son of his father. He is the son of Isaac and he is the grandson of Abraham. And God is going to go out into the world as well and give what? Give Abraham descendants like the stars of the sky because God is faithful to his promises.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
And that's what we're going to be just leaning into today. This truth that God is faithful to his promises. I know that a lot of us are in a place right now, tonight, today, whatever time of day you're listening to God's word proclaimed, where we can question that. We can wonder if God is faithful because of the brokenness around us and the brokenness inside of us. And yet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
Yet, even though there is such brokenness, we recognize that he is faithful. He is steadfast. And that's just the word I want to leave you with today. He is faithful and he is steadfast. I guess that's two words. He is faithful and he is steadfast. And we see that in this small detail of Genesis chapter 36, where God reveals the descendants of Esau.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
thereby fulfilling his promise that he made to Abraham, to Isaac, and now to their descendants. My name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is the Bible in a Year podcast. I just hope that this has been a blessing for you, these first 18 days of our journey together. It's been really remarkable for me. I've really enjoyed it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
Please pray for each other, lift each other up in prayer, because this is a community of people who are going through the Bible and allowing God's word to shape us, to form us, and to make us into new kinds of people who can see the world in a different way because of God's word working in our hearts, in our minds, and in our lives. And so please pray for each other. Pray for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
I am praying for you. You are not alone. We're journeying together through God's word. And his word is journeying through us as we are attentive to him. His word does not return empty, but always accomplishes the mission, the plan, the purpose for which it was sent. I can't wait to join you again tomorrow as we go through this Bible in the Air podcast. So I'll see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there, and make there an altar to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau. So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, that I may make there an altar to the God who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone. So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was near Shechem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were round about them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. And Jacob came to Luz, that is Bethel, which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him, and there they built an altar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
and called the place el bethel because there god had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother and deborah rebekah's nurse died and she was buried under an oak below bethel so that the name of it was called alan God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan Aram and blessed him. And God said to him, Your name is Jacob.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. So his name was called Israel. And God said to him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you and kings shall spring from you. The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your descendants after you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him, and Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel. Then they journeyed from Bethel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
This is day 18, and let's get started. Let's keep on going through Genesis, Job, and Proverbs. Today we'll be reading from Genesis chapter 35 and 36, Job chapter 25 and 26, and Proverbs chapter 3, verses 19 through 24. As always, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
And when they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor. And when she was in her hard labor, the midwife said to her, Fear not, for now you will have another son. And as her soul was departing, for she died, she called out his name, Ben-Oni. But his father called his name Benjamin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
so rachel died and she was buried on the way to ephrath that is bethlehem and jacob set up a pillar upon her grave it is the pillar of rachel's tomb which is there to this day israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of eder While Israel dwelt in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
The sons of Leah, Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin. The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maid, Dan, and Naphtali. The sons of Zilpah, Leah's maid, Gad, and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, in Kiriath Arba, that is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. Now the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty years, and Isaac breathed his last, and he died, and was gathered to his people old and full of days, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. These are the descendants of Esau, that is, Edom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
Esau took his wives from the Canaanites, Adah, the son of Elan the Hittite, Aholamabah, the daughter of Anah, the son of Zibion the Hivite, and Besamath, Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebaoth. And Adah bore to Esau Eliphaz, Basamath bore Reol, and Aholamabah bore Jeush, Jelam, and Korah. These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
So Esau dwelt in the hill country of Seir. Esau is Edom. These are the descendants of Esau, the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir. These are the names of Esau's sons. Eliphaz, the son of Adah, the wife of Esau. Reul, son of Basamath, the wife of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz were Timan, Omar, Zipho, Gatham, and Canaz. Timnah was a concubine of Eliphaz, Esau's son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
She bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These are the sons of Adah, Esau's wife. These are the sons of Reul, Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizah. These are the sons of Basemat, Esau's wife. These are the sons of Aholamabah, the daughter of Anah, the son of Zibion, Esau's wife. She bore to Esau Jeush, Jelam, and Korah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau, the sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn of Esau, the chiefs Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kanaz, Korah, Getam, and Amalek. These are the chiefs of Eliphaz in the land of Edom. They are the sons of Veda. These are the sons of Reuel, Esau's son. The chiefs Nahath, Zerah, Shema, and Mizah. These are the chiefs of Reuel in the land of Edom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
If you want to get your own Bible in a Year reading plan, just go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe in your podcast app and also sign up for updates. Be part of our email list by texting the two words, but connected Catholic Bible, Catholic Bible, that one word, two words combined, no spaces in between to number 33777.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
They are the sons of Basamath, Esau's wife. These are the sons of Holimabah, Esau's wife, the chiefs Jeush, Jelam, and Korah. These are the chiefs born of Holimabah, the daughter of Anah, Esau's wife. These are the sons of Esau, that is Edom, and these are their chiefs. These are the sons of Seir, the Horite, the inhabitants of the land Lotan, Shabal, Zibion, Anah, Dishan, Ezer, and Dishan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
These are the chiefs of the Horites, the sons of Seir in the land of Edom. The sons of Lotan were Horai and Heman. And Lotan's sister was Timnah. These are the sons of Shabal, Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shiffo, and Onam. These are the sons of Zibion, Aiah and Anah. He is the Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness as he pastured the donkeys of Zibion, his father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
These are the children of Anah, Dishan and Holibamah, the daughter of Anah. These are the sons of Dishan, Hamdan, Ashban, Ithran, and Sharon. These are the sons of Ezer, Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan. These are the sons of Dishan, Uz, and Aran. These are the chiefs of the Horites, the chiefs Lotan, Shobal, Zibion, Anah, Dishan, Ezer, and Dishan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
These are their chiefs of the Horites, according to their clans in the land of Seir. These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before any king reigned over the Israelites. Bilah, the son of Beor, reigned in Edom, the name of his city being Dinhabah. Bela died, and Jobab, the son of Zerah of Bozrah, reigned in his stead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
Jobab died, and Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his stead. Husham died, and Hadad, the son of Bedad, who defeated Midian in the country of Moab, reigned in his stead, the name of his city being Avith. Hadad died, and Samlah of Masraqah reigned in his stead. Samlah died, and Shaul of Rehoboth on the Euphrates reigned in his stead.
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Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
Shaul died, and Baal Hanan, the son of Akbor, reigned in his stead. Baal Hanan, the son of Akbor, died, and Hadar reigned in his stead, the name of his city being Pau. His wife's name was Mehetabal, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mehzababah. These are the names of the chiefs of Esau, according to their families and their dwelling places.
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Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
By their names, the chiefs Timnah, Alvah, Jepheth, Oholimabah, Elah, Penan, Kenaz, Timan, Mibzar, Magdiel, and Iram. These are the chiefs of Edom, that is Esau, the father of Edom, according to their dwelling places in the land of their possession. Job chapter 25 and 26. Bildad speaks asking, how can man be righteous? Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, Dominion and fear are with God.
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Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
He makes peace in his high heaven. Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not arise? How then can man be righteous before God? How can he who is born of woman be clean? Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not clean in his sight. How much less man who is a maggot, the son of man who is a worm? Then Job answered, How have you helped him who has no power?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
And you'll get updates and you'll get whatever kind of information you might need to follow along. Today, we are going, as I said, Genesis chapter 35 and 36. We're continuing on with the story of Jacob, now Israel, and his family. And gosh, yeah, how the family is going to unfold. They're going to continue to grow. He's got a number of sons and they are getting older.
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Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
How have you saved the arm that has no strength? How have you counseled him who has no wisdom and plentifully declared sound knowledge? With whose help have you uttered words and whose spirit has come forth from you? The shades below tremble, the waters and their inhabitants. Sheol is naked before God and Abaddon has no covering.
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Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth upon nothing. he binds up the waters in his thick clouds and the cloud is not torn under them he covers the face of the moon and spreads over it his cloud he has described a circle upon the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness the pillars of heaven tremble and are astounded at his rebuke
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Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
By his power, he stilled the sea. By his understanding, he struck Rahab. By his wind, the heavens were made fair. His hand pierced the fleeing serpent. Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. And how small a whisper do we hear of him. But the thunder of his power, who can understand? Proverbs chapter three, verses 19 through 24. The Lord by wisdom founded the earth.
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Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the deeps broke forth and the clouds dropped down the dew. My son, keep sound wisdom and discretion. Let them not escape from your sight and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck. Then you will walk on your way securely and your foot will not stumble. If you sit down, you will not be afraid.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Father in heaven, we give you praise. We give you thanks for your word and we ask that you please send us your Holy Spirit so that your word remains powerful and effective in our lives, that your word penetrates not just our minds and our hearts, but penetrates our very lives and shapes the way in which we respond to your word.
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Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. So the heart of Jacob, the heart of Israel, I mean, as he buries his wife, Rachel, we recognize that while Israel's slash Jacob's life had been marked by deception, had been marked by manipulation and cunning, and also been marked by brokenness, right? We have these three, sorry, these four women from whom came Jacob's 12 sons,
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Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
we still have this birth of a new thing that God is doing, this new thing that God is continuing to do, where God once again promises to Israel, formerly Jacob, what he had promised to his father and his grandfather, that he would, through him, make of him a great generation. a great kingdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
And that's one of the things that we get to see throughout the book of Genesis and the book of Exodus coming up and Judges and all the books in the Old Testament is how often, it's a theme that I keep pointing back to, but how often God allows, no, how often God accomplishes his will in spite of our brokenness. Sometimes I think that I expect the Bible to be a hallmark story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
The hallmark story is very, very clear. It's very predictable. It's very clean. And it starts out with maybe a little bit of some conflict, but then that conflict gets resolved and everything is kind of happily ever after. And we recognize that actual grace doesn't work that way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
and things are getting complicated. Things are always complicated. Man, yesterday, what did his sons do? His sons took vengeance upon the family of Shechem, Hamor, that whole entire family after they had agreed to make a covenant with them because Shechem had raped their sister. And so the family continues to grow. This is Genesis chapter 35 and 36.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
That God's working in a person's life, in a people's life, in a family's life, in a kingdom, in our lives, never works that way. There are times when God manifests himself in his power, times when God manifests himself miraculously, but there are many more times when God allows us to choose.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
Although he wants us to choose good, he wants us to choose grace, he wants us to choose the best thing, he allows us to choose brokenness. He allows us to act in a way that he would not, that he actually condemns. And yet he still works with it. Because as we know, everything that we surrender to God can be used. There's nothing that God can't use when we give it to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 18: The Heart of Israel (2025)
And so here is Israel burying his beloved wife, Rachel, with his 12 sons now. um these 12 sons that we're going to find out more about their story in the next couple chapters next couple days leading on because we already noticed that yep joseph's born so is benjamin which is going to be interesting because um by this point in the story i think joseph and benjamin might not know each other yet
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Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And he is active when it comes to temple worship, even wearing an ephod. David is not a priest. If he is, he is what I've heard people describe as he is like a priest in the line of Melchizedek, which is a whole other thing, which is pretty phenomenal. Jesus, according to the letter to the Hebrews, is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek because Jesus also was not of the tribe of Levi.
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Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And so there's a way in which David not only foreshadows Jesus is being a king, the royal nature of Christ's role on earth, but also foreshadows in some ways a priesthood of Melchizedek. And so if you're ever wondering about that, like, wait a second, it seems like David, he's always going before the Lord, dressed like a priest. Is he a priest too? He's not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And we're actually going to see a number of times we saw Saul who offered a sacrifice. He shouldn't have offered a sacrifice. We're going to see in kings, other kings who offered sacrifices and were killed because of that. So it's not something someone takes upon themselves. It is given to them because they're of the family of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi.
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Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Just FYI, in case you're interested at all in that, it's good to note. Now, going back to 2 Samuel chapter 19, this is a really big moment because there's a couple of things that happen that show, again, David's brokenness, David's weakness, and David's goodness. The first is, here is David who is mourning and grieving over his son Absalom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Now he's doing this and yesterday we noted it and how powerful it was. And in some ways you can even say how tragically beautiful it is, this love of a father for his son, would that I had died instead of you. Okay. But what happened was because of this, David brought shame upon all the people who fought for him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Remember there are 20,000 people had died that day in order to preserve David's kingdom, in order to preserve the fight against the civil war that was happening as everyone was going, as many people were going after Absalom. 20,000 men had died fighting for David's throne. And now here's David who's saying, would that I had died instead of Absalom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And so what it describes, it says, they heard that the king is grieved for his son. So the people stole back into the city as people who are ashamed, who ran away from battle, steal back when they flee in battle. And so what does Joab do? Joab is, man, he has to speak truth to power here, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Joab has to come before the king and say, today you've disgraced your people who put their lives on the line for you. People who have given up everything, even their very life for you. You've disgraced them by acting like this. He says, we even think that maybe you wish we had all died and Absalom was alive. But you have other sons, you have other daughters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Absalom would have killed them if we had not fought. And so he kind of knocks some sense into David because this is the thing. So, so often, man, so often we can find ourselves in a position just like this. We can find ourselves in a position where what we've lost, what we've lost overshadows what we have.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Then Joab came into the house of the king and said, You have today covered with shame the faces of all your servants who have this day saved your life and the lives of your sons and your daughters and the lives of your wives and your concubines, because you love those who hate you and hate those who love you. For you have made it clear today that commanders and servants are nothing to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
or the sadness of losing someone in our lives can overshadow the fact that there are still people in our lives who love us, who need to be loved by us, that are still there and that we have to, we can grieve. Of course we do. We can mourn. Of course we do. But at some point, we've got to acknowledge that there are people still here. There's people still among us that need to be loved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And we're the only ones who can do it. And so David had to get some sense knocked into him in order to get out of that funk. Now, obviously, this is a big moment. One of his sons was killed in battle. But this is the same son who was trying to kill him and trying to kill the rest of his family. And so, again, Joab. Does a good word. He does a good deed by knocking some sense into David in this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Later on, you have David forgiving Shimei. Remember the man who cursed David and threw rocks at him as David was fleeing Jerusalem. He comes back to David and apologizes. But there's this really interesting moment where David basically says... the people of Judah, right, his tribe, David's from the tribe of Judah, they reestablish him as the king in Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And the other tribes in Israel, the other 10 tribes in Israel, they said, why didn't we get to be part of this? Well, you know, a lot of them had gone and followed after Absalom. And since they weren't really necessarily immediately welcomed back. They weren't necessarily immediately brought into the fold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
You can see the beginnings of the seeds of rebellion that's going to happen after the death of King Solomon. You can see that already those 12 tribes united in one kingdom and still experienced some division. I mean, obviously experienced some division because they just fought a civil war with number of them going after Absalom and the others going after David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
But this is the reestablishment of David's kingdom. And what you have is again, some cracks that are happening already yet. And yet, David says very clearly in 2 Samuel 19 that he ultimately wants the kingdom, the tribes of Israel, to receive him back wholeheartedly, right? He's not going to assert himself as king until they affirm him as king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 137. Gosh, think about that. Day 137. You have been so faithful. Oh my gosh. Even if you haven't gotten every day perfect, maybe you have. But here you are. Nevertheless, you have made it all the way to day 137.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And that's what happens in 2 Samuel we just heard today. Just a little recap. As we move forward, one of the things we're going to keep on doing is we're going to keep on noting where David acts wisely and where David acts foolishly, where David acts bravely and where David acts with cravenness, right? With some cowardice, because that's the truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And the truth is we can often see in some of these characters that ourselves, we can see that there's no human being that is fully good and no human being that is fully evil, but we are a mix. Even our heroes are a mix of good and bad and dark and light. And so it is what one of the reminders that we all need God's grace, every one of us needing God's grace. And so we pray for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
For today I perceive that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased. Now therefore arise, go out and speak kindly to your servants. For I swear by the Lord, if you do not go, not a man will stay with you this night. and this will be worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Then the king arose and took his seat in the gate. And the people were all told, Behold, the king is sitting in the gate. And all the people came before the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Now Israel had fled every man to his own home, and all the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies and saved us from the hand of the Philistines, and now he has fled out of the land from Absalom. But Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now, therefore, why do you say nothing about bringing the king back?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
David is recalled. And King David sent this message to Zadok and Beathar the priests. Say to the elders of Judah, Why should you be the last to bring the king back to his house, when the word of all Israel has come to the king? You are my kinsmen, you are my bone and my flesh. Why then should you be the last to bring back the king? And say to Amasa, Are you not my bone and my flesh?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
God do so to me, and more also, if you are not commander of my army henceforth in the place of Joab. And he swayed the heart of all the men of Judah as one man, so that they sent word to the king, Return, both you and all your servants. So the king came back to the Jordan, and Judah came to Gilgal to meet the king, and to bring the king over the Jordan. Shimei meets David and is forgiven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And Shimei, the son of Gerah, the Benjaminite, from Bahurim, made haste to come down with the men of Judah to meet King David. And with him were a thousand men from Benjamin. And Ziba, the servant of the house of Saul, with his fifteen sons and his twenty servants, rushed down to the Jordan before the king, and they crossed the ford to bring over the king's household and to do his pleasure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And Shimei the son of Gerah fell down before the king as he was about to cross the Jordan and said to the king, Let not my lord hold me guilty or remember how your servant did wrong on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. Let not the king bear it in mind, for your servant knows that I have sinned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Therefore, behold, I have come this day, the first of all the house of Joseph, to come down to meet my lord the king. Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered, Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the Lord's anointed? But David said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zariah, that you should this day be as an adversary to me? Shall anyone be put to death in Israel this day?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
For do I not know that I am this day king over Israel? And the king said to Shimei, You shall not die. And the king gave him his oath. David and Mephibosheth meet. And Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, came down to meet the king. He had neither dressed his feet nor trimmed his beard nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he came back in safety.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And when he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth? He answered, My lord, O king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said to him, Settle a donkey for me, that I may ride upon it and go with the king, for your servant is lame. He has slandered your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is like the angel of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Do therefore what seems good to you. For all my father's house were but men doomed to death before my lord the king. But you set your servant among those who eat at your table. What further right have I then to cry to the king? And the king said to him, Why speak any more of your affairs? I have decided, you and Ziba shall divide the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And Mephibosheth said to the king, O let him take it all, since my lord the king has come safely home. David blesses Barzillai. Now Barzillai, the Gileadite, had come down from Ogilim, and he went on with the king to the Jordan to escort him over the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
We are reading 2 Samuel chapter 19, 1 Chronicles 24, and we're praying Psalm 38 as always. The translation of the Bible that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. I know some of you have been able to follow along, and you might listen as you're driving in your car.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Barzillai was a very aged man, 80 years old, and he had provided the king with food while he stayed at Mahanaim, for he was a very wealthy man. And the king said to Barzillai, But Barzillai said to the king, How many years have I still to live that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am this day 80 years old. Can I discern what is pleasant and what is not?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Can your servant taste what he eats or what he drinks? Can I still listen to the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king? Your servant will go a little way over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king recompense me with such a reward?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Please let your servant return that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother. But here is your servant Chimham. Let him go over with my lord the king and do for him whatever seems good to you. And the king answered, Chimham shall go over with me and I will do for him whatever seems good to you. and all that you desire of me I will do for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Then all the people went over the Jordan, and the king went over, and the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and he returned to his own home. The king went on to Gilgal, and Shemham went on with him. All the people of Judah, and also half the sons of Israel, brought the king on his way. Dissension between Israel and Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Then all the men of Israel came to the king and said to the king, why have our brethren, the men of Judah stolen you away and brought the king and his household over the Jordan and all David's men with him? All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel because the king is near of kin to us. Why then are you angry over this matter?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Have we eaten at all at the king's expense, or has he given us any gift? And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, We have ten shares in the king, and in David also we have more than you. Why then did you despise us? Were we not the first to speak of bringing back our king?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
The divisions of the sons of Aaron. The divisions of the sons of Aaron were these. The sons of Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. But Nadab and Abihu died before their father and had no children, so Eleazar and Ithamar became the priests.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
With the help of Zadok of the sons of Eleazar and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, David organized them according to the appointed duties in their service. Since more chief men were found among the sons of Eleazar than among the sons of Ithamar, they organized them under the 16 heads of father's houses of the sons of Eleazar and eight of the sons of Ithamar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
You might listen as you're out for a walk. But some people just really love to sit down and have the words in front of them as well as the words in their ears. And so that's it. What an incredible opportunity and gift to be able to do that. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
They organized them by lot all alike, for there were officers of the sanctuary and officers of God among both the sons of Eleazar and the sons of Ithamar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And the scribe Shemaiah, the son of Nethanel, a Levite, recorded them in the presence of the king and the princes, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the heads of the fathers' houses of the priests and of the Levites, one father's house being chosen for Eleazar and one chosen for Ithamar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
The first lot fell to Jehoiarib, the second to Jediah, the third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim, the fifth to Malkijah, the sixth to Mishamin, the seventh to Hakoz, the eighth to Abijah, the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shekiniah, the eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jechim, the thirteenth to Huppah,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
the 14th to Jeshebiab, the 15th to Bilgah, the 16th to Emer, the 17th to Hazir, the 18th to Hebezez, the 19th to Pethahiah, the 20th to Jehezkel, the 21st to Jakin, the 22nd to Gamul, the 23rd to Deliah, the 24th to Maaziah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
These had, as their appointed duty in the service, to come into the house of the Lord according to the procedure established for them by Aaron their father, as the Lord God of Israel had commanded them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
other Levites, and of the rest of the sons of Levi, of the sons of Amram, Shubael, of the sons of Shubael, Jediah, of Rehobiah, of the sons of Rehobiah, Ishaiah, the chief, of the Izharites, Shalemoth, of the sons of Shalemoth, Jehath, Of the sons of Hebron, Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jehaziel the third, Jechamiam the fourth. The sons of Uziel, Micah. Of the sons of Micah, Shamir.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
The brother of Micah, Ishaiah. Of the sons of Ishaiah, Zechariah. The sons of Merari, Mali and Mushi. The sons of Jaaziah, Bino. The sons of Merari, of Jaaziah, Bino, Shocham, Zakur, and Ibri. Of Mali, Eleazar, who had no sons. Of Kish, the sons of Kish. Jeramil. The sons of Mushi, Mali, Edar, and Jeramoth. These were the sons of the Levites according to their father's houses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
These also, the head of each father's house and his younger brother alike, cast lots, just as their brethren, the sons of Aaron, in the presence of King David, Zadok, Ahimelech, and the heads of the father's houses of the priests and of the Levites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, you can by simply clicking subscribe and you'll be subscribed and we'll move on. Anyways, speaking of moving on, as I said, we are reading from 2 Samuel chapter 19, 1 Chronicles 24, and we are praying Psalm 38. 2 Samuel 19, David mourns for Absalom. It was told Joab, behold, the king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
A Psalm of David for the memorial offering. Oh Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor chasten me in your wrath. For your arrows have sunk into me and your hand has come down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation. There is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head. They weigh like a burden too heavy for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
My wounds grow foul and fester because of my foolishness. I am utterly bowed down and prostrate. All the day I go about mourning. For my loins are filled with burning and there is no soundness in my flesh. I'm utterly spent and crushed. I've grown because of the tumult of my heart. Lord, all my longing is known to you. My sighing is not hidden from you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
My heart throbs, my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me. My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my kinsmen stand afar off. Those who seek my life lay their snares, those who seek my hurt speak of ruin, and meditate treachery all the day long. But I am like a deaf man, I do not hear, like a mute man who does not open his mouth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Yes, I am like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth are no rebukes. But for you, O Lord, do I wait. It is you, O Lord my God, who will answer. For I pray, only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my foot slips. For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me. I confess my iniquity, I am sorry for my sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Those who are my foes without cause are mighty, and many are those who hate me wrongfully. Those who render me evil for good are my adversaries because I follow after good. Do not forsake me, O Lord. O my God, be not far from me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
Your mercies are new every morning and you speak to us with your fresh voice, your eternal voice, your voice that is the same yesterday, today, and forever because your word, Lord God, your word, Jesus Christ, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And so we thank you and we give you praise today. Thank you for speaking to us words of knowledge, words of wisdom, words that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
even capture the penitence of our hearts, the sorrow of our hearts when we experience opposition, when we experience even internal failure. You give us in the Psalm 38 today, Lord God, you give us words of repentance, words that voice confidence in you when we need you the most and when we deserve you the least. And that's when you give us your love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
That's when you give us your mercy, when we need it the most and deserve it the least. And so we give you praise and thank you. In Jesus' name, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Gosh, okay, here we go. Just two quick things as we kind of wrap up this day, day 137. One thing about Chronicles, remember that Chronicles started out with all of those names.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
We wanted to highlight the genealogy. The chronicler wanted to highlight the genealogy of not only the people of Israel, but specifically the people who are following in the line of David, right, of the tribe of Judah, because that's where the Messiah is going to come from. Now, we also are getting a bunch of names connected to the priesthood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
So we have the tribe of Levi, because remember, the chronicler wants to remind the people of Israel, okay, yes, we have fallen on hard times, but God promised that there would be a kingdom that lasts forever. And God promised there'd be worship. that would give him glory for all time, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
So he's really following the line of Judah and the line of Levi, and that's gonna be a really important thing to keep in mind. Now, one thing, yesterday, I think it was yesterday, we read about all of the new roles of the families in the tribe of Levi, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
So we have Aaron, who's the priest, but then we have the other three sons of the tribe of Levi that had duties in the temple that weren't duties of priests. I don't know if you noticed this before, but David is a couple number of times described as having an ephod. That he would put on an ephod and then go pray. He'd put on an ephod and go before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people, for the people heard that day, the king is grieving for his son. And the people stole into the city that day as people steal in who are ashamed when they flee in battle. The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And one of the things we can think is, wait, is David a priest? Now we know very, very clearly. that David is from the tribe of Judah. And we also know very, very clearly that you can only be a priest if you're from the tribe of Levi and actually of the family of Aaron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 137: David Mourns Absalom (2025)
And so when David puts on an ephod, he's wearing the clothes of a priest and he's even seems to participate in a certain way in the actions of the priest. But it is important to note that while David participates in worship, David participates by even writing a bunch of songs, aka the Psalms that are used in worship. While he participates in this,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Hey everyone, before we get started today, I want to let you know the Bible in a Year has brought the Word of God to so many people. As you know, you're part of this community, changing lives in so many incredible ways. We're humbled to play this role in God's plan and consider it our ongoing mission to keep bringing the Word of God to as many people as possible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Thank you for your Son. Thank you for the gift of your Spirit that you promised by your Son to the apostles and to your church, to us. We ask that you please, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, please send your Holy Spirit upon us now, this day. We pray for you, Lord. We pray for your Spirit to come upon us, and we pray for your name to be known upon this earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
We pray for your will to be done in our lives and in this, your world. May your kingdom come, Father. May your kingdom come in our day, in this moment. May your kingdom come now and forever. In Jesus' name we pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay. Gosh. Oh, man. What a gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
I mean, we just went through four Gospels, right, over the course of this last 300 plus days. This is... Here we are on the final gospel before we launch into the Acts of the Apostles and Romans tomorrow, the greatest letter of St. Paul, maybe one of the greatest works in the New Testament. But here we are at the end of Luke's gospel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
at the end of Christ's life, and we have had this up close and personal experience of walking with Jesus, whose ministry, I mean, we got to hear about his infancy narrative, announcement of his birth by Gabriel to Mary, John the Baptist and Elizabeth and Zechariah, that whole story here in Luke's gospel. Christmas and all of this whole teaching of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And now today we picked up again in the middle of chapter 22. And one of the things we begin with is Jesus praying in the Mount of Olives. Luke reveals Jesus praying so often. It's one of the things that he reveals Jesus doing. I don't want to say more than anything else or more than anyone else, but it is very, very clear. that Luke is revealing a Jesus who prays regularly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily updates and daily episodes. That's all I got for you today. It's day 321. We're reading Luke chapter 22, verse 39 through chapter 24, verse 50 and Proverbs chapter 26, verses 20 through 23.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And this is fascinating to me because why do we pray? Maybe we've talked about this before, but I think a lot of us, we pray because we want an answer. We pray because we want strength. We pray because we want something. We pray because it's either God is Google or God is the ATM, right? We go to get stuff from him. He's Santa Claus kind of a situation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
But those are not reasons why Jesus would pray, because Jesus wouldn't need those things from the Father. What he would pray for is he'd pray to be close to the Father, right? He would pray because he wanted to be near the Father, because he wanted to have communion with the Father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And that's one of the great reasons for us to pray, not just to ask God for stuff and not just to get answers or direction, although those are things we need, definitely, but to be close to the Father in heaven. And that's my invitation. Here we are, you know, on day 321. And as we get closer and closer to the last day of the Bible in a year, keep in mind that you can have a plan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
That plan being maybe I would start day one again. Maybe it's something else. But the idea is the plan is I'm going to keep praying because here is Jesus at the end of his life. Here's Jesus in the middle of his life. Here's Jesus at all times. And what is he doing? He is always praying. He's always going back to his Father. And here you are as a Christian. You know this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
As a Christian, you have access. You have access to the Father's heart at all times, in all places. And so the question is so often, like, why don't we... Take advantage of that access. Why don't we actually capitalize on the opportunity we have to come closer to the Father? And so, again, we have a few days left.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And depending on what your pace is like, if your pace is you're doing every single day right in a row, sometimes your pace is you do, you know, three episodes every two weeks, whatever that, whatever your pace is, just to know that you're on the right pace. What's your plan for prayer? Because it's so clear that Jesus is a prayer and he is God himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Here we are, who are very not God, very far from God, but he wants us to be close. And Jesus' prayer today in chapter 22 is what it's, I love this because I highlight this all of the time. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus' prayer is honest and it's trusting. He's honest. He tells God exactly, tells the Father, reveals to the Father exactly where he's at.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
He says, Father, if you are willing, remove this chalice from me. That's the honest part. I don't want to do this. But the trusting part is nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Even though his sweat became like great drops of blood falling upon the ground. Oh gosh. Another highlight that we can point to is the fact that here's Jesus when he's on the cross. What does he say?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
He says these three words in Luke's gospel. Now, total of, I think he has seven words from the cross over the course of all the gospels. But the three words he has in Luke's gospel are, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. It's words of mercy. Another word is, truly, I say to you, today you'll be with me in paradise. A word of hope and a promise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And then he says, lastly, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. This entrustment, this gift of faith. And from the cross, we have these three words of faith and hope and love, right? This word of love, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. What is mercy? Mercy is the love we don't deserve. That's God's word here, Jesus' word on the cross.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And then, truly I say to you, today you'll be with me in paradise, this word of hope. And then lastly, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit, this incredible word of trust, this word of faith where Jesus trusts his Father. And that's us too. And in all of our days, we can have our prayers be words of faith and hope and love. Last thing, we have a unique story in this gospel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
The Gospel according to Luke, chapter 22, verse 39. Jesus prays on the Mount of Olives. And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives. And the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, Pray that you may not enter into temptation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
It's the story of the road to Emmaus. And the two people on the road to Emmaus, Cleopas, and it says his companion, and we don't get the name of his companion. I like to think it's Mrs. Cleopas. We know that someone who traveled along with Jesus and was one of the disciples was Mary, the wife of Cleopas. And so I assume maybe this is the same Cleopas.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And so maybe it's Cleopas and Mary, the wife of Cleopas, who are walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. I've heard many people make this claim because... There's a sense of this being the undoing of Genesis chapter 2 and 3, where you have the husband and wife in Genesis 2 and 3 who have this fall, right? And they eat the fruit of the tree that leads them to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
But here in Luke chapter 24, you have this husband and wife that eat what? They eat the fruit of the tree of life that leads them to eternal life, the Eucharist. Now, there's something really remarkable about this. I don't know if you know anything about Christmas trees, but they have bulbs, right? And the bulbs are what colors? They're typically green and red.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Now, this might be a stretch, but I believe this is accurate. that they'd have Christmas trees that would have bulbs of green and red on them. And they'd also would have little wafers. You'd make little sugar cookies and you put a hole in them and you hang those up on the tree as well. And what would that represent? That would represent that here's the tree that would have the fruit on it, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
So apples, right? Apples are red and green. And so the green and red bulbs would be representative of the green and red apples of, say, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But then these sugar cookies that were circular hanging from the tree will be an image of the host, like the Eucharist.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And the idea behind this is that here from the original tree in the Old Testament, in Genesis chapter three, you have this fruit of this tree that brings death to the world. But then from this tree, the tree of the cross, we get what? We get the Eucharist, which is the fruit that gives life to the whole world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And so that's an incredible thing, I think, just to reflect on and realize that when we put these green and red bulbs on trees, okay, that's what represents the tree of life or the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But when we have the sugar cookies that are circular, that are placed on the tree, that represents the Eucharist, the fruit of the new tree from the cross. That's the new tree.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
That's the new tree of life. The crucifix is the new tree of life. And the fruit of the crucifix is what? Is the body and blood of Jesus. the Eucharist. And that's what Cleopas and Mrs. Cleopas see, that sense of being able to say that their eyes were prevented from seeing Jesus, from recognizing Jesus, I mean, until what?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Until the breaking of the bread, which is code in early church for the Eucharist, which is code for Holy Communion. So what caused their blindness and their death in the Old Testament, Adam and Eve eating from the fruit of that tree, Here for Mary, wife of Cleopas and Cleopas, that husband and wife eating from the fruit of the tree of life, the cross, the Eucharist, their eyes are opened.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, Father, if you are willing, remove this chalice from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And not only just like Adam and Eve, their eyes are open and they realize their shame, their sin. Mary, wife of Cleopas and Cleopas, their eyes are opened and they recognize Jesus. Does that make sense? So it's kind of an ancient tradition in the church, but it's a small tea tradition that would be kind of the connection here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
The last thing I want to say is, it's incredible that he opens up the scriptures to them, not only to Cleopas and his companion, but also to the apostles at the end of this chapter. Why? Because he says in Moses and all the prophets and all the Psalms, all the places that talked about him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And here you are, having gone through every single word you've read, other than Proverbs, because we're still on that slow drip on that one right now. But all of those prophets, all of those books of Moses, everything in the Old Testament you have already read. Imagine Jesus opening up your mind to understand every single piece in the Old Testament that referred to him. You know those stories.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And that's one of the reasons why maybe it's a really good idea. to have that plan. Maybe I'll go back. Maybe I'll go back and re-listen. Maybe I'll go back and read through. Maybe I'll go back because it's a never-ending. The scriptures here are a never-ending source of joy, of knowledge, of wisdom, and of faith, hope, and love. You guys, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
So what I'm saying is the end of this year is not going to be the end of Bible in a Year. So far, Ascension has been able to add the podcast to YouTube. You might have found it that way. Maybe you're watching right now on YouTube. And also, we're working on translating it into different languages so you could have the Bible in a year in other languages than English.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. And he said to them, Why do you sleep? Rise, and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
He drew near to Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus said to him, Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? And when those who were about him saw what would follow, they said, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, No more of this. And he touched his ear and healed him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Then Jesus said to the chief priests and captains of the temple and elders who had come out against him, Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour and the power of darkness. Peter denies Jesus. Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Peter followed at a distance, and when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. Then a maid, seeing him as he sat in the light and gazing at him, said, This man also was with him. But he denied it, saying, Woman, I do not know him. And a little later, someone else saw him and said, You also are one of them. But Peter said, Man, I am not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted, saying, Certainly this man also was with him, for he is a Galilean. But Peter said, Man, I do not know what you are saying. And immediately, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times. And he went out and wept bitterly. The mocking and beating of Jesus. Now the men who were holding Jesus mocked him and beat him. They also blindfolded him and asked him, Prophesy, who is it that struck you? And they spoke many other words against him, reviling him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Jesus before the council. When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes, and they led him away to their council. And they said, If you are the Christ, tell us. But he said to them, If I tell you, you will not believe. And if I ask you, you will not answer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
But from now on, the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God. And they all said, Are you the Son of God then? And he said to them, You say that I am. And they said, What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips. Chapter 23, Jesus before Pilate. Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this man perverting our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ a king. And Pilate asked him, Are you the king of the Jews? And he answered him, You have said so. And Pilate said to the chief priests and the multitudes, I find no crime in this man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
But of course, this takes a significant investment to bring projects like these, you know, free of cost to our listening communities. And we want to keep them free of cost to all those people who participate because we want to get the Word of God out there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
But they were urgent, saying, He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place. Jesus before Herod. When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. And Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Then clothing him in gorgeous apparel, he sent him back to Pilate. And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other. Jesus sentenced to death. Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people and said to them, You brought me this man as one who was perverting the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Behold, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore chastise him and release him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
But they all cried out together, Away with this man and release to us Barabbas, a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, but they shouted out, Crucify, crucify him. A third time he said to them, Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no crime deserving death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And because of that, we have to rely on generous contributions from listeners like you to help defray these costs and to enable us to continually provide new audiences with this life-changing content. So if you would like to help support the Bible in a Year mission, you can go to ascensionpress.com support. That's ascensionpress.com support.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
I will therefore chastise him and release him. but they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified, and their voices prevailed. So Pilate gave sentence that their demand should be granted. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, whom they asked for. But Jesus, he delivered up to their will.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
the crucifixion of jesus and as they led him away they seized one simon of cyrene who was coming in from the country and laid on him the cross to carry it behind jesus and there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who bewailed and lamented him But Jesus, turning to them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
For behold, the days are coming when they will say, Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? Two others also who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And when they came to the place which is called the skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by watching. But the rulers scoffed at him, saying, He saved others.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one. The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him vinegar and saying, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription over him. This is the king of the Jews. One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingly power. And he said to him, Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. the death of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, Certainly this man was innocent. And all the multitudes who assembled to see the sight when they saw what had taken place returned home beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance and saw these things. The Burial of Jesus
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Now there was a man named Joseph from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man who had not consented to their purpose and deed, and he was looking for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever yet been laid.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
It was the day of preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Chapter 24 The Resurrection of Jesus But on the first day of the week at early dawn they went to the tomb taking the spices which they had prepared and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise. And they remembered his words.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told this to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale and they did not believe them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
But Peter rose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves and he went home wondering at what had happened. The Walk to Emmaus That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem and talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, What is this conversation which you are holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still, looking sad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? And he said to them, what things?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who is a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since this happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 321. We're reading the last few words of Luke's gospel, but do not fret because... The Acts of the Apostles is also the extension of Luke's gospel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
They were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body. And they came back saying that they'd even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And he said to them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
He appeared to be going further, but they constrained him, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent. So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished out of their sight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
They said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, who said, The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. Jesus appears to his disciples. As they were saying this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace to you. But they were startled and frightened and supposed that they saw a spirit. And he said to them, Why are you troubled? And why do questionings rise in your hearts?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and wondered, he said to them, Have you anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Then he said to them, These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. The book of Proverbs, chapter 26, verses 20 through 23. For lack of wood, the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases. As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
Basically, we're reading Luke chapter 22, verses 39 through chapter 24, verse 50, the end of Luke's gospel. We're also reading Proverbs chapter 26, verses 20 through 23. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 321: Jesus' Prayer in the Garden (2024)
The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels that go down into the inner parts of the body. Like the glaze covering an earthen vessel are smooth lips with an evil heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
and they stood before moses and before eleazar the priest and before the leaders and all the congregation at the door of the tent of meeting saying our father died in the wilderness he was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the lord in the company of korah but died for his own sin and he had no sons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
For want of all things, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns, if you are not careful to do all the words of this law which are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sickness grievous and lasting."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
and he will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of, and they shall cling to you. Every sickness also, and every affliction, which is not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will bring upon you until you are destroyed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Whereas you were as the stars of heaven for multitude, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God. And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and in multiplying you, so the Lord will delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land which you are entering to take possession of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. And among these nations you shall find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot, but the Lord will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life. In the morning you shall say, Would it were evening? And at evening you shall say, Would it were morning? Because of the dread which your heart shall fear and the sights which your eyes shall see.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
And the Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey which I promised that you should never make again. And there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. His descendants will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house and his righteousness endures forever. Light rises in the darkness for the upright. The Lord is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of evil tidings. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid until he sees his desire on his adversaries. He has distributed freely. He has given to the poor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Why should the name of our father be taken away from his family because he had no son? Give to us a possession among our father's brethren. Moses brought the case before the Lord, and the Lord said to Moses, the daughters of Zelophehad are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren and cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
His righteousness endures forever. His horn is exalted in honor. The wicked man sees it and is angry. He gnashes his teeth and melts away. The desire of the wicked man comes to naught. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. Thank you so much for your word. We thank you for filling us with your light and with your truth. We thank you for the fact that you're a God of justice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Lord God, we declare your justice to be just and we declare your goodness to be good. Not because you need us or our declaration, but because we need to continue to declare that your justice is right and just and that your goodness is truly good. Help us to choose the right, Lord God. Help us to obey your commandments.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So once again, just to remind us all about this, Numbers, the book of Numbers is the narrative book. And so that's the book that's telling us the story of the people in Israel as they're getting closer and closer to the end of their wilderness wanderings. Now, the book of Deuteronomy, right, is Moses' last speech.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Deutero, second. Nomos, word. So the second command, second word. This is Moses in Deuteronomy who's recapping what has come before and is establishing once again, here are the rules. Here's the second law that we're offering a second time or the law we're offering a second time before you go into the land of promised land of Canaan, the promised land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
So what we're finding though, here we are in chapter 27 and 28 of Numbers is we're coming really close to to the beginning of Deuteronomy. And we're coming right up to like our timelines are coming closer and closer. So as they get to the end of their desert wanderings, chapter 27 has a couple things we need to resolve. One is, remember Manasseh. Manasseh was one of the two sons of Joseph.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
So Joseph had the two sons who were both gonna receive an inheritance of the tribes of Israel. So it's the kind of a very unique situation where it wasn't just Joseph, it was his two sons, that make up the tribes of Israel, make up the 12. And the sons of Manasseh was Machir. The son of Machir is Gilead. And the son of Gilead is Hefer. And the son of Hefer is Zelophehad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Well, Zelophehad doesn't have any sons. Zelophehad has only daughters. And so the big question is, Well, you pass on inheritance, you pass on the land to the sons. What if there are no sons, but only daughters? And it's so good here because what we have is Moses being glad that the daughters of Zelophehad came before him. Because he's like, we want to be just here. We want to do the right thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
We want to honor the Lord, also honor these families and honor all these people. And so the conclusion is that that if a man dies, he has no sons, then the land goes to his daughters. Now, what's going to happen is the very end of the book of Numbers, chapter 36 in the book of Numbers, it's going to talk about kind of some of those rules when it comes to female inheritance and male inheritance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
One of the reasons why this is going to be kind of important is because of the way they set things up in the ancient world. So typically the inheritance would go to the sons because the dowry would go to the daughters. So the land would go to the sons, keep that land in the family,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
And you shall say to the sons of Israel, if a man dies and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter. And if he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. And if he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 74. And we are reading today from Numbers chapter 27 and 28, Deuteronomy chapter 28, a long chapter, and we are praying from Psalm 112.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
But the dowry like property or property goods, you know, essentially whether it be flocks or whether it be actual money would go to the daughters. And that would be one way to keep the lands separated. Because what if here's a woman who has not only the dowry, but also she has the land. And she marries a man who now that other family now has land from multiple families.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
So it gets a little bit messy. What they're trying to be here is they're trying to be as just as possible. And in this case, in Numbers chapter 27, the response, the justice would be, yeah, if a man dies with no sons, his daughters shall receive the inheritance. And if they're not there, then goes the next person, next person, next person. in as wise as possible in that particular context.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
After that, in chapter 27, we also have Joshua appointed as Moses's successor. Joshua is the one, right? He and Caleb were two of the spies who went into the promised land, who came back and said, we can do it. We can take this land. The Lord God is with us. And the other 10 said, no, we can't. So now what's going to happen is Joshua
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
is going to be the one who leads the people of Israel across the Jordan River and into battle in the promised land. And so he stands before the entire community and Moses lays his hands on him. It's almost like an ordination right, essentially, where Moses is bestowing that gift, that authority upon his successor, Joshua.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
and it's going to be incredible because not only does joshua lead the people into the promised land but yahshua or the word yeshua right is is another form of the name jesus yeshua who leads the people of god through the rivers of the jordan right through baptism into the promised land so just like ancient joshua is the one who leads the people of god into the promised land
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
The New Testament, Yeshua, Jesus himself, is the fulfillment not only of Moses, not only of David. He's the fulfillment of Joshua. And he leads his people through the waters of baptism into the promised land. It's just really remarkable and really incredible when you realize all these different connections between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
There are so many more things to say about today's readings, the blessings and the curses of Deuteronomy chapter 28. And yet we can talk about those as we move forward in scripture. So keep those things in mind. The Lord promises goodness, even if we don't experience immediate blessings as a consequence of doing good, and we don't experience immediate curses as part of doing evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his kinsman that is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it. And it shall be for the sons of Israel a statute and ordinance, as the Lord commanded Moses. Joshua appointed Moses' successor. The Lord said to Moses, Go up into this mountain of Abirim and see the land which I have given to the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
And yet God is just, he is faithful. And ultimately, we get what we choose, which is going to be one of the lessons in scripture ultimately. But until then, we pray for each other as always, obviously. And I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
And when you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people as your brother Aaron was gathered, because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin during the strife of the congregation to sanctify me at the waters before their eyes. These are the waters of Meribah, of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Moses said to the Lord, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep which have no shepherd. And the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand upon him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Cause him to stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the sons of Israel may obey. And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his word they shall go out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
And at his word they shall come in, both he and all the sons of Israel with him, the whole congregation. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and caused him to stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole congregation. And he laid his hands upon him and commissioned him as the Lord directed through Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, command the sons of Israel and say to them, my offering, my food for my offerings by fire, my pleasing odor, you shall take heed to offer me in its due season. And you shall say to them, this is the offering by fire which you shall offer to the Lord. Two male lambs, a year old without blemish, day by day as a continual offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
The one lamb you shall offer in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer in the evening. Also a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a cereal offering mixed with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil. It is a continual burnt offering, which was ordained at Mount Sinai for a pleasing odor and offering by fire to the Lord. Its drink offering shall be a fourth of a hin for each lamb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
In the holy place, you shall pour out a drink offering of strong drink to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
the other lamb you shall offer in the evening like the cereal offering of the morning and like its drink offering you shall offer it as an offering by fire a pleasing odor to the lord sabbath offerings on the sabbath day two male lambs a year old without blemish and two tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a cereal offering mixed with oil and its drink offering this is the burnt offering of every sabbath besides the continual burnt offering and its drink offering
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
As always, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you are interested, download your own Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by hitting subscribe on whatever podcast app you're listening to this particular podcast.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Monthly offerings. At the beginnings of your months, you shall offer a burnt offering to the Lord, two young bulls, one ram, seven male lambs, a year old without blemish, also three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a cereal offering mixed with oil for each bull, and two-tenths of fine flour for a cereal offering mixed with oil for the one ram.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
and a tenth of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal offering for every lamb, for a burnt offering of pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord. Their drink offerings shall be half a hin of wine for a bull, a third of a hin for a ram, and a fourth of a hin for a lamb. This is the burnt offering of each month throughout the months of the year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Also, one male goat for a sin offering to the Lord. It shall be offered besides the continual burnt offering in its drink offering. Offerings at Passover. On the 14th day of the first month is the Lord's Passover. And on the 15th day of this month is a feast. Seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten. On the first day, there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
but offer an offering by fire, a burnt offering to the Lord, two young bulls, one ram and seven male lambs a year old. See that they are without blemish. Also their cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah shall you offer for a bull and two tenths for a ram. A tenth shall you offer for each of the seven lambs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Also one male goat for a sin offering to make atonement for you. You shall offer these besides a burnt offering of the morning, which is for a continual burnt offering. In the same way, you shall offer daily for seven days the food of an offering by fire, a pleasing order to the Lord. It shall be offered besides the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
And on the seventh day, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. offerings at the feast of weeks on the day of the first fruits when you offer a serial offering of new grain to the lord at your feast of weeks you shall have a holy convocation you shall do no laborious work but offer a burnt offering a pleasing odor to the lord
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
two young bulls, one ram, seven male lambs a year old. Also their cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for each bull, two tenths for one ram, a tenth for each of the seven lambs with one male goat to make atonement for you. Besides the continual burnt offering and its cereal offering, you shall offer them and their drink offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
See that they are without blemish. The book of Deuteronomy chapter 28, blessing for obedience. Moses continued. And if you obey the voice of the Lord, your God, being careful to do all his commandments, which I command you this day, the Lord, your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Once again, this is day 74. Some people catch colds occasionally, and this guy has got one. So hopefully you don't hate the deeper, raspier version of Father Mike normally reading the Bible. So day 74. Chapter 27 and 28 from Book of Numbers. Chapter 28 from Deuteronomy and praying Psalm 112.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
If you obey the voice of the Lord, your God. Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your beasts, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading trough.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself as he has sworn to you if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord and they shall be afraid of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity in the fruit of your body and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground within the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail. And you shall tend upward only and not downward if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, being careful to do them. Warnings against disobedience.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God, or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading trough.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you go out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your doings because you have forsaken me. The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until he has consumed you off the land which you are entering to take possession of it. The Lord will strike you with consumption and with fever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
inflammation, and fiery heat, and with drought, and with blasting, and with mildew, they shall pursue you until you perish. And the heavens over your head shall be brass, and the earth under you shall be iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust. From heaven it shall come down upon you until you are destroyed. The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth. And there shall be no one to frighten them away. The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with the ulcers and the scurvy and the itch of which you cannot be healed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
And the Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind. And you shall grope at noonday as the blind grope in darkness. And you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually. And there shall be no one to help you. You shall betroth a wife and another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house and you shall not dwell in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
You shall plant a vineyard and you shall not use the fruit of it. Your ox shall be slain before your eyes and you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be violently taken away before your face and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies and there shall be no one to help you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all the day and it shall not be in the power of your hand to prevent it. A nation which you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
And you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually so that you shall be driven mad by the sight which your eyes shall see. The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
The Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away. You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather little in, for the locusts shall consume it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
The Daughters of Zelophehad. Then drew near the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hefer, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the families of Manasseh, the son of Joseph. The names of his daughters were Malah, Noah,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes for the worm shall eat them. You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil for the olives shall drop off.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
you shall beget sons and daughters but they shall not be yours for they shall go into captivity all your trees and the fruit of your ground the locusts shall possess the sojourner who is among you shall mount above you higher and higher and you shall come down lower and lower he shall lend to you and you shall not lend to him he shall be the head and you shall be the tail
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you. They shall be upon you as a sign and a wonder and upon your descendants forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart by reason of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and in want of all things. And he will put a yoke of iron upon your neck. until he has destroyed you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you do not understand, a nation of stern countenance who shall not regard the person of the old or show favor to the young and shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
Who also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your cattle, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish. They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns, throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
and you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
The man who is the most tender and delicately bred among you will grudge food to his brother, to the wife of his bosom, and to the last of the children who remain to him, so that he will not give to any of them, any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing left him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2025)
in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns the most tender and delicately bred woman among you who would not venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground because she is so delicate and tender will grudge to the husband of her bosom to her son and to her daughter her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears because she will eat them secretly
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
We bless crucifixes and crosses. What does it mean to bless those things? It doesn't just mean we've invoked the Holy Spirit upon them, although we definitely have done that. but we're also setting them apart for a certain purpose, for a dedicated purpose. So whenever you've asked for something to be blessed, you've asked for it to be set apart. Now it is no longer for a normal thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
It's no longer for an ordinary thing. It is now extraordinary. It is now set apart for a specific purpose. So if you have a cross that was blessed, that means it's no longer jewelry. It is set apart for a purpose and it must be worn that way, right? It must be treated that way. And that's what God is saying here throughout Leviticus and throughout Exodus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
What he's talking about is when something gets set apart, it is no longer to just be used whenever we want to use it. It's no longer just to be used however we want to use it. Even when it comes to the oil, the anointing oil or the incense mixture. If you noted that in the book of Exodus, One of the things that God had said is, okay, this is the incense mixture. Do not copy it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And don't just have it to perfume your homes. This is the oil mixture. Do not copy it. This is a mixture that is set apart. This is a mixture that is dedicated to a specific purpose. And that purpose is anointing. That purpose is ordination. That purpose is to fill the presence of God. with that sweet smelling smoke. And so that's just like that recognition. And I want to read this little quote.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
It's a quote from St. Pius X. Pope St. Pius X was a pope back in the day. And one of the things he talked about is when it came to priests and when it comes to anybody, when it comes to sanctity, when it comes to holiness, he says this, sanctity alone makes us what our divine vocation demands, namely men crucified to the world and to whom the world is crucified.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Men walking in the newness of life, who as St. Paul tells us, show themselves to be ministers of God in labors and in sleepless nights, in fastings, in innocence, in knowledge, in long suffering, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unaffected love, in the word of truth. who seek heavenly things alone and strive in every way to lead others to them. Again, that's a quote from Pope St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
So again, Exodus 30 and 31, Leviticus 22, and Psalm 115. The book of Exodus, chapter 30. The altar of incense. You shall make an altar to burn incense upon. Of acacia wood shall you make it. A cubit shall be its length, a cubit its breadth. It shall be square, and two cubits shall be its height.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Pius X, and it's about the sanctity that's meant to be exhibited and lived by the priests. to be able to live this sanctity, to live this, oh gosh, you know, there's another long, long quote that I do not have right in front of me, but it's on the uniqueness in that sense of being set apart of the priesthood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
It's to live, to be a part of every family, yet belong to none, to be a part of every relationship and yet belong to none. It's to be a friend of all and yet exclusive to none. You know, that sense of being able to say, how can a priest like myself be How can I live in a way that's truly consecrated to the Lord? Just like St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Paul had said in another context where he says, I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So that's what it is to be a ministerial priest. And we see that in Exodus. We see that in Leviticus, but we also, that's what it is to be a kingdom priest. And so if you're listening to this and you're not an ordained ministerial priest, you're
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
You're still, if you're baptized, you are a kingdom priest. I call them kingdom priests because it's part of the priesthood of the faithful, which means that you also are called to live in that way that is set apart, that's consecrated, that we're called to be holy, truly holy. And again, this is the last thing, but keep this in mind, that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And sometimes, I don't know if it's happened recently, but I know in the history of the church, sometimes in the history of the church, there's been a big deal made over the dignity of the priesthood, which is great. But sometimes to the detriment maybe, or to the reducing of how important it is to labor, how important it is to have truly gifted and skilled laborers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And yet in Exodus chapter 31, we hear this description of these two men, Bezalel and Aholiab. And what they do is they're laborers, they're skilled laborers, they're skilled artistic craftsmen. And so what's it say? It says they have ability and intelligence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
They have knowledge and all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs and to work in gold, silver, and bronze, cutting stones and carving wood. That's, that's Bezalel and Aholiab. But it's not just that they were very good at their job. It was in verse three of chapter 31. God says, I have filled him, this is Bezalel, with the spirit of God. What's that mean? What does that mean?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
To be filled with the spirit of God, which means that you can now do your skilled labor well. That is incredible. That you've been filled with the spirit of God. So I'm now Samson and I'm gonna, Samson, I'm gonna, you know, defeat the lion. I'm gonna push down the pillars and kill the Philistines. I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm David and I'm gonna lead the armies of Israel into battle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
I'm the Lord Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit and he goes off to do battle with Satan in the wilderness. Or I'm filled with the Holy Spirit and I'm gonna go off to work. just to my job. I'm going to go off to my work. My work might be ordinary, but since you are consecrated, since you are set apart, since you are holy, your work is therefore extraordinary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And this is so important for us to hear in chapter 31 of Exodus. These ordinary laborers did extraordinary labor because they were filled with the spirit of God. And all of their work then was for God. Yes, in this case, they were making the articles of the tabernacle. They were making the articles that were meant for worship. But we recognize this is true for all those who work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Whether your work is answering phones, your work is teaching, your work is filling out papers, your work is air traffic control, whatever your work is, that when you do it with the Spirit of God, Even ordinary work becomes extraordinary. Even secular work becomes sacred. Why? Because the one who is doing it has been sanctified, has been consecrated, is sacred.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with pure gold, its top and its sides round about, and its horns, and you shall make for it a molding of gold round about.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And you, my brothers and sisters, you are set apart. You are consecrated. You are sacred as well. filled with the spirit of God. So when you go off into your work, maybe you're listening to this on your way to work. Maybe you're at work right now. Realize this, oh my goodness, what a gift. What a gift. This day, even the most ordinary day can be extraordinary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day 46. We keep on rolling. If you have printed out your Bible in a Year reading plan, you have the great honor of being able to flip the page because this is the top of the second page.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Even the most secular work can be sacred because you have the spirit of God. Because of that, your work is transformed. It is now not just the work of man. It is in some ways the work of a son or a daughter of God. Amazing. So incredible. This is just day 46.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
I know that if you've hung with us, you stuck around for this long, you have faced the battle of the challenge of being able to continue to journey with us. Please keep praying for each other because This journey has been good. It's been great. It's been an incredibly huge blessing. But also, we need strength to continue to journey even further. We have come a long way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
We're in the middle of the journey. And my invitation, you guys, after this day, only five more days until the end of Exodus, until the end of Leviticus, and you will have been something, someone. You will then be someone who has read through, gone through the entire book of Exodus, the entire book of Leviticus,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
and on to numbers, on to Deuteronomy, and on to a holy, consecrated, extraordinary life. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you again tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
and two rings golden rings shall you make for it under its moulding on two opposite sides of it shall you make them and they shall be holders for poles with which to carry it you shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold And you shall put it before the veil that is by the ark of the covenant, before the mercy seat that is over the covenant, where I will meet with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he dresses the lamps, he shall burn it. And when Aaron sets up the lamps in the evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations." You shall offer no unholy incense thereon, nor burnt offering, nor cereal offering, and you shall pour no libation thereon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Aaron shall make atonement upon its horns once a year. With the blood of the sin offering of atonement, he shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord. the half shekel for the sanctuary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, when you take the census of the sons of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. Each who is numbered in the census shall give this, half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary. The shekel is 20 geras, half a shekel as an offering to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Everyone who is numbered in the census from 20 years old and upward shall give the Lord's offering. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than the half shekel when you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for yourselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And you shall take the atonement money from the sons of Israel and shall appoint it for the service of the tent of meeting that it may bring the sons of Israel to remembrance before the Lord so as to make atonement for yourselves. the bronze laver. The Lord said to Moses, you shall also make a laver of bronze with its base of bronze for washing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And you shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. When they go into the tent of meeting. or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn an offering by fire to the Lord, they shall wash with water, lest they die. They shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his descendants throughout the generations. the anointing oil, and incense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Moreover, the Lord said to Moses, Take the finest spices, of liquid myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet-smelling cinnamon half as much, that is two hundred and fifty, and of aromatic cane two hundred and fifty, and of cassia five hundred, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil a hin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And you shall make of these a sacred anointing oil, blended as by a perfumer, a holy anointing oil it shall be. And you shall anoint with it the tent of meeting, and the ark of the covenant, and the table, and all its utensils, and the lampstand, and its utensils, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering, with all its utensils, and the laver, and its base.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy." Whatever touches them will become holy. And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them that they may serve me as priests. And you shall say to the sons of Israel, this shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
of the Great Adventure Bible in a Year reading plan or Bible in a Year podcast. If you want to get that so you can flip the page as well, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year and you can download your free Bible in a Year reading plan. You can follow along with us. Also, if you want to follow along with your eyes, not just with your ears,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
It shall not be poured upon the bodies of ordinary men, and you shall make no other like it in composition. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you. Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on an outsider, shall be cut off from his people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, Take sweet spices, stacti, and onica, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense, of each there shall be an equal part, and make an incense blended as by the perfumer. seasoned with salt, pure and holy. And you shall beat some of it very small, and put part of it before the covenant in the tent of meeting, where I shall meet with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
It shall be for you most holy. And the incense, which you shall make according to its composition, you shall not make for yourselves. It shall be for you holy to the Lord. Whoever makes any like it to use as perfume shall be cut off from his people. Chapter 31 Bezalel and Aholiab The Lord said to Moses, See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood for work in every craft.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And behold, I have appointed with him Aholiab, the son of Ahesamach of the tribe of Dan, and I have given to all able men ability that they may make all that I have commanded you, the tent of meeting, and the ark of the covenant, and the mercy seat that is thereon, and all the furnishings of the tent, the table and its utensils, and the pure lampstand with all its utensils.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
in the altar of incense and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, in the laver and its base, in the finely worked garments, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons for their services priests, in the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the holy place. According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do. The Sabbath law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, say to the sons of Israel, you shall keep my Sabbaths for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I, the Lord sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Six days your work shall be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
The Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. Also, my invitation to you, if you have not yet subscribed, you can subscribe in your podcast app. And lastly, keep this in mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
It is a sign forever between me and the sons of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. The Tables of the Covenant And he gave to Moses, when he had made an end of speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, the two tables of the covenant, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, tell Aaron and his sons to keep away from the holy things of the sons of Israel, which they dedicate to me so that they may not profane my holy name. I am the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Say to them, if anyone of all your descendants throughout your generations approaches the holy things, which the sons of Israel dedicate to the Lord while he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence. I am the Lord. None of the line of Aaron who is a leper or suffers a discharge may eat of the holy things until he is clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Whoever touches anything that is unclean through contact with the dead or a man who has had an emission of semen and whoever touches a creeping thing by which he may be made unclean or a man from whom he may take uncleanness, whatever his uncleanness may be, the person who touches any such shall be unclean until the evening and shall not eat of the holy things unless he has bathed his body in water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
when the sun is down he shall be clean and afterward he may eat of the holy things because such are his food that which dies of itself or is torn by beasts he shall not eat defiling himself by it i am the lord they shall therefore keep my charge lest they bear sin for it and die thereby when they profane it I am the Lord who sanctify them. An outsider shall not eat of a holy thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
A sojourner of the priests or a hired servant shall not eat of a holy thing. But if a priest buys a slave as his property for money, the slave may eat of it. And those that are born in his house may eat of his food. If a priest's daughter is married to an outsider, she shall not eat of the offering of the holy things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
If you have the Bible reading plan in front of you, downloaded or whatever, maybe it's on your computer, maybe it's printed out, you can see that we only have six more days left in this period, this period of Egypt and the Exodus. We only have six more days left to get through Leviticus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
But if a priest's daughter is a widow or divorced and has no child and returns to her father's house as in her youth, she may eat of her father's food, yet no outsider shall eat of it. And if a man eats of a holy thing unwittingly, he shall add the fifth of its value to it and give the holy thing to the priest. Acceptable Offerings
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel, when anyone of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel presents his offering, whether in payments of a vow or as a freewill offering, which is to be offered to the Lord as a burnt offering. to be accepted, you shall offer a male without blemish of the bulls or of the sheep or the goats.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
You shall not offer anything that has a blemish for it will not be acceptable for you. And when anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, To fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, from the herd or from the flock, to be accepted, it must be perfect. There shall be no blemish in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Animals blind or disabled or mutilated or having a discharge or an itch or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lord or make of them an offering by fire upon the altar to the Lord. A bull or a lamb, which has a part too long or too short, you may present for a freewill offering, but for a votive offering, It cannot be accepted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Any animal which has its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut, you shall not offer to the Lord or sacrifice within your land. Neither shall you offer as the bread of your God any such animals gotten from a foreigner. Since there is a blemish in them, because of their mutilation, they will not be accepted for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, When a bull or sheep or goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as an offering by fire to the Lord. And whether the mother is a cow or a ewe, you shall not kill both her and her young in one day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And when you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. It shall be eaten on the same day. You shall leave none of it until the morning. I am the Lord. Psalm 115 The Impotence of Idols and the Greatness of God Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your mercy and your faithfulness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
And so if Leviticus has ever given you a problem in the past, or you've gotten hung up in this section of Exodus, where there's a lot of details when it comes to the tabernacle, a lot of details when it comes to the priest's garments or when it comes to the laver.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Why should the nations say, where is their God? Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak, eyes, but they do not see. They have ears, but do not hear, noses, but do not smell. They have hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk, and they do not make a sound in their throat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
Those who make them are like them. So are all who trust in them. O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, put your trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. The Lord has been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, both small and great. May the Lord give you increase, you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. The heavens are the Lord's heavens, but the earth he has given to the sons of men. The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any that go down into silence, but we will bless the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
From this time forth and forevermore, praise the Lord. Father in heaven, we do give you praise right now and forevermore as you continue to reveal your heart to us, as you continue to recall us, to give you our hearts and you make those hearts holy because you are the Lord and you are the one who makes us holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
You are the one who is the source of all goodness and every time we come into contact with you, we come into contact with true goodness. Help us, Lord, today to hear your word and to allow that word to transform our minds, to transform our hearts, and transform the way that we see this world. We make this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
You are in for a treat because in six days you will have completed, maybe for the first time ever, the entire book of Leviticus, and maybe for the first time ever, the entire book of Exodus. So speaking of, today we are reading two chapters from Exodus, Exodus chapter 30 and chapter 31, also Leviticus chapter 22, and then our psalm today is Psalm 115.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So the last couple days, we've been talking about the priesthood. We've been talking about the reality that the Levitical priesthood, which we're going to see in just a second, why it was given to the tribe of Levi and not to everybody. When I say just a second, I mean the next couple days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
But what we're going to find is that holiness, and this is Leviticus, is the holiness code, right? This is the whole idea behind the book of Leviticus. It's not just here are some rules. Yes, obviously, the book of Leviticus is about rules. But truly what it is really about is holiness. It is about being separate, being set apart. Because that's what it is to be holy, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 46: Set Apart for God (2025)
To be consecrated to the Lord is meant to consecrate it, right? Made sacred for the Lord. To be made sacred for the Lord is to be holy. To be made holy is to be set apart. And so... One of the things that we recognize, right? As Catholics, we have this tradition of this practice of blessing stuff. We bless ourselves before meals. We bless our vehicles. We bless medals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him. Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it, lest they should be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Summary of Jesus' Teaching
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
And Jesus cried out and said, He who believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me. And he who sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has a judge. The word that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority. The Father who has sent me has himself given me commandment what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has bidden me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Practical admonitions and warnings. My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger, if you are ensnared in the utterance of your lips, caught in the words of your mouth, Then do this, my son, and save yourself. For you have come into your neighbor's power. Go, hasten, and importune your neighbor. Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Gosh, Father, we get to hear how the Son of God, Jesus Christ, speaks to you. How he calls you Father, how he calls you Abba, how he calls you Dad. And because he has given us your spirit, you also are made into our Dad. And so we, as your sons and daughters, we come before you now, Dad, and we say thank you. We praise you, Dad. Dad, our God, our God and Father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
you're good help us help us to live as your sons and daughters every moment of every day of our lives in jesus name we pray amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit okay so gosh here we go i i know that we we go through a lot here in only three chapters of john's gospel we cover a ton of stuff and so just a little recap In chapter 10, we have Jesus, the good shepherd.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
And what is one of the things he says? He says that I know my sheep and my sheep know me. There is an enemy. And that's the reality, right? In our lives, we recognize there's an enemy. And Jesus describes him as one who only seeks to kill, steal, and destroy. But he says in John chapter 10, verse 10, but I came that they may have a life and have a life abundantly, have life to the full. This is
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
The good, this is the good news that there's an enemy who desires our destruction. And here's Jesus, our God who loves us and wants to give us life and life to the full. Not only that, but he says, I've come to save the Jews. I've come to, he's the fulfillment of every Jewish prophecy in Jesus Christ. But he says, also, there's also people who that do not know me yet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
There's other nations, other civilizations, other races, ethnicities, other people around the world, and they do not know me yet, yet they will know me, and I will be their shepherd. He says, and there'll be one flock, one shepherd. This is such a gift, recognizing that God desires to fight for us. He desires to fight the evil one on our behalf and to unite us as one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
And this is one of the great gifts of the church, right? We said this before, is that the promise, through the promise to Abraham,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
That covenant with that family that extended throughout, you know, to Moses and David and what we're all the story we're going to hear after we get done with John's gospel to Jesus is the expansion of the covenant to the entire world through the church, that every nation, every nationality, every ethnicity, every race, every language, every continent can be brought into one family, into one kingdom, one flock with Jesus as the one shepherd.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Moving on, we have the story, gosh, the death of Lazarus and the raising of Lazarus, which shows at least two things. It shows so many things. The first thing it shows is it shows that Jesus is, he allows himself to be woundable. Jesus allows himself to be vulnerable. Jesus wept is the shortest verse in the entire Bible, right? Two words in John chapter 11.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
When Jesus sees the people weeping, standing in the face of what kills us, he weeps. Now, he knows what he's going to do. He knows he's about to bring Lazarus back from the dead. And yet the people in front of him are hurting. And he lets himself be hurt by their hurt. And this is so important for us. These are not just words. These are not just stories.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
These are not just tales about something far away. These are stories about someone. And Jesus is the God of the broken heart. He allows his heart to be broken by what breaks our hearts. And he also reveals the next thing that by the power of his word, he can raise the dead. By the power of his word, he can call those who are dead, dead. I mean, this is Lazarus has been dead four days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not heed them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
And they make this very clear at least twice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
that Lazarus has been dead four days why because in kind of Jewish idea as far as the soul and the body and whatnot is that the soul would be kind of somewhat connected to the body for three days the fact that Lazarus has been dead for four days reveals something reveals like he's dead dead like he is fully dead there's no coming back from this kind of this is not a near-death experience this is a
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
fully death experiences all the way their death experience. And Jesus has not only the heart, the broken heart, he has that power to be able to call the dead back to life. When things are absolutely hopeless, Jesus has the power to call them back to life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
And this is true for every element in every area of our lives, that Jesus has the ability to step into hopelessness and death and where things are over and say, not yet. Not yet. There is always hope with Jesus. And the last thing is Jesus reveals himself here to be the crux.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 102, day 102. We're reading today from John chapter 10. chapter 11 and chapter 12. We're also jumping into Proverbs chapter 6, the first five verses, Proverbs 6, 1 through 5.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
This is that it says that as a result of this, many of the Jews who had come with Mary and seen what he had done, believed in him. But then it goes on to say, but others went to the Pharisees and the Herodians and plotted how to kill him. And that's the reality is that Jesus is who he says he is. And so we can't actually hear the story of Jesus and go,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Okay, yeah, I guess either way I can take it or leave it. We either have to say I'm his or kill him. That's the only two options when it comes to Jesus. He can't be a good prophet who wasn't God. He can't be a holy person who wasn't God. He is either God or a bad man. He is either God himself who deserves our heart, or he is one who deserves to be put to death. Because that's the choice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
The only choice we have when it comes to Jesus is he is either God or he's a bad man. And in these stories today, we just heard today and yesterday, he reveals that he is who he says he is. And so in response, we say what? Jesus, if you are who you say you are, then I am who you say I am. And you say that I am yours. So let me be yours. We are continuing on this journey through John's gospel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
We only have, shoot, only have three more days with John's gospel. And after this, we'll go back to the first book of Samuel, which is going to be exciting as well. But just, I invite you for the next three days, just walk with Jesus, especially as he enters into his passion and his death and conquers death by the resurrection. He fights for you. His heart breaks for you. He calls you back to life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
And I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it from me. but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
This charge I have received from my father. There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. And many of them said, he has a demon and he is mad. Why listen to him? Others said, these are not the sayings of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? Jesus is rejected by the Jews. It was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
It was winter and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness to me. But you do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. I and the Father are one. The Jews took up stones again to stone him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Jesus answered them, I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me? The Jews answered him, We stone you for no good work, but for blasphemy, because you being a man make yourself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, you are gods?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be nullified, do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, you are blaspheming, because I said, I am the Son of God? If I am not doing the works of my father, then do not believe me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and understand that the father is in me and I am in the father. Again, they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John at first baptized, and there he remained.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
And many came to him, and they said, John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true. And many believed in him there. Chapter 11 The Death of Lazarus Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
As always, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition of the Bible, and I'm actually using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, please consider subscribing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
So the sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, he whom you love is ill. But when Jesus heard it, he said, This illness is not unto death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Then after this, he said to his disciples, Let us go into Judea again. The disciples said to him, Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone you and you are going there again? Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him. Thus he spoke, and then he said to them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him out of sleep. The disciples said to him, Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover. Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Then Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And for your sake, I am glad that I was not there so that you may believe, but let us go to him. Thomas called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him. Jesus, the Resurrection, and the Life Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him while Mary sat in the house. Martha said to Jesus, "'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.'" And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
She said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world. Jesus weeps. When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying quietly, The teacher is here and is calling for you. And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
If you've not yet reviewed it, well, actually, maybe you want to wait to the end of the year. Then you review and say, yeah, 365 days. Here's how it went. Maybe it's too premature to say on day 101, do you have an opinion? I don't know. I think that's fair. That's definitely fair. Anyways, as I said, today we're reading from John chapter 10, 11, and 12, Proverbs chapter 6, verses 1 through 5.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
When the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Then Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw him, fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled, and he said, Where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. So the Jews said, See how he loved him. But some of them said, Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying? Jesus raises Lazarus to life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days. Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you? that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
So they took away the stone, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you will always hear me, but I have said this on account of the people standing by, that they may believe that you sent me. When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. the plot to put Jesus to death. Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation. But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, you know nothing at all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
You do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation should not perish. He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
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Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
So from that day on, they took counsel about how to put him to death. Jesus therefore no longer went about openly among the Jews, but went from there to the country near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and he stayed there with his disciples. Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.
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Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, What do you think, that he will not come to the feast? Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Chapter 12 Mary of Bethany Anoints Jesus Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. There they made him a supper. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at table with him. Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair.
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Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
And the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was to betray him, said, Who Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to take what was put into it. Jesus said, Let her alone.
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Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Let her keep it for the day of my burial. The poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me. The Plot to Put Lazarus to Death When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came, not only on account of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
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Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus also to death, because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The next day, a great crowd who had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, so they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying, Hosanna!
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Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. And Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. His disciples did not understand this at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that this had been written of him and had been done to him.
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Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. The Pharisees then said to one another, Some Greeks wish to see Jesus. Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks.
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Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Jesus continued, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, "'he who does not enter at the sheepfold by the door, "'but climbs in by another way, "'that man is a thief and a robber.'" Verse 2. Verse 3. This figure Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
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Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew. Andrew went with Philip, and they told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.
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Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there shall my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Jesus speaks about his death. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again. The crowd standing by heard it and said that it had thundered. Others said, an angel has spoken to him. Jesus answered, this voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the ruler of this world be cast out.
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Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself. He said this to show by what death he was to die. The crowd answered him, We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? Jesus said to them, The light is with you for a little longer.
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Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you. He who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of light. The Unbelief of the People When Jesus had said this, he departed and hid himself from them, though he had done so many signs before them, yet they did not believe in him.
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Day 102: The Death of Lazarus (2025)
It was that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled, "'Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' Therefore they could not believe, for Isaiah again said, "'He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.'"
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Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
Here is Isaac, the son, walking up with the wood of the sacrifice on his back of Mount Moriah, which is right outside of Jerusalem. You have Jesus, the son, walking up with the wood of the cross on his back up on Mount Moriah, right outside of Jerusalem. Calvary and Moriah are part of the same mountain range right outside of the city of Jerusalem.
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Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
What you have here is this deep and profound cooperation. And this is what we cannot miss. This is why this story of Abraham and Isaac is about us. Not because God is going to ask you to sacrifice everyone and everything you love. That's not the point. The point is trust. That is the number one word. Abraham is the father in faith. Why? Because when it came down to it, he was willing to trust God.
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Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
But it wasn't just him alone. It was the father and the son, Isaac, trusting each other. And this is why this is so important for us to get this into our hearts. God is not your enemy. This is what Job was wrestling with. Is God my enemy? Does God care?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
But the deep and profound expression of our faith as Christians, we realize, we know that this is true, that even the only begotten son of God, Jesus Christ, our Lord, on the night before he was to be crucified, He had said, Father, let this cup pass for me, yet not my will, but yours be done. He was able to call out to his father and say, I don't want this to happen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
And at the same time, in the same breath, he was able to say, but I trust you and I will be done. And that's what we're called to do. Man, today, gosh, you guys, we're just started. We just started this journey through the Bible and it has been a trip so far. Oh my gosh, I hope that this is a blessing to you. I know it has been a blessing to me walking with you these days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
And also I want you to know that I have been praying for you these days and please keep me in your prayers. Keep each other in your prayers. This is a large community of people who are walking through the scriptures with each other. So please keep each other with your prayers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
If you have any prayer intentions, just lift those up and know that the people who are listening with you also have prayer intentions. We struggle to trust the Lord. We struggle to walk with him. We struggle when we're in the position of our friend Job
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Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
And we also struggle when we're being asked to cooperate and trust the father in the midst of what looks like the end, but we know cannot be the end because he is too good to let the end be simply destruction. He's too good. That's why this is not the end of the book. This is the beginning of the book.
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Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
And he said, here am I. He said, take your son, your only begotten son, Isaac, whom you love and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, settled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and his son, Isaac.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
My name is Father Mike Schmitz, and I am so honored to be able to walk with you through the scriptures. And I cannot wait to walk with you some more. I'll keep praying for you today, and we'll walk further into scripture tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son, and took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, my father. And he said, here am I, my son. He said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
Abraham said, God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they went both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood. Then Abraham put forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here am I. He said, do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only begotten son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
And the angel of the Lord called Abraham a second time from heaven and said, "'By myself I have sworn,' says the Lord, "'because you have done this, "'and have not withheld your son, your only begotten son. "'I will indeed bless you, "'and I will multiply your descendants "'as the stars of heaven "'and as the sand which is on the seashore.'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
This is day 11. So let's get started. Let's keep on moving. We're not started. We're cruising right now. Day 11. We're going to be reading from Genesis chapter 22 and 23. Very famous story, but so, so powerful and so important for us as Christians. Genesis 22 and 23. We're also going to continue our walk with our friend Job chapter 11 and 12.
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Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
and your descendants shall possess the gates of their enemies. And by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. Now, after these things, it was told Abraham, behold, Milcah also has born children to your brother Nahor.
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Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
Uz, the firstborn, Buz, his brother, Kemuel, the father of Aram, Kesed, Hadzo, Pildash, Jidlaf, and Bethuel. Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother. Moreover, his concubine, whose name was Rima, bore Teba, Gaham, Tahash, Sarah lived 127 years. These were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died, that is Hebron in the land of Canaan.
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Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
And Abraham went into the mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, I am a stranger and a sojourner among you. Give me property among you for a burying place that I may bury my dead out of my sight. The Hittites answered Abraham, "'Hear us, my lord, you are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our sepulchres.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
None of us will withhold from you this sepulchre or hinder you from burying your dead.' Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. And he said to them, "'If you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me Ephron, the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he owns, which is at the end of his field.'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
For the full price, let him give it to me in your presence as a possession for a burying place. Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites of all who went in at the gate of his city. No, my Lord, hear me. I give you the field and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the sons of my people, I give it to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
Bury your dead. Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land and he said to Ephron in the hearing of the people in the land, but if you will, hear me. I will give the price of the field. Accept it from me that I may bury my dead there. Ephron answered Abraham, my Lord, listen to me. A piece of land worth 400 shekels of silver, what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
abraham agreed with ephron and abraham weighed out for ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the hittites four hundred shekels of silver according to the weights current among the merchants so in the field of ephron in machpelah which is to the east of mamre
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's Word and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
The field with a cave, which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field throughout its whole area was made over to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites before all who went in at the gate of his city. After this, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field of Machpelah, east of Mamre, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
And we'll also be reading from Proverbs chapter two, verses nine and 15. As always, I am reading from the revised standard version, Catholic edition of the Bible. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. And the reading plan that we're using is accessible to you. If you want, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. Again, that's ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as a possession for a burying place by the Hittites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
Job chapter 11 and 12.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
Then Zophar the Namathite answered, Should a multitude of words go unanswered, and a man full of talk be vindicated? Should your babble silence men, and when you mock shall no one shame you? For you say, my doctrine is pure and I am clean in God's eyes. But oh, that God would speak and open his lip to you and that he would tell you of the secrets of wisdom. For he is manifold in understanding.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves. Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven. What can you do? Deeper than Sheol. What can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. If he passes through and imprisons and calls to judgment, who can hinder him? For he knows worthless men.
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Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
When he sees iniquity, will he not consider it? But a stupid man will get understanding when a wild donkey's colt is born a man. If you set your heart aright, you will stretch out your hands towards him. If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away and let not wickedness dwell in your tents. Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish. You will be secure and will not fear.
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Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
You will forget your misery. You'll remember it is as waters that have passed away and your life will be brighter than noonday. Its darkness will be like the morning and you will have confidence because there is hope. You will be protected and take your rest in safety. You will lie down and none will make you afraid. Many will entreat your favor, but the eyes of the wicked will fail.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
All way of escape will be lost to them and their hope is to breathe their last. Then Job answered, no doubt you are the people and wisdom will die with you. But I have understanding as well as you. I'm not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these? I'm a laughingstock to my friends. I who called upon God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
In the thought of one who is at ease, there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for those whose feet slip. The tents of the robbers are at peace. Those who provoke God are secure, who bring their God in their hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
But ask the beasts, and they will teach you, the birds of the air, and they will tell you, or the plants of the earth, and they will teach you, and the fish of the sea will declare to you, who among all does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. Does not the ear try words as the palate tastes food?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
Wisdom is with the aged and understanding in length of days. With God are wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding. If he tears down, none can rebuild. If he shuts a man in, none can open. If he withholds the waters, they dry up. If he sends them out, they overwhelm the land. With him are strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
He leads counselors away stripped and judges he makes fools. He looses the bonds of kings and binds the waistcloth on their loins. He leads priests away stripped and overthrows the mighty. He deprives of speech those who are trusted and takes away the discernment of the elders. He pours contempt on princes and looses the belt of the strong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking subscribe, and you can also sign up for our email list by texting the word Catholic Bible to the number 33777. Again, that's Catholic Bible to 33777, as I said. Today, we're kicking off by looking at this and journeying with Abraham in his greatest test of his life. He's been tested so many times in his life, called by God to be faithful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
He uncovers the deeps out of darkness and brings deep darkness to light. He makes nations great and he destroys them. He enlarges nations and he leads them away. He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth and makes them wander in a pathless waste. They grope in the darkness without light and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
Proverbs chapter two, verses nine through 15.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path. For wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will watch over you.
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Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
Understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil. Men whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. Father in heaven, we glorify you and we praise your name. We thank you so much for your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
We ask that you please enlighten our minds with your truth and enliven our hearts with your love. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, wow. So, that reading from Genesis is... Pretty phenomenal. But in so many ways, we can hear this reading and like so many other readings of scripture where we might not get it on the surface.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
We don't get like, what is God trying to reveal to us? We think that this is just crazy. I hope God never asks me of that. I hope God never asks me to give him the thing I love the most. Because sometimes we look at this as it's some arbitrary story. Remember this, Abraham is over well over a hundred years old at this point. So Abraham has been walking with the Lord for so, so long.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
This is not God springs on Abraham, this offering of a sacrifice. In fact, at the heart of everything in this reading is the fact that we talked about this yesterday, that Abraham is the father of faith. And here is the moment where he not just demonstrates, I would say he reveals the depth of his faith. It is a profound trust in God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
Abraham is not under the impression that God is going to take away his son, Isaac, that this story will end with Isaac's destruction. How do we know this? We know this in so many ways. One is the very text itself. What happens is They have the two young men who accompany Abraham and Isaac.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
And Abraham says to the two young men, we're going to go up to that mountain and we're going to both come back to you. I mean, he says it. He says, we're both coming back to you. Abraham says in the letter to the Hebrews, he knew that even if he were to sacrifice his son, that God had the power, God who has the power of life and death to bring back even from the grave, his own son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
This is Abraham's deep and profound trust. And yet we ask the question, why would God do this though? What's the whole point of this story? Because this point of the story is not, I don't think, it's just simply for Abraham and for Isaac. I think that point of the story is it sets up the context for everything about the spiritual life. That's how deep and profound this story is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
It sets up the context for virtually everything in the spiritual life. Because this is not merely a story about the father who's willing to sacrifice his son. This is the story of a father and a son team. This is so important for us. You know, art will sometimes depict this image, you know, the image of the sacrifice of Isaac or the binding of Isaac.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
And it has Abraham, the old man who has bound up his son, Isaac, who is like struggling and who is like a child. And yet. This is Abraham and Isaac working together. How do we know this? Because we know that Isaac is not a child. We know he's a child compared to the hundred plus year old Abraham, but Isaac is not a child who was overpowered by his father. In fact, if anything,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
And today, we have one of the greatest tests and one of the most iconic tests that is going to echo not just in his life, but is going to echo down the generations, even to our lives today. So we begin Genesis chapter 22 and 23. After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
Isaac is the one who's stronger in this story. Why? Well, they go up the mountain, they go up the hill, right? Amariah. And it says that Abraham laid the wood for the altar, the wood for the sacrifice on the back of his son. Now, if his son is like a seven-year-old kid, he could not possibly carry enough firewood that would actually be able to be a Holocaust, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
A burnt offering of an entire human being up the mountain. In fact, the tradition is that Isaac is in his 30s, maybe even 33 years old. Think about that for a second. Isaac is stronger than his father Abraham in this time in their lives. And so Isaac carrying up the wood demonstrates that he could overpower his father. that he submitted to his father, binding him, and he laid down willingly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
And this is, what is this teaching us? This is setting the stage for the eternal father with his only beloved, only begotten son, whom he loves. and that sacrifice of the Son and of the Father on Calvary. This is unmistakably a preparation for Christ's sacrifice. I mean, even think, what do the words say? Take your only Son, your only begotten Son, whom you love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 11: The Sacrifice of Isaac (2025)
was John 3, verse 16 say, for God so loved the world that he gave his only beloved son. This story of Abraham and Isaac is not just about Abraham and Isaac. It is a revelation of how the father in heaven and the son of God to cooperate with each other in bringing about salvation. This deep and profound trust all the way to the point of death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Before we get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thank you to all those who have supported the Catechism in a Year or the Bible in a Year podcast. We hear stories every day about how those shows have transformed people's lives, and because of your prayers and financial gifts, you are a significant part of that. You might ask a question, though.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
And the only thing that stops a slide is a break. And here is God who sends Nathan the prophet to David to stop the slide and to break him. You know, it says very clearly that God forgives you. Nathan says to David, God forgives you, but there are consequences to your decision and the sword will not depart from your house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
In fact, chapter 13, tomorrow, we're going to hear one of the first signs of David's family crumbling, David's family falling apart and David really failing as a father. He might be successful as a king, super successful as a king, but David fails as a father. And we see that first crack tomorrow in chapter 13. And
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
And then we have 1 Chronicles 16, which is one of these where we're kind of going back and forth in time a little bit. Again, just like Deuteronomy and Numbers. But going back and forth in time, here's David in 2 Samuel. He's already established in Jerusalem. Here is David in 1 Chronicles 16, where he's just establishing the ark in the tent. But there's something important about this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Remember, 1 Chronicles is really directed at highlighting two things. One is the royal kingdom, and the other is temple worship. These things that are on the mind of Ezra the scribe. He knows that God wants this kingdom to be a kingdom that goes throughout the entire world. It's going to be reestablished, reconstituted somehow. He doesn't know how. We know how in Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
And he also highlights the fact that God has called this people to worship him in this particular way. And so here's David, his song of thanksgiving. We have David's regular worship maintained. And at the beginning, we have the Ark of the Covenant placed in a tent and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
And it goes on to say in 1 Chronicles 16, it says in verse four, it says, Moreover, David appointed certain of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the Lord to do three things, to invoke, to thank, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel. And that's so important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
If our prayers simply encompassed those three things to invoke, like, you know, petitions, we call upon the Lord for ourselves to call upon the Lord for other people to thank, to thank God for the gifts that he's done, what he's done in our lives and to praise God for who he is. That would be so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
2 Samuel chapter 12, Nathan condemns David and God punishes him. And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, there were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
If our prayer lives looked like that, those three elements of invoking of thanking and appraising. Also, we have this fourth element that David reveals in chapter 51 of book of Psalms, which is repentance. when God has corrected me, he's brought me into the light, to live in the light, to turn away from evil and turn to the Lord is repentance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
So those four elements, invoking, asking God for our help for ourselves, for others, thanking God, praising God, and turning back to God in repentance, that would just be so good. If our prayer lives look like that, our prayer lives would be pretty healthy. Gosh, we're going to continue this journey together. It's day 130.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
You guys are doing so incredibly well on just being faithful and being committed and being part of this community. And I truly, please know that I am praying for you every single day. I know I experienced the grace of your prayers as well. So please pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
and he brought it up and it grew up with him and with his children it used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his bosom and it was like a daughter to him now there came a traveller to the rich man and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him but he took the poor man's lamb
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
The question is, what does Ascension do with these financial gifts? Great question. The answer is we make authentically Catholic podcasts and videos and other digital content to help people know the Catholic faith and grow closer to God. And we do it all for free.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
and prepared it for the man who had come to him. Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. Nathan said to David, You are the man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul and I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your bosom and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
And Nathan said to David, The Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child that is born to you shall die. Then Nathan went to his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it became sick.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
David therefore besought God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the ground. And the elders of his house stood beside him to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
On the seventh day the child died, and the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him, The child is dead, he may do himself some harm? But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
And David said to his servants, is the child dead? They said, he is dead. Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes and went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. He then went to his own house. And when he asked, they set food before him and he ate. Then his servants said to him, What is this thing that you have done?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food. David said, While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live? But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me. Solomon is born.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba and went into her and lay with her. And she bore a son and he called his name Solomon. And the Lord loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah because of the Lord. The Ammonites crushed. Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and took the royal city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
And Joab sent messengers to David and said, I have fought against Rabbah. Moreover, I have taken the city of waters. Now then, gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it, lest I take the city and it be called by my name. So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
And he took the crown of their king from his head, the weight of it was a talent of gold, and in it was a precious stone, and it was placed on David's head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city a very great amount. And he brought forth the people who were in it, and set them to labor with saws and iron picks and iron axes, and made them toil at the brick kilns.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
And thus he did to all the cities of the Ammonites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
The first book of Chronicles chapter 16, the ark placed in a tent and they brought in the ark of God and set it inside the tent, which David had pitched for it. And they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord and distributed to all Israel, both men and women to each a loaf of bread, a portion of meat and a cake of raisins. Moreover, he appointed certain of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the Lord to invoke, to thank, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Asaph was the chief, and second to him were Zechariah, Gael, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Metathiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-Edom, and Gael, who were to play harps and lyres. Asaph was to sound the cymbals, and Benaiah and Jehaziel, the priests, were to blow trumpets continually before the ark of the covenant of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
David's Song of Thanksgiving Then on that day David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the Lord by Asaph and his brethren. O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, sing to him, sing praises to him, tell of all his wonderful works. Glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and his strength.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Seek his presence continually. Remember the wonderful works that he has done, the wonders he wrought, the judgments he uttered. O offspring of Abraham his servant, sons of Jacob his chosen ones, he is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
He is mindful of his covenant forever, of the word that he commanded for a thousand generations, the covenant which he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed as a statute to Jacob, as an everlasting covenant to Israel, saying, To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
when they were few in number and of little account and sojourners in it wandering from nation to nation and from one kingdom to another people he allowed no one to oppress them he rebuked kings on their account saying touch not my anointed ones do my prophets no harm sing to the lord all the earth Tell of his salvation from day to day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. And he is to be held in awe above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and joy are in his place. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come before him. Worship the Lord in holy attire. Tremble before him all the earth. Yes, the world stands firm, never to be moved. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice and let them say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Let the sea roar and all that fills it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Let the field exult and everything in it. Then shall the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord for he comes to judge the earth. Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Say also, Deliver us, O God of our salvation, and gather and save us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Then all the people said, Amen, and praised the Lord. regular worship maintained.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
So David left Asaph and his brethren there before the ark of the covenant of the Lord to minister continually before the ark as each day required, and also Obed-Edom and his sixty-eight brethren, while Obed-Edom, the son of Jeruthun, and Hossa were to be gatekeepers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
And he left Zadok the priest and his brethren the priests before the tabernacle of the Lord in the high place that was at Gibeon to offer burnt offerings to the Lord upon the altar of burnt offering continually morning and evening. according to all that is written in the law of the Lord which he commanded Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
With them were Haman and Jeduthun, and the rest of those chosen and expressly named to give thanks to the Lord for his mercy endures forever. Haman and Jeduthun had trumpets and cymbals for the music and instruments for sacred song. The sons of Jeduthun were appointed to the gate. Then all the people departed each to his house, and David went home to bless his household.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Psalm 51, prayer for cleansing and pardon to the choir master, a Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your merciful love. According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Today, it is day 130, and today we're reading from 2 Samuel chapter 12. We're reading 1 Chronicles chapter 16, and we're praying Psalm 51, the Psalm of repentance of David, because as we're gonna see here in 2 Samuel chapter 12, He is going to be called to a place of repentance. As always, the Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Against you, you only have I sinned and done that which is evil in your sight. So that you are justified in your sentence and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward being. Therefore, teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones which you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guilt, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth your praise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
For you take no delight in sacrifice, were I to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure. Rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Then bowls will be offered on your altar. Father in heaven, we give you praise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
We thank you. We thank you for your calling us to repentance. We thank you for reminding us and reminding us of our sin. Thank you for reminding us of our sin and our need for mercy. And also thank you for offering your gift of mercy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Lord God, we find ourselves so often sliding like David did yesterday in yesterday's reading, sliding away from where you're calling us on mission to live off mission, but sliding from where you anointed us to be, from belonging to you to rejecting you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
And we find ourselves so often as David does today, where Nathan said, you thought this was done in the dark, but the Lord God is going to bring this into the light. And Lord God, you, to save us, you oftentimes reveal our wounds. To save us, you oftentimes reveal our sins and To save us, you oftentimes bring what needs to be brought into the light, into the light. And so God, we say yes to that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
We just say, okay, go ahead, Lord. Whatever you need, whatever you need to do in my life so that I may not be lost, whatever you need to do in my life so that I can be yours again. You have my permission. So be it. Amen. Help us to say this, Lord God. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Golly, amen. Oh man, oh man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
So I've said many times in other contexts that how much I love David, not because of this and not because of the next chapters. David is a flawed hero. And here in chapter 11, chapter 12 today, chapter 13 tomorrow, I mean, in the chapters that follow, we are going to see a very, very clear vision of David, the broken man, David, the sinner.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. And if you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You also can subscribe to this podcast if you're interested in doing something like that. As I said, it is day 130. We are reading from 2 Samuel chapter 12, 1 Chronicles chapter 16, and we are praying Psalm 51.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
I guess maybe even that's one of the reasons why I am a fan of David is not because I'm a fan of his choices when he chose evil, when he chose sin. But because, you know, I think a lot of us, we see ourselves in these characters in Scripture. Hopefully we see ourselves in these characters in Scripture. When he had Saul and King Saul, who was so preoccupied with what other people thought of him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Hopefully we saw ourselves in that, in the times that vanity can creep in and can lead us away from God. being the people that God has called us to be and lead us away from God himself. And here, even with David, here he is living off mission, having a dual identity, having one life here and one life there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
Here's David choosing to sin in the dark and God needing to, in order to save David, needing to bring that sin into the light. That's one of the reasons I love David. And again, not because he is fully heroic, but because he is an image to me of God's ability to save, God's desire to save, even if he saves painfully. And that's a thing for us, right? Is that God loves you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 130: Nathan Condemns David (2025)
You're listening to this. God loves you. And there are times when in God's love, what he has to do is he has to uncover what's been covered. He has to bring into the light what's done in the dark. And he doesn't do this because he hates you. He doesn't do this because he just wants to punish you. He does this because he loves you. And sometimes the only thing that stops a slide is a break, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Thank you so much. Thank you for this day. Thank you for this second day of the gospel of Luke. Thank you for showing us your love manifest, your love incarnate in Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is the second person of the Trinity, who comes with power, who's anointed with the Holy Spirit in today's gospel, who comes from you and has spoken over us. by you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Lord God, help us, help us to get near to your son. Help us to get near to the one with whom you're well pleased. Help us to receive your spirit as well in an even more abundant way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Gosh, Lord God, please help us to love you and follow you to say yes to you with everything we have and with the power that comes because of Jesus Christ and comes to us in the, in the Holy spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
I'm going to get back to the gospel in just a second, but occasionally there are these proverbs that just knock you on your tail, and this is one of those. Chapter 25, verse 27. It is not good to eat much honey, so be sparing of complimentary words. There's something about that that just thinks, oh yeah, do you know anyone who over compliments?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
When it comes to love languages, you know, there's the five love languages. There's words of affirmation. There's gestures of affection or physical touch. There's gift giving. There's acts of service and quality time. Those are kind of generally speaking the five love languages. And I really appreciate words of affirmation. And I think I'm the kind of person who likes to give them as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And yet, I know that there are times when it's like, okay, that's a little too much. Honey is good, but going on and on and on, like too much honey is not great. You ever do that? Maybe honey on peanut butter? If you've never done that before, it'll change your life. But not as much honey as there is peanut butter because that will also change your life and you will not like it anymore.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
There's something about... A little bit is great. Too much, it becomes, as he says, be sparing of complimentary words. But the next proverb is the one that I just think, ah, this is, what a gift. A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. Isn't this completely true? You know, I remember years ago, I was speaking with this woman. Her name was Anastasia.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
and he went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
I just remember her name because that's such a unique name. Her name was Anastasia. And at one point, she was asking her own dad about, how do I choose a man to marry? You know, when it comes down, I'm not sure how old she was when she asked him this. But her father said, this piece of advice I thought was so wise. He said, find a man who can fast. That was it. Find a man who can fast.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And there's something about this, that obviously every single person that we know is broken, right? Every single person that we know is made good, but has fallen. And so we're all going to struggle and no one's going to be perfect. Even someone who prays regularly, even someone who tithes well, even someone who shows up again and again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And so none of those things are guarantees that a person is going to be virtuous. And in fact, there's nothing because we recognize that any given moment we can fall down flat on our face, even if we're pursuing the Lord with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. And yet there are certain markers. And one of those markers is the ability to say no to oneself, the ability to fast.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And so her dad saying, find a man who can fast is very similar to this proverb, this proverb that says, you know, a man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls, like completely defenseless. If I don't have self-control, then I'm going to be defenseless against any attack. Today, you might find yourself in a place like, gosh, I am without self-control or I'm
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
I'm in a place where I'm open to attack. And maybe it's always the same place. Actually, the reality most likely is that where Satan has attacked you is going to be the same place again and again. You know, sometimes I'll talk to people who say that they're so frustrated they have to go to confession for the same thing over and over again. My word of encouragement is... Take comfort in that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Take comfort in the fact that you have to bring back the same sins to the Lord for forgiveness every single time. Why? Because it would be really frustrating. It would be incredibly discouraging if every single time there was a whole new set of sins. I always use the example of, say, someone who's a batter in baseball or softball.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Imagine that, yeah, it says, you know, I don't know anything about this, but I'm just going to say, I always drop my elbow. Your coach is always saying, oh, you're dropping your elbow again. You're dropping your elbow again. And that's good because you can focus on keeping your elbow high or whatever the thing is you need to do. It'd be horrible if one day it was you're dropping your elbow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
The next day is you're not leading with your hips. The next day is that you do whatever the thing is. That would be frustrating because how in the world do you ever work on something like this? But when it's the same thing over and over again, when it's not, there are no walls, but when it's, ah, the enemy always attacks me through this one part of the walls.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
It's always this one weak spot in the walls surrounding my heart that the enemy always attacks. Then you can be prepared for the attack. I think that's wisdom, right? Seems to me to be wisdom. And it's really interesting because here's Jesus who also is attacked today. Now, this is the fourth gospel that we've gone through.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
So we've already seen the temptation of Jesus, but I want to highlight a couple of things. One is the preaching of John the Baptist leading into the baptism of Jesus. One of the things we recognize is not only is Luke situating the arrival of John the Baptist and the arrival of Jesus in time, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 314. We're reading from Luke chapter 3, 4, and 5. We're also reading Proverbs chapter 25, verses 27 through 28.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
and the crooked ways shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. He said therefore to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits that befit repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Chapter three, the first line is in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being the governor of Judea, et cetera, et cetera. What Luke is telling us, right? He's a Greek and he wants us to know This is when it happened. This is not a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. This is not once upon a time. This is in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
We can nail it down. This is the time and this is the place. John the Baptist appeared in the region about the Jordan. Now, why would he go to the region about the Jordan for baptism? Well, we know that there was a number of different Jewish groups at the time of John and Jesus. There were the Sadducees. We know that. There were the ones making up most of the Sanhedrin, like the council of Jews.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
There were the Pharisees and the scribes and also the Essenes. So in the Dead Sea area, which is just south of where John was baptizing, John was baptizing on the Jordan River. Now, if you know anything about geography, you might see this in the back of your Bibles, if you have the Great Adventure Bible or any other Bible that has maps in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
You have the Sea of Galilee, also known as this Lake of Gennesaret in Luke's gospel here, the Sea of Galilee that then has the Jordan River flowing from the southern part, flowing south as things do often, not always, flowing south down to the Dead Sea. At the very top of the Dead Sea, that's the spot, roughly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Just to the west of that is Jericho, and just to the right of that is the plains of Moab. Right there on the top of the, almost just north of the mouth into the Dead Sea was the spot where John would baptize. And this is really critical because this is also the spot where Joshua led the people of Israel across the Jordan River, dry shod, going into the promised land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Remember, they attacked Jericho first, so we know that this is the location. We know a number of things about this that are worth noting. One, this is the lowest spot on the planet. This is the lowest spot on the planet. This is the place where Jesus chooses to get baptized. Why? He reveals to us humility.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
But secondly, he reveals to us the exodus, that Jesus is about to bring about a new exodus, a new release from captivity, a new bringing into the promised land, a new chapter, a new life. And this is going to be absolutely critical because tomorrow we're going to hear about the transfiguration. I think it's tomorrow where Jesus is fully transfigured and he's talking to Moses and Elijah about what?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Talking about his exodus that he was to accomplish in Jerusalem. Jesus is the new Moses. He's the new Joshua, Yeshua and Joshua, same name. And there's this, we need to understand this really, really clearly because Jesus is about to reestablish not only the kingdom, not only a new and eternal covenant, but
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
But he is about to bring about a new exodus among the people, which is just phenomenal, phenomenal, right? We also noted this in the past, and I'll note it again. I want to note two things, and then we'll conclude this because what a gift. One is what the father says over him. The father speaks over his son, and he says these words, you are my beloved son. With you, I am well pleased.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Now, those are words spoken over Jesus and they belong to him, right? They belong to him. That's what the father said over Jesus, his son. And so we can't take them away from him. But one of the realities is when you're baptized, when you're baptized, You're made into a son or a daughter of the father as well. And there's something that the father speaks over you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. And the multitudes asked him, What then shall we do? And he answered them, He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none. And he who has food, let him do likewise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
I know that, you know, sometimes when I pray, I say dad to the father because Jesus taught us to call God our dad. And I know that there's some who hear that and it jars them and it hurts them because they have wounds from their own dad. And so father is safer for them. And I understand that. But here's what's true about you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
What's true about you is that when you were baptized, you were made into a daughter of our dad in heaven. You're made into a son of our dad in heaven. And so this is the dad, maybe not your dad on earth, but this is the dad who says, you are my beloved son. You are my beloved daughter. With you, I am well pleased.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Again, those words are for Jesus, but he shares them with us because he shares his own dad with us. He lets us be adopted alongside of him. What belongs to Jesus by his nature is given to us by adoption, by grace. And so the father, the dad, I mean, I invite you to hear these words and to allow the image of our father in heaven to be transformed. Again, many of you, many of us have had great dads.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And so this is easy, an easy transition to make. But many of us have had dads who have wounded us. But this is still not an easy transition to make, but it's a necessary transition to make to be able to say, God, you are my dad. And when you see me, you say, you are my beloved son. You are my beloved daughter. With you, I am well pleased.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And last thing here is that then Jesus goes into the wilderness. And why does he do this? Because this is what kings do. Jesus is anointed. a priest, prophet, and king here at his baptism. And he does exactly what kings are supposed to do. He immediately goes out into the wilderness and he does battle with Satan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
He does battle with the evil one, the enemy that tries to attack your heart and my heart. And what Jesus shows us is he recapitulates what happened to the people of Israel, right? In their wilderness, They doubted the Lord. They complained against God. And Jesus is the opposite. He trusts in the Lord and he loves and obeys his father in heaven. And it's so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
It is such an incredible thing to realize that not only does Jesus share his sonship, he not only shares his father with us, He also fights for us. Today, Jesus fights for you. This is not just a one-time thing where he went into the wilderness for 40 days. He continues. He continues to fight for you and for me. So today could be a tough day. Today most likely is a tough day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
But the Lord fights for you. He loves you. And the Father looks upon you and he says the words, you are my beloved son. You are my beloved daughter. With you, I am well pleased. I'm praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, Teacher, what shall we do? And he said to them, Collect no more than is appointed you. Soldiers also asked him, And we, what shall we do? And he said to them, Rob, no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John whether perhaps he were the Christ, John answered them all, I baptize you with water. But he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary. But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. So with many exhortations, he preached good news to the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
But Herod the Tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all, that he shut up John in prison. the baptism of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Now, when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased. the ancestry of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about 30 years of age, being the son, as was supposed, of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jani, the son of Joseph, the son of Matathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nehum, the son of Elsli, the son of Negai, the son of Maath, the son of Matathias, the son of Sama'in, the son of Josek, the son of Jodah, the son of
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
the son of Joanan, the son of Rasa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Niri, the son of Melchi, the son of Adi, the son of Kosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Ur, the son of Joshua, the son of Eleazar,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
the son of jorim and the son of mattath the son of levi the son of simeon the son of judah the son of joseph the son of jonah the son of eliakim the son of meleah the son of mannah the son of mattathah the son of nathan the son of david
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salah, the son of Nashon, the son of Amenadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Sarug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
the son of Shelah, the son of Kainam, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaliel, the son of Kainan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. Chapter 4. The Temptation of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil. and he ate nothing in those days, and when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. And Jesus answered him, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
You can also, if you're interested, subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. Okay, there are some who, for convenience sake, they do not subscribe. There's others who have a good reason not to subscribe for whatever reason. It's a good reason, I'm sure. And there's a third kind of people who are probably more like me. It's because...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And the devil took him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. if you then will worship me, it shall all be yours. And Jesus answered him, it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, And Jesus answered him, And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. Jesus begins preaching and teaching in Galilee.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and a report concerning him went through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. The rejection of Jesus at Nazareth. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And he went to the synagogue, as was his custom on the Sabbath day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And he stood up to read, and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him, and he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And all spoke well of him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said, Is not this Joseph's son? And he said to them, Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, Physician, heal yourself. What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here also in your own country. And he said, Truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heaven was shut up three years and six months. And there came a great famine over all the land. And Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath, and they rose up and put him out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built that they might throw him down headlong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
I keep telling you, hey, you can subscribe. I'm not telling you what to do. I'm just telling you you can. But, you know, we're sometimes us contrarians. You know, we just because you told us that we need to or you want us to or because you told us that most people are doing it. I'm not going to do it. I understand. I get it. I get it. So I'm praying for you because I know what it's like.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
But passing through the midst of them, he went away. the man with an unclean spirit. And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, Ah, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent, and come out of him. And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And they were all amazed and said to one another, What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. And report of him went out into every place in the surrounding region. healings at Simon's house. And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever and they asked him about her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And he stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her. And immediately she rose and served them. Now, when the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. And demons also came out of many, crying, You are the Son of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ. Jesus preaches in the synagogues of Judea. And when it was day, he departed and went into a lonely place. And the people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
But he said to them, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose. And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea. Chapter 5, Jesus Calls the First Disciples While the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
But at your word I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish, and as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
For he was astonished in all that were with him at the catch of fish which they had taken. And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid. Henceforth you will be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. Jesus cleanses a leper.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
I'm the same way. As I said, today is day 314. We're reading Luke chapter 3, 4, and 5, Proverbs chapter 25, verses 27 and 28.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And he stretched out his hand and touched him saying, I will be clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And immediately the leprosy left him, and he charged him to tell no one but, Go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to the people. But so much more the report went abroad concerning him, and great multitudes gathered to hear and to be healed of their infirmities. But he withdrew to the wilderness and prayed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
Jesus Heals a Paralytic On one of those days, as he was teaching, there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by who had come from every village in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was with him to heal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And behold, men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they sought to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, Man, your sins are forgiven you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, Who is this that speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only? When Jesus perceived their questionings, he answered them, Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, Rise and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
He said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, Rise, take up your bed, and go home. And immediately he rose before them, and took up that on which he lay, and went home, glorifying God. and amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, We have seen strange things today. Jesus calls Levi.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
The Gospel According to Luke Chapter 3 The Preaching of John the Baptist In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Echiria and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, Follow me. And he left everything and rose and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others sitting at table with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. the question about fasting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And they said to him, The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink. And Jesus said to them, Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. He told them a parable also.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it upon an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, the old is good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
The book of Proverbs, chapter 25, verses 27 and 28.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
It is not good to eat much honey, so be sparing of complimentary words.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 314: My Beloved Son (2024)
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
The fact that the other tribes of Israel are going to be worshiping the God of Israel and therefore supplying them with their needs. At the same time, it's very, very clear that to the Levites, they have to give a tithe of their tithe, meaning that they give a tenth of everything that they've been given.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
So even though they're receiving the gift of the tithe of the people of God, the people of Israel, they also have to offer a tithe, which is so beautiful and so important. Just fair and just. And that leads us into the next book we are reading from Deuteronomy. And in Deuteronomy, it talks about justice. In fact, there are these things called cities of refuge.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
We just heard about them in chapter 19. The cities of refuge, three of them at first. And then God says, but when you come into the land, if you get the whole of the property of the land that I want to give you, you're going to have six of these cities of refuge. And they are for what? Because in God's justice, if someone murders another person, by God's justice, they have to die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
But if they murder accidentally, what happens is they get to, I mean, what's going to happen is someone's going to, in their heat of their anger, like you killed my father, prepare to die. Even if accidentally, there's cities of refuge that you can run to. And the Avenger, the person who wants to kill you, cannot enter and kill you. Places of, again, as I said, places of refuge.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
At the same time, it specifically states that if you, though, are someone who has killed someone on purpose and you're onto a city of refuge and the accuser comes, again, not just one accuser, but two or three, then the elders of that city of refuge will hand you over to trial. And that's the important piece here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
they shall join you and attend to the tent of meeting for all the service of the tent and no one else shall come near you and you shall attend to the duties of the sanctuary and the duties of the altar that there be wrath no more upon the sons of israel and behold i have taken your brethren the levites from among the sons of israel they are a gift to you given to the lord to do the service of the tent of meeting
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
It's trying to avoid crimes of passion or revenge, but saying, no, we're going to only exact this justice when it's been expressly proven or demonstrated that this was murder, not simply manslaughter. And I think, again, here is the people of God who are being brought from a place of just kind of, you know, the Wild West to a place of, no, this is order. We're a people of law now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
We're people of justice now, not just vengeance. which goes on to the last chapter we read today, which is Deuteronomy chapter 20, having to do with war. Always giving a people that they attack the option to surrender. Always giving the people the option to have peace, unless it was the people of the tribes where they are going to enter in the land of Canaan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
And those people, they would not give an opportunity to surrender. Why? And this is really difficult for us. Why is this the case? This is a very unusual kind of warfare. This is a very unusual kind of situation because it strikes us as being so, so backwards and so, not just backwards, but so violent and over, not justice anymore, right? It seems unfair. It seems cruel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
These are what you might call Wars of judgment. These are not simple battles, but in this context, and we have to understand this, these are wars of judgment. The people of Canaan were living violent, destructive, and wicked lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
In fact, a number of times we've already heard that the Lord God has expressly noted that in the place you're about to enter, in the land of Canaan, in the promised land, One of the practices that they have is they will sacrifice their own children, their sons and their daughters, to this false god, Molech. And they will literally kill their own children. And God's judgment comes at some point.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
And this is the reality for all of us. It's really hard for us to understand this because we think like, we have questions about this. But when we understand this in the context that here is God who's saying, you know, judgment is coming for every one of us. And the people of Canaan were under God's judgment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
And God was using the people of Israel to exact or deliver his judgment upon the people of Canaan. Now, of course, for us, if we took that position and we said, that's what I'm going to do then. I think we should do that as whatever your country is. We should take justice or judgment of God on whoever. we would be taking the law into our own hands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
That is not what God has commanded us to do, but this is what God had commanded the people of Israel to do. I know that this is as a last note, I'm gonna have to say this many, many times in the future, but I say it right now, maybe for the first time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
If we approach this and we are cynical, if we approach this and we are skeptical, if we approach this and we have this like, I still don't like it and I actually don't, I wanna stop reading. I don't like this and I want to start distrusting the word of God. And I just look at the distrust part because we can have questions. Of course we have questions. We wrestle with stuff.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Jacob wrestled with the angel. That's not a bad thing to wrestle with the Lord and to say, God, what is your word trying to teach me? But one of the things we have to increase in our own hearts is our trust and our confidence in him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Then when he led his people, the people of Israel, that he made a covenant with into the promised land, into the land of Canaan, and there was this devastating kind of warfare, it wasn't because God was being unjust. In fact, it was, as we said, these wars of judgment on those people, but also, also there were wars because of the fact that God knew. God knows everything, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
And you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for all that concerns the altar and that is within the veil, and you shall serve. I give your priesthood as a gift, and anyone else who comes near shall be put to death. the priest's portion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
He knew that here's a people that if they live in the midst of these broken people of Canaan, they're going to change their hearts. They're going to give their hearts to these false gods. And these aren't just kind of like false gods like we would have in our modern pluralistic society. Right now we have a pluralistic society that we coexist with other religions, which is good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
but God knew the people of Israel had an incredible role. And that was, you need to be faithful because it's through you that I'm going to bless the world. And so I know if you commingle with these other groups, you will not be faithful. What we're going to see is that they will not do what God asked. And surprise, they will not be faithful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
This is going to be Moses' last words in the book of Deuteronomy where he tells them, after all, giving you all these commandments, I know you're not going to do it. So I know that it upsets a lot of us, but keep this in mind. This is not out of context.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
The context is these are wars of judgment on a people that had hardened their hearts to the true God had sacrificed their own children to their false gods. And God needed to preserve the people of Israel and their faith so that you and I right now, this day could be blessed. You know, last little note, I'll say this again in the future. At the same time, God knew that they wouldn't be faithful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 67. We are reading from chapter 18 of Numbers, Numbers 18. We're also reading two chapters in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 19 and chapter 20. We're also praying Psalm 99 today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
He knew that they wouldn't do this. And so this commandment in some ways we could just see as a warning, maybe, maybe rather than an instruction, if that gives you some peace, I just invite you to like, take that little bite. Maybe this is God giving a commandment, knowing they wouldn't do it because he's revealing something to their hearts by the commandment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
giving them a prediction rather than instruction. Now, at the same time, it's clearly instruction, but if that would give your heart some peace today, then a little peace is better than nothing, but it can't be a false peace. It has to be true peace. I don't know if that makes any sense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Anyways, we're gonna continue walking through this, and whenever it gives us pause, whenever it gives us trouble, it's okay. It is okay because the Lord is faithful. He is just. He never, ever commands us to do anything unjust. because he cares for every person. He makes the sun shine on the good and the bad. He makes the rain shine on the evil and the good. And he loves you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
And he, even in our brokenness, he still chooses us. So we come before him knowing that his judgment is just and that he obviously has the right to judge us. And so we ask for his mercy today. And I'm praying to God today for his mercy upon you. I ask that you please pray to God for his mercy upon me as we continue to pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Then the Lord said to Aaron, and behold, I have given you whatever is kept of the offerings made to me, all the consecrated things of the sons of Israel. I have given them to you as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual debt. This shall be yours of the most holy things reserved from the fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Every offering of theirs, every serial offering of theirs and every sin offering of theirs and every guilt offering of theirs, which they rendered to me shall be most holy to you and to your sons. In a most holy place shall you eat of it. Every male may eat of it. It is holy to you. This also is yours. The offering of their gift, all the wave offerings of the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
I have given them to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a perpetual debt. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat of it. All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the first fruits of what they give to the Lord, I give to you. the first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord shall be yours.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Everyone who is clean in your house may eat of it. Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, whether man or beast, which they offer to the Lord shall be yours.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
nevertheless the firstborn of man you shall redeem and the firstling of unclean beasts you shall redeem and their redemption price at a month old you shall redeem them you shall fix at five shekels in silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary which is twenty But the firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, you shall not redeem, they are holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
You shall sprinkle their blood upon the altar, and shall burn their fat as an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord. But their flesh shall be yours, as the breast that is waved, and as the right thigh are yours. All the holy offerings which the sons of Israel present to the Lord I give to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a perpetual debt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you. And the Lord said to Aaron, You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion, and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they serve, their service in the tent of meeting. And henceforth the sons of Israel shall not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the sons of Israel they shall have no inheritance. For the tithe of the sons of Israel, which they present as an offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, Moreover, you shall say to the Levites, When you take from the sons of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present an offering from it to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe. And your offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor and as the fullness of the winepress.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
So shall you also present an offering to the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the sons of Israel. And from it you shall give the Lord's offering to Aaron the priest. Out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every offering due to the Lord from all the best of them, giving the hallowed part from them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
As always, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, as far as my Bible translation, as well as the fact that I'm reading from specifically the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you're interested, you can download your Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast. I don't know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Therefore, you shall say to them, when you have offered from it the best of it, then the rest shall be reckoned to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor and as produce of the wine press. And you may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
And you shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have offered the best of it. And you shall not profane the holy things of the sons of Israel, lest you die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
When the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lord your God gives you and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, you shall set apart three cities for you in the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
You shall prepare the roads and divide into three parts the area of the land which the Lord your God gives you as a possession so that any manslayer can flee to them. This is the provision for the manslayer who by fleeing there may save his life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having been at enmity with him in time past, as when a man goes into a forest with his neighbor to cut wood and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, he may flee to one of these cities and save his life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him. Because the way is long and wound him mortally, though the man did not deserve to die since he was not at enmity with his neighbor in time past. Therefore I command you, you shall set apart three cities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
And if the Lord your God enlarges your border as he has sworn to your fathers and gives you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers, provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you this day by loving the Lord your God and by walking ever in his ways, then you shall add three other cities to these three.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
lest innocent blood be shed in your land, which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance. and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
But if any man hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him and wounds him mortally so that he dies and the man flees into one of these cities, then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him from there and hand him over to the avenger of blood so that he may die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel so that it may be well with you. Concerning landmarks. Concerning witnesses. A single witness shall not prevail against the man for any crime or for any wrong in connection with the offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be sustained.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
If a malicious witness rises against any man to accuse him of wrongdoing, then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. The judges shall inquire diligently." And if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Again, I keep saying this because it's in the 60s for crying out loud. If you have not yet subscribed, you can do that right now. Why not? Go ahead and do that. Nonetheless, it is day 67. We are reading from Numbers 18, Deuteronomy 19 and 20, praying Psalm 99. The book of Numbers chapter 18, duties of priests and Levites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
So you shall purge the evil from the midst of you and the rest shall hear and fear and never again shall commit any such evil among you. Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Chapter 20, Concerning Warfare
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
When you go forth to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them. For the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, Hear, O Israel, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies. Let not your heart faint. Do not fear or tremble or be in dread of them. For the Lord your God is he that goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to give you victory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, What man is there that has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. And what man is there that has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
And what man is there that has betrothed a wife and not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her. And the officers shall speak further to the people and say, What man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go back to his house, lest the heart of his fellows melt as his heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
And when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people. When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword. But the women and the little ones, the cattle and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices which they have done in the service of their gods, and so to sin against the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them, for you may eat of them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field men that they should be besieged by you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut them down, that you may build siege works against the city that makes war with you until it falls.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Praise to God for his holiness. The Lord reigns. Let the peoples tremble. He sits enthroned upon the cherubim. Let the earth quake. The Lord is great in Zion. He is exalted over all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he, mighty king, lover of justice. You have established equity. You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Extol the Lord our God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
So the Lord said to Aaron, you and your sons and your father's house with you shall bear iniquity in connection with the sanctuary. And you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity in connection with your priesthood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Worship at his footstool. Holy is he. Moses and Aaron were among his priests. Samuel also was among those who called on his name. They cried to the Lord and he answered them. He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud. They kept his testimonies and the statutes that he gave them. O Lord our God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
Extol the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
We thank you. We give you glory. You are the God of glory and the God of justice. Lord God, you care for the people. You care for justice. You care for us. And so we ask you today, as we ask you every day, every day, gosh, Lord, make our hearts like yours. Make our hearts the kind of hearts that desire justice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
that run away from vengeance, but pursue after what is true and what is good and what is beautiful. Fill our minds with what is true. Fill our hearts with what is good and fill our lives with what is beautiful. We give you praise, Lord God, and thank you. Be with us today and every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
So quick couple of things, a couple of things about Deuteronomy, but before that, a couple of things about the book of Numbers. So as we have already heard in the book of Numbers chapter 18, it was the duties of the priests and Levites. One of the things that we had heard before is the fact that while all of the tribes of Israel are going to be given land, right? They're going to be given property.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
And with you bring your brethren also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the covenant. They shall attend you and attend to all the duties of the tent, but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar lest they and you die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
They're going to be given flocks and work for themselves to do. Those of the tribe of Levi are not given land. They're not given an inheritance. That's the word that keeps being used. And why? Because God says, I'll be your inheritance. Your job is to be serving me. Your job is to be leading worship. of me. And the price is that that means you have to, so I guess the price is you don't get land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
You don't get to have another occupation in some ways. You don't get to have an inheritance among the people of Israel. But the goodness is, A, you get to worship and you get to be at the tabernacle or the tent of meeting, be in the temple ultimately. But you also receive the tithe.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
So with every sacrifice that's offered, not every sacrifice, but many of the sacrifices, that would be what would support the livelihood of the tribe of Levi.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
So you'd go in and offer a guilt offering or a sin offering, and part of it would be burnt up, but the rest of it would be not only offered to the Lord, but then given to the tribe of Levi in order for them to have food for their families and have food for their lives. And they'd be able to... basically have a living that way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 67: God's Justice and Refuge (2025)
So the supporting of the priests, the supporting of the tribe of Levi would come through the people of Israel. And the great way in which this would have to cooperate is really remarkable for us because again, tribe of Levi doesn't have an inheritance. They don't get to have their own property. They rely upon
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
But if the slave plainly says, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him to God and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost and his master shall pour his ear through with an all and he shall serve him for life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
And not only do they matter, but your actions cannot be rooted merely in power or merely in vengeance or merely in usefulness, but your actions must be rooted in justice. And so what we have is God beginning to give these commandments of behavior, of here is how you live in this society, and it's based off of justice first.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
He's speaking to a community that does not know him and a community that does not necessarily know that there are restrictions on what you can do to other people. Here's what I mean. is you have the kind of slave labor that those Israelites themselves, those Hebrews themselves lived under and suffered under for 400 years under the Egyptians. So slavery in that context is completely normal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
In fact, it's one of the ways in which, and this is, please forgive me for saying this, but it's one of the ways in which people cared for each other Here is someone who is, I am completely homeless. I am jobless. I have no prospects. I have nothing to sell. I have nothing to offer, but I can offer myself. I can sell my services.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
And so one of the things you have is a difference between what you might call chattel slavery and this slavery that... Again, it's not like I've heard other people say, oh, I mean, the good kind of slavery.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
Well, not good kind of slavery, but also not the same that we are familiar with in the Far East and not the same kind of slavery we're familiar with in Europe and not the same kind of slavery we're familiar with in North America. But a kind that said, I might take it upon myself with no other options.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
to place myself in what you might call indentured servitude to someone who can care for me when I'm serving them. Again, it's not ideal, but that's the whole point is God has to start somewhere. This is a people that does not know the Lord God and his justice. These are the people that do not necessarily remember that in the beginning, God made them male and female.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
He made them in his image and likeness. These are the people that have to be taught what justice is. They have to be taught what fairness is. They have to be taught what it is to treat another human being, again, with justice. And so this is like lesson one. So keep this in mind because we're going to continue in the next couple of days to go through some more laws.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
And these laws might be challenging to us in our sensibilities, but it's kind of like this is the last little thing. If you were taking trigonometry or you're taking calculus in high school or college and you looked at your little brother or little sister's homework in first or second grade and You wouldn't look at their addition and subtraction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
when a man sells his daughter as a slave she shall not go out as the male slaves do if she does not please her master who has designated her for himself then he shall let her be redeemed he shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people since he has dealt faithlessly with her if he designates her for his son he shall deal with her as with a daughter
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
You wouldn't look at their multiplication or division and say, that's silly. Why are you spending all this time with one plus one or three minus two? Math can get so much more advanced than this. Well, students have to start somewhere. You have to start at the lowest possible level. Even just here's what a number is. Let's start counting. And so that's what God is doing right here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
He is starting at the lowest possible level that this people are able to accept and begin living. He's going to call them higher, but he first has to come down to their level.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
He's teaching at level one and he's calling them up ultimately to the highest levels, to the level where we say, okay, we're not gonna violate justice, but we're choosing mercy over justice, but they have to first know what justice is. He's gonna ultimately get them to the point where they're now absolutely clear
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
And a human being, a human person is made in God's image and likeness and must always be treated this way. But he has to first say, I'm going to begin doing this by putting some parameters on what you can do to each other. And so here's some rules. If there's someone who is a slave, then there are some parameters. You can't do anything you want with them. They are not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
truly your property, but they are a human being who's in your employ, essentially, at your service. Same kind of thing when it comes to if you hurt someone else, it's an eye for an eye, not a life for an eye. Hope that makes sense, because this is just the beginning. We're going to get the rest of God's lesson one in how to live with other people and how to live in justice as the days continue.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
Let's keep praying for each other, because especially when we hit some more challenging portions, and maybe I don't even explain it as best as you want me to explain it. Reach out to me. Maybe I can do a better job later on. But we'll keep praying for each other, because we are not, this is not just a one-day thing. This is a 365-day thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
We're going to keep walking with each other, keep journeying with each other, and keep praying for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing without payment of money. Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day 39. Let's keep on moving right along. We'll be reading from Exodus today, chapter 21, just one chapter in Exodus, also one chapter in Leviticus, chapter 14.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him treacherously, you shall take him from my altar that he may die. Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
Whoever steals a man, whether he sells him or is found in possession of him, shall be put to death. Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death. When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but keeps his bed, then if the man rises again and walks abroad with his staff, he that struck him shall be clear.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
Only he shall pay for the loss of his time and shall have him thoroughly healed. When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod, and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be punished, for the slave is his money.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
When men strive together and hurt a woman with child, so that there is a miscarriage, yet no harm follows, the one who hurt her shall be fined, according as the woman's husband shall lay upon him, and he shall pay as the judges determine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. When a man strikes the eye of his slave male or female and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free for the eye's sake. If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free for the tooth's sake.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
when an ox gores a man or a woman to death the ox shall be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten but the owner of the ox shall be clear but if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in and it kills a man or a woman The ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
If a ransom is laid on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is laid upon him. If it gores a man's son or daughter, he shall be dealt with according to this same rule. If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
When a man leaves a pit open, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall make it good. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead beast shall be his. When one man's ox hurts another's so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the price of it, and the dead beast also they shall divide.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
Or if it is known that the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past and its owner has not kept it in, he shall pay ox for ox, and the dead beast shall be his.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
So Exodus 21, Leviticus 14, and then we'll be praying. Psalm 75. As always, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension, which is awesome. You can get it at ascensionpress.com or at amazon.com because that seems to have taken over the entire world. Is that a commentary? I don't know. It's just the truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, this shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest and the priest shall go out of the camp and the priest shall make an examination. Then if the leprous disease is healed in the leper, the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two living clean birds and cedarwood and scarlet stuff with hyssop.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water. He shall take the living bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet stuff and the hyssop and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
and he shall sprinkle it seven times upon him who is cleansed of leprosy then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into open field and he who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe himself in water and he shall be clean and after that he shall come into the camp but shall dwell outside his tent seven days
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
and on the seventh day he shall shave all the hair off his head he shall shave off his beard and his eyebrows all his hair then he shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water and he shall be clean and on the eighth day
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
He shall take two male lambs without blemish and one ewe lamb, a year old without blemish and a cereal offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil and one log of oil. And the priest who cleanses him shall set the man who is to be cleansed and these things before the Lord at the door of the tent of meeting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
And the priest shall take one of the male lambs and offer it for a guilt offering along with a log of oil and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. And he shall kill the lamb in the place where they killed the sin offering and the burnt offering in the holy place. For the guilt offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest. It is most holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering and the priest shall put it
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot then the priest shall take some of that log of oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand and dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand and sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before the lord
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
And some of the oil that remains in his hand, the priest shall put on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot upon the blood of the guilt offering. And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand, he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
Then the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord. The priest shall offer the sin offering to make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness. And afterward, he shall kill the burnt offering. and the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the cereal offering on the altar. Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
But if he is poor and cannot afford so much, then he shall take one male lamb for a guilt offering to be waved, to make atonement for him, and a tenth of an ephah of flying flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering, and a log of oil. Also two turtle doves or two young pigeons, such as he can afford. The one shall be a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
You can also download your Bible in a Year reading plan by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. If you haven't yet, I invite you to subscribe to this podcast in whatever app you are listening to this podcast. Once again, today we'll be reading Exodus chapter 21, Leviticus chapter 14 in Psalm 75. Exodus chapter 21. Now, these are the ordinances which you shall set before them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
And on the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing to the priest to the door of the tent of meeting before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
and the priest shall take the lamb of the guilt offering and the log of oil and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the lord and he shall kill the lamb of the guilt offering and the priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
and on the great toe of his right foot. And the priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand and shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
And the priest shall put some of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot in the place where the blood of the guilt offering was put."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand, he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed to make atonement for him before the Lord. And he shall offer of the turtle doves or young pigeons, such as he can afford, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
along with a serial offering, and the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for him who is to be cleansed. This is the law for him in whom is a leprous disease who cannot afford the offerings for his cleansing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give you for possession, and I put a leprous disease in a house in the land of your possession, then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, There seems to me to be some sort of disease in my house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
Then the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest goes to examine the disease, lest all that is in the house be declared unclean. And afterward, the priest shall go in to see the house, and he shall examine the disease.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
And if the disease is in the walls of the house with greenish or reddish spots, and if it appears to be deeper than the surface, then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house seven days. And the priest shall come again on the seventh day and look.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
And if the disease has spread in the walls of the house, then the priest shall command that they take out the stones in which is the disease and throw them into an unclean place outside the city. And he shall cause the inside of the house to be scraped round about, and the plaster that they scrape off they shall pour into an unclean place outside the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
Then they shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones, and he shall take other plaster and plaster the house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
if the disease breaks out again in the house after he has taken out the stones and scraped the house and plastered it then the priest shall go and look and if the disease has spread in the house it is a malignant leprosy in the house it is unclean and he shall break down the house its stones and timber and all the plaster of the house and he shall carry them forth out of the city to an unclean place moreover he who enters the house while it is shut up shall be unclean until the evening
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
and he who lies down in the house shall wash his clothes and he who eats in the house shall wash his clothes but if the priest comes and makes an examination and the disease has not spread in the house after the house was plastered then the priest shall pronounce the house clean for the disease is healed and for the cleansing of the house he shall take two small birds with cedar wood and scarlet stuff and hyssop
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
and shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water and shall take the cedar wood and the hyssop and the scarlet stuff along with the living bird and dip them in the blood of the bird that was killed and in the running water and sprinkle the house seven times thus he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and with the running water and with the living bird and with the cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet stuff and he shall let the living bird go out of the city into the open field
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
so he shall make atonement for the house, and it shall be clean. This is the law for any leprous disease, for an itch, for leprosy in a garment or in a house, and for a swelling or an eruption or a spot, to show when it is unclean and when it is clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
Psalm 75, thanksgiving for God's wondrous deeds. To the choir master, according to Do Not Destroy, a Psalm of Asaph, a song. We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks. We call on your name and recount your wondrous deeds. At the set time which I appoint, I will judge with equity. When the earth totters and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years. And in the seventh, he shall go out free for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single. If he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters and he shall go out alone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
I say to the boastful, do not boast. And to the wicked, do not lift up your horn. Do not lift up your horn on high or speak with insolent neck. For not from east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is God who executes judgment. putting down one and lifting up another.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine well mixed, and he will pour a draft from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs. But I will rejoice forever. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. All the horns of the wicked he will cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
We thank you for your word. We thank you for convicting us and for challenging us with how you reveal yourself to us. You reveal yourself to us so slowly and incrementally. Lord, you meet us where we're at. You stoop down to us. not to leave us there, but you stoop down to us to raise us up to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
Help us to recognize your divine condescension, your gentle and humble condescension, meeting us in our brokenness, meeting us in our woundedness, and beginning where we are so that we can end up where you are.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
thank you we make this prayer and ask you to please receive our thanks in the name of jesus christ our lord in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen okay so this is so good we have some of the more challenging challenging parts of the bible where we recognize here in the book of exodus here's this law that god is giving and in the law he says okay here's what you do with your slaves and that should make us stop and say wait what or what is happening right now
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
How is God saying this is what you do with your slaves? And I think it's really, really important because we have to realize that God revealing himself, he's not revealing himself to a people who know who he is. He's not revealing himself to a people who have incredible familiarity with him. He's not revealing himself to a people who are, for lack of a better term, civilized.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
We would say right now in the 21st century, civilized. He's revealing himself to people who are familiar with kind of like Wild West justice. He's revealing himself to a people who have a sense of what's right and what's wrong, but don't necessarily know how to pursue what's right and what's wrong in a way that is absolutely just and absolutely fair. I mean, consider this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
In the ancient Egypt and in the ancient Mediterranean, as well as in the Greco-Roman world, what you have is you have the gods and goddesses, and these gods and goddesses are not good. They're not just. They're not fair. And so what you have is power. Power is what rules. What you have is A usefulness, utility. Utility is what rules.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament (2025)
And here is God who's saying to these people, he's teaching them a new way to be. What he's teaching them is not only a new way to be, he's also teaching them his identity. And his identity is, oh no, I am a God of justice. I am a God who does hear the cry of the poor. I am a God who your actions matter to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. For he did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly afraid. And a cloud overshadowed them. And a voice came out of the cloud. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. And suddenly, looking around, they saw no longer anyone with them but Jesus only. The coming of Elijah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Jesus saying, whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. Jesus is basically saying something about himself that he's like, I'm not just another teacher. I'm not just another Moses or Elijah, even though those were incredible teachers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
He's someone who has come to judge the world. He is someone upon whom all of every human life is judged. All of humanity is judged based off of Jesus. And so he's making some claims for himself that are massively, massively important. And that's pretty important for all of us. Now, if we move on just a little bit. We have the disciples, they're talking about who's really the greatest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And this is remarkable because this debate over who the greatest is comes immediately. Literally comes one verse after Jesus says, the son of man will be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him. And when he is killed after three days, he will rise. The very next verse, verse 33 of chapter nine says, Jesus asks them, what were you discussing?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And they were silent from the way they had discussed who was the greatest. And you can imagine that Jesus is thinking, are you kidding me? This is, you're the people that I've just invested the last three years of my life to mentor and to disciple and to be my witnesses to the world. But he doesn't say that. In fact, he takes the opportunity to teach them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. And he goes on to talk about the role of scandal. And that is so massively important. If any one of you were to cause one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
I remember one of my favorite classes in moral theology and seminary, our professor, Dr. Thompson, He was a layman, and at one point we were talking about this. We were talking about the responsibility of priests not only to give witness to the Lord with their teaching, give witness to truth with their teaching, but also to give witness to the Lord with their lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And he said, gentlemen, he says, if... If any of you want to teach something that's contrary to Jesus, contrary to the church, I have one word for you. And that word is millstones. And he said, gentlemen, if you're not willing to be as holy as you possibly can be with God's grace and give a witness to Jesus and his holiness by your holy lives, I have one word for you, millstones.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And it was just this dramatic, like very, very clear kind of getting called out, called higher by this incredible husband and father and teacher of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
god's word and just so so good at the seminary it was remarkable and i've never forgotten that you know the responsibility teachers have and in my case the responsibility priests have to not only teach accurately teach the truth but also to as best we can in my brokenness to live the truth with god's grace moving on jesus you know he says if your hand causes you to sin cut it off better for you to enter life maimed with them with two hands to go to hell
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Two things. One is, you know, Jesus talks more about the reality of hell than almost anyone. Actually, sorry, let me rephrase that. Jesus talks more about the reality of hell than anyone else in the Bible. That there's no one even close who talks about the reality of hell more than Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And so we have to, again, remember this whole project, 365 days of reading the Bible, listening to God's word is to give ourselves a biblical worldview and Jesus teaching so powerfully and teaching so clearly about on the reality that it is possible for us to choose hell. It is possible for us to say, I'd rather not have heaven, and I actually want eternity without God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
That is so important, and we can't get away from that. We can't rework what Jesus says. We can't squirm underneath it. We have to actually acknowledge the reality that Jesus, the God of mercy, the Prince of Peace, that he teaches more about the reality that we can choose hell than any other single person in the Bible. Basically, so if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen until the son of man should have risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant. And they asked him, why did the scribes say that first Elijah must come? And he said to them, Elijah does come first to restore all things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Foot causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. Now, Jesus is speaking in hyperbole here. He's not telling us to actually maim ourselves, but he is saying what it is that's causing you to sin, get rid of it. Whatever it is that's causing you to sin, get rid of it and do it now. And I've heard it being said so many times and I've repeated it so many times.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
If your laptop is causing you to sin, get rid of it. But I need it for work. Okay, figure something else out. You know, if your smartphone is causing you to sin, because you guys, I work on a college campus. I work with young adults. I work with a lot of people who this is their vice. This is, they can be doing so well in so many other areas of their lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And then it comes to whatever the content on their laptop, the content on their smartphone, whatever that is, just trips them up regularly. And here's Jesus's words. It says, yeah, if your smartphone is causing you to sin, get a dumb phone. If your laptop caused you to sin, get rid of it. And we can think that's too extreme.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
You know, Jesus used extreme languages like if your hand is causing, your foot causing, your eye causing you to sin. What he's telling us is that it is far, far better to have to struggle, limp through life without a smartphone, to limp through life without a personal computer. then it would be to not go to heaven than to actually lose heaven because of our own sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 158. We have four more days left, including today in our second Messianic checkpoint. We're reading today from the Gospel of St. Mark, chapters 9 and 10. We're also praying Psalm 29.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
It's a hard teaching, but Jesus has some hard teachings, both about relationships and about wealth. And so just to highlight these two things, Jesus in chapter 10, some Pharisees asked him, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? Now, you know, this question comes out of nowhere in Mark's gospel and in Matthew's gospel as well, where there's no context immediately for it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Like, why are you asking Jesus about this? Because it's clear that in the Old Testament, Moses permitted couples to offer one another or husbands to offer their wives a bill of divorce. Why are they asking him about it? He must have been teaching about the indissolubility of marriage, so much so that Jesus didn't Doubles down. He says, well, you know, what did Moses command you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Moses allowed Rand to write a certificate of divorce to put her away. And Jesus said this, these very powerful words. He also repeats in Matthew's gospel. He says, for the hardness of your heart, he wrote this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God created the male and female and in Matthew's gospel says, but from the beginning, it was not so. And so one of the things that St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
John Paul II did, he's a Pope, a couple of Popes ago, John Paul II, he begins his teaching called the theology of the body with these words, where Jesus points back to the beginning and says, in the beginning, it wasn't like this. Moses allowed you to divorce because you're broken because you have a hard heart because of the fact that yes, you're good. We're here in this world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
We're created good, but we're broken. We live in a world that's holy, but it's fallen. And so he says, yeah, for the hardness of your hearts, Moses allowed for divorce. But from the beginning, it was not so. What John Paul II did is he goes back and says, what did it look like in the beginning? What were relationships like in the beginning before the fall?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And we recognize that those relationships were radically different. And Jesus has come to restore that. So as Christians, Jesus makes it incredibly clear. that there is no room, no room for divorce and remarriage at all. In fact, he doesn't give any qualification. Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. Whoever divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Again, these are hard teachings and they get summed up really clearly in why Jesus can say this in the next couple of teachings. We have the rich man who comes up to Jesus and says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus says this public puzzling words. He says, why do you call me good? No one is good, but God alone. Now he's not saying, Hey dude, I'm not God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And how is it written of the Son of Man that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him. the healing of a boy with a mute spirit. And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd about them and scribes arguing with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
I'm not really, that's not me. Why are you calling me good? No, he's actually inviting this man to reflect more deeply on what he's about to say. He's why do you call me good? No one's good, but God alone. Hey, make the connection. I am good and I am God. Remember, Jesus has been demonstrating ever since chapter two that he truly is the Lord of heaven and earth, that he truly is God himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And so he's inviting this man to reflect more deeply upon him because in just a second, what he's going to say is, you lack one thing. Go sell what you have, give to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. Come follow me then. Your salvation will be dependent on whether or not you follow me. Who can make a claim like that except for God alone?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
I mean, honestly, there's no teacher. There's no rabbi. There's no professor. There's no priest. There's no one who can make the claim that say your eternal salvation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
is based off of whether or not you follow me that's why jesus the beginning of this says why do you call me good there is no one good but god alone he's inviting the man to reflect more deeply upon his personal identity as actually god and this is why i said the beginning of chapter 10 when the teaching of divorce in this further chapter 10 i'm teaching on wealth where jesus says
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
But my children, how hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And you might have heard it said that, you know, in Jerusalem, there was this entryway called the needle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And if it was only big enough for a camel to be unburdened, to crawl through on its knees, that in order for this camel to get through this gateway, you'd have to unsaddle it, essentially take all the material stuff off of it, and then it could go through. Maybe, maybe not. There's not really a ton of evidence for that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
But what the upshot really is, is here's a camel, which is the largest animal known to the people in the Middle East. I mean, they might have heard of elephants, but they're not familiar with them. They don't see them often. Taking the largest animal, camel, smallest aperture, the eye of a needle, and say, you can't get those things through. That's impossible. Jesus can say this. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Because of who he is. When it comes for the teachings on male and female, when it comes to the teaching on divorce and remarriage, when it comes to the teaching on choose me in heaven or don't choose me and you're choosing hell, and here when it comes to the teaching on wealth, Jesus is highlighting so powerfully who he really is. He's highlighting the fact that he is who he says he is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
He is God himself. And to say yes to him is to say yes to God. And to say no to him is to say no to God. Oh man, there's so much depth in all these teachings. And I know that some of these teachings, maybe all of them challenge us. Because I know, hey, as we're listening to this, as we're listening to God's word, we all have a story, right? We all have history.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Whether the history is one of poverty and of need and of great incredible want, or whether that history is of incredible wealth. And we're listening to these words saying, oh my gosh, God, what do you want me to do? Maybe our history is of a happy marriage, or maybe our history is of divorce. Maybe it's of divorce and remarriage. God, what do you want me to do?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
How are you calling me to get my life in line with yours? All of those invitations are challenges, and they can be incredibly overwhelming. And yet, and yet, here's the thing. God will never call us to do anything that he doesn't also provide us with the grace and the strength to actually do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. And he asked them, what are you discussing with them? And one of the crowd answered him, teacher, I brought my son to you for he has a mute spirit and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And so if you find yourself feeling accused, you find yourself right now feeling so nervous, maybe even find yourself feeling helpless. Like I can't even try. It's day 158. I can't go to day 159 because I'm done. I'm dead in the water. That is not true. The Lord brought you to this day because he has a word to speak to you. And that word is not just a word of conviction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
That word is a word of hope. And so regardless of whatever it is that you're wrestling with, regardless of whether we hear these words and are inspired or hear these words and are afraid, terrified, annoyed, angry. These words are words for you. And God is calling you higher.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Wherever it is, whatever your story is, again, please keep in mind, you are not disqualified from God's love, but you and I, we're both, we're both called higher. We're called to repent. We're called to turn back to the Lord. And we ask, okay, God, what do I need to cut out of my life? Okay, God, where do I need to repent? Okay, God, where do I need to go from here?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Because he has not given up on you. You guys, listen, please, my brothers, my sisters, he has not given up on you in this moment. Please do not give up on him. I am praying for you. Please pray for each other and please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And I asked your disciples to cast it out and they were not able. and he answered them o faithless generation how long am i to be with you how long am i to bear with you bring him to me and they brought the boy to him and when the spirit saw him immediately it convulsed the boy and he fell on the ground and rolled about foaming at the mouth And Jesus asked his father, How long has he had this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And he said, From childhood. And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us. And Jesus said to him, If you can, all things are possible to him who believes. Immediately, the father of the child cried out and said, I believe. Help my unbelief.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again. And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out. And the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could we not cast it out? And he said to them, This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting. Jesus again foretells his death and resurrection.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
They went on from there and passed through Galilee and he would not have anyone know it for he was teaching his disciples saying to them, the son of man will be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him. And when he is killed after three days, he will rise. But they did not understand the saying and they were afraid to ask him. true greatness. And they came to Capernaum.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And when he was in the house, he asked them, What were you discussing on the way? But they were silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve, and he said to them, If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. Another exorcist. John said to him, Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him because he was not following us. But Jesus said, Do not forbid him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
For no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak ill of me. For he that is not against us is for us. For truly I say to you, whoever gives a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose his reward. temptations to sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go to hell to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. For everyone will be salted with fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. Chapter 10, teachings about divorce. And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as his custom was, he taught them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? He answered them, what did Moses command you? They said, Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to put her away. But Jesus said to them, for your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And you can also subscribe to this podcast if the app in which you listen to this podcast allows you to subscribe. You can. You're invited to. You're also invited to share it and like it and rate it and all those things if you like. And if you don't, that's okay. No big deal. Because you are on day 158. Incredible. We're reading from Mark chapter nine and chapter 10 and praying Psalm 29.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the house, the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. Jesus blesses the children. And they were bringing children to him, that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, Let the children come to me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon them. the rich man. And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt down before him and asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
No one is good, but God alone. You know the commandments. Do not kill. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud. Honor your father and mother. And he said to him, teacher, all these I have observed from my youth. And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him, and said to him, You lack one thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me. At that saying his countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And the disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus said to them again, Children, how hard it is for those who have trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And they were exceedingly astonished and said to him, then who can be saved?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Jesus looked at them and said, with men, it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God. Peter began to say to him, behold, we have left everything and followed you. Jesus said, truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. But many that are first will be last and the last first. A third time, Jesus foretells his death and resurrection.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them, and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit upon him and scourge him and kill him. And after three days he will rise. the request of James and John.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, Grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory. But Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Are you able to drink the chalice that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? And they said to him, We are able. And Jesus said to them, The chalice that I drink, you will drink. And with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized. But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
The gospel of St. Mark chapter nine. And Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power. The transfiguration.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called to them and said to them, You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Bartimaeus receives his sight. And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, Call him. And they called the blind man, saying to him, Take heart, rise, he is calling you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, What do you want me to do for you? And the blind man said to him, Master, let me receive my sight. And Jesus said to him, Go your way. Your faith has made you well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of God, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name. Worship the Lord in holy attire. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
and after six days jesus took with him peter and james and john and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves and he was transfigured before them and his garments became glistening intensely white as no fuller on earth could bleach them and there appeared to them elijah with moses And they were talking to Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is well that we are here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
The Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf and Syrian like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the oaks to whirl and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry glory. The Lord sits enthroned over the flood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
The Lord sits enthroned as king forever. May the Lord give strength to his people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and we bless you and you bless us and you give us, you keep giving to us. And so we give you praise and we know that you are the one who's blessed. Lord God, in the gospel, you often ask, what is it you wish for? What is it that you want?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And if I don't know what I want, if I don't know what it is that I wish for, if I don't know what is the deep desire of my heart, then I don't know how to answer this question.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And so, Lord God, before I even can ask, before I can even ask what I wish for, I ask that you please give us all a spirit of clarity, a spirit of actually knowing what it is that our heart longs for, knowing what it is that we really truly desire. Because our hearts are a cloud of misjudgment. Our hearts are clouded by a number of contradictory desires.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And so, Lord God, I don't even know what my heart wants half the time. And so I ask that you please, before I can give you any answer of what it is that you want me to do for you, I need to know what it is. I need to receive a pure heart from you, a pure heart that can see not just other people well, but also see what it is that is in the depth of my heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
God, I want to approach you always with clarity. I want to approach you always with confidence and with courage. And so I ask that you please send into my heart, into the hearts of all those who are praying with me now, that spirit of clarity, of confidence, and of courage. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Okay, gosh, oh brother, here we go. So it's so incredible. I mean, there's so many things that I wanna highlight, as I'll say, every single time we get to the gospels, because there's just, I mean, again, Mark is action-packed. Every seven verses, he's onto a different story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Sometimes it's just one verse, and he's onto a different section where he's talking about, and Jesus then did the next thing here. So one of the things we're going to highlight is just the fact that here is Jesus beginning of chapter nine in the transfiguration. Now we're going to talk more about this when we get to the gospel of St. Matthew, because St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
Matthew gives us a couple more details when it comes to what they talked about. Same with Luke. They talk about a couple of different interesting points. For example, here's Moses and Elijah. Moses and Elijah represent the law. Moses represents the law. And Elijah represents the prophets. And here's the old covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
And here is Jesus conversing with them as not just their equal, but when the father's voice speaks out over Jesus, it's very clear that Jesus is not merely the equal of Moses and Elijah. He transcends Moses and Elijah. He is greater than Moses and Elijah because that voice coming from the cloud, remember that Shekinah glory cloud? That voice that says, this is my beloved son. Listen to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 158: The Reality of Sin (2025)
This is the gosh, this is such a powerful witness because once again, Jesus is going to claim some things about himself that are massively dramatic and that are, that are massively. For example, when we finished chapter eight, we talked about yesterday.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Now, the good news is that there were many Jews, thousands of Jews who came to Christ. We know that is completely true. At the same time, our Lord wants every one of his people to belong to him fully. And so we continue to pray, especially for all the history that we have, you know, history of 2000 years of Christians and versus Jews. And that becomes a deadly and tragic history.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemaeus and we greeted the brethren and stayed with them for one day. The next day we departed and came to Caesarea and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist who was one of the seven and stayed with him. And he had four unmarried daughters who prophesied,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
So we pray in repentance of those things, but we also continue to pray for the fact that those who are people of the old covenant, that they realize and encounter Jesus, who is the fulfillment of everything that they long for, as he is for us, the fulfillment of everything we long for. We pray for our brothers and sisters, the Jewish people. Yeah, right? Okay, moving on to 2 Corinthians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
We have, in 2 Corinthians, I just, there's something so powerful about, here is St. Paul talking about how he has lived.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
He's talking about how he, I love this section where he says, in chapter six, he says, we commend ourselves in every way, through great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, calamities, all these things, also positive things, by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, even more. He says, with weapons of righteousness. in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Here is St. Paul who's just saying, basically, our mouth is open to you, Corinthians. Our heart is wide. And it's just, there's something so powerful about St. Paul. He's rejoicing in the Corinthians because as he notes in chapter seven, they responded to his last letter, the first letter of St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Paul to the Corinthians, which was kind of him throwing the smack down, putting it down and saying, okay, listen, you have to stop doing this. You have to start doing this. And here are all the ways in which you are not living up to your high call of being a In chapter seven, he says that, ah, chapter seven, verse eight, he says, for even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
And then he puts in parentheses, though I did regret it, for I see that the letter grieved you, though only for a while. I know that experience of regret. saying a word. I'm like, I don't know. I feel like I have to say this word because it's a hard word. I don't want to say it, but I have to say it. I regret it because I'm making you feel bad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
But he goes on to say, as it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. And that's the key. It's like, you know, I don't know anyone who likes making someone sad. I don't know anyone who likes, you know, correcting people. Maybe actually, I take that back. I know there's some people who really enjoy correcting people.
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Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
But most of us, we don't want to grieve people. We don't want to make people sad. But he says, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief so that you suffered no loss through us. And he has this principle then, he says in verse 10, for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
But worldly grief produces death. And that's one of the reasons why, you know, I'm sometimes torn by the idea that people say, you know, hey, live with no regrets because whatever you went through is brought you to this place, you know, made you the person you are today. Sometimes I think, well, that's fine. That's true. But maybe the person you are today is worse, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
While we were staying for some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, Thus says the Holy Spirit, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. When we heard this, we and the people there begged him not to go up to Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Maybe we should regret some of these things. But in Christ, here St. Paul is saying, but in Christ, godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret. That makes sense, because if I placed all those things in my past, all those even horrible things that I've done under God's dominion, under his lordship, allowing him to not only forgive me, but also to transform me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Well, then, yes, all of those things have contributed to this transformation. But that doesn't mean that those were all good. And if I could go back again, I probably would not want to do those things. Does that make sense? I hope it makes sense. But St. Paul goes on to say he wants the Corinthians to be generous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
And he wants them to be generous, not because he's guilting them into this, and he even says that, but because he wants them to be like Jesus. Remember, we talked about how he wants them to be transformed from glory to glory, bit by bit, more glory and more glory, to be like Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
And so he's saying in chapter 8, he's saying, basically, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that by his poverty you might become rich. And he's saying, just do the same thing. Be like Jesus. And that's the whole goal of the spiritual life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
The whole goal of the Christian life is not to just live decent lives or be decent people or be nicer, you know, pay your taxes on time and stay out of jail and wipe your nose. The point is to be like Jesus. So here's St. Paul saying, I need you to be generous, but not because I need you to be generous, but because you need to be like Jesus who himself was so generous. Ah, what a gift it is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
It's a massive gift. Here we are on day 342, and it has been an incredible gift to be on this incredible journey with this incredible community. I know, I know that you're praying for each other because I get letters every single day that reveal miracles, like true miracles. Everything from someone just being grateful that they've been able to get this far through the
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
and their hearts have been changed to people going to confession for the first time in years and years, to people going back to mass, to people actually achieving pregnancy when that was thought to be impossible. All of these things have been happening because of God's grace and because of your prayers for each other. So please keep praying for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Then Paul answered, What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, The will of the Lord be done. After these days, we made ready and went up to Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
And some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, bringing us to the house of Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple with whom we should lodge. Paul visits James at Jerusalem. When we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. On the following day, Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
After greeting them, he related one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when they heard it, they glorified God. And they said to him, You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
It is day 342, and we are reading from Acts of the Apostles, chapter 21. Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapters 6, 7, and 8, as well as Proverbs chapter 29, verses 1 through 4. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
They are all zealous for the law, and they have been told about you, that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or observe the customs. What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads. Then Paul took the men, and the next day he purified himself with them, and went into the temple, to give notice when the days of purification would be fulfilled, and the offering presented for every one of them. Paul arrested in the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, who had seen him in the temple, stirred up all the crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching men everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he also brought Greeks into the temple, and he has defiled this holy place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
for they had previously seen Trophimus, the Ephesian, with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. Then all the city was aroused, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. And as they were trying to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them, and when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He inquired who he was and what he had done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Some in the crowd shouted one thing, some another, and as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd, for the mob of the people followed, crying, away with him. Paul defends himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, may I say something to you? And he said, do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian then who recently stirred up a revolt and led the 4,000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness? Paul replied, I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city. I beg you, let me speak to the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast to receive daily episodes and daily updates. And... I don't know, all sorts of stuff. But today is day 342. We're reading Acts chapter 21, 2 Corinthians chapters 6, 7, and 8, as well as Proverbs chapter 29, verses 1 through 4.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
And when he had given him leave, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great hush, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, saying, The second letter of St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Working together with him then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, at the acceptable time, I have listened to you and helped you on the day of salvation. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watching, hunger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God, with weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left, in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolded. And we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
We are treated as imposters and yet are true, as unknown and yet well-known, as dying and behold, we live, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything. Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians. Our heart is wide. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
In return, I speak as to children, widen your hearts also. The Temple of the Living God Do not be mismated with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? Chapter 7.
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Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit and make holiness perfect in the fear of God. Paul's joy at the Corinthians repentance and zeal. Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one. We have corrupted no one. We have taken advantage of no one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. I have great confidence in you. I have great pride in you. I am filled with comfort. With all our affliction, I'm overjoyed. For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus. and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. For even if I've made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
For I see that the letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret. But worldly grief produces death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 21, Paul's journey to Jerusalem. And when he had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to Kos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Petara. And having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what punishment. At every point you have proved yourselves guiltless in the matter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
So although I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong, nor on account of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your zeal for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. Therefore we are comforted. And besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus because his mind has been set at rest by you all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
For if I have expressed to him some pride in you, I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you is true, so our boasting before Titus has proved true. And his heart goes out all the more to you as he remembers the obedience of you all and the fear and trembling with which you received him. I rejoice because I have perfect confidence in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Chapter eight, encouragement to be generous. We want you to know brethren about the grace of God, which has been shown in the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of liberality on their part.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. And this, not as we expected, but first they gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Accordingly, we have urged Titus that as he has already made a beginning, he should also complete among you this gracious work. Now, as you excel in everything, in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in your love for us, see that you excel in this gracious work also. I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. And in this matter, I give my advice. It is best for you now to complete what a year ago you began not only to do, but to desire, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a man has, not according to what he has not. I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of equality, your abundance at the present time should supply their want so that their abundance may supply your want, that there may be equality.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left, we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload its cargo. And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. Through the Spirit, they told Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
As it is written, he who gathered much had nothing over and he who gathered little had no lack. Commendation of Titus. For the glory of the Lord and to show our goodwill. We intend that no one should blame us about this liberal gift which we are administering, for we aim at what is honorable, not only in the Lord's sight, but also in the sight of men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
And with them we are sending our brother whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker in your service. And as for our brethren, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
He who is often reproved yet stiffens his neck will suddenly be broken beyond healing. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan. He who loves wisdom makes his father glad, but one who keeps company with harlots squanders his substance. By justice a king gives stability to the land, but one who exacts gifts ruins it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Thank you for having, giving us older siblings in Christ who have been willing to suffer for your name, who have been willing to give of their lives, to give everything so that years later, we can hear your word. Years later, we can know who you are. We can know your heart and we can become part of your family. Thank you, Lord, for those people who are named in today's readings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Thank you for Paul, of course. And also thank you for all of those Ephesians. Thank you for all of those people who supported Paul, all those Corinthians who repented at his letter. We thank you for the people who brought us to you in our lives. If we had Sunday school teachers, thank you for them, Lord God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
And when our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey, and they all, with wives and children, brought us on our way till we were outside the city. And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed and bade one another farewell." Then we went on board the ship and they returned home.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
If we had people who taught us religious education or people who taught us how to read the Bible or people who taught us how to say the Lord's prayer, the Our Father, thank you, Lord. Thank you for our parents. If we have parents, Lord God, that showed us who you are, thank you for them. helped us take one step closer to you, maybe many steps closer to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
And for those who maybe it was their job to do that and they didn't do it, they did it poorly or they didn't do it at all, they worked against it, Lord God, we ask you to please meet them with your love. Let this moment be a moment for them where they can come to know you. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
We have a lot of readings these last couple of days. It was kind of easy, smooth sailing for a while. There were only a couple of chapters. And now, these days, you know, four chapters a day. Sheesh. But it's been good. And one of the things we see here at Course in the Acts of the Apostles is Paul continues to be on mission. Paul continues to move around. He arrives at Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
And remember, Paul said he knew that the Lord keeps telling him that he was going to meet with afflictions and imprisonment when he got to Jerusalem. And hey, guess what? He's met with a lot of opposition. One of the things we see here is we see this growing division between the source of Christianity, which is Judaism, and Christ. Christianity, you know what I'm saying?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
Basically, between the fact that Christianity begins as the fulfillment of Judaism, but now we see a growing divide. And that growing divide is basically necessary because of the fact that Christians, the church, has discerned that Greeks are able to be part, full-fledged members of the body of Christ without circumcision, without observing the Jewish laws.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
And we see this divide growing wider and wider, which is one of the reasons why here, even in chapter 21, we have Paul visiting the temple and he's doing all the external things. He's doing all of the purification rituals. He's doing everything that needs to be done in order to like show himself. No, no, I still
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 342: Generous Hearts (2024)
i'm a good jew like i'm still you know you don't have to be mad at me essentially but he's falsely accused right of bringing this greek this gentile into the temple and so this mob comes out to him but one of the things we just take away from this whole scenario here in chapter 21 is this growing divide between judaism and christianity which is of course horrible because jesus came first to the jews first he came to the covenant people of god
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
Hey everyone, before we get started today, I want to let you know the Bible in a Year has brought the Word of God to so many people. As you know, you're part of this community, changing lives in so many incredible ways. We're humbled to play this role in God's plan and consider it our ongoing mission to keep bringing the Word of God to as many people as possible.
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Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
Yet we cannot give them wives of our daughters. For the sons of Israel had sworn, Cursed be he who gives a wife to Benjamin. So they said, Behold, there is the yearly feast of the Lord at Shiloh, which is north of Bethel on the east of the highway that goes from Bethel to Shechem and south of Labona. And they commanded the Benjaminites, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, and watch.
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Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
If the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards and seize each man his wife from the daughters of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, Grant them graciously to us, because we did not take for each man of them his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them, else you would now be guilty. And the Benjaminites did so. and took their wives according to their number from the dancers whom they carried off.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
Then they went and returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and dwelt in them. And the sons of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and family. And they went out from there, every man to his inheritance. In those days, there was no king in Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Praise him all his angels. Praise him all his host. Praise him sun and moon. Praise him all you shining stars. Praise him you highest heavens and you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created and he established them forever and ever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
He fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed. Praise the Lord from the earth. You see monsters and all the deeps fire and hail snow and frost stormy wind fulfilling his command mountains and all hills fruit trees and all cedars beasts and all cattle creeping things and flying birds and He has raised up a horn for his people. Praise for all his saints.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
For the people of Israel who are near to him, praise the Lord. Father, it is right that we give you praise and it's right that we give you glory in the midst of horror, in the midst of true horror, in the midst of true evil. We thank you for your word. We thank you for being our king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
It's part of our story. The Bible translation we're reading today is from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. As always, I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. To download your Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And if you did and printed it out, you'd be on the third page.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
We thank you for guiding us in not only the depths of our conscience, not only with your spirit, but also with your truth and with your life, with your law, with your word, and by your grace that gives us power to accomplish your will and accomplish your word and accomplish your law. Thank you, Father. Give your praise today. Help us to keep moving forward. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Oh, brother. Okay, there we go. I told you, I told you that this is some of the darkest stuff in the Bible is here in the end of the book of Judges, chapter 19, 20, and 21. So you've already caught the story, right? Here's this Levite. He's a priest, and he takes a wife. No, it's not even a wife. It's a half-wife, essentially.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
He has called her husband a couple times in scripture here, but she's not his full wife. She's a concubine, which already goes to show, you know, there are people in the Old Testament, we've already seen them, who had concubines. It never ends well. It never ends well because God made it very, very clear. I mean, from the very second chapter of the book of Genesis.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
That this is the reason why a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. They should become one flesh. This is so, so key. So whenever we see these breaks in God's law, breaks in what is clear that God has said, especially when it comes to family, this is so incredibly important, especially when it comes to sexual relationships.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
Whenever we see a break in that, what happens is catastrophe, catastrophe. And that's exactly what happens today. where she runs off, goes back to her father's home. The Levite comes and gets her for whatever reason. It eludes me, escapes me why the woman's father wants her husband, I guess, for lack of a better term, to stay extra days. But finally they leave in the twilight of the evening.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And so because of that, they go to, I mean, think about this even, they don't go into Jebus where the Jebusites are, Jerusalem. They go to the land of Benjaminites in Gibeah, thinking these are our brethren, right? These are our family. This is a tribe of the house of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And yet here they are and just disaster happens where the men of Gibeah want to essentially molest the Levite, but instead they throw out his concubine. And it's just the most tragic, tragic, tragic thing. It is not the right thing. Again, remember this, remember this so, so clearly. not only is her death the wrong thing, not only was the Levite pushing her out the door.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
You'd be starting a whole new leaf, whole new chapter, I guess. You know, and tomorrow we're starting a whole new book for crying out loud. It's amazing. If you haven't yet subscribed to this app, I do not know you, man, but just subscribe, please. If you want to rate it, you can. If you don't, that's completely fine too. Because why? Because it's day 95 and we're trucking right along.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
I mean, just the horror of that. Also her taking him, taking her body, cutting it up into 12 pieces and sending it to the 12 tribes of Israel. Also horror, right? I mean, this is like a form of literally from a horror movie. Um, But then here are the other tribes saying, who did this, Benjamin? We're going to go kill them. And so then they do, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
They go against Benjamin and they kill them and they kill everybody, including all the women. So then they're stuck thinking, oh, wait, what have we just done? We've just now cut off essentially Benjamin from the 12 tribes of Israel, which are needed. And so, and we also, and they also, you probably got this. They made a vow that none of our daughters will become wives of the Benjaminites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
So what are you going to do? They then, gosh, it's just so awful. They go to Jabesh Gilead and they kill everybody. Um, and they basically kidnapped 400 women who had not been married before 400 virgins. It's okay. Here's 400 wives still wasn't enough. So then gave permission to the Benjaminites to kidnap women who were worshiping the Lord at Shiloh and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
saying that this is a way out of our vow because we didn't give them permission. If you took your daughter, that's okay because they just took her. You didn't break your vow by giving her to these men as their wives. And again, if that sounds messed up to you, good. Good, because everything, everything gets summed up by the last line in the book of Judges 21-25.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
Judges 21-25 sums everything up so darn perfectly, where it says, in those days, there was no king in Israel. Every man did what was right in his own eyes. And this sums up just so much. And that's one of the reasons why I love the book of Judges. This book of Judges sums up where we are right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
completely where we are in our culture, where we are in our country, where we are in the world right now, where we have given ourselves over to relativism to such a degree that we just do what's right in our own. You know what it is to do what's right in your own eyes? That's called relativism. That is who knows what truth is. You have your truth. I have my truth. You have what you think is right.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
I have what I think is right. One of the reasons why the book of Judges is so appropriate for us today is because it's so broken and we live in such a broken place. But brokenness has been chosen because truth had been revealed to the people of Israel. They chose to not pay attention to it. And truth has been revealed to us and we choose to not pay attention to it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And that's one of the reasons why this book of Judges is so critical to us to never, ever forget. not only this process of turning away from God, doing what was right in our own eyes, and then suffering the consequences for that, but also the redemption part. And the redemption part is, then we call out to the Lord. We recognize what we've done. We call out to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
He hears our prayers, just like he heard the prayers of the Israelites. And he comes to our aid. And that's what we're going to see in the next three days in the first book of Samuel. The next three days, we're going to get through the first eight chapters of the book of Samuel, but then we're going to take a break. You probably have seen this coming.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
If you have already downloaded the reading plan, recognize we're taking a break and we're taking a seven day journey through the book of the gospel of John, which is coming up soon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
Judges 19, 20 and 21, praying Psalm 148. The book of Judges chapter 19, the Levites concubine. Then her husband arose and went after her to speak kindly to her and bring her back. He had with him his servant and a couple of donkeys, and he came to her father's house, and when the girl's father saw him, he came with joy to meet him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
oh man but three at first three quick days in first samuel one and two all the way to first samuel six through eight that's coming up tomorrow and the days after i am praying for you please pray for me my name is brother mike i cannot wait to see you tomorrow god bless
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
So what I'm saying is the end of this year is not going to be the end of Bible in a Year. So far, Ascension has been able to add the podcast to YouTube. You might have found it that way. Maybe you're watching right now on YouTube. And also, we're working on translating it into different languages so you could have the Bible in a year in other languages than English.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And his father-in-law, the girl's father, made him stay, and remained there with him for three days. So they ate and drank and lodged there. And on the fourth day they arose early in the morning, and he prepared to go. But the girl's father said to his son-in-law, Strengthen your heart with a morsel of bread, and after that you may go. So the two men sat and ate and drank together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And the girl's father said to the man, Be pleased to spend the night, and let your heart be merry.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
and when the man rose up to go his father-in-law urged him till he lodged there again and on the fifth day he arose early in the morning to depart and the girl's father said strengthen your heart and tarry until the day declines so they ate both of them and when the man and his concubine and his servant rose up to depart
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
His father-in-law, the girl's father, said to him, Behold, now the day has waned toward evening. Please tarry all night. Behold, the day draws to its close. Lodge here, and let your heart be merry. And tomorrow you shall arise early in the morning for your journey, and go home. But the man would not spend the night. He rose up and departed, and arrived opposite Jebus, that is, Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
He had with him a couple of saddled donkeys, and his concubine was with him. When they were near Jebus, the day was far spent, and the servant said to his master, Come now, let us turn aside to this city of the Jebusites and spend the night in it. And his master said to him, We will not turn aside into the city of foreigners who do not belong to the sons of Israel, but we will pass on to Gibeah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And he said to his servant, Come, and let us draw near to one of these places and spend the night at Gibeah or at Ramah. So they passed on, and went their way, and the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. And they turned aside there to go in and spend the night at Gibeah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And he went in and sat down in the open square of the city, for no man took them into his house to spend the night. And behold, an old man was coming from his work in the field at evening. The man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he was sojourning in Gibeah. The men of the place were Benjaminites. And he lifted up his eyes and saw the wayfarer in the open square of the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And the old man said, Where are you going? And from where do you come? And he said to him, We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim from which I come. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to my home, and nobody takes me into his house."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
We have straw and food for our donkeys with bread and wine for me and your maidservant and the young man with your servants. There is no lack of anything. And the old man said, Peace be to you. I will care for all your wants. Only do not spend the night in the square. So he brought him into his house and fed the donkeys and they washed their feet and ate and drank.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
But, of course, this takes a significant investment to bring projects like these free of cost to our listening communities. And we want to keep them free of cost to all those people who participate because we want to get the Word of God out there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
the crimes of the Benjaminites of Gibeah. As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, base fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door, and they said to the old man, the master of the house, bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, no, my brethren, do not act so wickedly, seeing that this man has come into my house, do not do this vile thing. Behold, here are my virgin daughter and his concubine. Let me bring them out now, ravish them and do with them what seems good to you. But against this man, do not do so vile a thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and put her out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. And as morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was till it was light.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And her master rose up in the morning, and when he opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, behold, there was his concubine lying at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, get up, let us be going. But there was no answer. Then he put her upon the donkey and the man rose up and went away to his home.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And when he entered his house, he took a knife and laying hold of his concubine, he divided her limb by limb into 12 pieces. Chapter 20 The Tribes of Israel Attack the Benjaminites Then all the sons of Israel came out from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, and the congregation assembled as one man to the Lord at Mizpah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And because of that, we have to rely on generous contributions from listeners like you to help defray these costs and to enable us to continually provide new audiences with this life-changing content. So if you would like to help support the Bible in a year mission, you can go to ascensionpress.com support. That's ascensionpress.com support.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And the chiefs of all the people of all the tribes of Israel presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, 400,000 men on foot that drew the sword. Now the Benjaminites heard that the sons of Israel had gone up to Mizpah and the sons of Israel said, tell us. How was this wickedness brought to pass?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and said, I came to Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night. And the men of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house by night. They meant to kill me, and they ravished my concubine, and she is dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And I took my concubine and cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel, for they have committed abomination and wantonness in Israel. Behold, you sons of Israel, all of you give your advice and counsel here. And all the people arose as one man saying, none of us will go to his tent and none of us will return to his house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
But now this is what we will do to Gibeah. We will go up against it by lot and we will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel and a hundred of a thousand and a thousand of ten thousand to bring provisions for the people that when they come they may repay Gibeah of Benjamin for all the wanton crime which they have committed in Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
So all the men of Israel gathered against the city united as one man. And the tribes of Israel sent men throughout all the tribe of Benjamin saying, What wickedness is this that has taken place among you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
now therefore give up the men the base fellows in gibeah that we may put them to death and put away evil from israel but the benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brethren the sons of israel and the benjaminites came together out of the cities of gibeah to go out to battle against the sons of israel
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
and the benjaminites mustered out of their cities on that day twenty-six thousand men that drew the sword besides the inhabitants of gibeah who mustered seven hundred picked men among all these were seven hundred picked men who were left-handed every one could sling a stone at a hare and not miss And the men of Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered 400,000 men that drew the sword.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
All these were men of war. The sons of Israel arose and went up to Bethel and inquired of God, which of us shall go up first to battle against the Benjaminites? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up first. Then the sons of Israel rose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin, and the men of Israel drew up the battle line against them at Gibeah. The Benjaminites came out of Gibeah and struck down on that day 22,000 men of the Israelites. But the people, the men of Israel, took courage and again formed the battle line in the same place where they had formed it on the first day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And the sons of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until the evening. And they inquired of the Lord, Shall we again draw near to battle against our brethren, the Benjaminites? And the Lord said, Go up against them. So the sons of Israel came near against the Benjaminites the second day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And Benjamin went against them out of Gibeah the second day and struck down 18,000 men of the sons of Israel. All these were men who drew the sword. Then all the sons of Israel, the whole army, went up and came to Bethel and wept. They sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days. And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministered before it in those days. saying, Shall we yet again go out to battle against our brethren, the Benjaminites, or shall we cease? And the Lord said, Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
So Israel set men in ambush round about Gibeah. And the sons of Israel went up against the Benjaminites on the third day and set themselves in array against Gibeah as at other times. And the Benjaminites went out against the people and were drawn away from the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And as at other times they began to strike and kill some of the people in the highways, one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah, and in the open country about thirty men of Israel. And the Benjaminites said, They are routed before us, as at the first. But the men of Israel said, Let us flee and draw them away from the city to the highways.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place and set themselves in array at Baal Tamar. And the men of Israel, who were in ambush, rushed out of their places west of Geba. And there came up against Gibeah 10,000 picked men out of all Israel. And the battle was hard, but the Benjaminites did not know that disaster was close upon them. And the Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And the men of Israel destroyed 25,100 men of Benjamin that day. All these were men who drew the sword. So the Benjaminites saw that they were defeated. The men of Israel gave ground to Benjamin because they trusted to the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah. And the men in ambush made haste and rushed upon Gibeah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
The men in ambush moved out and struck the whole city with the edge of the sword. Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in ambush was that when they made a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city, the men of Israel should turn in battle. Now, Benjamin had begun to strike and kill about 30 men of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 95, and we're reading from Judges chapter 19, 20, and 21. We're finishing up the book of Judges, as I mentioned yesterday, the last couple of days. We are, gosh, it gets worse and worse.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
They said, surely they are struck down before us as in the first battle. But when the signal began to rise out of the city in a column of smoke, the Benjaminites looked behind them and behold, the whole city went up in smoke to heaven. Then the men of Israel turned and the men of Benjamin were dismayed for they saw that disaster was close upon them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
Therefore, they turned their backs before the men of Israel in the direction of the wilderness and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
but the battle overtook them and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in the midst of them cutting down the benjaminites they pursued them and trod them down from nohah as far as opposite gibeah on the east eighteen thousand men of benjamin fell all of them men of valor and they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of ramon
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
Five thousand men of them were cut down in the highways, and they were pursued hard to Gidom, and two thousand men of them were slain. So all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men that drew the sword, all of them men of valor. But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Ramon, the abode at the rock of Ramon four months.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And the men of Israel turned back against the Benjaminites and struck them with the edge of the sword, men and beasts and all that they found. And all the towns which they found, they set on fire. Chapter 21 The Benjaminites Saved from Extinction Now the men of Israel had sworn at Mizpah, none of us shall give his daughter in marriage to Benjamin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And the people came to Bethel and sat there till evening before God. And they lifted up their voices and wept bitterly. And they said, O Lord, the God of Israel, why has this come to pass in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel? And the next day the people arose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And the sons of Israel said, Which of all the tribes of Israel did not come up in assembly to the Lord? For they had taken a great oath concerning him who did not come up to the Lord, to Mizpah, saying, He shall be put to death. And the sons of Israel had compassion for Benjamin their brother, and said, One tribe is cut off from Israel this day. One tribe is cut off from Israel this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them any of our daughters for wives? And they said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel that did not come up to the Lord at Mizpah? And behold, no one had come to the camp from Jabesh-Gilead to the assembly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
For when the people were mustered, behold, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead was there. So the congregation sent 12,000 of their bravest men there and commanded them, Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead with the edge of the sword, also the women and the little ones. This is what you shall do. Every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall utterly destroy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead 400 young virgins who had not known man by lying with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
and they brought them to the camp at shiloh which is in the land of canaan then the whole congregation sent word to the benjaminites who were at the rock of ramon and proclaimed peace to them and benjamin returned at that time and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of jabesh-gilead but they did not suffice for them
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
The whole story gets so much worse and so much worse. So keep that in mind. We're also praying Psalm 148 because we definitely need some prayers on a day like today with the awful stories that we're about to expose ourselves to. Wow, am I building this up enough? Hopefully not too much, not overselling the horror, the terrible things that are about to happen. But it's part of the story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 95: The Sin of Benjamin (2025)
And the people had compassion on Benjamin because the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. Then the elders of the congregation said, What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin? And they said, There must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin that a tribe be not blotted out from Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
For in seven days I will send rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground. And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
Because you have this story where Noah planted a vineyard and drank the wine, became drunk. lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, told his two brothers outside. Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid upon their shoulders, walked backwards. They did not see the nakedness of their father. And you say, wait, how is Ham cursed now?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
And how is Canaan cursed because he saw his father's nakedness? Well, it is believed by many scripture scholars that seeing their father's nakedness is an idiomatic expression for essentially laying with their father's wife, essentially having sex with his mom or his father's wife.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
That would not simply be typically in this kind of context, an act of lust, but actually an act of trying to dominate his own father, trying to humiliate his own father and emasculate his own father. And so Shem and Japheth did not do that. They honored their father. And so you have Ham being the father of Canaan and Canaan being the enemy of the people of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
And so you have this beginning of this, once again, the break of families.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
And this is one of the things we're going to find again and again as we continue to move through scripture these days ahead, is that when we follow the family, because pretty soon we're going to leave Noah, not yet quite, but we're going to leave Noah, we're going to be introduced to Abraham pretty quickly, or Abram and his wife Sarai pretty quickly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
What we're going to find when we follow families is families are consistently broken. And families might not be as broken as this, thing that Ham had done with his father's wife, but definitely broken in so many ways. Once again, the dignity that we have as human beings made God's image and likeness only seems to accent the murderous intent of our hearts, our willingness to do evil at times.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
And so what do we do? We say, okay, God, I place myself under your dominion. I place myself under your lordship and I place myself under your grace because I know you've called me to heights. You may be in your image and likeness and yet in my heart, I'm broken. And so I need your grace and I ask for your grace. I beg for your grace and I place myself under the dominion of your grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
You guys, we're going to continue our journey through the Bible. This is the Bible in a Year podcast. If you're interested in getting daily updates, you can subscribe to this podcast, in which case it'll pop up every single day as a podcast for you to listen to.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
And Noah and his sons and his wife and his son's wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood of clean animals and of animals that are not cleaned and of birds and of everything that creeps in the ground. Two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah as God had commanded Noah. And after seven days, the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
If you'd like to have daily updates or regular updates and be on our list, you can text the word Catholic Bible to the number 33777, and you will get all the updates you can handle, my friend. It'll be phenomenal. I can't believe we're already starting this. This is our journey together. And I'm praying for you. Please pray for each other and pray for me. God bless you. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on that day, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth and the windows of the heavens were opened and rain fell upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
On the very same day, Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, and they and every beast according to its kind, and all the cattle according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, every bird of every sort.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life, and they that entered, male and female of all flesh." went in as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in. The flood continued forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
The waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters, and the waters prevailed so mightily upon the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed upon the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, birds, cattle, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm upon the earth, and every man. Everything on the dry land in whose nostril was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the air. They were blotted out from the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
This is day four, so let's get started. We are reading today from Genesis. Genesis chapter 7 and chapter 9, as well as diving back into the Psalms, but all the way back to the beginning. We're going to be reading Psalm 1. So to get your Bibles queued up, Genesis chapter 7, 8, and 9, and Psalm 1. A couple of reminders.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
Only Noah was left and those that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days. But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. God made a wind blow over the earth and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed. The rains from the heavens was restrained.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
And the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days, the waters had abated. And in the seventh month, on the 17th day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters continued to abate until the 10th month. In the 10th month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
At the end of 40 days, Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made and sent forth a raven. And it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put forth his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore. In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
In the second month, on the 27th day of the month, the earth was dry. Then God said to Noah, Go forth from the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
And every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves upon the earth went forth by families out of the ark. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odor, the Lord said in his heart, And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea into your hand they are delivered.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
The Bible translation that I'm using is the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. It's the RSVCE, the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. If you want to read along as well as listen along, you can download your Bible in a Year reading plan by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Go to the website ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you green plants, I give you everything. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood. For your lifeblood, I will surely require a reckoning. Of every beast, I will require it. And of man, and of every man's brother, I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
For God made man in his own image. And you, be fruitful and multiply. Bring forth abundantly on the earth and multiply in it. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all future generations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
I set my bow in the cloud and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
When the bow is in the clouds, I will look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth. The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was peopled. Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and he told his two brothers outside,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, "'Cursed be Canaan! A slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers.'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
He also said, "'Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem, and let Canaan be his slave.' God enlarged Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem and let Canaan be his slave. After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years and he died. Psalm 1, The Two Ways
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
You can also subscribe in your podcast app, and we will keep showing up every morning for you. And then lastly, if you want to sign up for our email list, you can do that by texting the word Catholic Bible to 33777. You probably have that memorized by now after these four days. Catholic Bible 233-777. Let's get started. Genesis 7 and 9.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does he prospers. The wicked are not so.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
but are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for revealing your love for us, your faithfulness to us, that your love is unstoppable and unconditional. And we give you praise for revealing how you have used even the destructive power of water to renew the face of the earth. Lord God, all of your gifts, all of creation can be used for good. They can be used for ill.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
They can bring forth life and they can bring forth death. But you are good. You are the giver of life. And all life lies in your hand. All life lies in your power. And so we place our lives in your hands. We place our lives under your dominion and authority this day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, amen. Gosh, okay, so we have the story of Noah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
We had last, yesterday, had heard about how Noah had made the ark and he did all that God had commanded him. And that was one of the refrains that's so good. We know that Noah was a righteous man. It says again and again in scripture, Noah was righteous. He found favor in the eyes of the Lord. And as everything that God had asked him to do, he did.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
Noah did all this and he did all that God had commanded him. And then there was the floodwaters that destroyed the earth and destroyed all those who were not in the ark. That's a story that's probably one of the most well-known stories in the entire Bible. And they have the rainbow in the air.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
And there's something really powerful about that rainbow, the archer's bow, that is not going to be used for war, not going to be used for destruction or death. but God is setting down his bow and saying that I will no longer, will never ever again destroy the earth by a flood. And so here God's making peace by making a covenant with Noah and his family. It's remarkable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
There's also this notion, a couple of things change after this, right? There's a couple of things that God makes incredibly clear. The first thing is, The Lord smelled the offering that Noah made. He said, I'll never again curse the ground because of man. For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again destroy a living creature as I have done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
And so you have the sacrifice of Noah and the response of God is like, yeah, I lay down my bow, right? But also you have the next in chapter nine, beginning of chapter nine, where you have God saying that two things. One is you can eat of the animals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
Now there is a, there's an element where there was not necessarily the commandment to eat or the permission granted to eat of animals before the flood, but then God gives permission. And it also gives a prohibition of against murder. Now, obviously, murder had already been proscribed. It had been prohibited. It had been spoken against, right? At some point, well, sorry, I say obviously.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
It's not in the text that God has prohibited murder. I think that would just be one of those obvious things, but who knows? Maybe I'm incorrect, but this is where God speaks in chapter nine, and he says, whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. for God made man in his own image. And so there's this first clear prohibition, I guess you'd say, against murder.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
Then the Lord said to Noah, Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive upon the face of all the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
And the covenant between God and mankind is interwoven with reminders of God's gift of human life and man's murderous violence. That's a quote from the Catechism, paragraph 2260. I want to say that again. It says, the covenant between God and man is interwoven with reminders of God's gift of human life. That is God's gift of human life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
That God made man, he says this, whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. That's a gift to us as human beings to be made in God's image and likeness. That's God's gift of human life. And also man's murderous violence. That one of the things we recognize is,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
is that the story of Noah points out the fact that human beings in our hearts are broken. We heard it in chapter three of Genesis, that story of the fall. We saw it in chapter four with Cain and Abel. And we see it now as we continue in the story of the brokenness of the human heart, that actually the thoughts of the human heart are, as scripture says, are murderous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
And so what we need to do is we need to bring those thoughts. We need to bring those desires of the human heart under God's dominion, under his rule. And so God prohibits, right? Prescribes murder and says, if you shed the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. but also says that you can eat of the animals, the flesh of animals. And it's the interesting thing the Catechism says about that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
In paragraph 2416 and 2417, it says that animals are God's creatures, and he surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence, they bless him and give him glory. Thus men owe animals kindness. That's an important thing to note.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
24 17 says god entrusted animals to the stewardship to those whom he created in his own image that's us human beings hence it is legitimate to use animals for food and clothing they also may be domesticated to help man in his work and his leisure also medical and scientific experimentation on animals is morally acceptable if it remains within reasonable limits and contributes to caring for saving human lives but it is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
or to expend extravagantly on animals when human beings could be helped. But there's this notion, right, where God has made a distinction here that animals may be killed and eaten. Human beings may never, innocent lives may never be taken. And that's a commandment given. Why? Because our hearts are broken.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 4: The Flood (2025)
And there's almost maybe nothing that more clearly reveals the brokenness of the human heart than the story immediately following the covenant with Noah. Because maybe if you've never heard this story, you've heard the story of the animals and heard the story of the ark, heard the story of the flood and the dove. But maybe you never heard the story of his sons, Sham, Ham and Japheth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
One is from the story of David, right in 2 Samuel chapter 4, because this is going to be pretty important for us to be attentive to. Why? Well, not only because you can pronounce Ish-bosheth both the way I pronounce it and Ish-bosheth, but because of the fact that here is David who wants to be an honorable man. Now, I mentioned this before.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
When we get deeper into Chronicles, we're going to see David. We're going to see a kind of... Maybe, I don't want to say an edited David, but we're going to just focus on the positive, the strengths, the character, not flaws, but the character strengths of David in Chronicles. Now, Samuel is going to reveal David's woundedness, his flaws, his realness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
Not to say that his strengths aren't also his real thing, but what I'm trying to say is in chapter four of second Samuel, we see how consistent David is. We see his character through and through that David from the very beginning has been someone who doesn't necessarily take pleasure in, uh, violence. He doesn't take pleasure in punishing those who don't need to be punished, according to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
Now, later on, David, he should have taken more action. He should have done more to punish those who need punishment. But in this moment, David is taking mercy upon Ish-bosheth or Ish-bosheth. But I've committed, I said it already, committed to Ish-bosheth. David wants to take mercy on this, his enemy, right? So all, not all of Israel, but many in Israel were calling Ish-bosheth, Ish-bosheth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
Now I'm confused. Ish-bosheth. They were calling him to be the new king. He was going to be the enemy of David. He was the enemy of David. And yet when Rahab and Ba'ana, they go into Ish-bosheth's home and as he's sleeping, they murder him in bed. They assassinate him in bed. And they say to David, hey, this is the deal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
We just destroyed the last remaining member of the family of King Saul, almost, to be continued on that one, almost the last surviving member, at least the only threat you have to you right now. And David responds by highlighting the fact that, listen, that is not how we do things. This is going to be a new kingdom under God, and we are not going to do things. Remember at the end of Judges 1,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
The name of the one was Baana, and the name of the other Rechab, sons of Ramon, a man of Benjamin from Be'eroth, for Be'eroth also is reckoned to Benjamin. The Beirothites fled to Getaim and have been sojourners there to this day. Jonathan, the son of Saul, had a son who was crippled in his feet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
that everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Here is David who is making it absolutely clear that is not going to be this kingdom of Israel. We're not going to be this loose confederation of tribes who kind of take the law into their own hands. We are going to be a united kingdom who are under the law of the Lord. And that's, remember way back.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
That Samuel had said that if you're going to be the king, you have to know the law of the Lord. You have to read the law day and night. In fact, David's going to go on to, in the Psalms, talk about this. Yeah, Lord, how I love your law. I ponder on it day and night. And here is an example of David living that way. Because as... These two murderers, assassins, Rechab and Baana, come to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
He does not reward them. Well, I guess he does. He rewards their evil deed by killing them, by taking out justice upon them and establishing to all the people, this is not how we do things in the kingdom. That might've been how we did things when there was the loose confederation and their judges and everyone did what was right in their own eyes, but not anymore. Okay, moving on to 1 Chronicles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
I think I mentioned this before. But Chronicles is going to be not only, as I said, a following, let's follow David. And let's see, here's how David has lived. Let's see how David prefigures the coming Messiah, the coming anointed one, the coming Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
but also not only hope for the reestablishment of the kingdom and a reestablishment of the royal throne, but also the reestablishment of temple worship. When 1st and 2nd Chronicles were written, it's largely believed that this is after the exile. And so the people of Israel have suffered an incredible, incredible defeat. They've been exiled. They have the 10 tribes of of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
We're going to get to that in a little bit. Basically, David unites all 12 tribes. Solomon has the united 12 tribes, that united kingdom. But then after Solomon, those 12 tribes divide to 10 tribes in the north, Israel, and two tribes in the south, Judah. That's what they call the 10 in the north are called Israel from then on. And the two tribes in the south, Benjamin and Judah, are called Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
And yet, this Chronicles is written not only after that division, but then also after the destruction of the 10 tribes in the north, and the exile and return of the two tribes in the south. And so what the author of Chronicles is doing is saying, there is a line though. There is a line of the line of David, Judah, right? And there's a line, the line of Levi, the line of the priesthood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 123. It is day 1, 2, 3. We are reading from 2 Samuel chapter 4. We're also reading two chapters out of 1 Chronicles. chapters five and six. We're also praying Psalm 26.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
So we're going to follow those families in particular. Because why? Because they're longing for this reestablishment of the kingdom and longing for reestablishment of temple worship into its full. And so that's what we're going to And that's kind of some of the main gist or main thrust of, main desire of the author of Chronicles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled. And as she fled in her haste, he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
We're going to get to that in a couple days as we get through some more names in the next couple days. But gosh, what a gift to be able to follow, to be able to recognize that God works in time, God works in history. The God of eternity working in history just blows my mind. I think about that all the time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
Like, man, God, how in the world are you so humble that you made us in love and you continue to keep us in existence out of love and you continue to speak to us and guide us and protect us out of love. What a gift. Please pray for each other because the God of eternity who's entered into time wants to enter into each and every one of our lives. And so often we need grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
We always need grace, but we need the prayers of each other to help walk in grace. So I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. Please pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
now the sons of ramon the beirothite rechab and baana set out and about the heat of the day they came to the house of eshibosheth as he was taking his noonday rest and behold the doorkeeper of the house had been cleaning wheat but she grew drowsy and slept so rechab and baana his brothers slipped in
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
When they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, they struck him, and slew him, and beheaded him. They took his head, and went by the way of the Arabah all night, and brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron. And they said to the king, Here is the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul your enemy, who sought your life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
The Lord has avenged my lord the king this day on Saul and on his offspring. But David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Ramon the Beirothite, as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life out of every adversity. When one told me, behold, Saul is dead, and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and slew him at Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news.
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Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous man in his own house upon his bed, shall I not now require his blood at your hand and destroy you from the earth? And David commanded his young men, and they killed them, and cut off their hands and feet, and hanged them beside the pool at Hebron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
1 Chronicles 5 Descendants of Reuben The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, for he was the firstborn, but because he polluted his father's couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that he is not enrolled in the genealogy according to the birthright.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
Though Judah became strong among his brothers, and a prince was from him, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph. The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, Hanak, Palu, Hezron, and Carmi. The sons of Joel, Shemiah his son, Gog his son, Shemiah his son, Micah his son, Reiah his son, Baal his son, Be'erah his son, whom Tilgath Pilnasir, king of Assyria, carried away into exile and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
he was a chieftain of the Reubenites, and his kinsmen by their families, when the genealogy of their generations was reckoned, the chief, Jeiel, and Zechariah, and Bela, the son of Azaz, son of Shema, son of Joel, who dwelt in Eroer, as far as Nebo and Baal-Meon.
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Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
He also dwelt to the east as far as the entrance of the desert this side of the Euphrates, because their cattle had multiplied in the land of Gilead. And in the days of Saul they made war on the Hegrites, who fell by their hand, and they dwelt in their tents throughout all the region east of Gilead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
Descendants of Gad The sons of Gad dwelt over against them in the land of Bashan as far as Salikah, Joel the chief, Shepham the second, Janai, and Shephat of Bashan, and their kinsmen according to their fathers' houses, Michael, Meshulam, Sheba, Jerai, Jechan, Ziah, and Eber, seven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
As always, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe, then you would be subscribed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
These were the sons of Abihel, the son of Huri, son of Jeroah, son of Gilead, son of Michael, son of Jeshiah, son of Jaddo, son of Buz. Ahai, the son of Abdiel, son of Guni, was the chief in their father's houses, and they dwelt in Gilead, in Bashan, and in its towns, and in all the pasture lands of Sharon to their limits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
All of these were enrolled by genealogies in the days of Jotham, king of Judah, and and in the days of jeroboam king of israel the reubenites the gadites and the half-tribe of manasseh had valiant men who carried shield and sword and drew the bow expert in war forty four thousand seven hundred and sixty ready for service they made war upon the hegrites jetur nafish and nodab
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
And when they received help against them, the Hegrites and all who were with them were given into their hands, for they cried to God in battle, and he granted their entreaty because they trusted in him. They carried off their livestock, fifty thousand of their camels, two hundred and fifty thousand sheep, two thousand donkeys, and a hundred thousand men alive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
For many fell slain, because the war was of God. And they dwelt in their place until the exile. the half-tribe of Manasseh. The members of the half-tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land. They were very numerous, from Bashan to Baal Hermon, Sinir, and Mount Hermon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
These were the heads of their fathers' houses, Ephor, Ishi, Eliel, Azrael, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jadiel, mighty warriors, famous men, heads of their fathers' houses. But they transgressed against the God of their fathers and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria, the spirit of Tilgath-Pilneser, king of Assyria, and he carried them away, namely the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Hala, Habor, Hara, and the river Gozan to this day. Chapter 6. Descendants of Levi. The sons of Levi, Gershom, Kohath, and Merari.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
The sons of Kohath, Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uziel. The children of Amran, Aaron, Moses, and Miriam. The sons of Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. Eliezer was the father of Phinehas, Phinehas of Abishua, Abishua of Buki, Buki of Uzi, Uzi of Zerahiah, Zerahiah of Maroth, Maroth of Amariah, Amariah of Ahitub, Ahitub of Zadok, Zadok of Ahimaaz, Ahimaaz of Azariah, Azariah of Johanan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
And when everyone does that, I will no longer say that when you get this thing at the beginning of every single day, but 123 days, my goodness, you guys, I'm so proud of you. Keep going. Also, chapter 4 is relatively short in 2 Samuel. And there are some names. Not as many names as in chapters 5 and 6 of 1 Chronicles. But the name is Ish-bosheth, right? Or Ish-bosheth.
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Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
And Johanan of Azariah, it was he who served as priest in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem. Azariah was the father of Amariah, Amariah of Ahitub, Ahitub of Zadok, Zadok of Shulum, Shalum of Hilkiah, Hilkiah of Azariah, Azariah of Sariah, Sariah of Jehoshadak. And Jehozadak went into exile when the Lord sent Judah and Jerusalem into exile by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.
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Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
The sons of Levi, Gershom, Kohath, and Merari. And these are the names of the sons of Gershom, Libni, and Shimei. The sons of Kohath, Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uziel. The sons of Merari, Mali, and Mushi.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
These are the families of the Levites according to their fathers of Gershom, Libni his son, Jehath his son, Zimah his son, Joah his son, Edo his son, Zerah his son, Jeatharai his son, the sons of Kohath, Amenadab his son, Korah his son, Asir his son, Elkanah his son. Abiasaph his son, Asir his son, Tahath his son, Uriel his son, Uzziah his son, Shaul his son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
The sons of Elkanah, Amasai and Ahimoth. Elkanah his son, Zophai his son, Nahath his son, Eliab his son, Jeroham his son, Elkanah his son. the sons of samuel joel his firstborn the second abijah the sons of merari mali libni his son shimei his son uzzah his son shimeah his son hegeah his son and asaiah his son musicians appointed by david
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
These are the men whom David put in charge of the service of song in the house of the Lord after the ark rested there. They ministered with song before the tabernacle of the tent of meeting until Solomon had built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they performed their service in due order. These are the men who served and their sons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
Of the sons of the Kohathites, Heman, the singer, the son of Joel, son of Samuel, son of Elkanah, son of Jeroham, son of Eliel, son of Toa, son of Zuf, son of Elkanah, son of Mahath, son of Amasai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
son of Elkanah, son of Joel, son of Azariah, son of Zephaniah, son of Tehath, son of Asir, son of Abiasath, son of Korah, son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, son of Israel, and his brother Asaph, who stood on his right hand, namely Asaph, the son of Berechiah, son of Shimeah, son of Michael, son of Baaseah, son of Malkijah, son of Ethni, son of Zerah, son of Adaiah,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
son of ethan son of zimah son of shimei son of jahath son of gershom son of levi on the left hand were their brethren the sons of merari ethan the son of kishi son of hashabiah son of amaziah son of hilkiah son of amzi son of bani son of shemer son of mali son of mushi son of merari son of levi and their brethren the levites were appointed for all the service of the tabernacle of the house of god
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
But Aaron and his sons made offerings upon the altar of burnt offering and upon the altar of incense for all the work of the most holy place, and to make atonement for Israel according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded. These are the sons of Aaron, Eleazar his son, Phinehas his son, Abishua his son, Buki his son, Uzi his son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
Zerahiah his son, Merioth his son, Amariah his son, Ahitub his son, Zedok his son, Ahimaaz his son. Settlements of the Levites. These are the dwelling places according to their settlements within their borders to the sons of Aaron of the families of the Kohathites, for theirs was the lot. To them they gave Hebron in the land of Judah and its surrounding pasture lands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
I've kind of fully committed to Ish-bosheth. And so, I apologize if you're annoyed and you're reading your Bible and you say, it says Ish-bosheth. And I would say, you're probably right, but I'm committed to Ish-bosheth. And so it's also fun to say, just try it. Try it at home. Try it in your car as you're driving. It is a gift to be able to be here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
but the fields of the city and its villages they gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh. To the sons of Aaron they gave the cities of refuge, Hebron, Libnah with its pasture lands, Jetir, Eshtimoah with its pasture lands, Hilin with its pasture lands, Debir with its pasture lands, Ashan with its pasture lands, and Bet Shemesh with its pasture lands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
And from the tribes of Benjamin, Geba with its pasture lands, Elameth with its pasture lands, and Anathoth with its pasture lands. All their cities throughout their families were thirteen. To the rest of the Kohathites were given by lot out of the family of the tribe, out of the half-tribe, the half of Manasseh, ten cities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
To the Gershomites, according to their families, were allotted thirteen cities out of the tribes of Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Manasseh in Bashan. To the Merorites, according to their families, were allotted 12 cities out of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Zebulun. So the sons of Israel gave the Levites the cities with their pasture lands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
They also gave them by lot out of the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin, these cities which are mentioned by name. And some of the families of the sons of Kohath had cities of their territory out of the tribe of Ephraim. They were given the cities of refuge. Shechem with its pasture lands in the hill country of Ephraim. Gezer with its pasture lands. Jokme'am with its pasture lands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
Bet-Haron with its pasture lands. Aijalon with its pasture lands. Gath-Ramon with its pasture lands. and out of the half-tribe of manasseh aner with its pasture lands bili'am with its pasture lands for the rest of the families of the koathites to the gershamites were given out of the half-tribe of manasseh golon in bashan with its pasture lands and ashteroth with its pasture lands
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
And out of the tribe of Issachar, Kadesh with its pastor lands, Debarath with its pastor lands, Ramoth with its pastor lands, and Anem with its pastor lands. Out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with its pastor lands, Abdon with its pastor lands, Hukok with its pastor lands, and Rehob with its pastor lands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
and out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kadesh in Galilee, with its pasture lands, Hamon with its pasture lands, Kiriathame with its pasture lands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
To the rest of the Merorites were allotted out of the tribe of Zebulun, Rimino with its pasture lands, Tabor with its pasture lands, and beyond the Jordan at Jericho, on the east side of the Jordan, out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer in the steppe with its pasture lands, Jazah with its pasture lands, Kedemoth with its pasture lands, and Mephaoth with its pasture lands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
And out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth and Gilead with its pastor lands, Mahanaim with its pastor lands, Heshbon with its pastor lands, and Jazer with its pastor lands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
Again, 2 Samuel chapter 4, 1 Chronicles chapter 5 and 6 and Psalm 26. 2 Samuel chapter 4. Ish-bosheth is assassinated. When Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, heard that Abner had died in Hebron, his courage failed, and all Israel was dismayed. Now Saul's son had two men who were captains of raiding bands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
A Psalm of David. Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Prove me, O God, and try me. Test my heart and my mind, for your mercy is before my eyes, and I walk in faithfulness to you. I do not sit with false men, nor do I consort with dissemblers. I hate the company of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
I wash my hands in innocence and go about your altar, O Lord, singing aloud a song of thanksgiving and telling all your wondrous deeds. O Lord, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells. Sweep me not away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, men in whose hands are evil devices and whose right hands are full of bribes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
But as for me, I walk in my integrity, redeem me and have mercy on me. My foot stands on level ground in the great congregation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 123: The Death of Ish-bosheth (2025)
lord god you are part of history you're the god of history and you're the god of eternity and you're the god of our history and you lead us and call us into eternity and so we give you thanks we give you praise and please receive our praise today um on this day this day 123 days of listening to your word of being shaped by your word we thank you and praise you in jesus name we pray amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen so um two quick things i want to highlight
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Before we get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thank you to all those who have supported the Catechism in a Year or the Bible in a Year podcast. We hear stories every day about how those shows have transformed people's lives, and because of your prayers and financial gifts, you are a significant part of that. You might ask a question, though.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Now, not everything they do, just like every other human being, not everything they do is going to be honorable to the Lord or is going to honor the Lord. And so we recognize that, God, what we do, please help us to only do what honors the Lord. Now, going back into the wisdom of Solomon, chapter 10, chapter 9 was great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Subscriptions abound on day 307 as we're reading 2 Maccabees chapter 10, Wisdom chapter 9 and 10, and Proverbs chapter 25 verses 4 through 7. The second book of the Maccabees, chapter 10, the purification of the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
We had the intro yesterday of the fact that Solomon is going to pray this prayer, and then we got the prayer today in chapter 9. And then the deeds of wisdom are so great. It's almost like a riddle. I don't know if you caught on to chapter 10 and the deeds of wisdom because they're describing these characters from the Old Testament that you and I know, but not naming them, for example.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Who is that, my friends? That's Adam, of course. And going on to say... She, wisdom, rescued a righteous man when the ungodly were perishing. He escaped the fire that descended on the five cities. Who would that be? Well, that would be Abraham, right? In the structure of Sodom and Gomorrah, even talking about the pillar of salt standing as a monument to an unbelieving soul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Rewind a little bit and you have the story of Cain and Abel in verse 3. You have the story of Noah in verse 4, when the earth was flooded because of him. Wisdom again saved it, steering the righteous man by a paltry piece of wood, which I like the description of the Ark of Noah, not the Ark of the Covenant, Noah's Ark. Going on, talking about the righteous man fleeing from his brother's wrath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Who is that? Probably Jacob fleeing from Esau's wrath, prospered him in his labors, prospered him in his labors. What are you talking about? Well, remember he worked for his uncle Laban for seven years times two. So for 14 years, he worked for his uncle Laban. And this, that recognition going on when a righteous man was sold, wisdom did not desert him, but delivered him from sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
She descended with him into the dungeon. And when he was in prison, she did not leave him. Who is that? That is Joseph who had that amazing Technicolor dream coat. But just what a gift to be able to then go send to Moses who and wisdom led them through the Red Sea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
There is something so powerful about recognizing that you and I had our lens shaped so thoroughly over these last 300 plus days that we not only that we know the stories and we know the characters, we know the biblical allusions, but the fact that we've been not only shaped to know the stories and be familiar with the characters, but
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
But the main character, God himself, we know what it is to recognize his fingerprints in the world around us. So that here is the last little line, your last thing here. She gave to holy men the reward of their labors. She guided them along a marvelous way and became a shelter to them by day and a starry flame through the night.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Remember the pillar of cloud during the day and the pillar of fire at night. That's wisdom. And that's what you and I are seeking. And what a gift, because the Lord promises to all those who seek wisdom, wisdom shall be given. And so we're seeking wisdom. And we want to have that ability to see that wisdom, to see God's fingerprints, God's working, God's action in all of the actions around us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
And of course, they always have the wisdom to never depart from him, to never claim that here's God's will when we don't know what God's will is, to not fight a battle that he's not calling us to fight, to never ever do anything in his name that he's not calling us to do in his name, but to always rely upon him and to recognize that with him our paths will be straight even if they are difficult.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Now Maccabeus and his followers, the Lord leading them on, recovered the temple and the city, and they tore down the altars which had been built in the public square by the foreigners and also destroyed the sacred precincts. they purified the sanctuary and made another altar of sacrifice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
As Jesus has reminded his apostles, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. And so we're praying for each other because yes, while God is with us, this life is still a battle and this life is still difficult and this road can still be incredibly rough.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
And again, like I said yesterday, I think it was, this large community, we need to pray for each other because this might be a horrible season. This might be a very difficult season for our brothers and sisters who are listening. And so if you are, if this is your horrible season right now, know of our prayers. We are literally praying for you right now. We are praying for you right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Lord God, please be with our brothers and sisters who are right now in the midst of trial, in the midst of a season of suffering. Be with them. Lift them up. Help them to never give in to discouragement, but give them courage because you have overcome the world. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Then striking fire out of flint, they offered sacrifices after a lapse of two years and they burned incense and lighted lamps and set out the bread of the presence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
And when they had done this, they fell prostrate and begged the Lord that they might never again fall into such misfortunes, but that if they should ever sin, they might be disciplined by him with forbearance and not be handed over to blasphemous and barbarous nations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
The question is, what does Ascension do with these financial gifts? Great question. The answer is we make authentically Catholic podcasts and videos and other digital content to help people know the Catholic faith and grow closer to God. And we do it all for free.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
it happened that on the same day on which the sanctuary had been profaned by the foreigners the purification of the sanctuary took place that is on the twenty-fifth day of the same month which was chislev and they celebrated it for eight days with rejoicing in the manner of the feast of booths remembering how not long before during the feast of booths they had been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Therefore, bearing ivy-wreathed wands and beautiful branches and also fronds of palm, they offered hymns of thanksgiving to him who had given success to the purifying of his own holy place. They decreed by public ordinance and vote that the whole nation of the Jews should observe these days every year. Such then was the end of Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Now we will tell what took place under Antiochus Eupator, who was the son of that ungodly man. and will give a brief summary of the principal calamities of the wars. This man, when he succeeded to the kingdom, appointed one Lysaeus to have charge of the government and to be chief governor of Koel Syria and Phoenicia.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Ptolemy, who was called Macron, took the lead in showing justice to the Jews because of the wrong that had been done to them, and attempted to maintain peaceful relations with them. As a result, he was accused before Eupator by the king's friends.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
He heard himself called a traitor at every turn, because he had abandoned Cyprus, which Philometer had entrusted to him, and had gone over to Antiochus Epiphanes. Unable to command the respect due his office, he took poison and ended his life. Campaign in Edomia When Gorgias became governor of the region, he maintained a force of mercenaries and at every turn kept on warring against the Jews.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Besides this, the Edomians, who had control of important strongholds, were harassing the Jews. They received those who were banished from Jerusalem and endeavored to keep up the war. But Maccabeus and his men, after making solemn supplication and begging God to fight on their side, rushed to the strongholds of the Edomians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Attacking them vigorously, they gained possession of the places and beat off all who fought upon the wall and slew those whom they encountered, killing no fewer than twenty thousand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
When no less than nine thousand took refuge in two very strong towers well equipped to withstand a siege, Maccabeus left Simon and Joseph, and also Zacchaeus and his men, a force sufficient to besiege them, and he himself set off for places where he was more urgently needed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
But the men with Simon, who were money-hungry, were bribed by some of those who were in the towers, and on receiving 70,000 drachmas, let some of them slip away. When word of what had happened came to Maccabeus, he gathered the leaders of the people and accused these men of having sold their brethren for money by setting their enemies free to fight against them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Then he slew these men who had turned traitor and immediately captured the two towers. Having success at arms in everything he undertook, he destroyed more than 20,000 in the two strongholds. Judas defeats Timothy. Now Timothy, who had been defeated by the Jews before, gathered a tremendous force of mercenaries and collected the cavalry from Asia in no small number.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
He came on, intending to take Judea by storm. As he drew near, Maccabeus and his men sprinkled dust upon their heads and put on sackcloth in supplication to God. Falling upon the steps before the altar, they begged him to be gracious to them and to be an enemy to their enemies and an adversary to their adversaries, as the law declares.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
And rising from their prayer, they took up their arms and advanced a considerable distance from the city. And when they came near to the enemy, they halted. Just as dawn was breaking, the two armies joined battle, the one having as pledge of success and victory not only their valor, but their reliance upon the Lord, while the other made rage their leader in the fight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
When the battle became fierce, there appeared to the enemy from heaven five resplendent men on horses with golden bridles, and they were leading the Jews. Surrounding Maccabeus and protecting him with their own armor and weapons, they kept him from being wounded.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
And they showered arrows and thunderbolts upon the enemy, so that, confused and blinded, they were thrown into disorder and cut to pieces. 20,500 were slaughtered, besides 600 horsemen. Timothy himself fled to a stronghold called Gazara, especially well garrisoned, where Careus was commander. Then Maccabeus and his men were glad, and they besieged the fort for four days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
The men within, relying on the strength of the place, blasphemed terribly and hurled out wicked words. But at dawn of the fifth day, twenty young men in the army of Maccabeus, fired with anger because of the blasphemies, bravely stormed the wall and with savage fury cut down everyone they met. Others who came up in the same way wheeled around against the defenders and set fire to the towers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
They kindled fires and burned the blasphemers alive. Others broke open the gates and let in the rest of the force, and they occupied the city. They killed Timothy, who was hidden in a cistern, and his brother Charias and Apollophanes. When they had accomplished these things, with hymns and thanksgiving, they blessed the Lord, who shows great kindness to Israel and gives them the victory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
The Wisdom of Solomon So I appealed to the Lord and implored him, and with my whole heart I said, Chapter 9 The Prayer of Solomon O God of my fathers and Lord of mercy, who have made all things by your word and by your wisdom have formed man to have dominion over the creatures you have made and rule the world in holiness and righteousness and pronounce judgment in uprightness of soul, give me the wisdom that sits by your throne and do not reject me from among your servants,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Verse 2. With you is wisdom who knows your works and was present when you made the world and who understands what is pleasing in your sight and what is right according to your commandments. Send her forth from the holy heavens and from the throne of your glory send her that she may be with me and toil and that I may learn what is pleasing to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 307.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
For she knows and understands all things and she will guide me wisely in my actions and guard me with her glory. Then my works will be acceptable and I shall judge your people justly. And shall be worthy of the throne of my father. For what man can learn the counsel of God? Or who can discern what the Lord wills? For the reasoning of mortals is worthless. And our designs are likely to fail.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
For a perishable body weighs down the soul. And this earthly tent burdens the thoughtful mind. We can hardly guess at what is on earth. And what is at hand we find with labor. But who has traced out what is in the heavens? Who has learned your counsel unless you have given wisdom and sent your Holy Spirit from on high?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
And thus the paths of those on earth were set aright and men were taught what pleases you and were saved by wisdom. Chapter 10 The Deeds of Wisdom Wisdom protected the first-formed father of the world. When he alone had been created, she delivered him from his transgression and gave him strength to rule all things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
But when an unrighteous man departed from her in his anger, he perished because in rage he slew his brother. When the earth was flooded because of him, Wisdom again saved it, steering the righteous man by a paltry piece of wood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Wisdom also, when the nations in wicked agreement had been confounded, recognized the righteous man and preserved him blameless before God, and kept him strong in the face of his compassion for his child. Wisdom rescued a righteous man when the ungodly were perishing. He escaped the fire that descended on the five cities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Evidence of their wickedness still remains a continually smoking wasteland, plants bearing fruit that does not ripen, and a pillar of salt standing as a monument to an unbelieving soul. For because they passed wisdom by, they not only were hindered from recognizing the good, but also left for mankind a reminder of their folly, so that their failures could never go unnoticed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Wisdom rescued from troubles those who served her. When a righteous man fled from his brother's wrath, she guided him on straight paths. She showed him the kingdom of God and gave him knowledge of angels. She prospered him in his labors and increased the fruit of his toil. When his oppressors were covetous, she stood by him and made him rich.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
She protected him from his enemies and kept him safe from those who lay in wait for him. In his arduous contest, she gave him the victory so that he might learn that godliness is more powerful than anything. When a righteous man was sold, wisdom did not desert him, but delivered him from sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
We're reading 2 Maccabees chapter 10, Wisdom chapters 9 and 10, and Proverbs chapter 25, verses 4 through 7. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the I'm using the great adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
She descended with him into the dungeon, and when he was in prison, she did not leave him until she brought him the scepter of a kingdom and authority over his masters. Those who accused him, she showed to be false, and she gave him everlasting honor. A holy people and blameless race, wisdom delivered from a nation of oppressors.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
She entered the soul of a servant of the Lord and withstood dread kings with wonders and signs. She gave to holy men the reward of their labors. She guided them along a marvelous way and became a shelter to them by day. and a starry flame through the night.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
She brought them over the Red Sea, and led them through deep waters, but she drowned their enemies, and cast them up from the depth of the sea. Therefore the righteous plundered the ungodly. They sang hymns, O Lord, to your holy name, and praised with one accord your defending hand, because wisdom opened the mouth of the mute, and made the tongues of infants speak clearly."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
The book of Proverbs chapter 25 verses four through seven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Take away the dross from the silver and the smith has material for a vessel. Take away the wicked from the presence of the king and his throne will be established in righteousness. Do not put yourself forward in the king's presence or stand in the place of the great for it is better to be told come up here than to be put lower in the presence of the prince.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Father in heaven, we give you praise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Thank you, God, for your goodness. And thank you for this day. Thank you for a new day. And we know that with every new day, your mercies are new as well. And your love for us is constant. You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. And we praise you. Help us to live this day as yours. Help us to live this day as sons and daughters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Help us to live this day belonging to you and doing your will because you continue to shape the way that we see who you are and the way we see who you made us to be and who you are calling us to be to our brothers and sisters. Help us to love you above everything and to love our neighbors as ourselves. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Amen. So here we are back in 2 Maccabees chapter 10. What a gift to be able to hear once again the story of Judas Maccabees coming into the temple in Jerusalem. And one of the biggest offenses to the Jewish people and biggest offenses to not just to their way of life. That sounds so shallow. Biggest offenses to their covenant relationship with the Lord God himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
was the desolation of abomination, like placed in the temple, right? This horrible action of Antiochus Epiphanes in the temple itself, this place of worship, the belonging to the Lord God alone and to no other, the Holy of Holies, you know, being desecrated. Obviously, we already heard about Jeremiah who had already taken the tabernacle, like the Ark of the Covenant, away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
But we also have the restoring of the Holy of Holies. We have the restoring of the bread of the presence. We have the restoring of the temple, essentially, right? And not only that, we have the origins, once again, the origins of Hanukkah told for us. Now, after this, what do we have? We have more battles, of course.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
But in these battles, once again, it is so important for all of us, the campaign in Edomia, Judas defeating Timothy, all of these, it's important for us to understand. And once again, just be reminded of the fact that Here is Judas Maccabeus and going into battle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
And he reminds them when they defeat or go against Timothy, he says this, he says, reminding them that the one army have as pledge of success and victory, not only their valor, but their reliance upon the Lord while the other had rage as their leader in the fight. That they had valor, courage, yes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
And they also had their reliance, their confidence, their faith in the Lord while the other made rage their leader in the fight. And I think about this recognition that, yeah, we're called to be courageous and we're called to have faith. That sense of where does our courage even come from? Our courage actually comes from the faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
The courage that we have and that we're called to, to live in, to walk in, comes from the fact that we know that our Lord God is real and the Lord God is with us, that he is fighting for us. And this has been the story of 2 Maccabees this entire time for these last 10 days we've been reading 2 Maccabees has been this reminder
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
That we're not just simply called to engage in battles against principalities and powers, not simply just called to engage the, you know, the culture wars essentially as well. We're called to be brave. We're called to be courageous because we recognize and we know that God is powerful. near us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
And so the big question always is going to be, when I take this step, God, am I taking this step for you? Or is this step just for myself? Like, you know, God, is this battle that I'm, you know, taking up arms in? Is this for you? Or is this just for myself?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 307: Courage in Battle (2024)
Because, you know, we can, in many ways, I mean, one of the common temptations of Christians is, well, of everybody, is to say, I'm going to do this thing. I'm even though I am not certain that he has asked me to do this. And so that recognition of reading 2 Maccabees and realizing that, yes, here is Judas Maccabeus, here are the others.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
He's giving that speech in the wilderness, the plains of Moab, as they look out over the Jordan River, across the Jordan River, into the promised land. And one of the things that we hear in today's reading from Deuteronomy, now again, Numbers is the beginning of their journey, Deuteronomy is at the end of their journey.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
What we hear is through Moses, God is saying, I know that you are going to fail. Here through Moses, God is saying, this is your story. Part of your story is immediately when I set you free from slavery in Egypt and brought you to this place, immediately you turned away. And I know that's what your hearts are like.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And so Moses recounts a number of places where this happened, where it was the golden calf at Sinai. And he talks about Taborah. At Taborah, we're going to read about that in Numbers chapter 11, which is coming tomorrow. It's the place where the people of Israel immediately complained against God's providing for them. Then he talks about a place called Massah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And we already heard about that in Exodus chapter 17, where they were tempted. Then we talked about Kibroth Hathavah, which means the graves of craving. And this is also in Numbers chapter 11. It's where we're going to hear about tomorrow that they craved for all those treats they had back in Egypt. And so here is these places of failure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
Here's these places where God had brought his people to provide for them, and they failed to trust in him. And also Moses goes on to communicate that I interceded on your behalf, that it took a mediator between God and man to give you his mercy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
It's one of the reasons why we realize that Jesus is the fulfillment of Moses, that Jesus is the new Moses, not only because he gives us a new law, right, in the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount, but also because Moses is that, or so Jesus is like Moses in the sense that he stands in the gap, just like Abraham stood in the breach before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
Here is Moses, who multiple times when we read through the book of Numbers, will stand between the Lord and the people interceding on their behalf and calling upon the Lord's mercy. And the Lord hears the prayers of Moses, just like here is Jesus Christ on the cross saying, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
An alarm is to be blown whenever they are to set out. But when the assembly is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but you shall not sound an alarm. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets. The trumpets shall be to you for a perpetual statute throughout your generations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And we realize that not only does Moses and Abraham and the whole Bible, but ultimately Jesus reveals that the depth of the heart of God is the heart of mercy. That even when we are unfaithful, God gives us his mercy. That when we fall away, that God remains steadfast. And so he gave Moses the opportunity to stand in the gap. Jesus Christ was sent as the one mediator between God and man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And we are also called. We are called to pray for each other. We're called to stand in that gap and be like Moses, to stand in that gap and be like Jesus and to be able to say, I'm lifting up my brothers and sisters right now. Because here we are on day 60. And I got to tell you, those of us who are walking this journey, We need each other. I know that I need your prayers so much.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And I know that so many of you are going through so much right now that it's just this weight of life, this burden of feeling crushed, that just knowing that you have brothers and sisters who are praying these words with you, who are listening to these words with you, are going through this Bible in the air with you, and they're also praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
They're also mediating and interceding on your behalf. So let's keep praying for each other. Because we need each other. We have our Lord Jesus. And he intercedes. He lives to intercede at the right hand of the Father. We have each other. So we keep praying for each other. We give God praise and let Judah go up first. And we keep showing up. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And I cannot wait to see you tomorrow when you show up again. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And when you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets that you may be remembered before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 60, as I said yesterday. That is two months, not three, it's two months of being able to be formed, being formed by God's word. Congratulations. This is, it is an accomplishment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
On the day of your gladness also and at your appointed feasts and at the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings. They shall serve you for remembrance before your God. I am the Lord, your God. Departure from Sinai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
In the second year, in the second month, on the 20th day of the month, the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the covenant and the sons of Israel set out by stages from the wilderness of Sinai and the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
They set out for the first time at the command of the Lord by Moses, the standard of the camp of the men of Judah set out first by their companies. And over their host was Nashon, the son of Amminadab. And over the host of the tribe of the men of Issachar was Nethanel, the son of Zuar. And over the host of the tribe of the men of Zebulun was Eliab, the son of Halon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And when the tabernacle was taken down, the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who carried the tabernacle, set out. And the standard of the camp of Reuben set out by their companies. And over their host was Eleazar, the son of Shadur. And over the host of the tribe of the men of Simeon was Shalumiel, the son of Zerushadai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And over the host of the tribe of the men of Gad was Eliasaph, the son of Deul. Then the Kohathites set out, carrying the holy things, and the tabernacle was set up before their arrival. And the standard of the camp of the men of Ephraim set out by their companies, and over their host was Elishema, the son of Amichud.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And over the host of the tribe of the men of Manasseh was Gamaliel, the son of Petazur. And over the host of the tribe of the men of Benjamin was Abedan, the son of Gideonai. Then the standard of the camp of the men of Dan, acting as the rear guard of all the camps, set out by their companies. And over their host was Ahiezar, the son of Amishadai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And over the host of the tribe of the men of Asher was Pagiel, the son of Okron. And over the host of the tribe of the men of Naphtali was Ahira, the son of Inan." This was the order of march of the sons of Israel, according to their hosts when they set out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reul, the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said, I will give it to you. Come with us, and we will do you good. For the Lord has promised good to Israel. But he said to him, I will not go. I will depart to my own land and to my kindred. And he said, do not leave us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
I beg you for, you know how we are to encamp in the wilderness and you will serve as eyes for us. And if you go with us, whatever good the Lord will do to us, the same will we do to you. So they set out from the mount of the Lord three days' journey. And the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them three days' journey to seek out a resting place for them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And the cloud of the Lord was over them by day whenever they set out from the camp. And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, Arise, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered, and let them who hate you flee before you. And when it rested, he said, Return, O Lord, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
Consequences of rebelling against God. Moses continued. Hear, O Israel, you are to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, who can stand before the sons of Anak?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
No, therefore, this day that he who goes over before you as a devouring fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly as the Lord has promised you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
They say it takes 30 days to make a habit. And if you've made it here to day 60, you have a double habit. Today on day 60, we're reading Numbers chapter 10 and Deuteronomy chapter 9. We'll also be praying from Psalm 10. Psalm 10 is what we're praying with today. As always, the Bible translation that I am using is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
Do not say in your heart after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, it is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land. Whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God is driving them out before you. And that he may confirm the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
Remember, and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. Even at Horeb, you provoked the Lord to wrath. And the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
When I went up the mountain to receive the tables of stone, the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. And the Lord God gave me two tables of stone written with the finger of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain, out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And at the end of forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant. Then the Lord said to me, Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten image. Furthermore, the Lord said to me, I have seen this people and behold, it is a stubborn people. Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
So I turned and came down from the mountain and the mountain was burning with fire and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands. And I looked and behold, you had sinned against the Lord, your God. You had made yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
So I took hold of the two tables and cast them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before. Forty days and forty nights I neither ate bread nor drank water because of all the sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure which the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also." And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
Then I took the sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that descended out of the mountain. At Taborah also, and at Massah, the Kibroth Hatavah, you provoked the Lord to wrath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And also, if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, I invite you to take a little moment and click on subscribe, and then you'll be subscribed and your job will be done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And when the Lord sent you up from Kadesh Barnea, saying, Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you, then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and did not believe him or obey his voice. You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these 40 days and 40 nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. And I prayed to the Lord, O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness. whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
Do not regard the stubbornness of this people or their wickedness or their sin, lest the land from which you brought us say, because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them. And because he hated them, he has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble, in arrogance? The wicked hotly pursue the poor. Let them be caught in the schemes which they have devised. For the wicked boasts of the desires of his heart, and the man greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord. In the pride of his countenance, the wicked does not seek him. All his thoughts are, there is no God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
His ways prosper at all times. Your judgments are on high, out of his sight. As for all his foes, he puffs at them. He thinks in his heart, I shall not be moved. Throughout all generations, I shall not meet adversity. His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue are mischief and iniquity. He sits in ambush in the villages. In hiding places, he murders the innocent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless. He lurks in secret like a lion in his den. He lurks that he may seize the poor. He seizes the poor when he draws him into his net. The hapless is crushed, sinks down, and falls by his might. And he thinks in his heart, God has forgotten. He has hidden his face. He will never see it. Arise, O Lord. O God, lift up your hand. Forget not the poor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, you will not call to account? You see, yes, you note trouble and vexation, that you may take it into your hands. The hapless commits himself to you. You have been the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer. Seek out his wickedness till you find none. The Lord is king forever and ever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
As we read from Numbers chapter 10, Deuteronomy chapter 9 in Psalm 10. The book of Numbers, chapter 10. The silver trumpets. The Lord said to Moses, Make two silver trumpets of hammered work you shall make them, and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for breaking camp.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
The nations shall perish from his land. O Lord, you will hear the desire of the meek. You will strengthen their heart. You will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of earth may strike terror no more. Father in heaven, we thank you and we give you praise just like the psalmist praying this Psalm 10.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
Lord God, it seems like so often those who do not listen to you and those who do whatever they want, those who hurt other people among us. seem to be the most blessed sometimes. The ones who say, who cares about God? Where's God? Seem to have even happiness. They seem to even have joy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
They seem to have maybe even sometimes more love than those who are listening to your word and those who look for you in everything, Lord. Those who follow you sometimes seem to have more problems than those who forget about you, those who ignore you, even those who outright reject you. Lord God, this is such a mystery to us It's just like the psalmist. We recognize the truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
The truth is that there are some people who want nothing to do with you, God, that seem to have everything going right for them. And some people who love you with their whole heart and seem to be forgotten. We know the truth, Lord God. that you are just and you do not forget the cry of the poor. You do not neglect those whom you love. And so we continue to cry out to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
We continue to listen to your word. We continue to place our trust, our hope, and our entire lives in you alone. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So as we said, we are going through Numbers chapter 10 and Deuteronomy chapter nine. A couple of things just to kind of keep in mind. Numbers, they're going into the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And so this is the move. This is where they first start moving. This is the narrative book. Remember, Numbers is along the line of the books that are the narrative books of the Bible. This story in Numbers is when you hear the people, they're consecrated, they're divided into their tribes, right, divided into their families.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And now the Lord God has said, just like he said in yesterday's readings, when the column of fire, the column of cloud lifts up, you're going to follow it. And that's what happens. And the standard of the children of Judah set out first. Remember we said this before, Judah, his name means praise. And so Judah leads the way, because we always lead with praise, lead with praising of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
But they begin their journey, and something is important to note. Remember when the people of Israel, the camping in the wilderness, how that was described. At the center of everything was the tent of meeting, or the tabernacle. And that's where the Levites were. And then around them in those four directions, north, south, east, and west, were the remaining families, remaining tribes of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And so now as they're being led, it goes forth, half the tribes of Israel lead, and then comes the tabernacle, tent of meeting with the Gershonites and the Kohathites and the Merorites, and then the remaining tribes following. So in the center, even as they're traveling, is the presence of the Lord and the sacred objects in the tent of meeting or in the tabernacle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And when both are blown, all the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the entrance of the tent of meeting. But if they blow only one, then the leaders, the heads of the tribes of Israel, shall gather themselves to you. When you blow an alarm, the camps that are on the east side shall set out. And when you blow an alarm the second time, the camps that are on the south side shall set out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
And that's something so powerful. Once again, just to remember, they set out on a journey of three days and they went to the wilderness of Paran. One thing to note is that there are three kind of main locations in the book of Numbers. The first is where we've been for the last, ultimately now about two years. And that is the wilderness of Sinai. They're at the Mount Sinai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
Now they're headed to the wilderness of Paran. They're going to spend most of their time in the wilderness of Paran. And the third place is the wilderness of Moab, right? Moab is right across the Jordan River. And from Moab, you can see Jericho. You can see the promised land. And that's where they're going to cross the Jordan River. I don't want to spoil our alert.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2025)
They're going to cross the Jordan River and go into the wilderness, or sorry, go into the promised land. But keeping this in mind, that the children of Israel, the three deserts, or three wildernesses, the wilderness or the desert of Sinai, the wilderness of Paran, that's where they're headed today, and the wilderness of Moab, that's where Moses is giving his speech.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
Maybe in his presence, I harden my heart, or maybe even in his silence, I harden my heart. The challenge is to never let our hearts become hardened to the Lord. The challenge would be that I'd always have a heart that is soft when it comes to the Lord's presence and his power and his will for my life. That's why we need each other. We need prayers with each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
We need to be able to lift each other up because of the fact that this is difficult. In fact, without God's action of grace, it is impossible. So let's pray for each other as we continue. Now we're fully into the second month of a journey through the Bible, this Bible in a year podcast. My name is Father Mike. So let's keep praying for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
And I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
And Pharaoh sent and behold, not one of the cattle of the Israelites was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people go. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, take handfuls of ashes from the kiln. And it says, And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then the Lord said to Moses, rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
For this time, I will send all my plagues upon your heart and upon your servants and your people that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put forth my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose, have I let you live to show you my power.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
so that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
Now therefore, send, get your cattle and all that you have in the field into safe shelter for the hail shall come down upon every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home and they shall die. Then he who feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his slaves and his cattle flee into the houses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
and how we fit into that story today. This is day 32. Let's keep on rolling through this. Day 32, we're going to be reading from Exodus chapter 9, from Leviticus chapter 7, easy for me to say, Leviticus chapter 7, and Psalm 49. As always, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, the Catholic edition. In fact, I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
But he who did not regard the word of the Lord left his slaves and his cattle in the field. And the Lord said to Moses, Stretch forth your hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man and beast in every plant of the field throughout the land of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
Then Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very much hail, such as has never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
The hail struck down everything that was in the field throughout all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and shattered every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the sons of Israel were, there was no hail. Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, I have sinned this time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
The Lord is in the right and I and my people are in the wrong. Entreat the Lord, for there has been enough of this thunder and hail. I will let you go and you shall stay no longer. Moses said to him, As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, that you may know that the earth is the Lord's.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God. The flax and the barley were ruined, for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in the bud. But the wheat and the spelt were not ruined, for they are late in coming up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the Lord and the thunder and the hail ceased and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the sons of Israel go as the Lord had spoken through Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
This is the law of the guilt offering. It is most holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
In the place where they kill the burnt offering, they shall kill the guilt offering, and its blood shall be thrown on the altar round about, and all its fat shall be offered, the fat tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the appendage of the liver, which he shall take away with the kidneys.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
The priest shall burn them on the altar as an offering by fire to the Lord. It is a guilt offering. Every male among the priests may eat of it. It shall be eaten in a holy place. It is most holy. The guilt offering is like the sin offering. There is one law for them. The priest who makes atonement with it shall have it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
And the priest who offers any man's burnt offering shall have for himself the skin of the burnt offering which he has offered. And every cereal offering baked in the oven and all that is prepared on a pan or a griddle shall belong to the priest who offers it. And every cereal offering mixed with oil or dry shall be for all the sons of Aaron, one as well as another.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
If you want to have your own Bible reading plan, you can download that for free from ascensionpress.com slash ascension. Bible in a Year. So ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Today, as I said, we're going through Exodus chapter 9. We're going to continue reading more of the plagues. We have not got through all of them yet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which one may offer to the Lord. For if he offers it for a Thanksgiving, then he shall offer it with the thank offering unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and cakes of fine flour well mixed with oil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
With the sacrifice of his peace offerings for Thanksgiving, he shall bring his offering with cakes of leavened bread. And of such, he shall offer one cake from each offering as an offering to the Lord. It shall belong to the priest who throws the blood of the peace offerings, and the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
He shall not leave any of it until the morning. But if the sacrifice of his offering is a votive offering or a freewill offering, it shall be eaten on the day that he offers his sacrifice, and the next day what remains of it shall be eaten." But what remains of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burned with fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
If any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings is eaten on the third day, he who offers it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be credited to him. It shall be an abomination, and he who eats of it shall bear his iniquity. Flesh that touches any unclean thing shall not be eaten. It shall be burned with fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
All who are clean may eat flesh, but the person who eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of the Lord's peace offerings, while an uncleanness is on him, that person shall be cut off from his people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
And if anyone touches an unclean thing, whether the uncleanness of man or an unclean beast or an unclean abomination, and then eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of the Lord's peace offerings, that person shall be cut off from his people. The Lord said to Moses, Say to the people of Israel, You shall eat no fat of ox or sheep or goat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
The fat of an animal that dies of itself and the fat of one that is torn to beasts may be put to any other use, but on no account shall you eat it. For every person who eats of the fat of an animal, of which an offering by fire is made to the Lord, shall be cut off from his people. Moreover, you shall eat no blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animal, in any of your dwellings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people." The Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, He that offers the sacrifice of his peace offerings to the Lord shall bring his offering to the Lord. From his sacrifice of his peace offerings, he shall bring with his own hands the offerings by fire to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
He shall bring the fat with the breast, that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before the Lord. The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be for Aaron and his sons. And the right thigh you shall give to the priest as an offering from the sacrifice of your peace offerings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
He among the sons of Aaron who offers the blood of the peace offerings and the fat shall have the right thigh for a portion. For the breast that is waved and the thigh that is offered, I have taken from the sons of Israel out of the sacrifices of their peace offerings and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons as a perpetual debt from the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
We're kind of right smack dab in the middle of them with Exodus chapter 9.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
This is the portion of Aaron and of his sons from the offerings made by fire to the Lord consecrated to them on the day that they were presented to serve as priests of the Lord. The Lord commanded this to be given them by the sons of Israel on the day that they were anointed. It is a perpetual debt throughout their generations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
This is the law of the burnt offering, of the serial offering, of the sin offering, of the guilt offering, of the consecration, and of the peace offerings, which the Lord commanded Moses on Mount Sinai on the day that he commanded the sons of Israel to bring their offerings to the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
Psalm 49 The Folly of Trust in Riches To the Choir Master A Psalm of the Sons of Korah Hear this, all peoples. Give ear, all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak wisdom. The meditation of my heart shall be understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me, men who trust in their wealth and boast in the abundance of their riches? Truly, no man can ransom himself or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of his life is costly and can never suffice, that he should continue to live on forever and never see the pit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
Yes, he shall see that even the wise die. The fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they named lands for their own. Man cannot abide in this pomp. He is like the beasts that perish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
This is the fate of those who have foolish confidence, the end of those who are pleased with their portion. Like sheep, they are appointed for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd. Straight to the grave they descend, and their form shall waste away. Sheol shall be their home. But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
Then the Lord said to Moses, Go into Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your cattle, which are in your field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
Be not afraid when one becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases, for when he dies, he will carry nothing away. His glory will not go down after him. Though while he lives, he counts himself happy, as though a man gets praised when he does well for himself, he will go to the generations of his father, who will never more see the light. Man cannot abide in his pomp.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
He is like the beasts that perish. Father in heaven, we give you praise and we thank you for your word. We thank you for speaking to us today and for sharing your heart with us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
We continue to thank you for your willingness to fight, your willingness to wrestle, not just against us, Lord, and not just with us, but to wrestle for us, to enter into our lives with your grace, with your goodness, and with your power. Lord, we ask that you please conquer us by your love, conquer us by your grace. Help us to surrender and to submit our minds and our hearts, our entire lives to
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
to your reign. You are the king. You are the God of everything. And we give you praise in Jesus' name, in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. So one of the questions that comes up a lot when we read the book of Exodus and we get to the 10 plagues of Israel, One of the questions is, so why is God hardening Pharaoh's heart?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
What does it mean that it says that God hardens Pharaoh's heart? Because there's two different expressions that are used. There's times when scripture says that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and there's other times when it says Pharaoh hardened his own heart. So what does that mean? Well, one of the things that it doesn't mean is that God took away Pharaoh's free will.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
It does not mean that God overwhelmed Pharaoh, like Pharaoh was going to let the people of Israel go, but God said, nope, I want to teach a lesson or something like this. That's not what's going on here. What's going on is, I've heard it explained this way, that God is always good, right? So God is goodness itself. God is truth itself. God is life itself. God is mercy itself, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
And the only thing he emits essentially are those things, truth and goodness and mercy and life and love and joy. It's kind of like the sun. So here's the sun. The sun emits light and heat. And so in the presence of the sun, in the presence of the sun's heat, wax emits Wax becomes soft in the presence of the sun, but clay hardens in the presence of the sun.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
It's in many ways about the disposition of the heart. If my heart is open to the Lord, if my heart is, even if it's slightly hard, but it is made of wax, like I've said, no, I actually want to do your will, Lord. If my heart is wax, it becomes melted in the presence of the Lord. It becomes softened in the presence of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
But if my heart is clay, it becomes hardened in the presence of the Lord. And so here is God who's revealing himself, right? He's revealing his power to the people of Israel and to the people of Egypt. He's revealing himself to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh is getting to know that this is a God who is beyond all other gods. We'll talk about that tomorrow. He's a God who conquers other gods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
And yet Pharaoh obstinately and stubbornly refuses to acknowledge him. God is obviously demonstrating his reality. He's obviously demonstrating his power. He's obviously demonstrating the fact that he is on the side of the people of Israel. And Pharaoh, in the sight of that, Pharaoh hardens his heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
But the Lord will make a distinction between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt, so that nothing shall die of all that belongs to the sons of Israel. And the Lord set a time, saying, Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land. And the next day the Lord did this thing. All the cattle of the Egyptians died. But of the cattle of the sons of Israel, not one died.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
And in the sight of that, in presence of that, Pharaoh allows his heart to become hardened by God's presence and by God's power and by God's goodness fighting for his own people. And that's the question we have to ask. See, it's easy if we say, well, God hardened Pharaoh's heart and we think of it in the terms we probably would think of it on the face.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
But when we realize that, no, God never overwhelms someone's free will. He always works with our free will in a mystery of grace. I don't know how that works, but it works. But God always retains our free will and he works with it. Then we have to realize, oh, does this happen in my life where I...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail (2025)
I find my heart becoming hardened in God's presence, that God has revealed himself to me at other times. But right now, when maybe I don't get the blessing that I'm looking for right now, when I'm going through dark times right now, when I'm struggling, maybe that's when I begin to harden my own heart to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Before we get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thank you to all those who have supported the Catechism in a Year or the Bible in a Year podcast. We hear stories every day about how those shows have transformed people's lives, and because of your prayers and financial gifts, you are a significant part of that. You might ask a question, though.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
And yet she kept walking in faithfulness with Naomi, just knowing, okay, this is all I know. All I know is Naomi is a good mother-in-law and I will be faithful to her. Where she goes, I will go. Where she dies, I will die. And her God will be my God. Her people will be my people. And in the midst of that, you have this one day. It's one day that she goes out and she works really hard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
And for whatever reason, Boaz notices her. And he protects her and guards her. This is the first time she's been protected and guarded, man, maybe since her husband was alive. And so let's not jump to the idea that here is this easy life for Ruth. This is maybe the first day where there's been hope in Ruth's life in a really long time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
And the first day where there's been hope in Naomi's life in a really long time. You might be in a place right now where you're wondering, like, where is the hope for me? Because I've been walking around. I'm trying to do my best to be faithful and it's been a really long time since I've had hope. But remember that it takes sometimes a long time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
We're going to hear that to God a thousand years are like a single day and a single day are like a thousand years. But there are glimmers of hope in every one of our lives if we're willing to look for it. Think about one of the darkest days in the history of humanity. The darkest day that we've read so far has been Genesis chapter three, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Genesis chapter three, where Adam and Eve are first parents, where they rebel against the Lord. They disobey against God. And what happens is they experience the consequences of their disobedience. But what happens also is God promises a redeemer. In Genesis chapter three, verse 15, God says to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. That's just so good. Why? What am I talking about? Well, hope and God's promises. Because here in this story of Deborah and Barak and Sisera and Jael, what we have is a foreshadowing of the fulfillment of what God had promised. I know that might sound strange, but it's a foreshadowing of a fulfillment of what God has promised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Where in Judges chapter four, there is this woman, Jael. And what does she do? She crushes the head of the enemy, Sisera. And I know for us, it is very violent. For her, it was very violent. And yet it is a foreshadowing of the fulfillment of Genesis chapter three, verse 15, that the head of the enemy will be crushed. And we know that the head of the enemy is crushed by the offspring of the woman.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Ultimately, that crushing is done by Jesus Christ, who is the ultimate redeemer, the ultimate judge, the ultimate warrior who's fighting for his people. And he's the one to whom we belong. And he's the one in whom we place all of our trust. Even when we walk in darkness, we can also walk in hope, knowing that in the course of a single instant, in the course of one day, everything can change.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
They do fight for the people and they do make decisions that are their best judgment. But sometimes their best judgment, we would say, could be better. Ruth's story is going to continue as she and Naomi have gone back to Bethlehem. Her mother-in-law, Naomi, back to her mother-in-law's homeland. And here is Ruth and Naomi destitute and hoping that the Lord will care for them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
I'm praying for that for you, that not only that you walk in faithfulness and I walk in faithfulness, but also if you were walking in darkness, I'm praying that that day of the glimmer of light shines upon you very, very soon because you're not alone. We do not walk alone. We continue to pray for each other and God is with you. So I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
But today, once again, starting with Judges chapter 4 and chapter 5. The book of Judges chapter four, Deborah and Barak. And the sons of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died. And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Herosheth-hakoim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Then the sons of Israel cried to the Lord for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron, and they oppressed the sons of Israel cruelly for 20 years. Now, Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at the time. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
She sent and summoned Barak, the son of Abinoam from Kadesh in Naphtali and said to him, the Lord, the God of Israel commands you, go gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun. and I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jebin's army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
The rock said to her, If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
and she said i will surely go with you nevertheless the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory for the lord will sell sisera into the hand of a woman then deborah arose and went with barak to kadesh and barak summoned zebulun and naphtali to kadesh and ten thousand men went up at his heels and deborah went up with him
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
now heber the kenite had separated from the kenites the descendants of hochab the father-in-law of moses and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in zananim which is near kadesh when cicero is told that barak the son of abinoam had gone up to mount tabor
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Sisera called out all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the men who were with him, from Harosheth Kagoim to the river Kishon. And Deborah said to Barak, Up, for this is the day in which the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. Does not the Lord go out before you? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
And the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army before Barak at the edge of the sword. And Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot. And Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth Hagawim. And all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword. Not a man was left. Jael kills Sisera.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
But Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jebian the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. When Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me, have no fear. So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
And he said to her, Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. And he said to her, Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, Is anyone here? say, No.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
But Jael, the wife of Heber, took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him, and drove the peg into his temple, till it went down into the ground, as he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died. And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael went out to meet him, and said to him, Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking. So he went into her tent, and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
And there lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg in his temple. So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the sons of Israel. And the hand of the sons of Israel bore harder and harder on Jabin the king of Canaan, until they destroyed Jabin king of Canaan. Chapter 5. The Song of Deborah
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Then sang Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, on that day, that the leaders took the lead in Israel, that the people offered themselves willingly, blessed the Lord. Hear, O kings, give ear, O princes, to the Lord I will sing. I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Lord, when you went forth from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens dropped. Yes, the clouds dropped water. The mountains quaked before the Lord, the one of Sinai before the Lord, the God of Israel. In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, caravans ceased and travelers kept to the byways. The peasantry ceased in Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
They ceased until you arose, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
when new gods were chosen then war was in the gates was shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in israel my heart goes out to the commanders of israel who offered themselves willingly among the people bless the lord tell of it you who ride on tawny donkeys who sit on rich carpets and you who walk by the way to the sound of musicians at the watering places
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
There they repeat the triumphs of the Lord, the triumphs of his peasantry in Israel. Then down to the gates marched the people of the Lord. Awake, awake Deborah, awake, awake, utter a song. Arise Barak, lead away your captives, O son of Abinoam. Then down marched the remnant of the noble. The people of the Lord marched down for him against the mighty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
From Ephraim they set out there into the valley, following you, Benjamin, with your kinsmen. From Machir march down the commanders, and from Zebulun those who bear the marshal's staff. The princes of Issachar came with Deborah, and Issachar faithful to Barak. Into the valley they rushed forth at his heels. Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Why did you tarry among the sheepfolds to hear the piping for the flocks?" Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan, and Dan, why did he abide with the ships? Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, settling down by his landings. Zebulun is a people that jeoparded their lives to the death, Naphtali too, on the heights of the field.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
The kings came. They fought. Then fought the kings of Canaan at Tanakh by the waters of Megiddo. They got no spoils of silver. From heaven fought the stars. From their courses they fought against Sisera. The torrent Kishon swept them away. The onrushing torrent, the torrent of Kishon. March on, my soul, with might.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
then loud beat the horses hoofs with the galloping galloping of his steeds curse miraz says the angel of the lord curse bitterly its inhabitants because they came not to the help of the lord to the help of the lord against the mighty Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Canite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed. He asked for water, and she gave him milk.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
She brought him curds in lordly bowl. She put her hand to the tent peg, and her right hand to the workman's mallet. she struck sisera a blow she crushed his head she shattered and pierced his temple he sank he fell he lay still at her feet at her feet he sank he fell and where he sank there he fell dead out of the window she peered the mother of sisera gazed through the lattice
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why do the hoofbeats of his chariots tarry? Her wisest ladies make answer. No, she gives answer to herself. Are they not finding and dividing the spoil? A maiden or two for every man? Spoil of dyed stuffs for Sisera? Spoil of dyed stuffs embroidered? Two pieces of dyed work embroidered for my neck as spoil. So perish all your enemies, O Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 90. Oh my gosh, you guys, what a phenomenal day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
The Book of Ruth Chapter 2 Ruth Meets Boaz Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him, in whose sight I shall find favor. And she said to her, Go, my daughter. So she set forth, and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and he said to the reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered, The Lord bless you. Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, Whose maiden is this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, It is the Moabite maiden, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
she said please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers so she came and she has continued from early morning until now without resting even for a moment then boaz said to ruth now listen my daughter do not go to glean in another field or leave this one but keep close to my maidens
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
let your eyes be upon the field which they are reaping and go after them have i not charged the young men not to molest you and when you are thirsty go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn then she fell on her face bowing to the ground and said to him Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me when I am a foreigner?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
But Boaz answered her, All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The Lord recompense you for what you have done, and a full reward be given to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Then she said, You are most gracious to me, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not one of your maidservants. And at mealtime Boaz said to her, Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine. So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her parched grain, and she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
milestone that is three months if every month had 30 days and day 90 we're reading judges chapters four and five ruth chapter two following her story for just a short story but a powerful important story and we're praying today from psalm 134 as always i'm reading from the revised standard version second catholic edition i'm always using the great adventure bible from ascension if you want to get your own
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
when she rose to glean boaz instructed his young men saying let her glean even among the sheaves and do not reproach her and also pull out from among the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean and do not rebuke her so she gleaned in the field until evening and she beat out what she had gleaned and it was an ephah of barley And she took it up and went into the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
She showed her mother-in-law what she had gleaned. And she also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. And her mother-in-law said to her, where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you. So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, the name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "'Blessed be he by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead.' Naomi also said to her, "'The man is a relative of ours, one of our nearest kin.' And Ruth the Moabitess said, "'Besides,' he said to me, "'you shall keep close by my servants till they have finished all my harvest.'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, It is well, my daughter, that you go out with his maidens, lest in another field you be molested. So she kept close to the maidens of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests, and she lived with her mother-in-law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Come bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who stand by night in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Wow, just even, Lord God, hearing the story of the faithfulness of this woman who did not know you, this woman, Ruth, who did not know you, and yet she was faithful to what she did know. She was faithful to her mother-in-law. And Lord, you're blessing her in this story. You're blessing not only Ruth, but also Naomi, also Boaz, this man who will be blessed, and also the people of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
who will receive a king through this incredible woman, this woman of faithfulness. Lord God, help us to be the faithful like Ruth. Help us to be faithful to not only our relationships, our families, but also faithful to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Lord God, when things are difficult and things are dark and it seems like our faithfulness is only met with trouble and where it would seem like it would be so much easier to be unfaithful, Help us to hold on and cling to you in the darkness. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
And that is something I want to just highlight. Just gosh, oh man, Ruth. We're going to get back to Deborah, or Sisera, JL, all those folks. But just a second, let's highlight Ruth for one second. Because it's kind of easy to read Ruth chapter two today and think, what a massively blessed person. I mean, how, you know, kind of look at them and say, oh, man, lucky.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
When it comes to Ruth, we have to remember that this is one day in Ruth's life. It is maybe the first day of blessing in Ruth's life. Recall her life back in Moab. She married this man, this son of Naomi and Elimelech. And I imagine she had plans for a full life with this man of a family with this man. And what happens?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You also can subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily episodes. Once again, this is day 90. Judges 4 and 5, I already gave the disclaimer yesterday, but it is a violent book and it is... All the things the judges do are not always great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 90: Ruth and Boaz (2025)
Not only does her father-in-law die, which puts the family in trouble, but then her brother-in-law dies, which puts the family in trouble. And then her husband dies, which puts the family in trouble. And for the entire time of this last past recent history of her life, she's been in trouble with no guarantees. with no promises, with no certainty that things will ever get better.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
And there's just this playfulness there. with among the saints, because they got so used to, I'm firmly ensconced in the teachings of the church. I'm not going to step out of the teachings of the church. That means this whole scripture is a playground. Again, I say that in the best possible way. It's a playground because I am, there are clear boundaries.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
I'm not going to step outside of them by interpreting it on my own. Okay. So number one, know what you're reading. Number two, these principles of interpretation. Number three, the senses of scripture. We have two more to go. One is this. Read like the Bible has something to teach you. Here's what I mean. So often, there are people who will read the Bible with skepticism or criticism.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
They read the Bible not only with questions, because questions are great, but we read the Bible with these questions of, like, I'm standing over the Bible rather than humbling myself in front of the Bible. And when I read the Bible like it has something to teach me, that means I'm reading the Bible, the words of God in the words of men,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
with trust and if there's a better a better way to like short circuit and your ability to understand scripture short circuit your ability to even get anything out of scripture it's to read the bible with a spirit of skepticism or spiritual criticism to read the bible as like someone who's trying to prove it wrong um there are so many things in the bible that we will not understand automatically
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
not just because we're limited or not just because God's ways are beyond our ways. That's true. But like I said at the beginning, one of the reasons why we don't understand so much of scripture is because this was written at a different time in a different culture from ours.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
And so one of the things we need to do is read like it has something to teach us, to put aside skepticism, to put aside criticism, to keep our questions, but our questions get to be based off of a God, you're revealing yourself to me. I trust you even when I don't understand because I know that there is an answer to this. There is an answer to the question I have about what I just read.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
And so that's when I'm gonna invite you to read like the Bible has something to teach you. And lastly, lastly, Last tip to hear God's voice in scripture is keep on going.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
When you run up against something that's difficult, when you run up something against something that is confusing, when you run up against like, oh my gosh, I'm getting bogged down in, people will often use like the names, like you're getting bogged down in the names and getting bogged down in the details.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
I'm going through Leviticus and I don't know, you seem like you repeated yourself 12 times in the last 12 minutes. keep on going. It's one of the reasons why I like audiobooks so much. One of the reasons why we're doing this podcast is because I know for myself, if I'm reading something and I'm not entirely getting every single word, I'm kind of like a little bit lost.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
we follow the narratives but also there's some books that are legal they're from the legal book like leviticus there are stories that are retelling the same story like for example genesis chapter one and genesis chapter two tell the same story but in two different perspectives we also have things like um exodus and then uh numbers that will tell a lot of the same stories
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
If I just keep on reading, it usually resolves itself. And same thing, that's again, I just keep on listening and it usually resolves itself. It's one of those where like, oh, Now that makes sense because I went to the next paragraph, went to the next section, and it brings clarity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
So keep on going when you run up against something that causes you a question, causes you problems, or even just something like I don't even get what they were saying right there. Keep on moving. Keep on moving forward because I guarantee you that when you keep moving forward like this, like that, those questions get resolved. The questions are good, right? Your questions are good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
It's great to have an inquisitive mind. But one of the things we want to do is not let that, those questions get in the way. We want to let those questions be fuel for moving forward. but not let them be the reason why we stopped. So number one, raise to hear God's voice by reading scripture. Know what you're reading. Pay attention to the genre.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
Know that it's the words of God and the words of men. To be familiar with the four principles of interpretation. Be familiar with the senses of scripture. To read like the Bible has something to teach you without skepticism, without criticism, and to keep on going. As I said, my name is Father Mike. We are going to be doing this podcast, this Bible in a Year podcast. It is going to be so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
I cannot wait. I cannot wait to take this journey with you. Or if you've already started on this journey, I cannot wait to continue this journey with you. We're going to keep praying for each other, praying with each other. And no, I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
So sometimes we have that happening when we're reading the Bible. We have to understand, okay, that's that. Also, there's things like Proverbs, which are wise sayings that belong to the wisdom books or Psalms, same kind of thing that belongs to the wisdom books. And it has like these collection of prayers. Then we have the gospels. And not only do we have the gospels that are,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
like basically a history, but kind of like a biography, but kind of not like a biography of Jesus, a unique kind of biography. But even in the gospels, there are genres like parables where Jesus tells a parable, which is not meant necessarily to be taken literally or not necessarily meant to be taken as, how would you say it, universally applicable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
What are the ways in which any person can actually pick up the Bible and not just get the story, not just understand the stories, but really hear God's voice, like really know what it is we're listening to, who it is that we're listening to. Because the Bible is not only a document, the Bible is a living, a living thing. And it's God's living voice continuing to speak to us now. Here's some tips.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
We've talked about this before in other contexts, but here's the story of like the 10 virgins, five wise virgins and five foolish virgins. And And in that scripture, what happens? They all fall asleep. And when the bridegroom is there, they wake up and the foolish ones have not enough oil in their lamps. And so they ask the wise ones, give us some of your oil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
And the wise ones say, no, get your own oil. And if that were to be a universally applicable kind of a parable, you'd say, well, I guess we aren't supposed to share. But that's not what that parable is about.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. This is not a day in which we are going to be reading from Scripture, but it's a day we're going to be talking about Scripture. In fact, we're going to be looking at how do I hear God's voice in Scripture?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
so we have a lot of different genres one of the first tips to hearing god's voice is know what you're reading pay attention to the genre um another thing to be able to do is recognize that when we're reading the bible we are reading the word of god expressed in the words of human beings this is very very important for us the catechism reveals this to us that um throughout all the words of sacred scripture god speaks only one single word his one utterance in whom he expresses himself completely that's a quote from script from a
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
the Catechism, paragraph 102. But right before that, right before that, we have Catechism 101, because that's how numbers work. And it says that in order to reveal himself to men in the condescension of his goodness, God speaks to them in human words. So in order to reveal himself, he can condescends to us and he speaks to us in human words.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
In fact, the quote is indeed the words of God expressed in the words of men are in every way like human language, just as the word of the eternal father, when he took on himself, the flesh of human weakness became like men. One of the, one of the things that means is that, um,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
The Lord God used the human authors of sacred scripture as true authors, making use of their time, their place, making use of their minds and their ways of seeing things in order to communicate the truth that he wanted to communicate. And so one of the things we have to understand is when it comes to
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
listening to the word of God or reading the word of God is that this is going to be the word of God, God's words, um, through the words of human beings. And we, when we realize that we can understand how we're going to continue to read, which means, um, the interpretation of scripture. How do we enter this number two to have a grasp on interpreting scripture, um,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
So the Catechism, again, so good, gives us the fact that the Holy Spirit is the interpreter of Scripture. But there are four kind of ways in which to interpret Scripture correctly, we have to be attentive to these four things. Number one. we have to be attentive to the sacred author's intention.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
We have to be attentive to the sacred author's intention, which means we must take into account the conditions of the time, culture, literary genres and use, modes of feeling or speaking, narrating that was current then. So one of the, one of the realities is if you were to visit another culture, another country, or, you know, another language, he visited a language.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
If you were to do that, one of the things we would need to do is we would need to take into account like, okay, we are in different contexts. I remember I lived for one summer down in a Caribbean Island known as St. Vincent and the Grenadines. And it was great. It was hard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
It was hard down there because for many reasons, but one of the reasons I did not realize right away is because, well, they all spoke English at St. Vincent and the Grenadines. That was the national language. And so I just kind of assumed that, well, we understand each other because we're all speaking English. I'm a native English speaker. You're a native English speaker.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
And so we know what we're saying to each other. I did not realize though that It actually took me until I got back to the United States and someone was expressing, they were conveying their experience. They spent the summer in France, living with a religious community in France, another seminarian.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
And he said, yeah, you know, something about living in another culture that strips you of your personality. Something about, he said, something about speaking another language that strips you of your personality because you miss out on all the jokes. You miss on the subtle, you know, kind of references.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
And I thought, oh my gosh, that is exactly what happened to me because here I thought we were all speaking English. We were, but...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
We read five little tips, five tips on how to hear God's voice. And I want to start out with the first one. The first one is know what you're reading. What I mean by know what you're reading is a couple of things. First thing is know that the Bible is not necessarily, sometimes we approach the Bible like it's a magic eight ball, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
all the things that i guess the references that would make me kind of funny um or the references that i would get their humor i didn't we were different cultures and so i was regularly told almost every day when i was down in saint vincent you're so dumb um it was but it was by teenagers so you give them a break but they're like you're so dumb like what i guess i mean i get it but why
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
And the reason why is because I didn't get their jokes. And I probably came across as kind of being really boring because I didn't make a lot of jokes because we had a different cultural context. Okay, how does this apply right now?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
It applies right now because we have to discover the sacred author's intention, which means that we have to do some scripture study or some study of the culture and study of like, okay, here's what it means to me right now to read these words. but what did Matthew actually mean when he wrote these words?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
Or this is what it means to me as a 21st century American, but what did this mean to Moses as he wrote the first books of Moses like 4,000 years ago? So it's important to understand, number one, to try to discover the sacred author's intention. Number two, and when it comes to interpreting scripture, we need to, Goya Catechism says, to be especially attentive to the content and unity of scripture.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
What that means is There are 73 books, they're all different. They're all different genres, but they will not contradict each other, but they rather inform each other. And so if in one portion of the Bible, it seems like, wow, God is really unjust. For example, one of the first books we're gonna look at in this Bible In A Year podcast is the book of Job.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
And you can look at this and say, wow, did God just like visit all this destruction upon Job for no reason? Is God evil? Is God cruel? And because there's not really an answer to that question, in the book of Job. But there is an answer to that question in the rest of the Bible where God is like, absolutely not. I am not cruel. I am not vindictive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
I do not visit punishment needlessly upon anybody. He is a God of justice and goodness and love and life. And that's all he gives or the things that lead to justice and goodness and love and life. We only know that if we look at the scripture as a whole.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
Again, even though there are 73 different books by many, many different authors, we read every text in context and in light of the rest of the Bible. Number three. So number one, sacred author's intention. Number two,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
uh especially attentive to the content unity of scripture number three we read scripture within the living tradition of the whole church which means to say that we um pay attention to what the uh the church has said about certain topics certain scriptures um we are attentive to the fact that not only is there sacred scripture there's also sacred tradition
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
Kind of like just look for an answer or we approach the Bible like it's a book of inspiring quotes. So we just look for inspiration. We look for like some up being uplifted and then we read some stories and that we're going to get into the stories as we go through this Bible in a Year plan. And you're like, wait, that was not inspirational.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
Part of God's revelation is the written word, but part of God's revelation is also the sacred tradition that he has handed on from the apostles through the bishops and through the teaching office of the church and the magisterium. We recognize that divine revelation is not limited to sacred scripture, but is expanded into sacred tradition and in the magisterium of the church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
And so we read scripture within the living tradition of the whole church. Number four. We are especially attentive to the analogy of faith. What's that mean? Analogy of faith, the catechism says, it means the coherence of truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of revelation. So if you're reading something and you're interpreting it, that goes against any truths of the faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
It goes against the whole plan of revelation. That goes against what many saints have said. It goes against the church. We realize, okay, I have not been attentive to the analogy of faith. Okay, those are the first two tips to being able to hear God's voice. Number one, know what you're reading. Pay attention to the genre. These are the words of God and the words of men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
Number two is knowing what the interpretive principles are, like discovering the author's original intention. It's not, it doesn't mean what I think it means. It means what the author originally intended and the other things as well. Number three, it's so important to understand that there are different ways to read scripture. There's different what you call senses of scripture.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
So once again, we're turning to the catechism to find out what are the different senses of scripture. In fact, there are two, the literal and the spiritual. It makes so much sense because we said, what is the original intention of the author? Okay, what is the literal interpretation of the text? So the literal sense is the basis. It's basically every other kind of interpretation of scripture.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
Every other sense of scripture is based off of the literal. Like, what does it actually mean? That is the number one principle when it comes to interpreting scripture. Looking at the literal sense, what is this saying? For example...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
If the Bible says something along the lines of David entered the city of Jerusalem, leaping and dancing before the ark, the literal interpretation of that is David entered the city of Jerusalem, leaping and dancing before the ark. That's like the literal sense. That is the number one thing, the first thing, the basis for the other senses. So we pay attention to that one first.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
Everything builds off of the literal because the spiritual sense is divided into three different categories, right? So the spiritual sense has the allegorical, the moral and the anagogical. I know all these words. You're like, what the heck father? Why are you telling me all this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
And that does not provide me with a lot of direction for my life. So you need to know what you're reading. What I mean by that is we need to know that there are many genres. There are 73 books in the Old Testament and New Testament, 73 books in the canon of Scripture. And they are a mix of literary genres. And so I need to approach them like, okay, this is not all inspiration.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
Well, I'm telling you this because there are many times when scripture in the literal sense is like, wow, I don't get that really. And I don't, I don't, I'm not necessarily able to apply it to my life right now. But there is these spiritual senses that unpack scripture in a way and apply scripture in a way that we can benefit from.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
So number one, in the spiritual sense, this allegorical sense, what's that mean? It means that there are types throughout scripture. So the example that the catechism uses is we understand the allegory or the type of the Red Sea, the journey through the people of Israel through the Red Sea. It's a type of Christ's victory. It's also a type of Christian baptism. What do I mean?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
Well, you have the people of Israel who are on one side of the Red Sea and they on that side of the Red Sea are certain slaves and certain face certain death. And then they pass through the waters of the Red Sea. And what does God give them by passing them through the waters of the sea? He gives them freedom and he gives them life. And this is what God gives to us in baptism.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
So that's the allegorical sense, you could say. Another way to say it is the first example I used, which I think was, I think Jeff Cavins had used this years ago. I don't know how long ago, but I heard it. David entering Jerusalem, leaping and dancing before the ark. The allegorical sense could be like, okay, how does this apply to maybe even something like...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
the allegory of here is um john the baptist leaping in elizabeth's womb before mary who is the new ark of the new covenant right so here is the child jesus in the womb of mary the virgin mary and so mary there is is like a the fulfillment of the ark of the covenant to the allegory right there and then you have john the baptist leaping for joy in front of um Our Lady and Jesus in her womb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
And that would be, so David is an allegory, right? And the fulfillment of that is in the New Testament in Luke's gospel chapter one. So that'd be allegorical sense. The moral sense is the events reported in scripture ought to lead us to act justly. So how can I apply this to my moral life? That makes a ton of sense. For example, David leaping and dancing before the ark.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
He's like, okay, that's my call to worship God. My call to go before the Lord and with joy, to go before the Lord and point to him, to go before the Lord and again. be joyful in worship. So the allegorical, the moral sense in the last one, the anagogical sense, this means that we can review realities in terms of their eternal significance. So let's go back to David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
David leaping and dancing before the ark on his way into Jerusalem. Okay, what could that be an anagogical sense of, of like the end? What that might be would be here we're called. to, in heaven, be constantly before the presence of the Lord and united in heaven, in God's presence. We're called to give him eternal worship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
So these are these three spiritual senses, the allegorical, the moral, and the anagogical sense. And if we can do those things, again, we can read all sorts of different scripture That could immediately be relatively confusing with much more clarity because we not only have this, the interpretation principles, we also have these senses of scripture principles. We can apply them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
The great thing about having both of those back to back, the interpretation and the senses of scripture is that if you remain in the teaching of the church, right? If you remain saying like, no, I'm going to completely assent to not only sacred tradition, sorry, not only sacred scripture, but also sacred tradition and the magisterium of the church, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
then you realize that, oh my gosh, you get to actually play around. And I say play around in the most cautious way of saying this. You get to rejoice in the multiple ways that scripture can be applied. If you look at the writings of the early church as well as the Middle Ages church, one of the things you find is great joy
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
This is not all edifying. This is not all uplifting. This is not all those things that we like to think of when we hear Bible stories. The Bible, though, is a mix. Yep, some of the books are historical. Some of the books have a narrative that we follow. That's one of the things we're going to do by following the Great Adventure Bible Timeline.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
BONUS: How to Hear God's Voice in Scripture
in looking for new analogical senses or allegorical senses or anagogical senses, looking for new ways that the literal sense could be applied in these spiritual senses. And they just like, even to the point of like, they mentioned this particular kind of tree in the Psalms and that kind of tree would reference this and this and this, like it would mean something deep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to innumerable angels in festal gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and to a judge who is God of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. His voice then shook the earth, but now he has promised, Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
This phrase, yet once more, indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Chapter 13 Sacrifices Well-Pleasing to God Let brotherly love continue.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them and those who are ill-treated since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled. For God will judge the immoral and adulterous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Get ready for tomorrow, year 21. two, day one. You can also, you know what? I'm not asking. I'm not even going to mention it. I'm not even going to mention it. You do what you want. It's been an incredible walk through the Bible with you. So I'm not even going to say the word. Not today. Okay. It's day 365.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Keep your life free from love of money and be content with what you have. For he has said, I will never fail you nor forsake you. Hence, we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their life and imitate their faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings. For it is well that the heart be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited their adherents. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing abuse for him. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Through him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as men who will have to give account.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Let them do this joyfully and not sadly, for that would be of no advantage to you. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. I urge you the more earnestly to do this, in order that I may be restored to you the sooner. Benediction
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Now, may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Final exhortation and greetings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
I appeal to you, brethren, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. You should understand that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. Grace be with all of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her the fruit of her hands and let her works praise her in the gates.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
In Jesus' name, receive our thanks. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay. So, this is it. One thing to just highlight about the end of Revelation, the end of the letter to the Hebrews, the end of our journey this year, is the new heavens and the new earth. that God restores everything. God restores hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
We heard yesterday, we're judged by what we've done on the earth. Of course, God's grace enables us to have access and to walk in faith and to be able to do good, but we have to choose to do that. But God wants us to do that. Jesus declares, I'm the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
He says this to the thirsty in chapter 21, to the thirsty, I will give water without price from the fountain of the water of life. He who conquers shall have this heritage and I will be his God and he shall be my son. God loves you already. He will never, ever stop loving you. His plan for you is this, is again, chapter 21 in verse three and four. He says, the dwelling of God is with men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
We're reading the revelation to John chapter 21 and 22, the letter to the Hebrews chapters 11, 12, and 13 and Proverbs chapter 31 verses 30 and 31. The revelation to John chapter 21, the new heaven and the new earth. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
He will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself will be with them and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. I know that over the last 365 days, over the last year, you have experienced death. You've experienced loss. Siblings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
You've lost parents. You've lost children. You've lost your own children. Your spouses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
And in this time, God has been speaking to you this whole time, you know, he didn't abandon you in the midst of suffering and he will never abandon you in the midst of suffering. It was in the midst of loss that he kept speaking to you because the death is not the end. That loss is not the end. And, and, and truly, truly, this is not the end. Here is John looking into heaven. He sees this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
He says, I saw no temple in the city, for the temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. And the city has no need for sun or moon to shine on it, for God himself gives the light. And God truly, he has not abandoned you, has not forsaken you. He has been speaking with you through this entire year. And this year may be the first year you ever listened every day. And listen to his voice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
And we're not afraid to take him with you into the suffering and not afraid to continue to listen to him in the midst of pain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
you didn't walk alone and this is this incredible thing this incredible word in letter to the hebrews one of my favorite chapters is the beginning of chapter 12. after the author talks about the faith of moses and the faith of abraham and isaac israel's other heroes he gives the example of jesus in chapter 12 and he says therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses all the saints right in heaven all the saints have gone before us
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. You've been running. You've been running this last year. You haven't done it alone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
There have been hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people running with you, this community that has been racing with you, running alongside of you, and you haven't been alone. Every time I've asked for prayers, you've been praying. Every time someone's been praying for you, in fact, not just someone, but many someones have been praying for you, you have not been on this journey alone. alone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Every single day, there have been brothers and sisters in the Lord at different places in our faith, right? Different places of, of knowing him or not knowing him of doing well or failing and falling. I've been praying for you and been running next to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, not only those in heaven, but also our brothers and sisters here on earth, especially, especially this last year. And so what do we do? Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus. Looking to Jesus. Oh my gosh. How good is this? Looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Keeping your eyes, like remember Peter stepped out of the boat and the moment he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the wind and the waves, he began to sink. Here is the author saying, My brothers and sisters, this is the first trip First trip around the sun with our first trip through the word of God. So you may not grow weary or faint hearted. Especially in those moments of discouragement.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them and they shall be his people. and God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Here is the author says in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. So keep on going. Keep on going because grace is with you. I have just two more things. First, some business. One of the things I want you to know is that I know people have written to me and saying, hey, do we get t-shirts? Or do you get like, I want a certificate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
And actually, their certifications will be available for those who have completed this podcast. If you want a certification for having completed this Bible in a Year, go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Because we want to give you... certification. This is fantastic. So ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year if you want certification.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
There's also, I mean, we ripped through so fast the book of Revelation and the letter to the Hebrews at the end here. You know, Jeff Cavins, who has been part of our journey as well, he has a number of Bible studies on Hebrews and on Revelation. He and a man, Dr. Andrew Swofford, have another one on Romans and on other books of the Bible. So please check those out from Ascension Press.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Those Bible studies have, you know, over the course of the last maybe 20 years of my life, have really helped me. And so I just want to recommend those Ascension Bible studies. Also, look forward to in the upcoming years, upcoming, you know, who knows when, we'll have an opportunity to walk again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Okay, here's the last thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
I'm really bad at goodbyes. So, uh, I've thinking about this a lot of times with our, our students who it's their time, time to leave, you know, it's time to leave campus. And I've let them know that, Oh, you know, father Mike's bad at goodbyes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
And, and the reason I've been, I've been praying about that a lot and thinking about what I would say on this day, 365, I realized why I'm bad at goodbyes. It's not because I'm, I feel awkward, not just because, um, Not because I want to escape the moment. It's more because I don't have words to honor this moment. I don't have words to honor you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
I don't have the words that could honor what God has done in my life over this last year. And being able to be able to walk with you. I don't have the words that can capture that. And so I don't, I'm not sure exactly how to end this. Maybe I'm not good at goodbyes, but it's not because I don't care. It's because I care so much and I can't put it into words.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
This last year, you and God's word have meant everything. And I'm so grateful for every one of you. So grateful for your prayers. So grateful for your support. So grateful for just being able to know that I'm speaking to you as I'm reading the word of God. And I'm so grateful. And I don't have words that can capture the weight of how much you have meant to me, how much this has meant to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
So I don't know how to say goodbye.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. Also he said, Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
To the thirsty I will give water without price from the fountain of the water of life. He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Vision of the New Jerusalem Then came one of the seven angels, who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and spoke to me, saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
And in the Spirit he carried me away to a great high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper clear as crystal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
It had a great high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed, on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
And he who talked to me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies four square, its length the same as its breadth. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and breadth and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by a man's measure, that is an angel's.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
the tenth chrysoprase the eleventh jacinth the twelfth amethyst and the twelve gates were twelve pearls each of the gates made of a single pearl and the street of the city was pure gold transparent as glass and i saw no temple in the city for the temple is the lord god the almighty and the lamb
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
and the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light shall the nations walk, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, and its gates shall never be shut by day, and there shall be no night there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
They shall bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean shall enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Chapter 22, River of the Water of Life Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city. Also, on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him. They shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads, and night shall be no more. They need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they shall reign forever and ever. And he said to me, These words are trustworthy and true.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place. And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. Epilogue and Benediction I, John, am he who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
But he said to me, You must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God. And he said to me, Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star. The spirit and the bride say, come. And let him who hears say, come. And let him who is thirsty come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Let him who desires take the water of life without price. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it, the men of old received divine approval. By faith, we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear. The examples of Abel, Enoch, and Noah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he received approval as righteous, God bearing witness by accepting his gifts. He died, but through his faith he is still speaking. By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. Now, before he was taken, he was attested as having pleased God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
And without faith, it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning the events as yet unseen, took heed and constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which comes by faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
The Faith of Abraham By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
These all died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promise was ready to offer up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your descendants be named.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 365. Praise the Lord. We're reading from the Revelation to John, chapter 21 and 22, the conclusion of the Bible, as well as the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 11, 12, and 13.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
He considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead. Hence, he did receive him back, and this was a symbol. By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his burial. The faith of Moses. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered abuse suffered for the Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked to the reward.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. The faith of other heroes in Israel's history.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith, Rahab the harlot did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given friendly welcome to the spies. And what more shall I say?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets. who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and scourging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed with the sword.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering over deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Chapter 12, The Example of Jesus Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
We're also reading Proverbs chapter 31, verses 30 through 31. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan to see what you've done, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year or print it off today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
Later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. exhortation to be strong and avoid sin. Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Strive for peace with all men and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
See to it that no one failed to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness spring up and cause trouble, and by it that many become defiled." that no one be immoral or irreligious like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 365: The Beginning and the End (2024)
For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers entreat that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Day 118, we're reading 1 Samuel 27 and 28, and we're praying Psalm 34. 1 Samuel chapter 27, David goes to King Akshish in Gath. And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
All are wrong, and they all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. And they contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Now, this is so remarkable is that I remember talking with someone and they were saying that, oh, my mom made me get rid of all my books on tarot cards. And She doesn't understand. It's just silly. It's just fun.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And I remember speaking with her and thinking, oh, your mom, I'm glad your mom made you get rid of your books on your tarot card books because the church doesn't condemn those things because they are a waste of your time or because they're just silly. It's because they're actually dangerous. There's actually power there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
When the church condemns here, horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, clairvoyance, recourse to mediums, all these things, We recognize that there, yes, there's a spiritual world and the spirits are not all good, right? There are spirits who live in God's presence, angels, absolutely. But there are also spirits who have rejected God's presence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
They've rejected God's Lordship and those spirits are not to be messed with. That's what we're messing with when we consult horoscopes or astrology or palm reading or interpretation of omens and lots, that we're dealing with something, we're having a recourse to something or someone other than God himself. Someone could say, yeah, but I got healing here or I got an answer here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And I would have to say, absolutely. You might have done that, but you got it from the wrong source. This is something that this chapter for Samuel reveals to us. The medium doesn't pretend that she can conjure Samuel up. He actually gets conjured up. And it is to Saul's detriment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
The same thing is true for anyone who would call upon a medium or a horoscope or a Ouija board or any of those kinds of things. If that's been part of your life, my invitation, I beg you, please get rid of those things, burn them, throw them away and get to confession. Be restored to the Lord because it is a serious, serious violation of the first commandment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And even more, well, not even more, but just as much, it's placing your own eternal soul in great, great jeopardy, in great, great risk. And so I know that's really heavy, but it's right from the Bible here, 1 Samuel chapter 28, where this happens. And what's the consequence for Saul is that you'll die tomorrow, Prophet Samuel says to Saul. And this kind of thing spiritually kills us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And so again, you don't have to be afraid. We don't have to be afraid because Jesus Christ conquers everything, but we do have to make a point of definitely turning away from all sources of evil like this and turning back to the Lord, repenting, going to confession if we have the chance and getting rid of all traces of those things in our lives. Again, heavy topic today on day 118.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
At the same time, what a gift to be able to be called higher. What a gift to be able to realize that there is a spiritual world out there that we're part of. At the same time, we need to trust in the Lord more than anything else, even when he's silent and not to take the control of the future in our own hands. I know it's hard and this world is difficult and this life is difficult.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And that's why we keep praying for each other. And please pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand. So David arose and went over, he and the 600 men who were with him, to Akshish, the son of Maok, king of Gath. And David dwelt with Akshish and Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal's widow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And when it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, he sought for him no more. Then David said to Akshish, If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be given me in one of the country towns, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you? So that day Akshish gave him Ziklag. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And the number of the days that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months. Now David and his men went up and made raids upon the Geshurites, the Gerzites, and the Amalekites, for these were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as far as Shur to the land of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And David struck the land and left neither man nor woman alive, but took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the garments, and came back to Akshish. When Akshish asked, against whom have you made a raid today? David would say, against the Negev of Judah, or against the Negev of the Jeremelites, or against the Negev of the Kenites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And David saved neither man nor woman alive to bring tidings to Gath, thinking, lest they should tell about us and say, so David has done. Chapter 28 In those days, the Philistines gathered their forces for war to fight against Israel. And Akshish said to David, Understand that you and your men are to go out with me in the army.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
It is day 118. We have two days left, including today, for 1 Samuel before we jump into 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. We are reading two chapters from 1 Samuel today. It is 1 Samuel chapter 27 and 28. We're also praying Psalm 34. That's treinta y cuatro for those Spanish speakers who know how to speak Spanish numbers, but we'll be reading this in English.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
David said to Akshish, Very well, you shall know what your servant can do. And Akshish said to David, Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life. Saul consults a medium at Endor. Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the wizards out of the land. The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And Saul gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, seek out for me a woman who is a medium that I may go to her and inquire of her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And his servants said to him, behold, there is a medium at Endor. so saul disguised himself and put on other garments and went he and two men with him and they came to the woman by night and he said divine for me by a spirit and bring up for me whomever i shall name to you the woman said to him surely you know what saul has done how he has cut off the mediums and the wizards from the land
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Why then are you laying a snare for my life to bring about my death? But Saul swore to her by the Lord, As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing. Then the woman said, Whom shall I bring up for you? He said, Bring up Samuel for me. When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice, and the woman said to Saul, Why have you deceived me? You are Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
The king said to her, Have no fear. What do you see? And the woman said to Saul, I see a God coming up out of the earth. He said to her, What is his appearance? And she said, An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped in a robe. And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and did obeisance. Then Samuel said to Saul, why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Saul answered, I am in great distress for the Philistines are warring against me and God has turned away from me and answers me no more either by prophets or by dreams. Therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do. And Samuel said, Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
For the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor David. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek. Therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. Moreover, the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds. Now, we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell at once full length upon the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. And the woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, Behold, your handmaid has listened to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
I have taken my life in my hand, and have listened to what you have said to me. Now therefore you also listen to your handmaid. Let me set a morsel of bread before you, and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way. He refused and said, I will not eat. But his servants, together with the woman, urged him, and he listened to their words. So he arose from the earth and sat upon the bed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Speaking of the translation of which you'll be reading is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. Speaking of Spanish Bibles, actually, this is not, no one told me to say this. I am literally looking. on my bookshelf and I can see the Spanish version of the great adventure Bible timeline, uh, sorry, great adventure Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Now the woman had a fatted calf in the house, and she quickly killed it, and she took flour, and kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread of it, and she put it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
A Psalm of David. When he feigned madness before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Look to him and be radiant, so that your faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. O fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no want.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come, O sons, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and covets many days that he may enjoy good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against evildoers to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones. Not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And we thank you. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for making us body and soul. Thank you for giving us life and breath in this world that you have created. This world you have made good. This world that is good but unsafe. This world that's good but has been broken. In this heart, these hearts of ours that are good but broken.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Lord God, we ask you to come into the brokenness because all those things that you make are good. Even though they have been broken, you still love us. Even though we are broken, you still love us. And even though this world is broken, you still love it and you still can redeem it. You have redeemed it by the sacrifice, the life, the death, and the resurrection of your son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
They have it in Spanish. So if you are someone who are more, you're more accustomed to reading scripture in Spanish, they do have a Spanish great adventure Bible. It is also the revised standard version, second Catholic edition, I believe, or maybe it's something, I don't know. That was just something I said, but I do have the Spanish version. They have it from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
You've sent your Holy Spirit upon this world. this broken but good world so that it may be holy, that we may be holy. Help us live a life consecrated to you this day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Wow. So here we are. Gosh, the last couple of chapters here are in 1 Samuel 27 and 28.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Not only do we hear the story of King David and well, sorry, not yet King David, but David who's on the run. He's leaving. He's so much on the run that what does he do? He goes and lives among King Akshish of Gath. Now, remember that these are people who are the enemies of Israel. And so here is David who's willing to live among them. the citizens of Gath, to the land of the Philistines.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And one of the things we're going to see in the last couple chapters of 1 Samuel, which is tomorrow, the last two chapters of 1 Samuel, is that the Philistines don't trust him, but King Akshish does trust David. And he trusts him because even though David goes on these raids, and he goes to raid the people of the Amalekites, he raids the Geshurites, he raids the Gerzites,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
He tells King Akshish that he is raiding the people of Israel. He's telling them. And so here is King Akshish who's like, oh my gosh, yeah, absolutely. David is now on our side irrevocably because of the fact that he has burned his bridges. This one who was anointed King of Israel, he's now fighting against Israel. They will never, ever take him back. And so King Akshish completely trusts him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Meanwhile, back in the camp, meanwhile, back in Israel, the Philistines are mounting a massive war
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
army against king saul and saul who has been abandoned by god here when it comes to leading his people he has given he's been given no certainties when it comes to leading his people he does what so many of us do when god is silent he turns to something other than god to have certainty he turns to something other than god to have some kind of sense of what should i do next
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And what he does is he consults a medium, right? He consults what some translations will say a seer or basically a witch, the witch of Endor or the medium of Endor. Now, Saul had in the past prohibited this wizards and prohibited mediums throughout the land. And yet here he is so desperate. And this can be us too, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
You know, there can be a time when we recognize, okay, this is the wrong thing to do, but then we get so desperate that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
that we're willing to even do the thing we know has been completely prohibited we know this is not where i should be but out of fear and this is this reality right so he that's why one of the reasons why we can hear these stories we can read the story of king saul and we can realize that i'm not seeing in saul someone i cannot commiserate with i'm not seeing in saul someone i can't relate to what i'm seeing in saul is someone just like myself that yeah oh my gosh i know right and wrong and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And yet when I'm in a place of fear, a place of insecurity, a place of just desperation, yeah, doing the wrong thing can be very, very appealing. And that's what he does. He does the wrong thing. He consults the medium to call it, bring up the prophet Samuel. And the thing that's sometimes shocking for people is that the medium actually is able to connect with Samuel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You also can subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily episodes. And this, if you had done this, would be your 118th freely delivered to your place where you listen to podcasts day in a row. Does that make sense?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Now, why is this shocking to us is because sometimes we have grown accustomed to thinking, well, that's not real. We've grown accustomed to thinking like, well, no, I mean, mediums are a bunch of charlatans. They're just, you know, it's hoax. It's all just fake. And there might be mediums that are fake. There might be those that are just, it's complete a hoax. It's a complete hoax. And yet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
We recognize that the spiritual world is incredibly real. It is just as real, if not more real, than the material world. And so the recognition is, nope, Samuel was separated from his body. His soul was separated from his body because his body was buried at Ramah, as it says. But Samuel was still very much in existence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
His soul is very much in existence, separated from his body, which means ghost, right? That's what a ghost is, is a soul that's been separated from the body of the person. And so we can have this temptation to have recourse to this thing called necromancy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Necromancy is communicating with the dead, and that is completely forbidden, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, in the age of the church. That communication with the dead is completely forbidden when it comes to seeking out divination. So here's what the Catechism says about this whole thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
It says, beginning in Catechism 2115, it's under the commandment about not having any other gods before the Lord God. And 2115 says that God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. God can do that. Yeah, absolutely. Still, it says a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of providence for whatever concerns the future.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
So basically just still the Christian attitude. Yep. Yep. God can reveal the future prophets or other saints, but the Christian attitude is means that I put myself confidently into the hands of God himself for whatever concerns the future, giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. That's so good. Giving up all unhealthy curiosity about the future.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
Now, on the other hand, improvidence can constitute a lack of responsibility. Like no taking no care of the future can constitute a lack of responsibility. So here's what we do. We have this freedom where we can put ourselves trustingly into the Lord's hands, knowing that, yep, he is there. The God of all time, he's the God of all everything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
At the same time, we have to also be concerned and aware of the fact that this moment, while this moment is the most important moment, sometimes the job of this moment is to prepare for the next moment. Sometimes the task of this day is to prepare for tomorrow. And so we only do the task of today, but sometimes again, as I said, the task of today is to prepare for tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
And so there's this, this dual, like such a balance of, yep, I trust in the Lord right now. I don't, I don't have an, I don't want to have an unhealthy curiosity about the future. And at the same time, I am aware of the fact that the task of right now might be, might be to prepare for then goes on to say. 21 16 all forms of divination are to be rejected.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 118: King Saul Despairs (2025)
So this is what Saul did He was appealing to this medium to try to get an answer that God was not giving It goes on to say recourse to Satan or demons conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to unveil the future consulting horoscopes astrology palm reading interpretation of omens and lots phenomena of clairvoyance and recourse to mediums all all
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
They don't like have any preamble. It's just like, hey, when you come to the altar of the Lord, here's what you need to do. A couple of things that are really important about this. One is there are a couple parts of worship here, and this is going to be really important because this actually relates to our worship now in the Christian dispensation, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
In the new covenant, the new covenant is the covenant in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so there is an old covenant that we're seeing unfold in Leviticus. And the first thing that happens is here is the man who brings you the father of the family. We'd be the priest of the family, right? That the, here's the man. Well, actually let's clarify.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
Originally, we're going to see an Exodus that the father of the family is the priest of the family. What happens in the midst of the middle of Exodus, when the people of Israel turned to the worship, the golden calf is, is that we have this new order of priests, essentially, coming from the tribe of Levi.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And so there's a certain sense where the fathers of families kinda sorta abdicate, in some ways, their priesthood. Now, that never is completely done with. It's never completely taken away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
but it is mitigated and in some ways related to the tribe of levi and those priests because you see this one-two punch essentially where here is the father who brings the the burnt offering whether that be the bull the sheep the goat the bird um and there is an element where he participates by bringing his sacrifice and the animal is killed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
You can get that for free by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. Again, ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. Also feel free to subscribe to this podcast by just clicking subscribe. Again, we are beginning today with Egypt and the Exodus by reading Exodus chapter one and chapter two. Exodus chapter 1.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And then what happens is, so when the animal is killed, that sacrifice is not completed. What happens is the animal is killed, but then the blood of the animal And we're gonna hear this later on in a second. I mean, not today, but in the upcoming weeks and days, the life is in the blood. The scripture says life is in the blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And so as the blood is drained, the Levitical priests, what do they do? They take the blood and put it on the altar And that's a sign of like, we're offering up now. This is the moment, not just the death of the animal, but we're offering the sacrifice, the life is in the blood, the sacrifice of the animal to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
When it gets to the altar, when it's poured out on the altar, this is kind of almost the consummation of the sacrifice. And then ultimately.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
in this particular kind of sacrifice in the next few days we're going to hear about different kinds of sacrifices but this is the sacrifice of burnt offering then the remains of the animal again are placed on the wood which is on fire on the altar and it's burnt up but we can see this connection here when it comes to um the mass and here is one of the pieces of connection is that when we have the presentation right when we have the behold the lamb of god
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
not just then but before this when we have the in the mass the priest says this is my body and it elevates the eucharist and this is my blood and it elevates jesus in the precious blood that is like very similar to this moment of presentation in leviticus 1 where the animal is killed but when the blood is poured out on the altar is when the sacrifice is offered to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And so that's very similar to the moment in the mass where here's the presentation, right? This is my body elevated. This is my blood elevated. That's the presentation part. But then we have the moment, the moment in the mass where the priest takes our Lord Jesus Christ and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
and says, through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty Father, forever and ever. And we all say amen. That's like, in some ways, the moment where we're offering the sacrifice to the Father. This is when the blood is being poured out onto the altar for the glory of God. for the salvation of the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And that's what the heart of the Mass is. It's the point of the Mass is for the glory of God, for the salvation of the people. And we participate in that every time we go to Mass. That's one of the reasons why we need to become familiar with this book we're reading, not only Exodus, but also Leviticus, because It is going to be so important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
There are a bunch of connections with how God is asked to be worshiped in the Old Testament and how God asks to be worshiped right now in the New Dispensation, in the New Testament, in the New Covenant, where we are right now. This is so cool.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And I cannot wait to be walking with you through Exodus and through the wilderness with the people of Israel, as well as walking with you through Leviticus and continuing to pray with Psalms and Proverbs in our days to come. Once again,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
If you're interested in getting ahead and maybe kind of seeing like where we're going to be headed for the course of the next number of days, you can download the reading plan by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. And we're going to keep praying for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
You guys, man, this is such a gift, such a gift to be able to be with you, such a gift to be able to walk through scripture with you. You are not walking alone. We are walking together because we're praying for each other as we let God's word wash over us and give us a new way of seeing the world. Give us a new way of seeing our Lord and give us a new way of seeing each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin. Dan and Naphtali. Gad and Asher. All the offspring of Jacob were 70 persons. Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation. But the descendants of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
That's why we have to keep praying for each other. I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to be with you again tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, behold, the sons of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
come let us deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply and if war befall us that they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens and they built for pharaoh store cities pithom and rameses but the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And the Egyptians were in dread of the sons of Israel, so they made the sons of Israel serve with rigor, and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they made them serve with rigor. Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shipra, and the other Pua,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him. But if it is a daughter, she shall live. But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, why have you done this and let the male children live?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
This is day 27. Let's get started. We are continuing. We've left the patriarchs. That was yesterday. That was the last, gosh, 20 days we were at the patriarchs. And now we're entering into Egypt and Exodus. And so in order to get through that story, We're beginning it with obviously Exodus chapter one and chapter two. We're also reading Leviticus chapter one and Psalm 44.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
The midwives said to Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and are delivered before the midwife comes to them. So God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, every son that is born to the Hebrews, you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live. Now a man from the house of Levi went and took to a wife, a daughter of Levi. The woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And when she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. And she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds at the river's bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked beside the river.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And she saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her maid to fetch it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women who can nurse the child for you? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
So the girl went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed him. And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son, and she named him Moses, for she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together, and he said to the man that did the wrong, Why do you strike your fellow?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
He answered, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and thought, Surely the thing is known. When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and filled their troughs to water their father's flock. The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock. When they came to their father, Reuel, he said, how is it that you have come so soon today?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And they said, an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock. He said to his daughters, and where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him that he may eat bread. And Moses was content to dwell with a man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. She bore a son, and he called his name Gershom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
For he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land. In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the sons of Israel groaned under their bondage and cried out for help, And their cry under bondage came up to God. And God heard their groaning. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God saw the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And God knew their condition. The third book of Moses, commonly called Leviticus, chapter 1.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, When any man of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of cattle from the herd or from the flock. If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
he shall offer it at the door of the tent of meeting that he may be accepted before the lord he shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt offering and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him then he shall kill the bull before the lord and aaron's sons the priests shall present the blood and throw the blood round and against the altar that is at the door of the tent of meeting and he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces and the sons of aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and they would in order upon the fire
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
One of the reasons why we're reading Leviticus chapter one is because God gave that particular law, the law of Leviticus around the same time. And so the narrative story, the narrative book is in Exodus and the second reading, essentially the supplementary, not that it's any less the word of God, but the supplementary book being Leviticus chapter
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And Aaron's sons, the priest, shall lay the pieces, the head and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire upon the altar, but its entrails and its legs shall be washed with water. And the priest shall burn the hole on the altar as a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
If his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, from the sheep or goats, he shall offer a male without blemish. And he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the Lord. And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall throw its blood against the altar round about. And he shall cut it into pieces with its head and its fat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And the priest shall lay them in order upon the wood that is on the fire upon the altar. But the entrails and the legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall offer the whole and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
If his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, he shall bring his offering of turtle doves or of young pigeons. And the priest shall bring it to the altar and ring off its head and burn it on the altar. And its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. And he shall take away its crop with feathers and cast it beside the altar on the east side in the place for ashes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
He shall tear it by its wings, but shall not divide it asunder. And the priest shall burn it on the altar upon the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a pleasing order to the Lord. Psalm 44, national lament and a prayer for help to the choir master, a mascal of the sons of Korah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old. With your own hand you drove out the nations, but you planted them. You afflicted the peoples, but you set them free.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
For not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm give them victory, but your right hand and your arm and the light of your countenance, for you delighted in them. You are my King and my God, who ordained victories for Jacob. Through you we push down our foes. Through your name we tread down our assailants. For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
But you have saved us from our foes, and have put to confusion those who hate us. In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. Yet you have cast us off and abased us and have not gone out with our armies. You have made us turn back from the foe and our enemies have gotten spoil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
You have made us like sheep for the slaughter and have scattered us among the nations. You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them. You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of those about us. You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughing stock among the peoples.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face at the words of the taunters and the revilers, at the sight of the enemy and the avenger. All this has come upon us, though we had not forgotten you or been false to your covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
to um say okay now how it is what are the what are the rules what are the laws um for living in this community that's going to be set free sorry spoiler and and worshiping in this community that's going to be set free and so that's what we're going to go into today i'm always reading from the revised standard version the catholic edition as well as using specifically the great adventure bible from ascension when you get the great adventure bible one of the things you also get is you get the bible timeline
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way, that you should have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with deep darkness. If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread forth our hands to a strange God, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
No, for your sake we are slain all the day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Rouse yourself. Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not cast us off forever. Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body clings to the ground. Rise up, come to our help.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
Deliver us for the sake of your merciful love. Father in heaven, we give you thanks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
We praise your name and give you thanks for bringing us to a new day. We give you thanks for bringing us a new day of your word where we can hear you speak to our hearts and to our minds that when we are living,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
in a place of confusion a place of darkness where it feels like for no reason you have cast us off we know that you will never abandon us because your word declares it lord your word declares that you will never abandon us even when we are in darkness and even when we walk in the midst of pain you are always there with us and so we trust in you and today we declare our faith in you in jesus name we pray amen in the name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit amen
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
man oh man my friends here we are on the first day well it's the 27th day but the first day of reading the book of exodus the book of leviticus and it just begins a new chapter literally a new book in our story as we follow the people of israel and follow the people of god these are our ancestors and one of the things that reading the old testament reveals to us is how deeply invested god is in his people how deeply he loves them
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
Even though, even though, gosh, here we are. We're talking the space between the end of the book of Genesis and the beginning of the book of Exodus is hundreds of years. It's not just turn the page and here we are the next week or the next month. This is roughly 300 years later, possibly 400. I need to check on that. I need my dates, my goodness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
But this is basically 1900 BC is when we pick up our story right here with the story of Moses. And what is the story? The story is here is God's people that he had rescued from a starvation, rescued from famine through Joseph and through Joseph's brother's evil actions. But then as Exodus says, a new Pharaoh came to power who did not know Joseph. And the people of Israel were blessed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
This is really interesting because we say like, oh my gosh, did God abandon the people of Israel in Egypt? Because here they are, slaves, here they are, having to serve with rigor, as our translation says. And at the same time, the word of God reveals to us, no, God did not abandon them. In fact, He blessed them. He made them exceedingly strong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
He made them exceedingly fruitful that they became a vast people, even in the midst of the people of Egypt. It's an evidence that even while they were being worked with rigor, even though they were being worked as slaves, that God was with them, just like he was with Joseph when Joseph was in prison, when Joseph was rejected.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And we know this because here is the people of Israel who are growing in their families. They're being blessed with children. And one of the things that is kind of the underscore of this whole thing is that children are a blessing. Children being one of the greatest blessings that God can give to any couple. The blessing that God can give to any family.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And today I just want to take a moment just to pray for all moms who are pregnant, as well as for all moms who have been having a difficult time with pregnancy and not been able to get pregnant. All couples who have been unable to conceive because we hear the word of God and we know, gosh, Lord, the blessing of children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
In the sense that you get all of the periods kind of broken down by color. So we've left when it came to the patriarchs, which is purple, leading right into Exodus, which is red. Egypt and Exodus, which is red for the Red Sea. Let's see how it's clever. It works that way. If you want to get your own Bible in a year reading plan,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
You are with your people, even when they are enslaved and you gave them the blessing of family. You gave them the blessing of life and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
And now I just wanna ask you, Lord God, in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, to all those couples who are listening to this and praying with us in the course of this Bible in a Year podcast, those couples that are longing to get pregnant, those couples that are longing for a healthy pregnancy, we just ask, Lord, in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, to bless these couples.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
In your name, Jesus, we ask you to send your Holy Spirit to bless these couples, to be with them in their desire for children, to be with them in their waiting, to be with them God willing, if it's your will, Lord, in their conceiving and bringing to this world new life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
We also, Father, in the name of your son Jesus, ask for your blessings upon all those who have had the heartbreak of losing children, who have the heartbreak of miscarrying, have the heartbreak of having children who are stillborn. Lord God, we ask you to ease the heartache of those couples who are listening to this and praying with us who have lost their own children. Please be with them now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
Console their heart. They are our family. They are our friends. And they are known to you, God, because you do. You continue to give us blessings even when things are dark, even when things are confusing, even when we do not know where you are.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 27: The Birth of Moses (2025)
you may be hidden but you are not absent lord god you may be unseen but you are not inactive so lord god right now in this moment in the name of your son jesus console the hearts of those couples console the hearts of those families they either long for children or have lost children Yeah, Lord God, we pray. Leviticus, man, the first chapter here is on burnt offerings. We dive right into it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
It's there's first God establishing the relationship, right? He establishes that covenant. And now here is the law, meaning here's how you live out this relationship. And that living out is because I know your hearts and we have a law because I know your heart. I know your heart is going to want to not be like me. I know you're going to want to be like the people around you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And that's so good to be able to hear that because that's our hearts too. And that's why I think I'm so glad that you pointed out that Leviticus is not just about distant rules that have nothing to do with us right now. A, they're fulfilled in so many ways in the new and eternal covenant or new and eternal sacrifice that of Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
But also because, like you said, this is a key for discipleship that God called his people. He set them out. Here's how we worship. And it's not like he just said, and I'll worship however you want. It's how he's laying the groundwork for that worship in spirit and in truth that Jesus ushers in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Please no. The hardest day to pray is the day after the day you don't. And the hardest day to read the Bible is the day after the day you don't. but simply pick it up and start again. It's no problem. If you don't finish by December 31st, 2021, that is okay because it means you are still allowing the Lord to speak to your heart. God is not asking for perfection in this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, that's so, so important. Jeff, I thank you for introducing this next time period for us. Before I just offer a prayer, are there any last words? I know that was really inspiring about recognizing that call that I can't just say, oh, this is the broken people of Israel. They're unfaithful. I need to see myself that the scripture in those ways can be a mirror to me. Right. It reveals myself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
I can see myself in there. It can be a flashlight where it searches out the dark parts of my heart. And it can be that that sandpaper that like, oh, this is where I'm being. I'm being the Lord's doing some work on me to kind of smooth some things out in my life. Are there any last thoughts as people are journeying through Exodus and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
That's awesome. And I thank God for all three, but also for you and for the timeline and for this ability to journey with the people that we've been going with for these last number of days and through the rest of this year. It's been such a gift. And so I just want to take a moment and just thank the Lord and ask his continued blessing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
We pray in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son, we ask you to please receive our thanksgiving, receive our praise because you are good and you have revealed your heart to us. I ask that you please continue to reveal your heart to us as we take this next step. Reveal your heart in the holiness code of Leviticus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Reveal your heart in the story of your faithfulness in the midst of our unfaithfulness and Israel's unfaithfulness. But you are steadfast in your steadfast love. Remind us this day of your steadfast love for each one of us personally and individually as well. Lord God, we give you praise. We thank you. And we ask.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
If you'd give us the help, the help to keep taking those next steps forward as we journey through this Bible in a year. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. Jeff, thank you so much. And I cannot express how deeply grateful I am for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And for all those who are listening, I am so grateful that we're on this journey together. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
He is just asking for faithfulness. And so just be faithful. And when you drop it, pick it back up. That's all I just wanted to encourage you. But as I said, I'm joined today by Jeff Cavins. Jeff, as I said, is the inventor of the Great Adventure Bible and the Great Adventure Bible timeline. And he's joining us today as we launch into this next time period, Egypt and Exodus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today, I am joined by Jeff Cavins to introduce the third time period of the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. This third time period after the patriarchs is called Egypt and the Exodus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And Jeff, thank you so much for being willing to help all those who are listening to this podcast know where we are and give us some bearings about this next step that the people of Israel, our family tree, is taking.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, and that sense of like, I think up to now is a lot of the stories that people are familiar with. They're the stories that people are like, okay, yeah, these are the stories of Adam and Eve and Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And now we're going into that story of what they do know it from the Prince of Egypt or from the Ten Commandments movies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
But there's so much more that happens that, aren't in those movies, that aren't in the stories that we necessarily read to kids. And the detail of that can be a place where this episode of Talking With You can be so helpful for people where they know, okay, here is where we are now. They get some kind of context.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, and that's so good, especially because you turn one page and you go fast forward 400 years. And as you said, the last pages of Genesis are the people of Israel on top of the world. They've been given some incredible land. They've been given blessing by the Lord and also by Pharaoh. And then you turn a page and it's like, wow, 400 years later, and they have not been blessed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Now, you had mentioned before that there are some problems that arise when people encounter Exodus. And that kind of can trip them up. What are some of those things that become obstacles for folks?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And before we begin, a couple of things. One, stuff you probably already know by this point. The Bible translation that I'm using is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to be able to follow along, you can download your Bible in a Year reading plan by simply visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
They walk like Egyptians. Sorry, were you gonna say that?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
It's that sense of like, here is God who brings them from that place of slavery, that house of bondage, sets them free in this miraculous way. As you said, those plagues, oftentimes we can just hear them, read them as plagues. One bad thing upon the next that it seems like God is simply punishing the Egyptians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
It seems like, in fact, the 10th plague being the death of the firstborn can be really troubling. I think we have really sensitive consciences and really sensitive hearts these days, which is a good thing that that can be disturbing for us. But at the same time, what you're pointing out is. God is setting these people who are addicted, he's setting them free.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And I mean, think about, if this isn't too much of a stretch, I did some reading about the early stages in research when it came to chemotherapy and how there were people who...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
If you haven't done that yet... No problem, no worries, no pressure. But also, if you have not yet subscribed, you can click that subscribe button in your podcast app. I don't know why you would have gotten this far without subscribing, but it's possible and you are free to do whatever you want to do. Speaking of being free to do whatever you want to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
really desired to save the lives of these patients who, like even children who had leukemia, these people who had cancer, but no one was willing to give the dose of chemotherapy, those drugs that could kill the cancer or kill the leukemia because of the pain it caused these children, the pain it caused these people until there were a couple doctors who said, we have to do this because
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
to set them free from this thing that is killing them requires some pretty serious actions. And it seems like in some ways, that's kind of what God is doing with these 10 plagues, even leading to that 10th plague being the death of the firstborn. And from there, yeah, go ahead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
One thing that has been just placed on my heart, I just want to encourage people, is I know the hardest day to read the Bible or the hardest day to pray is the day after the day you don't. It's that I had a busy weekend and I just, I fell off the wagon. How do I get back on? I need to catch up. I'm falling behind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Right. He is the word made flesh and the great high priest and the worship of him. That's so good. I'm so glad you pointed out, especially because those three elements that come to the surface towards the end of Exodus are They become handles that you can hold on to.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
You can see this, that here's the priestly nation, that nope, now all of a sudden it's just this one tribe or this one family in the midst of the people of Israel. And then the worship and the law is so important because that's, as you noted, Leviticus comes up at that time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And one of the things I'd like to ask you about is we're going to be going through, I mean, starting as soon as people are listening to Exodus, we're also going to be concurrently reading Leviticus. And something about Leviticus that can be, you know, that's the place that people stop reading a lot of times because it just seems so foreign, seems so confusing, seems so, maybe even at this point,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And our lives like unnecessary. We don't have temple worship anymore. We don't have worship like this anymore. So why would it be important? And what should people be, if you don't mind me asking this, what should people be paying attention to on that non-narrative book, Leviticus, as we're going through the story of Exodus?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
There is truly no such thing as falling behind when it comes to this Bible in a year. What it is, is You probably have noticed it, but up until this day, I have not said, oh, today is January 21st or today is March 2nd. I've just said this is the day 23 or this is day 34. That's on purpose. And that's so that you don't feel bound to listen every single day and being perfect. No, please no.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Right. And that's so powerful that you're saying this because the natural temptation that so many of us have is the same temptation that the people of Israel had, which is, I want to be just like everyone else. I want to be just like the people, whether that be Egypt or in Canaan, that sense of saying, wherever I am, I... that God knows their hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Egypt & Exodus (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And that's in so many ways why he's just like, he's healing this by calling them again and again, or at least calling them out of this, like you said, discipleship of saying, no, actually, if you belong to me, and that's the thing is you had mentioned this too, when it comes to the law, these aren't like, again, parental laws of someone who's trying to ground someone or trying to keep you under my thumb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
We can, we can kind of get territorial and we can say, well, yeah, but you know, actually I go to St. Martin's, but I'm never going to go over to St. Luke's, that kind of a situation. And sometimes I know for up here in Northern Minnesota, a lot of times what we have to do is we have to say, okay, there are some churches that have to get closed because of changing demographic or changing realities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
and some people can say no i'm going to cling to this place i'm not going to go anywhere else like wait wait wait wait you belong to a yes you belong to your parish you belong to this local church but also we belong to the universal church as well and i can go to st luke so i can go to st mark's it's going to be the same mass it's going to be the same worship of god
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
And Solomon is doing something like that. He's uniting the people subtly, right? He's not declaring to them or decreeing to them that you have to see yourselves as being part of this nation of Israel, this kingdom of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
He's just allowing them to do that because each region, not defined by a tribe, but defined by region, is contributing to the needs of the nation, which is, I think, remarkable. Speaking of the needs of the nation, I don't know if you noticed how much goods, how many provisions were dedicated each day to the household of King Solomon. It is relatively, I don't know if the word is impressive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
It's pretty impressive because what's it say? It says Solomon's provision for one day with 30 cores of fine flour, 60 cores of meal. So what's that? One core equals about 55 gallons, right? So 30 cores of fine flour, so 30 times 54 gallons of fine flour, 60 cores of meal, 10 fatted oxen, 20 oxen from the pastures, 100 sheep, deer, gazelles, roebucks, fatted owl, and the list goes on.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
I think there's something about that that you realize Solomon is feeding a lot of people in the city of Jerusalem. That note that there's a lot of people in Jerusalem in Solomon's household who are being taken care of.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
That being noted, let's look at 2 Chronicles 6, because this is a remarkable prayer of King Solomon, but it's also a remarkable, I don't want to say shift, but it is a really big, big shift. In the past, worship of God happened a number of different places. It happened in Shiloh. It happened, you know, they would offer sacrifices where...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Wherever there was a great moment, wherever there was God had revealed himself, they build an altar and often offer a sacrifice there. That's been the pattern up until this point. In this point, though, in 2 Chronicles 6, what happens? This is Solomon saying, okay, up until this moment, there was no one place where God was worshiped.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Up until this moment, there was no one king who led the people of Israel. But now that has all changed. And now, since we built the temple here in Jerusalem, this is the place of worship. And he's establishing so clearly that Jerusalem is the city of worship and the temple is the location of worship. And so from now on, all sacrifices, all worship is going to happen in the temple in Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
And this is a big, big deal. Now, yes, in the past, they would journey to Jerusalem for worship and journey to Jerusalem for prayers and whatnot. But at this point, this is the soul, the exclusive place where you would offer worship. It's only going to be in the temple of the Lord, at the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem. And this is a pretty big deal. And so how does Solomon emphasize this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Well, remember, this is in 2 Chronicles. So this is looking back even after exile. And it says, okay, whenever you're an individual sinner and you need to hear your sins forgiven, go to the temple. If you're a group of people, if it's the people of Israel that's turned away from God and we're all sinners, then we will all go to the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Megiddo, Enal-Betshan, which is beside Zerathon, below Jezreel, and from Betshan to Ebel-Mechola, as far as the other side of Jachmim. Ben-Gamer, in Ramoth-Gilead, he had the villages of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and he had the region of Argab, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars. Ahinadab, the son of Edo, in Mahanaim. Ahimaaz, in Naphtali.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Even if you go into battle, before you go into battle, go to the temple, turn to the temple. And even it says, if you're ever taken captive, whether you're exiled, whether close or far away, just turn your hands, turn your face towards the temple in Jerusalem and there pray to God and hear, God is going to hear you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
And so he is making, he is reminding the people, the scribe here is reminding the people that Solomon had declared that Jerusalem is the center and the temple is the center of worship for them. And so it's just, it's really important for us just to note this because that's what's gonna be a really big deal We're going to get to all the kings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
The kingdom is going to get divided in a couple days from now. Spoiler alert. But what's going to happen for the people is they have to be united. And one of the things that's going to unite them, even when they're scattered, even when they're in exile, is going to be not just the city of Jerusalem, Not just the land there, but it's going to be worship in the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
That is going to be the thing that gives them their identity for centuries and centuries and centuries. So just keep an eye out for that. Oh gosh, you guys, this has been... Dave 146, kind of a big deal. Here we are. 1 Kings 4, 2 Chronicles 6, Psalm 65, giving thanks to God for his creation. We give God thanks and I give God thanks for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Thank you for this community that continues to pray the Bible. I know so many of you have told me that you don't just listen, but you're sitting at your table or you're sitting somewhere where you can actually hear the words in your ears and see the words with your eyes. Write down some of those key thoughts or those key notes. You can underline them and just capture them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 146, and we are reading from 1 Kings 4, from 2 Chronicles 6, And we are praying Psalm 65 today. As always, the Bible translation that I'm using is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
the way God is speaking personally to you each day. And that's just such a gift. We also know that we're part of this community and we need each other. So we're praying for each other. Please pray for me. I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
He had taken Basamath, the daughter of Solomon, as his wife. Baanah, the son of Hushai, in Asher and Baaloth. Jehoshaphat, the son of Paruah, in Ezekar. Shemiah, the son of Elah, in Benjamin. Geber, the son of Uriah, in the land of Gilead. the country of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan. And there was one officer in the land of Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy. Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms, from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Solomon's provision for one day was thirty cores of fine flour and sixty cores of meal, ten fat oxen and twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl. For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates from Tifsa to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates, and he had peace on all sides round about him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
And Judah and Israel dwelt in safety from Dan even to Beersheba. every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon. Solomon also had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen. And those officers supplied provisions for King Solomon and for all who came to King Solomon's table, each one in his month, they let nothing be lacking.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought to the place where it was required, each according to his charge. Fame of Solomon's Wisdom And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and largeness of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Athon the Ezraite, and Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame was in all the nations round about. He also uttered three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
He spoke also of beasts and of birds and of reptiles and of fish. And men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon and from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Then Solomon said, The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. I have built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever. Then the king faced about and blessed all the assembly of Israel while all the assembly of Israel stood. And he said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to David my father, saying,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Since the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city in all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there. And I chose no man as prince over my people Israel. But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name may be there. And I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And if you'd like to subscribe, you can subscribe to this podcast by clicking on Subscribe. Then you'd be subscribed. As I said, today is Day 146. We're reading 1 Kings 4, 2 Chronicles 6, and Psalm 65.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. But the Lord said to David my father, whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise which he made. For I have risen in the place of David my father and sit on the throne of Israel as the Lord promised. And I have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. And there I have set the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord which he made with the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Solomon's Prayer of Dedication Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread forth his hands. Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had it set in the court, and he stood upon it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Then he knelt upon his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread forth his hands towards heaven and said, O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing mercy to your servants who walk before you with all their heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
who have kept with your servant David my father what you declared to him, yes, you spoke with your mouth and with your hand, have fulfilled it this day. Now therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father what you have promised him, saying, there shall never fail you a man before me to sit upon the throne of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
If only your sons take heed to the way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me. Now therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you have spoken to your servant David. But will God dwell indeed with man on earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house which I have built.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, O Lord my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you, that your eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place where you have promised to set your name, that you may listen to the prayer which your servant offers toward this place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
And listen to the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel. When they pray toward this place, yes, hear from heaven your dwelling place. And when you hear, forgive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears his oath before your altar in this house, then hear from heaven and act and judge your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing his conduct upon his own head and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
If your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you, when they turn again and acknowledge your name and pray and make supplication to you in this house, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them again to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin when you afflict them, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
When you teach them the good way in which they should walk and grant rain upon your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance. If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
If their enemies besiege them in any of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by any man or by all your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own sorrow and stretching out his hand toward this house, then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive and render to each whose heart you know according to all his ways.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
The First Book of Kings, Chapter 4, Solomon's High Officials. King Solomon was king over all Israel, and these were his high officials. Azariah, the son of Zadok, was the priest. Elahoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were secretaries. Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was recorder.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
For you, you only know the hearts of the children of men. that they may fear you and walk in your ways all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Likewise, when a foreigner who is not of your people Israel comes from a far country for the sake of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when he comes and prays toward this house, hear from heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name. If your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to you toward this city which you have chosen and the house which I have built for your name. Then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication and maintain their cause.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
If they sin against you, for there is no man who does not sin, and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy so that they are carried away captive to a land far or near, Yet if they lay it to heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have acted perversely and wickedly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
If they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their captivity to which they were carried captive, and pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you. Now, oh my God, let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to a prayer of this place. And now arise, oh Lord God, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Let your priests, oh Lord God, be clothed with salvation and let your saints rejoice in your goodness. O Lord God, do not turn away the face of your anointed one. Remember your merciful love for David, your servant. Psalm 65 Thanksgiving for Earth's Bounty To the Choir Master A Psalm of David A Song Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion. And to you shall vows be performed in Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come on account of sins. When our transgressions prevail over us, you forgive them. Blessed is he whom you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
benaiah the son of jehoiada was in command of the army zadok and abiathar were priests azariah the son of nathan was over the officers zabud the son of nathan was priest and king's friend ahishar was in charge of the palace and adoniram the son of abdah was in charge of the forced labor Solomon had 12 officers over all Israel who provided food for the king and his household.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
By dread deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation, who are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, who by your strength have established the mountains, being girded with might, who still the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the tumult of the peoples. so that those who dwell at earth's farthest bounds are afraid at your signs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
You make the outgoings of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. You visit the earth and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers and blessing its growth. You crown the year with your bounty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
The tracks of your chariot overflow with richness. The pastures of the wilderness drip. The hills gird themselves with joy. The meadows clothe themselves with flocks. The valleys deck themselves with grain. They shout and sing together for joy. Father in heaven, yes, all creation, all of creation praises your name. All of creation gives you glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Father, the fact that we can look around at this world that you have made with all of its danger, with all of its distress, with all of its power and beauty and even mere existence. It all gives praise to you. It all gives you glory. It all points back to you, the creator of this incredible creation. And so we give you thanks, just like the psalmist, just like David who wrote this Psalm 65.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
We give you thanks. Thanks for earth's bounty. Not only is this earth beautiful, this earth provides for us. And so, God, we give you thanks. And we actually also ask you to give us wisdom, like you gave wisdom to Solomon, to be able to know how to live in this world, how to live spiritually,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
in this earth how to not only give thanks to you for creation but also how to use this creation in a way that honors you that honors the gift and that helps our neighbor not just our neighbor that exists but our neighbor in the future lord god you've made all creation for us for our ancestors and also for our descendants and so help us give us wisdom to be able to know how to live in this world so we can pass it on to the next generation but we give you thanks in all things lord god we give you thanks
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, so here we go. Solomon, really smart guy. Obviously, clearly one of the wisest men ever. That's what scripture says, and that's what it seems to be is the case here in 1 Kings chapter 4. One of the things that I just think is, it's striking, and it's worth noting, what we have is
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Here are all the people that Solomon brings around him. Because Solomon, while he's the king, he is delegating his authority, he's delegating his leadership to the people around him. And this is just, isn't that one of the things that great leaders do? The great men and great women among us who lead well are ones who get other people equipped and get other people to lead well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Here's what Jesus did, right? Here's Jesus who goes out himself and preaches. He goes out himself and heals. He goes out himself and does incredible signs and wonders. But then what does he do? He gathers people around him, these disciples and even these 12 apostles, and he delegates them to go in his name and do what he had been doing. So here is Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
What Solomon does is he gathers these 12 men and they become leaders of 12 regions in the land of Israel. Now, this is an interesting thing. I just just blew my mind when I considered it is you would think one would think that okay, Solomon, he's going to have the provisions coming from 12 different places, one each month of the year, 12 different locations, one for each month of the year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
That's smart because you don't tax one particular place more than another. You kind of roam around here, around the place of Israel, the land of Israel. You wouldn't would think that you would just go by tribe, you know, by the locality of each tribe, but Solomon doesn't do that. He actually
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
Each man had to make provision for one month in the year. These were their names. Ben-Hur in the hill country of Ephraim, Ben-Dekar in Makaz, Sha'al-Bim, Bet-Shemesh, and Elon-Beth-Hanan. Ben-Hesed in Araboth. To him belonged Soko and all the land of Hefer. Ben-Abinadab, Enal-Nephath-Dor, he had Tephath, the daughter of Solomon, as his wife. Baana, the son of Ahilud, in Tanakh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
He dedicates or distinguishes the sources of the provisions for the nation of Israel, for the kingdom now of Israel, not according to tribal lands, but according to geography. And he does this in a way that kind of transcends the tribalism that could still exist amongst the kingdom of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
That while everyone recognizes, yes, we are the people of God, they also would say, but I'm the tribe of Benjamin or I'm the tribe of Manasseh. And where these goods go to feed the king and feed the land of the whole people don't just come from each individual tribe. They come from different regions in those tribes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 146: The Universal Church (2025)
And I think that's just, that's something worth noting, even if it's just a trivia fact, but I think it's worth noting for something deeper. And that is that sometimes we can see ourselves as being part of a greater church, right? We can see ourselves as part of like the global church, the universal church, the Catholic church. But also sometimes we can get really, really parochial.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
Saul is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel. And in verse 16, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. Again, we talked about yesterday that the church expanded because of persecution, that there was suffering that was happening. And so the church was able to grow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
And here is Saul, who's the rest of his life. Yes, he is my chosen instrument to carry out my name before the Gentiles. And I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. You know, later on, St. Paul will say, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. And in my body, I'm making up for what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body, the church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
And we recognize that we are called to unite our sufferings to the sufferings of Jesus Christ. Here is Saul, who makes it so clear, so very clear, or Jesus is making it clear about Saul that, yes, he's chosen and he's going to suffer a lot for the sake of my name. How are we any different?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
If God is going to use us, why would we think that we would escape, that we wouldn't participate in his sufferings? Why would we think that we would be spared the sufferings that every chosen instrument, every chosen, every beloved of God experiences great suffering? Why would we be any different? And the truth is, of course, we're not. And yet those sufferings sometimes surprise us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
They can pain us, obviously. They can grieve us. They can even cause us distress, but they should never surprise us because we know that if we belong to the Lord, of course, we're going to suffer for the Lord. It does make it easier, but it does give it purpose. And we know that we're not abandoned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
I even, yeah, we're going to talk about Peter and healing, raising up Dorcas, which I'd love saying, love that her name is Dorcas. Raising her up from the dead is incredible. God's again, once again, God's power working through his people. But we also come to the conclusion of St. Paul's letter to the Romans, that last chapter, chapter six, personal greetings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
And we realize that this is the context here is the, individuals, right? It's not just groups of people. It's not just here's all the big church in Rome and here's all the church in Jerusalem, all the church in Corinth. It is people with names that Paul knows. It's people with names that everyone knows. It's relationships.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
And we know this is true, that the gospel is advanced primarily through friendships and through family. That is the key, that the church will continue to grow and Jesus Christ will continue to be known primarily through friendships and through family. Yes, to be able to have the word of God proclaimed on a podcast every single day, phenomenal, incredible, such a gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
But we know deep conversion will happen through friendships. Deep conversion will happen through family. And so we pray for each other, right? Because we have friends and we have family that we desire. We want them to know the love of God in Jesus Christ. And so we need to pray for them. I continue to lift up you all in my prayers. I'm asking you to please lift me up in your prayers as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. That's what that means. Gosh, you guys, what a gift. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 330. I know for a fact. There are 35 days left because every year has 365 and 330 minus 365 or opposite of that is 35. So there, I know math. Take that. It's a 330.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened, he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Here I am, Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus named Saul. For behold, he is praying, and he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon your name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. So Ananias departed and entered the house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
And laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized and took food and was strengthened.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
Saul Preaches in Damascus For several days he was with the disciples at Damascus, and in the synagogues immediately he proclaimed Jesus, saying, He is the Son of God. And all who heard him were amazed and said, Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called on this name? And he has come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. Saul escapes from the Jews. When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down over the wall, lowering him in a basket.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
Saul in Jerusalem. And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord who spoke to him and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him. And when the brethren knew it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built up, and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it was multiplied. Peter Heals Aeneas in Lydda Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints that lived at Lydda.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years and was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Rise and make your bed. And immediately he rose. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord." Peter and Joppa. Now there was at Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which means Dorcas or gazelle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
She was full of good works and acts of charity. In those days, she fell sick and died. And when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
since lydda was near joppa the disciples hearing that peter was there sent two men to him entreating him please come to us without delay so peter rose and went with them and when he had come they took him to the upper room all the widows stood beside him weeping and showing coats and garments which dorcas made while she was with them But Peter put them all outside and knelt down and prayed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
And we're reading from Acts of the Apostles chapter 9 as well as the conclusion of St. Paul's letter to the Romans chapters 15 and 16. As always, the Bible, oh, Proverbs chapter 27, verses 18 through 20. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
Then turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, rise. And she opened her eyes. And when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and lifted her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
Please others, not yourselves. We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to edify him. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
the gospel for Jews and Gentiles alike. Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
as it is written, Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name. And again it is said, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. And again, Praise the Lord all Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him. And further Isaiah says, The root of Jesse shall come. He who rises to rule the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles hope.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. Paul's reason for writing so boldly, I myself am satisfied about you, my brethren, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. Today is day 330, Acts of the Apostles, chapter 9, the conversion of Saul, as well as the conclusion of St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
but on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has wrought through me to win obedience from the Gentiles by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
So that from Jerusalem and as far round as Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ, thus making it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on another man's foundation. But as it is written, they shall see who have never been told of him, and they shall understand who have never heard of him. Paul's plan to visit Rome.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
This is why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be sped on my journey there by you once I have enjoyed your company for a little. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem with aid for the saints.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contributions for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they are in debt to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been raised, I shall go on by way of you to Spain. And I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
I appeal to you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. The God of peace be with you all. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
Chapter 16 Personal Greetings I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the church at Sancreia, that you may receive her in the Lord as befits the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a helper of many, and of myself as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow co-workers in Christ Jesus, who risk their necks for my life, to whom not only I, but also all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks. Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epinatus, who was the first convert in Asia for Christ. Greet Mary, who has worked hard among you. Greet Andronicus and Junius, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
Paul's beautiful, powerful, incredible letter to the Romans, chapters 15 and 16, and Proverbs chapter 27, verses 18 through 22. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter nine, the conversion of Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
They are men of note among the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. Greet my kinsman Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, eminent in the Lord, also his mother and mine. Greet Ansecretus, Phlegon, Hermes, Petrobus, Hermas, and the brethren who are with them. Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympus, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
All the churches of Christ greet you. Final Instructions I appeal to you, brethren, to take note of those who create dissensions and difficulties in opposition to the doctrine which you have been taught. Avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites, and by fair and flattering words they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
For while your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, I would have you wise as to what is good and guileless as to what is evil. then the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you. So do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
I, Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus greet you. Final doxology.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
Now, to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed and through the prophetic writings is made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith, to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he journeyed, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who guards his master will be honored. As in water face answers to face, so the mind of man reflects the man. Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
We thank you so much. Thank you for getting us, not just through the St. Paul's letter to the Romans, but thank you for getting us to it. Thank you for opening our hearts and opening our minds by this great encyclical, right? This great letter, this great epistle of grace. Have your love for every one of us. Help us to say yes to your love today and every day of our lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father. and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And actually, apostles today, gosh, we got to hear not only about the twin, the twin apostles, right? Saul and Peter. Saul's conversion. There is something remarkable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
Well, obviously, there's a huge miracle that's happening in Saul's conversion, where he's breathing murderous threats against the Christians going to Damascus to arrest them and bring them back to Jerusalem. But as Jesus appears to Saul, what does he say? Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you, Lord? He says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
But you stop and say, wait a second, Saul isn't persecuting Jesus. He had nothing to do with Jesus as far as we know. So who's he persecuting? He's persecuting the church. And that is this, once again, here's Jesus identifying himself with the church that he instituted. He's identifying himself with the people who believe in him, those who are Christians, right? Who are little Christs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
He's saying, that's me. When you persecute the church, you're persecuting me. It's so important, so important. But beyond that, here is Jesus appearing then to Ananias. And in this, he reveals to him, yeah, I want you to go and heal this man named Saul of his blindness. Now, here's an interesting thing. Why wouldn't Jesus, who in this vision, he blinded Saul, why
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
why wouldn't Jesus just appear to Saul again and heal him? I mean, that makes sense, right? I mean, if Jesus is gonna appear once, why not have him appear twice and even like kind of confirm the appearance? Well, it's because what's this last age? The last age is the age of the church. This last age is the age of the Holy Spirit working through the church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
And so rather than Jesus himself showing up and blinding Saul, then showing up and healing Saul, here he is sending, not an apostle, but he's sent. I guess an apostle means sent. He's sending one of the Christians. He's sending a member of the body of Christ to Saul to heal him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
and this is teaching not only saul but teaching all of us this key thing that jesus works through his church just as powerfully as he worked through the incarnation so the same jesus who could have healed saul instead sent ananias to heal saul i mean obviously he healed saul through ananias but This is so important for us. Again, we can sometimes think it's just Jesus and me. That's impossible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And he said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 330: Saul's Conversion (2024)
That's never been a case where it's just Jesus and me. It's always Jesus in the context of community and the Father in context of community and the Holy Spirit in the context of community. It's all about God's power working through his church on earth. But here's another piece. As Ananias kind of put up his dukes, he put up a little bit of resistance. What does Jesus say? He says, go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
But the more and more we get to know his heart, the more and more we get to know who he is, the more and more we're drawn to be living as full members of his family, knowing that there is a father in heaven who loves us, that there is our Lord Jesus who is our brother as well, and that we are brothers and sisters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
And that's one of the reasons why we can live in joy and we can continue to pray for each other because as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the father, we are part of this family. And whether we came into this family unwillingly or whether we came into this family because we and wanted to avoid other things, like, you know, as I said, like hell, the fact is we're family.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
And so we need each other and we need to pray for each other. So please keep praying for each other. Pray for me. I'm praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us as before, we shall flee before them. And they will come out after us till we have drawn them away from the city for they will say they are fleeing from us as before. So we will flee from them. Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
For the Lord your God will give it into your hand. And when you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire, doing as the Lord has bidden. See, I have commanded you. So Joshua sent them forth, and they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and Ai to the west of Ai. But Joshua spent that night among the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 83, and we're reading today from Joshua chapters 8 and 9. We're also praying Psalm 126. As always, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
And Joshua arose early in the morning and mustered the people and went up with the elders of Israel before the people to Ai. And all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and encamped on the north side of Ai with a ravine between them and Ai. And he took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai to the west of the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
So they stationed the forces, the main encampment, which was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent that night in the valley. And when the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city made haste and went out early to the descent toward the Ereba to meet Israel in battle. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
So Joshua and all Israel made a pretense of being beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness. So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them. And as they pursued Joshua, they were drawn away from the city. There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open and pursued Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
Then the Lord said to Joshua, Stretch out your javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city, and the ambush rose quickly out of their place. And as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and took it, and they made haste to set the city on fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that, for the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers. And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, Then they turned back and struck the men of Ai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
And the others came forth from the city against them. So they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side. And Israel struck them until there was left none that survived or escaped. But the king of Ai they took alive and brought him to Joshua. When Israel had finished slaughtering all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
and all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword. And all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai. For Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took as their booty according to the word of the Lord, which he commanded Joshua." So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins as it is to this day. And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
And at the going down of the sun, Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
The Bible I'm using is actually the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You also can subscribe in your podcast app and receive daily episodes. If you're wondering, do I record this and re-record this introduction every single time? The answer is yes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
Then Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the Lord, the God of Israel, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of unhewn stones upon which no man has lifted an iron tool. And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. And there, in the presence of the sons of Israel...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
he wrote upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses which he had written.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
And all Israel, sojourner as well as home-born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded at the first, that they should bless the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them. Chapter 9. The Gibeonites' Stratagem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
When all the kings who were beyond the Jordan in the hill country and in the lowland all along the coast of the great sea toward Lebanon, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites heard of this, they gathered together with one accord to fight Joshua and Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, they on their part acted with cunning and went and made ready provisions and took worn out sacks upon their donkeys and wineskins, worn out and torn and mended with worn out patched sandals on their feet and worn out clothes. And all their provisions were dry and moldy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
And they went to Joshua in the camp of Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, we have come from a far country. So now make a covenant with us. But the men of Israel said to the Hivites,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
For we have heard a report of him, and all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt in Ashteroth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
And our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, Take provisions in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them, and say to them, We are your servants, come now, make a covenant with us. Here is our bread. It was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food for the journey. On the day we set forth to come to you, but now behold, it is dry and moldy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
And if you skip over it every single time, then you don't know that. But now people listen to it. Now you do. So there you go. That's the truth. Okay. Once again, we're reading it's day 83. Gosh, our third day in the conquest in judges time period, Joshua chapter eight and chapter nine. Once again, Psalm 126 is our Psalm of prayer and praise today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
These wineskins were new when we filled them and behold, they are burst. And these garments and shoes of ours are worn out from the very long journey. So the men partook of their provisions and did not ask direction from the Lord. And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live. And the leaders of the congregation swore to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
At the end of three days, after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and that they dwelt among them. And the sons of Israel set out and reached their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Jephira, Beiroth, and Kiriath-Jerim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
But the sons of Israel did not kill them because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. Then all the congregation murmured against the leaders. But all the leaders said to all the congregation, We have sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel, and now we may not touch them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
This we will do to them and let them live, lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swore to them. And the leaders said to them, Let them live. So they became hewers of wood and drawers of water for all the congregation, as the leaders had said of them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
joshua summoned them and he said to them why did you deceive us saying we are very far from you when you dwell among us now therefore you are cursed and some of you shall always be slaves hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my god they answered joshua
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you. So we feared greatly for our lives because of you and did this thing. And now, behold, we are in your hand. Do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
So he did to them and delivered them out of the hands of the sons of Israel, and they did not kill them. But Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord to continue to this day in the place which he should choose.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us. We are glad. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negev. May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
We thank you. We just give you thanks, Lord God, because you are good and your deeds are good. And that's what we need to be reminded of again and again. Lord God, in the course of our daily lives, we seek out your counsel and desire to only do those things that are in your will, only those things that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
you are calling us to do, and we also desire to live in the freedom of that obedience, live in that freedom of belonging to you and choosing to say yes to you with everything we have. Help us to do that with your grace, with your salvation, with your mercy and your power. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, so we have
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
uh joshua chapters eight and nine and of course we have the redemption of the battle of ai and that's great kind of a interesting chapter where we just kind of get this strategy that joshua has of having an ambush you know leading the people drawing the people out of the city of ai while the larger troop of israel sneaks in not sneaks in but goes in the open door after all the citizens of ai go out so it's kind of this basically this military strategy that gets revealed to us in chapter
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
The book of Joshua chapter eight, the capture and destruction of Ai. And the Lord said to Joshua, do not fear or be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you and arise. Go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai and his people, his city and his land. And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
And then chapter nine, we have the little sneaky, sneaky sneaks of the Gibeonites. Whereas you can note that all of the other kings beyond the Jordan Hill country, you have the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites. They all are, they're getting together because they're realizing that here are the Israelites who are powerful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
And here's the Lord God who's fighting with them against all these people. So they're, they kind of banded together, but there's this one group of people, the Gibeonites. who are saying, you know, we get it. Rather than be destroyed, we are going to trick the Israelites into making a covenant with us. And exactly that's what they do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
You know, they dress up as if they've come from a long, long journey, even though they only live a couple days away. And as Israel, it says so clearly, it says so interestingly, it says that the men partook of their provisions and did not ask direction from the Lord. That's chapter 9, verse 14. So they partook of their provisions and did not ask direction from the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
And so they didn't ask the Lord, hey, is this the right thing to do? They just believed the people, believed the Gibeonites who were tricking them and entered into covenant with them. And there's something really powerful about that when it comes to us and it comes to our big decisions in life. Because remember, covenant is establishing a family bond. You're saying, I am yours and you are mine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
It's not just kind of a, oh, sure, here's a contract. It is a deep, deep relationship that is unbreakable. And so without even asking the Lord, is this a good idea or is this a foolish idea? They just do it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
Now they find out that it was a trick and even better, they say, okay, well, we're going to honor even a bad covenant, even a covenant that we were kind of tricked into, not kind of, even a covenant that we were tricked into. We're going to honor it and we are not going to destroy you and we're not going to treat you as essentially foreigners, but we're
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
And in this culture, you are going to, in our midst, what happens is there's going to be, because you tricked us, there's going to be some consequences. And those consequences are hewers of wood and drawers of water and stuff. And yet what's really remarkable is it's a lot like Rahab. I remember reading a commentary that talks about this. Here's Rahab, who is living in Jericho.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
She's the harlot, but she houses the spies. And she and her family get preserved, and they actually become a part of the people of Israel. So that even Rahab is noted in the New Testament as being a part of that family line when it comes to Jesus. But very similarly, the Gibeonites, they're brought into that, the family story. They're brought into the story of salvation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
Later on, we have Gibeon becomes a priestly city. It's where the Ark of the Covenant stayed often in the days of David and the days of Solomon. We can read that in 1 Chronicles. At least one of David's mighty men at the middle of 1 Chronicles is a Gibeonite. God spoke to Solomon at Gibeon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
So Gibeonites, they're brought into the covenant, even if they came into the covenant kind of backwards, kind of sideways. The fact that Joshua and the people of God honor the fact that they made a covenant, even deceptively entered into it. is actually a word of hope for the Gibeonites. There's a price, and that price at first is kind of a second-class citizenship, essentially, in the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
But even the Gibeonites are saying, we'll do that. Whatever you think is right, we're gonna take that, because that's better than being killed. And so often, that's us, is the last word. So often, that's us. When it comes to entering into a relationship with God,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
So often, the reason we're saying yes to Jesus, this might not be you, but too often, the reason we say yes to Jesus is because like, well, it's better than going to hell, I guess. And yet what God wants from us, wants for us is not simply, I want to be able to spare you from eternal separation from me in hell. But God is saying, what I want from you is I want you to live as my sons and daughters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
Only its spoil and its cattle you shall take as booty for yourselves. lay an ambush against the city behind it. So Joshua arose and all the fighting men to go up to Ai, and Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them forth by night. And he commanded them, behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but hold yourselves all in readiness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
I want you to live as family during this life and live forever as family in eternity. And so often we just say yes, not because we want to be part of God's family, but because we just want to escape pain. We want to escape destruction. We want to escape hell. And so in that ways, maybe we're kind of like the Gibeonites who were brought in because they just didn't want to be destroyed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 83: The Gibeonite Trickery (2025)
But as time passed, many of those Gibeonites, even there's prophets who came from Gibeon, and there's examples of great things that God did. does with the people of Gibeon as they become more deeply and deeply a part of his family, the same thing is true for us. That we might have said yes to the Lord out of a mercenary heart, right? Out of a desire to spare ourselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
I am a man who has no strength. like one forsaken among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand. You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. You have caused my companions to shun me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
You have made me a thing of horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape. My eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O Lord, I spread out my hands to you. Do you work your wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise you? Is your mercy declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness? But I, O Lord, cry to you. In the morning my prayer comes before you. O Lord, why do you cast me off? Why do you hide your face from me? Afflicted and close to death from my youth, I suffer your terrors. I am helpless. Your wrath has swept over me. Your dread assaults destroy me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
They surround me like a flood all day long. They close in upon me together. You have caused loved one and friend to shun me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Father, we hear this prayer, we make this prayer of Psalm 88, and we know that you are near us in darkness. You are near us when we are alone and lonely and isolated. And this is your prayer that you have placed into our mouths. This psalm, this prayer that was prayed, tradition says, by Jesus himself when he was abandoned by his friends in Jerusalem. in the custody of Caiaphas, the high priest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Before he was handed over to be condemned falsely by Pilate, he spent that night in that prison. And Lord God, we have this tradition that the Son of God, that Jesus himself prayed this prayer. My one companion is darkness. And so we know that when we're in darkness, that you, the darkness is not dark for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
The book of Numbers chapter four, the Kohathites. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, take a census of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi by their families and their father's house. from 30 years old up to 50 years old, all who can enter the service to do the work in the tent of meeting. This is the service of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting, the most holy things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
And when we are in darkness, we are not alone because you have made the darkness your home. In the abandonment and in the rejection of your son, Jesus. Lord God, help us in darkness to see your face. Help us in darkness when we can't see to know that you're present. Help us to always have confidence in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
And we make this prayer in the name of the Jesus, the one Jesus who entered into darkness for our sake. We love you. We ask this of you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You know, Psalm 88, the one Psalm ends in darkness. Every other Psalm has a line of hope, even in the midst of pain, even in the midst of discouragement and distraction and defeat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Every other Psalm ends with a note of promise, except for Psalm 88, where he says, my one companion is darkness. So just a couple of quick notes, just to be relatively brief. In the book of Numbers, right, we have not only, here's the family of Levi, right, the tribe of Levi.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
And so in the tribe of Levi, we not only have the sons of Aaron, we also have the Merorites, the Kohathites, and the Gershonites. And they all have their different tasks. And what we heard in chapter four, was here is how you're going to carry the articles of the tabernacle. Here's how you're going to carry the sacred objects. And there's two things to keep in mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Well, there's many things to keep in mind, but here's two things I'd like to direct your attention to. One is that these objects were so holy that it's very important. The Kohathites, the Gershonites, the Merorites, they were called not to touch them. They are called to carry them. They're called to carry them with poles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
So there's that sense of, okay, only the tribes or the family of Aaron, sons of Aaron, those who were ordained priests could approach these holy things. And yet the other families had work to do and they had jobs to do. And this is very important because it says very clearly that God appointed each to his task of serving and carrying.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
According to the commandment of the Lord through Moses, they were appointed each to his task of serving or carrying. And that's so important for us to understand that even St. Paul talks about this. He says, you know, there are many parts, but one body and the eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you. And the foot cannot say to the ear, I do not need you. the whole body is necessary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
So yes, the tribe of Levi is necessary. It's now the firstborn of the people of Israel in so many ways. And of that, there are the four families. And even though only the family of Aaron, the sons of Aaron were allowed to be priests, those other families had a role that was vitally important. And that's so important for us because according to the Lord, they were appointed each to his task.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
God knows your life. He knows you. And he's appointed you to some definite task. In fact, there's this fantastic prayer from St. John Henry Newman, where one of the lines is, Lord, you have created me for some definitive task. And I might not know what that is, but I do know that you have made me on purpose. And because of that, I can lift up my head. Because of that, I direct my attention to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Because of that, I can live with purpose because your life matters. This is so important for every one of us who's praying this scriptures. Your life matters. And that is what's communicated to us. One of the things communicated to us, relatively boring and not necessarily relevant, chapter four of the book of Numbers. You note that we're about to hear Moses give the law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
When the camp is to set out, Aaron and his sons shall go in and take down the veil of the screen and cover the Ark of the Covenant with it. Then they shall put on it a covering of goat skin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
He's going to give the 10 commandments in chapter five and then go on for greater commandments going on into the future. But the first thing he had to do was say what? He said, the Lord God prohibits you from making any graven image because that's what your ancestors did. That's what they did at Mount Sinai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
That's what they did at the Baal of Peor, which is a whole nother story we're going to get to in the book of Numbers. But God... through Moses is communicating, saying, I know what you want to do. You're going to want to turn your heart to other to idols, essentially. And you must not do this. This has to be the first thing you remember.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 55, and we'll be reading from Numbers chapter 4, Deuteronomy chapter 4. We'll be praying Psalm 88.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Root out idols from your heart because your heart is an idol making factory. So all of us today are just reminded of the fact that God's word, what it does in so many ways is it purifies us. It reminds us of the truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
It reminds us of the truth that God is faithful, that he does know our name, that he has assigned a specific task, that we do matter, and that he then also has to be God in our lives, that we may not and cannot turn to any false gods. We'll keep praying for each other because you guys, you've made it through day 55, which is so, so incredible. So good. But we have to keep praying for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
I know that the discussion groups are continuing to roll along and people are supporting each other, not just with their prayers, but also with their words. I just want to encourage that so much. If you haven't discovered one of those discussion groups yet. We'll probably try to help you connect to one of those things. And if we can't help you, then I know that God's going to make it happen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Because, you know, the Bible, even though you're listening to it maybe by yourselves, it's not meant to be a private book. It is meant to be publicly proclaimed. And that's why we have this podcast. And that's why you get to listen. So you're part of a community. And my invitation is keep praying for the community. And I'm praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
and spread over that a cloth all of blue and shall put in its poles and over the table of the bread of the presence they shall spread a cloth of blue and put upon it the plates the dishes for incense the bowls and the flagons for the drink offerings the continual bread also shall be on it
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Then they shall spread over them a cloth of scarlet and cover the same with a covering of goatskin and shall put in its poles. And they shall take a cloth of blue and cover the lampstand for the light with its lamps, its snuffers, its trays, and all the vessels for oil with which it is supplied.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
And they shall put it with all its utensils in a covering of goatskin and put it upon the carrying frame.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
and over the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue and cover it with a covering of goatskin and shall put in its poles and they shall take all the vessels of the service which are used in the sanctuary and put them in a cloth of blue and cover them with a covering of goatskin and put them on the carrying frame
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
And they shall take away the ashes from the altar and spread a purple cloth over it. And they shall put on it all the vessels of the altar which are used for the service there, the firepans, the forks, the shovels, and the basins, all the utensils of the altar. And they shall spread upon it a covering of goatskin and shall put in its poles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary as the camp sets out, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to carry these." But they must not touch the holy things lest they die. These are the things of the tent of meeting which the sons of Kohath are to carry.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
And Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, shall have charge of the oil for the light, the fragrant incense, the continual cereal offering, and the anointing oil with the oversight of all the tabernacle and all that is in it of the sanctuary and its vessels.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Let not the tribe of the families of the Kohathites be destroyed from among the Levites, but deal thus with them, that they may live and not die when they come near to the most holy things. Aaron and his sons shall go in and appoint them each to his task and to his burden, but they shall not go in to look upon the holy things even for a moment, lest they die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
the Gershonites and the Merorites. The Lord said to Moses, take a census of the sons of Gershon also by their families and their father's houses from 30 years old up to 50 years old. You shall number them all who can enter for service to do the work in the tent of meeting. This is the service of the families of the Gershonites in serving and bearing burdens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Just a quick reminder, the Bible translation that I'm using is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. You can use and follow along with whatever Bible translation you find most helpful. To download your Bible in a Year reading plan, So you can know what day 54 was and what day 56 is going to be.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
They shall carry the curtains of the tabernacle and the tent of meeting with its covering and the covering of goatskin that is on top of it and the screen for the door of the tent of meeting and the hangings of the court and the screen for the entrance of the gate of the court, which is around the tabernacle and the altar and their cords and all the equipment for their service.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
And they shall do all that needs to be done with regard to them. This is the service of the families of the sons of the Gershonites in the Tent of Meeting, and their work is to be under the oversight of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest. As for the sons of Merari, you shall number them by their families and their fathers' houses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
From thirty years old up to fifty years old you shall number them. Every one that can enter the service to do the work of the tent of meeting, and this is what they are charged to carry as the whole of their service in the tent of meeting. The frames of the tabernacles, with its bars, pillars, and bases, and the pillars of the court round about with their bases, pegs, and cords.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
with all their equipment and all their accessories and you shall assign by name the objects which they are required to carry this is the service of the families of the sons of merari the whole of their service in the tent of meeting under the hand of ithamar the son of aaron the priest census of the Levites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
And Moses and Aaron and the leaders of the congregation numbered the sons of the Kohathites by their families and their fathers' houses from 30 years old up to 50 years old, every one that could enter the service for work in the tent of meeting. And their number by families was 2,750.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you are listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
This was the number of the families of the Kohathites, all who served in the tent of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of the Lord by Moses. The number of the sons of Gershon
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
By their families and their fathers' houses, from thirty years old up to fifty years old, everyone that could enter the service for work in the tent of meeting, their number by their families and their fathers' houses was two thousand six hundred and thirty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
This was the number of the families of the sons of Gershon, all who served in the tent of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
The number of the families of the sons of Merari by their families and their father's houses from 30 years old up to 50 years old, everyone that could enter the service for work in the tent of meeting, their number by families was 3,200. These are those who are numbered of the families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of the Lord by Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
All those who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron and the leaders of Israel numbered by their families and their fathers' houses from 30 years old up to 50 years old, everyone that could enter to do the work of service and the work of bearing burdens in the tent of meeting, those who were numbered of them were 8,580.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
You can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year and download that for free. You also can subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily episodes. Now let's get a context for the book of Numbers and for Deuteronomy. Remember, Numbers is taking place at the very beginning of the desert wanderings. They have not yet begun the desert wandering yet because they have not yet
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
According to the commandment of the Lord, through Moses they were appointed, each to his task of serving or carrying. Thus they were numbered by him, as the Lord commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Moses continued, And now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them, that you may live. And go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal Peor. For the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive this day. Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land which you are entering to take possession of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who when they hear all these statutes will say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there? that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call upon him?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
And what great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day? Only take heed and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and to your children's children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Oh, on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children so.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form. There was only a voice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land which you are going over to possess. Therefore, take good heed to yourselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and worship them and serve them, things which the Lord your God has allotted. to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
But the Lord has taken you and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own possession, as at this day. Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me on your account, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land which the Lord, your God, gives you for an inheritance, for I must die in this land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
been challenged to go up to take the promised land yet. So this is only 13 months. This is only the second year after the people of Israel have been set free from slavery. So that's the beginning of the desert wanderings while the book of Deuteronomy happens 38 years later after all of the desert wanderings. And so Moses is giving his final speech before he goes off to be with the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
I must not go over the Jordan, but you shall go over and take possession of that good land. Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make graven image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God. Amen. Amen. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
You will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of men's hands, that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
And you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation and all these things come upon you in the later days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers, which he swore to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you since the day that God created man upon the earth and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as you have heard and still live?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Or has God ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation by trials, by signs, by wonders and by war? by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes. To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord is God. There is no other besides him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
And because he loved your fathers and chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day, know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
There is no other. Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God gives you forever. cities of refuge east of the Jordan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
and he dies. So keep that in mind as we hear from Numbers and the story of more issues about census with the Levites, as well as Deuteronomy, where we hear about the rules that Moses is giving the people of Israel after all of their trials and their unfaithfulness and God's faithfulness to them. Today, Numbers chapter 4, Deuteronomy chapter 4, Psalm 88.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Then Moses set apart three cities in the east beyond the Jordan, that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without being at enmity with him in time past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might save his life. Bezer in the wilderness on the table land for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manasites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Moses sets forth the law. This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
These are the decrees, the statutes, and the ordinances which Moses spoke to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt, beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel defeated when they came out of Egypt, and they took possession of his land, in the land of Og, the king of Bashan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
the two kings of the Amorites, who lived to the east beyond the Jordan, from Eroer, which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon, as far as Mount Sirion, that is Hermon, together with all the Ereba on the east side of the Jordan, as far as the sea of the Ereba, under the slopes of Pisgah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 55: Obedience to God (2025)
Prayer for help in despondency. A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah. To the choir master according to Mahalath Leonath. A mascal of Hemam the Ezraite. O Lord my God, I call for help by day. I cry out in the night before you. Let my prayer come to you. Incline your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. I am reckoned among those who go down to the pit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
We're called to accept that rejection the way Jesus accepted that rejection, which is so painful and so difficult, but it is truly our call. I love this in the second letter of St. Paul. It's one of my favorite lines. How many times have I said that? But he says in chapter one, verse six, for this reason, I remind you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands. Now, rekindle the gift of God that is within you, that's a great way to say it. I love when other translations say, fan into flame the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power and love and self-control.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
God did not give us a spirit of cowardice. He didn't give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power and love and self-control. And this is one of those things. We can fan that flame of faith or we can stifle that flame of faith. And Paul says to Timothy, hey, rekindle that, fan that into flame, especially in those times when it's very difficult. In fact, St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
Paul talks about how difficult it is for himself. He says, you're aware in verse 15 of all who are in Asia turned away from me among them by jealous and homogenies. that these people, he had thought he had friends. And this is one of those themes that's going to come up again. Paul's going to write about, I thought I had friends, but then at one point, everyone abandoned me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
People are ashamed of me. But this is something so important that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. And he says in chapter two, verse nine, the word of God is not chained. I'm suffering and wearing chains like a criminal, but the word of God is not chained. And I love this. Here we are on day 358, recognizing that we've been hearing the word and shaped by the word for 358 days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
Now I desire to remind you, though you were once for all fully formed, that he who saved a people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the deepest darkness until the judgment of the great day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
The word of God is not chained. Whether you are listening to this in a hospital, in a nursing home, in a prison, it doesn't matter. The word of God is not chained. Therefore, he says, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they may obtain the salvation, which is in Christ Jesus. and for eternal glory. If we have died with them, we shall also live with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
And so here we are, just keep continuing to move on, continuing to move forward and to just praise God today, this day 358 for everything that he's done in our lives and everything he continues to do. in and through us. As St. Paul said to Timothy, fan into flame the gift of God that you've received. He did not give you a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power and of love and of self-control.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
So walk in that spirit. I'm praying that you do that. Please pray that I can do that. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Yet in like manner, these men in their dreamings defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile the glorious ones.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 358. We are reading from the letter of Jude. We're reading also the beginning of the second letter of St. Paul to Timothy, chapters 1 and 2. I knew that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him, but said, The Lord rebuke you. But these men revile whatever they do not understand. And by those things that they know by instinct, as irrational animals do, they are destroyed. Woe to them!
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
For they walk in the way of Cain, and abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error, and perish in Korah's rebellion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
These are blemishes on your love-feasts, as they boldly carouse together, looking after themselves, waterless clouds carried along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
It was of these also that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with myriads of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness, which they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own passions, loudmouth boasters, flattering people to gain advantage. Warnings and Exhortations But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, In the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
It is these who set up divisions, worldly people devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved... Benedictions Now, to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
And we're also reading Proverbs chapter 31, verses 1 through 7. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, because why not? Better late than never. You can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
Amen. The second letter of Paul to Timothy. Chapter 1.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
Salutation. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Thanksgiving and Encouragement I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience, as did my fathers, when I remember you constantly in my prayers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
As I remember your tears, I long night and day to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now, I am sure, dwells in you. For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power and love and self-control. Do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord nor of me, his prisoner, but take your share of suffering for the gospel in the power of God who saved us and called us with a holy calling.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
not in virtue of our works, but in virtue of his own purpose and the grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago, and is now manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel, I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, and therefore I suffer as I do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, and among them Phygelus and Hermogenes." May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Anesiphorus, for he often refreshed me. He was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me eagerly and found me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day, and you will know all the service he rendered at Ephesus. 2. A Good Soldier of Christ You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from me before many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Take your share of suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
You can also subscribe to this podcast, but I invite you not to. I want you just to not. Just forget about it. It's too late. Too late for you. Just kidding. You can always subscribe. It's day 358. We're reading the letter of Jude. We are also reading second letter of Paul to Timothy chapters one and two, as well as Proverbs chapter 31 verses one through seven. The letter of Jude. Salutation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to satisfy the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will grant you understanding in everything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descended from David, as preached in my gospel, the gospel for which I am suffering and wearing chains like a criminal. but the word of God is not chained. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they also may obtain the salvation in which Christ Jesus goes with eternal glory. The saying is sure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
If we have died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. A Workman Approved by God Remind them of this, and charge them before the Lord to avoid disputing about words which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. Avoid such godless chatter, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will eat its way like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth by holding that the resurrection is past already.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
They are upsetting the faith of some. But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal. The Lord knows those who are his. And let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. In a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and earthenware, and some for noble use, some for ignoble.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
If anyone purifies himself from what is ignoble, then he will be a vessel for noble use, consecrated and useful to the master of the house, ready for any good work. So shun youthful passions and aim at righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with stupid, senseless controversies. You know that they breed quarrels.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, forbearing, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
The book of Proverbs chapter 31 verses one through seven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
Chapter 31, the sayings of Lemuel's mother, praise of a good wife. The words of Lemuel, king of Massa, which his mother taught him. What my son, what son of my womb, what son of my vows. Give not your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel. It is not for kings to drink wine or for rulers to desire strong drink.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. Give strong drink to him who is perishing and wine to those in bitter distress.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
Let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
We thank you so much for this opportunity to hear your word, to be shaped by your will, and to find ourselves in your plan, find ourselves in the palm of your hand. Lord God, we just thank you. Help us to walk as faithful people, not as faithless people. You are faithful, even when we are not. Help us to cast our cares upon you because you care for us. In Jesus' name we pray.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So we have the letter of Jude today. And so it's really brief. Jude is known as one of the relatives of Jesus, right? So Adelphoi is the proper term. Jude is the brother of James. And one of the things that we recognize about Jude in this letter of Jude is we don't necessarily know who he's writing to exactly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you Occasion of the Letter Beloved, being very eager to write to you of our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
It's like, you know, St. Paul writing to Timothy. We know exactly who he's writing to. St. Paul writing to the Ephesians. We know exactly who he's writing to. But what he's identified, he's identified a number of behaviors that people are not living according to the call they've received in Christ Jesus. There's a lot of immorality happening in their lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
And so one of the things we know about Jude is Jude knows the Old Testament pretty well. And he knows the Jewish writings really well because he gives examples that we are familiar with right now. He gives the examples of Israel's wilderness rebellion. He gives examples of the rebellious angels from Genesis chapter six, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
He gives the example of the men of Sodom at the end of the book of Genesis, as well as he even uses some stories that are not actually from the Hebrew Old Testament, but from other stories. For example, he talks about Michael the archangel. And that's from a book, a Hebrew writing called The Testament of Moses. It's just really interesting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
But all those stories are all about people rebelling against God's authority. It's all stories as well about sexual immorality and rejection of God's messengers. Jude goes on to talk about those people who not only rebelled themselves, but who caused other people to rebel. So how Cain, after he had killed Abel, that he went in the line of people that he...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
Sired, I guess the cities of Cain were cities of violence. You have a Balaam who again tried to curse God, wanted to curse God, but was unable. We have Korah who led people in rebellion against Moses. So one of those things we recognize is that sometimes our own sins end with us. Well, sorry, we think they end with us. We've talked about this before, but many times our behavior changes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
amplifies or it goes out from us and it can corrupt other people. And so Jude is writing not only about those people who have rebelled against God, against his authority, against his plan for sexual morality, against his messengers, but also who have led others to rebel as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
And so the kind of the main message of Jude is he's writing to these people who have fallen into the place of rebellion and he's calling them back to a place of faithfulness. And calling him to a place of faithfulness by pointing out, here is what happens to those who are unfaithful. The end is destruction. And God doesn't want you to be destroyed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
And so I'm calling you back to faithfulness because God actually loves you. But here is the big warning. I would not be an apostle of the Lord if I didn't warn you. And that's so important. The last words is the benediction. And he says, now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority for all time and now and forever, amen. And that benediction, that blessing at the end, highlights the fact that yes, Jude is giving a hard, hard message to the people, but he also is giving a message that is not the end. He's not a message of condemnation, it's a message of conviction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
And that's one of the things we have to recognize is that we want to hear that message of conviction every time we open the scriptures. God, where am I in these pages? What are you trying to tell me? Are you calling me to repentance in this way or that way? Where are you calling me to belong more and more fully to you? And that's the message of the letter of Jude.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
We also have the beginning of the second letter of St. Paul to Timothy. And there are so many things that we need to highlight about this. One is that this is, I think, Paul's last letter. And in Paul's last letter, we know that he's in prison somewhere. This might be his first imprisonment in Rome.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
It also could be a time where he might have gotten out of prison and then was put back into prison before he was beheaded in Rome. But we know that this is one of his... final words that he's written. One of his final letters that we have. And writing to Timothy, his beloved son, he calls him. He also praises Timothy's mother and grandmother who had faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
And you know, it's interesting because yesterday, I didn't mention this, but in one of the letters of John, He talks about how, what a delight it is when one's children are walking in the faith. That's what John was writing about to the beloved lady. He said, what a delight it is when you find your children walking in the faith. And here are Eunice and Lois, the grandmother and mother of Timothy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
For admission has been secretly gained by some who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Judgment on the Ungodly
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
to be able to find their son walking in the faith. And I know that one of the pains of so many people who are part of this community is when our kids don't walk in the faith, when they walk away, when grandkids walk away, when they've never met the Lord and they've been maybe raised Catholic, maybe they're raised in the church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
And yet for whatever reason, they just have wandered away, drifted away, raced away, walked away. And so here is Paul writing to Timothy saying, you know, basically that faith that was in your grandmother, the faith that was in your mother, I trust that it's within you as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
He also says, don't be ashamed of me for testifying to our Lord, nor of me as prisoner, because there are times you imagine where here's Paul, who's an apostle who is looked down on by other Christians because wait a second, why are you always in jail? If you're really an apostle, would you really be in jail?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2024)
Of course, the answer is yes, because here's Jesus, our Lord himself, who was arrested, falsely accused and condemned to death. But there are people who are ashamed of Paul. And we think about, again, here's how Peter and how Paul and all the other apostles and how us Christians are called to Be like Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
We escape it by recognizing that what really matters is not what other people think about me or what other people think about what we're doing, but what God, what God thinks, how God has called us, how God is continuing to know us and to see us, to love us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And Saul has missed that because of the fact that Saul has turned his back on the Lord and has revealed that he doesn't care as much about what God thinks as he does about what other people think. He tries to kill David a number of times. We have that. Apparently, you know, Saul likes that spear and he's good for David, lucky for David. He is not
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
as good at throwing a spear as he is at getting jealous. And so what we have is David then also, he basically, he can't afford to be a king's son-in-law. And then King Saul says, well, actually, if you get 104 skins of Philistines, that'll be enough. You don't have to pay a dowry or anything like that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And so David goes out and gets 200 because David is an overachiever and is really, really wonderful. But ultimately, what we have is this, I guess you might say the beginnings of this, what will define the next number of days and will define the next number of years for David's life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
He's going to constantly be on the run from King Saul, and he's constantly going to be showing mercy to Saul while Saul shows nothing but jealousy and envy and bitterness towards David. That's why I just love the fact that we today were able to conclude our reading with Psalm 59, prayer for deliverance from enemies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And it even says that this is the victim of David when Saul sent men to watch his house in order to kill him. That even in the midst of this, if you want to go back and reread this or re-listen to Psalm 59, that'd be so good because this is the context is here is David who's been elevated to this place, but at the same time has to constantly watch his back.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And in fact, he's going to be on the run now. because he's in Ramah with Samuel, he's going to be on the run for a while off and on for the next number of years. And so what we pay attention to is the fact that here's David, even though he's on the run, he gives God praise. Yes, he does pray for protection. He prays for the downfall of his enemies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
But more than anything, even in the midst of distress, David gives God praise. Before the battle is over, he praises God. And there is something so powerful about that, that we can do as well. We petition the Lord, right? We pray for each other and we pray for ourselves. We pray for things that are important to us. We ask the Lord, we intercede on behalf of others.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David and his armor and even his sword and his bow and his belt. And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him over the men of war.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And we bring ourselves before the Lord and ask him for gifts and blessings upon our lives. But also we praise him. And also we praise him before the battle is over. We praise him when we're in the midst of the struggle. We praise him even when we're on the run. And so let's praise him now. We can intercede for each other. And I know that you're praying for me. I'm so grateful. I'm praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Please pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. As they were coming home, when David returned from slaying the Philistine, The women came out of all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with timbrels, with songs of joy, and with instruments of music.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 111. It is day 111. And we are reading from 1 Samuel chapters 18 and 19. We're also praying Psalm 59.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And the women sang to one another as they made merry, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. And Saul was very angry. And this saying displeased him. He said, They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands. And what more can he have but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day on. Saul tries to kill David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And the next day, an evil spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the liar, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand, and Saul cast the spear, for he thought, I will pin David to the wall. But David evaded him twice. Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him, but had departed from Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people. And David had success in all his undertakings, for the Lord was with him. And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in awe of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them. David marries Michal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Then Saul said to David, Here is my elder daughter, Merab. I will give her to you for a wife. Only be valiant for me and fight the Lord's battles. For Saul thought, Let not my hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him. And David said to Saul, Who am I? And who are my kinsfolk, my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
But at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel, the Meholathite, for a wife. Now Saul's daughter Michal loved David, and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. Saul thought, Let me give her to him, that she may be a snare for him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Therefore Saul said to David a second time, You shall now be my son-in-law. And Saul commanded his servants, Speak to David in private and say, Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you. Now then, become the king's son-in-law. And Saul's servants spoke those words in the ears of David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And David said, Does it seem to you a little thing to become the king's son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man and of no repute? And the servants of Saul told him, Thus and so did David speak. Then Saul said, Thus shall you say to David, The king desires no marriage present except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines that he may be avenged of the king's enemies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
One thing, maybe I say this too often, if you have reached today, 111, which is kind of a cool number, you know, three ones, kind of Trinitarian. If you've reached this far with us, this is incredible. I think a lot of people that have reached out to me have in the past said, yeah, you know, I've always wanted to read the Bible and I have not ever been successful at this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law. Before the time had expired, David arose and went along with his men and killed 200 of the Philistines. And David brought their foreskins, which were given in full number to the king, that he might become the king's son-in-law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And Saul gave him his daughter Michal for a wife. But when Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David and that all Israel loved him, Saul was still more afraid of David. So Saul was David's enemy continually. Then the princes of the Philistines came out to battle, and as often as they came out, David had more success than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was highly esteemed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Chapter 19. Jonathan intercedes for David. And Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David. And Jonathan told David, Saul, my father, seeks to kill you. Therefore, take heed to yourself in the morning. Stay in a secret place and hide yourself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are. And I will speak to my father about you. And if I learn anything, I will tell you. And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father, and said to him, Let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have been of good service to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
For he took his life in his hand, and he slew the Philistine. And the Lord wrought a great victory for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause? And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan. Saul swore, As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death. And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all these things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before. Michal helps David escape from Saul. And there was war again. And David went out and fought with the Philistines and made a great slaughter among them so that they fled before him. Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand and David was playing the liar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul so that he struck the spear into the wall and David fled and escaped. That night, Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, told him, If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
So Michal let David down through the window, and he fled away and escaped. Michal took an image and laid it on the bed and put a pillow of goat's hair at its head and covered it with the clothes. And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick. Then Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And when the messengers came in, behold, the image was in the bed, with the pillow of goat's hair at its head. Saul said to Michal, Why have you deceived me thus, and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped? And Michal answered Saul, He said to me, Let me go, why should I kill you? David joins Samuel in Ramah. Now David fled and escaped.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt at Naoth. And it was told Saul, behold, David is at Naoth in Ramah. Then Saul sent messengers to take David. And when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as head over them, the spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul and they also prophesied.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
I haven't been consistent at it. But if you have made it to today, it means that you have consistently. For 111 days, you've opened yourself to God's word and you've let him speak to your mind and shape the way you see the world and shape your heart. And so what a gift. I mean, just praise God for that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. And Saul sent messengers again a third time, and they also prophesied. Then he himself went to Ramah, and came to the great well that is in Sekhu, and he asked, Where are Samuel and David? And one said, Behold, they are at Naoth in Ramah. And he went from there to Naoth in Ramah, and the Spirit of God came upon him also.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And as he went, he prophesied until he came to Naoth in Ramah. And he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel, and lay naked all that day and all that night. Hence it is said, Is Saul also among the prophets? Psalm 59, prayer for deliverance from enemies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
To the choir master, according to Do Not Destroy, a mictum of David, when Saul sent men to watch his house in order to kill him. Deliver me from my enemies, O my God. Protect me from those who rise up against me. Deliver me from those who work evil and save me from bloodthirsty men. For behold, they lie in wait for my life. Each evening they come back.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Howling like dogs and prowling about the city, there they are bellowing with their mouths and snarling with their lips for who they think will hear us. But you, O Lord, laugh at them. You hold all the nations in derision. O my strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress. My God in his mercy will meet me. My God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Slay them not, lest my people forget. Let's read it. They roam about for food and growl if they do not get their fill. But I will sing of your might. I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning, for you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress. O my strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me mercy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory and we give you praise for deliverance. We give you praise in the midst of the battle. And this is how we love you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
By obeying your commandments, of course, and by seeking your face and by striving to be men and women after your own heart, but also by praising you in the midst of the battle, by praising you in the midst of uncertainty, by praising you and giving you thanks. even before you've delivered us, even before you've come to our rescue, Lord God, we just lift up your name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Also, the translation that I am using for this Bible in a year is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.org. And if you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Also, if you've not yet subscribed to this podcast, you are invited to consider that. Pray about it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And so please, in our small way of just lifting up our voice and directing our heart to you and our thanksgiving to you, let that be a gift to you today. God, please, in the name of your son, please receive our words of praise, receive our words of thanksgiving. and be glorified, for you are glory itself. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So the tables have turned here when it comes to King David, or future King David, and Saul. It's so remarkable. Remember that Saul's Achilles heel is, I hate to just belabor the point, but Saul's Achilles heel is he cares too much what other people think of him, and he cares too little of what God thinks of him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And so here you have David and Jonathan who make a covenant with each other. Okay, we're going to get back to Saul in just a second, but here's David and Jonathan make covenant with each other. Now, remember what he mentioned before is that Jonathan sees something in David's being willing to fight against the Goliath that he has in himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And David could see something in Jonathan's willingness to do battle with the Philistines when no one else was going to do battle with the Philistines that he has in himself. And so they make this covenant, and this is one of the great examples of brotherhood in Scripture. This is one great example of friendship in Scripture.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
We've talked about different kinds of friendship, and there are friendships of convenience, which are, they're all fine, they're all good. Friendships of convenience, you know, we happen to be in the same grade, you know, we're on the same sports team, we just kind of, and we get along.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Friendships of pleasure, those are friendships that, yeah, we just, good time buddies, you know, just, we enjoy hanging out with each other, and that's good too. There's friendships of utility. That, you know, we work well together. Let's start a business or whatever, you know, let's work on this group project. Friendships of utility.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
There's all these different kinds of friendships and they all have benefit. They all have goodness to them. But there's also this highest form of friendship called virtuous friendship. And virtuous friendship is not necessarily, we're not bound to each other by necessarily personality similarities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
We're not necessarily bound to each other because we enjoy all of the same things or because we just happen to be in the same grade or the same sport or the same whatever. abound because we have the same goal. Virtuous friendship. C.S. Lewis sometimes, he's been known to point this out. He has a book called The Four Loves, which is just absolutely phenomenal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
When he talks about philia, which is the love of friendship, he describes it in terms of here's an individual and they're so captivated by something bigger than themselves that they're running after it, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
So you have in the early church, you have a number of examples of these saints who basically they kind of are thrown together and they recognize that their whole life was dedicated to pursue the Lord Jesus. Their whole life was dedicated to the knowledge of God and the study of God and the service of God and the worship of God and to be an image of God on this planet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Let me know what you choose. Anyways, this is day 111, and we're reading 1 Samuel chapter 18 and 19, and we're praying Psalm 59. 1 Samuel 18, Jonathan's covenant with David. When he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And then they look next to them and they'd say, wait, you too. They'd see someone else running beside them. C.S. Lewis says it like that. He says, when you're pursuing this thing that's bigger than you and you look and you see that there's someone running next to you and you say, wait a second, you too? That someone else is captivated by the thing that has captivated you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
That you're captured not by each other, but you're captured by the same thing. And that same thing is worth giving your entire life for. And that becomes the source or the germ, the seed of virtuous friendship. And we have Jonathan and David having that. And they make a covenant with each other. In fact, it's remarkable because, I mean, in so many ways.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Because Jonathan should be the one who is jealous of David. Because Jonathan is the one who stands to receive the crown after his father Saul dies. And yet Jonathan seems to not care one bit about David being a threat. Because David's not a threat to Jonathan. Because God has plans for David. God has plans for Jonathan. So Jonathan is not going to lose anything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
Yes, he's not going to be the king, but that wasn't the plan. David is the king. And so Jonathan has such great virtue that he's able to hold on loosely. Now, on the other hand, here is Saul. And here's this song. Saul's coming into different cities around Israel. What are they singing? The women are singing the song that Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And Saul was very angry. And this saying displeased him. And he said, they've ascribed to David ten thousands. And to me, they've ascribed thousands. And pause for a second. How about zeros in one? This is all it was. I mean, I mean, there have been some battles up to this point. But most recently, when it came to the battle with Goliath, Saul had zero and David had one in many ways.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 111: Saul Tries to Kill David (2025)
And so this this whole notion is, again, it goes back to Saul's Achilles heel. It solves big weakness. What do people think about me? And there can be such a driving force when it comes to the inordinate preoccupation with others' opinions of us. How do we escape that?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
Yet again she bore a son, and she called his name Shelah. She was in Chizib when she bore him, and Judah took a wife for Ur his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him. Then Judah said to Onan, Go into your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.
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Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, so when he went into his brother's wife, he spilled the semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother. And what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he slew him also.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, Remain a widow in your father's house, till Shelah my son grows up, for he feared that he would die like his brothers. So Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house. In the course of time, the wife of Judah, she was daughter, died. And when Judah was comforted, he went up from Timnah to his sheep shearers, he and his friend Hira the Adulamite.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
And when Tamar was told, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep, she put off her widow's garments and put on a veil, wrapping herself up and sat at the entrance to En-Aim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up and she had not been given to him in marriage. When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a harlot, for she had covered her face.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
He went over to her at the roadside and said, come, let me come into you. For he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, what will you give me that you may come into me? He answered, I will send you a kid from the flock. And she said, will you give me a pledge till you send it? He said, what pledge shall I give you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
She replied, your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand. So he gave them to her and went into her and she conceived by him. Then she arose and went away and taking off her veil, she put on the garments of her widowhood. When Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adulamite to receive the pledge from the woman's hand, he could not find her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
And when he asked the men of the place, Where is the harlot who is at Anam by the wayside? They said, No harlot has been here. So he returned to Judah and said, I have not found her. And also the men of that place said, No harlot has been here. And Judah replied, Let her keep the things as her own, lest we be laughed at. You see, I sent this kid, and you could not find her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
This is day 20, so let's keep on going forward. On day 20, we're going to be reading from Genesis chapter 38, just one chapter today from Genesis, two chapters from Job, that's Job 29 and 30, and then Proverbs... chapter three, verses 28 through 32. As always, I am reading from the revised standard version, the Catholic edition, and I'm using actually the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
About three months later, Judah was told, Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has played the harlot, and moreover, she is with child by harlotry. And Judah said, Bring her out and let her be burned. As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, By the man to whom these belong, I am with child. And she said, Mark, I beg you, whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
Then Judah acknowledged them and said, she is more righteous than I in as much as I did not give her to my son, Sheila. And he did not lie with her again. When the time of her delivery came, there were twins in her womb. And when she was in labor, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and bound on his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
But as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. And she said, What a breach you have made for yourself. Therefore his name was called Perez. Afterward his brother came out with a scarlet thread upon his hand, and his name was called Zerah. Job chapter 29 and 30. Job recalls past happiness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
And Job again took up his discourse and said, Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone upon my head and by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in my autumn days, when the friendship of God was upon me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
when the almighty was yet with me when my children were about me when my steps were washed with milk and the rock poured out for me streams of oil when i went out to the gate of the city when i prepared my seat in the square the young man saw me and withdrew and the aged rose and stood The princes refrained from talking and laid their hands on their mouths.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
The voices of the noble were hushed, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth. When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved, because I delivered the poor who cried and the fatherless who had none to help him. The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
My justice was like a robe in a turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the poor and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
Then I thought I shall die in my nest and I shall multiply my days as the sand, my roots spread out to the waters with the dew all night on my branches, my glory fresh with me and my bow ever new in my hand. Men listened to me and waited and kept silence for my counsel. After I spoke, they did not speak again and my word dropped upon them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
They waited for me as for the rain and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain. I smiled on them when they had no confidence and the light of my countenance they did not cast down. I chose their way and sat as chief and I dwelt like a king among his troops, like one who comforts mourners.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
If you want to follow along in your own Bible, whether it's the Great Adventure Bible or whatever Bible you have around, you can download your Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Again, that's ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Genesis chapter 38. Genesis chapter 38.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
But now they make sport of me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. What could I gain from the strength of their hands, men whose vigor is gone? The want and hard hunger, they gnaw at the dry and desolate ground. They pick mallow and the leaves of bushes. and to warm themselves the roots of the broom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
They are driven out from among men. They shout after them as after the thief. In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks. Among the bushes they bray, under the nettles they huddle together, a senseless, disreputable brood. They have been whipped out of the land. And now I have become their song. I am a byword to them. They abhor me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
They keep aloof from me. They do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me because God has loosed my cord and humbled me. They have cast off restraint in my presence. On my right hand, the rabble rise. They drive me forth. They cast up against me their ways of destruction. They break up my path. They promote my calamity. No one restrains them. As though a wide breach they come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
Amid the crash, they roll on me. Terrors are turned upon me. My honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud. And now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me. The night racks my bones and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest. With violence, it seizes my garment. It binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
God has cast me into the mire and I have become like dust in ashes. I cry to you and you do not answer me. I stand and you do not heed me. You have turned cruel to me with the might of your hand. You persecute me. You lift me up on the wind. You make me ride on it and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
Yes, I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all the living. Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand and in his disaster cry for help? Did I not weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor? But when I looked for good, evil came. And when I waited for light, darkness came. My heart is in turmoil and is never still.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
Days of affliction come to meet me. I go out blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. I am a brother of jackals and a companion of ostriches. My skin turns black and falls from me and my bones burn with heat. My lyre is turned to mourning and my pipe to the voice of those who weep. Proverbs chapter 3 verses 28 through 32 Proverbs chapter 3 verses 28 through 32
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
Do not say to your neighbor, go and come again, tomorrow I will give it, when you have it with you. Do not plan evil against your neighbor who dwells trustingly beside you. Do not contend with a man for no reason when he has done you no harm. Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways, for the perverse man is an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are in his confidence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. Thank you so much for your word. Thank you for revealing your heart to us and revealing your will to us. We ask that you please meet us this morning, this afternoon, this evening. Meet us at this moment because in this moment is where we find you and in this moment is where you find us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
Help us to be found by you and help us to know your presence in this moment, in this circumstance, in this season of our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So once again, in the book of Genesis, we have another story where keyword brokenness, keyword messiness, where you have Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
Remember, Judah is the fourth of the sons of Israel. Judah's name means praise. And so one of the great things about Judah is not only that when Israel would go into battle, they'd say, let the tribe of Judah go up first, because Judah means praise. And so that sense of like, when we face our day, this is kind of a little, I think I learned from, again, our friend Jeff Cavins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
When we face our day, to let Judah go up first, when we face the battles of life, to let Judah go up first, which is to say, let praise go up first. We're going to get to that more as we continue to read through this sacred scripture. Today, of course, we heard... A very disheartening story, such a broken story from Judah. And what happens is Judah has a couple of sons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
The first son marries this woman named Tamar and he dies and she's childless. So the second son is supposed to raise up a child for his brother through his brother's widow. And he does not. This is Onan. And this is one of the places in which we see a scriptural account for the connection between the sexual act and and reproduction, basically.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
Here is Onan, and he essentially separates the sexual act from the openness to life, where he, as scripture says, spills his seed on the ground. And so it's the sin of Onanism, essentially, would be the sin. Whenever we separate the unitive aspect of the sexual act from the procreative aspect of the sexual act,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
This is one of the places in scripture that shows the connection between these because Onan did this. He did something evil in the sight of the Lord by separating the unitive act from the procreative act. He also did something evil in the sight of the Lord since he was supposed to raise up a son for his deceased brother and his brother's widow. He doesn't.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
So Tamar, knowing that Judah is not going to follow through on his promise or his responsibility by giving the youngest son to Tamar to be her husband and raise up a child for her. Knowing that he's not doing this, Tamar takes matters into her own hands and dresses up like a harlot. Here's Judah who stops by and essentially has sexual relations with his son's widow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
Again, brokenness, brokenness and brokenness, brokenness upon brokenness. Now, Judah does honor his pledge, essentially, because Tamar is able to prove that, yep, you did. You thought it was a harlot and it was your daughter-in-law. Again, key words, brokenness, messiness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned into a certain Adulamite whose name was Hara. There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He married her and went into her and she conceived and bore a son and he called his name Ur. Again she conceived and bore a son and she called his name Onan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
And yet, when we read the Gospel of Matthew, when we read the genealogy of Jesus, one of the things that strikes us is that there are four women who are mentioned in the genealogy of our Lord and Savior Jesus. One woman is Bathsheba, who was the wife of Uriah, but David had taken her as his own, so brokenness. One is Ruth, who is a foreigner.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
She was a Moabite, and yet she's part of the genealogy of Jesus. One is a woman named Rahab, who actually was a prostitute, a harlot. And the first one, the first woman mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus is this woman Tamar, who is the mother of Perez and Zerah. One of the things that this highlights is the fact that here is Jesus' own family tree that is marked by brokenness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
Tamar, who played the prostitute, and Judah, who was using, at least in his mind, a prostitute, but instead his own daughter-in-law, Rahab, who was a harlot, Ruth, who was not even a child of Israel, and Bathsheba, who was taken from her husband by King David in his sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
All of this sin in the line, in the family of Jesus, highlights one of the themes that we've been following for the last number of days. And that is that God can write straight with crooked lines. That God can do incredible things when he is the Lord of our lives. That God can actually bring about a phenomenally greater good, even when we choose evil. What a gift for us to know this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
It's not a good thing. It's not a beautiful thing, but God can make something beautiful out of what's broken. That's an encouraging word for us today, and that's an encouraging word for us every single day, particularly when we recognize our brokenness. God can take something broken and make it something beautiful because nothing given to God is ever wasted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
My friends, my name is Father Mike, and I am so grateful to be able to travel with you through the sacred scripture, through our Lord's words revealed to us. The words of God in the words of men of scripture, as the Second Vatican Council described the holy scriptures. Please pray for each other. We are not on this journey alone. We're not broken alone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 20: Judah and Tamar (2025)
We're not being made beautiful alone, but we are broken together. We are being made beautiful together and we need each other. So please continue to lift each other up in prayer as I lift you up in prayer and I'm hoping that you're lifting me up in prayer. This is the Bible in a Year podcast and I cannot wait to see you again tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
But after a while, David did inquire of the Lord and the Lord answered that actually at some point, Saul in his bloodthirsty house killed the Gibeonites. Now, this is not written in 1 Samuel. This is not recorded in the Bible, but it must have been the case. And the reality is, remember that the Gibeonites were not members of the tribe of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
They're not members of the people of Israel, I mean. But they were the ones who had in Joshua chapter 9, Israel swore not to harm the Gibeonites. This is like 400 years before this moment in David's reign. But 400 years before David, Israel had sworn not to harm the Gibeonites in Joshua chapter 9. And God expects Israel to keep its promise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
even though the Gibeonites had entered into that agreement, entered into that promise through trickery, if you remember that back in the day. Now, what did the king do? He says, okay, he calls the Gibeonites, and basically, this is so wise of him. He says, yeah, we realize this has happened. I realize this has happened. What do you want me to do for you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
He doesn't just say, here's what I'm going to do. Saul had killed all these people of yours, so I offer you this. He asked a
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
them so here's the king approaching them not as the king but as someone who wants to serve and this is just a great moment where i go once again king david with all his flaws does highlight and express that he is in many ways the foreshadowing of jesus the jesus who said i did not come to be served but to serve so david goes to the gibeonites and says how can I serve you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
And they basically, you know, they say silver or gold from Saul or from his house, that's not going to help anything. And you don't need to kill any men in Israel for us. That's not going to help anything. That's not bringing anyone back. But they do ask for seven members of Saul's descendants, seven members of Saul's family be delivered to them and they'll execute them. And so that's what happens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Again, we look at that and think, That's strange, but there's an element of justice to this and also an element of restraint to this. Now, it's not just in the sense that these are Saul's descendants, they're not Saul, but one of the things we remembered yesterday, that how others suffer because of our sins. And here's another example where how others are suffering because of Saul's sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Last little note, it says that David is entering more and more into battle, or just it talks about the defeat of the Philistines at the last part of 2 Samuel chapter 21. And in the midst of this, not only are there a number of giants that David's mighty men are facing, but also talks about how David is growing weary in battle, that David's getting old.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
And there's something so powerful about David still willing to go into battle. Remember, but way back in 1 Samuel, we have David avoiding the battle. Sorry, in 2 Samuel, the beginning of 2 Samuel chapter 11, David avoiding battle. He was avoiding doing what he was called to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
the man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel, let seven of his sons be given to us, that we may hang them up before the Lord at Gibeon on the mountain of the Lord. And the king said, I will give them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
but now even in his old age david is going into battle because that's what he ought to be doing so once again david can repent right david can learn his lesson and can go back out into battle but here is another case where human weakness just is on display and david is not the man he used to be he used to be a mighty man right he's be a mighty warrior from his youth i mean to realize this
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
And he has to come face to face with the fact that he's not the man he was. He doesn't have the strength he had. He doesn't have the ability to fight that he had. He doesn't have the ability to sustain his fighting in battle that he once had. And that is something so powerful for so many of us as we continue to grow, as we continue to move forward.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
I remember when I was a young priest, people would say, start the day early, end the day really late. And they'd say, you know, you won't be able to do that forever. You're going to get old one day and you're not going to be able to only operate on X number of hours of sleep. And I remember thinking, yeah, I know that day's gonna come, but it's not today yet. And now that day's come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
And I realize, okay, Lord, that's part of it. Some of the strength that my youth has is gone. And some of the battles that maybe you had called me to fight as a younger person, I'm not as able to do as an older person. And there's something about, there's something humbling, but also something humble, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
There's something humbling about that truth, but also an opportunity for humility in ourselves to say, that is the truth. I'm going to do what I can do because I can't do what I can't do. And David is a great example here where his men say, David, please don't lead us into battle. You can direct us from behind safety, from our place of safety.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
But that humbling note of you're not the man you used to be.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
and that humility of being able to say you're right i will only do what i can do because i can't do what i can't do and that's that's all of us at every single day we can only do what we can do and i can't do what i can't do and that's all god expects of us because with him we can do all things but without him as we heard way back when in the gospel of john without him we can do nothing
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
So keep praying for each other. And because we need that grace, we need that help, and we need that humility to truly know, what can I do, Lord? And I'll do that. What can't I do? And I'm not going to be bothered by that. I'll humbly say, Lord, thy will be done. Obedience over sacrifice. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. Let's pray for each other. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 139. We are reading from 2 Samuel 21, 1 Chronicles 26. We're praying Psalm 40. As always, the translation of the Bible that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord, which was between them, between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
the king took the two sons of rizpah the daughter of aya whom she bore to saul armoni and mephibosheth and the five sons of merab the daughter of saul whom she bore to adriel the son of barzillai the meholathite and he gave them into the hands of the gibeonites and they hanged them on the mountain before the lord and the seven of them perished together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
They were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest. Then Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock from the beginning of the harvest until rain fell upon them from the heavens, and she did not allow the birds of the air to come upon them by day or the beasts of the field by night.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
When David was told what Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done, David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-Gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Bet-Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them on the day when the Philistines killed Saul on Gilboa.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
And he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan, and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged. And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin in Zelah, in the tomb of Kish his father. And they did all that the king commanded. And after that, God heeded supplications for the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Wars with the Philistines The Philistines had war again with Israel, and David went down together with his servants, and they fought against the Philistines. And David grew weary. And Ishbi Benab, one of the descendants of the giants, whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze, and who was armed with a new sword, fought to kill David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him. Then David's men adjured him, You shall no more go out with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel. After this, there was again war with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibachai, the Hushethite, slew Saph, who was one of the descendants of the giants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
and there was again war with the philistines at gob and elhanan the son of jaare oregim the bethlehemite slew goliath the gittite the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam and there was again war at gath where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot twenty-four in number and he also was descendant from the giants
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimei, David's brother, slew him. These four were descended from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
As for the divisions of the gatekeepers of the Korahites, Meshulamaiah, the son of Koreh, of the sons of Asaph, and Meshulamaiah had sons, Zechariah the firstborn, Jediah El the second, Zebediah the third, Jothni El the fourth, Elam, the fifth. Jehochanan, the sixth. Elihoanai, the seventh. And Obed-Edom had sons. Shemaiah, the firstborn. Jehozabad, the second. Jehoah, the third.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Sakar, the fourth. Nethanel, the fifth. Amiel, the sixth. Issachar, the seventh. the eighth for god blessed him also to his son shemaiah were sons born who were rulers in their fathers houses for they were men of great ability the sons of shemaiah othni rephial obed elzabad whose brethren were able men elihu and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
And I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, just click over to subscribe and subscribe. That would be phenomenal and amazing. And you would be phenomenal and amazing. If you don't, you're probably still phenomenal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
all these were of the sons of obed-edam with their sons and brethren able men qualified for the service sixty two of obed-edam and mishalamiah had sons and brethren able men eighteen and hossa of the sons of merari had sons shimri the chief for though he was not the firstborn his father made him chief
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth, all the sons and brethren of Hosah were 13. These divisions of the gatekeepers corresponding to their chief men had duties just as their brethren did ministering in the house of the Lord. And they cast lots by father's houses, small and great alike, for the gates. The lot for the east fell to Shalamiah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
They cast lots also for his son Zechariah, a shrewd counselor, and his lot came out for the north. Obed-Edoms came out for the south, and to his sons was allotted the storehouse. For Shupim and Hossa it came out for the west, at the gate of Sheliketh, on the road that goes up. Watch corresponded to watch.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
On the east there were six each day, on the north four each day, on the south four each day, as well as two and two at the storehouse. And for the Parbar on the west there were four at the road and two at the Parbar. These were the divisions of the gatekeepers among the Korahites and the sons of Merari. the treasurers, officers, and judges.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
And of the Levites, Ahijah had charge of the treasuries of the house of God and the treasuries of the dedicated gifts, the sons of Ladan, the sons of the Gershonites belonging to Ladan, the heads of the fathers' houses belonging to Ladan the Gershonite, Jehieli. The sons of Jehali, Zetham, and Joel his brother, were in charge of the treasuries of the house of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Of the Amramites, the Izharites, and the Hebronites, and the Uzialites. And Shebuel, the son of Gershom, son of Moses, was chief officer in charge of the treasuries. His brethren from Eleazar were his son Rehobiah, and his son Jeshiah, and his son Joram, and his son Zichri, and his son Shalemoth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
This Shalemoth and his brethren were in charge of all the treasuries of the dedicated gifts which David the king and the heads of the fathers' houses and the officers of the thousands and the hundreds and the commanders of the army had dedicated. From spoil won in battles, they dedicated gifts for the maintenance of the house of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Also all that Samuel the seer and Saul the son of Kish and Abner the son of Ner and Joab the son of Zeruiah had dedicated. All dedicated gifts were in the care of Shalemoth and his brethren. Of the Israelites, Jananiah and his sons were appointed to outside duties for Israel as officers and judges.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Of the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his brethren, 1,700 men of ability, had the oversight of Israel westward of the Jordan for all the work of the Lord and for the service of the king. Of the Hebronites, Jerijah was chief of the Hebronites of whatever genealogy or father's house. In the fortieth year of David's reign, search was made, and men of great ability among them were found at Jazar in Gilead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
and amazing. As I said, today's day 139. We're reading 2 Samuel chapter 21, 1 Chronicles 26, and we are praying Psalm 40. The second book of Samuel chapter 21, David avenges the Gibeonites. Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
King David appointed him and his brethren, two thousand seven hundred men of ability, heads of fathers' houses, to have the oversight of the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manassites, for everything pertaining to God and for the affairs of the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
To the choir master, a psalm of David. I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit out of the miry bog and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods. You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards us. None can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, behold, I come. in the role of the book it is written of me i delight to do your will o my god your law is within my heart i have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation behold i have not restrained my lips as you know o lord I have not hidden your saving help within my heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your mercy and your faithfulness from the great congregation. Do not, O Lord, withhold your compassion from me. Let your mercy and your faithfulness ever preserve me. For evils have encompassed me without number. My iniquities have overtaken me till I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart fails me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be put to shame and confusion altogether who seek to snatch away my life. Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire my hurt. Let them be appalled because of their shame who say to me, aha, aha. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
May those who love your salvation say continually, great is the Lord. As for me, I am poor. But the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay, O my God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
And it is true that sacrifice and offering, you do not desire. You've given an open ear, an open heart. What you desire is obedience. What you desire is for us to have a heart like yours. What you desire is mercy, not sacrifice, obedience, not sacrifice in so many ways. That when we do offer you sacrifice, it is only out of obedience.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
It is always as simply a gift to you and done in response to your invitation. Lord God, we ask that you please always, always make us obedient to you. Help us to always say yes to you and to never, ever stop saying yes. Then even... even in the moments of disaster, even moments where we have said no to you, even moments of great sin in our lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
And David sought the face of the Lord, and the Lord said, There is blood guilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death. So the king called the Gibeonites. Now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel, but the remnants of the Amorites. Although the sons of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to slay them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Help us in that moment to take the very next good step, and that next good step being to simply say yes once again. Help us to say yes to you and to never stop saying yes. In Jesus' name we pray, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, well gosh, we have, let's just start with in reverse order once again, 1 Chronicles chapter 26.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
We have basically what they are called the divisions of gatekeepers, and we think, look, what are the gatekeepers? Well, they're gonna play a very big role later on in 2 Chronicles, where as people are coming to the temple, as people are coming to Jerusalem, they need to have strong men. They say here in our translation, able men, basically, who might be able to be bouncers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
So we just got a list in 1 Chronicles chapter 26 of a number of the bouncers who would come to the city of Jerusalem and would come to the temple in the city in Jerusalem. And basically, if there's any ruffians or unwelcomed people or objects trying to get into the temple area, then they would stop them. And so it's very practical. It's very practical. But once again, it's not small.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
In fact, they are going to be prominent. These people, these groups of families are going to be very necessary at the end of 2 Chronicles. It's going to happen multiple times when under the high priest Jehoiada and Hezekiah and Josiah, those kings, that they're going to need to have some of these gatekeepers, these strong people who are able to be doorkeepers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Now, at the same time, we also realize, again, this is not a small thing. In Psalm 84, it talks about, I would rather be the doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. I'd rather even just live as the doorkeeper. That's my only job.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
My only job is to be the one who is guarding the door to the temple of the Lord, to the house of God than live anywhere, live anywhere else. And that's something so remarkable that God would give such honor to these strong men, to these people who are able to simply guard the doors.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
You know, we have in the history of the church, we have so many saints who that was their call, their kind of primary occupation as monks or as brothers in a monastery. That their job was to basically be the porter and the porter is the person who welcomes people at the front door. And we even have a man from our local area. He lived in Superior, Wisconsin for a while.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
So I'm in northern Minnesota, lived in Superior, Wisconsin for a while, then went down to Stillwater, Minnesota. And his name is Blessed Solanus Casey. And at one point, Blessed Solanus Casey became a religious, a monk or a brother. And one of his main jobs was to simply answer the door.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
And there's something about that role that, again, numerous saints have had this, as well as the people in 1 Chronicles 26. And that role, though, when it's done faithfully, just like any job done faithfully, That job that could be menial in so many ways is possibly sanctifying because everything we do, when we do it for the Lord, it's sanctifying.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Whether that's answering the door, whether that's picking up a screwdriver, whether that's delivering the milk or picking up the garbage or teaching a class or whatever it is that we're doing, whatever we do, if we do it for the Lord, it's always sanctifying. It's always, again, going back to Psalm 40, that obedience being the greatest gift we can give to the Lord, that yes to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
And so here's the families of gatekeepers that we go through this whole list today. Also, there were other Levitical servants to the temple, right? So they also have the Levites. Remember, these other families are keeping guard of the doors, weren't Levites. They were from other tribes. But in this verse, chapter 26, we also had some of the Levites who were doing what?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
They were overseeing the treasuries of the house of God. And so what they did was they noted that over the course of the history of Israel, whenever Israel defeated people in battle, they would bring a lot of these treasures. goods, gold, silver, et cetera, and bring them to the temple to be used ultimately in the house of the Lord. And so those overseers were from the tribe of Levi.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
And David said to the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you, and how shall I make expiation that you may bless the heritage of the Lord? The Gibeonites said to him, It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house, neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel. And he said, What do you say that I shall do for you? They said to the king,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
Okay, so that's 1 Chronicles chapter 26. I just wanted to highlight that because I think it's pretty important to be able to do that. We also have 2 Samuel chapter 21. And in the beginning of this story in 2 Samuel chapter 21, we have this strange thing where the rain didn't fall. There's a famine for three years and Year after year. And finally, David inquired of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 139: Reparation to the Gibeonites (2025)
And I think this is an important little note, is that here is a physical phenomenon. And it wasn't as if immediately here is a physical phenomenon and David thinks there's a spiritual cause, which is kind of normal. That's very natural for a lot of us. We don't seek a spiritual cause for every single physical phenomenon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Hey everyone, before we get started today, I want to let you know the Bible in a Year has brought the Word of God to so many people. As you know, you're part of this community, changing lives in so many incredible ways. We're humbled to play this role in God's plan and consider it our ongoing mission to keep bringing the Word of God to as many people as possible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
It's rarely the preacher's way with words. It is always the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's the only one. who can instigate conversion. The Holy Spirit is the only one who can convict hearts. And that's what happens is that Peter was given this gift of the Holy Spirit and he walked in the Holy Spirit. He spoke in the Holy Spirit. He lived in the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
And because of that, so many people, they ask the question, what do we do? And he says, repent, be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For this promise is for you and for your children, for all those who are far off. Repent and be baptized. This is so key, so critical. Jesus had sent them out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Remember he said at the end of Matthew's gospel, he says, behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. And they go out and baptize. And that baptism is something that Jesus had even told them at the end of Matthew's gospel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Jesus had sent them out and said, go on to all the nations, you know, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. Behold, I'm with you always until the end of the age. He told them to go baptize. And here is this first day, this first day of the evangelizing program.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
They say, what do we do? And Peter knows the answer, get baptized, because that's exactly what Jesus had told them to go out and do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
but then also this is so remarkable in acts 2 42 it says they held steadfastly to the apostles teaching and fellowship to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers this these four things the apostles teaching fellowship breaking of the bread and prayers are these four marks of of the church they're four marks of the early church essentially right so they're staying close to the apostles in fact later on you know years and years and years later in the first century
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
You'll hear some of those early Christian writers saying that if you don't stay close to your bishop, bishops being the successor of the apostles, then you're not close to Jesus. If you want to know if you're close to Jesus, are you close to your bishop? Meaning, do you follow what the successors of the apostles teach?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
If you want, if you don't want, don't do it. It is day 323. We're reading the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2, St. Paul's letter to the Romans, chapters 2 and 3, as well as Proverbs chapter 26, verses 27 and 28. The Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2, The Coming of the Holy Spirit. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
So first thing, apostles teaching and fellowship, that sense of being able to say, okay, this is a community that we don't just see each other on Sundays. We actually have this depth of fellowship. We actually, quote unquote, do life together. And that's a really important thing here. And the question we can ask ourselves is, do I have brotherhood among my fellow Christians?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Do I have sisterhood among my fellow Christians? Do I have fellowship? If I don't, that might be an area where God is calling me to have something like this. To the breaking of the bread, that's been code. Breaking of the bread is code for the mass ever since the beginning. Like, you know, we heard about it in Luke chapter 24 at the end of Luke's gospel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
where Cleopas and Mrs. Cleopas, they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread. And it wasn't just because he broke a piece of pita bread. It was the Eucharist, the breaking of the bread. That's what they gathered for and to the prayers because prayer defined their life. So that's such a huge thing. And Romans, this is, as I said, St. Paul's letter to the Romans is his masterpiece.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
It's incredible. And the Holy Spirit is his co-author. So that's pretty amazing. But here is St. Paul. And remember yesterday, we talked about how in chapter one, St. Paul is noting that everyone, even if they have no idea of the law, they have no idea of the Old Testament, everyone knows that God exists just by looking at the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
And not only that, by using common sense, essentially, you can know what's right and what's wrong simply by looking at the world. In chapter 2 and 3, St. Paul goes on to talk about how here, those who were raised Jewish, though, you were actually raised with God's revelation. You're not only raised with God's revelation, you're raised with God's promise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
This covenant in the Old Testament, to be able to walk with the Lord, to be able to know who he is, the depth of his heart. who God is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
And yet, just like those people who weren't Jewish and should know that God exists and how to worship him, but didn't, here are the Jews who were given so many more gifts and they should have followed God and they should have worshiped him and they should have been obedient to him, but they weren't as well. And so here's the thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
We have this, the natural people, you know, and in some ways supernatural Jewish people and And all people are then falling. That's why you have that section in chapter three about none is righteous. And it's all these quotes from the Old Testament talking about none is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks after God. Goes on.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
There's no fear of God before their eyes and their paths are ruin and misery. Their feet are swift to shed blood. All these are quotes from the Old Testament highlighting the fact that even those who are under the law, even those who are in the old covenant, even them,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
I mean, you guys, we read almost 300 days of Old Testament, actually over 300 days of Old Testament, and how many people were faithful. There were a couple standouts. But even then, we know that the righteous person falls seven times a day. And so what's the remedy? What is the answer? And St. Paul says, here's the answer. It's in chapter 3, beginning with verse 21.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law of the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus, Jesus Christ for all who believe. There's no distinction since all have sinned and fallen short.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
They're justified by his grace as a gift to the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood to be received by faith. And this is the key is that all have fallen short. and that we could try all that we want. We could strive after the Lord with everything we have, and it still wouldn't be enough. So what do we do?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Well, the Lord has come to us, and he's made of himself a sacrifice. And in that, he's redeemed us. He's brought us back from the kingdom of darkness, the power of Satan. And he's brought us into his kingdom. He's brought us into the light. He's given us mercy. He's given us grace. He's given us this new life. And that's why St. Paul goes on to say in verse 27, then what becomes of our boasting?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
It's excluded. There's no room for it at all. Because the principle of faith. For you hold that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. So good. This is incredible. It's incredible. Now, he's going to go on to talk about examples of faith, like Abraham and the results of justification later on as we go into tomorrow. But right now, we just recognize here is the gospel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
The heart of the gospel is that no matter how hard we would work, no matter how much we would strive to be good, it would never be enough. And The good news is it doesn't have to be enough because the father's offered his son and the son has offered himself for your redemption, for my redemption. And so what we get to do is we get to receive it. We get to receive his grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
We get to receive his redemption. We get to receive his love. And that's walking in faith. Having the obedience, as St. Paul says in Romans chapter one, the obedience of faith. Now we obey him and we belong to him, which is pretty phenomenal. It's pretty amazing. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
So what I'm saying is the end of this year is not going to be the end of Bible in a Year. So far, Ascension has been able to add the podcast to YouTube. You might have found it that way. Maybe you're watching right now on YouTube. And also, we're working on translating it into different languages so you could have the Bible in a year in other languages than English.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language, Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean? But others, mocking, said, They are filled with new wine. Peter addresses the crowd. But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, Men of Judea, and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Yes, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy. and I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and manifest day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
And it shall be that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves know, this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
But God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover, my flesh will dwell in hope, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brethren, I may say to you confidently of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies a stool for your feet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
But, of course, this takes a significant investment to bring projects like these free of cost to our listening communities. And we want to keep them free of cost to all those people who participate because we want to get the Word of God out there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. the first converts. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
And Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
And he testified with many other words and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they held steadfastly to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread, and to the prayers. Life among the believers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. and all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all as any had need.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Therefore, you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you judge another. For in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who do such things. Do you suppose, O man, that when you judge those who do such things, and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
And because of that, we have to rely on generous contributions from listeners like you to help defray these costs and to enable us to continually provide new audiences with this life-changing content. So if you would like to help support the Bible in a Year mission, you can go to ascensionpress.com support. That's ascensionpress.com support.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Or do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not know that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. For he will render to every man according to his works.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor in mortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
When Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. they show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
But if you call yourself a Jew and rely upon the law and boast of your revelation to God and know his will and approve what is excellent because you are instructed in the law, and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you then who teach others, will you not teach yourself?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Circumcision indeed is a value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
For he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal. His praise is not from men, but from God. Chapter 3 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
To begin with, the Jews are entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means. Let God be true, though every man be false, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. But if our wickedness serves to show the justice of God, what shall we say?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? I speak in a human way. By no means. For then how could God judge the world? But if through my falsehood God's truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come, as some people slanderously charge us with saying? Their condemnation is just. None is righteous. What then?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For I have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery. And the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Righteousness through faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 323, once again, a palindrome day. 323, we're reading Acts chapter 2, Romans chapter 2 and 3, as well as Proverbs chapter 26, verses 27 and 28.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forth as an expiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
It was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On the principle of works? No, but on the principle of faith. For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of their faith and the uncircumcised through their faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back upon him who starts it rolling. A lying tongue hates its victims, and a flattering mouth works ruin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Thank you for your word today. Thank you for your grace that comes to us through Jesus Christ. We thank you for the Holy Spirit that on this birthday of the church, this feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit that has worked miracles and has brought the grace of Jesus Christ down all the way down 2,000 years later to us. Help us to receive this Holy Spirit this day. You're a Holy Spirit this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
Keep us alive in your will. Keep us close to your heart. Help us to never wander from you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So yesterday, they were praying for the Holy Spirit, praying for the promise after the ascension, after Jesus ascended into heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
And here in chapter two of the Acts of the Apostles, we have the coming of the Holy Spirit. They're all gathered together in one place. Here comes this mighty wind that fills the whole room and this fire. The Holy Spirit comes upon them like tongues of fire. And it began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
And one of the things that is so important about this is here's the apostles and the disciples and Mary. They're gathered together, 120 of them. what happens? They receive the power of the Holy Spirit. And what do they do? They don't just kind of seek that feeling. They don't seek the experience. They don't hold on to this. Oh, this is great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
You know, sometimes we can be tempted when we have a religious experience to kind of get into what you might call a holy huddle, right? That kind of like does huddle up. Let's go back to this huddle where we, wow, this is a powerful moment. This is a great moment. I'm feeling really close to you, feeling really close to God. That is a gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible and a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. Little known fact, you know what I'm going to say. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
If that ever has happened in your life, that is always a gift. But that's not the end. That's not the goal. The goal is to receive that power of the Holy Spirit so that we can do what the apostles do here in chapter two, which is receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to go out. And that's exactly what they do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
They basically break down the door, kick down the door and get out into the world and begin to proclaim Jesus Christ risen from the dead. And, you know, here is Peter's speech. I remember reading Peter's speech years and years ago, just thinking, what is it that convicts hearts? Like, well, how do you talk about Jesus in such a way that 3,000 people are baptized in one day?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 323: Pentecost (2024)
I wanted a little, you know, the secret sauce to Peter's homiletics, to Peter's preaching. And I read through it, and I remember being underwhelmed, being underwhelmed by Peter's addressing the crowd this sermon on Pentecost Day. And we recognize that what is it that converts hearts? What is it that convicts hearts? It is always the Holy Spirit. That it is rarely the preacher's cleverness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
Towards the end of this entire speech, the second law that Moses is giving the people, you have this incredible word of just, I said before you, life and death. Choose life that you and your descendants may live because when you come back to me, I will love you and I will bless you and I will prosper you. So you have this, we can never read scripture isolated.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
We can never just take a moment out, a text out of context. We have to read scripture in its entirety. And what God reveals is that, no, I'm the God of the living. I'm the God who loves everyone. And when we get to the book of wisdom, what we're gonna hear the Lord God say is, I do not rejoice in the destruction of the living. He will say this, I did not make death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
And he does not rejoice in the destruction of the living, regardless of who they are, regardless of how unfaithful they are. It is only because of the weakness of the people of Israel that Moses commands that all of the people of Midian be destroyed. It's a hard word for us. It's not necessarily a good word, but it is the word that is needed. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
Because the people of Israel for the last time, they are weak. And that's us. This is us. I mean, again, it's not like the Jewish people 3,000, 3,500 years ago were any weaker than you and I are. We are exactly the same. We have the same hearts in us as they have. And so what we need to know is recognize, we need to recognize, okay, what are those things in my life that I tolerate?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
No, it's not going to be people like this. We have to destroy people in our lives. But there are things in my life that steal my heart away from the Lord and I tolerate their presence. I say, well, not right now. Right now, they're not going to take my heart away from the Lord. But ultimately, if I pay attention to this, they will sap my love for Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
They will sap my attention towards him and direct it other places. And I tolerate it. In this lesson, if there's a spiritual lesson of Numbers chapter 31, And in the ensuing battles, because when we get to Joshua and Judges, we're going to have a number of battles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
And those ensuing battles is if I allow these things that I know rob my heart from the Lord, then I have to be willing to end them, willing to get rid of them. Because our hearts are just like the hearts of the people of Israel. So this is the lesson to take away. It's not that complete destruction of another people is good. That is not good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
But it was commanded out of concern for the people of Israel's weakness. For us who share the same weakness, what do we need to do? What do I need to do to get rid of those things in my life that are taking me away from the true worship of God? Last little note here. Speaking of true worship of God, I do want to highlight Psalm 116. Just one quick moment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
This is a Psalm 116 that every priest prays on a regular basis, at least once a week. And when it says, for what shall I render to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the chalice of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand from each tribe, together with Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, with the vessels of the sanctuary, and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand. They warred against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and slew every male.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
This is one of the things that we recognize we do at every single mass, is every single mass we lift up the chalice of salvation, the blood of the new and eternal covenant of Jesus Christ our Lord. And not only it says that, it says, it goes on to say, I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
you might not know this maybe you do know this but the greek word for thanksgiving is the word eucharistia and so here's what we do we offer up the sacrifice of eucharistia we offer up the eucharist at every mass and call on the name of the lord so psalm 116 is precious in the heart of every priest and since you are baptized if you're baptized you are a kingdom priest i'm a ministerial priest if you're baptized you're a kingdom priest
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
And so when you go to the Mass, you also offer up the Eucharistic sacrifice, the Thanksgiving sacrifice, and we call on the name of the Lord together. We continue to call on the name of the Lord with each other and support each other and intercede on behalf of each other, especially when we hit difficult moments, not only in Scripture, but difficult moments in life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
My encouragement is don't let this stop you. Don't let this slow you down. We trust in the Lord with all of our hearts, knowing that. Even if we don't understand all of God's words in this moment, if we keep on moving, he reveals his heart more deeply and more deeply every day. My name is Father Mike. I am praying for you and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
They slew the kings of Midian, with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rechem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian, and they also slew Balaam, the son of Baor, with the sword. And the sons of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones. And they took as booty all their cattle, their flocks, and all their goods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 76, and we are reading today from Numbers chapter 31, Deuteronomy chapter 30, and we are praying today from Psalm 116. As always, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
All their cities and the places where they dwelt and all their encampments they burned with fire. And they took all the spoil and all the booty, both of man and of beast. Then they brought the captives and the booty and the spoil to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the congregation of the sons of Israel at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. return from the war.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
Moses and Eliezer the priest and all the leaders of the congregation went forth to meet them outside the camp. And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds who had come from service in the war. Moses said to them, Have you let all the women live?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
Behold, these caused the sons of Israel by the counsel of Balaam to act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Peor. And so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
And camp outside the camp seven days. Whoever of you has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day. You shall purify every garment, every article of skin, all work of goat's hair, and every article of wood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
And Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone to battle, This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded Moses. Only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean. Nevertheless, it shall also be purified with the water of impurity,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
and whatever cannot stand the fire you shall pass through the water. You must wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be clean, and afterward you shall come into the camp.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
Division of the Booty The Lord said to Moses, Take the count of the booty that was taken, both of man and of beast, you and Eleazar the priest, and the heads of the fathers' houses of the congregation, and divide the booty into two parts, between the warriors who went out to battle and all the congregation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
And levy for the Lord a tribute from the men of war who went out to battle, one out of 500, of the persons and of the oxen and of the donkeys and of the flocks. Take it from their half and give it to Eleazar the priest as an offering to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
And from the sons of Israel's half, you shall take one drawn out of every 50 of the persons, of the oxen, of the donkeys, and of the flocks, of all the cattle, and give them to the Levites who have charge of the tabernacle of the Lord. And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
Now the booty remaining of the spoil that the men of war took was 675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys, and 32,000 persons in all, women who had not known man by lying with him. And the half, the portion of those who had gone out to war, was in number 337,500 sheep. and the Lord's tribute of the sheep was 675. The cattle were 36,000, of which the Lord's tribute was 72.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
The donkeys were 30,500, of which the Lord's tribute was 61. The persons were 16,000, of which the Lord's tribute was 32 persons. And Moses gave the tribute, which was the offering for the Lord to Eliezer the priest, as the Lord commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
You can get your own Great Adventure Bible from Ascension, which is what I'm using, to follow along and read. If you also want to follow along, you can get your own Bible in a Year reading plan by downloading that from ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And if you haven't, it's day 76 for Crying Out Loud. If you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, I don't know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
From the sons of Israel's half, which Moses separated from that of the men who had gone to war, now the congregation's half was 337,500 sheep, 36,000 cattle, 30,500 donkeys, and 16,000 persons. From the sons of Israel's half Moses took one of every fifty, both of persons and of beasts, and gave them to the Levites who had charge of the tabernacle of the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
Then the officers, who were over the thousands of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, came near to Moses and said to Moses, Your servants have counted the men of war who are under our command, and there is not a man missing from us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
And we have brought the Lord's offering, what each man found, articles of gold, armlets and bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and beads, to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
And Moses and Eleazar the priest received from them the gold, all wrought articles, and all the gold of the offering that they offered to the Lord from the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds was 16,750 shekels. The men of war had taken booty every man for himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
And Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds and brought it into the tent of meeting as a memorial for the sons of Israel before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
Moses continued, And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you this day with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion upon you
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will fetch you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
And the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, that you may possess it, and he will make you more prosperous and more numerous than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
And the Lord your God will put all these curses upon your foes and enemies who persecuted you. And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments which I command you this day. The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the works of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
I don't know what I can do. What more can I do? You should be subscribing because then you get the alerts every single day. You don't have to go hunt for it every single day. It'll just appear to you. We have realized, including today, we have five days left in the desert wanderings. We have five days left of numbers in Deuteronomy until we get to conquest and judges, until the people of Israel...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers. If you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
Exhortation to Choose Life For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that you should say, Who will go up for us to heaven and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say, Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
But the word is very near to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it. See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to take possession of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
But if your heart turns away and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you this day that you shall perish. You shall not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
Therefore, choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and clinging to him. For that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications, because he has inclined his ear to me. Therefore, I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me. The pangs of Sheol laid hold on me. I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord. O Lord, I beg you, save my life. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Our God is merciful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
The Lord preserves the simple. When I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I kept my faith, even when I said I am greatly afflicted. I said in my consternation, men are all a vain hope.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
What shall I render to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the chalice of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord, I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your handmaid. You have loosed my bonds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
enter into the promised land, and we have those incredible, incredible stories of the conquest and of the judges. But today, we are still with Numbers 31, Deuteronomy chapter 30 in Psalm 116. Numbers chapter 31, war against Midian. The Lord said to Moses, Avenge the sons of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward, you shall be gathered to your people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
We thank you for giving us the gift of faith. And even in the midst of complex and troubling and confrontational readings, Lord God, you give us your truth and you give us a sign of your heart that you do set before us life and good, death and destruction. And you want us to choose life. This is your will for us that we choose life. And yet, Lord God, we are so fickle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
We are so quick to turn away from you. We are so quick to forget that you love us with the love of a father. We turn to other things. We turn to other people and we ultimately end up betraying You, the one who's loved us like no one has ever loved us. And so, God, help us. Help us. Please help us this day, not only to be faithful, but when we have been unfaithful, help us to turn to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
Know that we can trust you in your goodness, in your love, and your mercy. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So, again, more troubling readings. In Numbers chapter 31, what does the Lord command? Through Moses, what does Moses command? Moses commands,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
that the men of Israel from all of the tribes, they pick 12,000 people, 1,000 men from each tribe to go to battle against the Midianites. Why would this happen? We might miss it because for the last couple of days, we have gone back to the gifts of sacrifice and the feast of booths and keeping of vows and the feast of trumpets.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
We forgot that way back in chapter 25, the people of Israel had been false, right? They had worshipped the Baal of Peor. Remember, what happened was it said that the Israel dwelt in Shittim. The people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. Now, this is horrible because it goes on to say they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
And the people ate and bowed down to their gods. And remember, there was even that couple, Zimri, son of Salu, and the woman, the Midianite woman, was named Cosby. And they were killed by Phineas in the very threshold of the holiest place on the planet because they were engaged in, we'll call it fertility rituals in the presence of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
So this is how deeply idolatry has infected the people of Israel. Now, they're about to cross the Jordan River and go into the land of the Canaanites. And what's going to happen there? Because here they are in the plains of Moab, and they are giving their hearts over to the Midianites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
This is one of the reasons why Moses is saying, okay, before you go into battle, before you go across the Jordan River and go to that battle, You have to go to battle against the people who have already corrupted you. This has already corrupted you. You've already been corrupted. And so you have to put an end to this. That's one of the reasons why the warfare there is like kill everybody.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
I mean, which is really hard for us. And it's not because God wanted everyone to die. That is not the case. In fact, that kind of warfare would not have existed. This is important for us to understand. That kind of warfare would not have existed if the people of Israel had been faithful. This is so critical for us to note that that is not the plan of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
The plan of God is not people's destruction. It's not their death. It's not to go to war and kill everybody. But the plan of God is that the people of Israel would be faithful to him and that they would ultimately, right, through people of Israel, they would be a worldwide blessing. God would give his worldwide blessing through these people. And yet in their weakness,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
In their weakness, when they are surrounded by people who idolize other gods, who worship other gods, they are so weak that they worship other gods as well. It's because of the people's weakness that Moses has to command. And I say has to command because it's just like, There is no other way around their weakness than the kind of total destruction of the Midianites here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
And Moses said to the people, Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the Lord's vengeance on Midian. You shall send a thousand from each of the tribes of Israel to the war. So they were provided. Out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 76: War Against Midian (2025)
We're going to see this warfare again and again. It can be troubling for us, and that's okay that it's troubling for us because it's not good, right? It's not good. It's not what God would ultimately want. We know that's not what God ultimately wants because of what God reveals in Deuteronomy chapter 30, which is one of the most beautiful chapters in all of the book of Deuteronomy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Here's the big thing. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Just give me what's ever needful for me. Feed me with the food that's needful for me. Lest I be full and deny you and say, who is the Lord? And that happens to us, right? We get so full, we're confident in ourselves. Like, oh no, I don't need God because I'm taken care of. Or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Basically, here's the author here of wisdom. Saying, I know myself, I can't be trusted. I cannot be trusted. You give me excessive wealth and I will do something foolish with it, like denying the Lord. You give me a dire situation or circumstance and I will steal and I will not be a just person. And that's something, man, so much wisdom there, isn't that?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Isn't that so much wisdom, not only for ourselves, but also we look around and look at people that we might be quick to judge. Maybe celebrities or famous people or wealthy people and say, I can't believe that they're living such shallow lives. Well, that would be me if I was that wealthy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Or we see people who are committing crimes and stealing or turning to a life of crime and say, God, if you didn't protect me from that, I would probably do the same thing. It doesn't make those things right, but it does make them understandable. Again, that doesn't make wrong right understandable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
but it does hopefully make it so that our hearts and our minds, our understanding can be patient, right? Can offer grace because we know that there but for the grace of God, go I. Go we, I go. Here we are in James chapter four and five. So incredible. Again, once again, the wisdom of James. I love a couple pieces here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, a reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no human being can tame the tongue, a restless evil full of deadly poison.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
One is this in chapter four, verse seven, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. That is such incredible advice and counsel for all of us because we have to, we have to submit ourselves to God. We surrender to God and resist the devil. The recognition is we're going to hear St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Peter talk about this in a couple of days, that he'll say the devil's prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him solid in your faith, that this is the battle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
And every Christian realizes, as we heard the other day, that our battle is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, with the rulers, elemental forces of this world, with demons, with the evil one. And so we resist the devil and draw near to God. He goes on to say, cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your heart, you men of double mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Basically, he says you backsliders in another translation. That sense that, remember when Elijah asked the people on Mount Carmel during the battle with the prophets of the priests of Baal, he said, how long will you be of two minds? Like how long will you straddle the fence? If the Lord God is God, then serve him. And if Baal is God, then serve him. But just stop being of two minds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
And here is James saying the exact same thing because this is the human condition. He says, cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you men of double mind. Stop being a person of two minds. Goes on. And one thing I want to highlight is I love the fact that I had this priest when I was a missionary right after college on the border of Belize and Guatemala.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
His name was Father John McHugh. And Father John McHugh is one of the co-founders of a religious community called the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. And Father John was this, by the time I met him, he was an old priest, a wise priest, such a holy man. And he had just given, he poured his life out for the Lord and for the people of the village in which I was living. And
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
and father john was from oklahoma so he had a little bit of an oklahoma accent and man this man he incredible he was a prisoner of war in world war ii uh his plane was shot down and it's just incredible story but he would always say lord willing that's what they always say you know god will lord you need to say god willing he said lord willing lord willing he never said father john i'll see you tomorrow lord willing father john are we gonna go into town tomorrow
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Lord willing, that was it. And he just took exactly what James said. Don't say, tomorrow I'm going to go do such and such. He says, no, no, no. Always say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that. Because we have no idea what tomorrow holds. And so Father John always reminds me, when I think of this, when I think of plans, I'm always reminded of Father John.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
And then because of Father John, the letter of James here. One thing also James is warning people, James is warning those who are rich, not only warning to those who have wealth. And again, if you're living in the United States of America, you are worldwide most likely top 1% when it comes to those who are wealth holders, even if by American standards, you might not have a lot.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Just the fact is the standard of living in America is so high that we worldwide are wealthy. And so we just have to always allow God's words when he speaks about wealth to convict us. Also to use let God's words when he speaks about wealth that's built off of oppression to convict us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
I think of this every time I have products that are made in another country where I am not sure about the practices they have in assembling these products or of stitching together these shirts or making these shoes. I always wonder and I realize that I need to figure this out because St. James, the Lord's word does convict those who, he says, you've lived on earth in luxury and in pleasure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren, this ought not to be so." Does a spring put forth from the same opening fresh water and brackish? Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh. Two kinds of wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
You've fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. You've condemned, you've killed the righteous man. Have I inadvertently, by buying certain products, have I withheld the wages of those who made those products? And I don't know, I have to find that out because if I don't, I'm liable for not finding that out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
The last thing I wanna highlight is the fact that we have seven sacraments in the Catholic Church and in the Orthodox Church, and one of those sacraments is a sacrament of healing, and that's the sacrament of anointing of the sick. I'm also of confession and of the sacrament of healing. And where do you get that? Well, we get that here from the letter of James. He says, is anyone among you sick?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Let him call for the elders. The word there is presbyteroi, for as we get priests from, call the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick person and the Lord will raise him up. If he's committed any sins, he'll be forgiven. So that's the kind of the origin of the sacrament of anointing of the sick.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
But also it's also connected to the sacrament of confession. Because it says that the priests will pray over them and they will be forgiven of all their sins. And then the next line is, therefore, confess your sins to one another. Now, some Christians would say that, oh, yeah, we just confess your sins to each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
You know, brother Christian, brother Christian, sister Christian, sister Christian. But we also see that there is a word at the beginning of verse 16.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Therefore, and so as James is writing about calling the presbytery, calling the priests of the church to anoint this man with oil and that his sin is going to be forgiven and says, therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. So this is all in the context.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
That confession is in the context of the anointing or in the context of healing through the hands of the priests or the elders of the church. Now, again, not making a point, just making a point. Lastly, here's St. Paul's letter to the Colossians. And there is a piece in St. Paul's letter to the Colossians that is just incredible. I mean, obviously, St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Paul is manifestly pointing out the fact that Jesus Christ is preeminent, that he is the one through whom and for whom everything is made. And it's just so powerful. And we can't dwell on that too much because it's just, it's the key. Jesus is the one through whom and for whom all things are made. But in his letter to the Colossians chapter one, verse 24, St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Paul says these words that are very intriguing, mysterious. He says, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. And in my flesh, I complete what is lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of his body, that is the church. We have to ask the question, okay, what is lacking in Christ's suffering? What's lacking in Christ's afflictions? And the answer is nothing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
They are sufficient for our redemption. John Paul II, he talked about this and he said, no, no, there's nothing lacking in the sufferings of Christ, but that you and I might be able to participate in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ in this world. Christ extends to us a particle of his cross that we might bear it with him. And that's what Paul is writing about here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh, I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church. And that's one of the points of suffering that has been redeemed. It's been transformed that when we suffer in Christ, we participate in the redemption of the world. Again, not because his suffering was insufficient. It was completely sufficient.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Jesus Christ suffered once for all. but that you and I might have the honor, the dignity, the privilege of participating in his redeeming work. Jesus Christ offers us, he gives us a share, a particle of his cross that we might participate in his work of redemption, which is just incredible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
And that's the truth that we just need to recognize, especially for those of us who suffer, for those of us who find ourselves in places of deep and profound suffering. We might not know why this is happening, but we do know what to do with it. to unite it to Christ's suffering and say, Lord God, use this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Jesus, use this for the salvation of the world, for the Father's glory, and that this world may be transformed into the kingdom of God among us. That's what we're praying for. And I know that so many of you right now are in a place of suffering. And so I am praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Who is wise in understanding among you? By his good life let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits without uncertainty or insincerity. And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Chapter 4 Friendship with the World What causes wars and what causes fightings among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
It is day 351, and we are reading the conclusion of James, which is actually three chapters. James 3, 4, and 5. We're also reading the beginning of St. Paul's letter to the Colossians, chapters 1 and 2, and the book of Proverbs, chapter 30, verses 7 through 9. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
You desire and do not have, so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. Unfaithful creatures, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Or do you suppose it is in vain that the scripture says, he yearns jealously over the spirit which he has made to dwell in us. But he gives more grace, therefore it says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. Warning against judging another. Do not speak evil against one another, brethren.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
He that speaks evil against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you that you judge your neighbor? Boasting About Tomorrow
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain. Whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
All such boasting is evil. Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. Chapter 5 Warning to Rich Oppressors Come now, you rich. Weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
You have laid up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned. You have killed the righteous man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in-ear reading plan, as I said, I think yesterday, to tick off those last few days, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in-ear. You can also subscribe to this podcast, or you can stick to your guns and stay unsubscribed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
He does not resist you. patience in suffering. Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it until it receives the early and the late rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble, brethren, against one another, that you may not be judged.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Behold, the judge is standing at the doors. As an example of suffering and patience, brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we call those happy who are steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the graded intro Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, that you may not fall under condemnation. The Prayer of Faith Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is any among you sick?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick man and the Lord will raise him up. and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects. Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
My brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and the faithful brethren in Christ at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father. Gratitude for the Colossians faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
and say i made it through the entire year and didn't subscribe once i don't care what father mike asked me to do i don't care a bit just kidding it is day 351 and we're reading james chapters 3 4 and 5 colossians letter of saint paul to colossians chapters 1 and 2 as well as the book of proverbs chapter 30 verses 7 through 9 The letter of James chapter three, taming the tongue.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel which has come to you as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
So among yourselves, from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth, as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, he is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
And so, from the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. The Supremacy of Christ
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. Paul's sufferings and ministry Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
And in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the divine office, which was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now made manifest to his saints.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man mature in Christ. For this I toil, striving with all the energy which he mightily inspires within me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
chapter two for i want you to know how greatly i strive for you and for those at laodicea and for all who have not seen my face that their hearts may be encouraged as they are knit together in love to have all the riches of assured understanding and the knowledge of god's mystery of christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge FULNESS OF LIFE IN CHRIST
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
"'Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness. For we all make many mistakes, and if anyone makes no mistakes in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. If we put bits into the mouths of horses that they may obey us, we guide their whole bodies.' Look at the ships also.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Warnings against false teachers. See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness of life in him who is the head of all rule and authority.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ. And you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
And you, who were dead in trespass and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
let no one disqualify you insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels taking a stand on visions puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from god
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things which all perish as they are used, according to human precepts and doctrines?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Two things I ask of you, deny them not to me before I die. Remove far from me falsehood and lying. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Oh, Lord God. Oh, just what a gift of a day. What a gift it is to not only hear the letter of James and not only to hear the beginning of Colossians, but also this wisdom that you impart to us in the book of Proverbs. Thank you for journeying with us all of these. Our entire life, Lord God, you never abandon us. You're always with us. You're always completely present to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
In this moment, Lord God, we trust you. And in this moment, we recognize your presence. Wherever we are listening to these words, Lord God, you are with us. You are nearer to us than we are to ourselves and our thoughts are to ourselves. You're nearer to us than our very heart is in our chest. And we thank you. Thank you for being near to us. Thank you for being with us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Lord God, even when we do not recognize you, you're there. You're here. You're active. Help us to never lose sight of the fact that you're present with us right now. For with you, every moment is right now. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. This reading from Proverbs chapter 30, it always gets me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
Though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire. And the tongue is a fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
I just, I don't know how many times I've said this is my favorite. This is one of my favorites because it's just so wise. It has a knowledge. You know, one of the things when we come to know Jesus, I remember someone telling me this, that first two movements of conversion are a distrust of self and a trust in the Lord. And I think that's so wise. A distrust of self meaning, no, I know I'm broken.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
I know that I, man, gosh, Lord, you give me a chance and I will turn on you. In fact, there was a man named St. Philip Neary. I think he's the patron saint of Rome, but he's also, he was a joyful saint. And he's one of those situations where he did a lot of goofy things just to either to get people's attention, to get a laugh, to kind of humble himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 351: Draw Near to God (2024)
But at one point, I remember hearing that every morning he would wake up and he'd pray and he'd say something along the lines of, watch out for Philip today, Lord, because if you give him the chance, he will betray you. And there's something about that that's so clear here in Proverbs chapter 30. Two things I ask of you, deny them not to me before I die. Remove far from me falsehood and lying.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
He says, again, it's just the last line of chapter 16 where Jesus says, I have said this to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble. And RSV translation says, in the world you will have tribulation. Be of good cheer because I have overcome the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
And this is one of the critical pieces for all of us who follow after Jesus is we recognize that he doesn't promise us life free from pain, doesn't promise us that following him would give us anything except what it brought him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
that it brought him derision it brought him humiliation it brought him the loss of everything except for his father it brought him the loss of everything except for himself essentially even his friends as we heard you know judas betraying him as we were able to hear peter denying him it brought him all these losses and jesus promises yep that's what you will get as well
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
you will have tribulation in this world, but take heart because I've overcome the world. And that's one of the things that's so powerful is that here's Jesus saying, yep, you're going to have this difficulty. You're going to, the world is going to stomp on you. And then the next chapter is so incredible because not only Does Jesus then pray for these, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
He prays for these apostles, these disciples who are right in front of him, but he also then prays. He says, I not only pray for them, I pray for all those who will come to believe through their teaching, through their word, Lord God, which means you guys today, you heard Jesus himself praying for you. Because you are someone who has come to believe in him through the preaching of the apostles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
This is incredible. You just heard today that yes, Jesus says, in this world, they'll have trouble. In this world, there'll be trial and tribulation. In this world, there'll be so many problems. But take heart, I've overcome the world. And I now also, in the apex of his life, in the moment of great excruciating pain of his life, he's thinking of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
In the great moment of pain in his life, here's Jesus and he's praying specifically for you. Saying, Father, I pray for all those who will come to know you, to know me through the words of the apostles. And here we are. And here we are. And here we are today on day 104. Lastly, you know, Jesus is being handed over and betrayed. Jesus is being denied. And also Jesus being tried by Pilate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Pilate asks this question, what is truth? And that's the question of our age, right? The question of our age is relativistic. It's relativism. And it's, well, you have your truth and I have my truth. And Jesus says, well, no, actually, that's not accurate. Jesus makes it incredibly clear where he says, that everyone who hears the truth, everyone who is of the truth, hears my voice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away." For if I do not go away, the counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because they do not believe in me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
And yet the very next thing that happens is the people that Jesus came to actually save. Because, you know, we know this, that Jesus was sent for the Jewish people, first of all, because they are his people. And the Jewish people have an incredible place in God's heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
That's one of the reasons why we're reading the Old Testament, reading the Hebrew scriptures, is because the Jewish people had and have an incredible place in God the Father's heart. He was sent specifically and firstly, primarily for them. That's what he even, Jesus even says this. I came to gather the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
And then beyond that is the rest of us who weren't necessarily born Jewish. But then he came to his people as just as John says in the beginning of this gospel in chapter one, he says he came to his own people and they knew him not. And instead, what do we choose? Well, they chose what we choose. And here's Barabbas, who was a robber of the gospel, say he was a murderer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
And they say, we don't want this man. We don't want the son of the father. We want Barabbas. And Barabbas, as you may know, Bar is son of and Abbas is father. Barabbas is his name. And crazy way means son of the father. And so what happens is the Jews in this moment do what we do all the time. They reject the true son of the father for a distorted version of the son of the father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
We do this all the time. We say, Jesus, I know you love me, but I'm going to give my heart to something or someone that does not love me back. And we choose the Barabbas instead of choosing the son of the father. God, we ask you to please help us. Help us to choose you this day and every day. Help us to draw close to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Let it be possible that what you've done for us in humbling yourself and being humiliated and enduring suffering. And as we are going to hear tomorrow, enduring crucifixion, death and resurrection. that you did it all for the Father's glory and you did it all for us. Let it not go to waste on us. I'm praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Please pray for me that we can choose the true son of the Father this day and every day. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 104, and I am glad to be here with everyone. We are reading from the Gospel of John, chapter 16, 17, and 18.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no more. of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. Therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. Sorrow will turn into joy. A little while and you will see me no more. Again, a little while and you will see me. Some of his disciples said to one another, what is this that he says to us?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
A little while and you will not see me. And again, a little while and you will see me. And because I go to the Father? They said, What does he mean by a little while? We do not know what he means. Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, Is this what you are asking yourselves?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
What I meant by saying a little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me? Truly, truly I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour has come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
But when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a child is born into the world. So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. Peace for the Disciples. I came from the Father and have come into the world again. I am leaving the world and going to the Father. His disciples said, Ah, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure. Now we know that you know all things and need none to question you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
By this we believe that you came from God. Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, every man to his home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
And just what an incredible gift to be able to be with Jesus during the Last Supper and into his passion. Just what a gift to be able to be with him today. We're also reading from Proverbs 6, verses 12-15. As always, the Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Chapter 17, Jesus prays for the church. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him power over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was made. I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours and you gave them to me and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
For I have given them the words which you gave me and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them and none of them is lost but the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
But now I am coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, even as you Father are in me and I in you, and they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
If you want to be able to follow along, you can download your Bible in a year reading plan. by visiting ascensionpress.com slash bible in a year. Also, if you've not yet subscribed, it's day 104. Why? Why? Why? I just want to know. What's the problem? Anyways, today, what an incredible gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to behold my glory, which you have given me in your love for me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these know that you have sent me.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
I made known to them your name, and I will make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. Chapter 18, The Arrest of Jesus. When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples across the Kidron Valley, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas, procuring a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that was to befall him, came forward and said to them, Whom do you seek? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Jesus said to them, I am he. Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When he said to them, I am he, they drew back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, Whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I told you that I am he. So if you seek me, let these men go. This was to fulfill the word which he had spoken, of those to whom you gave me, I lost not one.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's slave and cut off his right ear. The slave's name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the chalice which the Father has given me? Jesus before the high priest. So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews seized Jesus and bound him.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
First, they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had given counsel to the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. Peter denies Jesus. Simon Peter followed Jesus and so did another disciple.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
As this disciple was known to the high priest, he entered the court of the high priest along with Jesus while Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to the maid who kept the door and brought Peter in. The maid who kept the door said to Peter, Are you not also one of this man's disciples? He said, I am not.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Once again, reading from the Holy Gospel according to John chapter 16, 17, and 18, as well as Proverbs chapter 6, verses 12 through 15. The Gospel of John chapter 16, Jesus continued, I have said all this to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire because it was cold and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them standing and warming himself. The high priest questions Jesus. The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple where all Jews come together. I have said nothing secretly. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them. They know what I said. When he had said this, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, Is that how you answer the high priest?
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Jesus answered him, If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me? Annas then sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest. Peter denies Jesus again. Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said to him, Are you not also one of his disciples? He denied it and said, I am not.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
One of the servants of the high priest, a kinsman of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, Did I not see you in the garden with him? Peter again denied it, and at once the cock crowed. Jesus before Pilate Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was early. They themselves did not enter the praetorium, so that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
So Pilate went out to them and said, What accusation do you bring against this man? They answered him, If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have handed him over. Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law. The Jews said to him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
This was to fulfill the word which Jesus had spoken to show by what death he was to die. Jesus sentenced to death. Pilate entered the praetorium again and called Jesus and said to him, Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
What have you done? Jesus answered, My kingship is not of this world. If my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight that I might not be handed over to the Jews. But my kingship is not from the world. Pilate said to him, So you are a king. Jesus answered, You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to him, What is truth? After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, I find no crime in him, but you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. Will you have me released for you, the king of the Jews? They cried out again, not this man, but Barabbas.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Now Barabbas was a robber. The book of Proverbs chapter 6 verses 12 through 15.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, scrapes with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord. Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly. In a moment he will be broken beyond healing.
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Father in heaven, we thank you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Thank you for your word. Thank you for allowing us to hear the prayer of the Son to you, Father. On the night he was betrayed, on the night he was denied, on the night he was handed over to his enemies, to those who mocked and falsely accused and ultimately killed him, on this night he
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Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
And they will do this because they have not known the Father nor me. But I have said these things to you that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. the work of the Spirit. I did not say these things to you from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going to him who sent me. Yet none of you asks me, where are you going?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Father, in your word, you give us a picture of how your son spoke with you, how much he not only loves you, but how much he loves those who are his own in the world. Father, thank you so much for giving us access to the son's prayer. Thank you for allowing us to be the ones he prayed for.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
And Father, we just ask that you please show your heart to us in the heart of your son who is so humbled and humiliated that he is willing to be exchanged with a robber for our sake. He's willing to take the place of the guilty even as he is guiltless. Help us to know this more and more deeply. In Jesus' name we pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 104: The Priestly Prayer of Jesus (2025)
Man, so as we noted, we had the high priestly prayer. This is the high priestly prayer of Jesus in John, beginning with John chapter 13, essentially. but also concluding here with John chapter 16 and 17. And that this prayer is not only so remarkable because not only does Jesus make it incredibly clear that he knows that all those who belong to him in this world will have trouble.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
all these were the children of keturah abraham gave all he had to isaac but to the sons of his concubines abraham gave gifts and while he was still living he sent them away from his son isaac eastward to the east country these are the days of the years of abraham's life a hundred and seventy five years abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age an old man and full of years and was gathered to his people
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
And Esau is willing to trade away his birthright and his inheritance that as the eldest son, he would get the lion's share of all of his father's property and his father's inheritance. And he trades it in for a bowl of beans. I mean, think about this. And we think, how dumb is this? But have you ever been in that place where you're so hungry?
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
You're like, I don't, can't think of anything other than what's right in front of me. How many times have you been in the midst of temptation? We've been in the midst of temptation. We can't think of anything except what's right in front of us.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
And we know, like, no, God, in saying yes to anything other than you, in saying no to you and yes to anything other than you, I am trading in the inheritance that you've given to me. You set me apart for heaven itself for something less than you, something less than heaven. But I want to think about that. Because I'm looking at the thing right in front of me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
This is the mystery of the broken human heart, the mystery of the broken human condition, whether that be generational, Abraham and Isaac, or whether that be in someone like Esau and in ourselves. Let's not also forget as a last thing, the deception in some ways, the manipulation we'll say, not deception yet, that's tomorrow. The manipulation of Isaac. Sorry, of Jacob. My goodness.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
We have the desperation of Esau, right? He's willing to trade in his birthright for a bowl of beans, lentil soup, some red stuff. But also you have Jacob, who is the grasper, right? He's the one who's reaching above himself, beyond himself, who's willing to trade beans for a birthright. When he knows that Esau is just doing this because he's being impetuous. There's some manipulation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
There's brokenness in all of us, both on the receiving end and on the giving end. And so, once again, we come back to this need we have for God's grace. This need we have. Man, it's like, it's so easy. It's so easy to... Be outside of temptation and say, that's dumb. I can't believe anyone would ever do this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
And it's another thing to be faced with temptation and be in that place that is just like, man, I'm desperate right now. I'm willing to trade in the most important thing in my life, my deepest identity, my inheritance, my sonship or daughterhood with the Father for anything other than this. That's why we need God's grace so much. We need to be reminded of our ancestors as well.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
And when we see their weakness, they're like a mirror and they reveal to us our own brokenness and our own weakness so that we can be more prepared to rise up in God's grace and face a new day. Speaking of facing a new day, I am praying for you this new day and hoping that you're praying for me. Please keep praying for each other because that is going to make this journey so much better.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, the field which Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried with Sarah, his wife. After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac, his son, and Isaac dwelt at Bir Lahairoi.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
These are the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar, the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, bore to Abraham. These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, named in the order of their birth. Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar, and Abdeel, Mibsem, Mishma, Duma, Masa, Hadad, Tima, Jetur, Nafish, and Kedema.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names by their villages and by their encampments, 12 princes according to their tribes. These are the years of the life of Ishmael, 137 years. He breathed his last and died and was gathered to his kindred. They dwelt from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria. He settled over against all his people.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took to wife Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean, a Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren, and the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
The children struggled together within her, and she said, If it is thus, why do I live? So she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger. When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in the womb.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
The first came forth red, all his body like a hairy mantle, so they called his name Esau. Afterward, his brother came forth and his hand had taken hold of Esau's heel. So his name was called Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them. When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man dwelling in tents.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
This is day 13. We'll be reading from Genesis chapter 25 and 26, from Job 15 and 16, and also from the book of Proverbs chapter 2, verses 20 through 22. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. As always, we're reading from the Revised Standard Version, Catholic edition of the Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Once when Jacob was boiling pottage, Esau came in from the field and he was famished. And Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red pottage for I am famished. Therefore his name was called Edom. Jacob said, first sell me your birthright. Esau said, I'm about to die. Of what use is a birthright to me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
Jacob said, swear to me first. So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech, king of the Philistines.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
And the Lord appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt. Dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands. And I will fulfill the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and will give to your descendants all these lands. And by your descendants, all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves. Because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. So Isaac dwelt in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, She is my sister.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
For he feared to say my wife, thinking, lest the men of the place should kill me for the sake of Rebekah, because she was fair to look upon. When he had been there a long time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out of a window and saw Isaac fondling Rebekah, his wife. So Abimelech called Isaac and said, Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say she is my sister?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
Isaac said to him, because I thought lest I die because of her. Abimelech said, what is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife and you would have brought guilt upon us. So Abimelech warned all the people saying, whoever touches this man or his wife shall be put to death. And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
The Lord blessed him and the man became rich and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. He had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household so that the Philistines envied him. Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we will read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we. So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there. And Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names which his father had given them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of springing water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, This water is ours. So he called the name of the well Isaac, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitna.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
And he moved from there and dug another well, and over that they did not quarrel. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land. From there he went up to Beersheba, and the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
For I am with you and will bless you and multiply your descendants for my servant Abraham's sake. So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants dug a well. Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzath, his advisor, and Phicol, the commander of his army. Isaac said to him,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and sent me away from you? They said, We see plainly that the Lord is with you. So we say, Let there be an oath between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have set you away in peace. You are now blessed of the Lord.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. In the morning they arose early and took oath with one another, and Isaac set them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well which had been dug, and said to him, We have found water. He called it Sheba. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
when Esau was 40 years old, he took to wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge and fill himself with the east wind? Should he argue in unprofitable talk or in words which he can do no good? But you are doing away with the fear of God and are hindering meditation before God, for your iniquity teaches your mouth and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
Your own mouth condemns you and not I. Your own lips testify against you. Are you the first man that was born or were you brought forth before the hills? Have you listened in the counsel of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us? Both the gray haired and the aged are among us older than your father.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
Are the consolations of God too small for you or the word that deals gently with you? Why does your heart carry you away? And why do your eyes flash that you turn your spirit against God and let such words go out of your mouth? What is man that he can be clean? Or he who is born of woman that he can be righteous?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
You've been reading along with us for two weeks almost by this point. You probably could recite that to me. If you wanted to, but we are reading today, Genesis chapter five, chapter five, Genesis chapter 25 and 26.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones and the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water. I will show you, hear me. And what I have seen, I will declare. What wise men have told and their fathers have not hidden to whom alone the land was given and no stranger passed among them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
The wicked man writhes in pain all his days through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless. Terrifying sounds are in his ears. In prosperity, the destroyer will come upon him. He does not believe that he will return out of darkness and he is destined for the sword. He wanders abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
Distress and anguish terrify him. They prevail against him like a king prepared for battle, because he has stretched forth his hand against God and bids defiance to the Almighty, running stubbornly against him with a thick, bossed shield. because he has covered his face with his fat and gathered fat upon his loins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
He has lived in desolate cities and houses which no man should inhabit, which were destined to become heaps of ruins. He will not be rich and his wealth will not endure, nor will he strike root in the earth. He will not escape from darkness. The flame will dry up his shoots and his blossom will be swept away by the wind.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his recompense. Then Job answered, I have heard many such things. Miserable comforters are you all. Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? I also could speak as you do if I were in your place. I also could join words together against you and shake my head at you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
I could strengthen you with my mouth and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain. If I speak, my pain is not assuaged. And if I forbear, how much of it leaves for me? Surely now God has worn me out. He has made desolate all my company, and he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me. And my leanness has risen up against me. It testifies to my face.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
He has torn me in his wrath and hated me. He has gnashed his teeth at me. My adversary sharpens his eyes against me. Men have gaped at me with their mouth. They have struck me insolently upon the cheek. They mass themselves together against me. God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease and he broke me asunder.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
He seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces. He set me up as his target. His archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare. He pours out my gall upon the ground. He breaks me with a breach upon breach. He runs upon me like a warrior. I have sewn sackcloth upon my skin. I have laid my strength in the dust. My face is red with weeping and on my eyelids is deep darkness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Madan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shua. Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asherim, Letushim, and Leomun. The sons of Midian were Ephah, Ephur, Hanak, Abida, and Eldaa.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
Although there is no violence in my hands and my prayer is pure. O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He that vouches for me is on high. My friends scorn me. My eye pours out tears to God, that he would maintain the right of a man with God like that of a man with his neighbor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
For when a few years have come, I shall go the way from which I shall not return."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
So you will walk in the way of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will inhabit the land and men of integrity will remain in it. But the wicked will be cut off from the land and the treacherous will be rooted out of it. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you again for your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
We thank you for bringing us into this two complete weeks that we've been listening to your word, that we've been allowing it to shape our minds and our hearts, that we can have a worldview that is shaped by you, that we can look at this world in a way that is formed by you, not formed by the brokenness around us, but is formed by brokenness that's been touched by your grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
Father, we ask that you please touch us in our brokenness with your grace. Make us whole, make us new, make us yours. In Jesus' name we pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
As we follow this story of this family, man, oh man, like father, like son, isn't that just the craziest thing where we have Abraham and Sarah twice say she is my sister to the king of Egypt and to Abimelech. And now here we have the story of Isaac and Rebecca doing literally the exact same thing to the exact same guy, Abimelech. you think, what is it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
What is it that leads us to do things like this? What is it that leads us to fall into the same trap again and again? It's one of the mysteries of the human heart is that, man, oh man, it doesn't even have to be father and son or mother and daughter or generations. It can just even simply be us in our own lives, how often is it that we fall into the exact same trap again and again?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
We do the exact same thing, like we follow the same script again and again. When we trade in what we know is true, we trade in what we know is good for something that we actually know is less good, is less true. In fact, we see this with the story of Jacob and Esau, right? So Esau is the man of the field. He goes out and he gets a lot of venison. His dad loves him because he brings home game.
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Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
and Jacob is the quieter one, the kind of the more homebody, and his mom loves him. Rebecca had also received that word that the younger Jacob would be the greater. But here's this classic scene, classic scene where Esau's coming in from the field, and Jacob is making some porridge. Basically, it's a bowl of beans. This is lentil soup, essentially, red stuff, red porridge, lentil porridge.
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Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
There was no one to part them, and one struck the other and killed him. And now the whole family has risen against your handmaid, and they say, Give up the man who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he slew. And so they would destroy the heir also.
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Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
Thus they would quench my coal which is left, and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant upon the face of the earth. Then the king said to the woman, Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you. And the woman of Tekoa said to the king, On me be the guilt, my lord the king, and on my father's house. Let the king and his throne be guiltless.
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Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
The king said, If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall never touch you again. Then she said, Please let the king invoke the Lord your God, that the avenger of blood slay no more, and my son be not destroyed. He said, As the Lord lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground. Then the woman said, Please, let your handmaid speak a word to my lord the king.
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Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
He said, Speak. And the woman said, Why then, have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in giving this decision, the king convicts himself, inasmuch as the king does not bring his banished one home again. We must all die. We are like water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 132. We're reading from 2 Samuel chapter 14, 1 Chronicles chapter 18, and we are praying today, Psalm 14. If you are interested in the Bible translation that I'm reading, it is the revised standard version, second Catholic edition. I'm reading from the great adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
But God will not take away the life of him who devises means not to keep his banished one an outcast. Now I have come to say this to my lord the king, because the people have made me afraid. And your handmaid thought, I will speak to the king. It may be that the king will perform the request of his servant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
For the king will hear and deliver his servant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the heritage of God. And your handmaid thought, the word of my Lord the King will set me at rest, for my Lord the King is like the angel of God to discern good from evil. The Lord your God be with you. Then the king answered the woman, "'Do not hide from me anything I ask you.'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
And the woman said, "'Let my lord the king speak.' The king said, "'Is the hand of Joab with you in all of this?' The woman answered and said, "'As surely as you live, my lord the king, one cannot turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has said.' It was your servant Joab who bade me. It was he who put all these words in the mouth of your handmaid.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
In order to change the course of affairs, your servant Joab did this. But my Lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God to know all things that are on the earth. Then the king said to Joab, Behold, now I grant this. Go, bring back the young man Absalom. And Joab fell on his face to the ground and did obeisance and blessed the king.
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Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
And Joab said, Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord the king. in that the king has granted the request of his servant. So Joab arose and went to Geshur and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. And the king said, let him dwell apart in his own house. He is not to come into my presence. So Absalom dwelt apart in his own house and did not come into the king's presence.
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Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
Now in all Israel, there was no one so much to be praised for his beauty as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him. And when he cut the hair of his head, for at the end of every year, he used to cut it. When it was heavy on him, he cut it. He weighed the hair of his head 200 shekels by the king's weight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
There were born to Absalom three sons and one daughter whose name was Tamar. She was a beautiful woman. David forgives Absalom. So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem without coming into the king's presence. Then Absalom sent for Joab to send him to the king, but Joab would not come to him. And he sent a second time, but Joab would not come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
Then he said to his servants, See, Joab's field is next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire. So Absalom's servants set the field on fire. Then Joab arose and went to Absalom at his house and said to him, Why have your servants set my field on fire? Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent word to you. Come here that I may send you to the king to ask why have I come from Geshur.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
It would be better for me to be there still. Now therefore, let me go into the presence of the king, and if there is guilt in me, let him kill me. Then Joab went to the king and told him, and he summoned Absalom. So he came to the king and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, you can click on subscribe and you would be subscribed. As I said, it's day 132. We're reading from second Samuel 14, first Chronicles 18 and praying Psalm 14. Second book of Samuel, chapter 14.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
The first book of Chronicles chapter 18, David's kingdom established and extended. After this, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them, and he took Gath and its villages out of the hand of the Philistines. And he defeated Moab, and the Moabites became servants to David and brought tribute.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
David also defeated Hadadezar, king of Zobah, toward Hamath, as he went to set up his monument at the river Euphrates. And David took from him a thousand chariots, seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but left enough for a hundred chariots.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezar king of Zobah, David slew twenty-two thousand men of the Syrians. Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David and brought tribute. And the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went. And David took the shields of gold, which were carried by the servants of Hadadezar and brought them to Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
And from Tibhath and from Kun, cities of Hadadezar, David took very much bronze. With it, Solomon made the bronze sea and the pillars and the vessels of bronze.
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Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
When Tau, king of Hamath, heard that David had defeated the whole army of Hadadezar, king of Zobah, he sent his son Hadaram to King David to greet him and to congratulate him because he had fought against Hadadezar and defeated him, for Hadadezar had often been at war with Tau.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
And he sent all sorts of articles of gold, of silver, and of bronze, these also King David dedicated to the Lord, together with the silver and gold which he had carried off from all the nations, from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, and Amalek. David's just administration.
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Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
And Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, slew 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt, and he put garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became David's servants. And the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went. So David reigned over all Israel, and he administered justice and equity to all his people. And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was over the army, and Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was recorder.
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Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
And Zadok, the son of Ahitub, and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, were priests. And Shavshah was secretary. And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was over the Cherithites and the Pelethites. And David's sons were the chief officials in the service of the king. Psalm 14, denunciation of godlessness to the choir master of David. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt.
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Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
They do abominable deeds. There is none that does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any that act wisely, that seek after God. They have all gone astray. They are all alike corrupt. There is none that does good. No, not one. Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers, who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord?
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Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
There they shall be in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous. You would confound the plans of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge. Oh, that deliverance for Israel would come out of Zion. When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob shall rejoice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
Israel shall be glad. Father in heaven, we give you thanks and give you praise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
David is persuaded to bring Absalom back. Now Joab, the son of Zeruiah, perceived that the king's heart went out to Absalom. And Joab sent to Tekoa and fetched from there a wise woman and said to her, pretend to be a mourner and put on mourning garments. Do not anoint yourself with oil, but behave like a woman who has been mourning many days for the dead and go to the king and speak thus to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
You are a good, you are God, and you're a good dad. Lord God, you are a good dad. You're a good father and you continue to meet us. You forgive us completely, but you also call us to complete repentance. You offer forgiveness totally, but you also call us to totally come back to you. And so help us, please, Father, help us do that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
Help us to come back totally so that your mercy may totally transform us, that your grace may totally transform us, that your love may totally renew us. Lord God, bring us back to you. Let your face shine on us and we shall be saved. In Jesus' name we pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, here we are. Gosh, here's the story of Absalom and David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
And this is going to get worse, just so you know. This is chapter 14, and David gets persuaded to bring Absalom back. So Absalom has escaped, right? He remembered yesterday, he fled, went to Talmai, son of Amihud, king of Gesher, lived over there in Gesher. And he's living in isolation, he's living in exile. And here's Joab, who, remember Joab's in charge of the army, and he's living in exile.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
And he has this plan that he wants Absalom to come back to Jerusalem. And so he gets this woman and basically hires her to say, tell David this story. It's really reminiscent of the story of Nathan the prophet when David was busted for what he did with Bathsheba and Uriah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
Nathan comes forward and tells him this story about the man who has a bunch of sheep, but then his neighbor has only one precious ewe lamb. And here's the story of this woman. She's a widow. She has two sons. One son killed the other son, but, and people want to kill that son who is the murderer. And what do I do? And, and David says, okay, yeah, you got to restore.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
You got to keep the family intact. You can't keep the family intact. So bring that son into a place of safety. And if anyone wants to kill him, you know, he'll have words with me. And this is the boldness of this woman. She says, one more word, by the way, this is you. It's basically like Nathan saying, you are that man who took that precious you child.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
You had all the people you wanted in your life to marry, to take care of, to care for, and you just stole Uriah the Hittite's wife from him. This is the woman saying essentially the same thing. So that convinces David. David also notices that this is Joab's work. Now, why would Joab want Absalom to not be in Gesher anymore? Why would Joab want Absalom to be close to David?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
chances are very good that we know about Joab. We know that he's very loyal to David. So chances are very good that what Joab wanted was he wanted, he's like, I can see Absalom who's described in this chapter as well as being incredibly beautiful, a beautiful man, no blemish in him from his head to his toe. And his hair was so heavy. Apparently that's a really good thing back in the day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
Maybe it's a good thing now. I don't know. But Joab probably recognized that here is Absalom who poses a threat to David. Absalom is an estranged son of David. And if he stays in Geshur, he can draw people to himself and he can raise a revolt, a rebellion against the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
And so it's likely that Joab orchestrated this thing with the woman of Tekoa to get David to bring Absalom closer to home so that he could be not as much of a threat, which isn't gonna work. It's gonna backfire because in chapter 15, here's Absalom who's gonna be a big threat. We'll hear about that tomorrow. But we also see something important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
We also see that Absalom is the kind of guy who is not willing to put up with much, right? He's not willing to put up with the sin against his sister. He's not willing to put up with being exiled from his father. And so he's not willing to put up with Joab not responding to him. And so after the third time he calls to Joab, he sets his It's his field on fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
You weren't going to come talk to me, so I've set your field on fire. I just think that's just, he kind of says it so matter-of-factly. You weren't going to do what I say, so here you go. And what happens? Joab goes to the king, make peace with Absalom. And Absalom does obeisance, right? He bows with his face to the ground and David kisses him. And that's the extent of the forgiveness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
So Joab put the words into her mouth. When the woman of Tekoa came to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance and said, Help, O king. And the king said to her, What is your trouble? She answered, Alas, I am a widow. My husband is dead. And your handmaid had two sons, and they quarreled with one another in the field.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
That's the extent of the repentance. And this is key for us. Absalom shows no sign of repentance. Absalom shows no sign that he realizes, I might've done something wrong in killing my own brother. Yes, his brother did something wrong in violating his sister. Absolutely, 100%. But Absalom shows no repentance in acknowledging the fact that, and I killed my own brother, which is a very serious thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
So he shows no repentance. And David shows no real forgiveness. Yes, he lets Absalom come back to the city, but he doesn't see him for two years. You may not come into my presence. That's not real forgiveness. So here's how God forgives us. He calls us to true repentance, right? He calls us to turn away from our sins and turn back to him. But then he gives full forgiveness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
He gives us complete access to himself. But here's David. Again, he's just, in so many ways, David can be a good king. In so many ways, maybe he was a good father. But in this way, he was not. In this way, he's not an image of the Father. In this way, he's not an image of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, because he gives partial forgiveness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
Yeah, you can come back to town, but you can't come in my presence. But think about how good God the Father is. When we're forgiven in Jesus Christ, we are given complete access to the Father's house and to the Father's heart. But we also have to have repentance. In this story, chapter 14 of 2 Samuel, we see neither repentance nor real full forgiveness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
And so what we see is what's going to happen in chapter 15 and following is without true repentance, there is no true forgiveness. And without that true forgiveness and reconciliation, we find rebellion. And that's what's going to happen tomorrow, not to give it away, but that's what's going to happen tomorrow. No true repentance, no true reconciliation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
With no true reconciliation, there is rebellion. So one of the things that I take away from this is I need to come before the Lord, knowing that I'm letting go of my sins, letting go of whatever I've chosen instead of God or over and above God. in clinging to the Lord, because in Christ Jesus, we have full forgiveness and full access, as I said, to the Father's house and to the Father's heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
We can't do that on our own. Of course, we need God's grace. And so please pray for me to be able to do that. Gosh, and constant process of repentance, constant process of conversion. And I know you are too. Sometimes it's hard to let go. It's hard to trust in the Lord. It's hard to be forgiven. But I'm praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: David and Absalom (2025)
Please pray for each other that we can be people who are constantly being converted back to the Lord, constantly repenting of our sins and constantly experiencing the beauty and the power of God's mercy and forgiveness. As I said, I prayed for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Remember Father De Pavanca once said that and stuck with me and I want to pass it on to you today. When we're reading from the book of Deuteronomy, as it says, miscellaneous laws. One thing is noted about these miscellaneous laws is they have to do, remember we talked about this yesterday, so important for us to understand. These people are living in a violent and brutal world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
And God is giving us his word so it's a little less violent, a little less brutal. And so the command is you have your brother and any citizen of Israel. And if his ox or sheep goes astray, if he needs help, basically you're gonna help him. That's it. That's it. If your brother needs help, you're going to help him. And then other things like you should not wear anything that belongs to men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Men wear men's clothes. Women wear women's clothes. That's a key thing here. But also this command to show kindness to animals, which is so interesting, right? Because back in the day, once again, a violent and vicious and brutal world would say, no, these animals are just animals. You come across and think of how the kindness of God here, a bird's nest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
whether it has eggs or it has fledglings or whatever you call like newly hatched birds, if the mother is there, you cannot kill both the mother and her young. Why? Because they'll be cruel. You can take the eggs or you can take the young, but let the mother go. There's something about that that's just like, wow, here's God who just has even these small acts of kindness
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Or listen, what strikes me as being so interesting, when you build a new house, make a parapet for your roof, basically make a guardrail that you may not bring guilt of bloodshed on your house if anyone falls from your house. It's just so remarkable. But the last one is gonna be really interesting. And the last one has to do with the laws of sexual morality.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Keeping this in mind, that up until this moment, up until Israel, up until the Jewish people, up until God reveals himself, Women were considered second class. Women were considered being lesser than, just like children were considered to be less than.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
But ever since the very, very first chapter of God's book, right, of Genesis, it says God made them male and female in his own image and likeness, both of them male and female in God's image and likeness, which has an equality and dignity, even if there's an inequality when it comes to circumstances. Even in this situation, right, this is God leading a brutal and vicious people in a world where no,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many sons of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
men and women were not considered to be equal, to say, let's take those steps, just like we heard the other day, that if in the context of a conquest of another kingdom or another city, the soldiers find a beautiful woman in the city and they take her, quote unquote, take her, they won't take her as a slave or don't take her as a prostitute.
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Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
They take her as a wife because you might be tempted to take her and use her, but you may not take her and use her. You can take her and care for her and let her be your wife.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Similarly here, again, we might be bothered by that, but this is God moving a brutal and vicious people to be less brutal and less vicious from great inequality to a place of greater equality, which is one of the reasons why this man here in Deuteronomy,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
might accuse this woman that he has just married of not being a virgin and he has to prove it or else he's falsely bringing shame upon this woman. And that may not be allowed. And again, remember from Genesis chapter three, it says that men and women from now on are going to be broken. They're going to try to dominate the other. They're trying to manipulate the other.
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Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
And here is the Lord God through Moses in Deuteronomy saying, that is the case. You're going to want, he's like, listen, he's lived with these people for the last 40 years in the wilderness. He knows their hearts and he knows that, yeah, I've seen this happen where a man marries a woman and then he detests her. He marries a woman and then he wants to put her away. You may not do that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
without really good cause, because there could be a cause, right? The woman might do something wrong. The man might do something wrong, but he's making it very clear that it's not, she's not disposable. That's what the upshot of this whole thing is. In a world in which women could be considered disposable, God's law here in Deuteronomy is saying, she is not, women are not.
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Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Remember this, Genesis chapter one, Genesis chapter two. Male and female, God created them. In his image, he created them. Both equal in dignity, both equal in goodness, both equal in being made in God's image. and likeness. And so again, in this brutal and vicious world, here is God's law that says, we're going to make this a bit less brutal, a bit less vicious, a lot more just.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
She is not disposable and you are not disposable either. Some of these laws are challenging to us, but one of the things they're trying to affirm is this fact that you matter. You who may be a single man or single woman, you may be a married man, a married woman, you might be a widow or a widower, you might be a child. You matter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
And you think later on, Jesus is going to say, consider the sparrows that you are worth more than many sparrows. Not one of them falls to the ground without your father knowing it and caring about it. I'm adding the caring about it, but that's the reality. And you're worth more than that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
All of these laws are being given to a people in a very difficult situation to make it just that more just, to remind them that they matter and therefore how they treat each other matters because they belong to God, male and female, young and old, adult and child. And so we're reminded of that too. And so we try to move forward knowing that if my life matters, I need to live it like it matters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Pray to the Lord that he may take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it up as a sign, and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it up as a sign. And if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. the journey to Moab.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
And if other people around me, if their lives matter, then I need to treat them like they matter. And so that's what we do today. Okay, one last thought when it comes to Deuteronomy chapter 22. Gosh, there are so many sensitive topics that the Bible deals with. And it doesn't necessarily always give us a warning that, hey, by the way, here comes a sensitive topic.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
In Deuteronomy chapter 22, beginning with verse 23, it talks about here's a woman, a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her. Both of them are stoned, right? So they're committing this infidelity with each other, committing fornication essentially with each other that they are both guilty of.
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Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
But it makes this amendment says, because if she's being attacked in the city, she should cry out for help. Now, this is why this is so sensitive because we know the reality of rape. And we know that the reality of rape is not always this clear, not always as cut and dry. There's not always someone to cry out and call to for help. Remember the context that Deuteronomy is written in.
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Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
These are people who have been living in tents. They've been living amongst each other. There is no privacy virtually unless someone wants privacy. Now, at the same time, right? Is this perfect? Absolutely not. It's not perfect. What it is, is trying to say that if this was not agreed upon by her in the sense of he forced himself upon her, then I hate to say it like this.
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Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
She should have cried out for help, right? And again, so many people listening to this, you'd say my experience was I didn't cry out for help or I tried crying out for help and nothing, no help came. Or I didn't even know. I was so scared. I didn't cry out for help. Maybe I know so many people have been in this situation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
I know so many of my students have been in this situation where it was like, I was so afraid and I couldn't even cry out for help. What the Bible is trying to do here is make a distinction between this being fornication agreed upon, right? Versus someone who's being sexually assaulted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
That's one of the reasons why it goes on to say, but if they're out of the city, it says in verse 25, but if in the open country, a man meets a young woman who's betrothed, the man seizes her and lies with her, only the man. shall be killed. Only he shall die, but the young woman shall not. Why? Because she most likely would have cried out for help and someone would have come to her aid.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
So it's trying to make a distinction between promiscuity, fornication, and sexual assault. Is it perfect? No, but is it an attempt to have justice? Yes. Is it an attempt to defend women who are being wrongfully attacked, assaulted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Yes, that is what is at the heart of this law in Deuteronomy today, is the good of the woman and the justice, of course, of when people agree and fall into sin, not when they're attacked. I hope that makes sense today, but I know, gosh, it is such a sensitive topic. And I'll say this, if that's you and that's been your experience, please know that you are worth so much.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
You're worth the death of the Lord. You are worthy in his eyes. He loves you so much. You are not disqualified from his love. You are not used up. You are worthy. You are beautiful. And the Lord takes our ashes and he replaces our ashes with jewels. The Lord Jesus can restore everything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
And if you've been assaulted or if something horrible has happened, or even when we fall into sin on our own, hand it over to the Lord. He can make us new. Know that he loves you. Know that he believes and declares that you are worthy of love, real love, and that what happened to you should never have happened to you or to anyone. That's part of the message of the readings today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Pray for each other and I ask you to pray for me. I am praying for you that as we continue on this journey, we lift each other up. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
And the sons of Israel set out and encamped at Oboth. And they set out from Oboth and encamped at Ai Abarim in the wilderness, which is opposite Moab toward the sunrise. From there, they set out and encamped in the valley of Zered.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
From there they set out and encamped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that extends from the boundary of the Amorites, for the Arnon is the boundary of Moab between Moab and the Amorites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord, Waheb in Sufa, in the valleys of the Arnon, and the slope of the valleys that extends to the seat of Ar, and leans to the border of Moab. And from there they continued to beer, that is, the well of which the Lord said to Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 69, and we are reading from Numbers chapter 21, Deuteronomy chapter 22, and we're praying Psalm 102. As always, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well, sing to it, the well which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people delved with the scepter and with their staves. And from the wilderness they went on to Matanah, and from Matanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth. and from Baymoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah, which looks down upon the desert.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Sihon, the king of the Amorites, defeated. Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying, Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into field or vineyard. We will not drink the water of a well. We will go by the king's highway until we have passed through your territory. But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
He gathered all his men together and went out against Israel to the wilderness and came to Jehaz and fought against Israel. And Israel slew him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as to the Ammonites, for Jazzer was the boundary of the Ammonites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
And Israel took all these cities and Israel settled in all these cities of the Amorites in Heshbon and in all its villages. For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand as far as the Arnon. Therefore, the ballad singers say, come to Heshbon, let it be built. Let the city of Sihon be established.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
For fire went forth from Heshbon, flame from the city of Sihon. It devoured Ar of Moab, the lords of the heights of the Arnon. Woe to you, O Moab. You are undone, O people of Shamash. He has made his sons fugitives and his daughters captives to an Amorite king, Sihon. So their posterity perished from Heshbon as far as Debon. And we laid waste until fire spread to Medeba.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Og the king of Bashan defeated. Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites, and Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they took its villages and dispossessed the Amorites that were there. Then they turned and went up by the way to Bashan. And Og, the king of Bashan, came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
But the Lord said to Moses, Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people, and his land. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon. So they slew him and his sons and all his people, until there was not one survivor left to him, and they possessed his land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
If you want to get this Bible, you can go to ascensionpress.com or to any of the places where Bibles are sold. If you also would like to download your Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year, and you can download that for free for now, at least. And you can also subscribe to the podcast, this podcast in your app to receive daily episodes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Moses continued, you shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray and withhold your help from them. You shall take them back to your brother. And if he is not near you, or if you do not know him, You shall bring it home to your house and it shall be with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. And so shall you do with his donkey.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
So you shall do with his garment. So you shall do with any lost thing of your brothers, which he loses and you find. You may not withhold your help. You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and withhold your help from them. You shall help him to lift them up again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God. If you chance to come upon a bird's nest, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young, you shall let the mother go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
But the young you may take to yourself, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long. When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house if anyone fall from it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited to the sanctuary, the crop which you have sown, and the yield of the vineyard. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. You shall not wear a mingled stuff, wool and linen together. You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your cloak with which you cover yourself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Concerning sexual relations. Let's read it. And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, I gave my daughter to this man to wife, and he spurns her. And behold, he has made shameful charges against her, saying, I did not find in your daughter the tokens of virginity. And yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. And the elders of that city shall take the man and whip him. And they shall find him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman because he has brought an evil name upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
But if the thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young woman, Then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house. And the men of the city shall stone her to death with stones because she has wrought folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father's house. So you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
They are posted when it sometime overnight and you get to listen to them. You probably figured that out already since it is almost day 70. It is day 69. Once again, we're reading from Numbers chapter 21, Deuteronomy chapter 22 and Psalm 102. The book of Numbers chapter 21, the bronze serpent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
If there is a betrothed virgin and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. So you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
but if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed and the man seizes her and lies with her then only the man who lie with her shall die but to the young woman you shall do nothing in the young woman there is no offense punishable by death for this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor because he came upon her in the open country and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not put her away all the days of his life. A man shall not take his father's wife, nor shall he uncover her who is his father's.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
A prayer of one afflicted when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Let my cry come to you. Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear to me. Answer me speedily in the day when I call. For my days pass away like smoke and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and withered.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
I forget to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning, my bones cling to my flesh. I'm like a vulture of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places. I lie awake. I'm like a lonely bird on the housetop. All the day my enemies taunt me. Those who deride me use my name for a curse. For I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Because of your indignation and anger, for you have taken me up and thrown me away. My days are like an evening shadow. I wither away like grass. But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever. Your name endures to all generations. You will arise and have pity on Zion. It is the time to favor her. The appointed time has come. For your servants hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
The nations will fear the name of the Lord and all the kings of the earth your glory. For the Lord will build up Zion. He will appear in his glory. He will regard the prayer of the destitute and will not despise their supplication. Let this be recorded for a generation to come so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord, that he looked down from his holy height from heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
The Lord looked at the earth to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who are doomed to die. that the men may declare in Zion the name of the Lord, and in Jerusalem his praise, when peoples gather together and kingdoms to worship the Lord. He has broken my strength in midcourse. He has shortened my days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive. And Israel vowed a vow to the Lord and said, if you will indeed give this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
O my God, I say, do not take me from here in the midst of my days, you whose years endure throughout all generations. Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you endure. They will all wear out like a garment. You change them like clothing and they pass away. But you are the same and your years have no end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
The children of your servants shall dwell secure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
We thank you for your word. We thank you for loving us. We thank you for choosing us. We thank you for showing us your heart, the heart of a father who loves his children. In the midst of this day, Lord, we call out to your name. We call upon your name and we ask you, Father, to send us your Holy Spirit in the name of your son, Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
As you receive our thanks and as you receive our praise in Jesus' name, we ask you also to send your spirit upon us in Jesus' name. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So a couple of quick things. What we want to do is I want to focus on the fact that in the book of Numbers chapter 21, a couple of major things have happened.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Some of those things we already heard about. Remember at the beginning of Deuteronomy, this is how many days ago, maybe, I think, I don't know, almost 20 days ago in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses was giving a recap of all the things that happened. And in that recap, he mentions that we heard yesterday, uh, they were not allowed to go through the land of Edom, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Remember the descendants of Esau, but they were led into battle against Sihon, the king of the Amorites and Og, the king of Bashan. And today in numbers 21, we get to hear that story of how the people of Israel were led by the Lord into battle against the Amorites and against the king of Bashan, Og the king of Bashan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
But even more important, well, I don't know, even more importantly, but it seems pretty important. The beginning of Numbers chapter 21, once again, The people complain and they say that God has only led us here into the wilderness to kill us. And so the Lord God sent seraph serpents to bite people and they died. And then what happens? Moses intercedes once again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Even though Moses, he's already heard, he heard yesterday, you will not enter the promised land. He continues to intercede. He continues to be a shepherd of the people. He continues to be a father for these people. Even though he knows he will not be allowed to enter the promised land, he continues to
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
to go before god on behalf of the people and to bring the lord back to the people so he intercedes on behalf of the people and god says you make a fiery serpent or a bronze serpent and as often as people look upon it they will be healed later on jesus will say just as moses lifted up the serpent in the desert so must the son of man be lifted up that all who look upon him will be saved right their eyes when they looked upon the bronze serpent they were saved and when we cast our eyes upon jesus christ crucified
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
And the Lord listened to the voice of Israel and gave over the Canaanites and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of the place was called Hormah. From Mount Hor, they set out by the way to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom and the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Our salvation is given to us in this unique and powerful way. One of the things I remember hearing said was why would God ask Moses to make a bronze serpent? Well, the serpent was the cause of their pain. The serpent was the cause of their dying. And so they looked upon an image of what caused them to die in order to have healing, in order to have a life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
Jesus on the cross, remember we heard this yesterday, curses anyone who hangs on a tree from Book of Deuteronomy. Jesus took the curse upon himself. And so what happens is the sign of our death, the sign of our sin becomes the symbol of his victory. So on the cross, Jesus is carrying our sin. That's the symbol. It's a symbol of my sin when Jesus is on the cross.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 69: The Bronze Serpent (2025)
When we look upon Christ, and this is kind of metaphorically, but also truly, truly, we look upon Christ on the cross, we see the sign of my shame, the sign of my sin, that's become the symbol of our hope. And that's what's happened in Numbers 21, what happens in Christianity is the sign of our shame becomes the symbol of our hope. The sign of our sin becomes the symbol of our hope.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
We have the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost or Harvest, which is very familiar to us as well because of the fact that we celebrate Pentecost as Catholic Christians and the third festival of Ingathering or the Festival of Tabernacles. And that might be the one that we are least familiar with.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
But it's interesting because here are the three times where all Jewish males would be required to go up to Jerusalem and to worship God in the way that we hear described in Genesis. The book of Leviticus, which is going to be really remarkable. And just, I mean, just because here we are doing this together, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
So in the book of Leviticus and the book of Exodus, we see this context that is so good for us to be able to take in pretty soon. We're going to get to Leviticus chapter 23. We're going to hear some more about the details of those festivals. But today we actually heard about a fourth festival today. in Leviticus chapter 16.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it. You shall help him to lift it up. You shall not pervert the justice due to the poor in his suit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
In Leviticus chapter 16, we heard about the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. Now, Yom Kippur is not one of those three major feasts, but it is definitely, definitely a solemn festival, happens at the end of September, and it's a time that you can see how it plays out
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
it's time for not only remembering past sins but also for making amends becoming before the lord and asking for his forgiveness it is the only day of fasting that actually is decreed in the bible the day of yom kippur and so how did this happen well that we just heard the description we have the high priest in this case was aaron and he would bring a number of animals in this particular moment he would take the goat known as the scapegoat right and over the head of this goat he would lay his hands and he would declare the sins of the people of israel
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
and then someone would be designated to lead that goat into the wilderness where it would die, basically kind of carrying away the sins of the people. Now, two things. One is, it says, delivered that goat to Azazel. And we're like, what's Azazel? Who is Azazel? And the answer is kind of,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
a mystery in the sense that there are some extra biblical writings that describe this Azazel as a demon, essentially as the leader of the fallen angels in some ways. Is it the same character as Lucifer? I'm not sure. Why would this demon have any part at all to play in this goat being delivered to this demon? And the answer to that is, I do not know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
We're going to continue to study scripture and try to figure this out. When I say I don't know, it's I know theories, but I don't know the actual answer. And so I have to apologize. That's my ignorance. I do know some theories about this, about why Azazel, what role that would be, that this demon would have in when it comes to this day of atonement.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
But since those theories are just theories and they're not necessarily established in dogma, I am not going to weigh in on it because I know enough not to weigh in on stuff I don't necessarily know about. The second thing about this beyond Azazel is this is the goat, the scapegoat that carries the sins of the people. And this is one of the things that we see in Leviticus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
This is something so important because I think when we're reading Leviticus or as we continue to read Exodus and getting to Numbers and Deuteronomy, We're going to find in all of these books a gap between us and them. We're going to find what feels like this gap between, oh, that's how they lived back then. That's how they worshiped back then.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Keep far from a false charge and do not slay the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. The sabbatical year and the sabbath. For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave the wild beasts may eat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
That's how they were in relationship with God back then. But now we don't have anything like that anymore. And the truth is we absolutely do. All of this is a foreshadowing. It's a preparation for what you and I are doing on a daily basis, especially on a weekly basis when it comes to the sacrifice of the mass. Because who is Jesus? Well, he is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
What is the priest doing when he offers up The Eucharist, he's offering up the great sacrifice of the Lamb of God to the glory of the Father, to the Father on behalf of the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
And so, please, my invitation is as we continue to journey through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, these are the critical books, critical, critical books that I'm going to invite you, even if I don't make the connection on a daily basis in this kind of guide portion of our reading the Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
If you can strive to make that connection for yourself between what the people of Israel were commanded to do back then and what you and I as Catholic Christians are commanded to do right now, it is the preparation of God's people to worship him as he has asked to be worshiped. And that's what we're doing. That was the foreshadowing. That was the preparation. What you and I are doing is...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
it is the fulfillment. And yet at the same time, we know that it's not completely fulfilled because the worship of God through the lamb, through the son of God who was slain, but exists forever is happening right now. And we only can participate in it through a veil, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Through that mystery that we don't get to see the reality of Jesus Christ on the altar being lifted up to the glory of the father. We do see it And substantially, we do participate in it substantially, but it's still covered in mystery. It's still true. It is the actual sacrifice of the Lamb of God to the Father for the people. My goodness, what a gift. And that's my invitation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Again, as we read through these four books, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, Every time it gets weird, every time it seems so strange and so foreign, realize, no, no, no, no. This is not strange. This is not foreign.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
This is a preparation for what you and I do, whether that be confession, right, where our sins are placed on the Lord God himself, that one sacrifice once for all that he made for the forgiveness of sins, or when it comes to the mass and we offer up the great lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. All of this is a preparation for our hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
And so please, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, these are not ancient, not merely ancient books. They are a number of books where the Lord God revealed his heart, prepared a people for the day when God himself will become one of us and offer himself for the sake of the entire world and for the glory of the Father. Gosh, you guys, let's keep praying. Let's keep praying for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Also recognizing that this journey through the Bible is only one dimensional as long as we stay away from the sacraments. If we stay away from worshiping God, we stay away from prayer, then our experience of the Bible will be so thin. It will be so.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
um black and white as opposed to in full vibrant color and instead of being completely deep so please let's keep praying for each other both in our private prayer as well as when we go to mass when we go to confession we experience the sacraments and when we encounter the true and living god let's lift each other up in prayer my name is father mike i cannot wait to see you again tomorrow god bless
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
You shall do likewise with your vineyard and with your olive orchard. Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your maidservant and the alien may be refreshed." Take heed to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let such be heard out of your mouth. ANNUAL FEASTS
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
None shall appear before me empty-handed. You shall keep the feast of harvest, of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the feast of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
We fit into that story today. This is day 41. So let's keep on going. Today we're going to be reading from Exodus chapter 23, Leviticus chapter 16 and Psalm 77. So if you want to get your own printed out list or even just download it to your computer, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You get your own Bible in a year reading plan so you can follow along with us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning." The first of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk. The conquest of Canaan promised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared. Give heed to him and listen to his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. But if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
When my angel goes before you and brings you into the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them nor do according to their works, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
You shall serve the Lord your God, and I will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from the midst of you. None shall cast her young or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days. I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
And I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you, and I will send hornets before you. which shall drive out Hivite, Canaanite, and Hittite from before you. I will not drive them out before you in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the wild beasts multiply against you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you are increased and possess the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died. And the Lord said to Moses, tell Aaron your brother not to come at all times into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark, lest he die. For I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
But thus shall Aaron come into the holy place with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen britches on his body, be girded with the linen sash and wear the linen turban. These are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water, and then put them on.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
And he shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. And Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. Then he shall take the two goats, and set them before the Lord at the door of the tent of meeting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and offer it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself. And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Hopefully by this point, you know, day 41, you're probably already squared away when it comes to subscribing to the podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, you probably know this already, but the Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
And he shall bring it within the veil and put the incense on the fire before the Lord that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat, which is upon the covenant lest he die. And he shall take some of the blood of the bull And sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle the blood with his finger seven times.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, and bring the blood within the veil, and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. Thus he shall make atonement for the holy place. because of the uncleanness of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which abides with them in the midst of their uncleanness. There shall be no man in the tent of meeting when he enters to make atonement in the holy place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
then he shall go out to the altar which is before the lord and make atonement for it and shall take some of the blood of the bull and the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar round about and he shall sprinkle some of the blood upon it with his finger seven times to cleanse it and to hallow it from the uncleannesses of the sons of israel
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
And when he has made an end of atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over him all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions, all their sins, and he shall put them upon the head of the goat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
and send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness the goat shall bear all their iniquities upon him to a solitary land and he shall let the goat go in the wilderness then aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and shall put off the linen garments which he had put on when he went into the holy place and he shall leave them there
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
And he shall bathe his body in water in a holy place and put on his garments and come forth and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people. And the fat of the sin offering he shall burn upon the altar. And he who lets the goat go to Azazel shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
And afterwards he may come into the camp. and the bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place shall be carried forth outside the camp their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be burned with fire and he who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water and afterwards he may come into the camp
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension, which is just a phenomenal Bible and is definitely worth waiting for it or ordering it or whatever you need to do when it comes to getting that Great Adventure Bible ready. But as I said, today we are going to go deeper into Exodus, Leviticus, and further along when it comes to the book of Psalms.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the 10th day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you from all your sins. You shall be clean before the Lord. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you and you shall afflict yourselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
It is a statute forever. And the priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father's place shall make atonement, wearing the holy linen garments. He shall make atonement for the sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar. And he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
And this shall be an everlasting statute for you, that atonement may be made for the sons of Israel once in the year because of all their sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Psalm 77, God's mighty deeds recalled to the choir master, according to Jeduthun, a Psalm of Asaph. I cry aloud to God, aloud to God that he may hear me. In the day of my trouble, I seek the Lord. In the night, my hand is stretched out without wearying. My soul refuses to be comforted. I think of God and I moan. I meditate and my spirit faints. You keep my eyelids from closing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old. I remember the years long ago. I commune with my heart in the night. I meditate and search my spirit. Will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
And I say, it is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed. I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will meditate on all your work and muse on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What God is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders, who have manifested your might among the peoples.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
With your arm, you redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid. Yes, the deep trembled. The clouds poured out water. The skies gave forth thunder. Your arrows flashed on every side. The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind. Your lightnings lighted up the world. The earth trembled and shook.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Your way was through the sea, your path through the mighty waters, yet your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Today is Exodus chapter 23, Leviticus 16, and Psalm 77. Exodus chapter 23, laws concerning justice. You shall not utter a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not follow a multitude to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a suit turning aside after a multitude so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his suit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
We thank you for your word. We thank you for calling us your own. Thank you for making us your own. And thank you for giving yourself to us that we can not only know who you are, infinite in your might and infinite in your goodness and your love, but also so that we can know who we are, so that we can know not only your rule, but also can be in the depth of relationship with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
And so today we call upon the name of your son, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. And we just, in his name, Father in heaven, we thank you. In the name of Jesus Christ, we praise you. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask you to continue to be with us now and always. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Wow, so today, again, there's so much beauty in God's word for us today. In Exodus chapter 23 today, not only did we hear about the laws concerning justice, again, this extension of yesterday and how we talked about laws of restitution and social and religious laws that is like harmonious living, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
So not only laws concerning justice, one thing to note about this, we'll see this again and again when it comes to the Old Testament and when it comes to its fulfillment in the New Testament, is not only are the people of Israel commanded to be just, they're commanded to be fair, they're also commanded to be just and fair in dealing with those who are poor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
There's this temptation I think a lot of us may have. One is a double temptation possibly, or maybe even a dichotomy. One is to do injustice to those who are poor because they're poor, because they're helpless, because they're weak, and because they can't fight back.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
The other is to forsake justice for the sake of the poor, because they're poor, because they're weak, and because they can't fight back. And scripture points out both of those are incorrect. To do injustice for the sake of the poor is condemned. And also to do injustice against the poor is condemned. And that's such an incredible, beautiful balance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Because you'd imagine here are the people of Israel. They're getting the law for the first time. This is a new law. They've never experienced this ever before in their lives. That you can imagine those who would see like, oh gosh, here is the Lord God. He's a God of justice. In that case, he must have a preferential option for those who are poor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
In fact, there is a thing called the preferential option for the poor that we as Catholic Christians do have, but not to the point where we do injustice for the sake of the poor. And that is remarkable that here we are right as soon as the people of Israel are set free from their being poor, from their bondage, from their slavery.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
God is saying both, I know the hardness of your heart and I know the softness of your heart, right? I know the hardness of your heart that you might want to Get away with whatever you can against the poor. But I also know the softness of your heart and the compassion that might lead you to do evil for the sake of those who are oppressed. And just that balance is so, so incredibly wise, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
It's almost as if God himself knows human nature. Wow. Who would have imagined? But if we keep going on, what we see is also in Exodus 23, we see the first hint at the three major feasts, three major festivals of worshiping God that arise in Israel's life. So in Exodus chapter 23, verse 14, we talk about Passover. You should keep the feast of unleavened bread. That's Passover.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Then in Exodus chapter 16, we have the feast of the harvest, which is also known as the feast of Passover.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
pentecost it is the 50 days after the feast of unleavened bread so as we know as catholic christians that 50 days after easter 50 days after the resurrection we have the feast of pentecost as well and the third feast is the feast of in gathering or the feast where it says you shall keep the feast of in gathering at the end of the year when you gather in the field from the field the fruit of your labor
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 41: The Day of Atonement (2025)
Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God. And that third feast is the festival of Tabernacles. So you have the first festival of Passover, which we're very familiar with because it's completely very associated with Good Friday and with Holy Thursday and with all of Easter, the Triduum.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Or would I say, no, I still buck against them. I still kick against them. I still rail against them. I still rage against them. Or is there a place where I say, you know what? Okay, Lord, it's come to my attention that this is your will for me, that this is what you're allowing in my life. And so rather than kick against them, I'm going to accept them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Rather than fight against them, I'm going to lean into them. And when I lean into them, I'm going to lean into you, into your love and your mercy. I'm going to trust you. And so I'm content with weaknesses. I'm content with afflictions. I'm content with calamities because in Christ, as St. Paul says, he says, because when I'm weak, then I'm strong. What a gift to end 2 Corinthians like this. St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Paul still has some salt for the Corinthians, calling them back, pointing out to them that he hasn't demanded anything from them. I don't want your stuff. He says, I just want you. This is what the Lord says to him. So often we can be on defensive against people who would use us, and that's true. But we don't have to be on the defensive against the Lord because he doesn't want our stuff.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
He just wants you. That today, this is maybe what you need to hear. The Lord, he doesn't want to destroy your life. He just wants you. He doesn't want to break your heart. He just wants your heart. And so I'm praying that this day, once again, you give it to him. Please pray that once again, I give it to him. We pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended, We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn in pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them and bring him into the barracks. The following night the Lord stood by him and said, Take courage, for as you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also at Rome. the plot to kill Paul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. There were more than forty who made this conspiracy, and they went to the chief priests and elders and said, We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
You therefore, along with the council, give notice now to the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you were going to determine his case more exactly, and we are ready to kill him before he comes near. Now the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
And Paul called one of the centurions and said, Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell them. So they took him and brought him to the tribune and said, Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you, as he has something to say to you. The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside, asked him privately, What is it that you have to tell me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
And he said, The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about him. But do not yield to them, for more than forty of their men lie in ambush for him, having bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for the promise from you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, Till no one that you have informed me of this. Paul is brought to Felix, the governor. Then he called two of the centurions and said, At the third hour of the night, get ready 200 soldiers and 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to go as far as Caesarea. Also, provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix, the governor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
And he wrote a letter to this effect. Claudius Lysaeus, to his excellency, the governor Felix, greeting. This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen. And desiring to know the charge on which they accused him, I brought him down to their council.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
I found that he was accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment. And when it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against this man, I sent him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him. So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul, and brought him by night to Antipatris.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
And the next day they returned to the barracks, leaving the horsemen to go on with him." When they came to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him. On reading the letter, he asked to what province he belonged. When he learned that he was from Cilicia, he said, I will hear you when your accusers arrive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
And we're reading Proverbs chapter 29, verses 8 through 11. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod's praetorium. The Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians Chapter 12 Paul's Visions and Revelations
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
I must boast. There is nothing to be gained by it, but I will go on to the visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man, I will boast, but on my own behalf, I will not boast except of my weaknesses. Though if I wish to boast, I shall not be a fool, for I shall be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul's concern for the Corinthian church. I have been a fool. You forced me to it for I ought to have been commended by you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
For I am not at all inferior to these superlative apostles, even though I am nothing. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you in all patience with signs and wonders and mighty works. For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you. Forgive me this wrong.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
my name is father mike schmitz and you're listening to the bible in a year podcast where we encounter god's voice and live life through the lens of scripture the bible in a year podcast is brought to you by ascension using the great adventure bible timeline we'll read all the way from genesis to revelation discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today it is day 344 we're reading acts of the apostles chapter 23 as well as the second letter of saint paul to the corinthians chapters 12 and 13 the conclusion of saint paul's second letter to the corinthians
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Here for the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours, but you. For children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you the more, am I to be loved the less?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. It is day 344. We are reading Acts chapter 23, Second Corinthians chapters 12 and 13, the conclusion of Second Corinthians, as well as Proverbs chapter 29, verses 8 through 11. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 23.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by guile. Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus to go and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves before you? It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ and all for your upbuilding, beloved. For I fear that perhaps I may come and find you not what I wish and that you may find me not what you wish. Chapter 13. Further Warning. This is the third time I am coming to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Any charge must be sustained by the evidence of two or three witnesses. I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warned them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not spare them. Since you desire proof that Christ is speaking in me, he is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we shall live with him by the power of God. Examine yourselves to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail to meet the test. I hope that you will find out that we have not failed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
But we beg God that you may not do wrong. Not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right. That we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. for we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. What we pray for is your improvement.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
I write this while I am away from you, in order that when I come, I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority which the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down. Final greetings and benediction. Finally, brethren, rejoice. Mend your ways. Heed my appeal. Agree with one another. Live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
The book of Proverbs chapter 29 verses 8 through 11.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Scoffers set a city aflame, but wise men turn away wrath. If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs and there is no quiet. Bloodthirsty men hate one who is blameless and the wicked seek his life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
And Paul, looking intently at the council, said, Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience up to this day. And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, God shall strike you, you whitewashed wall. Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man quietly holds it back. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you so much for this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Thank you for this day. Thank you for your word. We thank you for speaking to us and for pushing us. Thank you for inviting us into our weakness. Thank you for inviting us to a place of humility, to a place where we need to place our trust in you. Help us to put our trust in you this day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son. and of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Amen. So St. Paul, Acts of the Apostles, chapter 23. Once again, St. Paul's on the ropes. Once again, here's St. Paul on trial. We led up to the trial yesterday in chapter 22 before the chief priest in the council. That's what opens it up, right? And it's interesting because the fact that they included this
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
portion of the story before the council where he snaps back at the high priest and then they say, hey, that's the high priest. And he says, oh, whoops, sorry, I take it back. I didn't realize you're the high priest. It might be kind of just a fun piece of trivia in the sense that this happened while he was in front of the council, but it also could be a deeper lesson.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
And that deeper lesson being, you know, St. Paul in his letter to the Romans chapter 13, he talks about obeying those who are set over you. And even St. Paul, in essentially kind of apologizing right away about snapping back at the high priest, he says that, yeah, it's written in the law to not do that. And so you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people. And so St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Paul is demonstrating not only that he has manners, I guess, but St. Paul is also demonstrating that he knows the law and he's before the council, which is going to be very preoccupied with the law. He demonstrates that he has a familiarity and a desire to, you know, in some ways uphold the law. But St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Paul gets out of this whole thing by once again, you know, making the dichotomy or the argument not about him trying to convince you to agree with me as much as he realized, hey, there's Sadducees and there's Pharisees here. So how about this? How about I get them fighting with each other?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
And he does because he says, he doesn't lie about it, but he says, I'm on trial because of the resurrection of the body, resurrection of the dead. And it's very clever. And so well done, Paul. You know, that's pretty great. Also, I really like the fact that it's Paul's nephew who usurps the plot to kill Paul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
It's one of those situations where it's just kind of a small deal, but it's also, we realize there's so much about Paul that we don't know. We know Paul was unmarried. We know that he had a sister. We know that his sister had at least one son. And my guess is that here is this son, this nephew of Paul's, who was also a believer in the Lord Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Maybe he wasn't, but he did work to save Paul's life. So that's good on you, nephew of Paul. Imagine him calling him Uncle Paul. But what a gift that is in that sense of just...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
here's part of the story and how not only do brothers and sisters in Christ come to each other's aid, but even that extended family, you know, nephews and nieces and uncles and aunts, that kind of situation of just here we are in the family of God, but here in Paul's own family, in his family by blood that he was rescued that day. Now in 2 Corinthians, the conclusion of 2 Corinthians, St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Paul, once again, gets a little bit salty. And, you know, remember he's been criticized at this point. because there are some who have come along, these superlative apostles, and they have misled people. And St. Paul, as we said yesterday, is jealous, not jealous of their attention, but he's jealous of the hearts of the Corinthian Christians. And so St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Paul is just doing everything he possibly can to win their hearts back. But even in this, of chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians is one of my favorite chapters in the entire Bible. St. Paul begins by talking about a man I know, and this is one of those situations where like, hey, I have got this friend and he's got this rash, that kind of situation. Here is St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Those who stood by said, Would you revile God's high priest? And Paul said, I did not know, brethren, that he was the high priest. For it is written, You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Paul who says, I know a man who in Christ 14 years ago was caught up into the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. Basically, he's talking about himself. That's the consensus. The general consensus is that St. Paul is talking about himself, but kind of like, hey, there's this guy who once had this happen to him, but it's him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
Because later on, he says, on behalf of this man who will not boast, goes on to say, verse 7, And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh. So it's like, okay, this other guy 14 years ago has this incredible experience encounter with God. This is beyond description. And in order for me to not become too elated.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
So it makes the most sense that this is actually Paul that he's talking about. But the part that is fascinating is not just the fact that here is God who gave him this abundance of revelations, but this thorn in his side. We don't know what the thorn is. We don't know if that's a physical affliction, like he was sick. We know he had problems with his eyes. Maybe that was what it was.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
It could have been a mental illness. It could have been a sin, a temptation in his life that he had a difficult time overcoming. It could have been a deeper spiritual wound that he just experienced. We don't know what it was. But we do know that he begged the Lord three times to take it from him. And God's response is incredible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
God's response, Jesus said to him, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. My power is made perfect for weakness. I think sometimes when we're wrestling with a weakness, when we're wrestling with sin, maybe in our lives, or maybe it is a physical ailment, we just want God to take it away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
And I know sometimes there's that sense that I want God to take away this temptation. I want him to take away this sin because I don't want to sin anymore. Like I don't want to fail him anymore. I don't want to break his heart anymore. But sometimes it's, I just want to be done with this. And if we asked why it'd be so that I don't need to rely upon his grace anymore.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees, with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead I am on trial. And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
You know, in some ways, I want this to be over because right now I have to walk in faith. Right now I have to, I call out to the Lord every single day, every moment of every day saying, God, please help me take this next step. I want this to be over so that I don't need to rely upon him so much anymore. In some ways, that's what we're saying. But Paul here got this message from Jesus saying,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
no, my grace is sufficient, it's enough. For my power is made perfect in weakness. And St. Paul gets so converted by this. He says, I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And now he doesn't boast, he said, oh, I'm fine now, I can boast in Jesus. He says, no, I boast in my weaknesses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 344: The Thorn in Paul's Side (2024)
It goes on, for the sake of Christ then, I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. I'm content. And I wonder about that for myself and for all of us who are part of this community, all of us who are walking through this world. Am I content with weaknesses? Am I content with insults? Am I content with hardships and persecutions and calamities?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
The next day it falls on its face again and the head's cut off, hands are cut off. And not only that, but there's a lot of uncomfortable situations going on around Ashdod and people are dying and boils and all these kind of things. So they go from Ashdod and say, we'll send the Ark of the Covenant to Gath and the same thing happens in Gath and they go to Ekron, same thing happens in Ekron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
And what it reveals to us is God can fight his own battles. It turns out that God is pretty tough and that God has the ability
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
to fight his own battles and yet and yet the battle that god fights today is he fights for you and for me the battle that god fights today is he continues to say come into my presence like samuel did come into my presence and park yourself there come into my presence and don't run away come to my presence and abide there and let me fight for you
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
The Lord God has revealed that he hears the cries of the poor. And so if your heart is wounded or hurt, if you are poor or have a poverty of spirit, know that the Lord fights for you. If you've been wounded by life, wounded by others, the Lord God fights for you. He reveals that he loves you. And he also calls us to repentance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
If Eli would have changed and corrected his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, the story could have been different. And same is true for us. Same is true for the church. We have priests who have abused like Hophni and Phinehas. We have bishops who didn't pay attention like Eli. And what happens there is there are consequences to that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
And so we need to, as a church, whether that's just the Catholic church or as Christians throughout the world, we need to be very, very aware of this, is that those who minister among us are called to a high standard and those who oversee them are called to an even higher standard. And because of that, we need prayers. Every one of us needs prayers. My gosh, we're all so broken.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
that we need God's grace. He wants to fight for us, but we have to also be willing to be fought for. He wants to fight for us, but we have to be willing to be won and to let the Lord have victory over us. And so that's why we pray for each other. And that's why I'm praying for you. Please, that's why you should be praying for me because we need each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
At that time, Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down within the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
then the lord called samuel samuel and he said here i am and ran to eli and said here i am for you called me but he said i did not call lie down again so he went and lay down and the lord called again samuel and samuel arose and went to eli and said here i am for you called me but he said i did not call my son lie down again
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 97. We're so close to day 100. You guys, this is phenomenal. If this is your day 97, well done. Congratulations. We're getting closer and closer. We're
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel again a third time, and he arose and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the Lord came and stood forth, calling as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel said, Speak, for your servant hears. Then the Lord said to Samuel, behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone that hears it will tingle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
On that day, I will fulfill against Eli all that I have commanded concerning his house from beginning to end. And I tell him that I am about to punish his house forever for the iniquity, which he knew because his sons were blaspheming God and he did not restrain them. Therefore, I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Samuel lay until morning. Then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son. And he said, here I am. And Eli said, what was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. Samuel's prophecy and the capture of the ark of God. And Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. Chapter 4 and the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek. The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who slew about 4,000 men on the field of battle. And when the troops came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, Why has the Lord put us to rout today before the Philistines?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, that he may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies. So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who was enthroned on the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
closer and closer not only to the messianic checkpoint in like three days from now but also closer and closer to day 100 which is four days from now as i said this day 97 we're reading from first samuel chapters three four and five we're also praying psalm 150 which is the last psalm in the book of psalms we're gonna take a little break from the psalms after tomorrow and go to the proverbs once again and then we'll return back to the psalms because those those prayers so so important i
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
When the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout so that the earth resounded. And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean? And when they learned that the ark of the Lord had come to the camp, the Philistines were afraid for they said, a God has come into the camp.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
And they said, woe to us for nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods. These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. Take courage and acquit yourselves like men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you. Acquit yourselves like men and fight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated. And they fled every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. And the ark of God was captured. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain. the death of Eli.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes torn and with earth upon his head. When he arrived, Eli was sitting upon his seat by the road watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told the news, all the city cried out, When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, what is this uproar?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Then the man hastened and came and told Eli. Now Eli was 98 years old and his eyes were set so that he could not see. And the man said to Eli, I am he who has come from the battle. I fled from the battle today. And he said, how did it go, my son? He who brought the tidings answered and said, Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great slaughter among the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured. when he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken, and he died, for he was an old man and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years. Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was with child, about to give birth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
And when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed and gave birth for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death, the women attending her said to her, fear not for you have born a son. But she did not answer or give heed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory has departed from Israel, because the ark of God had been captured and because her father-in-law and her husband. And she said, The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured. Chapter five, the Philistines and the Ark. When the Philistines captured the Ark of God, they carried it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Then the Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. And the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off upon the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
The hand of the Lord was heavy upon the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors both Ashdod and its territory. And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is heavy upon us and upon Dagon our God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
We are praying and reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. That's the version of the Bible translation that we're using right now. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? They answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath. So they brought the ark of the God of Israel there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
But after they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out upon them. So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. But when the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to slay us and our people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
They sent, therefore, and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel. and let it return to its own place, that it may not slay us and our people. For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there. The men who did not die were stricken with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Psalm 150, praise for God's surpassing greatness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty firmament. Praise him for his mighty deeds. Praise him according to his exceeding greatness. Praise him with trumpet sound. Praise him with lute and harp. Praise him with timbrel and dance. Praise him with strings and pipe. Praise him with sounding cymbals. Praise him with loud crashing cymbals.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Praise the Lord. Lord God, we do give you praise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for revealing yourself to us. We thank you for calling us to be part of this community that prays for each other, that walks together, that listens to your word and lets it shape our minds and our hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
We ask that you please help us to allow your word to do exactly that, to be a lens shaper for us, to be the heart shaper for us, that your word changes us, that not just we learn new things or hear new stories or are reminded of old stories, but that your word actually makes a difference.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Also, you're invited to subscribe to this podcast and your podcast app to receive daily episodes. If you've not yet done that after 96 days, I don't know what to tell you. I don't think there's anything I can do to convince you. You've probably already done it. And you're like, Father, why do you have to say this every single time? And the answer is because I was told to. And that is the answer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
We know, Lord God, that your word does not go forth from you and return to you empty, but it always accomplishes the purpose for which you sent it. And so we give you permission, whatever it is, Lord God. Whatever mission you have for your word in our lives today, we give you permission to accomplish your will.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
We give you permission in our lives, not that we need to, but you are so good that you are very humble and you will not force yourself, but you are patient with us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
thank you god please receive our thanks and praise this day in jesus name we pray amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen man gosh here we go today we not only have the story of at the end right of the ark of the lord falling into the hands of the philistines which is just absolutely tragic but there's a reason for that we also have the beginning this this chapter three and chapter four but chapter three when god calls samuel now this is a if you've
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
read the bible at all of you or if you know the story of samuel at all one of the things you probably know is this exact call where samuel is sleeping now a couple things to point out about this one is it said in those days the voice of the lord was very rare that people rarely heard from god but where is samuel where is samuel sleeping he is sleeping before the ark of the lord
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
What's one of the things that reveals to us is that while others were going about their business, while others were just kind of hanging out wherever we're spending their lives, wherever Samuel had parked himself at camped himself in the very presence of God, which is one of the things that we're doing here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
When we're listening to the Bible in a year, one of the things we're doing is we're saying, okay, God speak your servants listening. What we're saying is we're placing ourselves in, I guess the, uh, under the waterfall of God's grace. We're placing ourselves under the waterfall of his word and we're giving him permission to speak to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
But we're not just kind of going along our lives and saying, yeah, whenever God, you can speak to me. We're putting ourselves in a position where we can hear him. This is what Samuel had done. Even as a young man, here is Samuel in the presence of the Lord saying, this is where I'm going to park myself. because if God is going to speak, I'm going to make it as easy for him to speak.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
If God is going to speak and I want to hear, I'm going to make it as easy for me to hear as possible. And that's one of the reasons why, again, we're doing this Bible in here, but also we're purifying some of the areas of our lives, right? So many of our lives have so much noise and we go wherever we want to go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
And yet, if we eliminated some of the excess noise and placed ourselves where we knew we were called to be, then what would change? What would transform? What would transform is we'd be able to hear the Lord better. And that's what Samuel had done. But also, here's Eli who says, Samuel, the next time you hear the voice of God, say, speak, Lord, your servant hears.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
And the thing that he hears is a prophecy, the word of God basically saying everything that that anonymous prophet from yesterday had said, yesterday for us, had said is going to be true now. That the light is going to be taken from your family. The glory is going to be taken from your family. Hophni and Phinehas will die in one day. And then you, Eli, will also die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
And that's exactly what we see happen as the Ark of God is captured. Why is the Ark of God captured? Because the people of Israel, at least at this point, the people of Israel were treating it like a weapon, basically treating the Ark not as it truly is, which is the presence of God himself, but as a toy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Once again, we are reading today on day 97 from 1 Samuel chapters 3, 4, and 5 and praying Psalm 150. The first book of Samuel, chapter three. The Lord calls Samuel. Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no frequent vision.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Basically, one of the things that we typically are tempted to do when it comes to God is we're tempted to use God. And God reveals to us that he's beyond use. He's beyond our manipulation. And yet here are the Israelites having been defeated by the Philistines saying, you know, the story was that when the ark of God went into battle, the Israelites always would win.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
Like, for example, the story of Jericho, walking around the city of Jericho and the walls came a tumbling down. Let's just do that. Basically willing to say, let's use God and we'll win. And yet that is, Not how God is treated, right? God is not our toy. He's not our trinket. He's not our weapon. He's not our idol. God is God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 97: Samuel's Prophecy (2025)
And the people of Israel, these people, in treating God like this, they lost the very arc of the covenant. Now, it's fascinating that then the Philistines placed the Ark of God, the Ark of the Covenant, in the same temple as their God. And one of the things that's revealed is that God doesn't need any defending because that night the statue of Dagon falls on its face.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
As we continue this journey through the Bible, this Bible in a Year podcast, my invitation is for all of us today to be able to say, okay, Lord, make my heart more and more like Job's, that when I experience suffering, I worship. Make my heart like Abram's, that when I don't know which way to go and I need to be corrected, that I allow myself to be corrected by you and trust in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Because that's going to be our call for the next 360 plus days. We are just beginning this story and we are going to journey through this Bible, all 73 books together for the remainder of this year. I want to remind you that if you want to get the Bible in a Year reading plan, you can just text the word Catholic Bible to 33777 or you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Once again, my name is Father Mike. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse. And by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves. So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions which they had gathered, and the persons that they had gotten in Haran, and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Morah. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your descendants, I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. Thence he removed to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negev.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Now there was a famine in that land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, I know that you are a woman beautiful to behold. And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife, and then they will kill me, but they will let you live.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account. When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful, and when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
And for her sake he dealt well with Abram, and he had sheep, oxen, he donkeys, men servants, maid servants, she donkeys, and camels. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. So Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Why did you say she is my sister so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and be gone. And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they set him on the way with his wife and all that he had. So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and lot with them into the Negev.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
This is day six. Let's get started. We are reading today Genesis chapter 12 and chapter 13. We're also jumping into a different book, not just the Psalms, actually two different books, not just the Psalms. We're also jumping into the world of Job, the world of Job, the righteous man who suffered, and also into the book of Proverbs, one of the wisdom books. in scripture.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Now Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold, and he journeyed on from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai, to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites dwelt in the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Then Abram said to Lot, let there be no strife between you and me and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zoar. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, while Lot dwelt among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "'Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are northward and southward and eastward and westward.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
For all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your descendants also can be counted.' Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
So Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
The Book of Job Chapters 1 and 2
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. And that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 she-donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
His sons used to go and hold the feast in the house of each on his day, and he would and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
For Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus Job did continually. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, From where have you come? Satan answered the Lord, From going back and forth on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil? Then Satan answered the Lord, Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Again, Genesis chapter 12 and 13, Job chapter 1 and 2, and Proverbs verses 1 through 7. The Bible translation I'm using is the Revised Standard Version, the Catholic edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to read along and not just listen along, you can download the Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face. And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only upon himself do not put forth your hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And there came a messenger to Job and said, The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them. And the Sabaeans fell upon them and took them and slew the servants with the edge of the sword. And I alone have escaped to tell you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, The Chaldeans formed three companies and made a raid upon the camels and took them and slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
And behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and it struck the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young people and they are dead. And I alone have escaped to tell you. Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell upon the ground and worshipped. And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, From where have you come? Satan answered the Lord, From going back and forth on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you moved me against him to destroy him without cause. Then Satan answered the Lord, Skin for skin, all that a man has he will give for his life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
But put forth your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face. And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a potsherd with which to scrape himself and sat among the ashes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die. But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Namathite. They made an appointment together to come to condole with him and comfort him. And when they saw him from afar, they did not recognize him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Proverbs chapter 1 verses 1 through 7
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Father in heaven, we thank you and give you praise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Thank you for your word. Thank you for the gift of revealing yourself to us and revealing your heart to us, even in broken situations. We ask that you please send your Holy Spirit that when we're broken, when we fail, when we fall, and when we're suffering, that we turn more deeply to you, that we refuse to curse you, that we refuse to run away from you, that we refuse to hide from you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
But instead, come to you in our brokenness and come to you in our need. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, today's readings, wow. Gosh, Genesis chapter 12 and 13 and then Job chapters 1 and 2. Such an incredible opportunity for us to see what we're going to see throughout the course of these narrative books and the narrative books of Scripture today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
will again and again show what the great giants of our faith, like here's Abram, whose name is going to be Abraham soon, and Sarai, whose name is going to be Sarah soon, that even they, as they're following the Lord, making that act of faith, even as Abram hears the words of God, his promise that through Abram, God is going to bless the world, that when Abram and Sarai, in their need, they go into Egypt, there still is this brokenness of Abraham
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Abram passing off Sarai as his sister so that she can become the wife of Pharaoh, which is one of those things we think like, wait, why would in the world would anyone even consider doing this? Much less the patriarch, right? The original, like essentially father of our faith, who's actually the church describes as the father of faith, Abraham. Why would he do this?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Or even we have the book of Job, where it's even confusing because here is the righteous Job and the sons of God are traveling throughout the earth, right? Which is a kind of a way of saying the angels of the Lord are traveling throughout the earth. And here's Satan, who seems to have access to God himself, even though we're accustomed to Satan being Lucifer, the one who had fallen from grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
Without anything further, we begin by reading, proclaiming, and hearing and receiving Genesis chapter 12 and chapter 13. Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
In this case, Satan is that Hebrew word in Hasatan, which would mean the accuser or the one who, yeah, the one who accuses. And what does he want to do? He wants to accuse Job, even accuses God of saying, well, the only reason that Job loves you, the only reason that Job serves you, the only reason he's righteous is because you bless him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
And the moment you take away your blessing, the moment you let him encounter suffering, he is going to be faithless. So what we see is these two men in particular, and Sarai, of course, these two men at the beginning of our journey, and neither of them are perfect. Both of them are called perfect. but neither of them are perfect.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
At the same time, both of them demonstrate faith today, especially in our readings today. You have Abram who says, yeah, I will divvy up the property between myself and you, my nephew Lot. And he doesn't have any compunction to say, I claim this better land. He doesn't have any kind of jockeying for position. He just says, whatever you choose, if you choose the left, I'll go right.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
If you go right, I'll go left. because I don't want there to be any disunity between us, no strife between us. And that's a great sign of Abram's faithfulness. That's a great sign of Abram's being willing to say, I know that the Lord will continue to take care of me. Same with Job.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
As soon as Job was afflicted, meaning all of his properties is stolen or it's destroyed, even when his children are killed, Job's response is in all of this, Job did not curse God, but instead he worshiped. Of course, things are going to get worse for Job as time goes on. But Job's initial response was to worship, was to say, naked I came forth from my mother's womb, naked I shall return again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
The Lord gives and he takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And this is our call, right? This is the call of every single one of us. Not that life is always going to make sense, but we know that the Lord is always going to be present.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
That when he allows us to experience these incredible trials, and Job is going to endure incredible trials, Job once again has to battle that voice inside and outside of him, his friends and his wife, who are saying, just turn away from the Lord. Even that voice inside that wants to accuse God. Remember, Satan, Hasatan, is the one that accuses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 6: Trust in the Lord (2025)
And there's something that gets inside Job that he wants to accuse. And yet, here is God who is so faithful that even when we are not faithful, he is steadfast. And he steadfastly calls us, Abram, Sarai, and Job to belong to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
these time periods and how the other books fit into the context, it changed everything for me because I went from knowing the stories to knowing the story. And I'm so grateful. That's one of the reasons why every time we hit these new time periods, what we're gonna do, we're gonna have Jeff back as he gives us some context and tells us what to look out for as we journey through the time period.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
This is so good. And I'm so grateful for you highlighting, well, everything you've highlighted. But here's the promises to Abraham. And they don't die with him. They don't die with his son. They don't die with his grandson. But as you said, they're fulfilled in a remarkable way that actually has something to do with you and with me right now. And to see like this was where...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
God promised our great, great, great, great, great, you know, ancestor in, because we're, you know, spiritually, we're grafted onto the tree that be able to say like, that's remarkable. And we get to be brought into this. Actually, that fulfillment of the worldwide blessing is one of the reasons why you and I have access to the scripture right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
I have access to the gift of faith and what a gift, what an incredible gift. Jeff, is there any one last thing that you would say, okay, for context, as you walk through the age of the patriarchs, period of the patriarchs, keep this in mind?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, that's so good. Thank you for that. And especially, we get to see Abram's faith grow, Abram's faith get tested. And so at that sense of like, so when we look at our own lives and realize, okay, so that when it comes to faith, like it gets it gets to grow, it doesn't just have to be static. And so with a Wow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
I'm so grateful, Jeff, once again, not only for the Great Adventure Bible timeline as a gift from the Lord through you, I really believe, to us, but also for your time to be able to give us a context as we march through these next number of days, 20 or so days of going through the age of the patriarchs, keeping in mind that God is working with real people. It's got a mirror.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Scripture gets to be a mirror in this way. And we get to see through the lens of faith. Mm-hmm.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Right now, we are in the time period of the patriarchs. And once again, that means we're welcoming back Jeff Cavins. Jeff, thank you so much again to being here and giving us this direction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Thank you so much. Awesome. So if you all want to continue following us, following this podcast, following this journey, and you want to see it in front of you, sometimes they have the reading plan in front of you is like having a map. You can kind of see like, here's where we've been, here's where we are, and here's where we're going. That can be really, really helpful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
So if you want that, you can download that Bible in a Year reading plan by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You also can sign up for the email list by texting the word Catholic Bible to the number 33777. And finally, please subscribe. If you haven't yet subscribed to the podcast, you can at any given moment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
But when you do, one of the things that you're doing is you are giving yourself an opportunity to every time that one of these episodes drops, it drops into your phone or wherever you get your podcasts. So please do that. Once again, we are always praying for you as you're journeying through this scripture, journeying through the Bible. I'm praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
My invitation is that you pray for each other because I have the sense that as we journey through the early world already and we're going into the patriarchs and beyond. That just like during Egypt and the Exodus and desert wanderings, they had each other. Just like in the early church, they had each other. Right now, I think to be able to sustain this journey, we need to have each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
So please keep praying for our fellow travelers as we are brought through the age of the early world, through the patriarchs and beyond to the ultimately to the messianic fulfillment of all of God's promises. Once again, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and I cannot wait to continue to join you on this journey, and God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is Ascension. at the next page of the next stage, next time period in the Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, because it changes now, right? It changes from that Hebrew poetry, from that prehistory into, like, these are characters that we know their names, we know their stories, their families, and it's God interacting with them in a really new way, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
We had talked with Jeff Cavins earlier about the early world, and he gave us an incredible opportunity to see the context in which Genesis 1 through Genesis 11 were placed in Scripture, how that was Hebrew poetry. But in Genesis 12 through 50, we have what's called the patriarchs. It's the second time period in the Scripture when it comes to following the Great Adventure Bible timeline.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
It's our favorite part. As you mentioned, it's the most marked up part of most people's Bibles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Pretty quick, yeah. Yeah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
You know, Jeff, one of the things you mentioned here is like, I'm so grateful for that, like the overview. Again, we have Abraham and Sarah. We have Isaac and Rebecca. We have Esau, you know, on the side there, and Jacob. And then the four, two wives, two handmaids.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And it introduces us to a number of incredible characters. This is where we meet Abram and Sarai, whose names change. We meet Isaac. We meet Jacob. We meet their wives. We meet their kids. And we get to know, basically, the patriarchs, our father in faith, Abraham, as well as his kids, the beginning of the people of Israel we get to encounter. And so in order for us to get an opportunity—
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And you also have some kind of, I remember I was talking with my sister about this because she's been studying the Great Adventure Bible timeline. She started a little while back, not too long back. And she's like, oh my gosh, I'm going through Genesis still. She got to the end and she said, I didn't realize.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
how like messed up some stuff is or like, you know, how much there's family members, you know, whether hurting each other, murdering each other or incest. And like some of the things she's like, I didn't realize how much there was, how much brokenness, you know, to use one word to kind of sum up all this stuff.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Some of the people who will be journeying with us, this will be maybe one of the first times that they've actually heard They've heard the story, maybe the names, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, maybe the names of Sarah and Rebecca and Rachel and Leah. I don't know if they've all heard about kind of the weakness or the sins of these people. How do we navigate that?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Also the birthright, yeah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
They show you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, and it's so interesting that you're, I remember when you had revealed that to me, that yes, there's brokenness in all these stories because there's brokenness in our lives. Like that when it comes to Bible stories, again, sometimes our first introduction to the Bible is Bible stories for children. And so we don't necessarily get the like, wow, this is more about my life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
You mentioned at the very beginning of this, like you can get the Bible, like you can understand this. And I think we can really understand it when we realize This is not a book of tales. This is not a Hallmark movie. This is real life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And also what you had revealed to me that just pay attention because more often scriptures will show you the consequences of an action or the right or wrongness of an action more quickly than they'll tell you specifically when it comes to some of these early narrative books where they're talking about the patriarchs and talking about some of the actions of those who are our fathers and mothers in the faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
to have some context for the patriarchs this time period. Once again, we are honored to have Jeff Cavins back.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Am I the deceiver?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Jeff Cavins is the individual who created the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, as well as the Great Adventure Bible Study, which again, as I've said many times, but I will not stop saying it because it was so important to me, so influential for me, that when I finally heard Jeff teaching about the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, so we have all these narrative books, these 14 narrative books, and understanding
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, I do. It's St. Ephraim the Syrian, I think it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can finish it. It's great. Drinking from a fountain where you shouldn't be discouraged by the fact that you can't drain the spring, you can't drain the fountain, but be encouraged by the fact that every time you return to it, there's more and more and more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Exactly. I drank it all. And to recognize that I'll take in a little bit, whatever I can take in. And that's the thing that I've learned over the course of these years too, is I take in what I can, and then I'm not going to be overly bothered with what I can't take in. That's one of the reasons why actually, kind of confession, why I really like the audio versions of books.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And actually one of the reasons we're doing the podcast is is that sometimes I know for myself that when I'm reading with my eyes, I can get stuck. I'm like, wait, what does this mean? What exactly is this? And if I just kept on reading, I would get a bigger picture of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Patriarchs (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
I would start understanding because the text itself would tell me things, as well as the fact that just because, again, I can't mine all of the gold out of the scriptures in one reading doesn't mean I can't go back. And I can always keep coming back. And that's what it sounds like you're saying when it comes to the whole Bible, but especially here, we're getting these stories of the patriarchs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my ordinances, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with scourges. But I will not remove from him my merciful love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David. His line shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon, it shall be established forever. It shall stand firm while the skies endure. But now you have cast off and rejected. You are full of wrath against your anointed. You have renounced the covenant with your servant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
You have defiled his crown in the dust. You have breached all his walls. You have laid his strongholds in ruins. All that passed by to spoil him, He has become the scorn of his neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of his foes. You have made all his enemies rejoice. Yes, you have turned back the edge of his sword, and you have not made him stand in battle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him there because he put forth his hand to the ark, and he died there beside the ark of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
You have removed the scepter from his hand and cast his throne to the ground. You have cut short the days of his youth. You have covered him with shame. How long, O Lord, will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like a fire? Remember, O Lord, what the measure of life is, for what vanity you have created all the sons of men. What man can live and never see death?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David? Remember, O Lord, how your servant is scorned, how I bear in my bosom the insults of the peoples with which your enemies taunt, O Lord, with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed. Blessed be the Lord forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
We thank you for hearing this prayer, this prayer of David, this prayer of a heart that has been lifted up and a heart that has been thrown down, a heart that has been exultant in joy and a heart that has been broken in sorrow, a heart that has been triumphant in victory and a heart that has been devastated in defeat. And this is our hearts too, Lord. We come before you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
However our day is going, however our week is going, however the season of our life is going right now, we come before you in victory and in defeat. We come before you in joy and we come before you in grief because your love encompasses all things. Joy and grief, victory and defeat, weakness and strength. And so we come before you because you are a good, good dad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Please receive us into your heart. Receive us into your embrace this day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, golly. Oh, praise the Lord. This is so good. There's so much to talk about because we have things to highlight in 2 Samuel, as well as in 1 Chronicles, as well as in this Psalm, Psalm 89. Let's start at Psalm 89.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Psalm 89 is the way in which David gets to be really real with his prayer. At the very beginning of the prayer, the whole first half of the prayer is, God, you are faithful. You're good. You've lifted me up. You give me a strong arm. All my enemies are defeated. And then the second half of the psalm is, and God, now I've lost everything. God, I'm defeated. God, I'm put to shame.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
I'm put to disgrace. And the very end, what does he say? He says what he says at almost the end of every single psalms. He says, blessed be the Lord. and God in all these things. Blessed be the Lord forever. Amen and amen. David models for us this honesty in prayer. He comes before God in victory and he comes before God in defeat. He comes before God in joy and he comes before God in grief.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And David was angry because the Lord had broken forth upon Uzzah, and that place is called Perez-Uzzah to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, How can the ark of the Lord come to me? So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David, but David took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And that doesn't mean he's ever being false. He's always being honest before the Lord. And so I just wanted to highlight that in Psalm 89. Okay, going back to 2 Samuel 6, what do we have? We have David who says, okay, here I am living in Jerusalem. Let us bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem now because...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Remember, all the way back in Exodus, when God had commanded Moses to have the people fashion the ark, the ark of God, inside the ark of God are the Ten Commandments. Inside the ark of God is the staff of Aaron, and inside the ark of God is a container with the manna, the bread from heaven that's there. And so you have in the ark of God, you have the word of God, right? The Ten Commandments.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
You have the priest sign of the priesthood in Aaron's staff, and you have the bread from heaven. Then all these things are going to be massively important. And yet, even though the Ark of God is now being brought to Jerusalem, which is great, that's where the temple is going to be built ultimately. How do they transport it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Now, I remember when I first heard this story in 2 Samuel chapter 6 about Uzzah, right? This guy, Uzzah, who's with his brother, Ahio, and they're the sons of Abinadab. And they're bringing the Ark of the Lord to Jerusalem. And before it, they're making a big to-do, right? They're rejoicing. At some point, it says the oxen stumble and Uzzah reaches out his hand to steady the Ark and God kills him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And I remember I heard this in high school and I thought, how unfair is that? And I never understood it. until relatively recently, until the last, maybe I'll say decade, maybe a little more than a decade. Why? What is being communicated here? Well, if you remember back in Leviticus, when the ark was being fashioned, how was the ark to be transported?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
The ark was only to be transported by the priests, and the priests would never actually even touch the ark. They would never even lay a hand upon the ark. In fact, it was gold-plated, acacia wood, right? And they would take the gold-plated poles, right? And they'd place them through the gold-plated rings. And that's how the priests were to carry the ark. Now, the people knew this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
David knew this. Everyone who's transporting the ark here, they know this. They know the commandment of God. And yet, what do they do? They put it on a cart that's pulled by oxen. This is so important because the ark is the holiest thing that they have. The ark is the holiest thing that they have, and they're not obeying the Lord in transporting it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And here is Uzzah, who puts out his hand to steady the ark, knowing he's doing this, yes, but also knowing he's doing this in disobedience. And so this is a very critical thing. You know, disobeying God, we can hear the story and think, oh my gosh, how unfair that his earthly life, his physical life was ended at this moment. But we realize, What is the price of sin?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
The price of sin is our eternal lives. When we choose sin, when we choose to disobey God, how do we want to define sin? Here's how I define sin. I'll put it in a sentence. Sin is when I say to God, God, I know what you want, but I'm going to do what I want. It's just disobedience. I know what you want, God. I'm going to do what I want. Here's Uzzah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household. And it was told King David, the Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with rejoicing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
God, I know what you want, but I'm going to do what I want. And he has physical death. And we think that's very unfair. And yet, whenever we say to God, God, I know what you want, but I'm going to do what I want to do. That's spiritual death. we're choosing to spiritually die. And that's not unfair.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And so this is a great example of how physical death can parallel or at least be a metaphor or analogy for spiritual death. When we say, God, I don't want you. I want to do what I want to do. That's what we're saying. That's what we're choosing ultimately here. Now, here's how the move goes on. There's so much to say here. The ark is left at the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And what happens is, because David's afraid. At first he's upset. He doesn't understand. He's angry at God. He's saying, you know, God, what the heck? I'm trying to bring this to Jerusalem and now a guy's dead. And then he's grieved and he's afraid. And so he says, how can the ark of the Lord come to me? And so he leaves it at the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
But what happens at the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite? What happens is everything's blessed, which means everyone's having babies. I mean, it means there's a fruitfulness in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite, not only with his family members, with his flocks, with the servants who live there. Everyone's reproducing and they're having a lot of children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
There's a lot of life because wherever God is present, there's a lot of life. And so David renews his decision to bring the ark of the Lord back to Jerusalem. And yet this time, as they begin to transport the ark, he first, they go six paces and he sacrifices an ox and a fatling. Now he's, he recognizes, okay, this is not, we're not just transporting this box.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
We're transporting the ark of the Lord before ourselves. And that's when he's sleeping and dancing. Okay. And then what did David do? David leapt and danced. David danced. That's my Footloose reference. This is the scene from the movie Footloose where Kevin Bacon says, what did David do? He danced. Take that, small-town preacher in the Midwest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Here is David who's leaping and dancing before the ark of the Lord with joy. Now, here's a couple things to highlight. This is a part of Catholic theology. So our brothers and sisters who are part of this Bible in a year, maybe this is something you've never heard before. But Mary, the mother of God, is often referred to in Catholic circles as the new Ark of the Covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And we say, well, why is that? Why in the world would that be? Well, because of this, because of all these elements. So in the Ark were what? Was the Ten Commandments, was the staff of Aaron, and were the manna from heaven. Well, in the new Ark of the what was present in Mary's womb in Luke chapter one? Well, in Luke chapter one, you have Jesus himself, who is what?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
The word made flesh, the word of God, the word made flesh, the great high priest, and who is, he says in John chapter six, I am the true bread that came down from heaven. And so we recognize that in the womb of Mary, the new ark of the new covenant is Jesus Christ. And it's such a parallel that we don't just say, oh, that's interesting, but go back to second Samuel chapter six. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Because when Mary goes to the hill country of Judea, What does Elizabeth say? Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me? When David is here at the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite, where is that? That's in the hill country of Judea, you guys. This is amazing. And what does David say? Who am I that the ark of my Lord should come to me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Not only that, but later on, David leaps and dances with joy before the ark of the covenant. What happens? When the sound of Mary's voice reaches Elizabeth's ears, she says, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. This is one of the reasons why the Catholic Church declares, yeah, Mary's the new ark of the new covenant, because Jesus is the fulfillment of everything in the Old Testament.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was belted with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
This is so cool, isn't it? I think it's pretty awesome. And I think that you probably do too, because I think we agree on a lot of things. So that is remarkable. Now, one last thing when it comes to 2 Samuel 7. In 2 Samuel 7, we have David who says, I want a temple for the Lord. Here I am living in a house of cedar, in a palace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And the ark of the Lord, the holiest thing we have, where God's presence abides, is in a tent. And so he says, I'm going to do this. And Nathan says, great, go ahead. But then later on has a vision from the Lord that says, no, no, no, no, no, no. David has shed too much blood. His descendant will build me a temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
This is going to define a lot of the rest of David's life, especially when we're looking at Chronicles. Chronicles is going to be a chronicle of David gathering stuff, materials and whatnot for the building of the ark. Because God says what? God says this. I will build you a house, David. I will make of you a kingdom, David. You want to make a great name for me and make a house for me?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
I appreciate it. I'm going to make a great name and a great house for you. And that is just, it's fulfilled ultimately in the Messiah, in Jesus Christ, which we're going to get to later. very, very soon later on in Chronicles, how all Chronicles is pointing towards the establishment of the true Messiah and the establishment of temple worship. Now, one note about 1 Chronicles 9.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
There's one verse, and this one verse highlights the context that 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles are written in. Remember, I mentioned this when we first were introduced to Chronicles. Chronicles is the last book in the Jewish scriptures because this is written by what we'd say Ezra the scribe.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Ezra the scribe is recounting the history of Israel after all of the persecution is experienced, after all the devastation is experienced, after all the horrible kings and division is experienced, after exile in Babylon that Israel experienced. Now, Ezra the scribe is writing a history. So this is remarkable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
We're going to be reading the history of 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, while we're reading the history of 1 and 2 Chronicles. Now, why this is so important is Because we're going to get the on the ground history, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Second Samuel and first and second Kings are the on the ground history written within the livelihood or within the lives more or less in recent history of Israel and the account of them getting divided, the account of them and their failures, the account of them and these awful Kings we're going to keep encountering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
But First Chronicles is written kind of like after all of that story has been written. And then even after their exile to Babylon. And now Ezra is writing the story and he's writing the history. So keep this in mind. If... You're writing the history simply of, say, the United States, if you're living in the United States, or whatever country you're in right now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent which David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And you're writing the immediate history. Here's the last hundred years of whatever country you're in right now. We'd come up with a history. I heard someone say this, and I thought this was a great example. He said, but imagine starting tomorrow, for the next 70 years, we had this horrible devastation in whatever country you or I are living in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And after 70 years, we're finally going back to rebuild the country that was completely lost. We're rebuilding the nation that was decimated by this foreign power. We would write a different story. It wouldn't be necessarily a whitewash or a fictional story, but it would be a different emphasis, right? It would be a different kind of story. That's a great way to understand history.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
The difference between the way in which 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings are being written and 1 and 2 Chronicles are being written. One, 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings are written kind of on the ground and the other, 1 and 2 Chronicles are written long after the fact of devastation. and saying, we're here to paint a picture of the life that you could be living.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And the line that reveals this and is so critical is in 1 Chronicles 9, where it says, but Judah was carried away to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness. And one of the things that Ezra wants to highlight is all of this has to do with unfaithfulness. So when we come back, here we are back in Back in Jerusalem, here we are back in Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
What we have to do is we have to, we're telling the story so that you will not again be like our ancestors were, so that you will not be unfaithful like they were. And that's how he's setting the stage and setting the scene for 1 and 2 Chronicles. Okay, let's pray for each other. Oh, long day, but I hope that is a blessing of a day for you all and for me. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
into that story today it is day 125 we're reading two chapters from second samuel second samuel chapter six and seven and only one chapter from first chronicles that is first chronicles chapter nine we're also praying psalm 89 as always i'm reading from the revised standard version second catholic edition um read actually reading the great adventure bible from ascension if you want to download your own bible in a year reading plan you can visit ascensionpress.com bible in a year
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts and distributed among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people departed, each to his house. And David returned to bless his household.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, how the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants' maids, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And David said to Michal, "'It was before the Lord, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord, and I will make Mary before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes.' but by the maids of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no child to the day of her death. Chapter 7. God's Promise to David. Now, when the king dwelt in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies round about, the king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. but that same night the word of the lord came to nathan go and tell my servant david thus says the lord would you build me a house to dwell in i have not dwelt in a house since the day i brought up the sons of israel from egypt to this day but i have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
In all the places where I have moved with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly from the time I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come forth from your body and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he will be my son."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
When he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men. But I will not take my merciful love from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
In accordance with all these words and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. David's prayer. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, "'Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house that you have brought me thus far? And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come and have shown me future generations, O Lord God.' And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord God, because of your promise and according to your own heart, you have wrought all this greatness to make your servant know it. Therefore, you are great, O Lord God, for there is none like you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
There is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. What other nation on earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem, to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and terrible things by driving out before his people a nation and its gods? And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe, as we all know by now. You probably have it memorized by now, unless you click 30-second fast-forward three times, and then it's like clicking your heels, and you're back in Kansas. As I said, it's day 125. We're reading 2 Samuel 6-7, 1 Chronicles 9, and Psalm 89. 2 Samuel chapter 6, David brings the ark to Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And you, O Lord, became their God. And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word which you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. And your name will be magnified forever, saying, The Lord of hosts is God over Israel. And the house of your servant David will be established before you,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, I will build you a house. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. And now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Now therefore, may it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord God, have spoken,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
So all Israel was enrolled by genealogies and these are written in the book of the kings of Israel. And Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their unfaithfulness. Now, the first to dwell again in their possessions in their cities were Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the temple servants. And some of the people of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh dwelt in Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Uthai, the son of Amihud, son of Omri, son of Imri, son of Bani, from the sons of Perez, the son of Judah, and of the Shilonites, Asaiah, the firstborn, and his sons, of the sons of Zerah, Jeuel, and their kinsmen, 690, of the Benjaminites, Salu, the son of Mashulam, son of Hodaviah, son of Hasanua,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Ibniyya, the son of Jeroham, Elah, the son of Uzi, son of Mikri, and Meshulam, the son of Shephtiah, son of Reul, son of Ibnijah, and their kinsmen according to their generations, 956. All these were heads of fathers' houses according to their fathers' houses. Priestly Families
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Of the priests, Jediah, Jehoiarib, Jachin, and Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, son of Mushalam, son of Zadok, son of Marioth, son of Ahitub, the chief officer of the house of God. And Adiah, the son of Jeroham, son of Pashur, son of Malkijah, son of Maasai, son of Adiel, son of Jazerah, son of Mashalom, son of Meshimelech, son of Imer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Besides their kinsmen, heads of their fathers' houses, 1,760 very able men for the work of the service of the house of God. Levitical families. Of the Levites, Shemaiah, the son of Hashub, son of Azrakam, son of Hashabiah, of the sons of Merari, and Bakbakar, Haresh, Galal, and Mataniah, the son of Micah, the son of Zichri, son of Asaph,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
and Obadiah, the son of Shemaiah, son of Galal, son of Jeduthun, and Berechiah, the son of Asa, son of Elkanah, who dwelt in the villages of the Netophathites. The gatekeepers were Shalom, Akub, Talman, Achiman, and their kinsmen, Shalom being the chief, station hitherto in the king's gate on the east side. These were the gatekeepers of the camp of the Levites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Shalom, the son of Korah, son of Abiasath, son of Korah, and his kinsmen of his father's house, the Korahites, were in charge of the work of the service, keepers of the thresholds of the tent, as their fathers had been in charge of the camp of the Lord, keepers of the entrance. And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, was the ruler over them in time past, and the Lord was with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Zechariah, the son of Meshamaliah, was the gatekeeper at the entrance of the tent of meeting. All these who were chosen as gatekeepers at the thresholds were two hundred and twelve. They were enrolled by genealogies in their villages. David and Samuel the seer established them in their office of trust.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
So they and their sons were in charge of the gate of the house of the Lord, that is, the house of the tent, as guards. The gatekeepers were on the four sides, east, west, north, and south,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000. And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baal Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim. And they carried the ark of God upon a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
and their kinsmen who were in their villages were obliged to come in every seven days from time to time to be with these for the four chief gatekeepers who were levites were in charge of the chambers and the treasures of the house of god and they lodged round about the house of god for upon them lay the duty of watching and they had charge of opening it every morning.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Some of them had charge of the utensils of service, for they were required to count them when they were brought in and taken out. Others of them were appointed over the furniture and over all the holy utensils, also over the fine flour, the wine, the oil, the incense, and the spices.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Others of the sons of the priests prepared the mixing of the spices, and Mattathiah, one of the Levites, the firstborn of Shalom, the Korahite, was in charge of making the flat cakes. Also some of the kinsmen of the Kohathites had charge of the showbread to prepare it every Sabbath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Now these are the singers, the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites, dwelling in the chambers of the temple free from other service, for they were on duty day and night. These were the heads of fathers' houses of the Levites, according to their generations, leaders who lived in Jerusalem. The Family of Saul
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
In Gibeon dwelt the father of Gibeon, Giel, and the name of his wife was Maaka, and his firstborn son Abdon, then Zur, Kish, Baal, Ner, Nadab, Gidor, Ahio, Zechariah, and Mikloth. And Mikloth was the father of Shimeam. And these also dwelt opposite their kinsmen in Jerusalem with their kinsmen. Ner was the father of Kish. Kish of Saul. Saul of Jonathan, Melchishua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And the son of Jonathan was Meribaal. And Meribaal was the father of Micah. The sons of Micah, Pithon, Melech, Tariah, and Ahaz. And Ahaz was the father of Jerah, and Jerah of Alameth, Asmaveth, and Zimri. And Zimri was the father of Mozah. Mozah was the father of Beniah, and Rephiah was his son. Eliassah his son, Azel his son. Azel had six sons, and these are their names.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Azrekam, Bokharu, Ishmael, Shiriah, Obadiah, and Hanan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
I will sing of your mercies, O Lord, forever. With my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations. For your merciful love was established forever. Your faithfulness is firm as the heavens. You have said, I have made a covenant with my chosen one. I have sworn to David, my servant, I will establish your descendants forever and build your throne for all generations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones. For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord, who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord, a God feared and the counsel of the holy ones, great and awesome above all that are round about him. Oh Lord, God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, oh Lord, with your faithfulness round about you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
You rule the raging of the sea. When its waves rise, you still them. You crushed Rahab like a carcass. You scattered your enemies with your mighty arm. The heavens are yours. The earth also is yours. The world and all that is in it, you have founded them. The north and the south, you have created them. Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name. You have a mighty arm. Strong is your hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the ark of God. And Ahio went before the ark. And David and all the house of Israel were making merry before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
High your right hand. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance, who exult in your name all the day and extol your righteousness. For you are the glory of their strength. By your favor our horn is exalted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
For our shield belongs to the Lord, our King to the Holy One of Israel. Of old you spoke in a vision to your faithful one and said, I have set the crown upon one who is mighty. I have exalted one chosen from the people. I have found David my servant. With my holy oil I have anointed him, so that my hand shall ever abide with him. My arm also shall strengthen him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
the enemy shall not outwit him the wicked shall not humble him i will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him and in my name shall his horn be exalted i will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 125: Covenant with David (2025)
He shall cry to me, You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation, and I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. My merciful love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. I will establish his line forever and his throne as the days of the heavens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
And so they have this punishment. The punishment's only given to Miriam. Why is this? Well, one is because there's consequences for our actions. That's just, there's that. The second is... You see what happens when Miriam gets leprosy, immediately that unites Aaron and Moses. Both Aaron and Moses, Aaron goes to Moses and says, please pray on her behalf. Moses prays on her behalf.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
And it's one of those things, right, where how often has this happened? When here is a division in a family and then we have maybe someone gets sick, maybe they And that unites people because it's like, okay, we have to be together. We realize that the differences we have are smaller than and less important than our relationship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
And that's what happens is that here at Miriam, she gets leprosy and the three of them are united in prayer once again, which is remarkable. And then after that, we have the story of the spies sent it to Canaan. And this becomes a critical moment. This is chapter 13 of Book of Numbers. Critical moment because those 12 spies are sent into Canaan to scout it out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
And they're promised it's going to be a land of milk and honey. It's going to be an incredible land. And I want to know, Moses says, how are the people? Are they strong? Are they weak? Are their cities fortified? Or are they kind of open? Meaning if they're fortified, they have walls. And hard to attack, really easy to defend.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the door of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both came forward. And he said, Hear my words.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
If they are not fortified, they're just camps, then there'll be really easy to attack and really hard to defend. I want to know this and what happens. The people go up and remember this people has not, they're not a warring people. They have spent their entire lives as slaves. they don't know how to fight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
They don't know how to leave and live in the wilderness, but they've spent their lives as slaves. And they go up and they see these people who are strong. They see these cities that are fortified. And even in spite of the fact that God had just two years before this, a year and two years before this, God had just set them free from the most powerful nation in the world, the Egyptians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
They still said, no, we can't do it. And we're going to see what happens, what happens as a consequence of the people saying, we can't, we can't go up into the land of Canaan. We can't defeat these people. Now, God has already made it clear. You're right. You can't. I can. But at this point, they do not have the confidence in the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
They do not have the trust in the Lord that they needed in order to enter into the land and take possession of it. So something has to happen. And we're going to hear about that in the next couple of days. And then just a last note for Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy chapter 11 today, Moses again reminds the people, here is what's going to happen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
You are going into the land and it's going to be awesome. It's going to be great. But there are people around there and you're going to want to be like the people. You're going to want to forget who you are. You're going to want to forget whose you are. And so I need you to remember that. My word, remember what I've done for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
And so, again, the leather cases, the leather small boxes, which scripture is written and they tie that around their foreheads, the Jewish people, and they tie it around their arms. The mesuzah, that is the scriptures that are put in those containers that are mounted on the doors of people inside, have scripture that remind us of, remind them of what God has done for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
if there is a prophet among you i the lord make myself known to him in a vision i speak with him in a dream not so with my servant moses he is entrusted with all my house with him i speak mouth to mouth clearly and not in dark speech and he beholds the form of the lord Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
This is necessary for all of us as well. But we are also called to keep the Lord's action, his presence before us always. That's one of the reasons why as Catholic Christians, we have a crucifix because it's here's a reminder of God's love for you. Here's a reminder of the price of sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
Here's a reminder of the greatest miracle that's ever happened is the incarnation and redemption, salvation of the world. That's why we have crosses or wear crosses. That's right. We have icons. So I've got all these reminders that It's also why we are going through the Bible in a year, because we do not want to forget what God has done for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
And so remember, remember what the Lord has done and do not forget it in times of distress and do not forget it in times of abundance. Do not forget to pray for each other. I always say this, but we need it. We need to pray for each other. I need your prayers and please know that you have mine. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed. And when the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses, O my Lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and have sinned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 62, and we will be reading from Numbers chapter 12 and chapter 13, as well as Deuteronomy chapter 11. We're also praying today, Psalm 94.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother's womb. And Moses cried to the Lord, Heal her, O God, I beg you. But the Lord said to Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut up outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
So Miriam was shut up outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out on March till Miriam was brought in again. After that, the people set out from Hazeroth and encamped in the wilderness of Paran. Chapter 13, Spies Sent Into Canaan. The Lord said to Moses, Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
From each tribe of their father shall you send a man, every one a leader among them. So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all the men who were heads of the sons of Israel. And these were their names. From the tribe of Reuben, Shemua, the son of Zakur. From the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat, the son of Hori. From the tribe of Judah,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. From the tribe of Issachar, Egal, the son of Joseph. From the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea, the son of Nun. From the tribe of Benjamin, Palti, the son of Raphu. From the tribe of Zebulun, Gadiel, son of Sodi. From the tribe of Joseph, that is from the tribe of Manasseh, Gadi, the son of Susi. From the tribe of Dan, Amiel, the son of Gamali.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
From the tribe of Asher, Sether, the son of Michael. From the tribe of Naphtali, Nabi, the son of Vopsi. From the tribe of Gad, Giel, the son of Maki. These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, and Moses called Hoshea, the son of Nun, Joshua.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, go up into the Negev yonder and go up into the hill country and see what the land is and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there is wood in it or not, be of good courage, and bring some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes, so they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath. They went up into the Negev and came to Hebron and Nachiman, Shishai and Talmai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
As always, the translation that I'm using of the Bible is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. But whatever translation you're using, as long as you're able to follow along, that is phenomenal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
The descendants of Anak were there. Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. And they came to the Valley of Eshol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes and they carried it on a pole between two of them. They brought also some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of Eshol because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down from there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
At the end of 40 days, they returned from spying out the land and they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
we came to the land which you sent us it flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit yet the people who dwell in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large and besides we saw the descendants of anak there the amalekites dwelt in the land of the negev the hittites the jebusites and the amorites dwell in the hill country and the canaanites dwell by the sea and along the jordan
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it. Then the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
So they brought to the sons of Israel an evil report of the land which they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone to spy out is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. And we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
Moses continued, you shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments always. And consider this day, since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
And even if you're just using your ears to follow along, then that means you're using the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, to download your Bible in a Year reading plan. If you want to follow along and check off every day with me, as I check off every day, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year and download that Bible in a Year reading plan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
Consider the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, his signs and his deeds which he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to all his land, and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued after you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
And how the Lord has destroyed them to this day. And what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place. And what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben. How the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them. In the midst of all Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which he did. You shall therefore keep all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land which you are going to possess. And that you may live long in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
For the land which you are entering to take possession of is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your feet like a garden of vegetables. But the land which you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land which the Lord your God cares for.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. And if you will obey my commandments, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you shall eat and be full. Take heed, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, and the anger of the Lord be kindled against you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
And he shut up the heavens, so that there be no rain, and the land yield no fruit, and you perish quickly off the good land which the Lord gives you."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
you shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul and you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes and you shall teach them to your children talking of them when you are sitting in your house and when you are walking by the way and when you lie down and when you rise and you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. For if you will be careful to do all this commandment which I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and clinging to him,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
Then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness and Lebanon and from the river, the river Euphrates to the Western Sea. No man shall be able to stand against you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
And if you have not yet subscribed in your podcast app, please, I invite you to subscribe. Once again, it is day 62, and we are reading from Numbers chapter 12 and 13, Deuteronomy chapter 11, and Psalm 94. Numbers chapter 12, Aaron and Miriam speak against Moses. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married. For he had married a Cushite woman.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
The Lord, your God, will lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that you shall tread as he promised you. Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
The blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandment of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you this day to go after other gods which you have not known.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
And when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road toward the going down of the sun in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, over against Gilgal beside the oak of Morah?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in, to take possession of the land which the Lord your God gives you. And when you possess it and live in it, you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
O Lord, you God of vengeance, you God of vengeance, shine forth. Rise up, O judge of the earth, render to the proud their desserts. O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? They pour out their arrogant words. They boast all the evildoers. They crush your people, O Lord, and afflict your heritage. They slay the widow and the sojourner and murder the fatherless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
And they say, the Lord does not see. The God of Jacob does not perceive. Understand, O dullest of the people, fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? He who chastens the nations, does he not chastise? He who teaches men knowledge, the Lord, knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
Blessed is the man whom you chasten, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law to give him respite from days of trouble until a pit is dug for the wicked. For the Lord will not forsake his people, he will not abandon his heritage. For justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it. Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have dwelt in the land of silence. When I thought, my foot slips, your mercy, O Lord, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul. Can wicked rulers be allied with you who frame mischief by statute? They band together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
But the Lord has become my stronghold and my God the rock of my refuge. He will bring back on them their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
We thank you for speaking to us. We thank you for not only speaking to us your word and letting that word that you have spoken shape our minds and our hearts and teaching us what to love and what to hate, but we also just thank you for choosing us. We thank you for letting us belong to you and we ask that you please give us the grace not only to have our minds and hearts shaped like yours,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
but also to let ourselves be chosen. Give us the grace to give you permission to love us like you want to love us and to call us how you want to call us. Give us the grace to be able to say yes to you in everything this day. We make this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Oh, man. So Numbers chapter 12 and 13, kind of a big deal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
And they said, Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all men that were on the face of the earth. And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting. And the three of them came out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
Keep this in mind. I know I remind you of this all the time, but Numbers is the, like, this is the real-time story, and Deuteronomy is, remember back when. Okay, so Numbers, this is happening right after they're free from slavery in Egypt. So this is maybe two years out at this point, where they're at the place where Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses and where spies are sent to Canaan.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
So they've only been free between one and two years here. But then in Deuteronomy, this is Moses speaking back and saying, here's what happened back in the day, 40 years before this. What's going on with Moses and Aaron and Miriam? Interestingly, here's Aaron and Miriam and Moses. They're having a sibling fight, more or less. That's kind of it. They're mad because he married a Cushite woman. Now,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
There have been a lot of theories on what it was about her or what it was about that marriage that Aaron and Miriam had an issue with. And there isn't necessarily an answer. There are some theories about that. But the issue is kind of like this in many families, right? We don't like the in-law for whatever reason. We don't like them because of their background, because of how they act.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
We don't like them because they don't. They aren't like us, whatever the thing is. It kind of, in some ways, since scripture doesn't necessarily specifically tell us why they don't like the woman that Moses married, we just be theorizing. The issue though, is that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2025)
Moses had been chosen as a prophet, as the Lord's prophet, as speaking specifically not only with the Lord, but also on behalf of the Lord. And he's been given that role. And even in marrying the Cushite woman, he hasn't done anything wrong or else the Lord God would have said something about him. So here he is innocent, and yet his siblings are essentially bad-mouthing him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
How I serve the campus here and how I serve the people in our diocese, if I choose the wrong thing, it has consequences in their lives. And if I choose the right thing, it has consequences in their lives. And here we have King David, right? Who was an absent father who did not pass on that holiness or that his relationship with the Lord to Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And here's Solomon who, even though he was blessed so much by God, not only with wisdom, but also, I mean, the Lord spoke to him. It reminded him of the need that he had to be faithful and he refused. Now, this is one of the things we just want to make a note of before we move on to the last chapters of Ecclesiastes. And that is, a lot of us have knowledge. We don't always have the will.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
In fact, a lot of times where our faith gets unraveled, maybe, where our faith can be given away is not necessarily because we came up against a really good argument against our faith, but more because we gave our heart to someone other than the Lord. We gave our time to someone other than the Lord. We gave the deepest part of us to someone other than the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
This is what happens to Solomon with his 300 wives and his 700 concubines. He said he loved them all, okay? Okay, dude. He loved them all. He gave his heart to not just many wives and many concubines, which is not a good thing to do in the first place, but he gave his heart to them in a way that opened himself up to false worship. And that's It's the most devastating lines.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And we've just heard about how King Solomon built incredible, this amazing temple for the Lord God, like all of the sacrifices he offered, all the gold that he brought into the temple, like all the incredible, just everything he gave to the Lord. And then you also have, wait, he also built temples for his wives. He also built temples to other gods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And it's just in those scriptures, it's so devastating to recognize that that here is the man who has spoken with the Lord. Here is a man who's been guided by the Lord. And he turns to these other false gods. In fact, not just kind of any old false gods, but even Molech, which means if he participated in the worship of Molech, that involved child human sacrifice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And here is Solomon, who is the great builder, who's the wise one who participated in this great evil, not because he was convinced that it was true because he is wise, but because he let he gave his heart to places and to people that did not deserve his heart that led him astray. And this is one of the reasons, you know, hard to say this, but it's the truth. One of the reasons why
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
It is very important. So if you want to stay faithful in your walk with the Lord, as St. Paul says, to not be yoked to unbelievers, to not marry someone who doesn't share your faith passionately, doesn't share your faith in that intense way, and doesn't share your faith in that same way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Because what happens is, it's called spiritual physics, and it's much easier to pull someone down than it is to pull them up. When choosing a spouse, so important to choose a spouse who loves the Lord, to choose a spouse that you share your faith with. Or else, our lives can start off great and end like Solomon's life, a disaster, a disaster.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
One last note about the book of Ecclesiastes and the wisdom of Ecclesiastes. Two notes, actually. One is in chapter 12, the very last chapter, because we have all this advice. And I just think it's so, this is a beautiful, beautiful wording, a beautiful poetry, essentially in scripture in chapter 12, the advice to the young.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And it says, the days are going to come when it goes on and says, where you'll say, I have no pleasure in them. Before the sun and the light of the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain. That sense of like, yeah, the days where your eyes grow dim. And the day when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men are bent and the grinders cease because they're few.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And those that look through the windows are dimmed. All this, it's just like this, you just have this vision of getting older and older and older. And it talks about even, they're afraid also of what is high. What does that mean? Well, it's, you know, as we keep getting older, we get less and less stable, right? And what happens? I'm not going to jump up on the chair to change the light bulb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Now I can jump up on the table to change the smoke detector. And so I'm afraid of what is high. Terrors are in the way. And the grasshopper drags along. This desire fails like that longing for another person. The sexual desire fails. This the author is highlighting just these small things that we don't think about that are signs of here's this age. I'm getting closer and closer to death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And it's just really, really beautiful. If you want to get a chance to pick up your Bible and actually not just listen to it, but read those words, there's something powerful. And the conclusion is vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Now, one of the things we want to highlight is why did we read Ecclesiastes? Why did the preacher teach these things?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Why did Koalath or Solomon, why is this in the Bible? And part of it is because of the wisdom of this, because we don't always get what we want. He said, so you might do the good. Remember the race is not to the swift or the victory to the strong always, or the success to those who are smartest. That's how it would be great if that was the case. But sometimes we grasp after Hevel, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 153. It is our last day of King Solomon. His last day of 1 Kings chapter 11 is our reading today, as well as the last three chapters in Ecclesiastes. That's Ecclesiastes 10.1. 11, and 12.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Moloch, the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
It's that vapor that we say meaninglessness or vanities, but it's like, hmm, it seems to have shape. But if you try to grasp it, it's gone, right? So one of the lessons is you can't always get or you don't always get what you want, but still choose the good. And again, one of the things that is the message of Ecclesiastes is not to get people to lose hope, but to make them humble.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
I came across a commentary that pointed that out, that it's not to get people who read Ecclesiastes to lose hope, but to make them humble. And that's it, to be able to say, okay, everything is going to end and I can appreciate it all while it's here. Yes, at some point, it's all going to be taken from me, but I can appreciate it when it's here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And that the last lines of Ecclesiastes chapter 12, the end of the matter, all has been heard. Here's what you need to do. Fear God and keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man. And it's so, so good. God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And it's so such a great, powerful reminder that yes, it might seem like life is meaningless, but it is not. I might not know the meaning of this moment, but this moment absolutely has meaning. So we keep walking forward. And tomorrow, speaking of walking forward, we're jumping into walking into our next second messianic checkpoint where we beginning the gospel of Mark tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
I cannot wait, continue to live wisely, wisely today, fearing God, keeping his commandments and And praying for each other. Please pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please, if you don't mind, pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. but he did not keep what the Lord commanded.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Therefore, the Lord said to Solomon, since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of David, your father, I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of David, my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. adversaries of Solomon. And the Lord raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite. He was of the royal house in Edom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
For when David was in Edom and Joab the commander of the army went up to bury the slain, he slew every male in Edom. For Joab and all Israel remained there six months until he had cut off every male in Edom. But Hadad fled to Egypt together with certain Edomites of his father's servants, Hadad being yet a little child.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
They set out from Midian, and came to Paran, and took men with them from Paran, and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house, and assigned him an allowance of food, and gave him land. And Hadad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him in marriage the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tapins the queen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And the sister of Tapins bore him Genubath his son, whom Tapins weaned in Pharaoh's house, and Genubath was in Pharaoh's house among the sons of Pharaoh. But when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, Let me depart, that I may go to my own country.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
But Pharaoh said to him, what have you lacked with me that you are now seeking to go to your own country? And he said to him, only let me go. God also raised up as an adversary to him Rezon, the son of Eliadah, who had fled from his master Hazad-Ezer, king of Zobah. And he gathered men about him and became leader of a marauding band after the slaughter by David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And they went to Damascus and dwelt there and made him king in Damascus. He was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon doing mischief as Hadad did. And he abhorred Israel and reigned over Syria. Jeroboam's rebellion. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zerudah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother's name was Zeruah, a widow, also lifted up his hand against the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And this was the reason why he lifted up his hand against the king. Solomon built the millow and closed up the breach of the city of David, his father. The man Jeroboam was very able, and when Solomon saw that the young man was industrious, he gave him charge over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shillanite found him on the road. Now Ahijah had clad himself with a new garment, and the two of them were alone in the open country. Then Ahijah laid hold of the new garment that was on him and tore it into twelve pieces.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
We're also praying Psalm 9 today. The Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And he said to Jeroboam, Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and will give you ten tribes. But he shall have one tribe for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
because he has forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh, the god of Moab, and Milcom, the god of the Ammonites, and has not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, as David his father did.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Nevertheless, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes." but I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand, and will give it to you ten tribes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Yet to his son I will give one tribe, that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put my name. And I will take you, and you shall reign over all that your soul desires, and you shall be king over Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And if you will listen to all that I command you and will walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments as David my servant did, I will be with you and will build you a sure house as I built for David and I will give Israel to you. And I will for this afflict the descendants of David, but not forever. Solomon sought, therefore, to kill Jeroboam.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, to Shishak, king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon. The death of Solomon. Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon? And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Dead flies make a perfumer's ointment give off an evil odor, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. A wise man's heart inclines him toward the right, but a fool's heart toward the left. Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense, and he says to everyone that he is a fool.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe, and then you will be subscribed. As I said, chapter 11 of 1 Kings. This is where we finally hear what we know was coming. We saw hints of Solomon's cracks. It was hints of Solomon losing his way. And this is finally the time when we see it. We see it happen. And it is horrible. It's devastating. But it also is the truth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for deference will make amends for great offenses. There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler. Folly is set in many high places and the rich sit in a low place. I have seen slaves on horses and princes walking on foot like slaves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall. He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them. If the iron is blunt and one does not wet the edge, he must put forth more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed. If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage in a charmer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
The words of a wise man's mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is wicked madness. A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be and who can tell him what will be after him. The toil of a fool wearies him, so that he does not know the way to the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning. Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of free men, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength and not for drunkenness. Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks. Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Even in your thought do not curse the king, nor in your bedchamber curse the rich. For the bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter. Chapter 11, The Value of Diligence Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you know not what evil may happen on earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth. And if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know how the Spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand. For you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. Youth and Old Age Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun. For if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. But let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Remove vexation from your mind, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Chapter 12 Advice to the Young Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when you will say, I have no pleasure in them, before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
in the day when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men are bent and the grinders cease because they are few and those that look through the windows are dimmed and the doors on the street are shut when the sound of the grinding is low and one rises up at the voice of a bird and all the daughters of song are brought low They are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And so pay attention to Solomon in 1 Kings 11, as well as listen to the wisdom of Solomon or of the author of Ecclesiastes 10, 11, and 12. And we then also get to pray with King David in Psalm 9. The first book of Kings chapter 11, Solomon's errors.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
The almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails. Because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets. Before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returned to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
vanity of vanities says the preacher all is vanity epilogue besides being wise the preacher also taught the people knowledge weighing and studying and arranging proverbs with great care the preacher sought to find pleasing words and uprightly he wrote words of truth
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
the sayings of the wise are like goads and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings which are given by one shepherd my son beware of anything beyond these of making many books there is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh The end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
A Psalm of David. I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. I will tell of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you. I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. When my enemies turned back, they stumbled and perished before you. For you have maintained my just cause. You have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment. You have rebuked the nations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
You have destroyed the wicked. You have blotted out their name forever and ever. The enemies have vanished in everlasting ruins. Their cities you have rooted out. The very memory of them has perished. But the Lord sits enthroned forever. He has established his throne for judgment. And he judges the world with righteousness. He judges the peoples with equity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. Sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion. Tell among the peoples his deeds. For he who avenges blood is mindful of them. He does not forget the cry of the poor. Be gracious to me, O Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Behold what I suffer from those who hate me. O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your deliverance. The nations have sunk in the pit which they made. In the net which they hid has their own foot been caught. The Lord has made himself known. He has executed judgment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
The wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. The wicked shall depart to Sheol, all nations that forget God. for the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. Arise, O Lord. Let not man prevail. Let the nations be judged before you. Put them in fear, O Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, the daughter of Pharaoh and Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite women from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, you shall not enter into marriage with them. Neither shall they with you for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
Give us wisdom to number our days correctly. Give us wisdom to know who we are. Yes, yesterday we prayed that Psalm, Psalm 8, of how, who are we that you mind to care for us? Who are we that as human beings that you even keep us in mind? And now today, Lord God, we just are struck. We're struck by our need to ask you, please be reminded us
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
of how we need you to care for us, how we need you to pay attention to us because of the fact that there are so many obstacles, there are so many battles, there are so many things that are facing us this day that we just ask you for your grace and for your strength.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
We ask for your attentiveness and your love to be present in our lives, especially in the midst of battle, in the midst of struggle, in the midst of this life. We trust in you. We praise you and we love you. Please receive this in Jesus name. Amen. In the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy spirit. Amen. Oh gosh, here we go. You guys.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
So King Solomon, and we started off by talking about King Solomon. Here he is in first Kings chapter 11, that he started out well and he did not end well. He started out wise, and he ended foolishly. He started out even as relatively good, and he did not end as a good person. He did not end as a good man. He did not end as a good king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
And what we're gonna see is what we've been talking about a bunch in the course of this Bible in a year. It's that sometimes we make decisions, we make choices, and other people have to experience the consequences of those choices, not because someone else is being punished arbitrarily for my own decisions,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 153: The Decline of Solomon (2025)
But we realize that our decisions have consequences and those consequences don't always end with us. They don't always just end with our own lives, but we pass those on. The way in which parents can raise their kids, those bad decisions can pass on the consequences of those decisions in their kids' lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
And so you can see how the people in charge, the magistrates, were a little bit embarrassed when they found out that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens. And so they said, no, you can go out secretly. And Paul was like, nope, you're going to let us out publicly so that everyone knows, everyone knows what you did, kind of a situation. which is pretty interesting, in 1 Corinthians.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
Gosh, what did we hear today? We heard chapter 13, the way of love. Chapter 14, the gifts of prophecy and tongues. So just one note on each. The way of love, which is... Paul just got done talking about the spiritual gifts and talking about how the church needs the spiritual gifts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
Talked about that in the church, there are those who, through the wisdom of the, given through the spirit, the utterance of wisdom, through the spirit, knowledge, through the same spirit, mighty works, to the same spirit, healing. There's another spirit, that same spirit, sorry, another prophecy, through the same spirit, ability to distinguish between spirits. We call that discernment of spirits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
to another various kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues. That's in chapter 12, these spiritual gifts. And St. Paul says, all of those are inspired by one and the same Holy Spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills. So those are gifts that every Christian should strive for. He even says, strive eagerly. And the last verse of chapter 12 is verse 31. And St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
Paul says, earnestly desire the higher gifts. We want to ask God for these gifts. All of those gifts we can ask God for. And he will give to us the ones that he knows that will be used for the building up of the church. These spiritual gifts are not sanctifying gifts. Here's what I mean. Those gifts, those charisms, those graces, They don't make a person holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
So a person can have the gift of healing and not become holy. A person can have the gift of prophecy and not be holy themselves. A person can have the gift of mighty works and not necessarily have a sin-free life. So that kind of grace is a grace that's meant to build up the kingdom. It doesn't necessarily or automatically sanctify the person who uses those gifts. Now, it can, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
So passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia was standing pleading with him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. The conversion of Lydia and her household.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
Whenever we're cooperating with God's will, yes, we can be sanctified. We can be conformed more and more to his will. So we are made holy that way. But the presence of the gift and the exercise of the gifts themselves doesn't mean that this person is super holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
That's why you can have people who are incredibly close to the Lord, who are incredibly aligned with his will, who don't manifest any big, big, big gift, dramatic gift like healing or dramatic gift like mighty works. And you can also have people who are broken people, who God still has given the gift of healing. He still has given them the gift of tongues.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
He's still given them those spiritual gifts. And so it's not connected to one's sanctifying grace, not connected to one's holiness, but but it is meant, as St. Paul says so many times in chapter 14, for the upbuilding of the church. So those gifts are never given to the individual for the individual. They're given to the individual for the sake of the body, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
They're given to the individual for the sake of the church. And so that's one of the reasons why we ask God for those gifts is not so, I can be edified, so I can be built up. It's like, no, no, no. So the church can be edified. So the people on the outside can say, the Holy Spirit is working in the church and I
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
he's real and he loves me and he's healed me maybe he's spoken to me spoken a word in my into my life that has transformed my life and that's why we ask god for those gifts that's also the reason why i believe saint paul says the greatest of these is love why well for many reasons saint paul says very clearly directly is because all these other gifts will cease
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
In fact, even in heaven, you won't need faith. You won't need hope in heaven because you'll have your heart's desire, but you will need love. And so that's why it's the greatest. But I would say, I would add to that and say, also, the reason why we need love is because I can have all these gifts and use them on myself. I can have all these gifts and I can just do it for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
But to have the gift of healing or the gift of prophecy or the gift of tongues or any of the spiritual gifts and have the gift of love, then you put those gifts at the service of others. You give of yourself because that's what love is, right? Love is willing the good of the other. It's becoming that gift and using your gifts to bless the people around us. It's the reason why St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
Paul says that, yeah, in the church, listen, you can pray in tongues all you want. He says, I pray in tongues more than anybody. But that helps you pray. You know, you're speaking in the language of angels a lot of times. That's how they describe it. And God knows what you're saying, but you don't know. So you're still using your heart to pray. But St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
Paul points out, it's really also good to use your mind when you pray. So it's good to know what you're saying. And therefore, it's good to have someone who's interpreting, especially when you're in the community with other people. Yeah, it's really, really good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
It's more important to have prophecy where people can understand than it is to have just the words of the Spirit that no one can understand. He goes on to say that when you're together, if some people are going to speak in tongues, make sure there's an interpreter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
And also, hey, only go two or three at a time or go one at a time, but only do two or three because he says people are going to jump into your into mass, essentially wherever you're praying. And they're going to be confused. They're going to think you guys are crazy. And so in that case, be more ordered. That's even how he ends the whole chapter 14.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
He says, my brethren earnestly desire to prophesy and do not forbid speaking in tongues. So you guys pray for the gift of tongues. But all things, that was my editorial. He didn't say that part. But all things should be done decently and in order. So that's St. Paul's teaching to us today about prayer, about love, about speaking in tongues, about the giftedness of belonging to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
Setting sail, therefore, from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is the leading city of the We remained in the city some days, and on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
The Spirit of God is with you. And so I'm just asking the Holy Spirit right now who already has been given to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, Father, I ask you to please have an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the lives of every person who's listening to these words. May they prophesy mightily. May they be filled with wisdom and knowledge. May they be filled with the gifts of healing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
May they use the gifts of mighty works and miracles. May they, Lord, speak in tongues. May they have interpretation of tongues and discernment of spirits. May they have all of the spiritual gifts. But above all, Father in heaven, in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, send your spirit of faith, of hope, and of love upon every person listening to these words. In Jesus' name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
Guys, I am praying for you. That's what that was. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to listen to what was said by Paul. And when she was baptized with her household, she begged us saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us. Paul and Silas beaten and imprisoned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by soothsaying. She followed Paul and us, crying, These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation. And this she did for many days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
It is day 337. That's pretty phenomenal. And we're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 16, St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, chapters 13 and 14. Ah, I love letter. And Proverbs chapter 28, verses 13 through 15. As always, The Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
But Paul was annoyed, and turned and said to the Spirit, I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs which it is not lawful for us Romans to accept or practice. The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
But Paul cried with a loud voice, Do not harm yourself, for we are all here. And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, Men, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once with all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them, and he rejoiced with all his household that he had believed in God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, Let those men go. And the jailer reported the words to Paul, saying, The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore, come out and go in peace. But Paul said to them, They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens and have thrown us into prison. And do they now cast us out secretly?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
No, let them come themselves and take us out. The police reported these words to the magistrates and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. So they came and apologized to them and they took them out and asked them to leave the city. So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
And when they had seen the brethren, they exhorted them and departed. The first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 13, the way of love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
Love is not jealous or boastful. It is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, and you can subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. It is day 337. We're reading Acts chapter 16, 1 Corinthians chapters 13 and 14, and Proverbs chapter 28, verses 13 through 15. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 16.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
My name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds. And we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect. But when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
Now I know in part, then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three. But the greatest of these is love. Chapter 14 Gifts of Prophecy and Tongues Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, he who prophesies speaks to men for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the Church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
He who prophesies is greater than he who speaks in tongues unless someone interprets so that the church may be edified. Now brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how shall I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? If even lifeless instruments such as the flute or the harp do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves, if you, in a tongue, utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
But if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. Therefore, he who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
What am I to do? I will pray in the Spirit, and I will pray with the mind also. I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the mind also. Otherwise, if you bless with the Spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say the Amen to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may give thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue. Brethren, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in thinking be mature.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
In the law it is written, by men of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Thus, tongues are a sign not for believers, but for unbelievers, while prophecy is not for unbelievers, but for believers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
If therefore the whole church assembles and all speak in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed. And so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
Timothy accompanies Paul and Silas. And he came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brethren at Lystra and Iconium.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
What then, brethren? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two, or at most three, and each in turn, and let one interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silence in church and speak to himself and to God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting by, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged. And the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. What? Did the word of God originate with you, or are you the only ones it has reached?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that what I am writing to you is a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. So, my brethren, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
But all things should be done decently and in order. The book of Proverbs chapter 28 verses 13 through 15.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord always, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked ruler over a poor people. Father in heaven, we give you praise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
We thank you so much for this day, this new day. My gosh, Lord, you're never not with us. God, you are always present to us and you continue to help us. You continue to guide us. And just, God, please receive our thanks. Please receive our praise today as we hear of this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
that the persistence and the perseverance, the faithfulness of Paul and Silas and the other Christians, even in jail, even in prison, even in defeat, we just give you praise. We thank you so much for such faithful older brothers in the faith. We thank you for Lydia, one of the first converts there in Macedonia. We thank you for her. Thank you for her household.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews that were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions which had been reached by the apostles and elders who were at Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
Thank you for the guards in his household. Lord God, and we give you praise because you not only call us to love, you are love. Help us to love. Help us to trust. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So Acts of the Apostles, a lot of adventure, a lot of action happening. Here is Timothy. Oh man, the introduction of Timothy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
We're going to have St. Paul's letters to Timothy in a little bit. You would know when that's going to happen if you had a Great Adventure Bible Timeline reading plan. It's actually happening in like maybe three or four weeks. But Timothy, yes, his mom was Jewish, loved the Lord. Actually, his mom and grandma both knew the Lord, but his father was a Greek. And so Timothy was uncircumcised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
They go on a mission. And what does Paul do? Paul has him circumcised ahead of time. This is Paul living out. the very kind of principle that he was instructing the Corinthians to do, right? He said to the Corinthians, if something you do causes someone else to sin, then just stop it. Or something you don't do causes people to sin, then do it. You need to do the thing. Here is Paul, who knows
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
He was at the Council of Jerusalem. He knows that you don't have to get circumcised. But he also knows that there are some Jewish Christians who will not accept Timothy unless he was circumcised. And there's also some Jews they want to become, they desire to evangelize and bring into the church who won't listen to them if they know that Timothy's uncircumcised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
So for the sake of others, I mean, think about it. Talk about taking one for the team. That is incredible. But what a gift it is to see in action this principle of St. Paul. That is to say, if eating causes you to sin, I won't eat. If drinking causes someone else to sin, I won't drink. And here is Timothy as he's raising him up in the faith as well, just to say, okay.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
There are some things that are worth doing for the sake of others, not because in and of themselves, they are what you need to do, but because of others for others, here's doing that. So that was just incredible. I just loved it. It's a small thing, but it's a big thing. You know what I mean? Okay. Moving on. Paul goes into Macedonia, has a vision. Please come to us, bring the gospel to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
And we have the conversion of Lydia and her whole household. We also have what happens after this. There's this woman who has a spirit. Now, we recognize that even in our day, we get so smart, right? We're 21st century people that we tend to think at times that Satan is not real. We tend to think at times that demonic possession is not real. It is very real. Satan is very real.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
He's not a literary figure. He is a
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
a spiritual figure a real figure and in this case here is this family that made a lot of money off of this slave who had a demon a demon spirit of divination she knew the demon knew the truth and so here they are following paul and silas saying these men are servants of the most high god who proclaimed you the way of salvation you think that's a strange thing for a demon to say she did this for many days i love how luke puts in paul was annoyed i don't know if he caught this
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily. Paul's vision of the man of Macedonia. And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go in Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
But in Acts of the Apostles, chapter 16, Luke, the author of Acts of the Apostles, went from talking about he, Paul, to we. We went on to Macedonia and we were there. And you can imagine that here is now Luke firsthand saying, yeah, I saw Paul. He was annoyed. He was so bothered. So he said, I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And she was set free.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
But because of that, they get thrown into jail. In jail, what do Paul and Silas do? They lick their wounds. They complain. They just kind of curl up in a ball. No, at midnight, they're still praying and singing hymns to God. And the prisoners are listening to them. And what happens? God releases them. They proclaim the good news to the jailer. And they baptize him and his whole household.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 337: The Importance of Love (2024)
And then it is revealed the next day that, oh, these are Roman citizens. Now, if you are not a Roman citizen, yeah, do whatever with them. But if you're a Roman citizen, they deserve a trial. They deserve, you know, innocent until guilty, that kind of situation. I'm not sure if that existed at that point, but they did deserve a trial and they would not be beaten before they were tried.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
And so Lord Jesus, we ask that you send your Holy spirit, send your spirit, uh, the advocate that, that helper, that the comforter, the convictor, the one who sustains and strengthens us, the one who is the presence of God living in our midst. Um, right now. And in every moment we pray for each other, um, Please pray for me. I'm praying for you. And man, my name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
I cannot wait to see you again tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
Seven days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile. Then the Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me. But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. And the Lord said to Moses,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and brought frogs upon the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, Entreat the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
Moses said to Pharaoh, Be pleased to command me when I am to entreat for you and for your servants and for your people that the frogs be destroyed from you and from your houses and be left only in the Nile. And he said, Tomorrow. Moses said, Be it as you say, that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
The frogs shall depart from you and your houses and your servants and your people. They shall be only left in the Nile. So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh and Moses cried to the Lord concerning the frogs as he had agreed with Pharaoh. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
The frogs died out of the houses and courtyards and out of the fields and they gathered them together in heaps and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and he would not listen to them as the Lord had said.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
Today, this is day 31. Let's keep on reading today. We're going to be reading from the book of Exodus chapter eight, the book of Leviticus chapter six and the book of Psalms chapter 48.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
Then the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Stretch out your rod and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become gnats throughout all the land of Egypt. And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and struck the dust of the earth, and there came gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
The magicians tried by their secret arts to bring forth gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. And the magicians said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
Then the Lord said to Moses, rise up early in the morning and wait for Pharaoh as he goes out to the water and say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
Else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people and into your houses and the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies and also the ground on which they stand. But on that day, I will set apart the land of Goshen where my people dwell and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. By tomorrow shall this sign be. And the Lord did so. There came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses, and in all the land of Egypt the land was ruined by reason of the flies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
We're going to continue with the plagues in the land of Egypt to set the Israelites free and also looking at some of the laws the Lord continues to give in the book of Leviticus rules for worship and rules for proper way to approach the Lord, as well as the prayer of Psalm 48. I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, the Catholic edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, Go, sacrifice to your God within the land. But Moses said, It would not be right to do so, for we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God offerings abominable to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
We must go a three days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he will command us. So Pharaoh said, I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, but only you shall not go very far. Make a treaty for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
Then Moses said, behold, I'm going out from you and I will pray to the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants and from his people tomorrow. Only let not Pharaoh deal falsely again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
And the Lord did as Moses asked and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants and from his people. Not one remained. But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also and did not let the people go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, if anyone sins and commits a breach of faith against the Lord by deceiving his neighbor in a matter of deposit or security or through robbery, or if he has oppressed his neighbor or has found what was lost and lied about it, swearing falsely,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
In any of all the things which men do and sin therein, when one has sinned and became guilty, he shall restore what he took by robbery, or what he got by oppression, or the deposit which was committed to him, or the lost thing which he found, or anything about which he has sworn falsely. He shall restore it in full and shall add a fifth to it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
and give it to him to whom it belongs on the day of his guilt offering. And he shall bring to the priest his guilt offering to the Lord, a ram without blemish out of the flock, valued by you at the price for a guilt offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord, and he shall be forgiven for any of the things which one may do, and thereby become guilty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, command Aaron and his sons saying, this is the law of the burnt offering. The burnt offering shall be on the hearth upon the altar all night until the morning and the fire of the altar shall kept burning on it. And the priest shall put on his linen garment and put his linen britches upon his body.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
And he shall take up the ashes to the fire that has consumed the burnt offering on the altar and put them beside the altar. Then he shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes outside the camp to a clean place. The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it. It shall not go out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
The priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall lay the burnt offering in order upon it, and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. Fire shall be kept burning upon the altar continually. It shall not go out. And this is the law of the cereal offering. The sons of Aaron shall offer it before the Lord in front of the altar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
And one shall take from it a handful of the fine flour of the cereal offering with its oil and all the frankincense which is on the cereal offering and burn this as its memorial portion on the altar, a pleasing order to the Lord. and the rest of it Aaron and his sons shall eat. It shall be eaten unleavened in a holy place, in the court of the tent of meeting they shall eat it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
It shall not be baked with leaven. I have given it as their portion of my offerings by fire. It is a thing most holy, like the sin offering and the guilt offering. Every male among the children of Aaron may eat of it, as decreed forever throughout your generations from the Lord's offerings by fire. Whoever touches them shall become holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
In fact, I'm reading the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. You can get that at ascensionpress.com or wherever fine books are sold. You can also go to ascensionpress.com to get your own Bible in a Year reading plan. If you go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, you can get that for free. And please, if you like, if you've been following us for the last 30 days, here we are on day 31.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, The priest from among Aaron's sons said, who is anointed to succeed him, shall offer it to the Lord as decreed forever. The whole of it shall be burned. Every serial offering of the priest shall be wholly burned. It shall not be eaten. The Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron and his sons, This is the law of the sin offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before the Lord. It is most holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
the priest who offers it for sin shall eat it in a holy place it shall be eaten in the court of the tent of meeting whatever touches its flesh shall be holy and when any of its blood is sprinkled on a garment you shall wash that on which it was sprinkled in a holy place and the earthen vessel in which it is boiled shall be broken but if it is boiled in a bronze vessel that shall be scoured and rinsed in water
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
Every male among the priests may eat of it. It is most holy. But no sin offering shall be eaten from which any blood is brought into the tent of meeting to make atonement in the holy place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
The glory and strength of Zion. A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth. Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great king. Within her citadels, God has shown himself a sure defense. For behold, the kings assembled, they came together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
As soon as they saw it, they were astounded. They were in panic, they took to flight. Trembling, took hold of them there. Anguish as of a woman with labor pains. By the east wind you shattered the ships of Tarshish. As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, which God establishes forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
We have thought on your mercy, O God, in the midst of your temple. As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your mighty hand is filled with victory. Let Mount Zion be glad. Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments. Walk about Zion. Go round about her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will be our guide forever. Father in heaven, we give you praise. We thank you so much. Thank you for your word. Thank you for how you reveal that you fight for your people. You fight for us. Also, Lord, that you want us. You desire us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
You are the God who is just, but you are even more than just. You are merciful. More than mercy, you are love. And so, Lord God, we ask that you please visit us with your mercy, with your justice, and with your love. Help us to receive your justice. Help us to receive your love and receive your mercy. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
then you know that the best way to do that is to subscribe in your podcast app. That way, when we drop an episode, you can pick up this episode so that we can continue our prayers together because this is something we are doing absolutely together. It is day 31 in this journey through the Bible in one year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
Oh my gosh, you guys, this is, what a phenomenal opportunity to be able to pray together. and to read from the Bible and to allow the Bible to shape us. And sometimes the Bible is a flashlight and it shines light on certain parts of our lives, kind of unearths some things. Sometimes it is a mirror and it reflects ourselves back to ourselves and we get to see in it ourselves and the way we are.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
And sometimes it's a sandpaper where it kind of roughs off some rough edges or convicts us. I heard a friend of mine once say that community is like that too, like really healthy community is like that. It can be a flashlight, a mirror, and sandpaper.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
Today, in the story of the plagues in Exodus chapter 8 that we read from today, one of the things that happens right away with the second plague of frogs is the fact that Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, I can take these frogs away if you want. And Pharaoh says, do it. And Moses asks him a question. He says, when do you want? He says, be pleased to command me when I'm into entreat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
When I am to entreat for you and for your servants and for your people that the frogs be destroyed from you and your houses and left only in the Nile. Just tell me when. And the remarkable answer of Pharaoh, whose entire, I mean, it says there are frogs in his bed. There are frogs everywhere. Pharaoh's answer when Moses asks him, when would you like me to get rid of the frogs for you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
Moses' answer is tomorrow. I just want to ask the question, isn't that just like us? Isn't that, that's the mirror. That's the mirror of the scripture today where it's just like, oh my goodness, that is me. The Lord God maybe at times can say, hey, I'd like to deliver you. I would like to get this pain rid out of your life or whatever the thing is, right? Sometimes the Lord says, okay, it's time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
Get rid of the thing. It's time. End the relationship. It's time. Get rid of what's killing you or killing the people around you. When do you want to do it? And we say, how about tomorrow, God? I mean, this thing I hate. This thing is killing me. This thing is devastating. Okay, when should we get rid of it? Well, right now is not the right time. How about later?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
And isn't that in so many ways, our answer for so many things, not just getting rid of bad things, but also starting good things. Now we've been on this journey for 31 days now. And so you've started this, you started this journey 31 days ago. And it's just what a gift that you didn't put it off. What a gift that you are being consistent here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
What a gift that we have this community of people who are praying. We continue to pray with each other as we continue to allow the Lord's word. But there's still that temptation in every one of us to say, well, maybe not today. Maybe I'll just catch up tomorrow or we decide I'm going to put this podcast on two times speed because I missed a couple of days and now I'm going to catch up that way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
Well, there's nothing wrong with catching up and there's nothing wrong with listening to scripture at two times speed. But why not what it is today? Make use of today. This is a reminder because scripture can be a flashlight, can be a sandpaper piece, and it can also be a mirror for us. And so if I see in myself that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
that tendency to put things off to tomorrow, to get rid of the bad things or to start the good things. What I see is I see a Pharaoh's heart inside of me, and I don't want to have Pharaoh's heart. I want to have heart like the Lord. And so we pray for each other because we can't change without God's grace. We can't become like God without his presence living inside of us, without his Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
And so that means we're coming up, either we passed one month or today is one month when it comes to where we're reading. And that is a mile marker. That's a milestone. We need to mark that and be able to say, yeah, Lord, I've allowed your word to shape my life for the last 30 days and including today, day 31. As I mentioned, today we're going to be reading from Exodus chapter 8.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 31: Frogs, Gnats, and Flies (2025)
And so we just pray that, um, the Lord gives us his Holy spirit and fills us with his Holy spirit. He goes without his Holy spirit, we cannot pray as we ought without his Holy spirit. We cannot be the people that we ought to be.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Before we get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thank you to all those who have supported the Catechism in a Year or the Bible in a Year podcast. We hear stories every day about how those shows have transformed people's lives, and because of your prayers and financial gifts, you are a significant part of that. You might ask a question, though.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you upon earth. Therefore, let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business and a fool's voice with many words. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase, empty words grow many. But you must fear God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
If you see in a province the poor oppressed and justice and right violently taken away, do not be amazed at a matter. For the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. But in all, a king is an advantage to a land with cultivated fields.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
he who loves money will not be satisfied with money nor he who loves wealth with gain this also is vanity when goods increase they increase who eat them and what gain has their owner but to see them with his eyes sweet is the sleep of a laborer whether he eats little or much but the surfeit of the rich will not let him sleep
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Gosh, so we have a number of chapters to get through. Again, just one chapter in 1 Kings 8. It's a longer chapter, though, and it is going to be familiar to you if you've been listening the last couple days because this is the dedication of the temple. So the Ark of the Covenant is going to be moved into the temple, and Solomon is going to have his prayer of dedication.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
there is a grievous evil which i have seen under the sun riches were kept by their owner to his hurt and those riches were lost in a bad venture and he is a father of a son but he has nothing in his hand as he came from his mother's womb he shall go again naked as he came and shall take nothing for his toil which he may carry away in his hand This also is a grievous evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Just as he came, so shall he go. And what gain has he that he toiled for the wind and spent all his days in darkness and grief, in much vexation and sickness and resentment? Behold, what I have seen to be good and to be fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life which God has given him. For this is his lot.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Every man also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and find enjoyment in his toil, this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Prayer for recovery from grave illness. To the choir master with stringed instruments, according to the Shemineth. A Psalm of David. O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor chasten me in your wrath. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am languishing. O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is sorely troubled. But you, O Lord, how long? Turn, O Lord, save my life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Deliver me for the sake of your merciful love. for in death there is no remembrance of you in sheol who can give you praise i am weary with my moaning every night i flood my bed with tears i drench my couch with my weeping my eye wastes away because of grief it grows weak because of all my foes Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
The Lord has heard my supplication. The Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies shall be ashamed and sorely troubled. They shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment. Father in heaven, we give you praise, and we thank you. We just ask that you please open your ears to our cry, open your eyes to our trouble, and Lord God, open your hand in our need.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
You know what we need, and you hear our prayers always. You see us constantly, and yet... You desire that we ask. You desire that we pray. You desire that we seek and knock and ask. And so we ask you, please hear our prayer this day. See our need this day and open your hand to give us what we need. But also we ask you, Lord, to open our hands that we can receive from you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Open our eyes to be able to see you clearly and your will and open our ears to hear your voice. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
And we're going to be able to be part of that as we move into the dedication of the temple and Solomon's prayer. We're also moving three chapters, as I said, in Ecclesiastes. So we need to get started because we also are going to pray Psalm six at the end. The first book of Kings chapter eight, the dedication of the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
So 1 Kings chapter 8, I mentioned this already, is that it's kind of a, it's actually almost word for word in 2 Chronicles, that prayer of King Solomon who blesses and says to the people, he instructs them. So let's rewind. What we have is the Ark of the Covenant being brought into the temple for the first time here in 1 Kings. A couple things to note is that it's brought in the right way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
I mentioned this when we read this in 2 Chronicles, but it's so important. It was brought in the right way. It was brought in by the priests and by the Levites. That's who went into the temple. No one else went into the temple. Also to be noted was the fact that 1 Kings...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
It specifies, just like 2 Chronicles specified, that in the Ark, there was only one thing, only the two tables of stone that were given to Moses on Mount Horeb, right? On Mount Sinai. It's two names for the same mountain. You probably know that already. Okay, why? Why is that notable? Well, it's notable because originally there were three things in the Ark of the Covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
There were not only the tables of stone, there was also the manna, right? The bread from heaven. And there was Aaron's staff. So that priestly staff. We don't know what happened to those other two objects. Yeah, the Bible doesn't say what happened to them. It just says that they were there. And now it says that they're not there, or at least it doesn't say that they're there still.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
But it does kind of say only thing in the ark was the tables of stone. So that's important for us just in the sense of to keep in mind what we're looking at, what we're dealing with, because
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
the most important thing well gosh how to say most important thing a very important thing as well is the fact that as they brought the ark of the presence right the ark of the covenant into the holy place the most holy place the presence of god the shekinah glory cloud filled the temple And the priests couldn't even do their normal work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
They were actually prevented from worshiping because God's presence was so momentarily presented, at least because God's presence was so palpable. God's presence was so overpowering. And that's one of the things we have to just even understand is that God's presence. Yeah, it can be like Elijah can be that that still, soft, quiet voice of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
But also God's presence is also power that it is often overwhelming so much so that when people have an encounter with God in the Bible, a lot of times when there's an angel, the angel has to say, be not afraid. Why? Because our natural response would be to be afraid. And that is completely normal. And that's what happens here in the Shekinah glory cloud, filling the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
And then Solomon, of course, gives his teaching. He uses blessing and says, wherever you're at, come back to the temple. This is establishing Jerusalem as the center and establishing the temple as the sole place of worship. As I mentioned in second Chronicles, that's where it's happening here in first Kings. When it comes to Ecclesiastes, there are so many, so much wisdom here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Remember, this is a wisdom book, wisdom literature. It's not straightforward wisdom in the sense that every single thing you'd say, yeah, take that and run with it. It's the wise one, the preacher, right? Who's working through some things. And what he's working through is he's working through, okay, I find happiness in this particular thing. I find happiness in toil. I find happiness in pleasure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers' houses of the sons of Israel, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. And all the men of Israel assembled to King Solomon at the feast in the month Athanim, which is the seventh month.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
I find happiness in wisdom, all these different things. And then realizing, oh, but then I still die. Then I still lose. Then I still, things are taken away from me. And there's something so powerful about watching Koalath or hearing Koalath wrestle with this reality. And yet again, it is a wisdom book. For example, I heard in chapter four, the value of friendship was just so, so good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. Gosh, so powerful. So necessary for us to remember. If they fall, one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Again, it goes on, a threefold cord is not quickly broken. I just think about how this is real in our lives, right? To have a true friend, to have a Jonathan to your David or David to your Jonathan, to have that person who can walk with you, but also not just one other, a threefold cord is not quickly broken. It goes on to say,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
The question is, what does Ascension do with these financial gifts? Great question. The answer is we make authentically Catholic podcasts and videos and other digital content to help people know the Catholic faith and grow closer to God. And we do it all for free.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Right before this, it says, and though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. So to have that one dear friend, that the one powerful friend, that one friend united in pursuing the Lord, but have two, my gosh, it would be incredible, incredible. And one kind of basically last quote there is in chapter five.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
There's a line that says in our translation, the Revised Standard Version translation says, So another way to translate that is in the Great Adventure Bible. It shows a different translation, which is, for me, more understandable. And it says this, For in a multitude of dreams, there is futility and ruin in a flood of words. It goes on to talk about a multitude of dreams.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
There is futility and ruin in a flood of words, which comes immediately after making rash vows or the warning against making rash vows. So it says, let not your mouth lead you into sin and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Like basically saying, I'm going to do all these things when you don't have any intention. There's just things you would like to do, things that are your dreams, things that are wishes. And here's the wise one saying, be careful about all these things. Instead of having dreams, maybe have plans. Instead of having rash words, maybe think about your words ahead of time. Last little note.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Gosh, there's something so, again, powerful about... All of this wisdom, one of the last pieces of wisdom that we heard in the Bible today from chapter five of Ecclesiastes is he who loves money is for chapter five, verse 10. He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with gain. This also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase, we eat them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
And it's just so, isn't that reality? I know a number of people who, I know of them, I guess I don't know them personally. I know a number of people who their yearly salary is insane. It's just off the charts, crazy. So, and they work crazy hours, like insane hours where they don't see their spouses, where they don't see their children, not much of a life outside of work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark, and they brought up the ark of the Lord, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent. The priests and the Levites brought them up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
And I think, wow, after two years of that, after four years of that, you could retire and you could be you could live really, really well. Or you could even just back off, take your foot off the pedal a little bit. And yet it seems like, no, I need more. I need more. I need more. Now, it might be I need to make more of a contribution. It might be if I make more, I can give more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
There's all those those motivations. So I'm not I don't know the motivation. So I'm not judging this. But part of me sees the wisdom of Ecclesiastes here, where it says, he who loves money will not be satisfied with money because when goods increase, they increase, we eat them. Just, okay, I got more. Okay, I want more. And sometimes that can be us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Now, that might be easy to say about someone else, right? Who makes gajillion dollars and say, look at those people over there who do this. But where is that? Does that exist in my life is the question we always have to come back to. Where it might not be money, it might be something else.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
But where is it in my life where I'm looking at myself and thinking, oh, when I get more, I just want more, more of that. When I get what would be enough, it's not enough. I constantly am pursuing more and more and more. See, the thing is, when it comes to Ecclesiastes, when it comes to any of the wisdom literature, when it comes to the Bible, I can easily see the problems other people have.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Why don't those people just with those jobs just take a break? Why can't they just back off? Why can't they just spend more time with their family? And I don't see it in myself, yet it exists in myself. And so what I have to do is say, okay, God, reveal me to me. Reveal the brokenness that I see in other people. Where does that exist in me? Because
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
and king solomon and all the congregation of israel who had assembled before him were with him before the ark sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the lord to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house in the most holy place underneath the wings of the cherubim
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
I'm the only one who has control over me or the way around too, that the only person I have influence over really, truly, ultimately is myself. And so I surrender myself to you, Lord God, and say, make me whole again, make me new again, forgive me and set me on the right track. I can do that, but I need help and I need prayers and I need grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
And so please pray for me because I'm praying for you. Let's pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering above the ark and its poles. And the poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt. And when the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Solomon's speech. Then Solomon said, The Lord has set the sun in the heavens, but has said that he would dwell in thick darkness, and have built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever. Then the king faced about and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
And he said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to David my father, saying, Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city in all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that my name might be there. But I chose David to be over my people Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Now it was in the heart of David, my father, to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. But the Lord said to David, my father, whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise which he made, for I have risen in the place of David my father and sit on the throne of Israel as the Lord promised, and I have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. And there I have provided a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Solomon's prayer of dedication. Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread forth his hands toward heaven and said, O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing mercy to your servants who walk before you with all their heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
who have kept with your servant David my father what you declared to him. Yes, you spoke with your mouth, and with your hand have fulfilled it this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Now therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father what you have promised him, saying, There shall never fail you a man before me to sit upon the throne of Israel, if only your sons take heed to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me. Now therefore, O God of Israel,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
let your word be confirmed which you have spoken to your servant david my father but will god indeed dwell on the earth behold heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you how much less this house which i have built yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication o lord my god Listening to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
That your eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place of which you have said, my name shall be there. That you may listen to the prayer which your servant offers toward this place. And hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Yes, here in heaven, your dwelling place. And when you hear, forgive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears his oath before your altar in this house, then hear in heaven and act and judge your servants, condemning the guilty by bringing his conduct upon his own head and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
When your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you, if they turn again to you and acknowledge your name and pray and make supplication to you in this house, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them again to the land which you gave to their fathers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin when you afflict them, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk and grant rain upon your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar, If their enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by any man or by all your people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Then hear in heaven your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and render to each whose heart you know according to all his ways. For you, you only, know the hearts of all the children of men, that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Likewise, when a foreigner who is not of your people Israel comes from a far country for your namesake, for they shall hear of your great name, and your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm, when he comes and prays toward this house,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
If your people go out to battle against their enemy, but whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the Lord toward the city which you have chosen and the house which I have built for your name, then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication and maintain their cause.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
If they sin against you, for there is no man who does not sin, and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near. Yet if they lay it to heart in the land to which they have been carried captive and repent and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
and make supplication to you in the land of their captors, saying, We have sinned, and have acted perversely and wickedly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
If they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name, then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their supplication.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
And maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you and all their transgressions which they have committed against you. And grant them compassion in the sight of those who carry them captive, that they may have compassion on them. For they are your people and your heritage, which you brought out of Egypt from the midst of the iron furnace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Let your eyes be open to the supplication of your servant and to the supplication of your people Israel, giving ear to them whenever they call to you. For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be your heritage, as you declared through Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God. Solomon blesses the assembly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Now, as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven, and he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel according to all that he promised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he uttered by Moses his servant. The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us. that he may incline our hearts to him to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, which he has commanded our fathers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 150, that is half of 300, because I am super good at math. And that means we are trucking along, which is awesome.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Let these words of mine, wherewith I have made supplication before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night. And may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of all his people Israel as each day requires. that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, there is no other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Let your heart, therefore, be wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments as at this day. Solomon offers sacrifices. Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifice before the Lord. Solomon offered as peace offerings to the Lord 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the sons of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
The same day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord, for there he offered the burnt offerings and the cereal offerings and the fat pieces of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to receive the burnt offering and the cereal offering and the fat pieces of the peace offerings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
So Solomon held the feast at that time and all Israel with him, a great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt before the Lord our God seven days. On the eighth day, he sent the people away and they blessed the king and went to their homes joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to David, his servant and to Israel, his people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Everything has a season.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
For everything, there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to seek and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to cast away. A time to tear and a time to sew. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace. What gain has the worker from his toil? God given tasks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
We're reading from 1 Kings chapter 8 today, as well as three chapters out of Ecclesiastes chapters 3, 4, and 5. We're also praying Psalm 6. As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I am using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
I have seen the business that God has given to the sons of men to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Also, that it is God's gift to man that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil. I know that whatever God does endures forever. Nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it. God has made it so in order that men should fear before him. That which is already has been. That which is to be already has been. And God seeks what has been driven away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Judgment and the future belong to God. Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time for every matter and for every work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
I said in my heart with regard to the sons of men that God is testing them to show them that they are but beasts. For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place, all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beasts goes down to the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should enjoy his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? Again, I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun, and behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
On the side of their oppressors, there was power and there was no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive, but better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
This also is vanity and a striving after wind. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And you can also subscribe to this podcast if you want to subscribe to this podcast. That's the last time I'm going to say it. This is the last time I'm going to say it today. Ha, last time today. As I said, what day is it? Day 150.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Again, I saw vanity under the sun, a person who has no one, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, for whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure? This also is vanity and an unhappy business. the value of friendship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil, for if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, and has not another to lift him up. Again, if two lie together, they are warm. But how can one be warm alone?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
and though a man might prevail against one who is alone two will withstand him a threefold cord is not quickly broken bitter is a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who will no longer take advice even though he had gone from prison to the throne or in his own kingdom had been born poor i saw all the living who move about under the sun as well as that youth who was to stand in his place there was no end of all the people he was over all of them
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 150: The Dedication of the Temple (2025)
Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind. Chapter five, reverence, humility, enjoyment. Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
But when we empty ourself, when we fast, when we deny ourselves, sometimes we even in our bodies feel the spiritual need. In fact, it sometimes even opens us up even more to what God has in store for us. So I just want to highlight that because it is a common Christian practice going all the way back to Jewish times.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Remember, the disciples of John would fast and the disciples of Jesus didn't fast. And Jesus said, when asked why, he said, well, the bridegroom is with them. They don't fast, but the days are coming when the bridegroom is taken from them and then they will fast. And so keep that in mind that that's a normal part of our existence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Again, if you have a wounded relationship with food, it doesn't have to be fasting from food. It can be anything else other than that. But moving on, this also, chapter 13, is the first time that we heard of a guy named Paul. Up until now, we've called him Saul. And now he's going to be Paul. I've heard people say that Saul, you know, Shaul, would be his Hebrew name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
And Paul, Paulos, would be more along the lines of his Roman name or his name as he goes to the Gentiles. And this kind of marks that moment here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
even though Peter has already gone to the Gentiles and even though we've already had some of these snapshots, it seems like in Antioch and Pisidia, Paul and Barnabas are saying very clearly that from now on, we'll be going to the Greeks or we're going to the Gentiles. And, um,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. and they had John to assist them. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. He was with the procouncil, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
That's not like they were exclusive to the Gentiles because the next chapter they go to the Jewish synagogue again in Iconium. And so it's not like they're abandoning the mission to the Jews. That's not at all what they did.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
But this switch from Saul to Paul is also kind of an indication of this new evangelistic outreach, this new evangelistic outreach that brings the gospel to those who were not raised Jewish, but to those who, yeah, were not part of the covenant yet. And so that's what we got today. Today also in 1 Corinthians, we have chapters seven and eight concerning marriage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Hopefully this is an encouraging word. Here's what I think is what St. Paul is really getting at when he's writing to the Corinthians about marriage. He's saying two things, I think. I think he's saying one is be faithful. So if you're married, be faithful. If you're unmarried, be faithful. In whatever state you're in, if you are not a slave, realize that you are a slave of Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
If you are a slave, realize that you're free in Christ. So just be faithful to your current state. Be faithful to the promises you've made. Now, another piece of this is I think it's almost like St. Paul saying there's no silver bullet or no magic bullet. Maybe silver bullet's the wrong thing. I think it's werewolves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
But the magic bullet would be that I think the thing a lot of us are looking for is the thing just around the corner, on the other side of the fence. You know, okay, I'm struggling to follow the Lord right now, or I'm struggling to really find this meaning in my life. If I could just get married, then that'd be great. Or if I could just get free, that'd be great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Or if I could just be unmarried, that'd be great. You know, I think a lot of times we look at our state in life, and we say, ah, we look at the people around us who are in different states of life, and we say, oh, if I could just be where they are, or if I could just be in that other state of life. And in so many ways, here's Paul saying, no, just... Wherever you're at, just stay there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
And he makes it clear when he's talking about this is from the Lord and this is just my opinion. But sometimes it's a little mix of both because I think that the overarching theme in some ways in these chapters has been this, has been there is no magic bullet. There is no secret formula. There is no special vocation that you'll be exceptionally holy in. Like maybe you're married to a believer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
That's wonderful. That's great. Continue to strive and love each other well. Maybe you're married to someone who's not a believer. Well, You can stay married to them because maybe, who knows, maybe the Lord will save them through your loving them. But this idea that I have to go be somewhere else is, oh gosh, that afflicts so many of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
I have to go be somewhere else because if I'm somewhere else, then I'll be holy. Then I'll be long to the Lord. Then I'll be able to be the kind of person that God has called me to be. And I think that if there's one thing that St. Paul is really capturing here, amidst all the other things he's saying, he's saying some important things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
One thing he's saying is in verse 17 of chapter seven, let everyone lead the life which the Lord has assigned to him and in which God has called him. And that's, I think that offers us an insight into what holiness is. Holiness is simply saying yes to God and just never ceasing to say yes. And so again, let everyone lead the life which the Lord has assigned to him and in which God has called him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
And yeah, just do not seek that magic bullet or that secret sauce. Last thing I'll say is chapter eight. It's a very brief chapter. It's only maybe 13 verses. But in it, St. Paul addresses the food offered to idols. And we talked about this a little bit before because St. Paul is saying that, yeah, you know, you go to the temple, you offer your animal as a sacrifice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is, sorry, I got so excited. Why? Because it's day 334. We're on the last page. I know I've been building this up for the last three days or however long it's been. But you guys, it's kind of significant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
But Elymas, the magician, for that is the meaning of his name, withstood them, seeking to turn away the procouncil from the faith. But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
There's the middle part, which remember cultic prostitution. And at the end, you would have the restaurant off the back of the temple. And some people would just go there as a restaurant. But where'd they get the meat for the restaurant? Where they got the meat was from the sacrifice offered to idols, offered to false gods. And so the big issue is, well, can you go to those restaurants?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
And ultimately, St. Paul says, you know, it doesn't really matter if you eat that meat because those gods don't exist. I mean, it's not like it's cursed meat kind of a situation. You can do that. But he says, there are people around you who will see you eat that meat. And because their faith is weak,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
They would say, wait, well, there's so-and-so, this Christian who's eating the meat offered to idols here. Maybe they're even eating at that restaurant, which is connected to this temple prostitution, which is connected to this worship of a false god here in this temple. And so maybe they think, well, that's what Christians do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
The Christians can just, they flip back and forth between worshiping God and worshiping Aphrodite. And if that's going to lead someone to sin, then don't do it. You can eat the meat because no big deal. Whatever. Idols don't exist. There are no lords. There are no gods. There's one Lord. There's one God. But if you're eating that meat causes someone else to sin, then do not do it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
This is what he's called. We talked about it before. The sin of scandal. And it goes to the heart of the fact that we are connected to each other. And that I could say, well, it's my life. I get to do what I want. And St. Paul kind of says, okay, yeah, you're right on a certain sense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
But in another sense, you're also giving witness and you're bearing witness to something, bearing witness to someone. You're either helping people around you know and love God better, or we're hindering the people around us from knowing and loving God better. And so, yes, while maybe it's not your responsibility to make sure they have faith, you and I belong to each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
And so we need to watch how we act. That's basically what he's saying. Hopefully that makes sense because you and I do belong to each other. And so we pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind and unable to see the sun for a time. Immediately, mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. Paul and Barnabas in Antioch of Pisidia.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Now Paul and his company set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem. But they passed on from Perga and came to Antioch of Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and sat down.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
After the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it. So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand, said, Men of Israel, and you that fear God, listen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. And for about 40 years he bore with them in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance for about 450 years.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
and after that he gave them judges until samuel the prophet then they asked for a king and god gave them saul the son of kish a man of the tribe of benjamin for forty years and when he had removed him he raised up david to be their king of whom he testified and said i have found in david the son of jesse a man after my heart who will do all my will
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Of this man's posterity, God has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus, as he promised. Before his coming, John had preached a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, What do you suppose that I am? I am not he, no, but after me, one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Brethren, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you that fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. For those who live in Jerusalem and the rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Though they could charge him with nothing deserving death, yet they asked Pilate to have him killed. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead. And for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
And anyways, that's it. That's all I'm saying. It's significant. Well done. Congratulations. Day 334, reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 13. We're reading St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, chapters 7 and 8. as well as the book of Proverbs, chapter 28, verses 4 through 6. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus. As also it is written in the second Psalm, You are my son. Today I have begotten you. And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he spoke in this way, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Therefore, he says also in another psalm, you will not let your holy one see corruption. For David, after he had served the counsel of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up saw no corruption.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Let it be known to you, therefore, brethren, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone that believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest there come upon you what is said in the prophets, Behold, you scoffers, and wonder, and perish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
For I do a deed in your days, a deed you will never believe if one declares it to you. As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And when the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
The next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy and contradicted what was spoken by Paul and reviled him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you, since you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord spread throughout all the region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Now, concerning the matters about which you wrote, it is well for a man not to touch a woman. But because of the temptation to immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not rule over her own body, but the husband does.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, and if you did, you know that's on the last sheet. That's all I'm saying. You can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe, receiving daily episodes and updates. It's day 334.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Likewise, the husband does not rule over his own body, but the wife does. do not refuse one another except perhaps by agreement for a season that you may devote yourselves to prayer but then come together again lest satan tempt you through lack of self-control i say this by way of concession not of command
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
I wish that all were as I myself am, but each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows, I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
To the married I give charge, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not separate from her husband, but if she does, let her remain single or else be reconciled to her husband, and that the husband should not divorce his wife. To the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner desires to separate, let it be so.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
In such a case, the brother or sister is not bound. For God has called us to peace. Wife, how do you know whether you will save your husband? Husband, how do you know whether you will save your wife? leading the life the Lord has assigned. Only let everyone lead the life which the Lord has assigned to him, and in which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God." Everyone should remain in the state in which he was called. Were you a slave when called? Never mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity. For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed man of the Lord. Likewise, he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves of men. So brethren, in whatever state each was called, let him remain with God. More concerning marriage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Now concerning the unmarried, I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy. I think that in the view of impending distress, it is well for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek marriage. But if you marry, you do not sin. And if a girl marries, she does not sin."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
We're reading Acts of the Apostles chapter 13, 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and 8, and as well as Proverbs chapter 28 verses 4 through 6. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 13, Barnabas and Saul commissioned. Now in the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan, a member of the court of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. I mean, brethren, the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the form of this world is passing away. I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
And the unmarried woman or virgin is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit, But the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly towards his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes. Let him marry. It is no sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
but whoever is firmly established in his heart being under no necessity but having his desire under control and has determined this in his heart to keep her as his betrothed he will do well so that he who marries his betrothed does well and he who refrains from marriage will do better a wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives if the husband dies she is free to be married to whom she wishes only in the lord
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
But in my judgment, she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I have the Spirit of God. Chapter 8. Food Offered to Idols Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if one loves God, one is known by him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no God but one.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we exist.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
However, not all possess this knowledge, but some, through being until now accustomed to idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat. We are no better off if we do. Only take care, lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
For if anyone sees you, a man of knowledge, at table in an idol's temple, might he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak man is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Therefore, if food is a cause of my brother's failing, I will never eat meat, lest I cause my brother to fall.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive against them. Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it completely. Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is perverse in his ways.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Thank you for this opportunity once again to hear your word proclaimed, to be able to come to faith and just come to say, okay, Lord, we trust in you and we can see your mighty works. Thank you for letting us live in this time that is called the age of the church. Thank you for giving us your Holy Spirit that we can not just hear about and read about the stories of people like Paul and Barnabas,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. The apostles preach in Cyprus. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
but also we can participate in your story that you continue to write. Lord God, as you sent out Paul and Barnabas, please send us out to proclaim your truth, your existence, your love to people who long to hear about your truth and your existence and your love. We ask this in Jesus's name. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
So in the Acts of the Apostles, we have a couple of things. Well, one is Saul and Barnabas are commissioned, the church in Antioch. This is, I think I want to highlight this. It says that they were worshiping the Lord and fasting. And then the Holy Spirit said, set apart Saul and Barnabas for a work which I have called them to.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
And then it says that after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. A couple of things about this is that fasting accompanies prayer. This is standard for Christians. Fasting accompanies prayer. And fasting, yes, I know there are many people who have issues when it comes to food in their life. They have a broken relationship or a wounded relationship with food.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
And so fasting does not need to necessarily always involve fasting from food. That's kind of the normal way, but fasting can be anything. Fasting from any kind of thing that we rely upon for comfort, any kind of thing that even we rely upon to function. I mean, we were not meant to hurt our bodies, but fasting from the snooze button is a real thing. Fasting from coffee is a real thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
Fasting from alcohol is a real thing. That's called abstaining, but you get what I'm saying. The idea behind this is here are the early Christians here. And they're gathered and it seems very, very normal for them to fast and pray. So it's not they're not just praying, they're also fasting. And God's doing something in that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 334: The Meaning of Fasting (2024)
It's not like fasting coerces God into doing something like we're just going to pray and he doesn't listen. Then you fast also and he really listens. That's not the case. But when we fast, we're doing something really important in aligning our bodies with our spirits. We need God so much. And yet sometimes when our bodies are full, we kind of don't feel that need.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
But here is God's faithfulness that came to pass and not again, just handed to them. They had to cooperate with the Lord. They had to be faithful to him. They had to obey him. They had to fight. And yet not one of all the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. All came to pass.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
And this is something that all of us, I think all of us need to be reminded of right now is that what God has promised, he will, he will fulfill. But it doesn't mean that he fulfills it immediately. It doesn't necessarily mean that he fills it without a fight. But it does mean that he is faithful to his promises. And so we're going to be faithful as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
And we're faithful like that Psalm 131, which is one of my favorite Psalms. I know I might say that a couple of times, but it is one of my favorite Psalms. I often give it. as a penance in confession because it's only three verses long. Psalm 131, if you wanna go back and pray that one more time, it's so good because it's just that prayer of humble trust.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
The second lot came out for Simeon, for the tribe of Simeon, according to its families, and its inheritance was in the midst of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah. And it had for its inheritance Beersheba, Sheba, Lada, Hazar-Shual, Bala, Ezim, Eltulad, Bethul, Hormah,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
Like the fact that so much of our lives are spent striving and so much of our lives are spent battling and yep, sometimes that's what we're called to. But oftentimes we strive against the Lord. We battle against the Lord. And Psalm 131 reminds us, no, in silence and in peace, I rest in the Lord's arms as a child in his mother's arms.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
And so I just invite us all today to enter into the Lord's rest, enter into his peace. we might be called to battles. We might be called to struggle or striving, but not battle against the Lord, not striving against the Lord, but to be able to be at peace and abide in his love and abide in his presence, to abide in his arms like a child in the arms of his or her mom. We give you praise, Lord God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
And I'm praying for you, everyone. Tomorrow, we're going to finish the book of Joshua, and it's going to be awesome because Joshua has some words for the people of Israel, kind of like Moses did, some kind of like famous last words, just reminding the people of Israel of their dignity, reminding the people of Israel of their high call. And that's what we're getting to tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
So let's keep praying for each other that we do show up tomorrow, that we show up tomorrow, even after rough days or rough seasons, rough weeks in our lives, and just say, Lord, speak. Your servant is listening. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
Ziklag, Beth-Makraboth, Hazar-Susa, Beth-Lebaoth, and Shurahan, 13 cities with their villages, En-Ramon, Ether, and Ashan, four cities with their villages, together with all the villages round about these cities as far as Baalath-Beer, Ramah of the Negev. This was the inheritance of the tribe of Simeon according to its families.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 87. We have only this day and tomorrow until we're completed the book of Joshua, moving on to the book of Judges, which is just phenomenal. We're reading today from Joshua 19, 20, and 21.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
The inheritance of the tribe of Simeon formed part of the territory of Judah because the portion of the tribe of Judah was too large for them. The tribe of Simeon obtained an inheritance in the midst of their inheritance. the territory of Zebulun. The third lot came up for the tribe of Zebulun, according to its families, and the territory of its inheritance reached as far as Sarid.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
Then its boundary goes up westward and on to Marial and touches Debesheth. Then the brook, which is east of Joknaam, from Sarid, it goes in the other direction eastward toward the sunrise to the boundary of Chisloth Tabor. Thence it goes to Debarath, then up to Japhia.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
From there it passes along on the east toward the sunrise to Gathhefer, then to Eth-Kassin, and going on to Rimon it bends towards Neah. Then on the north the boundary turns about to Hanathon, and it ends at the valley of Ifthal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
at kattah nahalal shimron idalah and bethlehem twelve cities with their villages this is the inheritance of the tribe of zebulun according to its families these cities with their villages the territory of issachar The fourth lot came out for Issachar, for the tribe of Issachar, according to its families. Its territory included Jezreel, The boundary also touches Tabor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
Shehazumah, and Beth Shemesh, and its boundary ends at the Jordan, 16 cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the tribe of Issachar according to its families, the cities with their villages. The Territory of Asher The fifth lot came out for the tribe of Asher according to its families. Its territory included Helkath, Hali, Beten, Akshaf, Alamelech, Amad, and Mishal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
On the west, it touches Carmel and Shehor Libnath. Then it turns eastward. It goes to Beth Dagon and touches Zebulun on the valley of Iftahel, northward to Beth Emek, then it continues in the north to kabul ebron rehob hamon cana as far as sidon the great then the boundary runs to ramah reaching to the fortified city of tyre then the boundary turns to hosa and it ends at the sea mahalab
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
Umah, Aphek, and Rehob, 22 cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the tribe of Asher according to its families, these cities with their villages. The territory of Naphtali. The sixth lot came out for the tribe of Naphtali, for the tribe of Naphtali, according to its families.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
And its boundary ran from Helef, from the oak of Za'ananim, and Adami-Nakeb, and Jabnil, as far as Lachum, and it ended at the Jordan. Then the boundary turns westward to Asnath Tabor and goes from there to Hukuk, touching Zebulun at the south and Asher on the west and Judah on the east at the Jordan. The fortified cities are Zidim, Zer, Hamath, Rakath,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
i'll be praying from psalm 131 today as always i am reading from the revised standard version second catholic edition i'm using the great adventure bible from ascension so if you want to pick one of those up they're really great especially as i mentioned yesterday when i'll be reading from joshua 19 20 21 there's a lot of talks about places and the divisions of the tribes and their lands the land that is ascribed by lot to the or portioned by lot
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
Chinareth, Adama, Ramah, Hazor, Kadesh, Edrei, and Hazor, Yiron, Migdal-el, Horem, Beth-anath, and Beth-shemeth, 19 cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the tribes of Naphtali according to its families, the cities with their villages. The Territory of Dan The seventh lot came out for the tribe of Dan according to its families.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
and the territory of its inheritance included Zorah, Eshtaol, Arshamesh, Sha'alabim, Ai-Jalon, Idh-La, Elan, Timna, Akron, Eltaka, Gibethan, Ba'alath, Jehud, Bnei Barak, Gath-Ramon, and Mejarkhon and Rakhon, with the territory over against Joppa. When the territory of the Danites was lost to them, the Danites went up and fought against Leshem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
And after capturing it and putting it to the sword, they took possession of it and settled in it, calling Leshem Dan, after the name of Dan, their ancestor. This is the inheritance of the tribe of Dan, according to their families, these cities with their villages. The inheritance of Joshua.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
When they had finished distributing the several territories of the land as inheritances, the sons of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua, the son of Nun. By command of the Lord, they gave him the city which he asked, Timnath-serah, in the hill country of Ephraim. And he rebuilt the city and settled in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
These are the inheritances which Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the sons of Israel, distributed by lot at Shiloh before the Lord, at the door of the tent of meeting. So they finished dividing the land. Chapter 20.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
The City of Refuge Then the Lord said to Joshua, Say to the sons of Israel, Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, that the manslayer who kills any person without intent or unwittingly may flee there. They shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
He shall flee to one of these cities and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and explain his case to the elders of that city. Then they shall take him into the city and give him a place and he shall remain with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not give up the slayer into his hand because he killed his neighbor unwittingly, having had no enmity against him in times past. And he shall remain in that city until he has stood before the congregation for judgment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
until the death of him who was high priest at that time then the slayer may go again to his own town and his own home to the town from which he fled so they set apart kadesh in galilee in the hill country of naphtali and shechem in the hill country of ephraim and kiriath arba that is hebron in the hill country of judah
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
And beyond the Jordan, east of Jericho, they appointed Bezer in the wilderness on the table land from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
These were the cities designated for all the sons of Israel and for the stranger sojourning among them, that anyone who killed a person without intent could flee there, so that he might not die by the hand of the avenger of blood till he stood before the congregation. Chapter 21. The Cities of the Levites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
Then the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites came to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the sons of Israel. And they said to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, the Lord commanded through Moses that we be given cities to dwell in along with their pasture lands for our cattle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
So by command of the Lord, the sons of Israel gave to the Levites the following cities and pasture lands out of their inheritance. The lot came out for the families of the Kohathites. So those Levites who were descendants of Aaron the priest received by lot from the tribe of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin thirteen cities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
to the tribes of israel and so if you want to be able to have a visual along with that you can find one of those great adventure bibles and the backs they have maps or even just pull up on your phone or on whatever it is if you're not driving somewhere you can look to see what would that map possibly look like that could be really helpful today for the reading today if you want to download your own bible in a year reading plan speaking of maps because that's kind of like a map for how we're walking through the bible you can go to ascensionpress.com
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
And the rest of the Kohathites received by lot from the families of the tribe of Ephraim, from the tribe of Dan, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh, 10 cities. The Gershonites received by lot from the families of the tribe of Issachar, from the tribe of Asher, from the tribe of Naphtali, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, 13 cities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
The Merorites, according to their families, received from the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the tribe of Zebulun twelve cities. These cities and their pasture lands the sons of Israel gave by lot to the Levites, as the Lord had commanded through Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
Out of the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Simeon they gave the following cities mentioned by name, which went to the descendants of Aaron, one of the families of the Kohathites who belonged to the Levites since the lot fell to them first. They gave them Kiriath Arba. Arba being the father of Anak, that is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah along with the pasture lands round about it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
But the fields of the city and its villages had been given to Caleb the sons of Jephunneh as his possession. And to the descendants of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron, the city of refuge for the slayer with its pasture lands, Libna with its pasture lands, Jatir with its pasture lands,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
Eshtemoa with its pastor lands, Holon with its pastor lands, Debir with its pastor lands, Ain with its pastor lands, Juta with its pastor lands, Beth Shemesh with its pastor lands. Nine cities out of these two tribes, then out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with its pastor lands, Geba with its pastor lands, Anathoth with its pastor lands, and Almon with its pastor lands, four cities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
The cities of the descendants of Aaron, the priests, were in all thirteen cities with their pasture lands. And to the rest of the Kohathites, belonging to the Kohathite families of the Levites, the cities allotted to them were out of the tribe of Ephraim. To them were given Shechem, the city of refuge for the slayer, with its pasture lands in the hill country of Ephraim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
Gizer with its pastor lands, Kibzaim with its pastor lands, Bethhoron with its pastor lands, four cities. And out of the tribe of Dan, Eltiki with its pastor lands, Gibathon with its pastor lands, Aijalon with its pastor lands, Gathramon with its pastor lands, four cities. And out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Tanakh with its pastor lands, and Gathramon with its pastor lands, two cities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
the cities of the families of the rest of the Kohathites were ten in all with their pasture lands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
And to the Gershonites, one of the families of the Levites were given out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Golan in Bashan with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the slayer, and Beshterah with its pasture lands, two cities, and out of the tribe of Issachar, Kishion with its pasture lands, Debarath with its pasture lands, Jarmuth with its pasture lands, and Ganim with its pasture lands, four cities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
And out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with its pasture lands, Abdon with its pasture lands, Helkath with its pasture lands, and Rehob with its pasture lands, four cities. And out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kadesh in Galilee with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the slayer, Hamathador with its pasture lands, and Kartan with its pasture lands, three cities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
the cities of the several families of the Gershonites were in all 13 cities with their pasture lands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
And to the rest of the Levites, the Merorite families, were given out of the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam with its pasture lands, Kartah with its pasture lands, Dimnah with its pasture lands, Nahalal with its pasture lands, four cities, and out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer with its pasture lands, Jehaz with its pasture lands, Kittimoth with its pasture lands, and Mephaoth with its pasture lands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
four cities, and out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth and Gilead with its pastor lands, the city of refuge for the slayer, Manahnim with its pastor lands, Heshbon with its pastor lands, Jezer with its pastor lands, four cities in all. As for the cities of the several Merorite families, that is the remainder of the families of the Levites were allotted to them in all 12 cities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
The cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the sons of Israel were in all 48 cities with their pastor lands. These cities had each its pasture lands round about it, so it was with all these cities. Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land which he swore to give to their fathers, and having taken possession of it, they settled there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
slash Bible in a year. Lastly, if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, you can by simply clicking that button that says subscribe, and then everything's taken care of. Again, it's day 87. We're reading Joshua 19, 20, and 21 and praying Psalm 131. The book of Joshua chapter 19, the territory of Simeon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one of all the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up. My eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me, but I have calmed and quieted my soul like a child quieted at its mother's breast, like a child that is quieted is my soul. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
We give you glory and honor and every breath we have is from you. Every heartbeat is from you. And so we thank you for every heartbeat. We thank you with every heartbeat. We thank you for every breath and we thank you with every breath. Lord God, you've given them to us for free and we are so blind to them so often.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
So every moment of every day, this day, especially this day, every heartbeat, every breath, let everyone be a prayer of praise, a prayer of thanks to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So again, as I said, kind of one of those days where it's like, man, oh man, we gotta get through this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
All the names, all the places, all the things we mentioned yesterday, that these places are meaningful. They're important to us to note because they're history. At the same time, the last lines of today's readings in Joshua chapter 21 are so powerful because it sums up why we went through all those names. It sums up why we went through all those tribes and all those places.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
The last words is the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their fathers. And that's so, so powerful. It goes on. It says, not one of their enemies had withstood them for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. And bam, here's the last line of chapter 21, verse 45. Not one of all the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 87: God Keeps His Promises (2025)
All came to pass. And there is something so, so good for us to hear that something so good for us to be reminded of this fact that that think about this. This is not after one day. This is not after one week or one month or one year or even one generation. This has happened over multiple generations, couple centuries.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And remember, this is numbers. This is just 13 months after The people of Israel have been set free from slavery. They're being taught how to trust in God. And so while the pillar of fire and pillar of cloud is over the tabernacle, you stay here, whether it's for a day or two days or a longer time. And when it moves, then we move. And there's something so powerful about that knowledge of faith.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
That's what we're called to do as well in our lives is, okay, Lord, I'll move when you call me to move. And if you don't call me to move, I'm going to stay put. There's something so powerful about trusting the Lord. A last note, just because Deuteronomy chapter eight is worth reading again and again. Again, context, numbers, 13 months after, set free from slavery. Deuteronomy, 40 years after.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
It's 38 years, essentially, after numbers. And what does Moses say? He says that remember, you shall remember all the ways which the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness. Why? That he might humble you, testing you to know what is in your heart, whether he would keep his commandments or not. Now, God's not testing because he doesn't know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
He's testing to reveal to the people, okay, this is the truth about me. And this is, oh man, this is training. Realize this. They're about to go into the promised land. They're going to have to fight. And they're also going to be surrounded by people who... don't believe what they believe. And also they're going to be blessed and they're going to have so much abundance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And so here's God saying, okay, you were tested and trained in the wilderness to trust me and to keep my commandments. When you go into the promised land, please embrace those commandments. You're not like them. You've been set apart. You're mine. You're my beloved possession. You're my firstborn. And lastly, I'm going to bless you so exceedingly that you're going to be tempted to forget me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And this is something that's so powerful for all of us to realize is that oftentimes we think that we forget God in the dark and I, and that's possibly true, but I know too often we forget God in the sunny days. We forget God when we're abundantly blessed. We forget God when everything is going well, because then we don't need him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
I can do without him because I did this and I'm safe and I'm secure and I have enough. And that's the temptation that Deuteronomy chapter eight highlights and says, when you have so much, you will be tempted to say, this is what I've done. This is the work of my hands and I do not need to follow the Lord. And Moses says, when you come to that day, please, please know that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And thus shall you do to them to cleanse them, sprinkle the water of expiation upon them and let them go with a razor over all their body and wash their clothes and cleanse themselves. Then let them take a young bull and its cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil. And you shall take another bull for a sin offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Know that it was God's faithfulness. And so that's my invitation and my prayer today too. I will move when God asks me to move and I'll stay when he asks me to stay, but also in times of scarcity and in times of abundance to remember all that the Lord has done. What an incredible gift. You guys, we are rounding out the 50s. Tomorrow is day 60. So what an incredible thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
That's three, sorry, that's two months. I don't even know math and calendars, how they work. But this is remarkable. These last 60 days, 59 days, we've been praying for each other. We've been listening to God's word and we will not stop praying for each other. I will not stop praying for you. We will not stop listening to God's word so he can continue to teach us what is in his heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And so our hearts can be like his heart. I'm praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And you shall present the Levites before the tent of meeting and assemble the whole congregation of the sons of Israel. When you present the Levites before the Lord, the sons of Israel shall lay their hands upon the Levites and Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord as a wave offering from the sons of Israel. that it may be theirs to do the service of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day 59, and so we will be reading two chapters from Numbers. It's Numbers chapter eight and chapter nine, as well as Deuteronomy chapter eight, just the one in Deuteronomy, We'll be praying through Psalm 93.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Then the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bulls, and you shall offer the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering to the Lord to make atonement for the Levites. And you shall cause the Levites to attend Aaron and his sons and shall offer them as a wave offering to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Thus shall you separate the Levites from among the sons of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine. And after that, the Levites shall go into due service at the tent of meeting when you have cleansed them and offered them as a wave offering. For they are wholly given to me from among the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Instead of all that opened the womb, the firstborn of all the sons of Israel, I have taken them for myself. For all the firstborn among the sons of Israel are mine, both of man and of beast. On the day that I slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated them for myself. And I have taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the sons of Israel to do the service for the sons of Israel at the tent of meeting and to make atonement for the sons of Israel that there may be no plague among the sons of Israel in case the sons of Israel should come near the sanctuary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Thus did Moses and Aaron in all the congregation of the sons of Israel to the Levites, according to all that the Lord commanded Moses concerning the Levites, the sons of Israel did to them. And the Levites purified themselves from sin and washed their clothes. And Aaron offered them as a wave offering before the Lord. And Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And after that, the Levites went in to do the service in the tent of meeting in attendance upon Aaron and his sons. As the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they did to them. And the Lord said to Moses, this is what pertains to the Levites. From 25 years old and upward, they shall go in to perform the work in the service of the tent of meeting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And from the age of 50 years, they shall withdraw from the work of the service and serve no more, but minister to their brethren in the tent of meeting to keep the charge, and they shall do no service. Thus shall you do to the Levites in assigning their duties. Chapter nine, the Passover kept at Sinai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt saying, let the sons of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. On the 14th day of this month in the evening, you shall keep it at its appointed time. According to all its statutes and all its ordinances, you shall keep it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
So Moses told the sons of Israel that they should keep the Passover at its appointed time. And they kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, in the wilderness of Sinai, according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the sons of Israel did.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And there were certain men who were unclean through touching the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day. And they came before Moses and Aaron on that day. And those men said to him, we are unclean through touching the dead body of a man. Why are we kept from offering the Lord's offering at its appointed time among the sons of Israel?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And Moses said to them, Wait, that I may hear what the Lord will command concerning you. The Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, If any man of you or of your descendants is unclean through touching a dead body or is afar off on a journey, he shall still keep the Passover to the Lord. In the second month, on the fourteenth day, in the evening, they shall keep it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
As always, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. You can get that at ascensionpress.com or wherever Bibles are sold. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break a bone of it, according to all that the statute for the Passover they shall keep it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, yet refrains from keeping the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people, because he did not offer the Lord's offering at its appointed time. That man shall bear his sin." And if a stranger sojourns among you and will keep the Passover to the Lord according to the statute of the Passover and according to its ordinance, so shall he do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
You shall have one statute both for the sojourner and for the native. the cloud and the fire. On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the covenant. And at evening, it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. So it was continually, the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tent, After that, the sons of Israel set out. And in the place where the cloud settled down, there the sons of Israel encamped. At the command of the Lord, the sons of Israel set out. And at the command of the Lord, they encamped. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in the camp.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle many days, the sons of Israel kept the charge of the Lord and did not set out. Sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the command of the Lord they remained in camp. Then according to the command of the Lord they set out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning, and when the cloud was taken up in the morning they set out. Or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud was taken up they set out. Whether it was two days or a month or a longer time that the cloud continued over the tabernacle abiding there, the sons of Israel remained in camp and did not set out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
But when it was taken up, they set out. At the command of the Lord they encamped, and at the command of the Lord they set out. They kept the charge of the Lord at the command of the Lord by Moses. The book of Deuteronomy chapter eight, a warning not to forget God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Moses continued, all the commandment which I command you this day, you shall be careful to do that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And if you haven't, one last thing, if you haven't yet subscribed to this podcast app or rated it or whatever, please do that. If you want to give it a Good review, that's great. If you want to give it a bad review, that's also great because if that is your opinion, then you don't have to keep it to yourself. As I said, today is day 59.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And he humbled you, and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything which proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out upon you and your foot did not swell these 40 years.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs flowing forth in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Take heed, lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his ordinances and his statutes, which I command you this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Lest when you have eaten and are full and have built excellent houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do good to you in the end. Beware, lest you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as at this day. And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you this day that you shall surely perish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Psalm 93 The Majesty of God's Rule
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
We're reading chapters 8 and 9 of Numbers, chapter 8 of Deuteronomy, praying Psalm 93. Numbers chapter 8, the seven lamps. Now the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, when you set up the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the lampstand. And Aaron did so. He set up its lamps to give light in front of the lampstand as the Lord commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
The Lord reigns. He is robed in majesty. The Lord is robed. He is girded with strength. Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. Your throne is established from of old. You are from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O Lord. The floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lifted up their roaring.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty. Your decrees are very sure. Holiness befits your house, O Lord, forevermore. Father in heaven, we thank you and give you praise. Thank you so much for your word and thank you so much for your guidance because Lord, without you, we're lost.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Without your light, you to illumine the way, to light our path, your word, O Lord, is a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path. Help us, Lord, to trust in your light. Help us to trust in the guidance that you give us. Help us to trust in your word because, Lord, we can hear your word and dismiss it. We can hear your word and forget it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
We can even see your great works, Lord, and we can forget them and we can forget you. Help us never, ever to forget. Help us always to see where you are in our lives and always to hear your voice in our lives and help us to always follow you wherever you lead, no matter what. God, let that be our prayer today. Help us to follow you where you lead, no matter what.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And we make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Just a quick reminder, book of Numbers and the book of Deuteronomy, just our context here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
Remember that the book of Numbers, it reminded us today in chapter nine, that this is now 13 months, a short 13 months after the people of Israel have been set free from slavery in Egypt. So they are new to all of this. They're new to this freedom. They're new to worship in the wilderness. They're new to trusting in the Lord. This is so important for us to understand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And in Deuteronomy, this is after the 38 years of wandering in the wilderness, right? This is after 40 years now of being free. And they're about, this is Moses' last speech as he's about to die and be taken to the Lord. And then Joshua is going to lead the people of Israel across the Jordan River to and conquer the promised land. And so keep that in mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
So when we're reading from Numbers and what we hear in Numbers is about the gold lampstand being made. We hear about the law of the Passover and Levites consecration and service. And we hear about the cloud and the fire. Remember, this is all preparing the people of Israel for this life in the wilderness and life after the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
So Deuteronomy is going to be like, okay, after all of this, here's what we got before you go into the place of freedom. You went to the promised land. So a couple of quick things. One is it's so important. Let's just highlight the chapter nine in book of numbers for one moment. Two things in numbers chapter nine. One is.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
that the Lord God in Exodus, he established the Passover as a perpetual institution. That's what it says. As a perpetual institution, you're going to have this Passover, this ritual where you offer this lamb in sacrifice, you roast its flesh with bitter herbs, and you eat its flesh with loin skirt and unleavened bread.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
This is going to happen every single year on the first month in the 14th day of the month. That's when that's going to happen. And the question comes up, well, wait, there's some people here who are unclean. Are they exempt from this? Are there people who are traveling? They're not here with us. Are they exempt from this kind of worship that God is asking?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And Moses says, I'm going to consult the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, no, basically you shall not. Participate. You shall participate fully in the Passover because this is an obligation. This way of worshiping is an obligation that even coming into contact with a dead body, which would make you ritually unclean, or even being on a journey doesn't dispense you from.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And that's something so powerful for us to understand. In fact, it says the person who dispenses themself, right? The person who excuses themself from this kind of worship, from this Passover meal is cut off from the covenant, cut off from the people of God. And this is one of the things we know, right? That we recognize.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
And this was the workmanship of the lampstand. Hammered work of gold. From its base to its flowers, it was hammered work, according to the pattern which the Lord had shown Moses. So he made the lampstand. the Levites consecration and service. And the Lord said to Moses, take the Levites from among the sons of Israel and cleanse them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
is that Jesus Christ, at the Last Supper, he says, okay, this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant. Do this in memory of me. And so we recognize that there might be some things that are preventing us from attending Mass, but if we elect to stay away from Mass, then we have essentially cut ourselves off from the people of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
That's one of the depths of the revelation of the New Testament about... how the Passover was a foreshadowing of the true gift of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, which is Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. And just like the Passover, you were not exempt just because you were traveling or something, some other reason.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 59: Obligations to God (2025)
If you exempted yourself, you dispensed yourself, you were cut off. So too, if we dispense ourselves from this true and living worship, worshiping the Lord in spirit and truth in the Eucharist, then we are cutting ourselves off. On one last note in chapter nine, before we jumped in numbers in the one note there too, the cloud and the fire, what an incredible image for trusting in the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
I'm Father Mark Mary Ames with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. My brothers and sisters, at the service of becoming saints and falling in love with Jesus and Mary and the Most Holy Rosary, the team here at Ascension Press have put together the Rosary in a Year podcast. Each day, we're going to have a 10 to 15 minute episode where we're just going to work through the basics of the Rosary.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
If you want to download your own Bible in your reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year and store that up for five days from now when you're starting back on day number one. You can also subscribe to this podcast and click on that and receive daily episodes and daily updates. Today is day 362. We are reading Revelation chapters 12, 13, and 14.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Again, he sets a certain day, today, saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later of another day. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever enters God's rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Jesus, the great high priest. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the son of God. Let us hold fast our confession.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The book of Proverbs chapter 31 verses 19 through 22.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
She puts her hands to the distaff and her hands hold the spindle. She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet. She makes herself coverings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Her clothing is fine linen and purple. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you so much.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Thank you once again for your word. We thank you for this last book that we're reading, the letter to the Hebrews. We ask that you please open our minds, enlighten us so that we can know what we're reading, know what we're hearing. We ask you to please prepare our hearts, prepare our hearts for your judgment, prepare our hearts for
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Love that comes upon the earth, even if that love is purifying, help us in this way to receive you. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So we'll start with the Revelation today because, you know, why not?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
If you remember yesterday, yesterday we concluded with chapter 11 of the book of Revelation. And what did John see? John looked into heaven and he saw the Ark of the Covenant seen within his temple. Remember the Ark hadn't been seen since Jeremiah hid it away hundreds of years before this. And then the chapter 12 happens and he just says, and. So this is the same vision.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
The letter to the Hebrews chapters one, two, three, and four and Proverbs chapter 31 verses 19 to 22. Revelation to John Chapter 12 The Woman and the Dragon And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child, and she cried out in her pangs of birth in anguish for delivery.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
He sees the temple, the Ark of the Covenant, and a great sign appeared in the heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars. She was with child, and she cried out in her pangs of birth in anguish for delivery. Another sign in heaven, a red dragon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Remember, seven heads, ten horns, seven diamonds upon the heads, signifying power and signifying some wisdom, signifying some influence here. Let's go back to the woman, though. There are at least three images of who this woman is. One image is the woman is ancient Israel. It's faithful Israel. And that is legit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Another image is that this is the church, which makes sense too, because here is this image of Satan, again, waging war on the church, on the children of the church, the bride of Christ here. The third image, of course, is Mary is the woman because Mary gave birth to the only begotten son of God. Now, all of those images are valid.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
We can see all of those and say, yeah, there's a way in which all of them represent. So here's a secular example. It might be helpful, but in the book series, The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien, he has a number of figures of Christ, Christ figures. So one of them is Gandalf, right? He's the wizard. He's a Christ figure in the sense that he has wisdom and power and those kinds of things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And at one point he dies and comes back, comes back transformed from Gandalf the gray to Gandalf the white. He's an image of Christ, the priest. You have Aragorn, who is the king, and he's going to take his throne at some point. He's exiled in many ways, but at some point he's going to take his throne. So here's an image of Jesus Christ, the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
You also have Frodo, who's the hobbit, who carries the ring. And in Tolkien's work, he said that he actually, Tolkien said about the Lord of the Rings, he said that it's a religious and it's specifically Catholic work. So Frodo is the ring bearer and ring in Middle Earth and in the whole book series, the ring symbolizes the corruptive power of sin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And so here's the one who's carrying the corruptive power of sin, carrying the ring in order to destroy it. In the process, it costs him something. So here is Frodo, the ring bearer in terms of like, you know, here's Jesus, the cross bearer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
So you can see that in that work of fiction, there are three images or three ways you can see, oh, this is a Christ figure, this is a Christ figure, this is a Christ figure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
In a similar way, you have this book of Revelation chapter 12, this woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head with a crown of 12 stars, who gives birth to this child as, yeah, the faithful remnant of Israel, the early church or the church itself, as well as Mary, the mother of God. And so all of those are legitimate interpretations of this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Now, one thing to kind of keep in mind, though, if you want to read an incredible story about Our Lady of Guadalupe, there's this story that dates back hundreds of years around what's now known as Mexico City, where people had come to the New World. Christians had come to the New World, in fact, trying to bring the gospel of Jesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And it was, after maybe 50 years or so, made a couple hundred, maybe a couple thousand conversions. And there was some kind of stranglehold that prevented the gospel from really thriving in the new world here in this land, essentially. You know, if you know anything about the ancient world in Central America, is that it was dominated in a lot of ways by human sacrifice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
It was dominated by what you might call, by this point, demonic oppression and whatnot. And at one point, there's a man named Juan Diego. And this young woman appeared to him. She looked Aztec. She looked native, essentially. And she asked him to go to the bishop to ask the bishop to build a cathedral, a church in honor of the Lord. And he went to the bishop. The bishop said, yeah, I need proof.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Basically, here's a short story. Juan Diego went back to the woman.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
the young woman, and she said, okay, well, she pointed out some flowers, and it was the middle of December there in Mexico in the mountains, and so flowers shouldn't be growing there, and so there was these flowers that went full bloom, Castilian flowers, Castilian roses, in fact, and so he took off his tilma, which is like a poncho made out of dried reeds, so it's really fragile, but
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
um, probably knew was fine. And she arranged these flowers on them, gave it back to him. He wrapped him up or she wrapped him up, gave him back to him. And he presented the bishop like, here's the proof, the flowers. And he unfolds this tilma and the bishop not only looks at the flowers and says, okay, this is incredible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And another sign appeared in heaven, behold, a red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems upon his head. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child that he might devour her child when she brought it forth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Castilian roses in the middle of December in Mexico, but also on that tilma was an image of the woman, the image of the young maiden, our lady of Guadalupe. And that image has endured to this day. There's no scientific way that it's even possible to have this image imprinted on this tilma. The tilma itself, normal tilmas only last a couple years, if maybe a dozen years.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
This has been hundreds of years this has existed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
it's remarkable in the image the woman the image of our lady of Guadalupe she is what she's clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 stars and this is the point of what the story now ultimately the point is not just that Mary appeared and did a miracle on a tilma on a poncho and they built a church in in honor of God through what he's done but
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
the point is immediately after this i believe there was something like five to nine million conversions to jesus christ remember in genesis chapter three there was talk about you know someone striking the head of the evil one crushing the head of the serpent and we see that that happened here in the new world our lady appeared with clothes in the sun moon under her feet on her head a crown of 12 stars
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And what happened after that was the stranglehold that the evil one had on the native people here whom God died for, whom he loves, were set free from that. And they came to know Jesus Christ and gave their lives for him and to him. That's just an incredible story. I think it's incredible. We also have the rest of the Bible here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And we have all of these images of the beasts from the sea, the beasts from the earth, as well as the lamb and the 144,000.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
One of the things we can keep in mind in all of this is that in the midst of all this persecution, we also have the number 666, remembering that this is both a vision of what happened to the people, the people in the early church in that first century of Christianity, as well as some projection of what will happen at the end of time. So we have, this is the persecution they went under.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And this is one of the things that we can take solace in, take comfort in, that our brothers and sisters have been through this before. That yes, they have not lived through the final judgment, but they lived through persecution and they've survived that. And God was with them the entire time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
When we go through persecution, we will survive it because God will be with us until the very end, all the way through the very end. Now, quick note on letter to the Hebrews, which is, I think this is just unfair. that we've set this up so that the two most complicated books of the Bible, I would say, Hebrews and the book of Revelation are the last two books.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And we have like a thousand chapters every day, but that's just me whining. We have, cause I can't say as much as I want to say about it. What we have is letter to the Hebrews and we don't know who authored it for years. People thought it was St. Paul who authored it and maybe it was, but maybe it was someone else. But
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Who he's writing to, it seems really clear, even from the opening pages, it seems really clear that the audience of Letter to the Hebrews were Hebrews, of course. They were Jewish people who knew the Old Testament very well, who had come to know Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
In fact, who themselves had experienced a degree of persecution and maybe were even, according to Hebrews chapter 13, maybe were even tempted to turn back to their former ways of worshiping God. So there's this temptation there in the midst of persecution. There's this desire to say, wait, who is Jesus really?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
She brought forth a male child, one who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God in which to be nourished for 1260 days. Michael defeats the dragon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And that's why at the very beginning of these chapters, talking about, okay, wait, let's establish this. Before we go any further, Jesus is superior to the angels. So we know angels are incredibly powerful, incredibly incredible. Jesus is superior to them. They're making the case that Jesus is God himself. In fact, Chapter one, verse three, it says this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature. And that is in Hebrew. Basically, that is saying, oh, yeah, he reflects the glory of God. Basically, he is to the sun as the rays of the sun are to the sun. Right. The same thing. It's the same thing. If you look at the rays of the sun and the sun itself, it's the same thing. You also would say the very stamp of his nature.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
If you have the stamp, like the imprint, the insignia on a ensign ring, right? That stamp is the same as the ring itself, the stamper. And so they're basically saying that here is Jesus who is much higher than the angels. In fact, in chapter three, he says that he is not only higher than the angels, he's higher than Moses who gave us the law. But in Moses, he was a servant, but Christ is a son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And this is so incredible. Gosh, there's so many things you want to be able to say about this because you not only have him higher than the angels, and at the same time, he was lifted up, purified, made perfect by what he suffered. I want to just highlight this one. Now, not that Jesus needed to be made perfect in that sense that you and I need to be purified, like our hearts need to be purified.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
That's not the same kind of thing. But here he is going through this privation, going through suffering for the sake of those who made his brethren. And this is just incredible. So let's go back to chapter two, verse nine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
We see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering and death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. This is what Jesus has done for you and for me. That he has tasted death so you and I can taste life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
For it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist and bringing many sons to glory should make the pioneer of their salvation, that's Jesus, perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have all one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brethren. He's not ashamed to call them brothers. And this is so important. He calls you his brother.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
He calls you his sister. God loves you and he's made you his own through the death of his son, Jesus Christ. This is super long. I know it is. I'm so sorry, but I want that to sink in. He's not ashamed to call you his own. He's not ashamed to call you his brother. He is not ashamed to call you his sister. And he's not ashamed when you call him your brother and your Lord. I'm praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought. But they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Who is Jesus? How do we encounter Jesus? Who is Our Lady? What does it mean for us to be in relationship to her? We're going to go through the Hail Mary, the Our Father, each of the different mysteries. Then we're going to bring in some saint writings on the mysteries and some sacred art that speaks on the mysteries and all of this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Rejoice then, O heaven, and you that dwell therein. But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short. The dragon makes war against the woman's offspring. And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had borne the male child.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time and times and a half time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with the flood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon was angry with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea. Chapter 13 The Beast from the Sea
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems upon its horns, and a blasphemous name upon its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth followed the beast with wonder." Men worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And authority was given it over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. And all who dwell on earth will worship it. Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world and the book of life of the lamb that was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
If anyone slays with the sword, with the sword he must be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. the beast from the earth. Then I saw another beast which rose out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
to help enrich our prayer, to renew our prayer, to help us fall in love with Jesus and Mary and to fall in love with the rosary again. If you want to join us in this journey, you can begin by going to ascensionpress.com forward slash rosary in a year to download the prayer plan and by listening and praying with us through the rosary in a year podcast.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence who makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose mortal wound was healed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
it works great signs even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of men and by the signs which it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on the earth bidding them make an image for the beast which was wounded by the sword and yet lived
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast should even speak and to cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also, it causes all both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave to be marked on the right hand or the forehead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number. Its number is 666. Chapter 14, The Lamb and the 144,000.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste. It is these who follow the lamb wherever he goes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
These have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are spotless." the messages of the three angels. Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and tongue and people. And he said with a loud voice,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth the sea and the fountains of water. Another angel, a second, followed, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of her impure passion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also shall drink the wine of God's wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name. Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, Write this, Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Blessed indeed, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them. Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud, one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
All right, look forward to the journey with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat upon the cloud, Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe. So he who sat upon the cloud swung his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple in heaven and he too had a sharp sickle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Then another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has power over fire. And he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, put in your sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth for its grapes are ripe. So the angel swung his sickle on the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth and threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress as high as a horse's bridle for 1,600 stadia.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
The letter to the Hebrews. Chapter 1.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
God has spoken by his Son. In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the ages. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
We're also reading our final book of the Bible. Of course, Revelation is the last book. But the last new book we have, which is Hebrews chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4. We're also reading Proverbs chapter 31 verses 19 through 22. Today, as always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has obtained is more excellent than theirs. The Son's Superiority to Angels For to what angel did God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Or again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all God's angels worship him. Of the angels, he says, who makes the angels' winds and his servants' flames of fire? But of the Son, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your comrades. And you, Lord, founded the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain." Chapter 2 Warning to Pay Attention Therefore, we must pay the closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
For if the message declared by angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his own will. Exaltation through suffering. Now, in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him, but we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have all one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will proclaim your name to my brethren. In the midst of your congregation, I will praise you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, here am I and the children God has given me. since therefore the children share in flesh and blood he himself likewise partook of the same nature that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death that is the devil and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to life-long bondage
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
For surely it is not with angels that he is concerned, but with the descendants of Abraham. Therefore, he had to be made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make expiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Chapter 3 Moses, a Servant, Christ, a Son Therefore, holy brethren who share in a heavenly call, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. He was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in God's house. Yet Jesus has been counted worthy of as much more glory than Moses, as the builder of a house has more honor than the house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now, Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later. But Christ was faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if we hold fast our confidence and pride in our hope. warning against unbelief.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said, they always go astray in their hearts. They have not known my ways.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
As I swore in my wrath, they shall never enter my rest. Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
While it is said, today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. Who were they that heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? And with whom was he provoked forty years? Was it not with those who sinned whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And to whom did he swear that they should never enter his rest but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest remains, let us fear lest any of you be judged to have failed to reach it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
For good news came to us just as to them, but the message which they heard did not benefit them because it did not meet with faith in the hearers. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, As I swore in my wrath, they shall never enter my rest, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. for he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2024)
And God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again, in this place, he said, they shall never enter my rest. Since therefore, it remains for some to enter it. And those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
And Saul rose up and left the cave and went upon his way. Afterward, David also arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, my lord the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and did obeisance. And David said to Saul, Why do you listen to the words of men who say, Behold, David seeks your hurt?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave, and some bade me kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not put forth my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
See, my father, see the skirt of your robe in my hand, for by the fact that I cut off the skirt of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May the Lord judge between me and you. May the Lord avenge me upon you, but my hand shall not be against you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
As the proverb of the ancients says, out of the wicked comes forth wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog? After a flea? May the Lord therefore be the judge and give sentence between me and you and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 115. And we are reading from 1 Samuel chapter 24. We're also praying Psalm 57 as always. The translation of the Bible that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said to David, You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. And now behold, I know that you shall surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
Swear to me therefore by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house. And David swore this to Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold. Psalm 57. Praise and assurance under persecution.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
To the choir master, according to Do Not Destroy, a mictum of David when he fled from Saul in the cave. Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge. In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge till the storms of destruction pass by. I cry to God most high, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. He will send from heaven and save me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
He will put to shame those who trample upon me. God will send forth his mercy and his faithfulness. I lie in the midst of lions that greedily devour the sons of men. Their teeth are spears and arrows, their tongues sharp swords. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. They set a net for my steps. My soul was bowed down.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves. My heart is steadfast, O God. My heart is steadfast. I will sing and make melody, awake my soul, awake harp and lyre. I will awake the dawn. I will give you thanks, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your mercy is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
Let your glory be over all the earth. Father in heaven, we give you praise and we lift your name up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
And we thank you. We thank you even in the midst of trial. We thank you even in the midst of persecution. And we follow these stories of King David. He's being hunted. He's being hunted unfairly. He's being treated unfairly. We can see... snapshots of our lives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And you also are invited to subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily episodes that you don't have to hunt for every single day because they will find you. They will hunt you down and make sure that you listen to the Bible today like you're doing on day 115.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
We can see snapshots of when we have been victims of injustice, when we have been those who have experienced the evil of others, evil decisions of other people. And so we, like David, we give you praise even in the midst of the battle. We give you praise even in the midst of the struggle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
We give you praise even in the midst of injustice because you desire justice and you bid us to work for justice. And you bid us to trust you and to praise you and to belong to you. And so this day we reassert the fact that, Lord God, even when things are difficult and when things are dark, we are yours.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
And when things are a struggle and when things are a battle, that we fight in your name and we fight according to your plan and your will. will be glorified this day and every day of our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. So here we go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
In, gosh, 1 Samuel chapter 24, we have once again, not once again, but we have, for the first time, one of the moments where David is going to spare the life of King Saul. He's going to do it again. Just, sorry, spoiler, I guess. But one of the things that this highlights is how rooted David is in the reality that God has chosen King Saul
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
Yes, God has also chosen David to be king, but God doesn't un-choose who he has chosen, right? And even the fact that King Saul has sinned and he will not have a dynasty that lasts forever, that doesn't mean that he's un-kinged, right? He still is the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
He's still charged with the duty and the responsibility to continue to fight for the people of Israel, especially against the Philistines, against the enemies of the people of Israel. He still has that job. Now, At some point, God can un-king the king. Absolutely. But David realizes, I am not God. And what God has anointed, I'm not going to violate.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
I'm not going to take it upon myself to exterminate the person that God has anointed. Even if God has made it very clear that he's going to take the kingship from King Saul, David has the wisdom to know that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
that yes that is god's prerogative god gets to do that but he has never ever told me that that's my prerogative that i get to do that and there's something really powerful about this because what it reveals is reveals that david himself recognizes the power of the lord and his anointed his anointing and the power of the lord's choosing him and the power of the lord's faithfulness that god gets to be the one who decides
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
who is king and who's not. God gets to be the Lord over the living and the dead. God gets to be the God of life and death. He gets to be sovereign, right? God gets to be sovereign. And David, even though he's going to be the next king, he recognizes his limits. And this is maybe the key.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
For a lot of us, maybe not for all of us, but I know for myself, I might be tempted at times or even might be told by others, hey, you should overextend your reach. I might want to overextend my reach and wade into areas that God hasn't given me permission to wade into. That there are battles around this world. There are battles in life that God hasn't necessarily commissioned me to step into.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
as we're reading from 1 Samuel chapter 24 and Psalm 57. 1 Samuel chapter 24, David spares Saul's life. When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, behold, David is in the wilderness of Ein Gedi. Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goat's rocks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
If he does, great. I will try to do my best to say yes to this. And there are battles in our lives, in your life, that God hasn't necessarily called you into. And if he does, great. Hopefully you'll respond. Hopefully all of us will respond whenever the Lord calls us to move forward. but there are also limits that we all have. And these limitations, they can be self-imposed limitations, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
They can be limitations imposed by others around us. They also can be the limitation of, I don't know that God has called me to this. I don't know that God has called me to this particular fight, this particular battle, this particular struggle. And to be aware of one's own limitations is not the same thing as limiting oneself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
It's not the same thing as shrinking back from the challenge or shrinking back from the battle. Remember, David is not a man who's gonna shrink back from the challenge of Goliath, just like Jonathan wasn't a man who'd shrink back from the challenge of the Philistines. but here's what we have to do. Sorry, I don't know if you do. I know that I do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
What I have to do is someone says, Father, why don't you do X, Y, or Z? Or maybe I look at it and say, man, I want to say something about this, that, or the other thing. What I get to do and I have to do is what David did yesterday. I have to consult the Lord. God, this is, remember with the residents of Keilah, the Kelites, sorry, yeah, Kelites, how do they say it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
The residents of the city of Keilah, they were being attacked by the Philistines. And before David just went up and fought them, fought that battle, he went before the Lord and said, God, is this a battle you want me to fight?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
This is so important for every single one of us, especially when we can be keyboard jockeys, when we can just weigh in on everything that's even important stuff that maybe isn't our fight, maybe isn't our battle. Now, at the same time, I can look at someone else and say, we should be fighting here. I should look at someone else and say, maybe you should step down.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
But, you know, that's not my job either. That my job is to listen to the Lord's voice and to ask him, God, do you want me to say something about this? Do you want me to do something about this? And not just to say, okay, I'm going to go fight because someone tells me I need to go fight. Unless that person is my bishop, in which case I will do that. How this makes sense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
One of the things we realize that David reveals to us is he is aware of his limitations. And he also is aware that he will only fight when the Lord tells him, hey, now it's time to go fight. I think that might be something we can take away with and walk away with as well. that I become more and more aware of my limitations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
And I'm only going to fight when God says, okay, this is the fight that you need to throw your hat into. No matter what it costs, you need to get into this battle, into this fight. But until the Lord does that, maybe it's wiser, wisest thing to do is to continue to pray, continue to listen to his voice, continue to listen to wise people. and always be ready to do his will.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
Because there's nothing greater. There's nothing other than that. We all want to be ready to do God's will at every moment. Anyways, I am praying for you because I know that the Lord will call you into certain fights that maybe you don't want to go into. And please pray for me because the Lord might call me into certain fights that I am not equipped for.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
And so we need to keep praying for each other because there are. Our battles are not with flesh and blood, right? Our battles are with principalities and powers. And so the Lord is going to call us to some kind of battle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
Typically, that battle for every one of us is going to be against principalities and powers, not against flesh and blood, as much as it always is going to be against the kingdom of darkness so that the kingdom of Jesus Christ can always reign. That's why we need to pray for each other. That's why I need you, please, to pray for me. That's why I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
And he came to the sheepfolds, by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. And the men of David said to him, here is the day of which the Lord said to you, behold, I will give your enemy into your hand and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2025)
Then David arose and stealthily cut off the skirt of Saul's robe. And afterward, David's heart struck him because he had cut off Saul's skirt. He said this to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed, to put forth my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed. So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you. Take heed to the path of your feet. Then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left. Turn your foot away from evil. Father in heaven, we thank you and we give you praise. Thank you so much for the gift of this day. Thank you for the gift of your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
And then in the message part of it, just type in one word, Catholic Bible to that number three, three, seven, seven, seven Catholic Bible. Once again, as I said, we are reading from Genesis chapter 45 and 46. And the story continues to get deeper to the heart of heart of Israel's family, the heart of Joseph himself, the heart of these brothers. Genesis chapter 45 and 46.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Thank you for the gift of revealing your heart to us because that is what you do in your word. You speak to us and you continue to speak to us. Even Lord, when your word is challenging, even when your word is confusing and we don't understand what's going on, we don't understand what you're trying to say to us, Still, you continue to speak and we continue to listen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Give us hearts that can understand what we're hearing. Give us hearts to understand what you're saying. In Jesus' name we pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay. So man, oh man, the story of Joseph is one of my favorite stories in the book of Genesis.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
I have a lot of favorite stories in the old Testament, which I can't wait to journey with you all through. But the story of Joseph is one of my favorites. One of the scenes that is such a favorite is this, is the moment where Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and And in that revelation, he weeps so loudly that even Pharaoh hears about it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
He weeps so loudly that everyone's like, what the heck is going on with Joseph? Something big is happening. And he throws himself upon his brother Benjamin's neck and they weep together. This reunion, they've never met each other at this point, right? And yet all the other brothers are half brothers, which is still family. But Benjamin is his full brother.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
This reunion of two brothers who have never met Is this powerful moment only to be superseded by the moment when Joseph is reunited with his father, Jacob, with his father, Israel. It is just remarkable. What's also remarkable is the tears. Why would you cry? Why would we cry when good things are happening? Joseph is weeping as his brothers and he are reconciled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Joseph is weeping as his father and he are reunited. Why do we weep? Remember someone telling me, someone really wise telling me once, he said, why do we weep when there's joy? Why does a mom weep when she's lost her child and finds the child again? The child is lost in the park or lost somewhere and they're reunited again. Why are Joseph and Israel, this father and son, why are they weeping?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
This is the happy moment. We weep. This person said, he said, we weep because we know it could have been otherwise. We weep because we know it could have been otherwise. That not only are we joyful, but we're also so aware, so aware that Jacob could have gone down to Sheol, not knowing that his son was still alive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Joseph could have continued to serve in Egypt, never again seeing his brothers, never again seeing his father, never ever meeting his brother, Benjamin. And we know this, we know that it could have been otherwise. And so we weep out of joy, but also knowing how fragile we are. And knowing that if the Lord is not with us, that fragility means death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
If the Lord is not with us, that fragility means we're destroyed. But when God is with us, as he was with Joseph, as he was with Israel, and as he is with you right now, when the Lord is with you, There's room. There's room in our life for tears and there's room in our life for joy and there's room in our lives for joyful tears.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
What joy breaks your heart today because you know that it doesn't have to be this way. It could have been otherwise. What sorrow breaks your heart today? Because unlike maybe Jacob and Joseph, you're not reunited with that loved one. Unlike the brothers of Joseph, you haven't been yet forgiven or you haven't offered forgiveness. Where's your heart being broken today?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
This is something definitely worth talking to the Lord about and actually praying for each other about because you guys, as we said, you know, this is a journey, not just individual journey. This is a community of people who are going through the Bible this entire year. We're on day 24. We have so much room to cover, but also we've come so far.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
We're at almost the end, almost the very end of the book of Genesis and almost the very end of the book of Job. So we need to pray for each other because we're not journeying alone. I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike. Cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. And he cried, make everyone go out from me. So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he whooped aloud so that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
using the great adventure bible timeline we will read all the way from genesis to revelation discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today this is day 24. oh my goodness what a gift let's keep on going we're reading today from genesis chapter 45 and 46 also two more chapters from the book of our friend job job chapter 37 and 38
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. So Joseph said to his brothers, Come here to me, I beg you. And they came near, and he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
For the famine has been in the land these two years, And there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. And he has made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Make haste and go up to my father and say to him, thus says your son Joseph, God has made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down to me, do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children and your flocks, your herds and all that you have. And there I will provide for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
For there are yet five years of famine to come, lest you and your household and all that you have come to poverty. And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father of all my splendor in Egypt and of all that you have seen. Make haste and bring my father down here. Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
And Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. And after that, his brothers talked with him. When the report was heard in Pharaoh's house, Joseph's brothers have come. It pleased Pharaoh and his servants as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
And Pharaoh said to Joseph, say to your brothers, do this, load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan and take your father and your households and come to me and I will give you the best of the land in Egypt and you shall eat the fat of the land. Command them also, do this, take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives and bring your father and come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Give no thought to your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. The son of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey. To each and all of them he gave festal garments, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five festal garments.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
to his father he sent as follows ten donkeys loaded with the good things of egypt and ten she donkeys loaded with grain bread and provisions for his father on the journey then he sent his brothers away and as they departed he said to them do not quarrel on the way so they went up out of the land of egypt and came to the land of canaan to their father jacob
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
And they told him, Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt. And his heart fainted, for he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. And Israel said, It is enough. Joseph, my son, is still alive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
I will go and see him before I die. So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, here am I. Then he said, I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt for I will there make of you a great nation. I
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
We'll also be reading from the book of Proverbs, closing out chapter four, verses 20 through 27. So again, we're starting out with Genesis 45 and 46.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
I will go down with you to Egypt and I will also bring you up again and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes. Then Jacob set out from Beersheba and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones and their wives in the wagons, which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
They also took their cattle and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him, his sons and his sons' sons with him, his daughters and his sons' daughters, all his offspring he brought with him into Egypt." Now these are the names of the descendants of Israel who came into Egypt. Jacob and his sons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and the sons of Reuben, Hanak, Palu, Hezron, and Carmi. The sons of Simeon, Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanitish woman. The sons of Levi, Gershon, Kohath, The sons of Judah, Ur, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah. But Ur and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
The sons of Issachar, Tola, Puva, Eob, and Shimron. The sons of Zebulun, Sered, Elan, and Jalil. These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, and Paddan Aram, together with his daughter Dinah. Altogether his sons and his daughters numbered thirty-three. The sons of Gad, Siphion, Haggi, Shunai, Ezbon, Irai, Arodi, and Arali.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
We are reading from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the Catholic edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension, which is so helpful to have when we're reading this time, we're reading this podcast based off of the Great Adventure Bible timeline, because it all goes together and all fits together really, really well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
The sons of Asher, Imnah, Ishva, Ishvi, Berea, and Sera, their sister. And the sons of Berea, Heber, and Malkiel. These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah, his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob, sixteen persons. the sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife, Joseph, and Benjamin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
And to Joseph, in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Ansanath, the daughter of Potipharah, the priest of On, bore to him. And the sons of Benjamin, Bilah, Becher, Ashbal, Gerah, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Mupim, Hupim, and Ard. These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob fourteen persons in all. The sons of Dan, Hushim. The sons of Naphtali, Jazil, Guni, Jezer, and Shalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, and these she born to Jacob, seven persons in all. All the persons belonging to Jacob who came into Egypt, who were his own offspring, not including Jacob's sons' wives, were sixty-six persons in all. And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
All the persons of the house of Jacob that came into Egypt were seventy. He sent Judah before him to Joseph, to appear before him in Goshen. And they came into the land of Goshen. Then Joseph made ready his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen. And he presented himself to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Israel said to Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, I will go up and tell Pharaoh and will say to him, my brothers and my father's household who were in the land of Canaan have come to me and the men are shepherds for they have been keepers of cattle and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have. When Pharaoh calls you and says, what is your occupation?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
You shall say, your servants have been keepers of cattle from our youth, even until now, both we and our fathers, in order that you may dwell in the land of Goshen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
At this also my heart trembles and leaps out of its place. Listen to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth. Under the whole heaven he lets it go and is lightning to the corners of the earth. After it, his voice roars. He thunders with his majestic voice and he does not restrain the bolts of lightning when his voice is heard. God thunders wondrously in his voice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
If you wanna get your own Bible in a Year reading plan, It is free. You just have to go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year, and it's right there for you. All you have to do is go there, ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. Please subscribe to this podcast. Just click on subscribe, and you'll get whenever we drop an episode, you can pick it up with your favorite podcasting app.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
he does great things which we cannot comprehend for to the snow he says fall on the earth and to the shower and the rain be strong he seals up the hand of every man that all men may know his work then beasts go into their lairs and remain in their dens from its chamber comes the whirlwind and cold from the scattering winds. By the breath of God, ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
He loads the thick cloud with moisture. The clouds scatter his lightning. They turn round and round by his guidance to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. Whether for correction, or for his land, or for love, he causes it to happen. Hear this, O Job, stop and consider the wondrous works of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Do you know how God lay his commands upon them and caused the lightning of his clouds to shine? Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge? You whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind, can you like him spread out the skies hard as a molten mirror? Teach us what we shall say to him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
We cannot drop our case because of darkness. Shall it be told him that I would speak? Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up? And now men cannot look on the light when it's bright in the skies and when the wind has passed and cleared them. Out of the north comes golden splendor and God is clothed with awesome majesty. The Almighty, we cannot find him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
He is great in power and justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate. Therefore, men fear him. He does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man. I will question you and you shall declare to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determines its measurements? Surely you know. Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst forth from the womb?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
When I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, and said, Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth and the wicked shall be shaken out of it? It is changed like clay under the seal and it is dyed like garment. For the wicked, their light is withheld and their uplifted arm is broken.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare if you know all this. Where is the way to the dwelling of light? And where is the place of darkness?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Also, lastly, if you want to sign up for our email list, you can simply text the word Catholic Bible to the number 33777 just in the I guess the address button or the address section of your text messages, type in the numbers three, three, then seven, seven, seven.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
You may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home. You know, for you were born then and the number of your days is great. Have you entered the storehouses of the snow? Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble for the day of battle and war?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth? Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain, and a way for the thunderbolts to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground put forth grass? Has the rain a father?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did the ice come forth? And who has given birth to the hoarfrost of heaven? The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth the Mazaroth in their season? Or can you guide the bear with its children?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth? Can you lift up your voice to the cloud that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth bolts of lightning that they may go and say to you, here we are? Who has put wisdom in the clouds? Who has given understanding to the mists? Who can number the clouds by wisdom?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
Or who can tilt the water skins of the heavens when the dust runs into a mass and the clods cling tightly together? Can you hunt the prey for lion or satisfy the appetite of the young lions when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in their hiding places? Who provides for the raven its prey when its young ones cry to God and wander about for lack of food?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 24: Tears of Joy (2025)
My son, be attentive to my words. Incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight. Keep them within your heart, for they are life to him who finds them and healing to all his flesh. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech and put devious talk far from you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
How we see this is he doesn't even know what his kids are doing. Remember back when Absalom, David didn't even call him my son. He called him the young man Absalom until after Absalom had died. You would think one would think or even That horrible story of Absalom's sister, Tamar, being raped by her brother and David doing nothing about this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
What we have here is Adonijah making himself king and David, he knows nothing about this. What has to happen here then is that Bathsheba and Nathan have to kind of basically plot to get David to do the right thing, to announce Solomon as the king. Now, again, if he was paying attention to his family, David would have seen this coming. So what happens?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
What happens is he announces, he does the right thing, but he has to be brought to that place because for as gifted as David is, as anointed as David is, When it comes to being a dad, when it comes to being a father, he in many ways is a failure. He doesn't know what's happening in his own home. And this is going to play out in the next number of chapters as we see Solomon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Now, here we have Solomon in 1 Kings 1, and he's just beginning. He's just going to start in this whole thing. But in 2 Chronicles 1, we have this big moment. We're not going to get to in 1 Kings until chapter 3, but here we have 2 Chronicles 1 where God asks Solomon, Solomon, what do you want me to do for you? And Solomon asks for wisdom and God gives him wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Now, people will ask oftentimes, how is it that Solomon could be one of the wisest people at the beginning and is a great fool at the end? What we see is he doesn't even start out incredibly wise, at least when it comes to 2 Chronicles. What does he do immediately? In 2 Chronicles, Solomon gets wisdom, and then he begins to amass treasures.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
And he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run before him. His father had never at any time displeased him by asking, Why have you done thus and so? He was also a very handsome man, and he was born next after Absalom. He conferred with Joab, the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar, the priest, and they followed Adonijah and helped him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
He begins to amass, even this, it's a small point, but it's a pretty critical point. At the end of chapter one, it says that Solomon had horses imported from Egypt and Coup. Now, remember that this is in direct disobedience to Deuteronomy chapter 17, verse 16, where it said about the king of Israel,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. For the Lord has said to you, you'll not return that way again. And yet here is Solomon, who right after he has been prayed for the gift of wisdom and been given the gift of wisdom is not good. You can be wise and disobedient. It's one of the reasons why Wisdom is a great gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Wisdom is a great virtue. But obedience is even more powerful. And this is what's going to happen. This is going to be the undoing of Solomon. He will have great wisdom. And there will be a number of times when he can demonstrate that wisdom on the stage. But he is wise and not obedient. He can be wise and not good. We realize this, like even think of Satan. Here's Lucifer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Lucifer, who is one of the most powerful, most beautiful, most intelligent of all of the angels. And what does he do? He turns away from the Lord. It's possible to be wise, but not good. It's possible to be beautiful, but not good. It's possible to be strong and courageous, but not good. And here is Solomon, who at the very beginning of 2 Chronicles reveals himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Thus, he's been blessed by the Lord with wisdom, but he already shows a streak of disobedience. And this is what's going to play out for the rest of his life. Yes, there are moments of wisdom. That is a gift. So good. But also there is a streak of disobedience. and a streak where Solomon does not do the right.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
And so one of the things we always have to say is, okay, Lord, we've all been given gifts. We've all been given these opportunities to exercise the gifts that God has given to us. And yet we all also have to recognize that in the midst of all the gifts you've given me, Lord, they don't mean anything unless I exercise them in accordance with your will.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
that all the power I might have, all the wealth I might have, the health or beauty or strength or wisdom that I might have, they can all lead me somewhere to a dark place if I don't use them to accomplish your will. This is one of the keys of scripture. is that God says, I desire obedience, not sacrifice. So in all things, we've been gifted. You've been gifted. You've been gifted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
You've been blessed by the Lord. And now we say, okay, God, how do you want me to use your blessings to serve you and to help the people around me? We got to pray for that because without God's grace, we can't do it. And so please pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
but Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rehi, and David's mighty men were not with Adonijah. Adonijah sacrificed sheep, oxen, and fatlings by the serpent's stone, which is beside Enrogel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
And he invited all his brothers, the king's sons, and all the royal officials of Judah, but he did not invite Nathan the prophet, or Benaiah, or the mighty men, or Solomon his brother. Then Nathan said to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, Have you not heard that Adonijah, the son of Haggath, has become king, and David our lord does not know it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Now therefore come, let me give you counsel, that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. Go in at once to king David, and say to him, Did you not, my lord the king, swear to your maidservant, saying, Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? "'Why then is Adonijah king?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. We are on day 143, and we are reading from 1 Kings 1, 2 Chronicles 1, and we're praying Psalm 43, as always. The Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition, and I am using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
"'Then while you are still speaking with the king, "'I also will come in after you and confirm your words.' "'So Bathsheba went to the king into his chamber. "'Now the king was very old, "'and Abishai the Shunammite was ministering to the king. "'Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance to the king, "'and the king said, "'What do you desire?'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
"'She said to him, "'My lord, you swore to your maidservant "'by the lord your God, saying, "'Solomon your son shall reign after me, "'and he shall sit upon my throne.' And now, behold, Adonijah is king, although you, my lord the king, do not know it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
He has sacrificed oxen, fatlings, and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the sons of the king, Abiathar the priest, and Joab the commander of the army. But Solomon, your servant, he has not invited. And now, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are upon you to tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Otherwise, it will come to pass, when my lord the king sleeps with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon will be counted offenders. While she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet came in. And they told the king, Here is Nathan the prophet. And when he came in before the king, he bowed before the king with his face to the ground.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
And Nathan said, My lord the king, have you said Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? For he has gone down this day and has sacrificed oxen, fatlings, and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the king's sons, Joab the commander of the army, and Abiathar the priest. And behold, they are eating and drinking before him and saying, Long live King Adonijah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
But me, your servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon, he has not invited. Has this thing been brought about by my lord the king, and you have not told your servants who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him? Solomon is made king. Then King David said, Call Bathsheba to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
So she came into the king's presence and stood before the king. And the king swore, saying, As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my soul out of every adversity, as I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, saying, Solomon, your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead. Even so I will do this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the ground and did obeisance to the king and said, May my lord King David live forever. King David said, Call to me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. So they came before the king, and the king said to them,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Take with you the servants of your Lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet there anoint him king over Israel. Then blow the trumpet and say, Long live King Solomon. You shall then come up after him, and he shall come and sit upon my throne, for he shall be king in my stead.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
And I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, Amen. May the Lord, the God of my lord the king, say so. As the Lord has been with my lord the king, even so may he be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, and if you did, you would realize that we are on a new sheet of paper, which apparently I get very excited about, but I am getting very excited about it because it means that we are... trekking through the scriptures. And that is a gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites went down and caused Solomon to ride on King David's mule and brought him to Gihon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
there zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed solomon then they blew the trumpet and all the people said long live king solomon and all the people went up after him playing on pipes and rejoicing with great joy so that the earth was split by their noise Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they finished feasting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
And when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, What does this uproar in the city mean? While he was still speaking, behold, Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the priest, came, and Adonijah said, Come in, for you are a worthy man and bring good news. Jonathan answered Adonijah, No, for our lord, King David, has made Solomon king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
And the king has sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and they have caused him to ride on the king's mule. And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king at Gihon. And they have gone up from there rejoicing, so that the city is in an uproar. This is the noise that you have heard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Solomon sits upon the royal throne. Moreover, the king's servants came to congratulate our lord king David, saying, Your God make the name of Solomon more famous than yours and make his throne greater than your throne. And the king bowed himself upon the bed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
And the king also said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has granted one of my offspring to sit on my throne this day, my own eyes seeing it. Then all the guests of Adonijah trembled and rose and each went his own way. And Adonijah feared Solomon, and he arose and went, and caught hold of the horns of the altar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
And it was told Solomon, Behold, Adonijah fears King Solomon, for behold, he has laid hold of the horns of the altar, saying, Let King Solomon swear to me first that he will not slay his servant with the sword. And Solomon said, If he proved to be a worthy man, not one of his hairs shall fall to the earth. But if wickedness is found in him, he shall die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
So King Solomon sent and they brought him down from the altar and he came and did obeisance to King Solomon. And Solomon said to him, go to your house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
If you want to subscribe to this podcast, you can click on subscribe and you will be subscribed. And that's subscriptions abound. As I said, today is day 143. We're reading from the first chapter of Kings, first Kings and the first chapter of second Chronicles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Solomon, the son of David, established himself in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and made him exceedingly great. Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, to the judges, and to all the leaders in all Israel, the heads of fathers' houses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
And Solomon, and all the assembly with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon, for the tent of the meeting of God, which Moses the servant of the Lord had made in the wilderness, was there. But David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath-Jerim to the place that David had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Moreover, the bronze altar that Bezalel, the son of Uri, son of Hur, had made was there before the tabernacle of the Lord. And Solomon and the assembly sought the Lord. And Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before the Lord, which was at the tent of meeting, and offered a thousand burnt offerings upon it. In that night, God appeared to Solomon and said to him, Ask what I shall give you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
And Solomon said to God, You have shown great and merciful love to David my father, and have made me king in his stead. O Lord God, let your promise to David my father be now fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as many as the dust of the earth. Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and to come in before this people, for who can rule this your people that is so great?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
God answered Solomon, Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked possessions, wealth, honor, or the life of those who hate you, and have not even asked long life, but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself that you may rule my people over whom I have made you king. Wisdom and knowledge are granted to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
I will also give you riches, possessions, and honor, such as none of the kings had who were before you, and none after you shall have the like. So Solomon came from the high place at Gibeon, from before the tent of meeting to Jerusalem, and he reigned over Israel. Solomon's Acquisitions Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. And the king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stone. And he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. And Solomon's import of horses was from Egypt and Cu. And the king's traders received them from Cu for a price.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
They imported a chariot from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150. Likewise, through them, these were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people. From deceitful and unjust men deliver me. For you are the God in whom I take refuge. Why have you cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? O send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy. And I will praise you with the lyre, O God my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my Savior and my God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
And there is no reason when you are with us, when you are near us, for our souls to be cast down. Yes, Lord God, we experience grief. We experience suffering. We experience loss in this life and in this world. And so our hearts can be broken. But... In all things, we can still have joy. We can still have this abiding and pervasive sense of well-being because we know who you are.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
We know your character. We know your heart. We know your steadfast love for us. Because of that, Lord God, we can have that abiding and pervasive sense of well-being. We can have joy in all circumstances that even when our hearts are broken, even when our souls are tormented, even when our bodies are wracked with pain and grief,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
that we do not have to be cast down because you are with us and you are for us. And if you are for us, who can be against us? We give you praise, Lord God. So thank you, thank you. Help us, bolster us up. I mean, strengthen us, Lord God, especially when the grief gets too big, when the suffering gets to become too much, when this day is overwhelming.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
strengthen us and help us take one step forward. Help us take the next good step. In Jesus' name, we pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, so here we are taking this turn, right? We're going 1 Kings chapter 1 and 2 Chronicles chapter 2. Now, keep this in mind is that originally Kings and Chronicles were one book.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Now King David was old and advanced in years, and although they covered him with clothes, he could not get warm. Therefore his servants said to him, Let a young maiden be sought for my lord the king, and let her wait upon the king and be his nurse, and let her lie in your bosom, that my lord the king may be warm.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
We already mentioned this, I think, at the beginning of Samuel and talking about Chronicles. is that Samuel is all one book, Chronicles is all one book, Kings is all one book, but they're very long books. It would be impractical, apparently, to have that one massively long scroll. And so they divided them into 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
And so here we are starting in 1 Kings, which indicates a transition. As we mentioned, the last couple days at the end of 2 Samuel, we're getting to the end of David's life. Remember, he had to be taken off of the field of battle because not only was he being targeted as the king, he was also weak as the aged king. And so he had to be brought off of the field of battle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
And now here we have David, who is as old as he's going to get. And he's unable to stay warm. And so what do they do? They bring in this young maiden, Abishag the Shunammite. Now, she's going to be very important, not only because here she is with David, but also how they even note Abishag the Shunammite. She's beautiful. She's a young maiden. And David does not know her, essentially.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
So she becomes essentially the king's concubine, but a, let's say, a platonic concubine, if that's such a thing. but he did not know her in a sexual way. And that's going to be important because that's going to factor into the next piece. Now, this story is going to continue, right? Because we have another character in 1 Kings 1 called Adonijah, who's another one of David's sons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
And Adonijah is saying, I will be king. And he not only prepared for himself chariots and horsemen with 50 men to run before him, But he also was born after Absalom. Remember Absalom, handsome. Here's Adonijah, handsome. And he gets Joab on his side and Abiathar, the priest on his side. And he has a bunch of people on his side. And basically, again, has them all acclaim him as the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Now, this is going to be really important for the rest of this book of Kings. We're going to hear stories of king after king. And almost every one of them is going to be worse than the one who came before him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
not exactly there are a couple decent kings who show up but they are few and far between solomon himself is the one who's going to be exalted to be the king actually in chapter one here of first kings he's exalted what happens bathsheba solomon's mom one of david's wives comes in and she does obeisance to david and says you know you promised that solomon my son would be king but
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
Adonijah has made himself the king. Now, did you not know about this? And this is the 100% key for what's happening now in Kings. Here is David, an incredible warrior. Here is David, an incredible leader in battle. Here's David who amasses this insane fortune to be able to build the temple. Here's David who also writes incredible Psalms and writes incredible songs. David is massively talented.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
So they sought for a beautiful maiden throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. The maiden was very beautiful, and she became the king's nurse and ministered to him. But the king knew her not. Now Adonijah, the son of Haggith, exalted himself, saying, I will be king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 143: Solomon Asks for Wisdom (2025)
He's anointed, he's gifted by God. And yet he doesn't know what's happening in his own family. We mentioned this in second Samuel, but this is going to play out in first Kings and second Kings in this horrible, horrible way. David is a success in almost every area of his life, except. when it comes to his own family, when it comes to being a dad. How do we see this in chapter one?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Hello, everybody. My name is Father Mike Schmitz. I want to let you know about a one-night-only opportunity we have in Newark, New Jersey on Monday, December 9th. It's right after the start of Advent. We're doing an Advent Night of Reflection and Q&A at the Newark Performing Arts Center again Monday, December 9th at 7 o'clock.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
And to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs and of the race, according to the flesh is Christ who is God. This is remarkable. I want to highlight this just because here we have journey through the entire Old Testament. So we know what St. Paul is talking about. We know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
And also the things that aren't not written in the Old Testament, but were part of Jewish life. They're part of Jewish cultic life. Or you want to say cultic, I mean like Jewish religious life, part of their spiritual culture. We know all this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
To them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises, all these things that patriarchs, they've been given so much and yet aren't recognizing Jesus. Now, at the same time, we already know that thousands upon thousands of Jews did come to know who Jesus was.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
I mean, again, the early church was primarily made up of Jewish people who became Christian, who saw that Jesus is the fulfillment. And so that's important for us to remember. But then St. Paul goes on to talk about like, why is that happening? And essentially, I'm not going to say he says, I don't know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Essentially, he will say that this is the way things go, that there are those who will come to see the truth about Jesus and will respond with their whole hearts. There are those who will come to, they'll hear the word of God and they will respond by surrendering their lives to him. And there also are those who will hear the word of God and will not. And here St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Paul makes a major claim when he says in verse 16, he says, so it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy. Remember, go back to Exodus for the scripture says to Pharaoh, I've raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy upon whomever he wills and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
And this is a mystery of God. It's the mystery of having faith or not having faith. It's the mystery of some people can hear the word of God and respond. Let that soften their heart, remember? Or we can hear the word of God and it can harden our heart. And remember, God never does evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Now, in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists murmured against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. And the 12 summoned the body of the disciples and said, it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brethren,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
And so hardening one's heart is not the result of God's choosing to harden one's heart to drive them away from him. But we choose to harden our hearts in the face of God. But the potter gets to be in control. This is one of those mysteries of God's wrath and mercy, the mystery of being chosen and called, the mystery of predestination, and the mystery of saying yes to God or not saying yes to God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
But I will go on to say here in chapter 10, there is something that's so powerful. It says in verse nine, because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved for man believes with his heart and so is justified and he confesses with his lips and so is saved, which is such an incredible gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
That that role of faith in our lives, you know, we are saved by grace through faith, working itself out in love. That's the kind of the Catholic formulation. We're saved by grace. It's a completely free gift through faith, which is our response to that completely free gift. As St. Paul says here, professor of the lips, believe in your heart. That's faith, right? In fact, in chapter one, St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Paul says the obedience of faith. So it's not even merely a profession of lips or believing in heart, but it's actually gets to the point of obedience. But we would formulate that we are saved by grace through faith, working itself out in love, that we live as we believe, that we belong to the Lord. Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Now, here's the last part that I just think is important. It says, but how are men to call upon him? This is verse 14 of chapter 10. How are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? Goes on to say, so faith, verse 17, comes from what is heard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
What is heard comes by the preaching of Christ. And this is why Jesus needs to be talked about. This is why Jesus needs to be proclaimed. And this is one of the reasons why we're doing this Bible in a year. Why? Because it's one thing to read our Bibles, super important to read them. It's another thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
I wonder if there is not this mysterious power that comes when God's word is heard, not merely read off the page, but actually heard, proclaimed. I think there is something there because here we are having journeyed for 327 days to this day. And so many people have reached out and said, there is something different about hearing God's word than just me reading it on the page.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
No, it's obviously it's God's word. So we're not going to take anything away from that. But we're also going to say, isn't this fascinating that St. Paul's letter to the Romans chapter 10 talks about not just the power of God's word, but the power of hearing God's word. I don't know. I think there's something there. I don't know what it is, but I think it's there anyways.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Ah, you guys, as we said, we know that there are many of our friends and family who don't have faith. So we're praying for them. And even us, there can be days when we struggle to believe, struggle to submit and surrender our lives to the Lord, struggle to profess with our lips and believe in our hearts and to have the obedience of faith. And so we need prayers. We need grace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
It's completely God's free gift, but we can ask for it. And I'm praying for you that you have that grace today. Please pray for me that I have that grace today so that we can all be united in saying one giant yes to the Father who loves us. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
And what they said pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Promenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
If you're interested in finding out more about this, go to ascensionpress.com slash fathermiketour. Basically, a night of reflection, diving deeply into what it is that we're preparing for in the season of Advent. If you're interested at all, Monday, December 9th, 7 o'clock, Newark Performing Arts Center. Go to ascensionpress.com slash Father Mike Tour. That's F-R-M-I-K-E Tour. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
these they sat before the apostles and they prayed and laid their hands upon them and the word of god increased and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith the arrest of stephen and stephen full of grace and power did great wonders and signs among the people
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called, and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, arose and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke. Then they secretly instigated men who said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, and set up false witnesses who said, This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
They are Israelites, and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
But it is not as though the word of God had failed, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his descendants, but through Isaac shall your descendants be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as descendants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
For this is what the promise said, about this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of his call, she was told, the elder will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
So then he has mercy upon whomever he wills. and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills. God's wrath and mercy. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will? But who are you, a man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me thus?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for beauty and another for menial use?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom he has called not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
As indeed he says in Hosea, those who were not my people, I will call my people. And her who was not beloved, I will call my beloved. And in the very place where it was said to them, you are not my people, they will be called sons of the living God. And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, Israel's lack of faith. What shall we say then?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith, but that Israel who pursued the righteousness which is based on law did not succeed in fulfilling that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it through faith, but as if it were based on works. Chapter 10 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. For being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law, that everyone who has faith may be justified. Salvation is for believers in Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on the law shall live by it. But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach. Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
The scripture says, No one who believes in him will be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. The same Lord is Lord of all and bestows his riches upon all who call upon him. For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today, it is day 327. We're reading a short chapter, Acts chapter 6, as well as Romans chapters 9 and 10. We're reading Proverbs chapter 27, verses 10 through 12. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news! But they have not all heeded the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Indeed they have, for their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation I will make you angry. Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
But of Israel, he says, all day long, I have held up my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Your friend and your father's friend do not forsake and do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away. Be wise, my son, and make my heart glad that I may answer him who reproaches me. A prudent man sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Gosh, Lord, we thank you so much. Thank you for having chosen us to be your beloved. Thank you for choosing us to make us yours. Thank you for sending your spirit. that transforms our hearts. And thank you for giving us the gift of faith. We make this prayer in Jesus' name, amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Sometimes, you know, you just pray and you're like, man, I don't know what else to say because there's so many things to be thankful for today. And as we have often said here in this community, it's so big. It is such a large community that we know that today could be your worst day. And so we're praying for you definitely. And yet at the same time, for every one of us, there is so much.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
There always is so much to be thankful for. Today, we have Acts of the Apostles, chapter six. We have a short, very short, only 15 verses long. We have the seven chosen to serve. So what happened is you have this introduction of the term Hellenists. So who are the Hellenists? They were basically Greek speaking Jews from the dispersion. So there's a little note in the Great Adventure Bible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year rating plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast. I think that was the fastest I've ever gone through this. You know, just trying to cut down on time, you guys. I know yesterday, last couple days, the Gospel of Luke was super long. So who knows?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
It says they had their own synagogues in Jerusalem and they read the scriptures in Greek. And so a little different, right? They read the Septuagint, which is that Greek language translation of the Old Testament. They were kind of separate. So there's already this cultural division that's happening.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
And so you have, again, Gentile Christians or Greek-speaking Christians as well as Jewish Christians. And they believed that their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Actually, it doesn't even say that they believed that. It says they murmured against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
So basically, here is the Christian community, and they are taking care of widows and orphans. But some of these people who are part of a different group, right, different group of Christians were being neglected. And so let's look at this. This is chapter six of the church. The church begins essentially, you know, Jesus said he built his church upon the apostle Peter on that rock.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
And here in chapter two, we have the day of Pentecost and the birthday of the church right there. Now, here we are four chapters later in chapter six, and already there are some issues. There are people, there are factions. Later on in first Corinthians, we'll see even more kind of factions that are even greater. In fact, we're going to see that in the Acts of the Apostles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
But here's the first one. And that first one is some people are being treated different than others. And that is not good. But it is not unexpected, if that makes any sense. Because while the Holy Spirit is the soul of the church, so it's divine, the church still is made up of human beings who can fail, who do fail. And so here we are. So then what happens?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
The 12 summon the body of the disciples to say, it's not right that here we are as the 12. We shouldn't give up proclaiming the word of God to serve tables, although that's really important to take care of the widows and orphans. So let's choose seven men who are of good faith. Basically, this is the beginning of the diaconate. So the Greek word here that Luke uses is those to serve.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
So diakonoi or diakonos. That's where in the Catholic Church we have deacons. And I know in other churches they have that role of deacon. There's some things to note about the role of deacon. But one is that they were ordained very clearly in verse 6. It says, "...these they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands upon them."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
So that sense of here's an actual ordination wasn't like someone just chose themselves and said, I'll do it. I'll serve. And they go off and go. No, this is actually an order in the early church. So the apostles knew that they were the episkopos, right? The episkopoi or the bishops. They knew that they were the presbyteroi or the priests. And you have this diakonoi or the deacons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Maybe if I race through that intro, then you're like, oh man, you shaved off seven seconds. This is great. As I said, it is day 327, reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 6, as well as St. Paul's letter to the Romans, chapters 9 and 10, and the book of Proverbs, chapter 27, verses 10 through 12.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
Not only that, but the very next thing says that Stephen, one of those diakonoi, one of those deacons who was ordained to serve at table. What's the next thing? The next time they're mentioned, it says that he is full of grace and power. He did great wonders and signs among the people. Basically, he goes out and starts preaching and starts healing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
And you're like, wait a second, bro, you just were ordained to serve at table. But here you are doing this worship. This supernatural ministry, which is remarkable and incredible. That maybe wasn't what the apostles had intended, but it seems like that was what God had intended. Stephen, tomorrow we're going to find out what happens to him because he gives witness to Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
And he becomes the first martyr in the church. Now, the church always considers the holy innocents, those who are killed by Herod, in some ways to be, you know, kind of proto-martyrs. John the Baptist, you have kind of like a proto-martyr as well. But the first Christian martyr, fully Christian martyr, is St. Stephen, who we'll hear about tomorrow. But today, we have also Romans 9 and 10.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
And you just imagine this is, you know, St. Paul's begins by saying, I'm speaking the truth, not lying. I have great sorrow, unceasing anguish in my heart. Why? Because he has so many brethren who are part of the Jewish people who are not responding to Jesus as the Christ. They're not responding to Jesus as the fulfillment of everything that God had promised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
And to even says, I could, I could wish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
i myself were accursed i could wish that i was cut off from christ so that they wouldn't be i could wish this that these my kinsmen according to the flesh would be able to come to know jesus christ and a that's a heart of a true follower of christ right is to long for to be desperate for those people who don't know christ there's that sense of i i would do anything i would give anything and i know so many of us who are part of this community
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
we have people in our lives we have if you're a parent maybe you have kids who left the faith maybe your parents don't know who christ is maybe um every one of us has people in our lives who we love so much who either have never said yes to christ or have but then have walked away And we would say the same thing as St. Paul here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate (2024)
I could wish that I myself were cut off if they would just come to know who Jesus Christ is. If they would just come to know that he established his church and that they have a home there, that they belong there. He goes on to say that they're Israelites, right? And to them, he goes, this whole list, this is beginning in verse four.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
The women, the daughters, they get to marry whomever they want. They get to marry anyone they want, but from their tribe. And it is, is it perfect? Of course it's not perfect. Is it a really wise and intelligent compromise knowing that here in the ancient world, this is how inheritance is passed on and knowing that land is going to be so, so very important. And it's not just my property. It's
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And knowing, again, we talked about it yesterday, how we looked at the borders of the nation of Israel, the promised land, that this is so important, that this is the land that belongs to the people of Israel. This is the land that belongs to the 12 tribes of Israel. Then what we would say is that land has to have some rules about it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And again, we can look at it and say, well, that doesn't seem fair when it comes to who gets what and how does land transfer from father to daughter, but not from daughter to their daughters or their sons. And yet at the same time, this is a pretty wise compromise and a pretty wise discernment of here's how we can solve this problem. That would be really, really tricky.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And that's problem is both honoring those daughters saying you can marry whomever you want. Like you actually are self-determining in this. At the same time, we have to marry someone within your tribe because of the very fact that the inheritance and the property is so important to the tribe. And I think that's something that teaches us something, not just about our marriages, but about life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And that thing that it teaches us or reminds us is that we're not meant to live on our own. We're not meant to be simply like individual automatons, or I guess the word is atoms, in the middle of this universe, but we're united to each other and we belong to each other. And there are responsibilities. There's rights that come with these relationships with other people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And I'm so excited about that. But today we are concluding our desert wanderings with Numbers chapter 35 and 36 and Deuteronomy chapter 34. The book of Numbers chapter 35, cities for the Levites. The Lord said to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, command the sons of Israel that they give to the Levites from the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
There's also responsibilities that come with our relationship with other people. And we've heard that before, but I think it's good to be reminded of this, is that Mother Teresa had said, I may have even quoted this already, but Mother Teresa once said, one of the reasons we don't have peace is that we have forgotten that we belong to each other. And there's something about
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
the goodness and wholeness of saying, no, I'm part of a community, part of a family. And that means that I can't just do whatever I want. I have some obligations and some duties. Now, obviously, that can be corrupted, that can be manipulated, that can be used and that can be misused.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
But for all of us to be able to recognize that I don't just belong to myself, I belong to the Lord and I belong to my family. I belong to my people. And I belong to the community. You know, here we are, this community, the Bible in a Year community. We belong in some ways to each other. And that's why I keep asking us, like I said yesterday and the day before, to pray for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
Please pray for me. I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And you shall give to the Levites pasture lands round about the cities. The cities shall be theirs to dwell in, and their pasture lands shall be for their cattle and for their livestock and for all their beasts. The pasture lands of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall reach from the wall of the city outward a thousand cubits all round.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 80. It is the last day in Desert Wanderings, and so we are concluding
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And you shall measure outside the city for the east side 2,000 cubits and for the south side 2,000 cubits and for the west side 2,000 cubits and for the north side 2,000 cubits, the city being in the middle. This shall belong to them as pasture land for their cities. The cities which you give to the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge where you shall permit the manslayer to flee.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities. All the cities which you give to the Levites shall be forty-eight with their pasture lands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And as for the cities which you shall give from the possession of the sons of Israel, from the larger tribes you shall take many, and from the smaller tribes you shall take few, each in proportion to the inheritance which it inherits, shall give of its cities to the Levites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person without intent may flee there. The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And the cities which you give shall be your six cities of refuge. You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan to be cities of refuge. These six cities shall be for refuge for the sons of Israel and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them that anyone who kills any person without intent may flee there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
concerning murder and revenge but if he struck him down with an instrument of iron so that he died he is a murderer the murderer shall be put to death and if he struck him down with a stone in the hand by which a man may die and he died he is a murderer the murderer shall be put to death or if he struck him down with a weapon of wood in the hand by which a man may die and he died
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
our reading of the books of numbers and deuteronomy we are reading today from numbers chapter 35 and 36 as well as deuteronomy chapter 34 just the last few words describing the death of moses we're also praying the second psalm of ascent which is psalm 121. as always i am reading from the revised standard version second catholic edition using the great adventure bible from ascension if you want to download your bible into your reading plan you can visit
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
He is a murderer. The murderer shall be put to death. The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death. When he meets him, he shall put him to death. And if he stabbed him from hatred or hurled at him, lying in wait so that he died, or in enmity struck him down with his hand so that he died, then he who struck the blow shall be put to death. He is a murderer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
But if he stabbed him suddenly without enmity, or hurled anything on him without lying in wait, or used a stone by which a man may die, and without seeing him cast it upon him so that he died, though he was not his enemy, and did not seek his harm, then the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood in accordance with these ordinances.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And the congregation shall rescue the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, to which he fled." and he shall live in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the bounds of his city of refuge to which he fled, and the avenger of blood finds him outside the bounds of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood slays the manslayer, he shall not be guilty of blood. For the man must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
But after the death of the high priest, the manslayer may return to the land of his possession. And these things shall be for a statute and ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses But no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
Moreover, you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death. And you shall accept no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the high priest. You shall not thus pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And no expiation can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of him who shed it. You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell. For I, the Lord, dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel. Chapter 36, concerning married women's inheritance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
The heads of the father's houses of the families of the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the father's houses of the sons of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the heads of the father's houses of the sons of Israel. They said, the Lord commanded my Lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And my Lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of the Lophahad, our brother, to his daughters. But if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the sons of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong. So it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And when the Jubilee of the sons of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers. And Moses commanded the sons of Israel according to the word of the Lord, saying, The tribe of the sons of Joseph is right.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
This is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad. Let them marry whom they think best. Only they shall marry within the family of the tribe of their father. The inheritance of the sons of Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another, for every one of the sons of Israel shall cling to the inheritance of the tribe of his father's.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And every daughter who possesses an inheritance of any tribe of the sons of Israel shall be wife to one of the family of the tribe of her father, so that every one of the sons of Israel may possess the inheritance of his fathers. So no inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another. For each of the tribes of the sons of Israel shall cling to his own inheritance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
The daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord commanded Moses. For Malah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to the sons of their father's brothers. They were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year to get that. You also can subscribe in your podcast app to receive the daily episodes. As I said, we are concluding our books and concluding not only the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy, but also concluding the desert wanderings and tomorrow. Gosh, tomorrow we're jumping into the period of conquest and judges. I don't know if you noticed this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
These are the commandments and the ordinances which the Lord commanded by Moses to the sons of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 34, the death of Moses. And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, the Negev and the plain, that is, the valley of Jericho and the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. And the Lord said to him, This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to your descendants.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor. But no man knows the place of his burial to this day. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him. So the sons of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land. and for all the mighty power and all the great and terrible deeds which Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
We thank you this day and every day for being with us on this journey. We thank you for guiding us on this journey through these desert wanderings. We thank you for your faithfulness because Lord, you meet us in our weakness and you meet us in our unfaithfulness, even in the small call to be faithful to hearing your word every single day. Lord God, when we fail in that, today is our day 80.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
Even if we've failed a bunch of times, this is day 80 of this journey through the Bible. And I'm so grateful, Lord, we are all so grateful that you continue to guide us on this journey and you continue to lead us, you continue to speak to us, and you continue to shape our hearts to be more and more like yours, to shape our vision of you and of the world to be more and more like yours.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
If you have downloaded that Bible in a year reading plan, you note that in less than 20 days, we are having our first messianic checkpoint, which I am so excited about. On day 99, we are having basically, I think it's seven days of reading through the gospel of John.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
Help us to see like you, help us to live like you, help us to love like you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. This concludes, wow, this concludes Desert Wanderings and this concludes the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy. A couple of things just to highlight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
In Numbers chapter 35 and then in Numbers chapter 36, we have those cities for the Levites. Remember that the Levites don't get any land. And this is, it might be anticlimactic way to conclude on the book of Numbers is looking at land, looking at boundaries, looking at cities for the Levites, looking at murder and revenge and inheritance laws.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
But if we look back to the beginning of Numbers, it was just Numbers. So maybe it's very fitting that we conclude the book of Numbers with just some kind of instructions. If you remember, the tribes of Israel were all given an inheritance, right? Land. Yet the Levites don't get land. And yet they had to live somewhere. And so they're given 48 cities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
Six of those cities were what they call cities of refuge. And we talked about these in the past, but just a reminder, those cities of refuge were put there because the consequence, essentially, the penalty for murder was the death penalty. Those cities of refuge were there because they were often a case if someone had accidentally killed another person, like manslaughter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
That's why they call them the manslayer, manslaughter. resulted in the accidental death of another person that someone could seek out vengeance. And yet here's God who says, no, no, no, not vengeance, but justice. And so these six cities of refuge, three across the Jordan River in the area of Moab and three in the land of Canaan. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
Because so they'd be close enough basically for anyone to be able to flee to one of these cities of refuge so that they could be tried justly instead of having mob justice or family justice or basically vengeance. And then you also have those laws concerning murder and revenge. And it's so practical. It's so practical that it's actually, it's pretty edifying for me to look at this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
How is it practical? Well, it says, how do you prove if someone's murdered with intent or not? If someone's killed someone with intent or not?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And here at the book of Numbers says, well, if you struck them down with iron or a rock or wood, like if one person hits another person with something made of iron or something made of wood or something made of rock, they might've been intending a little bit more than just punching them out. They probably were intending to kill the person.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
You know, if we put off the New Testament and read it in order, we wouldn't be reading anything in the New Testament, I think until November. And we do not want that. We want to be able to encounter and hear the story of our Lord Jesus much, much sooner. So on day 99, coming up so soon, we have our first messianic checkpoint reading all the way through the gospel of John in just seven days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And there's something, again, really practical about that. Is it 100% foolproof? Absolutely not. But is it a beginning? Is it a beginning of being able to learn how to discern between, okay, this was an accident, this was intentional, this was manslaughter, and this was murder? And that's an attempt to do that. Not only that, but we also have the law of justice. For example,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
If this was a crime of passion versus this was we're lying in wait in order to kill the person, there's a difference there as well. Not only that, but you also have the reality of having one or more witnesses. If there's only one witness, the person shall not be found guilty on the testimony of one witness because
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
We all know human nature can desire to manipulate the truth and desire to give false testimony. So we're going to see this as we move forward in the future when it comes to the Bible, that there's a need for more than one person to give testimony when the crime is a capital offense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
And so there's just a lot of wisdom that's being given to the people of Israel and to us at the end of this book of Numbers. One last thing about the book of Numbers is concerning married women's inheritance. If you remember, there was the man named Zelophehad and Zelophehad didn't have any sons, he only had daughters. And the question was, does the property Where does the property go?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
Because usually the property is transferred from father to son, not from father to daughter. So what happens here? Now, that's kind of a pickle because earlier on in the book of Numbers, it says, yes, absolutely, those daughters get the land of their father. But what happens if those daughters marry someone from a different tribe? Then what happens is the husbands would get the inheritance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
That would now belong to not the tribe of the daughters. It would now belong to the tribe of the husbands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 80: Cities of Refuge (2025)
and that is a messy messy situation if say you're from the tribe of benjamin and you marry someone from the tribe of judah and all of a sudden your land is no longer belonging to benjamin because now it belongs to the man who was of the tribe of judah and so moses through the lord comes up or the lord through moses comes up with this pretty ingenious solution and the ingenious solution is
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
And he swore, not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land which I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it. And to him and to his children, I will give the land upon which he has trodden because he has wholly followed the Lord. The Lord was angry with me also on your account and said, You also shall not go in there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Joshua, the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. Moreover, your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall go in there, and to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
But as for you, turn and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea. Then you answered me, we have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight just as the Lord our God commanded us. And every man of you belted on his weapons of war and thought it easy to go up into the hill country.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
and the lord said to me say to them do not go up or fight for i am not in the midst of you lest you be defeated before your enemies so i spoke to you and you would not listen but you rebelled against the command of the lord and were presumptuous and went up into the hill country
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
And he said, thanks, Father. And I said, no problem, bro. So if you want to get your Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash slash Bible in a year. Also, you can subscribe in your podcast app. So as I said, today we have some good news and we have some bad news. The good news is we are journeying into the book of Numbers and the book of Deuteronomy. So good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah. And you returned and wept before the Lord. But the Lord did not listen to your voice or give ear to you. So you remained at Kadesh many days, the days that you remained there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
To the choir master, according to the Gittith, a psalm of the sons of Korah. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young. At your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God!
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise. Blessed are the men whose strength is in you, and whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs. The early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength. The God of gods will be seen in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Give ear, O God of Jacob. Behold our shield, O God. Look upon the face of your anointed. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and a shield. He bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
We ask you right now to accept our thanksgiving, to accept our praise. Lord God, what we're gonna hear in the next couple days is that when Israel travels, the tribe of Judah leads the way. The tribe of Judah goes up first. Judah, meaning praise, Lord God. So we give you our praise now. We give you praise for scriptures that we don't understand, scripture that we might find uninspiring.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
We give you praise for the mystery that is you and that you reveal yourself to us today. in so many varied ways, so often in hazy ways, but you have revealed your heart to us truly in your son. And it's in his name, Lord God, that I ask you please receive our thanks. Receive our thanks for the ability to continue walking with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Receive our thanks for our forefathers and foremothers in the faith, the Jewish people, the people of Israel. And your faithfulness to them in spite of their being unfaithful to you. Because your faithfulness to them in the midst of their unfaithfulness gives us the certainty that you will remain faithful even when we are unfaithful. So we thank you, God. We praise you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Incredible. A new period, new time period. The bad news is this, is the beginning of Numbers is kind of all about Numbers. It's where we got the title, the English title for the book of Numbers. The Hebrew title means into the wilderness, which is much more dramatic and a lot more exciting than
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Please receive our thanks and praise in Jesus' name. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So what did I tell you? I said that that first chapter of Numbers is going to be a doozy. And it was. It was quite the doozy, as they say. But one important thing to understand, okay, this is the census.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
We're getting a very good sense, giving a good sense of how many people are in the wilderness. There's roughly 1.2 million men that were counted here in that numbering. So we would guess... 1.2, maybe I'm a little exaggerating there. There might be an estimated 2 million people traveling with Moses at this point. So it's important to understand that here they are camped at Mount Sinai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
They're going to be on their way in just a second because in chapter two and in chapter three and in chapter four and moving on, they're going to have to start moving and they're going to have to start setting up the camp. And actually chapter two is the order of encampment.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
And this is going to be kind of important, but the important part has already been said, not just the numbers, but at the end of chapter one in the book of Numbers, it says that the Levites were not numbered with their ancestral tribe, right? They weren't censuses, censused. They weren't counted. What happens is... The orientation of the camp is going to be such where the tabernacle, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
The place where God resides, the place where God abides in midst of his people is going to be the center of the camp, be the center of the camp. And around that center of the camp, the tabernacle is that's where the people of Levi are going to live. They're going to live closest to the presence of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
And then fanning out in all four directions, north, south, east, and west, are going to be those 12 tribes of Israel. And so this is going to be really important for us to kind of just understand, have an idea. Tomorrow, that's what we're going to be talking about in Numbers chapter 2. But keep this in mind. At the heart of everything is the very presence of God, that tabernacle, his presence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
And in that holy place, right, not only is there a pillar of fire at night and a column of smoke by day, But in the Holy of Holies, there is that candle burning brightly, just like in our church, we have the presence of God in the tabernacle, in the Eucharist. And there's that candle burning brightly to remind us that this is the holy place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
In fact, there are so many times throughout the building up of Europe in the West where there were monasteries and the heart of the monastery was the sanctuary, right? Was the holy place. And then how many cities in Europe were built up around those monasteries. So at the heart of those cities, even,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
in some way, is an echo of these first couple chapters of Numbers where the Lord's presence is at the very heart of the city and the Levites or the priests are around there and then the city grows up around there where the heart remains the Lord's presence. And as I mentioned, in Deuteronomy, we're We're getting a sermon from Moses. Again, this is 40 years in the future.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
But our translation, our title for the book of Numbers is Numbers because it begins by numbering the people of Israel, numbering the tribes, the different 12 tribes of Israel. Now, that numbering can be discouraging for some people because you might get to the end of this day thinking, like, what the heck? That's all this was?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
So here is numbers where they're counting the people. It's been a one year, 13 months roughly, since they've been delivered from slavery in Egypt. Now, the book of Deuteronomy is 40 years after that. And Moses is giving a recap of all the things that happened. And so today, what does he get?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
We get a recap of the first things that happened where God led his people from slavery and into freedom at Mount Sinai. So we're going to be jumping back and forth this entire next number of days while we are with the desert wanderings. Back to Numbers, where it's kind of like real time, and then forward to Deuteronomy, where Moses is going to do a recap for the first couple chapters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story together. Today, it is day 52. We have just left Egypt and the Exodus, and we're entering into the period of the desert wanderings. This is a kind of a big step.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
And then he's going to say, okay, here's a reminder of the law, that second law, Deuteronomy, because Moses is going to tell the people, okay, your parents, they were not faithful. He also is going to say this. You are not going to be faithful either, but this is the Lord's law, and I need to give it to you so that you can know when you're not faithful and turn back to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
This is like the mercy of the law. God gives us the law as a mercy. knowing that our hearts are fickle, knowing that our hearts are unfaithful so often, but knowing also that when he gives us the law and we fail, then we can see that I failed against the standard God has set for me. And now I need to come back to him. So that's part of the lesson of Deuteronomy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
But we have got days and days and chapters and chapters and so many stories in which we can dive more and more deeply into that. I'm praying for you. Keep praying for me. I always want to keep these episodes to roughly 20 minutes, but I did want to also give a little overview of Numbers and Deuteronomy before we launched into it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
So that was a little extra time before the reading and a little extra time after. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. It is day 52. Done. Check it off the list and let the Lord continue to speak to you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Well, it's not all this was because it's very, very important for us to understand that God knows his people and he numbers his people. Also, at the end of Book of Numbers, he numbers them again. So just know that's coming up. Also, we're starting the Book of Deuteronomy. Now, Deuteronomy means the second law. And if you haven't heard this already, here's kind of what we're doing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
The people of Israel have been in the wilderness where they've been at Mount Sinai for one year now, basically 13 months. They were there for one year and the last month of that 13 month period, the 13th month was the book of Leviticus. That's when God gave through Moses the law for Levitical worship, right? This is after the golden calf incident.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
So if we think about where we've been, we had Exodus and we had the journey into the wilderness. We had the journey to Mount Sinai so they could worship God. But then what happens is they build the golden calf while Moses is on Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb, two names for the same mountain, getting the two tables of stone or two tablets of stone. Comes down, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
And the people have fallen into idolatry. And so what happens? The tribe of Levi raises up and they exact to God's justice on those who turn to idolatry. And so they become, they ordained themselves this day, says Moses to the tribe of Levi. Now, that last month at Mount Sinai is where we're given the book of Leviticus. Now we're moving on. We begin, of course, in the wilderness of Sinai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
And that's where the first couple chapters take place. But we're going to go to two other wildernesses in the course of the book of Numbers. We're going to spend the middle of the book of Numbers in the wilderness of Paran. And then we're going to spend the end of the book of Numbers in the wilderness of Moab. So keep this in mind. We're at the wilderness of Sinai from chapters 1 through 10.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Then from chapters 13 to 19, they're in the wilderness of Paran. And then the last chapters from 22 to 36, they're in the wilderness of Moab. One thing to understand is we're going to begin reading the book of Numbers, chapter 1, with all the numbers. But then when we begin Deuteronomy right after Numbers chapter 1, this comes from Moses' book.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
a sermon, essentially, his instruction to the people of Israel, basically when they're in chapter 36 of Numbers. So it's like we're starting the wilderness journey with Numbers. And Deuteronomy is when Moses is now 40 years later, Moses is speaking to the children of those who began life in the wilderness. And he's giving them Deuteronomy or the second law.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Deutero meaning second and nomos meaning law. Right. So the first chapters of Deuteronomy are going to be kind of fun for us because it's going to be Moses recounting the entire story of Numbers. So it's kind of like this. Numbers is stretched out over 36 chapters. We're going to get a summary of numbers in the first few chapters of the book of Deuteronomy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
And actually, today is going to be a little bit, well, I've got some good news for you and some bad news for you. But before that, I just want to remind you that the Bible translation that I'm using is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Red Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
So good news, bad news, bad news, a lot of numbers in chapter one of numbers. And good news is Deuteronomy is going to be telling us kind of a quick overview, a quick summary of all that happens in the 40 years that entail the journey of people of Israel through the wilderness wanderings or desert wanderings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Wow, with all of that preface being said, let's launch into, today we're reading from Numbers chapter 1, Deuteronomy chapter 1, and Psalm 84. The fourth book of Moses commonly called Numbers. Chapter one, the first census of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the tent of meeting on the first day of the second month in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt saying, take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel by families,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
By father's houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head, from twenty years old and upward, all in Israel, who are able to go forth to war, you and Aaron shall number them, company by company. And there shall be with you a man from each tribe, each man being the head of the house of his father's, And these are the names of the men who shall attend you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
From Reuben, Elizur, the son of Shediur. From Simeon, Shemuliel, the son of Zerushadai. From Judah, Nashon, the son of Amenadab. From Issachar, Nethanal, the son of Zuar. From Zebulun, Eliab, the son of Helon. From the sons of Joseph, from Ephraim, Elishema, the son of Amihud. And from Manasseh, Gamaliel, the son of Petazur. From Benjamin,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
These were the ones chosen from the congregation, the leaders of their ancestral tribes, the heads of the clans of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
moses and aaron took these men who have been named and on the first day of the second month they assembled the whole congregation together who registered themselves by families by fathers houses according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward head by head as the lord commanded moses So he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
One of the things that gets asked a lot, and you probably have figured this out already on day 52, is, is that you don't need to be following the exact bible translation that i'm reading from in fact sometimes what i'll do is i'll read multiple translations not out loud here on the recording but multiple translations at times can give me a different layered understanding of what's being said
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
The people of Reuben, Israel's firstborn, the generations by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from 20 years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war. The number of the tribe of Reuben was 46,500.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Of the people of Simeon, their generations by their families, by their fathers' houses, those of them that were numbered according to the number of names, head by head, every male from 20 years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war, the number of the tribes of Simeon was 59,300.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Of the people of Gad, the generations by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names from 20 years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Gad was 45,650.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Of the people of Judah, their generations by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Judah was 74,600.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Of the people of Issachar, their generations by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Issachar was 54,400.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Of the people of Zebulun, their generations by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Zebulun was 57,400.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Of the people of Joseph, namely the people of Ephraim, their generations by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Ephraim was 40,500.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Of the people of Manasseh, their generations by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Manasseh was 32,200.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Of the people of Benjamin, their generations by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Benjamin was 35,400.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Of the people of Dan, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Dan was 62,700.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Of the people of Asher, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Asher was 41,500. Of the people of Naphtali,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Their generations, by their families, by their father's houses, according to the number of names from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Naphtali was 53,400. These are those who were numbered, whom Moses and Aaron numbered with the help of the leaders of Israel, 12 men, each representing his father's house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
So the whole number of the sons of Israel by their father's houses from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war in Israel, their whole number was 603,550. But the Levites were not numbered by their ancestral tribe along with them. For the Lord said to Moses, only the tribe of Levi you shall not number.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
You shall not take a census of them among the sons of Israel, but appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the covenant and over all its furnishings and over all that belongs to it. They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings and they shall tend it and they shall encamp around the tabernacle. When the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
And when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. And if anyone else comes near, he shall be put to death. The sons of Israel shall pitch their tents by their companies, every man by his own camp and every man by his own standard. But the Levites shall encamp around the tabernacle of the covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
So if you have a New American Bible, if you have a New Jerusalem Bible, if you have one of the other English Standard Version, those are all pretty good translations. Again, you can use whatever. Jeff has always said that the Bible translation that is best to use is the one that you will use. And so that's what we got going for us. So that's nice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
that there may be no wrath upon the congregation of the sons of Israel, and the Levites shall keep charge of the tabernacle of the covenant. Thus did the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Chapter one, events at Horeb recalled. These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness in the Ereba over against Suf, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dezahab. It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
And in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the sons of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them. After he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashteroth and in Adri.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
in the hill country and in the lowland, and in the Negev, and by the sea coast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. Behold, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
appointment of the heads of the tribes. At that time I said to you, I'm not able alone to bear you. The Lord your God has multiplied you and behold, you are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you as he has promised you. How can I bear alone the weight and the burden of you and your strife?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Choose wise, understanding, and experienced men according to your tribes, and I will point them as your heads. And you answered me, This thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers throughout your tribes. And I charged your judges at that time, Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien that is with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it. And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do. Israel's refusal to enter the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
But I'm using the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition. A student just asked me, he said, hey, if I want to follow along with you, it's not too late to start if you're just starting today on day 52. How do I do that? I said, well, at the beginning of every podcast, I encourage people to download the Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
And we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites as the Lord our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh Barnea. And I said to you, you have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God gives us. Behold, the Lord your God has set the land before you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Go up, take possession as the Lord, the God of your fathers has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Then all of you came near me and said, let us send men before us that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come. The thing seemed good to me. And I took 12 men of you, one man for each tribe.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
And they turned and went up into the hill country and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out. And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us and brought us word again and said, It is a good land which the Lord our God gives us. Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
And you murmured in your tents and said, Because the Lord hated us, he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. Where are we going up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt, saying, The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And moreover, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2025)
Then I said to you, Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes and in the wilderness. Punishment for Israel's rebellion. And the Lord heard your words and was angered.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
So that is really, really key. So that idolatry, I mean, knowing they're going to come into a land of idolatry, of idols, they left the land of idols. And that's, you know, Moses begins with talking about the land of Egypt. They were slaves. You're going into this land of idols, but you have to be, you have to know that the one true God is yours and you serve him alone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Awesome. Yeah, and so they're kind of overlapping a little bit, but in some ways they're really different. Is that safe to say? Yeah. Yeah, it is. It's safe. What else do you want to know? No, I'm kidding. That's all I wanted to note. It's kind of the same, but kind of different. That's all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, that makes so much sense too. I hear you describing the Shema, the hero Israel, and And then extending that by saying, teach these to your children and have them on your doorposts, on your arms, on your frontlets, between your eyes. And what it seems like is this, be interiorly converted yourself, like belong fully to the Lord yourself and pass it on.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And not just pass it on from a stage and pass it on through a microphone, but pass it on to your children. I mean, to the people who are living in your house with you. And there's that sense of like, it seems that... This is the way in which, in the new covenant, the church has been able to grow, is that you have people who are personally converted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
They know that they've been made into sons and daughters of the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. then they teach that to those who are in their immediate vicinity in passing on the faith that they have.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And so that sense I see here too in Deuteronomy chapter six is that sense of being personally converted so that you can share what you've received, that they'd be personally changed by this so that by that change, others may experience the same thing that's changed you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And just, I don't know, it just seems kind of like such a powerful opportunity for us to, like, as you're saying, we could have missed this, we could have not done this yet, and yet now we can. As you noted, they pray it every day, in every situation, every season. And so we don't have to mourn the fact that maybe we haven't done that. We can mourn it, but then we have to do it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And it's not too late. Right now, we can do that ourselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah. In fact, the downfall in so many ways. That is such a great... I remember reading through this and thinking, exactly, here's Solomon after David and...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Jeff, I would ask you, just because we're coming to a close here, are there any, and as you noted, we also have the bronze serpent and that foreshadowing of Christ, and we have the stories of the reason why Moses was not able to enter into the promised land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And even though he was so faithful for so long, there's an aspect of responsibility and an aspect of kind of weight that is given to those who are leaders of the people that they are called upon, you know, all these, there's a lot of these elements you mentioned, the Nazarite vow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Are there any passages from Numbers or Deuteronomy that you would say passages or, or snippets that you want, uh, people who are listening to this or doing the Bible in a year, like focus on, you already mentioned the Shema, you've mentioned some other pieces like, you know, that being clothed with the commands of God and, but any other snippets that you'd say highlight when, when you know this day is coming, here's something to really, uh,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
set your heart on this or to really open your ears, open your mind, open your heart for? Yeah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Yeah, and that sense of, I love the notion of just picturing Moses here giving this final speech, this final sermon, however you want to describe it, as, in a certain sense, one who's carried these people like a father, or who's carried these people like a grandfather, who knows that I know you're going to be unfaithful, and yet I have to, have to remind you and encourage you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
These are the things. At this point, Moses knows the heart of the people. He knows what's happened in the past. He knows where they're going to be led into, and he also knows their weaknesses. He knows where they're going to be most tempted to be unfaithful to God. And so I see this and can hear this through that lens of here is a...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Right. And those 40 years are covered by the narrative book in Numbers, which is interesting because one of the things that we find out, it's like, as you noted, the narrative book being Numbers is typically, I think, for a lot of people, the one where we don't lose the story, we are traveling with the people of Israel and with the covenant people of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
a father who is desperate, a father who desperately loves the people, but also desperately loves the Lord and knows that these people are going to encounter challenges that in the past they failed, in the future they will fail. And yet just remember these things, remember these things and keep them before you always because God will be fulfilling everything he's promised. And I just-
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
That's so good. And leading, as you said, Christocentric, all points to Jesus, even the hidden parts, even the parts that are less less obvious. And so, so grateful, Jeff. I am so grateful for these introductions to these different time periods, because I think it adds so much more that most of us would never know on our own. And you're such a great and blessed teacher that gifted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And thank you so much for spending your time for all of us who are listening to this, to be able to get keyed up right and in the right posture to go into the desert with the people of Israel. And so thank you so much. Any last words or any last thoughts before we close with a prayer?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Amen. Let's say a prayer to ask the Lord to seal that in our hearts. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity. Thank you for this conversation. And thank you for Jeff and his ability to teach his wisdom and knowledge of your word, that he has a heart for you and a heart for people to be able to share this. We thank you for all your good gifts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And we ask that you please As Jeff noted, help us to never forget that you're with us, whether we are in the promised land or whether we are in the wilderness, whether we're in times of plenty or in times of scarcity. Father in heaven, help us to always remember you are faithful to your promises and in our weakness, help us to be faithful to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And so that in some ways we look forward kind of maybe more eagerly to that narrative book, the book of Numbers. But at the same time, as you noted, the book of Deuteronomy has so many powerful words of encouragement, words of law, words of just direction from the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, amen. We are praying and we're praying for you. Thank you for praying for us, for me and for Jeff and for all those who are working on this Bible in a Year podcast. My name is Father Mike and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
That can immediately be applied to our life, as well as the fact that numbers can sometimes, well, even the fact that it's called the book of numbers might mean that some sections might be a little bit hard to get through because they're not going to be so much narrative as much as it's going to be counting or giving off a list of names of people that we might not be familiar with.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
into that story today. Today, I'm joined by Jeff Cavins once again to introduce the fourth biblical period of the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. You know, we've gone through the other timeline periods. We've looked at the early world. We looked at the patriarchs. We just finished Egypt and the Exodus, and now we're in the fourth biblical period called Desert Wanderings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
What do people do with that?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit together.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Before we begin, a couple of reminders. One is the Bible translation that I'm using Always is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to have your own Catholic Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And then what happens after that is how the story then unfolds, right? As they're led into the wilderness, which is, What a lot of us associate with, I don't know, desert wanderings is that sense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And as you noted, God's plan was that they would trust him and go into the, to take the land, not by their own power, but by trusting in him and by God's power that he would fulfill his promises that he had made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And yet the people...
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
I wonder so often that when it comes to here they are having been slaves for 400 years and maybe even given their hearts to other gods, that here they are not knowing how to trust God, not knowing the identity of God, not knowing the character of God, and not knowing exactly how to trust him. And that sounds like that desert wandering, so those 40 days
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
are testing, and also maybe, would you also say training? Because I like to say that, but I don't want to, it's testing, but also I'm being trained in trust. Is that accurate, or is that kind of me just putting that in there?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Right, in that sense of like, even as you noted, the tzitziot, those strings or strands are meant to represent the 613 commandments or commands of the Lord. And as we establish, I think, throughout the course of Exodus, is those commandments aren't given first. They're given after the relationship. Like God's established a covenant, and here's the commandments.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Once again, Jeff, thank you so much for being back with us again and teaching us about this next period of the desert wanderings. The books we're reading from are Numbers and Deuteronomy, and I'm just really excited to launch into this next biblical period.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
And so what they would do is they would be clothing themselves, right, with this reminder of God's commands. but also that would be clothing with a reminder of the extension of the covenant, like that this is the relationship that you have. And I mean, it's kind of like we would have scapulars or we would have a crucifix, you know, I've been claimed by Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
There's something like that, but so powerful to be able to, you know, clothe yourself in that kind of, to literally clothe yourself in that way, that would be a reminder all day of the fact that you've been claimed. Yeah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to Desert Wanderings (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
I'm literally on the edge of my seat, as you're saying. What is the key to this? Because if that is applicable to him, that's definitely going to be helpful and useful and necessary for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
He hasn't just abandoned the Lord, even though he's been given this message that he will not have a dynasty, that his kingship will end with him and someone else be raised up to take his place. In fact, the way that Samuel describes the kind of person who'll be raised up to take Saul's place is he will be a man after God's own heart. And that's what happens when we meet a young David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
He's described as a man after God's own heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
now moving forward this preparation of a battle and also the uh chapter 14 in first samuel tells us a number of things at the end of chapter 13 we hear that there are no swords there are no spears that people are fighting with farming implements and they're sharpening them because the philistines didn't let them have swords or spears yet there are two swords that people own and that sword is owned by saul and that other person is jonathan this is going to be kind of important because
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
We recognize that the people of Israel are fighting with farming implements because they're that oppressed. And secondly, that there is a lack of weapons and Jonathan has one of them. King Saul has the other. But what Jonathan does with that weapon is remarkable. Now, the Lord places this weapon into his hand because of his privileged state as being the son of the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
But then Jonathan does something in chapter 14 that just is so intense and reveals Jonathan's character. In a few days, maybe very soon, actually very soon, we're going to meet King David, young David, not King David yet, young David. And we're going to see David go to fight Goliath. And we're gonna see this young man who's willing to go up to a place no one else is willing to go up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
He's willing to fight a battle that no one else is willing to fight. And here we have Jonathan in chapter 14 who is of the same heart. He also is willing to go up where no one else is willing to go up. He's also willing to fight a battle that no one else is willing to fight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
And so what you notice later on is we're going to have this friendship between Jonathan and David, and it makes so much sense. I remember for years I thought, well, I don't wonder why Jonathan and David were such close friends, why scripture describes them as having such a close bond, a covenant with each other. And you recognize chapter 14 tells us a lot.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
It tells us that David and Jonathan had the same heart, where the people around them were willing to cower. They were hiding in holes. Literally, it said they're hiding in holes. And here's Jonathan and his armor bearer who say, let's go fight against the enemies of Israel. Let's go fight against the enemies of the people of God. And they do it. And there's something remarkable about this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
But then also, As usual, when it comes to Saul, that ends in tragedy because what does Saul do? Saul makes every man, he makes an oath saying, if you've eaten anything this day until evening, you'll be cursed. You'll be killed yourself. We'll kill you ourselves. And Jonathan doesn't hear about that at all. And he makes, you know, so here Saul makes a rash vow and Jonathan doesn't even hear this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
When the men of Israel saw that they were in straits, for the people were hard-pressed, the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns, or crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad in Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal and all the people followed him trembling.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
So he does this. accidentally, mistakenly gets identified as the one who does it. And so Saul says, yep, I got to kill you. Remember there was the character back in the book of Judges had the same rash vow and that whoever comes out of my home, I'm going to kill them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Here we have Saul making another rash vow and the people of Israel stand up for Jonathan saying, basically, if Jonathan hadn't gone up and begun this whole fight, if Jonathan hadn't been willing to move, if he hadn't been willing to to fight when no one else was willing to fight. We would never be in this situation where we have victory right now. And so Saul relented.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
And as it says, the people ransomed, people ransomed Jonathan from his father killing him, which is a good thing. And he did not die. Saul continued to fight. And it says that whenever Saul saw any strong man or any valiant man, he attached him to himself. He's recruiting people who are fighters. And on one hand, we think that's smart. That's wise. He's got to because why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
He's waging a defensive war against these Philistines and Ammonites and Malachites and all these people who are fighting after them, fighting against them. But also you have that sense of, is he just collecting people? You have that question. Is he just collecting people? Is he just collecting people around him?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Because again, his own sense of being inordinately driven by what other people think of him. Now, there's a practical sense. Yep, get those mighty warriors around you so they can do the most impact. But there's also that sense of, hmm, is there a hidden motivation when it comes to this as well? As I said, Saul is a complex character, just like we are complex people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
And so as we continue to journey with him, we see ourselves in him as well as seeing ourselves in the other characters as well. Hopefully we see ourselves also in Jonathan, who was brave and was willing to fight when no one else was willing to fight. Hopefully we're not like Saul in the sense of being inordinately preoccupied with what other people think or with making rash vows.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
But hopefully we can learn from these characters, Saul and Jonathan and Samuel and all these other people that we're going to be seeing in this holy book of the Bible. Let's pray for each other because this is a great journey, but it's a gift. It's a challenging journey. And so I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 108, and we are reading from 1 Samuel chapters 13 and 14. We're also praying Psalm 58. As always, the Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal and the people were scattering from him. So Saul said, bring the burnt offering here to me and the peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering. As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him and salute him. Samuel said, what have you done?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
And Saul said, When I saw that the people were scattering from me and that you did not come within the days appointed and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, I said, now the Philistines will come down upon me at Gilgal and I have not entreated the favor of the Lord. So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. And Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
You have not kept the commandment of the Lord, your God, which he commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has appointed him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people who were present with him about six hundred men. And Saul and Jonathan his son and the people who were present with them stayed in Geba of Benjamin. But the Philistines encamped in Michmash. And raiders came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
One company turned toward Ophrah to the land of Sheol. Another company turned toward Beth-haron. And another company turned toward the border that looks down upon the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
preparations for battle now there was no smith to be found throughout all the land of israel for the philistines said lest the hebrews make themselves swords or spears but every one of the israelites went down to the philistines to sharpen his plowshare his mattock his axe or his sickle and the charge was a pym for the plowshares and for the mattocks and a third of a shekel for the sharpening of axes and for setting the goads
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
So on the day of the battle, there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan, but Saul and Jonathan, his son had them. And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash. Chapter 14, Jonathan surprises the Philistines. One day, Jonathan, the son of Saul said to the young man who bore his armor,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on yonder side. But he did not tell his father. Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah under the pomegranate tree, which is at Migron. The people who were with him were about 600 men and Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh, wearing an ephod.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. In the pass by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side and a rocky crag on the other side. The name of the one was Bozes and the name of the other, Sanah. The one crag rose on the north in front of Michmash and the other on the south in front of Geba.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
And Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few. And his armor-bearer said to him, Do all that your mind inclines to. Behold, I am with you. As is your mind, so is mine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Also, if you'd like, you can subscribe to this podcast, and that way you'll get updates every single time we have a new episode. That would be phenomenal for you and for me as well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Then said Jonathan, behold, we will cross over to the men and we will show ourselves to them. If they say to us, wait until we come to you, then we will stand still in our place and we will not go up to them. But if they say, come up to us, then we will go up for the Lord has given them into our hand and this shall be the sign to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines and the Philistines said, look, Hebrews are coming out of their holes where they have hid themselves. And the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, come up to us and we will show you a thing. And Jonathan said to his armor bearer, come up after me for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet and his armor bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan and his armor bearer killed them after him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
and that first slaughter which jonathan and his armor-bearer made was of about twenty men within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land and there was a panic in the camp in the field and among all the people the garrison and even the raiders trembled the earth quaked and it became a very great panic
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
And the watchman of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude was surging here and there. Then Saul said to the people who were with him, Number, and see who has gone from us. And when they had numbered, behold, Jonathan and his armor-bearer were not there. And Saul said to Ahijah, Bring the ark of God here. For the ark of God went at that time with the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
And while Saul was talking to the priest, the tumult in the camp of the Philistines increased more and more. And Saul said to the priest, withdraw your hand. Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and went into the battle. And behold, every man's sword was against his fellow. And there was very great confusion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Now the Hebrews who had been with the Philistines before that time and who had gone up with them into the camp, even they also turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. Likewise, when all the men of Israel who had hid themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they too followed hard after them in the battle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
So the Lord delivered Israel that day and the battle passed beyond Beth-Avon. Saul's rash oath. And the men of Israel were distressed that day, for Saul laid an oath on the people, saying, Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening, and I am avenged on my enemies. So none of the people tasted food, and all the people came into the forest, and there was honey on the ground.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
And when the people entered the forest, behold, the honey was dropping, but no man put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath. But Jonathan had not heard his father charge the people with the oath. So he put forth the tip of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb and put his hand to his mouth and his eyes became bright.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
As I said, today, day 108, we're reading 1 Samuel chapter 13 and 14 and praying Psalm 58. 1 Samuel chapter 13, Saul's unlawful sacrifice. Saul was years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in two years over Israel. Saul chose 3,000 men of Israel. 2,000 were with Saul in Michmash in the hill country of Bethel. and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Then one of the people said, your father strictly charged the people with an oath saying, cursed be the man who eats food this day. And the people were faint. Then Jonathan said, my father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted a little of this honey.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
How much better if the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies which they found, for now the slaughter among the Philistines has not been great. They struck down the Philistines that day from Michmash to Ajalon, and the people were very faint. The people flew upon the spoil, and took sheep and oxen and calves, and slew them on the ground, and the people ate them with the blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Then they told Saul, Behold, the people are sinning against the Lord by eating with the blood. And he said, You have dealt treacherously. Roll a great stone to me here. And Saul said, Disperse yourselves among the people and say to them, Let every man bring his ox or his sheep and slay them here and eat. And do not sin against the Lord by eating with the blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
So every one of the people brought his ox with him that night and slew them there. And Saul built an altar to the Lord. It was the first altar that he built to the Lord. The people ransomed Jonathan. Then Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night and despoil them until the morning light. Let us not leave a man of them. And they said, Do whatever seems good to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
But the priest said, Let us draw near here to God. And Saul inquired of God, Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel? But he did not answer him that day. And Saul said, Come here, all you leaders of the people, and know and see how this sin has arisen today. For as the Lord lives who saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
But there was not a man among all the people that answered him. Then he said to all Israel, You shall be on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side. And the people said to Saul, Do whatever seems good to you. Therefore Saul said, O Lord, God of Israel. Why have you not answered your servant this day?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
If this guilt is in me or in Jonathan my son, O Lord, God of Israel, give Urim. But if this guilt is in your people Israel, give Thummim. And Jonathan and Saul were taken, but the people escaped. Then Saul said, Cast the lot between me and my son Jonathan, and Jonathan was taken. Then Saul said to Jonathan, tell me what you have done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
And Jonathan told him, I tasted a little honey with the tip of the staff that was in my hand. Here I am, I will die. And Saul said, God do so to me and more also, you shall surely die, Jonathan. Then the people said to Saul, shall Jonathan die who has wrought this great victory in Israel?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Far from it, as the Lord lives, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground for he has wrought with God this day. So the people ransomed Jonathan, that he did not die. Then Saul went up from pursuing the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their own place. Saul's continuing wars.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
When Saul had taken the kingship over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, against the Ammonites, against Edom, against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he put them to the worse. And he did valiantly and struck the Amalekites and delivered Israel out of the hands of those who plundered them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, Ishvi, and Melchishua. And the names of his two daughters were these. The name of his firstborn was Merab, and the name of his younger Michal. And the name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz. And the name of the commander of his army was Abner, the son of Ner, Saul's uncle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Kish was the father of Saul and Ner, the father of Abner, was the son of Abiel. There was hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw any strong man or any valiant man, he attached him to himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Psalm 58, prayer for vengeance to the choir master according to Do Not Destroy, a mictum of David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the sons of men uprightly? No. In your hearts you devise wrongs. Your hands deal out violence on earth. The wicked go astray from the womb. They err from their birth, speaking lies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
The rest of the people he sent home, every man to his tent. Jonathan defeated the garrison of the Philistines, which was at Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear. And all Israel heard it, and said that Saul had defeated the garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel had become odious to the Philistines.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
They have venom, like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter. O God, break the teeth in their mouths. Tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord. Let them vanish like water that runs away. Like grass, let them be trodden down and wither.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Let them be like the snail, which dissolves into slime, like the untimely birth that never sees the sun. Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away. The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked. Men will say, surely there is a reward for the righteous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Surely there is a God who judges on earth. Father in heaven, you are good and you are just.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
You are a good and just judge. You are a good and just judge who knows the secrets of our hearts. You know the decisions of our wills. You know our actions that we make. And you know the secrets in our minds, in our hearts. You know what's hidden from everyone else, even from ourselves, Lord. You know us through and through. And we ask you to be a good and just judge.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
We also ask you to be a merciful, merciful judge. We know our own brokenness and there's so much of our own selves that we don't even know. But you do, God. Nothing that we are, nothing that we do escapes you. And you still continue to choose us. You still continue to guide and guard us. And so this day, Lord God, please guide. And this day, Lord God, please guard. In Jesus' name we pray.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. so a lot of stuff happening in first samuel chapter 13 and 14 the you know and when i say a lot i don't just mean a lot of action i mean really important things for example in first samuel chapter 13 we see the reason why saul's kingdom comes to an end it's just we see the reason why he has no dynasty he has no legacy in fact
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
Saul is the only king, right? Jonathan does not become the king after him because Saul does what? Well, he's waiting for Samuel. And what do we see? There is this massive, massive army of the Philistines. They have 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen, troops like sand on the seashore in multitude. And they're encamping against Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
And Israel does not have a lot of people, does not have a lot of warriors. They're lacking when it comes to their military might. Samuel says, hey, wait for me. I'll be there in seven days. And he doesn't show up. And what happens is all the people are scattering. Remember Saul's Achilles heel. Saul's woundedness is his vanity. He is overly preoccupied with what other people think.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
And so as he sees them leaving, Saul says, okay, I'll take matters into my own hands and I will offer the sacrifice. Now, Samuel had said, wait for me to offer the sacrifice. And Saul did not wait for Samuel to offer the sacrifice. He offered it himself. As soon as Saul gets done offering the sacrifice, Samuel shows up, good timing, and basically gives Saul the prophecy, gives Saul the message.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
That message is because you didn't wait, because you disobeyed the Lord's command, your kingship will end with you. Someone else will be raised up to be the next king, and he will not be of your kin, will not be one of your family. Now, again, that's Saul's brokenness, right? He's inordinately preoccupied with what other people think. That's called the sin of vanity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
And the people were called out to join Saul at Gilgal. And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude. They came up and encamped in Michmash to the east of Beth-Avon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
At the same time, he's not a fully broken person, right? In all of us, there's dark and light. In all of us, there's these wounds and there's these strengths. And so one of the strengths of Saul is that he doesn't give up there. He doesn't just quit right there. He continues to move forward and he continues to fight against the Philistines on behalf of the people of Israel. Now, he could have quit.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 108: Saul's Vanity (2025)
We realize, remember, he's the guy who hid among the luggage. He didn't necessarily want to be a king, right? but he's still doing his task. And so it's worth, at least, I think it's worth to honor the fact that Saul doesn't just abandon the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
Jacob brings a gift in Genesis chapter 33, verse 11. And the gift, and this is what Jeff Cavins points out, the term for gift that Jacob offers his brother, that word for gift, that term for gift is literally the word blessing. That Jacob is returning the blessing to Esau. Remember, it was the blessing that he deceived their father out of. And this is what Jeff says.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
The portion of the blessing that relates to material prosperity is now shared with Esau as an act of restoration. It's an act of restoration. And Jeff goes on to point out for the first time in the story, there is hope that reconciliation and forgiveness can win the day because this is the first time we see reconciliation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
This is the first time in this entire broken story that we see mercy, that we see forgiveness, that we see reconciliation. We also, again, that was the end of chapter 33. We went right into the chapter 34 where we hear and see and encounter this incredible brokenness. This defilement, this abuse of an innocent girl, Dinah. Gosh, isn't this how life works so often?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
That there is blessings, there's unprecedented forgiveness, never happened before. And then there's ugliness again the next day. And we don't know what to do. How do we respond to this ugliness? How do we respond to a blessing? I think part of it is we do what we do today. We keep moving forward. We keep moving forward. We identify what's good, and we praise God for it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
We name what is bad, what is evil, and then we do everything in our power to eradicate it, do everything in our power to get it out of our hearts first, and then out of our relationships, and then out of our civilization, our culture. But we first have to recognize that in my life, like Jacob and Esau, I need reconciliation, I need forgiveness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
We have to realize that in my life, like Shechem and Dinah and these brothers of Dinah's, there are brokennesses, there are angers, there is a desire for vengeance, there's a need for justice. And all those things reside in my heart. And I need to ask the Lord to do something about that. And what we do today, as we said, is we keep moving forward.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
And so he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids, and he put the maids with the children in the front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother. But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
We are on day 17 of this journey through the Bible. And we will not stop now. We don't stop when we encounter these difficult passages. We don't stop when we encounter this pain. We don't stop when we encounter things we don't understand. We keep on moving forward because we We know that God does write straight, but he writes straight with crooked lines.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
And God's will is going to triumph, but sometimes it seems like it has to triumph in spite of our brokenness. Not because of any goodness that we bring to the story, but only because of the reality that he can redeem even the worst stories. you and I have broken stories, just like the broken story that we're reading for the next 300 and whatever it is days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
Um, you have broken stories, but because we're getting ourselves closer and closer to him, even our broken story can be part of his story. I'm so grateful that you're joining me for this journey. And please know that I'm praying for you. Please be praying for me and please pray for each other because we need it. We are all in the midst of this together. Um,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
with reconciliation, needing reconciliation, with forgiveness and needing forgiveness. So we praise God. I'm praying for you, as I said. And my name is Father Mike. See you tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
And when Esau raised his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, Who are these with you? Jacob said, The children whom God has graciously given your servant. Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down. Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down. And last, Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
Esau said, What do you mean by all this company which I met? Jacob answered, To find favor in the sight of my Lord. But Esau said, I have enough, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself. Jacob said, No, I beg you. If I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand, for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God. With such favor have you received me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
Accept, I beg you, my gift that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have enough. Thus he urged him, and he took it. Then Esau said, Let us journey on our way, and I will go before you. But Jacob said to him, My lord knows that the children are frail, and that the flocks and herds giving suck are a care to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
And if they are overdriven for one day, all the flocks will die. Let my lord pass on before his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle which are before me, and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir. So Esau said, Let me leave with you some of the men who are with me. But he said, What need is there?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
Let me find favor in the sight of my lord. So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. But Jacob journeyed to Sukkoth and built himself a house and made booths for his cattle. Therefore the name of the place is called Sukkoth. And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan Aram. And he camped before the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
This is day 17. Let's keep on going. On day 17, we'll be reading Genesis chapter 33 and 34, Job chapter 23 and 24, and and Proverbs 3, verses 13 through 18. As always, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, Catholic edition of the Bible. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible you can get from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent. Then he erected an altar and called it El Elohe Israel. Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humbled her. And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the maiden and spoke tenderly to her. So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, Get me this maiden for my wife. Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
But his sons were with his cattle in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came. And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard of it, and the men were indignant and very angry, because he had wrought folly in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
But Hamor spoke with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. I beg you, give her to him in marriage. Make marriages with us, give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. You shall dwell with us, and the land shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it, and get property in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. Ask of me ever so much as marriage present and gift, and I will give according as you say to me. Only give me the maiden to be my wife. The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully because he had defiled their sister Dinah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
They said to them, We cannot do this thing to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised for that would be a disgrace to us. Only on this condition will we consent to you that you will become as we are and every male of you will be circumcised. then we will give you our daughters and we will take your daughters to ourselves and we will dwell with you and become one people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and we will be gone. Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor's son Shechem. And the young man did not delay to do the thing because he had delight in Jacob's daughter. Now he was the most honored of all his family.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city saying, these men are friendly with us. Let them dwell in the land and trade in it for we hold the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters and marriage and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us to become one people and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised will not their cattle their property and all their beasts be ours only let us agree with them and they will dwell with us and all who went out of the gate of his city hearkened to hamor and his son shechem and every male was circumcised all who went out of the gate of his city
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
on the third day when they were sore two of the sons of jacob simeon and levi dinah's brothers took their swords and came upon the city unawares and killed all the males they slew hamor and his son shechem with the sword and took dinah out of shechem's house and went away And the sons of Jacob came upon the land and plundered the city because their sister had been defiled.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
Speaking of Ascension, if you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, the reading plan that we're following this entire year, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Again, that's ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can subscribe in your podcast app. You also can You can sign up for our email list by texting the word Catholic Bible to 33777.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys and whatever was in the city and in the field, all their wealth, all the little ones, their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and made their prey. Job chapter 23 and 24. Job replies, Then Job answered, Today also my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat. I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would learn what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, he would give heed to me. There an upright man could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him. On the left I seek him, but I cannot behold him. I turn to the right hand, but I cannot see him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
but he knows the way that i take when he has tried me i shall come forth as gold my foot has held fast to his steps i have kept his way and have not turned aside i have not departed from the commandments of his lips i have treasured in my bosom the words of his mouth but he is unchangeable and who can turn him?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
What he desires he does, for he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind. Therefore I am terrified at his presence, when I consider I am in dread of him. God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me, for I am hemmed in by darkness, and thick darkness covers my face.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days? Men remove landmarks. They seize flocks and pasture them. They drive away the donkeys of the fatherless. They take the widow's ox for a pledge. They thrust the poor off the road. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
And behold, like donkeys in the desert, they go forth to their toil, seeking prey in the wilderness as food for their children. He says, They go about naked, without clothing, hungry, and carry off sheaves. Among the olive rows of the wicked, they make oil. They tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
From out of the city, the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded cries for help, yet God pays no attention to their prayer. There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways and do not stay in its paths. The murderer rises in the dark that he may kill the poor and the needy, and in the night he is as a thief.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight, saying, No eye will see me, and he disguises his face. In the dark they dig through houses, by day they shut themselves up, for they do not know the light. For deep darkness is mourning to all of them. For they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness. You say they are swiftly carried away upon the face of the waters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
That's all one word, all together, all caps or no caps. It doesn't matter. Catholic Bible to 33777. Again, as I said today, we are reading from Genesis chapter 33 and chapter 34. As we heard yesterday, Jacob wrestled with the angel all night. And his name was changed. His name was changed from Jacob to Israel, which marked something unique.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
Their portion is cursed on the land. No treader turns toward their vineyards. Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters. So does Sheol, those who have sinned. The squares of the town forget them. Their name is no longer remembered. So wickedness is broken like a tree. They feed on the barren childless woman and do no good to the widow, yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
They rise up when they despair of life. He gives them security and they are supported and his eyes are upon their ways. They are exalted a little while and then they are gone. They wither and fade like the mallow. They are cut off like the heads of the grain. If it is not so, who will prove me the liar and show that there is nothing in what I say? Proverbs 3, verses 13 through 18.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gets understanding. For the gain from it is better than gain from silver, and its profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand, in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Father in heaven, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your word. We thank you for revealing your heart to us. And we thank you also that you have revealed to us that not only are you present when things are good, you are present when things are dark.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
That even as our friend Job complains and complains rightly in the midst of his suffering, You hear his complaint. You will answer, Lord, even though so often you are quiet. You will answer us. And today you answer us by giving us your word, proclaiming to us through this incredible technology. And so we thank you and we praise your name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
We praise your name that is revealed to us through the words of your Bible, through the words of your church. We thank you this day and every day. Please receive our thanks in Jesus name. Amen. In the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Man, gosh, I don't know. We could talk about Job a little bit, but we will because we have a number of days more with Job.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
But it seems like almost, I don't want to say more of the same with Job, but this is an important kind of lesson. It is the same. Job continues to note that there are good people who die and there are bad people who seem to be rewarded. And the logic would say, no, no, no, no, no. Good people are rewarded and bad people die. But Job points out that life isn't so straightforward.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
It isn't so clear cut. And he's trying to make sense of this. And so he's wrestling with the Lord. Yesterday, we saw Jacob wrestle with the Lord. This is what Job does. Jacob wrestled with the Lord one night. That was good. It was good that he did that. It was good that he engaged with the Lord. But here is Job, our friend Job.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
And maybe yourself too, in the midst of your suffering, the midst of your pain, your trial, you continue to wrestle with the Lord saying, it would seem to me that if you were close, that if you cared, that if you are love, then you would deliver me from this pain. And yet we still find ourselves in the midst of suffering. We find ourselves in the midst of a broken world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
It's one of the reasons why I'm just so moved by this story we heard today in Genesis chapter 33. In fact, in Jeff Kaven's book with Tim Gray, it's called Walking with God, Journey through the Bible. He says, he notes this. He says that, um, that when Jacob goes to meet Esau, right? He doesn't just go on his own. He doesn't just go with his family. He goes with big gifts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
And it marks something we have never seen yet in the Bible. And this whole story of salvation, chapter 33, reveals something we have not yet seen. We've seen plenty of brokenness. We've never seen reconciliation. So here we start with Genesis chapter 33 and 34. And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming about 400 men with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
He goes with a lot of gifts that he gives to his brother Esau. And he points out that Jacob's life had been a life of theft, scheming, and deceit. But it's the love of God that blesses Jacob. And Jacob is different moving forward from this. We notice that in chapter 34, that horrible chapter where Shechem has the rape of Dinah, the daughter of Jacob slash Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
And how the brothers are taking vengeance on the people. And Jacob wants to deal fairly with them. And the sons of Jacob want to deal maybe vengefully, maybe justly. It's hard to tell in a difficult, lawless place like that. And yet at the same time, Jacob doesn't deceive.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
Even if Jacob is ultimately maybe going to capitulate and make a covenant with this, the family of the man who had raped his daughter, he doesn't want to do it by deception. Again, brokenness. Man, all the scripture shows this brokenness. And scripture in this case does say that what happened to Dinah was evil. In fact, the words were, it ought not to be done. That rarely happens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2025)
When describing the stories of the fathers of the church, fathers and mothers of Israel, rarely are a person's actions ever described as evil. Rarely are they ever described as this ought not to be done. Obviously, it was not the actions of the people of Israel, but it was the actions of the people of Shechem. Nonetheless, it was horrible. But it was preceded by something that was remarkable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
He knows the heart of David, who says very, very clearly to him and to the other two generals, he tells them, deal gently with Absalom. David wants the young man Absalom to live. And yet Joab in some ways is maybe more insightful in some ways of like what that means.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
The man who led the rebellion and brought us all into this place, 20,000 dead on this, in this one battle today, this is a big, big deal. We're going to talk more about that tomorrow, but it's a big deal that there's 20,000 men dead from this battle because Absalom led this rebellion. And so Joab takes matters into his own hands and he kills Absalom and has the other men around him kill Absalom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
Okay, that's a big, big piece. But the biggest piece is what happens at the end of 2 Samuel 18. David gets word. He's waiting at the city. Remember the men say, you have to stay here in the city. You can't go out into battle because they're just trying to kill you. So you're worth 10,000 of us. So he stays in the city. And the Cushite brings word. May all the king's enemies be as that young man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
And all the people heard when the king gave orders to all the commanders about Absalom. So the army went out into the field against Israel and the battle was fought in the forest of Ephraim. And the men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David. And the slaughter there was great on that day, 20,000 men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
Now, this is a key moment. So you probably know, you might know Eric Whitaker. Eric Whitaker is a musician and he has a piece called When David Heard. It's maybe a 13 minute song. Maybe it's longer than that. It's often done by choirs in high school and college and all over the world, all over the place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
I remember when I first heard the song, when David heard, it just killed me because it says those words. It says, when David heard that young Absalom was dead, he went above the gate and cried out. And then the rest of the song basically is, my son, my son, Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son, would that I have died instead of you, my son, my son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
And it's just so, so moving and so, just pierces the heart in so many ways. So if you have a chance to listen to that song by Eric Whitaker, When David Heard, it's remarkable because it really gets to the heart. I remember when I heard it the first time, I remember thinking, not only this story of David, obviously,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
but also of God, the father and, and the God, the father who gave his only, you know, John chapter three, verse 16, the God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that all those who would follow him would not die, but have eternal life. All the believed in him would not die, but have eternal life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
And here is the father who cries out, you know, in just agony that his son, our Lord God, was given for us sinful human beings. It's making that connection between not only Abraham and Isaac, maybe that story way back in Genesis, but also this story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
In some ways, it's not really a real parallel, but it is a parallel between father and son and the grief of a father over the death of his son, mourning his son. But here's something that's notable. And it's the last thing here. All the while, up to this moment, up to the moment where Absalom is dead. Remember what David has been. David has not been a good dad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
Absalom had to take vengeance on his half-brother Amnon for Amnon violating his sister Tamar. And David did nothing. Then Absalom gets banished and David does nothing. Then Absalom comes back home and David does nothing by way of reconciliation. All this time, David does nothing. And even up to this point, When David refers to Absalom, he simply refers to him as the young man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
Make sure the young man Absalom is kept safe. Deal gently with the young man Absalom. And even when he asks the messengers, he asks them, is the young man Absalom safe? What about the young man Absalom? And it isn't until Absalom is dead that David claims him as his son. And I think that's worth praying about. That here is David who's not being a good dad. He's not being a present father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
He's not being a father who even claims his son. He calls him the young man. And it isn't until he has lost his son that he claims his son as his son. It's not his words change, his voices, the words he uses to even speak about Absalom change from the young man to my son. And there's something in there that I just invite you to pray with as well. And what is it? What is it to be claimed?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
What is it to be claimed as a son or daughter of the father? What is to be claimed as a son or daughter of your actual parents, your biological parents? And what is it to not be claimed? What is it to be just that creature of God versus that son or daughter of God?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
The battle spread over the face of all the country, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword. And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding upon his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak, and his head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth while the mule that was under him went on.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
What is it to be just that person in the family as opposed to your father looking at you and saying, you are my daughter, my beloved daughter. Your dad look at you and say, you're my beloved son. We know that Jesus, he is claimed again and again by the Father in the Gospels. At the baptism, at the transfiguration, we just recognize that God the Father claims Jesus his son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
And God the Father claims you as his son, as his daughter. It doesn't take this tragedy to happen for him to claim you because he claims you from the moment of your baptism. When you were made into his son or made into his daughter, he claims you from that moment on. And he claimed you before that because he wanted you to be his son, wanted you to be his daughter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It's day 136. We're reading from 2 Samuel chapter 18, 1 Chronicles chapter 23, and Psalm 37 is our prayer. As always, the translation that I'm reading from is the revised standard version, second Catholic edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
But it's by baptism that we become those children of God. And so just give God praise. Know that he knows your name. Know that he calls you by your name. Know that he calls you his beloved son. He calls you his beloved daughter. So let's pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
And a certain man saw it and told Joab, behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak. Joab said to the man who told him, what, you saw him? Why then did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have been glad to give you 10 pieces of silver and a belt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
But the man said to Joab, even if I felt in my hand the weight of a thousand pieces of silver, I would not put forth my hand against the king's son. For in our hearing, the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, for my sake, protect the young man Absalom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
On the other hand, if I had dealt treacherously against his life and there was nothing hidden from the king, then you yourself would have stood aloof. Joab said, I will not waste time like this with you. And he took three darts in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the oak.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
And 10 young men, Joab's armor bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him and killed him. Then Joab blew the trumpet, and the troops came back from pursuing Israel, for Joab restrained them. And they took Absalom, and threw him into a great pit in the forest, and raised over him a very great heap of stones. In all Israel fled every one to his own home.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up for himself the pillar which is in the king's valley, for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance. He called the pillar after his own name, and it is called Absalom's monument to this day. David hears tidings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
Then said Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, Let me run and carry tidings to the king that the Lord has delivered him from the power of his enemies. And Joab said to him, You are not to carry tidings today. You may carry tidings another day, but today you shall carry no tidings because the king's son is dead. Then Joab said to the Cushite, Go, tell the king what you have seen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
The Cushite bowed before Joab and ran. Then Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, said again to Joab, "'Come what may, let me also run after the Cushite.' And Joab said, "'Why will you run, my son, seeing that you will have no reward for the tidings?' "'Come what may,' he said, "'I will run.' So he said to him, "'Run.' Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain and outran the Cushite."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
Now David was sitting between the two gates, and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate by the wall, and when he lifted up his eyes and looked, he saw a man running alone. And the watchman called out and told the king, and the king said, If he is alone, there are tidings in his mouth. And he came apace and drew near, and the watchman saw another man running.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
And the watchman called to the gate and said, See another man running alone. The king said, He also brings tidings. And the watchman said, I think the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok. And the king said, He is a good man and comes with good tidings. Then Ahimaaz cried out to the king, All is well.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
And he bowed before the king with his face to the earth and said, Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the king. And the king said, Is it well with the young man Absalom? Ahimaaz answered, When Joab sent your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I do not know what it was. And the king said, Turn aside and stand here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. And if you want to subscribe to this podcast, all you have to do is just click on subscribe and you will be subscribed. As I said, it is day 136.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
So he turned aside and stood still. And behold, the Cushite came, and the Cushite said, Good tidings for my lord the king. For the Lord has delivered you this day from the power of all who rose up against you. The king said to the Cushite, Is it well with the young man Absalom?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
And the Cushite answered, May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up against you for evil be like that young man. And the king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept. And as he went, he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
When David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son, king over Israel. David assembled all the leaders of Israel and the priests and the Levites. The Levites, 30 years old and upward, were numbered and the total was 38,000 men.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
twenty four thousand of these david said shall have charge of the work in the house of the lord six thousand shall be officers and judges four thousand gatekeepers and four thousand shall offer praises to the lord with the instruments which i have made for praise and david organized them in divisions corresponding to the sons of levi gershom
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
and marari the sons of gersham were ladan and shimei the sons of laden jehiel the chief and zetham and joel three the sons of shimei shelamoth haziel and haran three these were the heads of the fathers houses of ladan And the sons of Shimei, Jehath, Zina, and Jeush, and Beriah. These four were the sons of Shimei. Jehath was the chief, and Ziza the second.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
But Jeush and Beriah had not many sons, therefore they became a father's house in one reckoning. The sons of Kohath, Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uziel, four. the sons of Amram, Aaron, and Moses. Aaron was set apart to consecrate the most holy things that he and his sons forever should burn incense before the Lord and minister to him and pronounce blessings in his name forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
We are reading from 2 Samuel chapter 18, 1 Chronicles 23, and we are praying Psalm 37. The second book of Samuel, chapter 18, the defeat and death of Absalom. Then David mustered the men who were with him and set over them commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
But the sons of Moses, the man of God, were named among the tribe of Levi, the sons of Moses, Gershom, and Eleazar. The sons of Gershom, Shebuel, the chief, the sons of Eleazar, Rehobiah, the chief. Eleazar had no other sons, but the sons of Rehobiah were very many.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
the sons of Izhar, Shalemith the chief, the sons of Hebron, Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jehaziel the third, Jechamiam the fourth, the sons of Uziel, Micah the chief, and Ishaiah the second, the sons of Merari, Mali and Mushi, the sons of Mali, Eleazar and Kish, Eleazar died having no sons, but only daughters. Their kinsmen, the sons of Kish, married them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
The sons of Mushi, Mali, Eder, and Jeremoth, three. These were the sons of Levi by their father's houses, the heads of father's houses, as they were registered according to the number of the names of the individuals from 20 years old and upward who were to do the work for the service of the house of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
For David said, the Lord, the God of Israel, has given peace to his people and he dwells in Jerusalem forever. And so the Levites no longer need to carry the tabernacle or any of the things for its service. For by the last words of David, these were the number of the Levites from 20 years old and upward.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
But their duty shall be to assist the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the Lord, having the care of the courts and the chambers, the cleansing of all that is holy, and any work for the service of the house of God. To assist also with the showbread, the flour for the cereal offering, the wafers of unleavened bread, the baked offering,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
the offering mixed with oil, and all measures of quantity or size. And they shall stand every morning, thanking and praising the Lord, and likewise at evening, and wherever burnt offerings are offered to the Lord on Sabbaths, new moons, and feast days, according to the number required of them, continually before the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
Thus they shall keep charge of the tent of meeting and the sanctuary, and shall attend the sons of Aaron, their brethren, for the service of the house of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
Do not fret because of the wicked, be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good, so you will dwell in the land and be nourished in safety. Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him and he will act.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
He will bring forth your vindication as the light and your right as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Do not fret over him who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices. Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret. It only leads to evil. For the wicked shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall possess the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more. Though you look well at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall possess the land and delight themselves in abundant prosperity. The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him, but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
And David sent forth the army, one third under the command of Joab, one third under the command of Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother, and one third under the command of Ittai, the Gittite. And the king said to the men, I myself will also go out with you. But the men said, you shall not go out. For if we flee, they will not care about us. If half of us die, they will not care about us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those who walk uprightly. Their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. Better is a little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will abide forever. They are not to be put to shame in evil times. In the days of famine, they have abundance. But the wicked perish. The enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pastures. They vanish. Like smoke, they vanish away. The wicked borrows and cannot pay back. but the righteous is generous and gives.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
For those blessed by the Lord shall possess the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. The steps of a man are from the Lord, and he establishes him in whose way he delights. Though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord is the stay of his hand. He says, The righteous shall possess the land and dwell upon it forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom and his tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart. His steps do not slip. The wicked watches the righteous and seeks to slay him. The Lord will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial. Wait for the Lord and keep to his way and he will exalt you to possess the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
You will look on the destruction of the wicked. I have seen a wicked man overbearing and towering like a cedar of Lebanon. Again, I passed by and behold, he was no more. Though I sought him, he could not be found. Mark the blameless man and behold the upright. For there is posterity for the man of peace, but transgressors shall be altogether destroyed. The posterity of the wicked shall be cut off.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their refuge in the time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them. He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him. Father in heaven, we praise you and we do. We take our refuge in you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
We ask that you please number us, count us among those who are righteous, count us among those who trust in you and not in our own strength, but who seek to do your will in all things. Lord God, in any way that we have taken ourselves away from your will in great ways and in small ways, we return to you with our whole heart and ask that you please not only lift us up, but help us to come back
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
not only make us strong, but help us to return to you. We place ourselves in your hands. We surrender to your lordship, to you being the God and father forever. And we commit our hearts and our lives once again to you in the name of your son, Jesus, in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy spirit. Amen. Okay. So quick things. We're going to go in reverse this time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
We're going to go to first Chronicles chapter 23, just to highlight here's David and what's David doing? David is establishing here is what temple worship is going to look like. So remember that in the olden days, back in Deuteronomy, back in Leviticus, back in Exodus, they numbered all of the Levites 30 years of age and above. And that was in Numbers chapter four.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
But you are worth 10,000 of us. Therefore, it is better that you send us help from the city. The king said to them, whatever seems best to you, I will do. So the king stood at the side of the gate while all the army marched out by hundreds and by thousands. And the king ordered Joab and Abishai and Ittai, deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
They did that because the Levites service started at 30 years of age. But David is going to change some rules here. David is not only changing. There's one place of worship, right? That's going to be talked about that yesterday. It's going to be in Jerusalem in this temple that his son Solomon is going to build. But he's also restructuring the tribe of Levi. Why?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
Because when you build a big temple, it's going to be something different than a tent. And all people are going to come to this temple on a regular basis. Therefore, there's going to be a shift in workers and shift in the work that needs to get done.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
So one thing you realize that the tribes of Gershon and Kohath and Merari, remember those families, sons of Levi, remember that the priests, the ones offering the sacrifice, those are the family of Aaron. That's the Aaronic priesthood. But the Gershonites, the Kohathites and the Merarites, they are not priests.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
priests they are at involved with the service of the temple so remember the gershonites took care of the skins that covered the tabernacle itself like this walls of the tent et cetera et cetera the koathites take took care of the furniture of the tabernacle including the ark the table of showbread the menorah that thing under the direction of eleazar who was the he's a priest that's what the koathites did and the mirror rights they were to take care of the structural aspects of the tabernacle like the pillars and the boards and all those kinds of things
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
So the Gershonites, Kohathites, Merorites, they had their job when it came to a portable temple, when it came to moving the sacred objects, but they're going to build a not portable temple. They're going to build, it's no longer a tent. It's going to be a permanent structure. And so they have to have a shift in their roles. And so that's what we have beginning here in first Chronicles chapter 23.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
We also, there's going to be more work. So David moves the age of service from 30 down to 20, because there's going to be a lot more work going on in this newly to be built temple. So just that's a kind of a little insight into what was happening there. If we return to second Samuel chapter 18, what do we have?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 136: Absalom Is Defeated (2025)
We have the story of Absalom in battle, Absalom being defeated and Absalom being killed. Gosh, a couple of things to note. Absalom is caught by his hair in an oak tree, and he's hanging between heaven and earth. And what happens? Joab comes up, let's kill this guy. And even though he knows David, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
So I say something and then just, ah, just kidding, you know, kind of be a little fire starter. Someone's life kind of get in there and mess with them. And then, ah, just, just kidding around, just joking and realize that yeah, there are some things that are funny and there are some things that are not funny.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
The Gospel according to Luke, chapter 20. The authority of Jesus questioned. One day as he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up and said to him, Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority? He answered them, I also will ask you a question.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
And one of our tasks in maturing and growing is getting to that place where we realize the difference between what was funny for me and what was definitely not funny and should not have been said or done. But all that to be said, here is the gospel of Luke today. And we're getting closer and closer to the end of the gospel. And Jesus giving up his entire self for us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
One of the things that I think is really So powerful. I love not only all of the gospel of Luke, but you also have, we have the widow's offering at the beginning of chapter 21. And that sense of here she is and she puts in two small coins, two copper coins, couple cents, couple pennies. But Jesus praises that because he is highlighting the fact that
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
It's not necessarily how much we give, it's how much we love. Again, God doesn't judge the size of our gift as much as it is the size of our heart, size of the heart that's offering the gift. And we recognize that we know so much about first fruits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
We also, I preached on this the other week, however long ago it was for y'all, but that sense of here we are called to give God our first fruits, that first 10%, right? of our time, our talent, our treasure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
But here God highlights in this parable, not parable, it's his words about this woman who actually did this in chapter 21, that we're also called to give God our final fruits, that our whole lives are meant to be his. And that sense of how can I do that? How can I make myself an entire gift to him, especially when I have so little to offer? And yet we do that when we give him our interruptions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
We do that when we give him what they call passive mortifications. Active mortifications are the ones we choose. I'm choosing to tithe. I'm choosing to fast. I'm choosing to pray. I'm choosing to do these things that cause me to die a little bit. But passive mortifications are when we accept the penances that chose us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
And I always like to think of those as interruptions, the things that I didn't choose. Both of them can purify us. And it seems like the first fruits is good, that active mortification that we plan out and choose, that does so much to purify our hearts. But then so does our passive purifications that do so much to purify our hearts, where it's like, okay, Lord, I'm just going to cooperate with you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Here's the last thing. There is a prayer at the end of chapter 22, or kind of in the middle, I guess, of chapter 22, where Jesus turns to Peter and he says, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
This is so incredibly important because we don't get it in English, but it's true in the original Greek. It says, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you all. So it's plural. Have you all, all the disciples, all the apostles that he might sift all of you. Again, that's plural. All of you like wheat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
And then the next verse, Jesus goes to singular, but I have prayed for you, Peter, you individually singular, that your faith individual singular may not fail. And when you singular have returned again, strengthen your brethren. There is something so incredible about this fact that Jesus predicts Simon's betrayal. He predicts Peter's failure. And he says, yeah, Satan wants the whole thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 320. We have only this day and tomorrow left for the Gospel of Luke. And then we launch into... the last age, the church now, essentially. And that is great. We're reading Luke chapter 20 to chapter 22, verse 38.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Satan wants all of you. And that's the truth. Y'all, we have an enemy. The enemy desires all of us get taken out. He desires that every single one of us has our faith stolen. He desires to destroy every ounce of love we have for each other and every ounce of love we have for God in our hearts. He wants nothing more than to steal, kill, and destroy all of us. And then Jesus goes on to say,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? And they discussed it with one another, saying, If we say from heaven, he will say, Why did you not believe him? But if we say from men, all the people will stone us, for they are convinced that John was a prophet. So they answered that they did not know where it was from.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
but I prayed for you, singular Peter. This is the role of the al-Habayit, right? This is the role of the first Pope. This is the role of the Pope now. But in this case in particular, in Luke 22, it was the role of that first Pope of Peter. But I prayed for you that your faith may not fail. When you've turned again, when you've come back to me, basically strengthen your brethren.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Think about how incredible it would be to be Peter and to say, yeah, in the midst of all this trial, in the midst of all this danger, in the midst of all this failure, You can trust Jesus. How do you know? Because I betrayed him the night my best friend in the world needed me. I denied even knowing him. So you want a witness to mercy? There it is right there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
You want a witness to what is it like to lean into love and to let yourself be loved in the midst of failure? There it is right there. It's not a claim to being impeccable, right? It's not a claim to sinlessness. It's not a claim to, gosh, how do I say it? Simon Peter can never claim, I was so good that God loved me. Why do I have this role? Because I'm so holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
No, it's he only can claim God's grace. He can only claim when I was at my weakest and my lowest. God was there for me. He said he prayed for me specifically so that when I came back to his heart, I could strengthen my brethren. And this is the truth for you right now, right now for all of us. Our lives will be marked with disaster.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
There may even be public scandal, public sin that is a part of your story. But here's Jesus. I invite you to hear the words of Jesus to that first Pope as words to you. But when you've turned back, I'm praying for you that when you've turned back, even in the midst of public disaster, in the midst of public sin, public scandal, strengthen your brethren.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Let them know that my mercy is without end and I still love them. Because right now, even if you're at the bottom, in the gutter, and it's all your fault, even if you have all these wounds and they're self-inflicted wounds, the truth of the matter is, here's Jesus saying, I'm praying for you. Praying for you. Come back. Trust in my love. Trust in my mercy. Trust in me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
And that's why I'm praying for you. And that's why I'm asking you to pray for me. So that when that day comes, God willing, it never does, but when that day comes, that we can turn back to the Lord. and strengthen each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow, our final day of Luke's Gospel. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
And Jesus said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. The parable of the wicked tenants. And he began to tell the people this parable. A man planted a vineyard and leased it to tenants and went into another country for a long time. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants that they should give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent another servant, him also they beat and treated shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent yet a third, this one they wounded and cast out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, what shall I do? I will send my beloved son. It may be they will respect him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, this is the heir. Let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours. And they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. When they heard this, they said, God forbid.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
But he looked at them and said, What then is this that is written? The very stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. The question about paying taxes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
The scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people for they perceived that he had told this parable against them. So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be sincere that they might take hold of what he said so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
They asked him, Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not? But he perceived their craftiness and said to them, Show me a coin. Whose likeness and inscription has it? They said, Caesar's.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
He said to them, Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him by what he said, but marveling at his answer, they were silent. The question about man's resurrection.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
There came to him some Sadducees, those who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the wife and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
The first took a wife and died without children, and the second and third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward, the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife. And Jesus said to them, The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
But those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. For they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. but that the dead are raised.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
And then we'll pick up and conclude the gospel of Luke tomorrow morning, or tomorrow, whenever you listen, as well as Proverbs chapter 26, verses 17 through 19. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Even Moses showed in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him. And some of the scribes answered, teacher, you have spoken well, for they no longer dared to ask him any question. A question about the Messiah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
But he said to them, How can they say that the Christ is David's son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right till I make your enemies a stool for your feet. David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son? Jesus denounces the hypocrisy of the scribes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
And in the hearing of all the people, he said to his disciples, Beware of the scribes, who like to go about in long robes and love salutations in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation. Chapter 21 The Widow's Offering
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and he saw a poor widow put in two copper coins. And he said, Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them, for they all contributed out of their abundance. But she, out of her poverty, put in all the living that she had. the destruction of the temple foretold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
And some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings. He said, As for these things which you see, the days will come when there shall not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. And they asked him, Teacher, when will this be? And what will be the sign when this is about to take place? And he said, Take heed that you are not led astray.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
For many will come in my name, saying, I am he, and the time is at hand. Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for this must first take place, but the end will not be at once. Signs and persecutions Then he said to them, Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And I know that a Um, you know, what happens is in these last couple of months, if you, I think there's maybe 5,000 reviews or so of the podcast, if you were to go to iTunes and everyone who's listening today were to review it again, give it maybe five stars. I don't know.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences, and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be a time for you to bear testimony.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends. And some of you, they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name's sake, but not a hair of your head will perish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
By your endurance, you will gain your lives. the destruction of Jerusalem foretold. But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it. For these are days of vengeance to fulfill all that is written.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Alas for those who are with child and for those who are nursing in those days, for great distress shall be upon the earth and wrath upon this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations. And Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. the coming of the son of man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars and upon the earth, distress of nations and perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Now, when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near. the lesson of the fig tree. And he told them a parable. Look at the fig tree and all the trees. As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all has taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Exhortation to Watchfulness And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet. And early in the morning, all the people came to him in the temple to hear him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Chapter 22, The Conspiracy to Kill Jesus Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover, and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people. Then Satan entered into Judas, called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and captains how he might betray him to them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
And they were glad and engaged to give him money. So he agreed and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of the multitude. The Preparation of the Passover Then came the day of unleavened bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, Go, and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
You don't have to give it five stars, but if you did that. what would happen is it would bump back up to maybe the top five, who knows, maybe even higher than top five, because sometimes they look at the algorithm and see not just how many downloads there are, but how many people are reviewing it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
They said to him, Where will you have us prepare it? He said to them, Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house which he enters, and tell the householder, The teacher says to you, Where is the guest room where I am to eat the Passover with my disciples? and he will show you a large upper room furnished. There, make ready.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
And they went and found it as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. Jesus institutes the Eucharist. And when the hour came, he sat at table and his apostles with him. And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I shall not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a chalice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
And when he had given thanks, he said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on, I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
And likewise, the chalice after supper saying, this chalice, which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined. But woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. And they began to question one another, which of them it was that would do this. The dispute about greatness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
A dispute also arose among them, which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And he said to them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For which is greater, one who sits at table or one who serves?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Is it not the one who sits at table? But I am among you as one who serves." You are those who have continued with me in my trials. As my father appointed a kingdom for me, so do I appoint for you, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Peter's denial foretold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
So I'm not saying you have to, but it'd kind of be like a good, I don't know, fun little end of the year situation where you could just say, I might as well go down there and do that. You don't have to. Obviously, this is for you. This is for the Lord. It's day 320. We're reading Luke chapter 20 to chapter 22, verse 38, as well as Proverbs 26, verses 17 through 19.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren. And he said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death. He said, I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow this day until you three times deny that you know me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
purse, bag, and sword. And he said to them, When I set you out with no purse or bag or sandals, did you lack anything? They said, Nothing. He said to them, But now let him who has a purse take it, and likewise a bag, and let him who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me, and he was reckoned with transgressors."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
for what is written about me has its fulfillment. And they said, look, Lord, here are two swords.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
And he said to them, it is enough. The book of Proverbs, chapter 26, verses 17 through 19.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
He who meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears. Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, I'm only joking.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. Thank you so much for your word.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Thank you for giving us this opportunity to walk with Jesus as he gets closer and closer to entering into his passion. Lord, thank you for letting us hear the true value of things, the true value of everything that is surrendered to you, the true value of when we give not only our first fruits, but our final fruits and place them into your hands. Help us to be watchful. Help us to be aware.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Help us to be awake. Help us not to become drowsy or to fall into the trap of just thinking or believing that this life will just keep going on endlessly. But help us to be vigilant. Help us to be awake. Help us to watch for you this day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Sometimes, as you know, after 320 days, there are some Proverbs that just, you know, they get you. So, Here's a couple of them. This is chapter 26 and Proverbs 17 through 19. That's two Proverbs. Basically 17 is he who meddles in a quarrel, not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears. Yes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Mind your own business is one of the, the upshots of this, like taking a passing dog by the ears, meaning, yeah, you don't know if this dog is a killer. Maybe the dog is going to do some destruction. You have no idea. I just taken a passing the other one though. This is good.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 320: Peter's Denial Foretold (2024)
Man, oh, like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, I'm only joking. Oh my gosh, how crazy is that? How accurate is that? You think that you're the book of Proverbs written all the way back, you know, maybe in the time of Solomon. And you think, holy smokes. We still do that. We do that all the time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
So for a large tribe, they get a large inheritance. For a small tribe, they get a small inheritance. At the same time, this is so, strikes me as so powerful, is that they wouldn't say, okay, well, you're the tribe of Benjamin, therefore you can have like
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
phenomenal land you're the tribe of manasseh you can have terrible land what they did is they did it by lot it's the fairest way you can do this divided up the property and according to the size according to the size of the tribe and then said okay according to the lot that's where your land is going to be lastly of course we have the family of levi and they did not get an inheritance god himself was their inheritance as
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
Scripture has already made very, very clear. And so they will live in those towns. They also will lead worship in the place that God will point out. He has not yet done this because they have not gone to the promised land. They will lead worship in the place where the Ark of the Covenant and the temple, essentially, ultimately, the tent of meeting will be set up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
But right now, they do not have any inheritance except for God himself, which is a remarkable thing for us to be reminded of. A number of things. The numbers, we get numbered because why? We're called to go into battle. Number two, we get numbered because we're given land according to their size. Number three, that land is given by Lot. When I say Lot, I don't mean the nephew of Abraham.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
I mean lowercase L, Lot, Lot. Just being a jokester. But here we are today, given that space by God's hand. So again, you can say chance, but also we would say as believers that God is involved in everything by providence. And there are those people, those Levites, whose inheritance is not land and his inheritance is not property, but whose inheritance is God himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
And Moses and Eleazar, the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho saying, Take a census of the people from 20 years old and upward as the Lord commanded Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
We are continuing this journey every single day. We're getting close to the end of the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy. We're going to go into the promised land soon with Joshua and then life in the promised land, Judges, Ruth. That's all coming up very, very soon. But we're not in any rush to get through Numbers to get to the end of Deuteronomy because God continues to speak to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
He continues to shape our minds, our hearts, and how we see him and his word and his world by his scripture. So keep praying for each other. You guys, we've gotten to the end of day 73. Keep on moving forward. Don't give up. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
The sons of Israel who came forth out of the land of Egypt were Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, the sons of Reuben, of Hanak, the family of the Hanakites, of Palu, the family of the Paluites, of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites, of Carmi, the family of Carmites. These are the families of the Reubenites and their number was 43,730. And the sons of Palu, Eliab.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 73, and we are reading from Numbers chapter 26, Deuteronomy chapter 27. We are also praying Psalm 111 as always.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
The sons of Eliab, Nemuel, Dathan, and Abiram. These are the Dathan and Abiram chosen from the congregation who contended against Moses and Aaron in the company of Korah when they contended against the Lord. And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up together with Korah when that company died, when the fire devoured 250 men, and they became a warning.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
Notwithstanding, the sons of Korah did not die." The sons of Simeon, according to their families, of Nimuel, the family of the Nimuelites, of Jamin, the family of Jaminites, of Jakin, the family of the Jakinites, of Zerah, the family of the Zerahites, of Shaul, the family of the Shaulites. These are the families of the Simeonites, 22,200.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
the sons of Gad, according to their families, of Zephon, the family of the Zephanites, of Haggai, the family of the Haggites, of Shuni, the family of the Shunites, of Osni, the family of the Osnites, of Eri, the family of the Erites, of Arad, the family of the Aradites, of Aureli, the family of the Aurelites. These are the families of the sons of Gad, according to their number, 40,500.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
The sons of Judah were Ur and Onan, and Ur and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Judah, according to their families, were of Shelah, the family of the Shalonites, of Perez, the family of the Perizzites, of Zerah, the family of the Zerahites. And the sons of Perez were of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites, of Hamul, the family of the Hamulites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
These are the families of Judah, according to their number, 76,500. The sons of Issachar, according to their families, of Tola, the family of the Tolaites, of Puva, the family of the Poonites, of Jashub, the family of the Jashubites, of Shimran, the family of the Shimranites. These are the families of Issachar, according to their number, 64,300.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
The sons of Zebulun, according to their families, of Sered, the family of the Seredites, of Elan, the family of the Elanites, of Jalil, the family of the Jalilites. These are the families of the Zebulunites, according to their number, 60,500. The sons of Joseph, according to their families, Manasseh and Ephraim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
The sons of Manasseh, of Machir, the family of the Machirites, and Machir was the father of Gilead. Of Gilead, the family of the Gileadites. These are the sons of Gilead. Of Iazar, the family of the Iazarites. Of Helek, the family of the Helekites. And of Asriel, the family of the Asrielites. And of Shechem, the family of the Shechemites. And of Shemitah, the family of the Shemitites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
The Bible translation that I'm using today and pretty much every day is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You also can subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily episodes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
and of Hefer, the family of the Heferites. Now Zelophehad, the son of Hefer, had no sons but daughters, and the names of the daughters of Zelophehad were Malah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. These are the families of Manasseh, and their number was 52,700. These are the families of Ephraim, according to their families. Of Shuthalah, the family of the Shuthalahites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
Of Beqar, the family of the Beqarites. Of Tehan, the family of the Tehanites. And these are the sons of Shuthalah. Of Aran, the family of the Aranites. These are the families of the sons of Ephraim, according to their number, 32,500. These are the sons of Joseph, according to their families. The sons of Benjamin, according to their families. Of Bela, the family of the Belaites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
Of Ashbel, the family of the Ashbelites. Of Ahiram, the family of the Ahiramites. Of Shephapham, the family of the Shephaphamites. Of Hufam, the family of the Hufamites. and the sons of bella were ard and naaman of ard was the family of ardites of naaman the family of the naamites these are the sons of benjamin according to their families and their number was forty-five thousand six hundred
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
These are the sons of Dan, according to their families, of Shuham, the family of the Shuhamites. These are the families of Dan, according to their families, all the families of the Shuhamites, according to their number, were 64,400. The sons of Asher, according to their families. Of Imnah, the family of the Imnites. Of Ishvi, the family of the Ishvites. Of Berea, the family of the Bereites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
Of the sons of Berea, of Heber, the family of the Heberites. Of Malkiel, the family of the Malkielites. And the name of the daughter of Asher was Sarah. These are the families of the sons of Asher, according to their number, 53,400.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
the sons of Naphtali, according to their families, of Jezeel, the family of the Jezeelites, of Guni, the family of the Gunites, of Jezer, the family of the Jezerites, of Shalem, the family of the Shalemites. These are the families of Naphtali, according to their families, and their number was 45,400. This was the number of the sons of Israel, 601,730. The Lord said to Moses,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
But as I said, today we are reading from Numbers 26, Deuteronomy 27. We are praying Psalm 111. I want to give you fair warning. Numbers 26 has a lot of names. This is another census of Israel. So just get your census caps on, get your names cap on and some numbers because we're gonna go through the family of the house of Israel once again. And this is the census at the end of Numbers, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
But the land shall be divided by Lot, according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit. Their inheritance shall be divided according to Lot between the larger and the smaller. These are the Levites as numbered according to their families. Of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites. Of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites. Of Merari, the family of the Merarites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
These are the families of Levi, the family of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Malites, the family of the Mushites, the family of the Korahites. And Kohath was the father of Amram. The name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt, and she bore to Amram, Aaron, and Moses, and Miriam their sister.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
And to Aaron were born Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. But Nadab and Abihu died when they offered unholy fire before the Lord, and those numbered of them were 23,000. Every male from a month old and upward, for they were not numbered among the sons of Israel, because there was no inheritance given to them among the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
These were those numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the sons of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. But among these, there was not a man of those numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest who had numbered the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had said of them, they shall die in the wilderness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
There was not left a man of them except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun. The book of Deuteronomy, chapter 27. The inscribed stones, an altar on Mount Ebal. Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandment which I command you this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
And on the day you pass over the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster, and you shall write upon them all the words of this law. When you pass over to enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
And when you have passed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones concerning which I command you this day on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster. And there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. You shall lift up no iron tool upon them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
You shall build an altar to the Lord your God of unhewn stones, and you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God, and you shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, and you shall write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
And Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, Keep silence and hear, O Israel. This day you have become the people of the Lord your God. You shall therefore obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping his commandments and his statutes, which I command you this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
And Moses charged the people that same day, saying, When you have passed over the Jordan, these shall stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. And these shall stand upon Mount Ebal for the curse, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. And the Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel with a loud voice,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
Cursed be the man who makes a graven or molten image, an abomination to the Lord, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman and sets it up in secret. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen. Cursed be he who dishonors his father or his mother. and all the people shall say amen. Cursed be he who removes his labor's landmark, and all the people shall say amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
So we had the census at the very beginning of Numbers. Here we are with the census at the end of Numbers to kind of say, okay, after 40 years, what's going on? Who are the people? Who are the people that are coming into the promised land, who have made it through the wilderness? What are their names and how many are there? That's today in Numbers chapter 26.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
Cursed be he who misleads a blind man on the road, and all the people shall say amen. Cursed be he who perverts the justice due the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and all the people shall say amen. Cursed be he who lies with his father's wife because he has uncovered her who is his father's. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he who lies with any kind of beast.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he who takes a bribe to slay an innocent person, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them. And all the people shall say, Amen. Psalm 111 Praise for God's wonderful works. Praise the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright in the congregation. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who have pleasure in them. Full of honor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and merciful. He provides food for those who fear him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
he is ever mindful of his covenant he has shown his people the power of his works in giving them the heritage of the nations the works of his hands are faithful and just all his precepts are trustworthy They are established forever and ever to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness. He sent redemption to his people. He has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who practice it. His praise endures forever. Father in heaven, it is true. Your praise endures forever and we give you thanks. Let us praise you every day. Let us be like Judah. Let praise go up first. In this moment, we offer you our first fruits. In this moment, we offer you our hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
We offer you our everything. In the best way, Lord God, that we know that we can love you. There's these three ways that we know we can love you. We can show you our love by worshiping you. We can show you our love by obeying your commandments. and we can show you our love by loving and caring for our brother and our sister among us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
Help us to do all those three things, Lord God, and help us to be people who love you with everything we have and everything we are. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So, at the Book of Numbers, as I said, I warned you, there are going to be some names, and the families of the people, the tribes of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
We could lose a little bit of the story here, but keep this in the context of the story. At the very beginning of Numbers, we went through the numbering of the tribes of Israel. And now here at the end of Numbers, they're numbering the tribes of Israel. Why are they doing this? Well, just like in the beginning, because who did God save from slavery in Egypt? Let's number them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
The book of Numbers 26, another census of Israel. After the plague, the Lord said to Moses and to Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel from 20 years old and upward by their father's houses, all in Israel who are able to go forth to war.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
As they're wandering through the wilderness, let's number them. Because God's intention was that they would go up in and take the land, right? Take possession of the land he was going to give to them. But they failed. And so now here, 40 years later, they're numbering once again, who are the fighting men? What's the number of the fighting men in each one of these tribes?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
And this is really important because why? Because the next step is going to be battle. The next step is going to be people of Israel, tribes of Israel go to war. Now, interestingly, some of the tribes grew. Some of them did not grow. They got smaller. Overall, though, what we have is we have very little change. Ultimately, there's roughly 603,550 who were in the first census.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 73: Inheritance of Land (2025)
And at the end, we have 601,730 are now with the people of Israel. So it went down by a little less than 2,000 people at the end of numbers versus the beginning of numbers. Moses also makes it very, very clear that here they are, they're going to take the land, but also the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
My tongue will sing of your word, for all your commandments are right. Let your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts. I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight. Let my soul live that I may praise you, and let your ordinances help me. I have gone astray, like a lost sheep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Father in heaven, we give you praise and thank you. Thank you so much for your word. Thank you so much for the gift of the priesthood that you've given to not only the people of Israel, but the gift of the new and eternal priest, the priesthood of Jesus Christ, your son, that you've given to your people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Have you given to the church as it exists now and as it exists at its founding when your son offered himself for us at the last supper and said, take this, all of you, and eat of it. This is my body. Take this, all of you, and drink from it. This is the cup of my blood, the cup of the new and eternal covenant. Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you so much.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Thank you that you are the great high priest and we thank you that you have chosen men among us to extend that work, the share in the mission, to share in the identity and to share in the ministry of your priesthood. Help us all to draw near to you as those who are baptized are also made kingdom priests by our baptism.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Help us all to lift up our voices, lift up our hearts, and lift up the great sacrifice to the Father in your name by the power of your Holy Spirit. Make this prayer in the mighty name, your mighty name, Lord Jesus Christ, name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. So there's so much to say about these first two readings from Exodus and from Leviticus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
But one of the things that needs to be iterated and reiterated is the fact that not only are in the new covenant, not only are the new covenant priests called to belong to the Lord and called to lead the people in worship, to be those intercessors, right, who go from the people to the Lord and go from God back to the people as prophets and priests, but that they're called to be holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
And so please, today, on this day, day 45, please pray for our priests as we hear about the Old Testament priesthood and the need for priests to be holy. A little reminder, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. You can get that at ascensionpress.com.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
that they're called to live a certain way and that so many of us priests fail to live that way in small ways and in great ways, right? We know of the big ones, we know the big failings and big massive sins and heinous actions of many priests, but also just the small ways that Every Christian fails to honor the Lord. Every Christian fails to live up to the call to be holy as the Lord God is holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
And so today on this day, I just invite you on day 45 to let this be a day where we just dedicate our prayer for our priests, right? To say, okay, Lord, not just that we get more priests, not just we have enough to serve the people of God whom God loves so much.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
but also that these priests, including myself, may be actually holy, may truly live up to the call of Jesus Christ because I know my brokenness and I know how much I stand in need of God's mercy every single day in small ways and in incredibly large ways that's like, oh my gosh, Lord, I could not stand for another day without your help, without your mercy, without, gosh, the sacrament of confession that I need so often is
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
that I just say, God, help me to be this kind of priest that you describe here. A priest who actually is a man after your own heart, a man who actually chooses you. And that Psalm 119, as we got to the end here, where it says, the last lines here, let my soul live and I may praise you. And let your ordinances help me. Because I have gone astray like a lost sheep.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
This is the person, the psalmist, right, who wrote and said, like, Lord, I love your law and I love your commandments and I hate the ways of falsehood and all these things, which is true. But he also says, but I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant. And I love that. That's the prayer of all of us, right? Lord, I have gone astray. So seek me out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Lord, I have gone astray like a sheep, like a lost sheep. I've run away from you. So seek me out. Not just welcome me back, but seek me out. Not just let me come back in the door, but Lord God, race after me. Search for me, find me and bring me home. And that is my prayer for myself. Golly, you guys.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
But it's also my prayer for everyone who's a part of this community, this Bible in your community, that we have gone astray so many ways. And so often for a loss, we don't know the way home.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
i mean even if we kind of technically do know the way it's like but lord i would not i would not choose that way unless you seek me out so just like the psalmist with all 176 verses of psalm 119 that last verse lord i have gone astray like a sheep like a lost sheep so seek me out let that be our prayer today um both two things right pray for our priests lord god help them make them holy but also for ourselves lord god i have gone astray like a lost sheep
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Also, some people ask, when we were 45 days into this, and we're using the same translation the entire 365 days. So people will say, do I need to get the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition? You don't have to. It helps a lot. But, you know, the Bible translation that we use at Mass, is called the New American Bible. And I like that translation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Seek me out. Bring me home. The Lord God, he loves you already. The Lord loves you already. And he knows your name. He calls your name. He seeks you out. Today, once again, let him bring you home. Let's keep praying for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you again tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day 45. Let's keep on trucking along. If you have the We'll be right back. So day 45, we're reading from Exodus chapter 29, still deep, deep in Exodus, Leviticus chapter 21.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
That's the one that I will use on a daily basis. Well, actually now I use both the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, the Great Adventure Bible, as well as my New American Bible on a daily basis because we're doing this. And there's something really good about having one translation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
There's also something really good about having multiple translations that you're really familiar with. And so whatever translation you like, that's the one to use. That's what Jeff Cavins always will say. I remember him saying the first time I heard him say that, he said, what Babel translation is the best? The one that you are willing to read.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
And so hopefully the one you're listening to is one that is speaking to your heart and to your mind and feeding you as well. Please subscribe in your podcast app. Here we are. Let's actually get to God's word as we read from Exodus chapter 29, Leviticus chapter 21, and Psalm 119. Exodus chapter 29, the ordination of priests.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Now, this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. Take one young bull and two rams without blemish and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil and unleavened wafers spread with oil. You shall make them of fine wheat flour and you shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket and bring the bull and the two rams.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
you shall bring aaron and his sons to the door of the tent of meeting and wash them with water and you shall take the garments and put on aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod and the ephod and the breastpiece and belt him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod And you shall set the turban on his head and put the holy crown upon the turban.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
And you shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. Then you shall bring his sons and put coats on them. And you shall belt them with sashes and bind caps on them. And the priesthood shall be theirs by a perpetual statute. Thus you shall ordain Aaron and his sons. Then you shall bring the bull before the tent of meeting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the bull, and you shall kill the bull before the Lord at the door of the tent of meeting, and shall take part of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and the rest of the blood you shall pour out at the base of the altar.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
And you shall take all the fat that covers the entrails and the appendage of the liver and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them and burn them upon the altar." But the flesh of the bull and its skin and its dung you shall burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Then you shall take one of the rams and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the ram and you shall slaughter the ram and shall take its blood and throw it against the altar round about. Then you shall cut the ram into pieces and wash its entrails and its legs and put them with its pieces and its head and burn the whole ram upon the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
It is a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
You shall take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the ram, and you shall kill the ram and take part of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and upon the tips of the right ears of his sons and upon the thumbs of their right hands and upon the great toes of their right feet and throw the rest of the blood against the altar round about.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar and of the anointing oil and sprinkle it upon aaron and his garments and upon his sons and his sons garments with him and he and his garments shall be holy and his sons and his sons garments with them you shall also take the fat of the ram and the fat tail and the fat that covers the entrails
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
and the appendage of the liver, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and the right thigh, for it is a ram of ordination, and one loaf of bread, and one cake of bread with oil, and one wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before the Lord. And you shall put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Then you shall take them from their hands and burn them on the altar in addition to the burnt offering as a pleasing odor before the Lord. It is an offering by fire to the Lord. And you shall take the breast of the ram of Aaron's ordination and wave it for a wave offering before the Lord, and it shall be your portion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
And you shall consecrate the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the priest's portion, which is waved and which is offered from the ram of ordination, since it is for Aaron and for his sons. It shall be for Aaron and his sons as a perpetual debt from the sons of Israel, for it is the priest's portion to be offered by the sons of Israel from their peace offerings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
It is their offering to the Lord. The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him to be anointed in them and ordained in them. The son who is priest in his place shall wear them seven days when he comes into the tent of meeting to minister in the holy place. You shall take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket at the door of the tent of meeting. They shall eat those things with which atonement was made to ordain and consecrate them. But an outsider shall not eat of them because they are holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
And if any of the flesh for the ordination or of the bread remain until the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten because it is holy. Thus you shall do to Aaron and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. Through seven days shall you ordain them, and every day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Also you shall offer a sin offering for the altar when you make atonement for it and shall anoint it to consecrate it. Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it, and the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar shall become holy. the daily offerings. Now this is what you shall offer upon the altar. Two lambs a year old, day by day, continually.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer in the evening. And with the first lamb, a tenth measure of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a libation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
And the other lamb you shall offer in the evening and shall offer with it a cereal offering and its libation as in the morning for a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord. It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you to speak there to you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
There I will meet with the sons of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory. I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. And I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and I will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
We're praying today, that last section on Psalm 119. We'll be praying Psalm 119 verses 121 through 176. There is so much in Psalm 119. that the Lord just reveals to us about our own hearts, reveals to us about his heart. But even more, gosh, Exodus 29 and Leviticus 21. There is a deep connection today with both of these readings.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, Speak to the priests, to the sons of Aaron, and say to them that none of them shall defile himself for the dead among his people, except for his nearest kin, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, or his virgin sister, who is near to him because she has had no husband. For her he may defile himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
He shall not defile himself as a husband among his people and so profane himself. They shall not make tonsures upon their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God. For they offer the offerings by fire to the Lord, the bread of their God. Therefore they shall be holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
They shall not marry a harlot or a woman who has been defiled. Neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. You shall consecrate him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the Lord who sanctify you, am holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father, she shall be burned with fire. The priest who is chief among his brethren, among whose head the anointing oil is poured, and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose, nor tear his clothes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
He shall not go into any dead body, nor defile himself even for his father or for his mother. Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God, nor For the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him. I am the Lord. And he shall take a wife in her virginity, a widow or one divorced or a woman who has been defiled or a harlot.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
These he shall not marry, but he shall take to wife a virgin of his own people that he may not profane his children among his people. For I am the Lord who sanctify him. And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, None of your descendants throughout their generations who has had a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has had a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback or a dwarf, or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease, or scabs or crushed testicles,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
No man of his descendants, of Aaron the priest, who has a blemish, shall come near to offer the Lord's offerings by fire, since he has a blemish. He shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things, but he shall not come near the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the Lord who sanctify them. So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
I have done what is right and just. Do not leave me to my oppressors. Be surety for your servant for good. Let not the godless oppress me. My eyes fail with watching for your salvation and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise. Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love and teach me your statutes. I am your servant. Give me understanding that I may know your testimonies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
It is time for the Lord to act, for your law has been broken. Therefore, I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. Therefore, I direct my steps by all your precepts. I hate every false way. Your testimonies are wonderful. Therefore, my soul keeps them. The unfolding of your words gives light. It imparts understanding to the simple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
One is because, well, the main reason is because they both talk about the priesthood. And in Exodus talks about the ordination of priests. And then in Leviticus talks about the need for priests to be holy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
With open mouth, I pant because I long for your commandments. Turn to me and be gracious to me as you always do toward those who love your name. Keep steady my steps according to your promise and let no iniquity get dominion over me. Redeem me from man's oppression that I may keep your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your statutes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
My eyes shed streams of tears because men do not keep your law. You are righteous, O Lord, and right are your judgments. You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness and in all faithfulness. My zeal consumes me because my foes forget your words. Your promise is well tried and your servant loves it. I am small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Your righteousness is righteous forever and your law is true. Trouble and anguish have come upon me, but your commandments are my delight. Your testimonies are righteous forever. Give me understanding that I may live. With my whole heart, I cry, answer me, O Lord. I will keep your statutes. I cry to you, save me, that I may observe your testimonies. Arise before dawn and cry for help.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
I hope in your words. My eyes are awake before the watches of the night that I may meditate upon your promise. Hear my voice in your steadfast love. O Lord, in your justice, preserve my life. They draw near who persecute me with evil purpose. They are far from your law, but you are near, O Lord, and your commandments are all true.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Long have I known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever. Look on my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget your law. Plead my cause and redeem me. Give me life according to your promise. Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes. Great is your mercy, O Lord. Give me life according to your justice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
And so I'm just asking for you as we begin this time to pray for me, as well as pray for your pastor, pray for the associate priests, pray for all the priests in your life, because not only are they called to be set apart, but they're called to live in that way that honors the one who set them apart and honors the one that they worship and honors the people that they're called to pray for.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, but I do not swerve from your testimonies. I look at the faithless with disgust, because they do not keep your commands. Consider how I love your precepts. Preserve my life according to your steadfast love. The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous ordinances endures forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
Princes persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of your words. I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil. I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law. Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous ordinances. Great peace have those who love your law. Nothing can make them stumble. I hope for your salvation, O Lord, and I do your commandments.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 45: Pray for Priests (2025)
My soul keeps your testimonies. I love them exceedingly. I keep your precepts and testimonies, for all my ways are before you. Let my cry come before you, O Lord. Give me understanding according to your word. Let my supplication come before you. Deliver me according to your word. My lips will pour forth praise that you teach me your statutes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
And they reviled him, saying, You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. The man answered, Why, this is a marvel. You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered him, You were born in utter sin, and you would teach us? And they cast him out.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Spiritual Blindness Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered, And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, You have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you. He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Jesus said, For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard this, and they said to him, Are we also blind? Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say, We see, your guilt remains.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
The book of Proverbs chapter five, verses 15 through 23.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Drink water from your own cisterns, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely dear, a graceful doe. Let her affection fill you at all times with delight, be infatuated always with her love.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Why should you be infatuated, my son, with a loose woman and embrace the bosom of an adventurous? For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he watches all his paths. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is caught in the toils of his sin. He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is lost.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
But after his brethren had gone up to the feast, he also went up, not publicly, but in private. The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, where is he? And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, he is a good man, others said, no, he is leading the people astray. Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Father in heaven, we thank you. We give you praise today and every day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
My goodness, Lord. Father, you have given us your son. And you have given us a share in your nature. You've given us the Holy Spirit. The promised Holy Spirit that... your son promised to those who would follow him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
a spiritual blindness that can affect every single one of us, where we refuse to see or we choose not to see, where we get to the place where we just would rather not look and see the truth, to acknowledge the truth and therefore be convicted by the truth. But Lord God, help us always. Give us the strength. Give us the strength to have the courage to have open eyes in this world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Give us the strength to be able to be convicted by what we see, convicted to act, convicted to repent, convicted to love those who are not loved and to fulfill the promises that we have made. We make this prayer in Jesus' name, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
So in Proverbs, just a quick little note, chapter five, it says the title is Warning Against Loose Women. And so for the last three days, you might have been thinking, okay, so it doesn't really apply, maybe in your life or the lives of the people that you are listening to this with. Of course, it's really about character, and really, ultimately,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
I mean, initially here it is about advice to a son about here, here's the kind of woman you want to marry essentially. But for all of us, this is advice about the people we want to associate with. And that recognition is, okay, regardless of whether this is a romantic relationship or a not romantic relationship, we want to associate with people who have character that goes deeper than their skin.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
And the last little piece here, the last line of the book of Proverbs chapter five is he dies for lack of discipline. So it has nothing necessarily or nothing automatically to do with relationships, but that recognition of he dies for lack of discipline. There's so many of us, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
That there's so much shipwreck of our lives that can happen because of a lack of discipline, a lack of a willingness to do the hard things, a lack of willingness to simply do what Jesus said his disciples will do, which is to take up their cross and follow him. Proverbs chapter 5, verse 23. He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly, he's lost.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
And so he asks the Lord to, of course, help us to never be lost, to never be far from him, and to really hear his word. Because in that is the gospel today, right? Gospel of John 7, 8, and 9. Here is Jesus revealing himself, and there's some people who are open to it and some people are not open to this, to the reality of him. Now, keep this in mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
In John's gospel, whenever Jesus does a miracle, it's called a sign and wonder. And so the miracle of the wedding feast at Cana with water becoming wine, the miracle of the here in the gospel here in Chapter nine, the man born blind who gets his sight back, not gets his sight back. He never had in the first place. He was born blind. This is remarkable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
One of the reasons why John calls this sign and wonder is because the sign points to something. The sign points to Jesus is who he says he is. You heard it just a second ago in John chapter eight, where the Pharisees come to Jesus and he says, truly, truly, I say to you before Abraham was. I am.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. The Jews marveled at it saying, how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? So Jesus answered them, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If any man's will is to do his will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
And in saying that word, I am, Jesus is making it absolutely clear that he's not simply claiming to be a prophet. He's not simply claiming to be the Messiah, the anointed one who's been waited for. He is saying, he's claiming to be equal to God himself. That he's saying, he's saying this in so many ways. If you've seen me, you've seen the father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
If you know the father, you would know me because he is not just saying, yeah, we're similar. If you're a holy person, you'd kind of recognize who I am. He is saying his deepest identity is to be one with the father. His deepest identity is that he shares the same being as the father. Now, this is a massively important claim that Jesus isn't just a teacher. He's not just a prophet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
He's not just the anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ, that he actually is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. And this is massive. But it also demands that Jesus does these miracles. Why? Because anyone can come along and say, oh, hey, this is who I am. Jesus, as he says, this is who I am. He then demonstrates it. He proves it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
He has these miracles, which are called signs and wonders that point to the fact that you can, if you don't believe me, trust the works. You see the works I do. You don't want to believe me. That's fine. But believe the works themselves. And so we just ask the Lord to help us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
to see, to help us have eyes that don't turn away, that we are people willing to walk in the light and not in the darkness. As we continue to journey through John's gospel, my invitation for all of us is to keep our eyes open, but also how about this? We're a couple 20 minutes into this. It's a little bit longer than maybe we're accustomed to. So one of the things my invitation is,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
It might be a lot of information. Let this kind of wash over you. This is one of the things that when we get to listen to scripture, we get to let it just be spoken to us. And by listening to it, by being open to it, even if we don't get every single word, it's shaping us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
We'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 101. We are reading from John chapter 7, 8, and 9, as well as we're concluding the fifth chapter of the book of Proverbs, chapter 5, verses 15 through 23.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
And that is the entire point that God's word does not return to him void or empty, but it always accomplishes the will for which he sent it. So, oh man, let's keep praying for each other as we have the next four days in John's gospel and the book of Proverbs. Then we're going to get it back to 1 Samuel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
But right now, we get to live in the New Testament for a while, which is such an incredible gift. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me? The people answered, You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill you? Jesus answered them, I did one deed, and you all marvel at it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Moses gave you circumcision, not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers, and you circumcise a man upon the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. Is this the Christ?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? Yet we know where this man comes from and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
So Jesus proclaimed as he taught in the temple, you know me and you know where I come from? But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me. So they sought to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
They said, When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done? Officers are sent to arrest Jesus. The Pharisees heard the crowd thus muttering about him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. Jesus then said, The Jews said to one another, Rivers of living water. On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water. Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. When they heard these words, some of the people said, This is really the prophet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
As always, the translation of the Bible that I'm reading is from the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And you can also subscribe to this podcast or whatever podcast you want, I guess. Just click subscribe.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Christ is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was? So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. The authorities and the woman caught in adultery.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees who said to them, why did you not bring him? The officers said, no man ever spoke like this man. The Pharisees answered them. Are you led astray? You also have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him. But this crowd who do not know the law are accursed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Nicodemus, who had gone to him before and who was one of them, said to them, Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does? They replied, Are you from Galilee too? Search, and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee. They went each to his own house. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in their midst, they said to him,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
teacher this woman has been caught in the act of adultery now in the law moses commanded us to stone such what do you say about her this they said to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest. And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, No one, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you. Go, and do not sin again. Jesus and the light of the world. Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. The Pharisees then said to him, you are bearing witness to yourself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
That's the secret hack. That's the cheat code. Just click on the subscribe button. All of a sudden, what happens? You're subscribed. Today, as I said, we're reading John chapter 7, 8 and 9, Proverbs chapter 5, verses 15 through 23. The Gospel of John, chapter seven, the unbelief of Jesus's brethren. After this, Jesus went about in Galilee.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Your testimony is not true. Jesus answered, even if I do bear witness to myself, my testimony is true for I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone that judge, but I and he who sent me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
In your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I bear witness to myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness to me. They said to him, Therefore, where is your father? Jesus answered, You know neither me nor my father. If you knew me, you would know my father also.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
These words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, but no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come. Jesus alludes to his death. Again he said to them, I go away, and you will seek me, and die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself, since he says, Where I am going, you cannot come? He said to them, You are from below.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he. They said to him, Who are you? Jesus said to them, Even what I have told you from the beginning, I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
They did not understand that he spoke to them of the father. So Jesus said, when you have lifted up the son of man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak thus as the father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone for I always do what is pleasing to him. As he spoke thus, many believed in him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
True Disciples of Jesus Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. They answered him, We are descendants of Abraham and have never been in bondage to anyone. How is it that you say you will be made free?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Jesus answered them, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not continue in the house forever, the son continues forever. So if the son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are descendants of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.'
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
I speak of what I have seen with my father, and you do what you have heard from your father. Jesus and Abraham. They answered him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You do the works of your father.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
They said to him, We were not born of fornication. We have one father, even God. Jesus said to them, If God were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded and came forth from God. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
He would not go about in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews feast of tabernacles was at hand. So his brethren said to him, leave here and go to Judea that your disciples may see the works you are doing. For no man works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. for even his brethren did not believe in him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
He was a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do with the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me." Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears the words of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. The Jews answered him, Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? Jesus answered, I have not a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it, and he will be the judge. Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
The Jews said to him, Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets. And you say, If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death? Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died, and the prophets, who died? Who do you claim to be? Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that he is your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
But you have not known him. I know him. If I said I do not know him, I should be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day. He saw it and was glad. The Jews then said to him, You are not yet fifty years old and have seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Truly, truly I say to you,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
So they took up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. Chapter 9 Healing of the Blind Man As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth, and his disciples asked him, "'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' Jesus answered, "'It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night comes when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.'" As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with the clay, saying to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent. So he went and washed and came back seeing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar said, Is not this the man who used to sit and beg? Some said, It is he. Others said, No, but he is like him. He said, I am the man. They said to him, then how were your eyes opened? He answered, the man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Salome and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
They said to him, where is he? He said, I do not know. The Pharisees investigate the healing. They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. The Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, he put clay on my eyes and I washed and I see.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Jesus said to them, My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify of it that its works are evil. Go to the feast yourselves. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come. So saying, he remained in Galilee. Jesus at the feast of tabernacles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God for he does not keep the Sabbath. But others said, How can a man who is a sinner do such signs? There was a division among them. So they again said to the blind man, What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes? He said, He is a prophet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents answered, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
Ask him, he is of age, he will speak for himself. His parents said this because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess him to be the Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, He is of age, ask him. So for the second time, they called the man who had been blind and said to him, Give God the praise.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 101: Signs and Wonders (2025)
We know that this man is a sinner. He answered, Whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see. They said to him, What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you too want to become his disciples?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
This is the same thing is true for you and for me, that we might fail any given day. But that failure does not disqualify us. The Lord continues to call us back to himself, even if that road is hard to understand. One last word, because we're going to continue to follow our friend Job. We have to call him our friend. He has to be our pal, not just our pal, our friend.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
He has to be a true friend, Job. Because today, in these chapters in the book of Job, he says things that... Many of us have wondered, maybe we've said that out loud, maybe we've been too afraid to say these things, where basically he's saying, yeah, here's God. I don't get it. I don't get it at all. Why would he bring me forth and call me into existence?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
He's so good, but why would he abandon me like this? And I can't even argue with him. I can't even stand up. And even if he listened to me, like, no, you're God. You got it. You have all the answers. You're not going to be wrong. I'm going to be wrong if I'm going to get into a fight with you, God. And he just feels so powerless because the question keeps creeping up in his heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
God, are you actually not on my side? Even though I'm trying to be righteous, it seems like you don't care about the righteous. You don't care about the wicked. You don't care about anybody because I'm hurting so badly. And that could be us so many times. But that's the cry of Job, which is, God, do you not care? Do you not care that I'm hurting so much? Do you not care that I'm trying?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
I thought that by living righteously before you and relationship before you, I thought that that mattered to you. And now it seems like it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all. As we continue walking with Job through his pain, this question, we're going to find that this question has a particular kind of an answer, but we're not going to rush to the answer yet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
I think it's important for us to stay with our friend Job and to go journey with him in his pain and in his feeling abandoned. The quick answer is what we found in Proverbs, which is, oh, if you're just, you get blessed. And if you're wicked, then you don't get blessed. That is part of wisdom. A deeper other kind of wisdom is God causes the rain to fall on the good and the evil.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
He causes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust. And there's a mystery there for all of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
So as we continue this journey through the Bible, walking with Abraham and Sarah, walking with Job, our friend, and walking in the wisdom of the Proverbs, we just come before the Lord and thank him for his word, knowing that there's so much we do not understand about this life, but the more and more we don't run from God, but the closer we stay to him, the more wisdom that we grow in, the clearer we see things, even in the midst of pain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said, behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife. Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, Lord, will you slay an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me, she is my sister? And she herself said, he is my brother.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
I know that you, many people listen to this and do on this journey with us. You're in the midst of pain. Job is your friend. Job is your friend. He can say words. He can pray words that you long to pray. And you can let Job's prayer be your prayer and let us be your brothers and sisters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
Truly, this is a community of people who are reading the Bible, going through this Bible all together right now. And so let's lift each other up. Let's pray for each other, especially for those who are united, closer than anyone else maybe, to our friend Job. My name is Father Mike Schmitz, and I want to let you know I'm praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands, I have done this. Then God said to him in the dream, Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore, I did not let you touch her. Now then, restore the man's wife for he is a prophet and he will pray for you and you shall live.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all that are yours. So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things and the men were very much afraid. Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
You have done to me things that ought not to be done. And Abimelech said to Abraham, what were you thinking of that you did this thing? Abraham said, I did it because I thought there is no fear of God at all in this place and they will kill me because of my wife. Besides, she indeed is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother. And she became my wife.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, this is the kindness you must do to me. At every place to which we come, say of me, he is my brother. Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham and restored Sarah, his wife to him. And Abimelech said, behold, my land is before you. Dwell where it pleases you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
To Sarah he said, Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is your vindication in the eyes of all who are with you, and before every one you are righted. Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves, so that they bore children.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
This is day 10, so let's get started. Today we'll be reading from Genesis chapter 20 and chapter 21. We'll also be reading Job chapter 9 and chapter 10, And we'll dip back into Proverbs, Proverbs chapter two, verses six through eight. As you know, the Bible translation that I'm reading is the revised standard version, Catholic edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh over me. And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would suckle children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age. And the child grew and was weaned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on the count of his son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
But God said to Abraham, Be not displeased because of the lad and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your descendants be named. and I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder along with the child and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in all the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
Then she went and sat down over against him a good way off about the distance of a bow shot, for she said, Let me not look upon the death of the child. And as she sat over against him, the child lifted up his voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
For God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him a great nation. Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink. And God was with the lad and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
He lived in the wilderness of Paran and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. At that time, Abimelech and Phechol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, And Abraham said, I will swear.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
When Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water which Abimelech's servants had seized, Abimelech said, So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant. Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart, and Abimelech said to Abraham, What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs which you set apart?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
He said, These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that you may be a witness for me that I dug this well. Therefore that place was called Beersheba, because there both of them swore an oath. So they made a covenant at Beersheba. And Abimelech and Phechol, the commander of his army, rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
It's just fantastic. All the notes, especially as we journey through like the narrative books and like how everything fits together. There's some fantastic notes in the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension that is just super helpful. Also, if you have, regardless of what Bible you are using,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
Job replies to Bildad. Then Job answered, truly, I know that it is so, but how can a man be just before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength, who has hardened himself against God and succeeded.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
He who removes mountains and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger, who shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars tremble, who commands the sun and it does not rise, who seals up the stars.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea, who made the bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south, who does great things beyond understanding and marvelous things without number. Behold, he passes by me and I see him not. He moves on, but I do not perceive him. Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will say to him, what are you doing?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
God will not turn back his anger. Beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab. How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him? Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him. I must appeal for mercy to my accuser. If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice, for he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
He will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness." If it is a contest of strength, behold him. If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him? Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me. Though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse. I am blameless. I regard not myself. I loathe my life. It is all one. Therefore I say, he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
If you want a Bible in a Year reading plan so you can see it and follow along and know what's coming up in the future, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. For this podcast, you can probably subscribe. That way you'll get an alert every single day when this podcast gets uploaded.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the face of its judges. If it is not he, then who is it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
my days are swifter than a runner they flee away they see no good they go by like skiffs of reed like an eagle swooping among the prey if i say i will forget my complaint i will put off my sad countenance and be of good cheer i become afraid of all my suffering For I know you will not hold me innocent. I shall be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, yet you will plunge me into the pit and my own clothes will abhor me. For he is not a man as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no umpire between us who might lay his hand upon us both. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself. I loathe my life. I will give free utterance to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, do not condemn me. Let me know why you contend against me. Does it seem good to you to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked? Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
Are your days as the days of man or your years as man's years? That you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, although you know I am not guilty and there is none to deliver out of your hand. Your hands fashioned and made me and now you turn about and destroy me. Remember that you have made me out of clay and will you turn me to dust again?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh. You knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and mercy, and your care has preserved my spirit. Yet these things you hid in your heart. I know that this was your purpose. If I sin, you mark me and do not acquit me of my iniquity. If I am wicked, woe to me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
If I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head for I am filled with disgrace and look upon my affliction. And if I lift myself up, you hunt me like a lion and again work wonders against me. You renew your witnesses against me and increase your vexation toward me. You bring fesh hosts against me. Why did you bring me forth from the womb?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
And also for more alerts, if you want to sign up for our email list, you can text the word Catholic Bible. It's really two words, but we combine them together. All one word, Catholic Bible, to the number 3333. As I said today, we're going to be reading Genesis chapter 20 and chapter 21, the story of Abraham and Sarah at Gerar, the birth of Isaac, and the dramatic story of Hagar and Ishmael.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
Would that I had died before any eye had seen me and were as though I had not been carried from the womb to the grave. Are not the days of my life few? Let me alone that I may find a little comfort before I go from where I shall not return to the land of gloom and deep darkness, the land of gloom and chaos, where light is as darkness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
For the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his saints. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. Thank you so much for your word. Oh my gosh, Lord, you work your wonders.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
You are so mysterious in how you reveal yourself to us. Once again, Father, you have revealed to us the way in which you work through brokenness. You work through people who are fickle. You work for the ways that we try to get out of things and the ways that we try to just understand your... your will, your heart. You are more than we ever could imagine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
You are more than we ever could understand or grasp or hope for or long for. But you are God, living and true. And so we thank you for sharing your word with us today. Help us to understand your word, to receive it, to receive the parts that are hard to understand and to allow our lens to be shaped by your revelation, by the revelation of your heart working in our lives this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
In Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. So they call Abraham the father of the faith, the father of our faith. In fact, not only our Jewish brothers and sisters, but also in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, there's a whole section on prayer where it refers to Abraham as the father of faith. And yet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
What do we see in so many of these early stories about the life of Abraham? We do see him walking in faith, but we also see him faltering in faith, right? We see him walking in faith where, yes, he submits to the circumcision, he enters into the covenant with the Lord God, but also on at least two occasions now, when he went to Egypt and now with Abimelech,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
abraham seems to kind of falter in his courage he seems to falter in his faith where he passes off sarah as his sister or as most like i guess we'll say now merely his sister and not also his wife twice out of fear and there's something that really is true when it comes to following after the lord it is so often that we can be walking in faith like nine times out of ten that's doing well and just choosing the lord and then that one time
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
That one time out of 10, we just fall flat on our face. It is a grace that we have the sacrament of confession. It is a grace that we know that the heart of the Lord is mercy. And so we even have this grace that God appears, the Lord God appears to Abimelech in a dream and says, you stay away from Sarah. Basically, he is Abraham's wife, not his sister, like he told you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
And even that grace that he extended, God says to Abimelech, he says, I kept you from her so that you didn't sin. Like what an incredible gift. Man, how many times have we been kind of following the Lord or just kind of doing what we've been doing? And how many times does God preserve us from that fall? We don't even know it. We don't even realize it. We think we might not even notice.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
We might not even have any awareness until we get to heaven. of all the times that the Lord has held us back from falling when we didn't even know. And yet there are times when he allows us. He allows us to stumble. He allows us to fall like Abraham. He allowed him to fail so that Abraham could learn more deeply to trust. Because it's one thing to be perfect. I imagine. I have to imagine that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
It's one thing to be perfect. It is another thing to be imperfect, to fail, and to learn what it is to be loved in your failure. Learn what it is to be lifted back up in your failure. To learn what it is that your failure doesn't disqualify you. And this is one of the things for Abraham today. His failure to trust, his failure to have faith did not disqualify him from the covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 10: Hagar and Ishmael (2025)
Genesis chapter 20, chapter 21. From there, Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negev and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, and he sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said to Sarah, his wife, she is my sister. And Abimelech, the king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah.
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Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
You know, for years, a little side point, for years, the story can be of David's unfaithfulness, you know, that he's committing adultery. But we also recognize in this day and age that here's David who's abusing his power. So imagine that Bathsheba wasn't necessarily, again, for lack of a better phrase, wasn't necessarily, quote unquote, into it. But here is the king.
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Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
And he says, hey, come over here. What can she do? He's the king. And you see this massive, massive abuse of power. The Lord God had anointed David to be the king of Israel, to fight for his people, to lead his people, to guide and govern his people. And now here he is using that anointing, using that power. Not only to betray Uriah, but also to violate this woman.
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Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. Now she was purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am with child.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
And the crazy thing is it realized it does gets worse. She says I'm with child. And so what does David do? He decides I need to cover this up. And so this is the contrast in chapter 11 of the nobility of Uriah and the lack of nobility in this moment in David, because he calls Uriah from the field and sends him home. go back to your wife. And Uriah, no, he sleeps at the gates of the city.
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Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
He sleeps at, in fact, the doorway of the king's house. David finds out and says, no, no, no, gets him drunk the next night. Go down to your wife. He says, how would I possibly, possibly ever? sleep with my wife when my brethren, my brothers in arms are out in battle. And you see this contrast. Here's David. He started how?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
He started by not doing his daily duty, gave into comfort, gave into all his base instincts, and then betrayed and took advantage of this woman. Now he's becoming a murderer. Contrast with Uriah, who is doing his daily duty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
He's doing exactly what he's called to do and is not giving into that comfort, not giving into those base instincts, but instead choosing character and choosing nobility and choosing the right thing. And David ends up being a murderer, conspiring to murder this man who, again, has laid his life on the line for David and for Israel many times.
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Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
I say it's so interesting because it ends with David being an adulterer, even worse, right? Maybe we use our word, right? Maybe even taking advantage and sexually taking sexual advantage of this woman, very possibly against her will, and then becoming a murderer. These three things that we recognize are so evil. Adultery, rape, murder. These three things that are so evil, done by a man,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
who in other contexts, in other places is so good. Keep this in mind. He doesn't start there. He ends up there. Where does he start? He starts simply by not doing what he knew he was called to do. He starts simply by giving into his comfort. He starts simply by living off mission. And when we live off mission, where it leads is it leads to a dark, dark place.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
Now, you and I might never become adulterers or rapists or murderers, but we all know that that's where it could end. When we start living off the mission that God has given to us, we don't know where it's going to end. What we're going to find tomorrow is that God has to step in. He has to step in and convict David of what he's done. And he does, which is great.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
It's one of the reasons why tomorrow we're going to be reading Psalm 51. It's David's prayer of repentance. But today we read Psalm 32, which is another prayer of repentance from David. And we give God praise for the fact that, yeah, God, I can sometimes find myself in a place where like I did not ever, ever dream I would end up here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
I never imagined that I would end up in this place being an adulterer, being a rapist, being a murderer, being whatever the thing is, right? being as someone who is doing what I'm doing right now, or someone who's in the place where I am right now, but it started somewhere. So I go back to where it started and say, God, forgive me for that, and forgive me for this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
It's so dark, but it's also, it's a story of our own hearts. And so we not only see the story of David, but we also learn from the story of David. And so, yeah, we just pray for each other because we know that could be any one of us. That could be any one of us ending up being a murderer when we just decided to live off mission. That was all it was.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
So David sent word to Joab, send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people fared and how the war prospered. Then David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet. And Uriah went out of the king's house and there followed him a present from the king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
But it ends up killing someone that trusted us with everything, whether that's killing them physically or killing them spiritually. That's what betrayal does. Betrayal kills someone spiritually. Fraud kills someone spiritually. That's why we need prayers. I need prayers. I know that you need prayers and we need to pray for each other because it's not the end. Even the worst sin is not the end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
This is not the end of David's story. Thanks be to God. This is not the end of David's story. Now, David, in your eyes might be someone that you can no longer ever respect. Yet and yet in his eyes, he's also someone who he probably can no longer respect, no longer look at his reflection, but God knows David's heart and he keeps calling David's heart back to him. And that's what he does for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
And that's what he does for me. The question is not what we sin. We have sinned. The question is, what do we do when we've sinned? And we're going to see that tomorrow. Until then, please, we're all broken. We are all broken. So let's pray for each other. I am praying for you. As I said, I know you're praying for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his Lord and did not go down to his house. When they told David, Uriah did not go down to his house. David said to Uriah, have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house? Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
And my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing. Then David said to Uriah, Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his Lord, but he did not go down to his house. David has Uriah killed. In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
In the letter, he wrote, set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting and then draw back from him that he may be struck down and die. And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the servants of David among the people fell and Uriah the Hittite was slain also.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
Today, it is day 129. Man, oh man, this is so good. We're reading 2 Samuel chapter 11. So up to this point, David has been a solid, solid guy. And 2 Samuel chapter 11, we're going to see a descent. And then in 1 Chronicles chapters 14 and 15, as well as we're praying Psalm 32, as you all probably already know, the translation of the Bible that we are reading from.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting, and he instructed the messenger, When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then, if the king's anger rises, and if he says to you, Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech, the son of Jerubasheth?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
Did not a woman cast an upper millstone upon him from the wall, so that he died at Thebes? Why did you go so near the wall? Then you shall say, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
The messenger said to David, The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
David said to the messenger, Thus shall you say to Joab, Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack upon the city and overthrow it, and encourage him. When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband was dead, she made lamentation for her husband.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
And when the morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
In Hiram, king of Tyre sent messengers to David and cedar trees, also masons and carpenters to build a house for him. And David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel and that his kingdom was highly exalted for the sake of his people Israel. And David took more wives in Jerusalem, and David begot more sons and daughters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
These are the names of the children whom he had in Jerusalem. Shemua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet, Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up in search of David. And David heard of it and went out against them. Now the Philistines had come and made a raid in the valley of Rephaim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
And David inquired of God, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand? And the Lord said to him, Go up, and I will give them into your hand. And he went up to Baal-perazim, and David defeated them there. And David said, God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a bursting flood. Therefore the name of that place is called Baal-perazim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
And they left their gods there, and David gave command, and they were burned. And the Philistines yet again made a raid in the valley. And when David again inquired of God, God said to him, You shall not go up after them. Go around and come upon them opposite the balsam trees.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then go out to battle, for God has gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines. And David did as God commanded him. And they struck the Philistine army from Gibeon to Gezer. And the fame of David went out into all lands, and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
Chapter 15, The Ark Brought to Jerusalem David built houses for himself in the city of David, and he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it. Then David said, No one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, for the Lord chose them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister to him forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I am using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. To download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, you can just click on Subscribe, and then you'll be subscribed, and you can follow along every single day, and it will find you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord to its place which he had prepared for it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
And David gathered together the sons of Aaron and the Levites, the sons of Kohath, Uriel the chief, with a hundred and twenty of his brethren, and the sons of Merari, Asaiah the chief, with two hundred and twenty of his brethren, of the sons of Gershom, Joel the chief, with a hundred and thirty of his brethren, Of the sons of Elizabethan, Shemaiah the chief, with 200 of his brethren.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
Of the sons of Hebron, Eliel the chief, with 80 of his brethren. Of the sons of Uziel, Amenadab the chief, with 112 of his brethren. Then David summoned the priests Zadok and Abiathar, and the Levites Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab, and he said to them, You are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
Sanctify yourselves, you and your brethren, so that you may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it. Because you did not carry it the first time, the Lord our God broke forth upon us because we did not care for it in the way that is ordained. So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
And the Levites carried the ark of God upon their shoulders with the poles, as Moses had commanded, according to the word of the Lord. David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brethren as the singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
So the Levites appointed Heman, the son of Joel, and of his brethren Asaph, the son of Berechiah, and of the sons of Merari, their brethren, Ethan, the son of Cushiah, and with them their brethren of the second order, Zechariah, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Uni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maasaiah, Metathiah, Eliphelahu, and Micniah, and the gatekeepers Obed-Edom and Jeiel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
The singers, Himam, Asaph, and Ethan, were to sound bronze cymbals. Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Uni, Eliab, Maasaiah, and Benaiah were to play harps according to Alamoth. But Metathiah, Eliphilehu, Mekniah, Obed-Edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah were to lead with lyres according to the Sheminith. Chenaniah, leader of the Levites in music, should direct the music, for he understood it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
Berechiah and Elkanah were to be gatekeepers for the ark. Shebaniah, Josaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eleazar, the priests, should blow the trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-Edom and Jehiah were to be gatekeepers for the ark.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
You don't have to find it. That's great. As I said, today is day 129, reading 2 Samuel chapter 7, 1 Chronicles, both chapters 14 and 15, and we are praying Psalm 32. The second book of Samuel, chapter 11. David commits adultery with Bathsheba.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
So David and the elders of Israel and the commanders of thousands went to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-Edom with rejoicing. And because God helped the Levites who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, as also were all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah, the leader of the music of the singers. And David wore a linen ephod. So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord, with shouting to the sound of horn, trumpets, and cymbals, and made loud music on harps and lyres.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
And as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked out of the window and saw King David dancing and making merry, and she despised him in her heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I declared not my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
I acknowledged my sin to you and did not hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. Then you forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time of distress in the rush of great waters. They shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with deliverance.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not keep with you. Many are the pangs of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds him who trusts in the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
Thank you for this Psalm 32. Thank you for the fact that even in our sin, we can call upon you and you hear our voice. You hear our prayer. Lord, in our imperfection, you meet us with your mercy. In our sins, you meet us with your grace. And so we're so grateful. So grateful because we in so many ways are like David. And we have so many ways to
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
Turn away from what we know you're calling us to do and who we know you're calling us to be. And so we ask you, please, renew your mercy in us as your mercies are renewed each morning. Renew them in us because we need you and we need your mercy. We thank you and give you praise. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
So, gosh, here's the first tragic word, right? It's 2 Samuel chapter 11. And that first tragic word is that here is David and it begins poorly. But here's the interesting thing. With David's sin, it doesn't begin with an awful sin. How does it begin?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
The very first lines of chapter 11 say, at the turn of the year or in the spring of the year, when kings go out into battle, David sent out Joab and the rest of the army while he stayed back in Jerusalem. Remember, in the ancient world, the job of the king was not simply to govern, wasn't simply to make decisions. The job of the king was to lead in battle.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
The job of the king was to fight for the people. And here is David, who has done this a bunch. But here he is in chapter 11, and he sends someone else out to do his task. And this is, again, this is how it starts. This is how almost all of our big sins that we fall into, we look up from our sins and think, oh my gosh, how did I get to this place?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
They begin by us not doing our daily duty, by not doing the task the Lord has set in front of us. And that's how it goes for David. And then what happens? He says, then David, one evening, one afternoon, he arose from his siesta. So you can imagine David saying, I'm really busy. I've got to be here in Jerusalem. I've got a country to run. I can't afford to be out in the field fighting.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
So he's staying back home, but here he is rising from his siesta. So the second piece is not only is he not doing the task that God has called him to, to fight for his people, but he's also giving into this comfort.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
And this is, again, nothing wrong with taking a nap, nothing wrong with rising from a siesta, but here is the people, David's army, David's mighty men who are sleeping in the open field and risking their life and limb every single day. And here's David who's comforting himself. And that comfort, it's not, again, it's not evil, but it can dull our senses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
We can start down this slope of, okay, I'm not doing what I should be doing. And now, not only am I not doing what I should be doing, I'm also giving into comfort. Then what does he see? He sees a young woman bathing. Now, this is the moment where it's like, okay, alarm bells. look away. And when I was a kid, we used to have a thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
My parents would, if something was on the screen or in a movie or on a TV show that was inappropriate for us to look at, my parents would say ceiling scene. And we had to look up at the ceiling. This is a moment where David should have, okay, ceiling scene where he's on his roof and he can see from his roof. So a woman bathing, she's very beautiful.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
He should have just gone back in, taken a cold shower and moved on with his day. But what did he do? He stared and made inquiries made of her finds out It gets worse. Finds out, oh yeah, that is, she's married. Not only is she married, but we already heard the name of her husband. He was one of David's 30 mighty men, Uriah the Hittite.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
He finds out that she's a married woman, and that, if nothing else at this point, that should be the moment where he just stops, does an about face, and goes the other direction. But what does he do? He keeps down on this slope. It started with him not doing his daily duty. Then it started with him indulging his comfort.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2025)
Then it went to the place where he's looking where he shouldn't be looking and inquiring where he shouldn't be inquiring. And now he knows that woman is married to a man that you've trusted with your life. A man who's placed his life on the line for you and for the people of Israel. What does he do? He sends for her and takes her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
Jesus Christ is the final, essentially, in some ways, the final prophet that leads into a nation of prophets. We know that those who are baptized are anointed, priest, prophet, and king. We talked about that before. But he's the one, it's his prophecy that we share. It's in his power, his role, his ability that we share.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
We're going to continue in the next couple of days looking at the Levitical priesthood again. And I just want to encourage you to stick with this because it is important for us to understand here is how the Lord desired to be worshiped in the past. And it reveals something even more deeply about how the Lord desires to be worshiped in the present. I'm praying for you every single day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
And I ask that you please pray for me, but also pray for each other because, again, as I've said a thousand times now, roughly 66 times because this is day 66, we are not alone. You are not alone on this. We need to encourage each other and walk with each other and lift each other up. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
And the rod of Aaron was among their rods. And Moses deposited the rods before the Lord in the tent of the covenant. And the next day, Moses went into the tent of the covenant. And behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms and it bore ripe almonds. Then Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord to all the sons of Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
And they looked, and each man took his rod. And the Lord said to Moses, Put back the rod of Aaron before the covenant, to be kept as a sign for the rebels, that you may make an end of their murmurings against me, lest they die. Thus did Moses, as the Lord commanded him, so he did. And the sons of Israel said to Moses, behold, we perish. We are undone. We are all undone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord shall die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish, any defect, whatever, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
If there is found among you, within any of your towns, which the Lord your God gives you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshipped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the hosts of heaven which I have forbidden, and it is told you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
that such an abominable thing has been done in Israel. Then he shall bring forth to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses, he that is to die shall be put to death. A person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
The hand of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns which is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God will choose, and coming to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, you shall consult them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
And they shall declare to you the decision. Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place which the Lord will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you, according to the instructions which they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
You shall not turn aside from the verdict which they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left. The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
We're also praying Psalm 98. As always, I am reading from the Bible translation of the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also feel free to subscribe to this podcast if you haven't yet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
limitations of royal authority. When you come to the land which the Lord your God gives you and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are round about me, you may indeed set as king over you him whom the Lord your God will choose. Run from among your brethren, you shall set as king over you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
You may not put a foreigner over you who is not your brother. Only he must not multiply horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, you shall never return that way again. And he shall not multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he multiply for himself silver and gold.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law from that which is in the charge of the Levitical priests.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
And it shall be with him, and he shall read it in all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brethren.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
and that he may not turn aside from the commandment either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children in Israel. Chapter 18. Privileges of Priests and Levites. The Levitical priests, that is, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the offerings by fire to the Lord and his rightful dues.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
hi my name is father mike schmitz and you're listening to the bible in a year podcast where we encounter god's voice and live life through the lens of scripture the bible in a year podcast is brought to you by ascension using the great adventure bible timeline we'll read all the way from genesis to revelation discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today today is day 66 and we are reading today from numbers chapter 17 as well as from deuteronomy chapter 17 and chapter 18
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
They shall have no inheritance among their brethren. The Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them. And this shall be the priest's due from the people.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
from those offering a sacrifice whether it be ox or sheep they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach the first fruits of your grain of your wine and of your oil and the first of the fleece of your sheep you shall give him For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel where he lives, and he may come when he desires, to the place which the Lord will choose, then he may minister in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord. They shall have equal portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
Abominable practice is prohibited. When you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination, a soothsayer, an augur, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominable practices, the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For these nations which you are about to dispossess give heed to soothsayers and to diviners, But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
It's been 66 days or roughly exactly. And maybe it's time. Maybe it's time to commit and subscribe to this podcast. by clicking subscribe. But as I said, today is day 66. We're reading Numbers chapter 17, very short chapter today, as well as Deuteronomy 17 and 18 and Psalm 98. The book of Numbers chapter 17, the blossoming of Aaron's rod.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren. Him you shall heed. Just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire anymore lest I die. And the Lord said to me, They have rightly said all that they have spoken.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not heed to my words, which he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, How may we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word which the Lord has not spoken.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
The prophet has spoken it presumptuously.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
A psalm. O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory. The Lord has made known his victory. He has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his mercy and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
All the earth break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody, with trumpets and the sound of the horn. Make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the floods clap their hands.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
Let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
Lord, God, your psalmist sings your praise and praises you better than we could because it is your word. It's your Holy Spirit, Lord, that helps us to pray. And so we ask you, please, today, help us to pray because on our own, we cannot pray as we ought. And so, Lord, help us. Help us give you praise. Help us to see your wisdom in your word and to let it transform our minds and our hearts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
And we give you thanks because you are good and you do good because you are our Father and we are your children. Thank you so much for claiming us as yours. And we claim you as ours, as is our right. We claim our rights in the name of Jesus. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
Okay, so we had probably one of our shortest chapters of this entire journey on day 66 in Numbers chapter 17, where there's the story of, again, with rebellion after rebellion, we have the people of Israel being put to the test, essentially, where the Lord says to Moses, okay, take all these rods, mark the names of the fathers of each household, all 12 tribes on them, including Aaron, bring them into the temple of the Lord or tent of meeting, the tabernacle, the holy place, and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
And Aaron's rod is the one that blossoms. And so that means, okay, no, listen, I know you all want to serve in the temple. I know everyone wants to be a priest, but it's only going to be from the family of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi. And so that's our shortest chapter in number 17.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
Hopefully that will subdue the people and hopefully that they will just accept the authority that God has given them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
He said, ironically, we're going to see what happens in the next couple of days with a quick break tomorrow, of course, to talk about the Levitical priesthood once again, because once again, it's so important for us to understand how vital service is, meaning service in terms of worship. And that is so important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
The Lord said to Moses, speak to the sons of Israel and get from them rods, one for each father's house, from all their leaders, according to their father's houses, 12 rods. Write each man's name upon his rod and write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi. For there shall be one rod for the head of each father's house.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
But today we looked into Deuteronomy chapter 17 and chapter 18, and there were talks about forbidden forms of worship. So things not just like turning to other gods, but also worshiping what kind of thing can we offer to God? And so if there was a defective sheep or ox or cattle, whatever it was, that defective thing is not given to God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
And that reminds us so clearly of the fact that we give God our best. And that's what we're called to do. If someone does turn away, as chapter 17 says, if someone does turn away and worship false gods, the sun or moon or whatever, the justice of God is so clear here. Because It's spelled out in the law that if that person is accused by one person that, nope, that's not good enough.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
They have to have two or three witnesses who can testify, I have seen this person commit idolatry. And not only that, it can't just be one person, you know, someone with a grudge against someone falsely accusing, so he said versus he said. It has to be two or three witnesses. But even then, the penalty being capital punishment, the penalty being death, it's so just brilliant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
I mean, it's harsh, but it's brilliant that the person throwing the first stone has to be one of the accusers, has to be one of the witnesses. In terms of, yeah, I can't just pawn this off to someone else. And again, remember, this is a rough time. And these people are being brought from having virtually no law, might makes right, strength makes the winner, to saying, no, this has to be just.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
And this is that step. eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and even this saying like, okay, not just he said versus he said, but it has to be two or three witnesses. And even then the witnesses are on the line because sure, I can give false witness and then let me go.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
But to give false witness and then to be the first person to throw the first stone in this person's death, that costs a lot from a human being. And I think that's, again, the part of the wisdom of God. It's a brutal wisdom, but I do believe it is still wisdom. Going on, just one last, two last things. Even in chapter 17, we have the limitations of royal authority. Now, Israel doesn't have a king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
And for a long time, Israel is not going to have a king until King Saul. This is going to happen in a while from now. We're going to go through the period of Joshua. We're going to go through the period of Judges. Then finally, in 1 Samuel, we're going to enter the area of kings. But
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
And there's instructions here in Deuteronomy that say, when you come to the land, the people are going to ask for a king. And here's what the king has to do. The king can't collect horses for himself. That would be like amassing an army for himself and that your sons and daughters are now at his disposal. Also, he should not multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
That is such a clear, clear line. Because what happens? We have King Saul in the future. Then we'll have King David. Then we're going to have King Solomon. And Solomon will have 300 wives and 700 concubines. And here is the word of God saying that the king will not multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away. And that is literally exactly right.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
what happens to King Solomon, which is 300 wives and 700 concubines. His heart turns to serve other gods. And that's one of the reasons why in this chapter, right in this next section, it says that that king, when he sits on the throne, he will keep that law to himself and read it every single day so that he's reminded of God's law and doesn't turn away from the Lord. But that is what happens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
Then you shall deposit them in the tent of meeting before the covenant where I meet with you. And the rod of the man whom I choose shall sprout. Thus I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the sons of Israel, which they murmur against you. Moses spoke to the sons of Israel and all their leaders gave him rods, one for each leader according to their father's houses, 12 rods.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
That Solomon turns away from the Lord, his God. Now, the last, very last note. In Deuteronomy chapter 18, we have this. Not only are the abominable practices prohibited, like turning to a sorcerer or a wizard or diviner or necromancer, all these things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
But God then promises, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me, says Moses, from among you, from your brethren, and you shall listen to him. Ultimately, oh my gosh, ultimately, that prophet like Moses is our Lord Jesus. It is incredible. This is a one of the prophecies of Jesus, one of the future foretellings of our Messiah, of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is a prophet like Moses.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 66: Forbidden Forms of Worship (2025)
And it's just remarkable that here we are back way back in Deuteronomy chapter 18. Moses is promising the days are going to come. when the Lord raises up a prophet like me. Now, there are other prophets as well, incredible prophets that were like Moses, but Jesus is the one who ultimately fulfills this prophecy of being the fulfillment of that great role of prophet.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
Remember your congregation, which you have gotten of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt. Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins. The enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary. Your foes have roared in the midst of your holy place. They have set up their own signs for signs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes and then all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers. They set your sanctuary on fire. To the ground they desecrated the dwelling place of your name. They said to themselves, we will utterly subdue them. They burned all the meeting places of God in the land. We do not see our signs.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
There is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long. How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever? Why do you hold back your hand? Why do you keep your right hand in your bosom? Yet, God, my King, is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea by your might.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
You broke the heads of the dragons on the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan. You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness. You cut open springs and brooks. You dried up ever-flowing streams. Yours is the day, yours also the night. You have established the luminaries and the sun. You have fixed all the bounds of the earth. You have made summer and winter.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs and an impious people reviles your name. Do not deliver the souls of your dove to wild beasts. Do not forget the souls of your poor forever. Have regard for your covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence. Let not the humble be put to shame. Let the poor and needy praise your name. Arise, O God, plead your cause.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
Remember how the impious scoff at you all the day. Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of your adversaries, which goes up continually. Father in heaven, we thank you. We give you praise for your word. We thank you so much for revealing yourself to us, revealing your heart to us, and revealing your commandments to us here in the book of Exodus and in the book of Leviticus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples. for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
Lord God, we know that you've called us by name, that you know us, that you love us. And we, in response, say that we also desire to know you. And we also desire to love you more and more fully every single day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, what a gift. It's always a gift.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
It's always a gift to be able to receive the Lord's word. But today, what we see is here is God who is revealing himself to his people on Mount Sinai. And not only does he reveal himself to his people, he enters into covenant with them in this unique particular way. I mean, this is kind of it's there's there's a lot to the story, obviously. Right.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
But here is God who is establishing his desire and his desire is I will be your God and you will be my people. So there's more that's going to happen, obviously, in the future as they move forward to seal the covenant and whatnot. But the Lord has. revealed his desire. And that desire is covenant. One of the things that we know about covenant is it is incredibly different than a contract.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
You may have heard of this before. A contract is an exchange of goods or services based off of a condition. An exchange of goods or services based off a condition. I'll do this for you if you did that for me. So if you don't do the thing you said, then I don't have to do the thing I said.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
But a covenant is profoundly deeper, profoundly more significant because where a contract is an exchange of goods or services based off of a condition, a covenant is an exchange of persons and there's no condition. And so we have here the Lord God revealing, I will be your God. You will be my people. Basically, I desire to be yours and I desire for you to be mine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And there's that gift of self that's meant to happen when it comes to covenant. We saw this when it came to God's covenant that he made with Abram back in Genesis. And we see it again and again as God deepens his covenant and expands his covenant until we get to the new and eternal covenant. Because what happens there? In the new and eternal covenant, what does Jesus say?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
He says, this is the covenant of my blood, the new and eternal covenant, where he does what? Where he gives himself to us, like truly body, blood, soul, divinity. He is making a gift of himself. And then when we receive Holy Communion, we're making a gift of ourselves back to him. So that's the exchange of the covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
That's what happens in married life, where here's husband and wife, and they give themselves to each other in the covenant, saying, this is my body. This is my heart, my soul, my mind, everything. And so we see this, of course, most clearly fulfilled, as I said, in the Eucharist, in the new covenant. As Jesus says, his own words, this is the new and eternal covenant in my blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And then we have this next piece where God then reveals his commandments. And I think this is incredibly important. If we were just to find out that the Lord God had commandments without a covenant, it would be rules without a relationship. Again, if there were commandments without a covenant, it would be rules without a relationship.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
Hey, just do these things because if you don't do these things, you're breaking the law. But God is establishing covenant prior to commandment. God is establishing relationship prior to rules. And so often for us, when we first start learning about God, we first learn about the rules. We first learn about the commandments, which is not bad. It's just how sometimes we have to do it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
You have to teach people stuff. But the way God taught his people was first, here's who I am. Here's my identity. Here's my desire. My desire is to have covenant with you. Now come the commandments. Here, God is saying, first, my desire is to have a relationship with you. And then now comes the rules because this is true when it comes to any of our human relationships, isn't it?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day 38. Let's keep on going. We'll be reading today from Exodus chapter 19 and 20 from Leviticus chapter 13 and also Psalm 74 chapter 19 and 20.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words which the Lord had commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
I don't know of anyone you met and the first day they say, okay, if we're going to be friends, here are the rules. Or if you start dating someone in the first date, they say, okay, let's sit down. I hope you enjoy your coffee. Here are the rules about our relationship. That would not go well. And it's not what God does either. He's very wise because he is the Lord and he knows everything.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
He establishes the relationship and says life in the relationship has some rules. These are the rules that will give life to the relationship, that will preserve the relationship, that will grow and deepen the relationship. And that's when he gives us the commandments. So covenant, then commandment, relationship, then rules. And those commandments and those rules serve to strengthen the covenant.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
They serve to strengthen the relationship. That's why we need to know them. That's why we need to do everything we can to say yes to the Lord in the midst of this world. We also say yes to the Lord when we pray for each other. And so we're going to continue to pray for each other. I ask that you pray for me. Just please, I beg you maybe. And I'm praying for you every single day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
This is a community of people journeying through scripture. This Bible in a Year podcast is a community. It's not just an isolated individual, but it is all of us. traveling through scripture, knowing that the Lord has his word for us and has a plan for us and has a will for us. And that is our holiness, our becoming more and more like him every day. And that's why we're praying for each other.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you all again tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever. Then Moses told the words of the people to the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments and be ready by the third day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
For on the third day, the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set bounds for the people round about saying, take heed that you do not go up into the mountain or touch the border of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they will come up to the mountain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people and they washed their garments. and he said to the people be ready by the third day do not go near a woman on the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people who were in the camp trembled
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. And they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. And Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire. And the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln. And the whole mountain quaked greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain. And Moses went up and the Lord said to Moses, Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. And also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out upon them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself charged us, saying, Set bounds about the mountain and consecrate it. And the Lord said to him, Go down and come up, bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them. So Moses went down to the people and told them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God. who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of that house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your manservant or your maidservant or your cattle or the sojourner who is within your gates.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
We're going to continue journeying with the people of Israel, especially as the Lord reveals himself. even more deeply and entering into the covenant with Moses and with the people of Israel. But before that, the Bible translation that I am using is the revised standard version Catholic edition.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you. You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his manservant or his maidservant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor's.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
Now, when all the people perceived the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and they stood afar off and said to Moses, you speak to us and we will hear, but let not God speak to us lest we die. And Moses said to the people, And the people stood afar off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And the Lord said to Moses, You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
In every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. And if you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool upon it, you profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, when a man has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot and it turns into a leprous disease on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, the priests. And the priest shall examine the diseased spot on the skin of his body.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And if the hair in the disease spot has turned white and the disease appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, It is a leprous disease. When the priest has examined him, he shall pronounce him unclean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension, and you can follow along if you have that Bible or any Bible, really. You can also download the reading plan. You can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. and just simply get it for free and you can follow along every single day. Not only can you follow along, you can also kind of look ahead and see where are we going.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
But if the spot is white in the skin of his body and appears no deeper than the skin and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest shall shut up the diseased person for seven days and the priest shall examine him on the seventh day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And if in his eyes the disease is checked and the disease has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall shut him up seven days more and the priest shall examine him again on the seventh day. And if the disease spot is dim and the disease has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean. It is only an eruption and he shall wash his clothes and be clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
But if the eruption spreads in the skin, after he has shown himself to the priest for his cleansing, he shall appear again before the priest and the priest shall make an examination. But if the eruption has spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is leprosy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
When a man is afflicted with leprosy, he shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall make an examination. And if there is a white swelling in the skin which has turned the hair white, and there is quick raw flesh in the swelling, it is a chronic leprosy in the skin of his body. And the priest shall pronounce him unclean. He shall not shut him up for he is unclean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And if the leprosy breaks out in the skin so that the leprosy covers all the skin of the diseased person from head to foot, so far as the priest can see, then the priest shall make an examination. And if the leprosy has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him clean of his disease. It has turned white and he is clean. But when the raw flesh appears on him, he shall be unclean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And the priest shall examine the raw flesh and pronounce him unclean. Raw flesh is unclean for it is leprosy. But if the raw flesh turns again and is changed to white, then he shall come to the priest and the priest shall examine him. And if the disease has turned white, then the priest shall pronounce the diseased person clean. He is clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And when there is in the skin of one's body a boil that has healed, and in the place of the boil there comes a white swelling or a reddish-white spot, then it shall be shown to the priest, and the priest shall make an examination. And if it appears deeper than the skin, and its hair has turned white, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is the disease of leprosy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
It has broken out in the boil." But if the priest examines it, and the hair on it is not white, and it is not deeper than the skin, but is dim, then the priest shall shut him up seven days, and if it spreads in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
It is diseased, but if the spot remains in one place and does not spread, it is the scar of the boil, and the priest shall pronounce him clean. Or when the body has a burn on its skin and the raw flesh of the burn becomes a spot, reddish white or white, the priest shall examine it and if the hair in the spot has turned white and it appears deeper than the skin, then it is leprosy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
It has broken out in the burn and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a leprous disease. But if the priest examines it and the hair in the spot is not white, and it is no deeper than the skin, but is dim, the priest shall shut him up seven days, and the priest shall examine him the seventh day. If it is spreading in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
It is a leprous disease, but if the spot remains in one place and does not spread in the skin, but is dim, it is a swelling from the burn, and the priest shall pronounce him clean, for it is the scar of the burn. When a man or a woman has a disease on the head or the beard, the priest shall examine the disease.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
I think sometimes it's really helpful to look at the map before you get there. And sometimes for me, that Bible reading plan is like a map and I can see, okay, here's where we are. Here's where we've been. Here's where we're going to go. That can be really helpful. We're going to keep on trucking along as we read from Exodus chapter 19 and 20.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And if it appears deeper than the skin and the hair in it is yellow and thin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is an itch, a leprosy of the head or the beard. And if the priest examines the itching disease and it appears no deeper than the skin and there is no black hair in it, then the priest shall shut him up with the itching disease for seven days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And on the seventh day the priest shall examine the disease, and if the itch has not spread, and there is in it no yellow hair, and the itch appears to be no deeper than the skin, then he shall shave himself, but the itch he shall not shave. And the priest shall shut up the person with the itching disease for seven days more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And on the seventh day the priest shall examine the itch, and if the itch has not spread in the skin, and it appears no deeper than the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean, and he shall wash his clothes and be clean. But if the itch spreads in the skin after his cleansing, then the priest shall examine him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And if the itch has spread in the skin, the priest need not seek for the yellow hair. He is unclean. But if in his eyes the itch is checked, the black hair has grown in it, then the itch is healed, then he is clean. And the priest shall pronounce him clean. When a man or a woman has spots on the skin of the body, white spots, the priest shall make an examination.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And if the spots on the skin of the body are of a dull white, it is tether that is broken out in the skin. He is clean. If a man's hair has fallen from his head, he is bald, but he is clean. And if a man's hair has fallen from his forehead and temples, he has baldness of the forehead, but he is clean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
But if there is on the bald head or the bald forehead a reddish-white disease spot, it is leprosy breaking out on his bald head or his bald forehead. Then the priest shall examine him, and if the diseased swelling is reddish-white on his bald head or on his bald forehead, like the appearance of leprosy in the skin of the body, he is a leprous man. He is unclean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
The priest must pronounce him unclean. His disease is on his head. The leper who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, unclean, unclean. He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean and he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
When there is a leprous disease in a garment, whether a woolen or linen garment, in warp or woof of linen or wool, or in a skin or in anything made of skin, if the disease grows greenish or reddish in the garment, whether in warp or woof or in skin or in anything made of skin, it is a leprous disease and shall be shown to the priest."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And the priest shall examine the disease and shut up that which has the disease for seven days. Then he shall examine the disease on the seventh day. If the disease has spread in the garment, in warp or woof or in the skin, whatever be the use of the skin, the disease is a malignant leprosy. It is unclean.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And he shall burn the garment, whether diseased in warp or woof, woolen or linen, or anything of skin, for it is a malignant leprosy. It shall be burned in the fire.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And if the priest examines, and the disease has not spread in the garment, in warp or woof, or in anything of skin, then the priest shall command that they wash the thing in which is the disease, and he shall shut it up seven days more, and the priest shall examine the diseased thing after it has been washed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
And if the diseased spot has not changed color, though the disease has not spread, it is unclean. You shall burn it in the fire, whether the leprous spot is on the back or on the front. But if the priest examines and the disease is dim after it is washed, he shall tear the spot out of the garment or the skin or the warp or woof.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
Then if it appears again in the garment, in warp or woof, or in anything of skin, it is spreading, you shall burn with fire that in which is the disease. But the garment, warp or woof, or anything of skin from which the disease departs when you have washed it, shall be washed a second time and be clean."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
On the third new moon, after the sons of Israel had gone forth out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. And when they set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness. And there Israel encamped before the mountain. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord God called to him out of the mountain, saying,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 38: The Ten Commandments (2025)
This is the law for leprous disease in the garment of wool or linen, either in warp or woof or in anything of skin, to decide whether it is clean or unclean. Psalm 74, plea for help in time of national humiliation, a maskill of Asaph. O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
At the end of this chapter, we have something that's just such an insight into who Paul was. You know, Paul, he writes these fiery letters sometimes, you know, in 1 Corinthians, these fiery letters to the Galatians. And yet the people loved him because he loved them so well. At the end of chapter 20, verse 36, as St. Paul is basically saying, you're never going to see me again.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
He says, when he had spoken thus, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And they all wept and embraced Paul and kissed him, sorrowing most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. And there's something so powerful about that, that I know that we can have this maybe cold and antiseptic view of St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
Paul preaches and heals Eutychus in Troas. On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lights in the upper chamber where we were gathered, and a young man named Eutychus was sitting in the window.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
Paul, especially because he just, sometimes he can rub people the wrong way, I think. You know, I know he's rubbed me the wrong way at times, but nonetheless. He loved them and they knew that they were loved by him. They loved him back. And so this is why they're here. They are weeping at the idea that they would never be able to see him again in this life.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
And that, again, it's a message for all of us that sense of the people that we are here to care for, that God wants us to take care of. Am I loving them the way they should be loved? Would they weep if this was the last time they saw me? And, uh, I think of that a lot of times because I know I've worked with different pastors. I've worked different priests and whatnot.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
And, and sometimes one of the, this is a little insight, a little inside baseball right now. Um, one of my thoughts was at times I know being like the, the visiting priest or the guest priest and the pastor is away and the staff's like, oh, we can relax now because father's away. And I remember thinking, I guess, is that always how it is? Is that how it has to be?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
That when the pastor's away, the people can relax? Does that mean that they're on alert when he's present? Does that have to be the case? And I've been so honored by my students and by the missionaries that I work with because there are so many times when I have to go away. And even if it's for a day, I'll come back and they'll say, ah, We missed you. And I think, oh my gosh, Lord, thank you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
I'm blessed in a way that I don't deserve. That they're not saying, good, he's gone. Maybe they'd say that behind my back. I don't know. But I don't think they do. They're saying, we're so glad that you're back. We hated that you were gone from us for even a day. And I just feel like... Wow, I'm participating a little bit in what St. Paul experienced in just being loved by the people of Ephesus.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
Again, that's not about me. I mean it more in the lines of for us who serve those, whether you serve as a parent or serve as a boss or serve as a pastor in any way or shape or form. I don't know. I wonder if we should have that kind of relationship with those people that we serve that they miss us when we're gone instead of they're relieved when we're gone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
And I'm sure there's probably a ton of people who are relieved when I'm gone. But that's what I'm striving for, to be like St. Paul, that people, they know they're loved, I guess. Maybe that's what I'm trying to say. That was a random tangent. I apologize for that. for that because St. Paul's second letter to the Corinthians is beautiful. I'm just going to be brief about this. St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
Paul, oh gosh, he says, he talks about, you know, the first dispensation, the old covenant and the new covenant and how, here's Moses. Remember, we talked about Moses. We read about, heard about Moses, how when he went into the tabernacle to visit with the Lord, his face was transformed, so transformed that he had to put a veil over his face. And here's St.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
Paul saying, okay, that was the old covenant. Here is the new and complete, the everlasting covenant of Should not we be more and more transformed into God's likeness? In fact, I love, oh my gosh. Chapter three, verse 17. Now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. This is incredible line. Verse 18.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the spirit. With unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another. Another translation is from glory to glory. And it's just so incredible.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
He sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer, and being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead." But Paul went down and bent over him and embracing him said, Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him. And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while until daybreak and so departed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
And yet at the same time, St. Paul goes right from there into, therefore, we hold these treasures in earthen vessels. There's a song from when I was a kid that was about the earthen vessels.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
I never knew what it was talking about, but basically it's talking about we have the most incredible gift that has ever been given, the gift of eternal life, the gift of the gospel, the gift of God's grace, and yet we hold it in clay pots. We hold it in stuff that's basically, here's St. Paul saying, I have the most incredible message in the world, but I am not the most incredible messenger.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
I hold the most incredible treasure in the world, but I'm holding it in a very ordinary container that we hold these treasures in earthen vessels. And so it's not about us, the ones who are holding the treasure. It's about the treasure. It's about the apostolate, right? It's about the work. And it's so good. The last thing I just want to highlight is St. Paul in chapter five.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
He says, yeah, we know that the outer man is wasting away. We know that we're going to die. We know that we're in suffering. And he says, this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. One of my favorite essays in the world is an essay entitled The Weight of Glory by a young man named C.S. Lewis for this slight momentary affliction.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. It goes on to say, therefore, and this is chapter five, verse six, it says, therefore, we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. We are of good courage in verse eight.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive good or evil according to what he has done in the body. We know that we are judged upon what we do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
It's one of the reasons why we affirm that we are saved by grace through faith, working itself out in love. Again, the whole thing. We are saved by grace, free gift, through faith, right? Our response to God's gift, working itself out in love, knowing that we'll be judged on our actions. And that is something that all of us, well, I know myself, just need to say, Lord, make me more like you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
I want to love like you. I want to live like you. And that's why we keep coming back to God's word. Lord, help me to love like you. Help me to live like you. And so I'm praying for you. I'm praying for you that you continue to love like Jesus and to live like Jesus. Please pray for me that I can love like Jesus and that I can live like Jesus. My name is Father Mike.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
And they took the lad away alive and were not a little comforted. But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land. And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came to Mytilene. And sailing from there, we came the following day opposite Chios.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
The next day we touched at Samos, and the day after that we came to Miletus. For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. Paul speaks to the elders of Ephesus. And from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
And now we fit into that story today. It is day 341. You guys, well done. Gosh. Day 341. You made it this far. And we are in Acts of the Apostles, chapter 20. We're reading 2nd letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapters 3 through 5. So three chapters today, as well as Proverbs chapter 28, verses 25 to 28.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
And when they came to him, he said to them, You yourselves know how I lived among you all the time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which befell me through the plots of the Jews.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance to God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
And now behold, I am going to Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit, not knowing what shall befall me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that all you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will see my face no more.
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Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you guardians to feed the church of the Lord, which he obtained with his own blood.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
In all things, I have shown you that by so toiling one must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And when he had spoken thus, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And they all wept and embraced Paul and kissed him, sorrowing most of all because of the word he had spoken that they should see his face no more.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
Paul to the Corinthians, chapter three, ministers of the new covenant. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men. Now,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition. I am using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible into your reading plan, You can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in the Air. You can also subscribe to this podcast to receive daily episodes and daily updates. It is day 341.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
If the dispensation of death, carved in letters of stone, came with such splendor that the Israelites could not look on Moses' face because of its brightness fading as this was, will not the dispensation of the Spirit be attended with greater splendor? For if there was splendor in the dispensation of condemnation, the dispensation of righteousness must far exceed it in splendor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
Indeed, in this case, what once had splendor has come to have no splendor at all because of the splendor that surpasses it. For if what faded away came with splendor, what is permanent must have much more splendor.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not see the end of the fading splendor, but their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
But when a man turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Chapter 4
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. But by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God." For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
For it is the God who said, let light shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Treasure in earthen vessels. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
We're reading Acts chapter 20, 2 Corinthians chapters 3, 4, and 5, as well as Proverbs chapter 28, verses 25 through 28. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 20. Paul goes to Macedonia and Greece. After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples and having exhorted them, took leave of them and departed from Macedonia.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
So, death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith as he who had wrote, I believed, and so I spoke, we too believe, and so we speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
for it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. Living by faith. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer man is wasting away, our inner man is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
Because we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Chapter 5 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
Here indeed we groan and long to put on our heavenly dwelling, so that by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent we sigh with anxiety, not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are of good courage. And we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive good or evil according to what he has done in the body. The Ministry of Reconciliation Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to be proud of us, so that you may be able to answer those who pride themselves on a man's position and not on his heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in a right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all, therefore all have died.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for their sake and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
When he had gone through these parts and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece. There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he determined to return to Macedonia.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
A greedy man stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the Lord will be enriched. He who trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered. He who gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse. When the wicked rise, men hide themselves, but when they perish, the righteous increase.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
We thank you so much for this day. We thank you for a new day, a new word that you share with us. We thank you so much for the grace that you pour out on us. We ask you, please Lord, to come and meet us with your blessings. Come and meet us with your mercy that is new every single day. We ask that you also... Like you shown your glory upon Moses and transformed his face.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
Give us your Holy Spirit that as we are in your presence, we look more and more like you. That we come to share more and more in your glory. We come to share more and more in a heart like yours, in a mind like yours, in a will that is conformed to yours. As often as we hear your word, Lord God, we ask you to please help us to become more like you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So, oh my gosh, Acts of the Apostles, action-packed, more like it, Action of the Apostles Pact. So Paul's on the move, and so here he is in Troas. On the first day of the week, he says in chapter 20, verse 7, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them. Now, to break bread, this is code.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
Whenever there is that in the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament, that gathering on the Lord's Day, gathering to break bread, the breaking of the bread and prayers, this is code for the Mass. And so here is St. Paul, and here are the Christians gathered together to say Mass, to participate in the Eucharist, holy sacrifice of the Mass.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
So Peter of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him, and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius of Derbe and Timothy, and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. These went on and were waiting for us at Troas, but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and in five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days."
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
And Paul preaches a little longer than maybe people appreciated. The young man, Eutychus, is falling asleep during his sermon. And that gives, I think, a lot of comfort to a lot of preachers who may have put some people to sleep in their time.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
And yet the grace, of course, here is not just that Eutychus fell asleep because Paul was preaching so late into the night, but that also Paul bent over him, embraced him and said, did not be alarmed for his life is in him. Here is Paul. We talked about this before that Peter, he almost like recapitulates the life of Jesus in his life where he is healing like Jesus healed.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
He's preaching like Jesus preached. And there's conversions like Jesus was able to rot, to ring, to bring about healing. And here's St. Paul, similar, very similar, where Paul is doing a lot of what Jesus did. And this is the message for all Christians is that the disciple does not become greater than the master, but the disciple is supposed to become like the master.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
And so we pray like Jesus prayed, and we try to live like Jesus lived, and we try to have that same spirit that dwelt inside Jesus that raised him from the dead. And that here, Paul was able to participate in and raise the young Eutychus from the dead as well. One of the things that I just think is really powerful in chapter 20 is verse 23.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
In verse 23, it says that, you know, Paul's traveling around and he says, he gives this address to the elders of the church at Ephesus. He says, you know how I've lived and everything. And he says, here's what's happening. Behold, I'm going to Jerusalem. This is verse 22. Bound in the spirit, not knowing what shall befall me there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
except, this is verse 23, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. And that's just, there is something so powerful about hearing St. Paul say this. He's saying that, no, I realize that following after Jesus Christ and doing his work
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
isn't bringing me worldly peace isn't bringing me worldly comfort isn't bringing me all this success i know that what awaits me is imprisonment and afflictions and he doesn't blame god for that he doesn't get mad at god about this it goes on in verse 24 he says but i do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself if only i may accomplish my course and the ministry which i received from the lord jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of god
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 341: Eternal Weight of Glory (2024)
And that is, that's so good for all of us who, you know, sometimes we can get it into our heads that, well, if I follow Jesus, it's gonna be an easy road. If I follow Jesus, then what are these obstacles doing here? And yet here is St. Paul who is saying that just, he has the heart of the master, right? He has the heart of Jesus himself. Jesus who knew that he was going to experience persecution.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
or the other people have demonstrated that they are not to be trusted. And yet we keep going back to them. Why is that? It doesn't have to just be a romantic relationship. It doesn't have to be an illicit relationship like Samson and Delilah had. It can even be a legitimate relationship. But this person has, or these people have demonstrated that they can't be trusted.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
They kept quiet all night saying, let us wait till the light of the morning, then we will kill him. But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that is before Hebron.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And yet we keep trusting them. Why do we do that? Samson reveals to us that that is a foolish thing to do, to do. Not only that, but Samson also reveals that here is God working through, gosh, go back all the way to Genesis, go back all the way to Exodus, God working through broken people. Remember, these are the people of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
This is Samson, who is a judge of Israel, a savior of Israel, and he is a fool in many ways. Not only that, but after he gets his eyes gouged out, after he gets his hair cut off, after he is in prison, even the reason why he wants to kill the Philistines, he wants to have revenge on the Philistines for his eyes. So keep this in mind.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
In the book of Judges, this is why the book of Judges is my favorite, my favorite book to be reading when times are troubled, when times are in distress. to be able to read these stories and realize, wait a second, this is the greatest person that God raised up at that time was this broken human being.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And sometimes we can look to our leaders, whether in the church or outside the church, whether in business or in government, wherever our leaders are, community leaders, we can think, oh my goodness, this is the best we've got. And yet, and yet this is so important. This verse in chapter 16, verse 22, it says, here's Samson. His eyes are out. His head's been shaved. He's bound in bronze fetters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
He's grinding mill at the prison. Verse 22 says, but the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. There is something that's just like this. Kind of like... wait to see what happens. And here's what happens next is Samson is brought in before the Philistines to be mocked. And the spirit of God, once again, comes upon him as Samson calls to the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
Again, remember, gosh, God's people aren't perfect. And yet they're still his. And this is so important for all of us to remember that God's people are not perfect. And yet they're still are his people. They're still his. And you and I are not perfect, but we still get to belong to him. This weird story of let's just cover it quick. Micah and the Levite.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
chapter 17 and 18, which we just read what is going on there. Well, the story starts out in case you missed it. Here's Micah who stole from his mother, 1100 pieces of silver. And then he comes back to her and says, yeah, by the way, I stole 1100 pieces of silver. And her mom is so moved by his honesty that they make an idol. Phenomenal. Good job, mom. Good job, Micah. What is this revealing?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
What this is revealing is the key line. The key line at the end of the book of Judges, in those days, there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. This is so, you get your Bible in chapter 17, verse six. In those days, there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes. So you have Micah making an idol. This is now, this is the beginning.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
There's probably some people think this is right after Joshua. They've conquered the people. So here's the Danites. They don't have a land yet. That kind of a situation. But how quickly things fall apart. Micah sets up a shrine.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
So his neighbors, his people in his neighborhood would probably be worshiping this idol that he has made from the 1100 pieces of silver that he stole from his mom, give back to her, I guess, you know, good son. They're worshiping here. He makes his son a priest and then finds a Levite. Now, what's this Levite? Remember, the Levites are supposed to live in those 48 cities for the priestly cities.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
After this he loved a woman in the valley of Sorak, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to subdue him. and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
They're supposed to be living there. And yet this Levite has gone out to become basically a mercenary Levite. He is a priest for hire, basically. Comes upon Micah. Micah says, wow, I want a legit priest. You got the pedigree. So come stay with me. Here's the contract. I'm going to pay you this much. You do this for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And then the Levite leads Micah and his family and the neighbors in false worship. Now, this Levite should know exactly what he's doing and should know exactly that that is the wrong thing to do. And he probably does. Maybe he does. But what was going on in Israel in those days? There was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Ah, this is why it's so important.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
Here is the key for true worship and to know the Lord's heart deeply and to not swerve from it to the right or to the left. Later on, here's the Danites, and they want to get a place to live, and so they go up to Elish, and they come upon this Levite, the mercenary Levite, and say, hey, you're the Levite, you're the priest for this one family. Why don't you be the priest for all of us?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And the Levite, again, mercenary, says, absolutely, highest bidder, absolutely, I'll go with you all and be your priest. And what does he do? They take away the false idol that Micah had, and he leads the Danites in worship. Gosh, they set up Micah's graven image, which he had made as long as the house of God was at Shiloh. My goodness. Oh, my gosh. Up in Dan there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
He's leading them immediately into false worship. This is not not very long after things have gone down. I mean, there's the theory. There's a theory that it happens pretty much right after Joshua has died. But there's also some theories that it could be later on. Either way, the fact of the matter is, We can be so fickle and we can turn away from what the Lord has asked us to do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And sometimes we can pretend, right? We can pretend to not know because it is unlikely that the Levite didn't know what he was supposed to be doing, that the Levite didn't know that this was false worship. Everyone knew the story of the golden calf. Everyone knew the story when the Israelites made an idol, a false idol, calling it the God who's brought them out of slavery in Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And everyone knew that story. So I can't imagine that this Levite didn't already know. And yet, what can we claim? We can claim, I don't know what to do. Again, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. That's tendency towards self-deception can be so great in all of us. And so we need to pray for each other, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
Because it's not just, wow, I can't believe these broken people and their broken lives and their terrible decisions. This is us. This is a mirror. This is a flashlight. This is sandpaper, as we've already said before. And this is reflecting to us the truth about our own hearts, how quickly all of us can simply say, well, Who knows? And just go with the crowd. Or you know what? Who knows?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 94. If you are following along with the Bible in a Year reading plan sheet and you printed it out, Amen. Amen. Amen. The Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And just go against the Lord. We have one last and horrible, one last and horrible day when it comes to the book of Judges. Tomorrow, we're going to read from Judges 19, 20, and 21. Again, this is going to be the PG-13 slash going into the R-rated version of the Bible here. And so just keep that in mind as we tomorrow take that next step. Please pray for me. I'm praying for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And Delilah said to Samson, Please tell me wherein your great strength lies and how you might be bound that one could subdue you. And Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings which have not been dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man. Then the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
Now she had men lying in wait in an inner chamber, and she said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson. But he snapped the bow strings, as a tow-line snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known. And Delilah said to Samson, Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you might be bound.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And he said to her, If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man. So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson. And the men, lying in wait, were in an inner chamber, but he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And Delilah said to Samson, Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you might be bound. And he said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and make it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man. So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And she made them tight with the pin, and she said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson. But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web. And she said to him, How can you say I love you when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me wherein your great strength lies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. And he told her all his mind and said to her, A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb. If I be shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
When Delilah saw that he had told her all his mind, she sent and called up the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he has told me all his mind. Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. She made him sleep upon her knees, and she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. And she said, The Philistines are upon you, Samson. And he awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as at the other times and shake myself free. And he did not know that the Lord had left him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze fetters and he ground at the mill in the prison. But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. Samson's death.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their god, and to rejoice, for they said, Our god has given Samson, our enemy, into our hand. And when the people saw him, they praised their god, for they said, Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has slain many of us.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And when their hearts were merry, they said, Call Samson, that he may make sport for us. So they called Samson out of the prison, and he made sport before them. They made him stand between the pillars, and Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
Now the house was full of men and women, all the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about three thousand men and women who looked on while Samson made sport. Then Samson called to the Lord and said, O Lord God, remember me, I beg you, and strengthen me, I beg you, only this once, O God, that I may be avenged upon the Philistines for one of my two eyes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And Samson grasped the two middle pillars upon which the house rested, and he leaned his weight upon them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. Then he bowed with all his might, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
So the dead that he slew at his death were more than those whom he had slain during his life. Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtoel in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years. Chapter 17, Micah and the Levite. There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And he said to his mother, the 1100 pieces of silver which were taken from you about which you uttered a curse and also spoke it in my ears. Behold, the silver is with me. I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be my son by the Lord. And he restored the 1100 pieces of silver to his mother.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And his mother said, I consecrate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son to make a graven image and a molten image. Now, therefore, I will restore it to you. So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith who made it into a graven image and a molten image. And it was in the house of Micah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan so you can check off every day and get to the end of this second sheet of paper, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. Also, if you have not done it yet, please subscribe in your podcast app to receive the daily episodes that we have.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and a teraphim, and installed one of his sons who became his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel. Every man did what was right in his own eyes. Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to live where he could find a place. And as he journeyed, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah. And Micah said to him, And he said to him, And Micah said to him, Stay with me and be to me a father and a priest and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and a suit of apparel and your living.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And the Levite was content to dwell with the man and the young man became to him like one of his sons. And Micah installed the Levite and the young man became his priest and was in the house of Micah. Then Micah said, Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as a priest. In those days there was no king in Israel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking for itself an inheritance to dwell in, for until then no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them. So the Danites sent five able men from the whole number of their tribe, from Zorah and from Eshtoel, to spy out the land and to explore it. And they said to them, Go and explore the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. When they were by the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite, and they turned aside and said to him, Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here? And he said to them, Thus and thus has Micah dealt with me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
He has hired me, and I have become his priest. And they said to him, Inquire of God, we beg you, that we may know whether the journey on which we are setting out will succeed. And the priest said to them, Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were there and how they dwelt in security after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting, lacking in nothing that is in the earth and possessing wealth. and how they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And when they came to their brethren at Zorah and Eshtoel, their brethren said to them, what do you report? They said, arise, let us go up against them for we have seen the land and behold, it is very fertile. And will you do nothing? Do not be slow to go and enter in and possess the land. When you go, you will come to an unsuspecting people. The land is broad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
Once again, as we're going through the book of Judges, one of the things to keep in mind is how PG-13 slash... rated R content things get, the more and more we're following to the end of the book of Judges. Today, we're concluding the story of Samson and Delilah. We're also going on to Micah and the Levite and some of the other kind of issues with regard to that.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
Yes, God has given it into your hands. a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth. And 600 men of the tribe of Dan, armed with weapons of war, set forth from Zorah and Eshtoel and went up and encamped at Kiriath-Jerim in Judah. On this account, that place is called Mahanadan to this day. Behold, it is west of the Kiriath-Jerim.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And they passed on from there to the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah. Then the five men who had gone to spy out the country of Laish said to their brethren, Do you know that in these houses there are an ephod, teraphim, a graven image, and a molten image? Now therefore consider what you will do.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And they turned aside there and came to the house of the young Levite at the home of Micah and asked him of his welfare.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
now the six hundred men of the danites armed with their weapons of war stood by the entrance of the gate and the five men who had gone to spy out the land went up and entered and took the graven image the ephod the teraphim and the molten image while the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And when these went into Micah's house and took the graven image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, what are you doing? And they said to him, keep quiet, put your hand upon your mouth and come with us and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man or to be priest to a tribe and family in Israel?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And the priest's heart was glad. He took the ephod and the teraphim and the graven image and went in the midst of the people. So they turned and departed, putting the little ones and the cattle and the goods in front of them. When they were a good way from the home of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah's house were called out and they overtook the Danites.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And they shouted to the Danites who turned round and said to Micah, What ails you that you come up with such a company? And he said, You take my gods, which I made, and the priest, and go away? And what have I left? How then do you ask me what ails you?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And the Danites said to him, Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall upon you, and you lose your life with the lives of your household. Then the Danites went their way, and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he returned and went back to his home. The Danites settle in Laish.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And taking what Micah had made, and the priest who belonged to him, the Danites came to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and struck them with the edge of the sword and burned their city with fire. And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with anyone. It was in the valley which belongs to Beth Rehob. And they rebuilt the city and dwelt in it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
And they named the city Dan, after the name of Dan, their ancestor, who was born to Israel. But the name of the city was Laish at the first. And the Danites set up the graven image for themselves. And Jonathan, the son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. So they set up Micah's graven image, which he made.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
So keep that in mind as we strap in and take the next steps. Once again, Judges 16, 17, and 18 and Psalm 147. The book of Judges chapter 16, Samson and Delilah. Samson went to Gaza and there he saw a harlot and he went into her. The Gazites were told Samson has come here and they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
Praise the Lord, for it is good to sing praises to our God, for he is gracious and a song of praise is seemly. The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars. He gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
The Lord lifts up the downtrodden. He casts the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving. Make melody to our God upon the lyre. He covers the heavens with clouds. He prepares rain for the earth. He makes grass grow upon the hills. He gives to the beasts their food and to the young ravens which cry.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
His delight is not in the strength of the horse nor his pleasure in the legs of a man. But the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him. in those whose hope is in his steadfast love. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. Praise your God, O Zion. For he strengthens the bars of your gates. He blesses your sons within you. He makes peace in your borders. He fills you with the finest of wheat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
He sends forth his command to the earth. His word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool. He scatters hoarfrost like ashes. He casts forth his ice like morsels. Who can stand before his cold? He sends forth his word and melts them. He makes his wind blow and the waters flow. He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and ordinances to Israel. He has not dealt thus with other nations.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
They do not know his ordinances.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
We do give you glory and we do lift up your name because you are the God. You are the God who has not only created all things. You are the source of all being. You're the foundation of all that exists. You are the source of reality and substance. And you also reveal your heart to us, which is phenomenal. We can't even comprehend this God. So we thank you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
You, the God who is above everything, everything, the source of everything, have chosen to care for us. You've chosen to care about us. And you've chosen to reveal your heart to us. Help us to see your heart and to know your heart and to follow your heart, to find our place in your heart this day and every day of our lives. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, gosh. Here we go. Samson, what the heck, dude? What is going on? I mean, just let's get to this point. I mean, how ridiculous. Again, we mentioned this yesterday. Samson is ruled by his passions, right? He has his strengths, which is his strength, but he also has his weaknesses, which is his passion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
He's overwhelmed by his emotions. He's overwhelmed by simply his desires.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2025)
so much so that here's delilah who asks him four times the secret of his strength he tells her a lie three times knowing knowing that this is the woman who he cannot trust her but for whatever reason for whatever reason he keeps going back and finally he ultimately ends up trusting her which again is just a lesson for all of us i mean every many people have been in broken relationships relationships where the other person
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
So today, how are you going to walk with God like Noah walked with God? And how are you going to cling to him so that even amidst the storms of life, the floods that come, he can continue to lift you up? Thank you so much for joining us today. Once again, this Bible in a Year podcast. If you want to get updates, you can text the word Catholic Bible to the number 33777.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
You can subscribe to this podcast. Please do, because we're going to be journeying with you for quite a few days upcoming. But we just live in right now, one day at a time, one day at a time. We'll walk in one day at a time. and we're choosing to live with God and to let his word shape our view of his world. My name is Father Mike. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Seth lived after the birth of Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Seth were 912 years and he died. When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. Enosh lived after the birth of Kenan 815 years and he had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Enosh were 905 years and he died.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalal. Kenan lived after the birth of Mahalalel 840 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died. When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared. Mahalalel lived after the birth of Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died. When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. Jared lived after the birth of Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died. When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. Methuselah lived after the birth of Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Thus, all the days of Methuselah were 969 years and he died. When Lamech had lived 182 years, he became the father of a son and called his name Noah, saying, Out of the ground which the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands. Lamech lived after the birth of Noah 595 years and had other sons and daughters.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died. After Noah was 500 years old, Noah became the father of Shem, When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair, and they took to wife such of them as they chose.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
This is day three. Let's get started. Today, we'll be reading Genesis chapter five and chapter six. Still in the early world, that period of prehistory, essentially, we'll also be reading from Psalm 136. The Bible translation that I read every day is the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, the RSVCE And I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Then the Lord said, The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth and behold, it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it. The length of the ark, 300 cubits. Its breadth, 50 cubits. And its height, 30 cubits.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Make a roof for the ark and finish it to a cubit above and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten and store it up, and it shall serve as food for you and for them. Noah did this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Psalm 136, God's work in creation and in history. To him who by understanding made the heavens for his mercy endures forever. To him who spread out the earth upon the waters for his mercy endures forever. To him who made the great lights for his mercy endures forever. The sun to rule over the day for his mercy endures forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
The moon and stars to rule over the night for his mercy endures forever. And made Israel pass through the midst of it, for his mercy endures forever. But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, for his mercy endures forever. To him who led his people through the wilderness, for his mercy endures forever. To him who struck great kings, for his mercy endures forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
If you want to follow along and not just listen along, but read along, you can download your Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. That's all one word, Bible in a Year. ascensionpress.com Bible in a Year. And you can subscribe to your podcast app. If you subscribe, we'll keep popping up in your podcast apps every single day for the next 365 days.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
And slew famous kings, for his mercy endures forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites, for his mercy endures forever. And Og, king of Bashan, for his mercy endures forever. and gave their land as a heritage, for his mercy endures forever. A heritage to Israel his servant, for his mercy endures forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his mercy endures forever, and rescued us from our foes, for his mercy endures forever. He who gives food to all flesh, for his mercy endures forever. O give thanks to the God of heaven, for his mercy endures forever.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Wow. So again, it's, I mentioned yesterday that, uh, things escalate pretty, pretty quickly here. Once you introduce sin into the world, all of a sudden it just sounds like it gets, it gets remarkably crazy really, really quickly. If you remember in Genesis chapter four, at the very end, it said that Adam knew his wife again, and she gave birth to another son. His name was Seth. And that's
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
of the fact that we have in chapter five, what we just heard is a lot of names that are really easy to read and kind of difficult to read out loud. So part of that though is following the genealogy of Seth. Why is that gonna be important? It's gonna be important because it seems that there are two kind of distinct threads of humanity that come off of this. there's the Cainite line, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Cain, because he's still alive and the Sethite line, Seth, because he is alive. Now, it's not two different kinds of people in the sense of like races or whatnot, but what this is, clearly it's the same family. But what happens is, um, There is a distinction that's made in chapter six that is very, very complicated for us because we think, what does that mean?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
And if we understand that here is Seth born to Adam and Eve after Cain, who's born to Adam and Eve, and that they kind of split. And the Sethite line was referred to, could be referred to as the sons of God. And that the Cainite line, right? Cain, who had killed his brother. would be referred to as the daughters of men, right?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
So that's in chapter six, this very, very complicated thing where like, it says the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair. They took to wife such of them as they chose. And we think that is remarkable. What does that mean? And the answer lies in the genealogy that we had previously read in chapter five. What am I talking about?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
You can also sign up for our email list by texting the word Catholic Bible to 33777. That's all one word, Catholic Bible to the number 33777. Let's get started. Genesis 5 and 6. This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female, he created them and he blessed them and named to them man when they were created.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Well, here's an answer that comes out of Jeff Cavins and Tim Gray's book called Walking with God. It is a book based off of the Great Adventure Bible timeline, and it probably is the best description of what the difference is between who are the sons of God and who are the daughters of men in the book of Genesis today. It says this. It says in the book of Walking with God, describing the Nephilim,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
It says, and is prefaced by a reminder that God made man male and female after his own image and likeness. Okay, so that's going to be, oh, sons of God. That makes sense because Seth being born in Adam's image and likeness, Adam being created in God's image and likeness. That makes sense.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
These important details are recalled not only or only in Genesis chapter five with Seth's line, but not in Genesis four with Cain's line in order to draw a sharp contrast or distinction between the two lines. that Cain's line produces murderers and polygamists like Lamech. The Nephilim may refer to this fallen line as the word Nephilim comes from the Hebrew word nephal, which means to fall.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Whereas Seth's line produces righteous men like Enoch and Noah who worship God and call upon the name of the Lord. Seth's line, the line that worships God, is the one that is singled out as being in the image and likeness of Adam and Eve, who are in turn the image and likeness of God. And as we noted before, Cain's, I just go on, I'll paraphrase now.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
As we noted before, that Cain's line is one who, he has fallen. And so the Nephilim, those who are fallen, would make sense. So what happens then is all of humanity, though, does not stay pure when it comes to, here's this Sethite line. When I say pure, I don't mean, obviously it's not a racial thing because they come from the same two parents. So it can't possibly be a racial thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
What it is, is a way of life thing that Seth walked in the way of the Lord and Cain did not walk in the way of the Lord. And it's that kind of, I guess you might call it intermarrying, right? that brought wickedness on earth. It's not necessarily who you marry, but marrying someone is an incredibly important thing.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
As many of you who are married already know who you choose to be your spouse determines in so many ways, the trajectory of your life. And it determines the trajectory of your family's life. for good and for ill. It's hard to look back on that and recognizing that hindsight is 20-20.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
At the same time, it still is true that who we marry determines in so many ways the trajectory of our lives, both positively and negatively. And in this case, what's being described is those who walked in the way of the Lord, those in the Sethite line, ended up ceasing to walk in the way of the Lord because of the fact that the intermarried people in the Cainite line
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Now, obviously, that's not to say that all of Seth's children were like automatic saints and all of Cain's children were automatic sinners. We are all born into this broken world. So we all would do this. But we do know exactly what happens, right? We know what happens when we surround ourselves with people who have the same worldview.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
And that's one of the reasons why we're doing this Bible in a Year podcast is to give us a biblical worldview, right? And to highlight the decisions that others have made, even ancient decisions others have made that have then brought about kind of great destruction and the decisions that they made that have brought about a great hope.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Because even the destruction that God is preparing Noah for is also meant to be a great hope. Because yes, it is an end to much of humanity. It says that now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and the earth was filled with violence. God saw the earth and behold, it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. So God determined to destroy that corruption.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
When Adam had lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were 800 years and he had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died. When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
God determined to root out the cancer. And the reality is when we cling to the cancer, you can't destroy the cancer without destroying everything that's holding onto it. At the same time, it's a promise of hope because God is saying, Noah, make this ark because since you have clinged to me, I will lift you up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
One of the things that we can recognize in our day and in our age is that even if the people around us are wicked, now, obviously, parenthetically, right? No one is 100% wicked and no one's 100% good. We are good, but we're broken. But even if the culture around us, we'll say it like that, even if the culture around us is more broken than it is whole. We can still choose like Noah,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
to live as those who are following and pursuing the Lord. We can continue to, as it says about Noah, Noah walked with God. Noah walked with God. And so today, as we move forward from listening to God's word proclaimed, we can ask the question, God, how do you want me to walk with you? How can I walk with you today?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 3: Noah's Ark (2025)
Regardless of what people are in the culture around me are doing, regardless of what the people in my family are doing, regardless of maybe I'm married and my spouse does not walk with the Lord, I can walk with the Lord today because yes, there are consequences to our actions, but also yes, the Lord always holds out an offering of hope to every one of us, no matter what our situation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net. Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. Relieve the troubles of my heart and bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble and forgive all my sins.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me. O guard my life and deliver me. Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
We thank you for the difficulty of these days. Honestly, God, it is difficult to get through these names. And we just have to admit that. Yes, they mean something. Yes, they're powerful. They're meaningful. And they're difficult. And that is worth noting. It's worth noting that... Oh gosh, Lord, thank you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Thank you for your word that is rooted in history and rooted in reality, rooted in people's actual stories. And so all of these names is a marker, is all these names is a person, all these names is an untold story.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
So many of the names we have here, Lord, are names of people that we don't know much about other than their name and other than the fact that they were critical to you, they were loved by you, they're known by you, and they were part of your story to redeem the world.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
So in the difficulty, Lord, we ask that you please give us strength and give us patience so that we can hear the words we need to hear and we can become the people you want us to become. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Oh, brother. Yeesh. Okay, so I don't know if they were difficult for you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
We have a couple more chapters with us, and it's going to be fine. It's going to be fine, my friends. It's going to be fine. But not only we have First Chronicles with us, a bunch of names that are so good. In fact, I truly am saying this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
It's not just I'm trying to psych myself up for this and getting more into the names, but it is a grace, a complete grace to be able to hear, here are the stories of the people that are going to factor in to the rest of the story. For example, we have the descendants of David and of Solomon. Now, you might not know all of the stories of all these people, but David has a number of sons, obviously.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
We talked about Amnon and how this crossover, again, happy God incident, right? The crossover between 2 Samuel 3 and 1 Chronicles 3 because the list of David's children is in 2 Samuel 3 and in 1 Chronicles 3. It is so good because if you struggled with some of those names like Amnon,
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
and Ahinoam and Abigail and Daniel and Absalom and Talmai, all of them, these people, these sons of David and one daughter, they're going to talk about Tamar, are going to be very, very important as the story in 2 Samuel continues to unfold. And then when we get to Solomon, the story of kings is going to be unfolding. And that's so, so good. And Rehoboam and all those other names.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
So they might not mean a ton, a ton to you right now, but they mean a ton in the larger scheme of things. In fact, Not only are we going to follow this whole line of David and Solomon and Rehoboam and all the rest of them when it comes to the book of Kings, we're also going to find their stories of these guys.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
The stories of these kings is not necessarily the story of a lot of really, really great kings. And so we're just praise God for the ability to hear their stories, hear their names more than once. But when it comes back to 2 Samuel, just one quick note on 2 Samuel chapter 3. What do we have?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
And a Shibosheth said to Abner, why have you gone into my father's concubine? Then Abner was very angry over the words of a Shibosheth and said, am I a dog's head of Judah? This day I keep showing loyalty to the house of Saul, your father, to his brothers and to his friends, and have not given you into the hand of David. And yet you charge me today with a fault concerning a woman.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
We have this story, this tragic story, really, of how David recognizes that he can enter into an agreement of sorts with Abner. Now, Abner was accused by a Shibosheth, right, Saul's son, for taking one of Saul's concubines as his own.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
I've read some commentaries and they've indicated that there's not necessarily any reason why Abner, who seems like a pretty upstanding guy, he seems like a pretty solid individual, any reason why that would be the truth. But because Ish-bosheth would see Abner as a threat that he would have to make up some kind of accusation against him. Now, that may be the case, might not be the case.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Either way, what it led to is Abner then going to David and saying, basically, hey, let's make peace. I'll be willing to fight for you and make sure that you are the king over all of Israel. David says, that sounds great. Let's him go in peace. And what happens? Remember, we talked about this yesterday. Ah, violence begets violence. And so Joab finds out that Abner was just there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Remember from the day before, from the chapter before, remember there's three brothers, Abishai, Asahel, and Joab. And Abner had killed Asahel. Now he had killed Asahel in self-defense. He killed him in battle. It was straightforward, kind of a real thing here. There shouldn't be any desire for revenge. And yet Joab gives into his desire for revenge.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 122. Gosh, well done, you guys. So good. We're reading from 2 Samuel chapter 3. First Chronicles chapter three and four, two chapters of names. It's going to be great. You're going to love it. I tell you.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
and he kills Abner, this highly decorated general, this person that many, many people in all of Israel would have known him. He would have been a very, very prominent figure and a respected figure. Now, what's it look like? It looks like David had invited Abner to his home, and then he called him back, and then Joab kills him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
So what David does is genius and it just shows, again, David's character. It's genius because it unites all the people. And it shows David's character because it's the right thing to do. Where David publicly mourns the death of his enemy. David publicly mourns the death of Abner. And he actually even instructs the murderer, Joab, himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
And Abishai, his brother, he instructs them both to wear sackcloth and to tear their garments. Everyone, he says, we're all going to do this, including the guys who murdered Abner. And all the people saw this and they recognized, yeah, David, he's a good leader. He's a good leader because he has his character and he's wise. And there's something so good about this.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
As I said, it pleased all the people and everything that David had done. It pleased the people because David, again, he showed the depth of who he is, the kind of leader he was and the kind of human he was. And that's just such a gift to be able to mourn for one's enemies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
because it would have been wiser for David to have made that enemy a friend, and that's what he wanted to do in the first place. Anyways, for us, the same kind of thing is true. It is often more beneficial.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
We're called to let those enemies become friends, not because we need to trust people who aren't trustworthy, but because to have an open door to people who might be able to come back home, might be able to be reconciled, might be able to be forgiven, and To do that, we need wisdom, right? Because we don't want to be taken for a fool. We can't trust people who aren't trustworthy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
And yet Abner here seems like a trustworthy person. So there are people in our lives who I, in my life maybe, that have hurt. And so I need to be careful. I can't just trust them because they hurt people around them, hurt me. So I can't just trust them. But there are others that maybe have hurt me, but I can grow in trust again. And the cycle of violence can maybe end.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
God do so to Abner and more also, if I do not accomplish for David what the Lord has sworn to him, to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah from Dan to Beersheba. And the Shibosheth could not answer Abner another word because he feared him. And Abner sent messengers to David at Hebron, saying, To whom does the land belong?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
with me in my heart so we pray for each other so that that cycle of violence ends in our hearts and that forgiveness can be offered from our hearts and reconciliation can be offered from our hearts so we need to pray we need god's grace to do that so i'm praying for you please pray for me my name is father mike i cannot wait to see you tomorrow god bless
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Make your covenant with me, and behold, my hand shall be with you to bring over all Israel to you. And he said, Good, I will make a covenant with you. But one thing I require of you, that is, you shall not see my face unless you first bring Michal, Saul's daughter, when you come to see my face.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
then david sent messengers to eshibosheth saul's son saying give me my wife michal whom i betrothed at the price of a hundred foreskins of the philistines and eshibosheth sent and took her from her husband paltiel the son of laish but her husband went with her weeping after her all the way to bahurim Then Abner said to him, Go, return. And he returned.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
And Abner conferred with the elders of Israel, saying, For some time past you have been seeking David as king over you. Now then, bring it about. For the Lord has promised David, saying, By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and from the hand of all their enemies.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Abner also spoke to Benjamin, and then Abner went to tell David at Hebron all that Israel and the whole house of Benjamin thought good to do. When Abner came with twenty men to David at Hebron, David made a feast for Abner and the men who were with him.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
And Abner said to David, I will arise and go, and will gather all Israel to my lord the king, that they may make a covenant with you, and that you may reign over all that your heart desires. So David sent Abner away, and he went in peace. Abner is killed by Joab. Just then, the servants of David arrived with Joab from a raid, bringing much spoil with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
But Abner was not with David at Hebron, for he had sent him away, and he had gone in peace. When Joab and all the army that was with him came, it was told Joab, Abner, the son of Ner, came to the king, and he has let him go, and he has gone in peace. And Joab went to the king and said, What have you done? Behold, Abner came to you. Why is it that you sent him away, so that he is gone?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
You know that Abner, the son of Ner, came to deceive you and to know you're going out and you're coming in and to know all that you are doing. When Joab came out from David's presence, he sent messengers after Abner and they brought him back from the cistern of Sarah, but David did not know about it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
And when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the midst of the gate to speak with him privately, and there he struck him in the belly so that he died for the blood of Asahel his brother. Afterward, when David heard of it, he said, I and my kingdom are forever guiltless before the Lord for the blood of Abner the son of Ner.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
May it fall upon the head of Joab and upon all his father's house. And may the house of Joab never be without one who has a discharge or who is leprous or who holds a spindle or who is slain by the sword or who lacks bread. So Joab and Abishai, his brother, slew Abner because he had killed their brother Asahel in the battle at Gibeon.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Then David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, tear your clothes and put on sackcloth and mourn before Abner. And David followed the beer. They buried Abner at Hebron and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner and all the people wept. And the king lamented for Abner, saying, Should Abner die as a fool dies?
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
And we're also going to be praying Psalm 25. As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the revised standard version, second Catholic edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Your hands were not bound, your feet were not fettered. As one falls before the wicked, you have fallen. And all the people wept again over him. Then all the people came to persuade David to eat bread while it was yet day. But David swore, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread or anything else till the sun goes down. And all the people took notice of it.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
And it pleased them, as everything that the king did pleased all the people. So all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the king's will to slay Abner the son of Ner. And the king said to his servants, Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel? And I am this day weak, though anointed king.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
These men, the sons of Zerui, are too hard for me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
These are the sons of David that were born to him in Hebron. The firstborn Abnon by Ahinoam the Jezreelites. The second Daniel by Abigail the Carmelites. The third Absalom, whose mother was Maaka, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur. The fourth Adonijah, whose mother was Hegeth. The fifth, Shephatiah, by Abital. The sixth, Ethriam, by his wife, Eglah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Six were born to him in Hebron, where he reigned for seven years and six months. And he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem. These were born to him in Jerusalem, Shemiah, Shabbab, Nathan, and Solomon. Four by Bath-Chuah, the daughter of Amiel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
then ebhar elishamah eliphelet nogah nepheg jephiah elishamah eliadah and eliphelet nine all these were david's sons besides the sons of the concubines and tamar was their sister Amnon his son, Josiah his son.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
You can also subscribe to this podcast in your podcast app by clicking subscribe, and that would make you subscribed. It'll be great. As I said, today is day 122, and we are reading today from 2 Samuel chapter 3, 1 Chronicles chapter 3 and 4, and praying Psalm 25. 2 Samuel 3. Abner defects to David.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
the sons of josiah johanan the firstborn the second jehoiakim the third zedekiah the fourth shalom the descendants of jehoiakim jeconiah his son zedekiah his son and the sons of jeconiah the captive shealtiel his son
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Malkiram, Pedaiah, Shenezar, Jechamiah, Hoshamah, and Nebediah, and the sons of Pedeah, Zerubbabel, and Shemiah, and the sons of Zerubbabel, Meshulam, and Hananiah, and Shalemeth was their sister, and Hashubah, Ochel, Berechiah, Hasadiah, and Jeshub Hesed, five.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
the sons of hananiah pelatiah and jeshaiah his son raphiah his son arnon his son obadiah his son jekaniah the sons of shekinah shemaiah and the sons of shemaiah hatush igal Chapter 4 Descendants of Judah the sons of Judah, Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shabal. Reiah, the son of Shabal, was the father of Jehath, and Jehath was the father of Ahumai and Lachad.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
These were the families of the Zorothites. These were the sons of Etam, Jezreel, Ishma, and Idbash, and the name of their sister was Hezalelponi. And Penuel was the father of Gidor, and Ezer the father of Hushah. These were the sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah, the father of Bethlehem. Ashur, the father of Tekoa, had two wives, Hela and Naara. Naara bore him Ahuzam, Hefer and
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Temeni, and Ha'ah Hashtari. These were the sons of Na'arah, the sons of Hela, Zereth, Izhar, and Ithnan. Kaz was the father of Anub, Zobabah, and the families of Ar-Harhal, the son of Harum. Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bore him in pain.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, O that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not hurt me. And God granted what he asked. Jalub, the brother of Shucha, was the father of Mehir, who was the father of Eshton. Eshton was the father of Bet-Rapha, Pasia, and Tehina, the father of Irnahash.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
These are the men of Rakah, the sons of Kenaz, Othniel, and Saraiah, the sons of Othniel, Hathath, and Mionothai. Mionathai was the father of Ophrah, and Sariah was the father of Joab, the father of Geharashim, so called because they were craftsmen. The sons of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, Eru, Elah, and Naam, and the sons of Elah, Kenaz, the sons of Jehalel, Ziph, Ziphah, Tiriah, and Asarel.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
the sons of ezra jether mered ephor and jalon these are the sons of bithya the daughter of pharaoh whom mered married and she conceived and bore miriam shamai and ishba the father of ashtemoa And his Jewish wife bore Jared, the father of Gidor, Heber, the father of Soko, Jekuthiel, the father of Zanoah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David, and David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul became weaker and weaker. And sons were born to David at Hebron. His firstborn was Amnon of Ahinoam of Jezreel, and his second, Chileb, of Abigail, the widow of Nebal of Carmel. And the third, Absalom, the son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
The sons of the wife of Hodiah, the sister of Nahum, were the fathers of Kailah, the Garmite, and Eshtimoah, the Makathite. The sons of Shimon, Amnon, Rainah, Ben-Hanan, and Tilon. The sons of Ishi, Zoheth, and Ben-Zoheth.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
The sons of Shelah, the son of Judah, Ur, the father of Lachah, La'adah, the father of Marashah, and the families of the house of linen workers at Bet-Ashbiah, and Jokim, and the men of Kozeba, and Joash, and Seraph, who ruled in Moab and returned to Lechem, now the records are ancient. These were the potters and inhabitants of Netaim and Gedera. They dwelt there with the king for his work.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Descendants of Simeon. The sons of Simeon, Nemuel, Jamin, Jarib, Zerah, Shaul. Shalom was his son. Mibsam, his son. Mishma, his son. The sons of Mishma, Hamuel, his son. Zakur, his son. Shemiah, his son. Shemiah had 16 sons and 6 daughters, but his brothers did not have many children, nor did all their family multiply like the men of Judah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
They dwelt in Beersheba, Moladah, Hazar-Shual, Bilhah, Ezim, Tolad, Bethuel, Hormah, Ziklag, Beth-Markaboth, Hazar-Susim, Beth-Biri, and Sha'ar-Araim. These were the cities until David reigned. And the villages were Etam, Ain, Ramon, Tochen, and Ashan, five cities, along with all their villages, which were round about these cities as far as Baal.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
These were their settlements and they kept a genealogical record. Meshobab, Jemlech, Josha, the son of Amaziah, Joel, Jehu, the son of Josheba, son of Zeriah, son of Asiel, Eli-o-enai, Jaakobah, Jeshohiah, Asaiah, Adiel, Jeshimimiel, Behaniah, Zisa, the son of Shifi, son of Alon, son of Judiah, son of Shimri, son of Shemaiah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
these mentioned by name were princes in their families and their fathers houses increased greatly they journeyed to the entrance of gedor to the east side of the valley to seek pasture for their flocks where they found rich good pasture and the land was very broad quiet and peaceful for the former inhabitants there belonged to ham
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
These, registered by name, came in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and destroyed their tents, and the Meunim who were found there, and exterminated them to this day, and settled in their place, because there was pasture there for their flocks.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
And some of them, five hundred men of the Simeonites, went to Mount Seir, having as their leaders Peletiah, Neariah, Rephiah, and Usael, the sons of Ishi. And they destroyed the remnant of the Amalekites that had escaped, and they have dwelt there to this day.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
A Psalm of David. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust. Let me not be put to shame. Let not my enemies exult over me. Yes, let none that wait for you be put to shame. Let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Make me to know your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me for you are the God of my salvation. For you I wait all the day long.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
Be mindful of your compassion, O Lord, and of your merciful love for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions. According to your mercy, remember me for your goodness's sake, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right. He teaches the humble his way.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
And the fourth, Adonijah, the son of Haggith. And the fifth, Shephatiah, the son of Abital. And the sixth, Ethriam of Eglah, David's wife. These were born to David in Hebron. While there was a war between the house of Saul and the house of David, Abner was making himself strong in the house of Saul. Now, Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Ayah.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 122: Abner Is Killed (2025)
All the paths of the Lord are mercy and faithfulness for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt for it is great. Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose. He himself shall abide in prosperity, and his children shall possess the land.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Before we get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thank you to all those who have supported the Catechism in a Year or the Bible in a Year podcast. We hear stories every day about how those shows have transformed people's lives, and because of your prayers and financial gifts, you are a significant part of that. You might ask a question, though.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Elements of your wisdom is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile. clear, unpolluted. All of those words, again, as I said before, they can be meditated on for a very long time. And there's aspects of, I don't want to say God's character, but kind of. I mean, in so many ways, the Holy Spirit is associated with God's wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
And so in that sense, we kind of can make a lot of really significant connections. Speaking of connections, the author of 2 Maccabees, he makes so many more connections than the author of 1 Maccabees. We've talked about this already, but I just want to highlight this because it continues to come back up.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
That in 1 Maccabees, we experience, we got to hear about at least the death of Antiochus or the fact that Antiochus was at some point defeated. But here in chapter 9 of 2 Maccabees, we not only hear of the death of Antiochus, that he was defeated, we also hear who defeated him. And who defeated him was the Lord God himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
And it was because Antiochus, his evil had gotten to a point where there was no coming back, basically. Here is what the author to the Maccabees is saying. And so even though Antiochus made a promise to God, he still died outside of covenant. He still died afar from God because his heart was hardened to the Lord. He simply was kind of using God as a fire escape kind of a situation.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
And it didn't help him, didn't get him any better. But we also recognize in 2 Maccabees, one of the things that we noted from the first Maccabees, which is in the midst of all this fighting, in the midst of all these political machinations and manipulations and all these kinds of this fight for power, God is involved.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
And again, I might be beating this drum too much and I apologize for that, but it is so important for all of us to understand That in every one of our lives, we can take one of two perspectives. The first perspective is first Maccabees, where God is kind of sort of there, but you got to just really fight for yourself. Or second Maccabees, where God is not just kind of sort of there.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
He is definitely there. And he is active in your life. And he's active in my life. And it seems to me, again, it's not really opposed to each other. It wasn't the goal of first Maccabees to show how God was involved. The goal of second Maccabees is definitely to show how God was involved. So it's not like they're contradictory.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
They're not, they're complimentary, but they reveal kind of like how Ecclesiastes reveals, this is what life can be like without God. But second Maccabees reveals, this is how life is with God. It's not predictable. It is not a guarantee that you win every single thing. It's not a guarantee that you won't be suffering.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
About that time as it happened, Antiochus had retreated in disorder from the region of Persia, for he had entered the city called Persepolis, and attempted to rob the temples and control the city. Therefore, the people rushed to the rescue with arms, and Antiochus and his men were defeated, with the result that Antiochus was put to flight by the inhabitants and beat a shameful retreat.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
I mean, we just remember the chapter six of Eleazar, the age in chapter seven, just the other couple of days ago of the seven sons and their mom. It's not a guarantee that we'd be spared of pain or that we'd be spared suffering or that we get everything we want. But what is guaranteed is that God is with us. And today I just want to let you know This community is large.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
This community of people walking through the Bible is large. And as we've noted before, but today, this day, there are some people in our community here that this is the worst day of their life, or they just had the worst day of their life. And we need them to know. We need them to know that God is with them. Even if I can't see him working, if I can't feel him working, God is with them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
And if this is the worst day of your life, or the worst day of your life just happened, we as a community, we need you to know that God is with you. that he loves you. He's active. He's present. He's trying to speak to you and just remind you that yes, even in this dark time, you are not alone. You're not alone because he's there and you're not alone because we're there. We're here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
We're praying for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
while he was in ecbatana news came to him of what happened to nicanor and the forces of timothy transported with rage he conceived the idea of turning upon the jews the injury done by those who had put him to flight so he ordered his charioteer to drive without stopping until he completed the journey
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
But the judgment of heaven rode with him, for in his arrogance he said, When I get there, I will make Jerusalem a cemetery of Jews. But the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him an incurable and unseen blow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
As soon as he ceased speaking, he was seized with a pain in his bowels for which there was no relief and with sharp internal tortures, and that very justly, for he had tortured the bowels of others with many and strange inflictions.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Yet he did not in any way stop his insolence, but was even more filled with arrogance, breathing fire in his rage against the Jews and giving orders to hasten the journey. And so it came about that he fell out of his chariot as it was rushing along, and the fall was so hard as to torture every limb of his body.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Thus, he who had just been thinking that he could command the waves of the sea in his superhuman arrogance and imagining that he could weigh the high mountains in a balance was brought down to earth and carried in a litter, making the power of God manifest to all.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
and so the ungodly man's body swarmed with worms and while he was still living in anguish and pain his flesh rotted away and because of his stench the whole army felt revulsion at his decay because of his intolerable stench no one was able to carry the man who a little while before had thought that he could touch the stars of heaven
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Then it was that, broken in spirit, he began to lose much of his arrogance and to come to his senses under the scourge of God, for he was tortured with pain every moment. And when he could not endure his own stench, he uttered these words, It is right to be subject to God, and no mortal should think that he is equal to God. Antiochus makes a promise to God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Then the abominable fellow made a vow to the Lord who would no longer have mercy on him, stating that the whole city which he was hastening to level to the ground and to make a cemetery, he was now declaring to be free.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
And the Jews, whom he had not considered worth burying, but had planned to throw out with their children to the beasts for the birds to pick, he would make all of them equal to citizens of Athens.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
and the holy sanctuary, which he had formerly plundered, he would adorn with the finest offerings, and the holy vessels he would give back, all of them, many times over, and the expenses incurred for the sacrifices he would provide from his own revenues. And in addition to all this, he also would become a Jew and would visit every inhabited place to proclaim the power of God.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
But when his sufferings did not in any way abate for the judgment of God had justly come upon him, he gave up all hope for himself and wrote to the Jews the following letter in the form of a supplication. This was its content. Antiochus' letter and death. To his worthy Jewish citizens, Antiochus, their king and general, sends hearty greetings and good wishes for their health and prosperity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
If you and your children are well and your affairs are as you wish, I am glad, as my hope is in heaven. I remember with affection your esteem and goodwill. On my way back from the region of Persia, I suffered an annoying illness, and I have deemed it necessary to take thought for the general security of all. I do not despair of my condition, for I have good hope of recovering from my illness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
But I observed that my father, on the occasions when he made expeditions into the upper country, appointed his successor, so that if anything unexpected happened or any unwelcome news came, the people throughout the realm would not be troubled, for they would know to whom the government was left.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Moreover, I understand how the princes along the borders and the neighbors to my kingdom keep watching for opportunities and waiting to see what will happen. So, I have appointed my son Antiochus to be king, whom I have often entrusted and commended to most of you when I hastened off to the upper provinces, and I have written to him what is written here.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
I therefore urge and beg you to remember the public and private services rendered to you and to maintain your present goodwill, each of you, toward me and my son. For I am sure that he will follow my policy and will treat you with moderation and kindness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
So the murderer and blasphemer, having endured the more intense suffering such as he had inflicted on others, came to the end of his life by a most pitiable fate among the mountains in a strange land. And Philip, one of his courtiers, took his body home. Then fearing the son of Antiochus, he betook himself to Ptolemy Philometer in Egypt.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
The Book of Wisdom, Chapter 7 Solomon's Prayer for and Love of Wisdom I also am mortal, like all men, a descendant of the first-formed child of earth. And in the womb of a mother I was molded into flesh, within the period of ten months compacted with blood, from the seed of a man and the pleasure of marriage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
And when I was born, I began to breathe the common air, and fell upon the kindred earth, and my first sound was a cry like that of all. I was nursed with care and swaddling cloths, for no king has had a different beginning of existence. There is for all mankind one entrance into life and a common departure. Therefore I prayed, and understanding was given me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me. I preferred her to scepters and thrones, and I counted wealth as nothing in comparison with her. Neither did I liken to her any priceless gem, because all gold is but a little sand in her sight, and silver will be accounted as clay before her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
I loved her more than health and beauty, and I chose to have her rather than light, because her radiance never ceases. All good things came to me along with her, and in her hands uncounted wealth. I rejoiced in them all, because wisdom leads them.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
but i did not know that she was their mother i learned without guile and i am part without grudging i do not hide her wealth for it is an unfailing treasure for men those who get it obtain friendship with god commended for the gifts that come from instruction
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
May God grant that I speak with judgment and have thoughts worthy of what I have received, for he is the guide even of wisdom and the corrector of the wise. For both we and our words are in his hand, as are all understanding and skill in crafts.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
For it is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists, to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements, the beginning and end and middle of times, the alterations of the solstices and the changes of the seasons.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
the cycles of the year and the constellations of the stars the natures of animals and the tempers of wild beasts the powers of spirits and the reasonings of men the varieties of plants and the virtues of roots i learned both what is secret and what is manifest for wisdom the fashioner of all things taught me
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
For in her there is a spirit that is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, clear, unpolluted, distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen, irresistible, beneficent, humane, steadfast, sure, free from anxiety, all-powerful, overseeing all, and penetrating through all spirits that are intelligent and pure and most subtle. For wisdom is more mobile than any motion.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Because of her pureness, she pervades and penetrates all things. For she is a breath of the power of God and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty. Therefore, nothing defiled gains entrance into her, for she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God and an image of his goodness. Though she is but one, she can do all things.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
And while remaining in herself, she renews all things. In every generation, she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God and prophets. For God loves nothing so much as the man who lives with wisdom. For she is more beautiful than the sun and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light, she is found to be superior, for it is succeeded by the night.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 306. We're reading 2nd book of the Maccabees, chapter 9, as well as Wisdom chapters 7 and 8, Proverbs chapter 25, verses 1 through 3.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
But against wisdom, evil does not prevail. She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and she orders all things well. I loved her and sought her from my youth, and I desired to take her for my bride, and I became enamored of her beauty. She glorifies her noble birth by living with God, and the Lord of all loves her.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
For she is an initiate in the knowledge of God and an associate in his works. If riches are a desirable possession in life, what is richer than wisdom who affects all things? And if understanding is effective, who more than she is the fashioner of what exists? And if anyone loves righteousness, her labors are virtues. For she teaches self-control and prudence, justice and courage.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Nothing in life is more profitable for men than these. And if anyone longs for wide experience, she knows the things of old and infers the things to come. She understands turns of speech and the solutions of riddles. She has foreknowledge of signs and wonders and of the outcome of seasons and times.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Therefore, I determined to take her to live with me, knowing that she would give me good counsel and encouragement in cares and grief. Because of her, I shall have glory among the multitudes and honor in the presence of the elders, though I am young. I shall be found keen in judgment, and in the sight of rulers I shall be admired.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
When I am silent, they will wait for me, and when I speak, they will give heed. And when I speak at greater length, they will put their hands on their mouths. Because of her, I shall have immortality and leave an everlasting remembrance to those who come after me. I shall govern peoples, and nations will be subject to me. Dread monarchs will be afraid of me when they hear of me.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Among the people I shall show myself capable and courageous in war. When I enter my house, I shall find rest with her. For companionship with her has no bitterness, and life with her has no pain, but gladness and joy.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
When I considered these things inwardly, and thought upon them in my mind, that in kinship with wisdom there is immortality, and in friendship with her pure delight, and in the labors of her hands unfailing wealth, and in the experience of her company understanding, and renown in sharing her words, I went about seeking how to get her for myself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
As a child, I was by nature well endowed, and a good soul fell to my lot, or rather, being good, I entered an undefiled body. But I perceived that I would not possess wisdom unless God gave her to me, and it was a mark of insight to know whose gift she was.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
So I appealed to the Lord and implored Him, and with my whole heart I said, The book of Proverbs chapter 25 verses 1 through 3.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the 2nd Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Further wise sayings of Solomon. These also are Proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied. It is the glory of God to conceal things but the glory of kings is to search things out. As the heavens for height and the earth for depth so the mind of kings is unsearchable.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Father in heaven, thank you so much. Thank you for your word and thank you for your goodness.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Thank you for giving us the gift of wisdom. Thank you for sharing who you are with us, your character with us. Thank you for the ways in which you are unseen and yet still present. Thank you for the ways in which you act in silence and speak to us in silence, the way you love us in silence. Lord God, we also thank you for the times when you make yourself known.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
We thank you for the times when it's unavoidable for us to realize that you not only are present, but you are active. Not only that you are good, but that you love us. Help us to receive your love and help us to love you back. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Okay, so a cliffhanger at the end of the Wisdom of Solomon chapter eight, you know, basically here's Solomon. That's ostensibly the author of Wisdom of Solomon would be Solomon, right? So the idea is behind this is that here in the end of chapter eight, he says, yeah, so I was given a body and as a mark of insight to know whose gift she was, meaning the gift of wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates because today is day 306. You have 59 days. Gosh, math. Why is it so hard? It's not that hard. It's day 306. We're reading 2 Maccabees chapter 9, Wisdom 7 and 8, Proverbs chapter 25, verses 1 through 3. The Second Book of the Maccabees, Chapter 9. The Last Campaign of Antiochus Epiphanes.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Lady wisdom is marked throughout scripture. We heard about wisdom is always feminine in the Hebrew scriptures and in the Christian scriptures. And it's just what a gift that is. But here he is saying, I longed for her, but I also know whose gift she is. Meaning I don't get wisdom for myself. We only get wisdom from the Lord God himself.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
So at the very end of chapter eight, he says, but I perceived I would not possess wisdom unless God gave her to me. It was a mark of insight to know whose gift she was, right? So it comes from God. So I appealed to the Lord and implored him. And with my whole heart, I said, colon, and then that's chapter nine, which is for tomorrow.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
So tomorrow we get to hear the prayer of Solomon in chapter nine and then chapter 10, also the deeds of wisdom. But I just think that's really funny that we just kind of dun, dun, dun, cliffhanger. Here we are. But there's an element here where we get to hear so much about wisdom, especially in chapter seven. There is this list of words, right? that every single one of them is worth investigating.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
Every single one of them is worth meditating on in our prayer. So it's Wisdom of Solomon, chapter seven, and beginning around verse 22, it says, "'For wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me. "'For in her.'" There is a spirit that is, and then he goes on to list a number of these key words that highlight an aspect of wisdom.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
So for in her, there was a spirit that is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, or mobile. And it goes on. Because of her pureness, she pervades and penetrates all things. She is a breath of the power of God, a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 306: Wisdom Is Beautiful (2024)
And so all of these words, I would say, gosh, you know, if you have the ability to also be reading as you're listening, this is where we just kind of mark these words, or even if you can't right now, but to be able to highlight some of those words and be able to talk with God about them, like that sense of being able to say, okay, Lord, these are characteristics. These are elements of your wisdom.