Fr. Mike shares more details surrounding the Old Testament laws, including why God would give us these laws in the first place. Today's readings are Numbers 23, Deuteronomy 24-25, and Psalm 106. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.
Chapter 1: What laws are discussed in Numbers 23?
And Balaam said to Balak, build for me here seven altars and provide for me here seven bulls and seven rams. Balak did as Balaam had said, and Balak and Balaam offered on each altar a bull and a ram.
and balaam said to balak stand beside your burnt offering and i will go perhaps the lord will come to meet me and whatever he shows me i will tell you and he went to a bare height and god met balaam and balaam said to him i have prepared the seven altars and I have offered upon each altar a bull and a ram.
And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak. And he returned to him, and behold, he and all the princes of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering. And Balaam took up his discourse and said, From Aram Balak has brought me, the king of Moab, from the eastern mountains. Come, curse Jacob for me. Come, denounce Israel.
Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like his. And Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them. And he answered, Must I not take heed to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth? Balaam's second oracle. And Balak said to him, Come with me to another place from which you may see them.
Chapter 2: How does Balaam respond to Balak's requests?
You shall see only the nearest of them and shall not see them all. Then curse them for me from there. And he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. Balaam said to Balak, Stand here beside your burnt offering while I meet the Lord yonder.
And the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak. And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, What has the Lord spoken? And Balaam took up his discourse and said, Rise, Balak, and hear.
He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The Lord their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them. God brings them out of Egypt. They have, as it were, the horns of the wild ox. For there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel. Now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel what God has wrought. Behold a people.
As a lioness it rises up, and as a lion it lifts itself. It will not lie down till it devours the prey and drinks the blood of the slain. And Balak said to Balaam, neither curse them at all nor bless them at all. But Balaam answered Balak, did I not tell you all that the Lord says that I must do? And Balak said to Balaam, come now, I will take you to another place.
Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there. So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that overlooks the desert. And Balaam said to Balak, Build for me here seven altars, and provide for me here seven bulls and seven rams. And Balak did as Balaam said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
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Chapter 3: What are the various laws in Deuteronomy 24?
When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her and he writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house and she departs out of his house and if she goes and becomes another man's wife and the latter husband dislikes her and writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, then her former husband
Various Laws When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be charged with any business. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken. No man shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for he would be taking a life in pledge.
If a man is found stealing one of his brethren, the sons of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from the midst of you. Take heed in an attack of leprosy to be very careful to do according to all that the Levitical priests shall direct you, as I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do.
Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way as you came forth out of Egypt. When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to fetch his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge.
When the sun goes down, you shall restore to him the pledge that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness to you before the Lord your God. You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brethren or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns.
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of the laws on marriage and family in Deuteronomy 25?
You shall give him his hire on the day he earns it before the sun goes down, for he is poor and sets his heart upon it, lest he cry against you to the Lord and it be sin in you. The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow's garment in pledge. But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. Therefore, I command you to do this. Let's read it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.
Therefore I command you to do this. Chapter 25 If there is a dispute between men, and they come into court, and the judges decide between them acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense.
Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight. You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. Duty to a brother's widow. If brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside the family to a stranger.
Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his brother who is dead.
that his name may not be blotted out of israel and if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say my husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in israel he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me
Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, I do not wish to take her, then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face, and she shall answer and say, So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house, and the name of his house shall be called in Israel, the house of him that had his sandal pulled off.
Various commands. When men fight with one another and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him and she puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity. You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small.
You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. A full and just weight you shall have, a full and just measure you shall have, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord your God.
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Chapter 5: What is the message of Psalm 106?
Praise the Lord. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Who can utter the mighty doings of the Lord, or show forth all his praise? Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times. Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people.
Help me when you deliver them, that I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your heritage. Both we and our fathers have sinned.
we have committed iniquity we have done wickedly our fathers when they were in egypt did not consider your wonderful works they did not remember the abundance of your mercy but rebelled against the most high at the red sea yet he saved them for his name's sake that he might make known his mighty power he rebuked the red sea and it became dry And he led them through the deep as through a desert.
So he saved them from the hand of the foe and delivered them from the power of the enemy. And the waters covered their adversaries. Not one of them was left. Then they believed his words. They sang his praise. But they soon forgot his works. They did not wait for his counsel. But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness and put God to the test in the desert.
He gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them. When men in the camp were jealous of Moses and Aaron, the holy one of the Lord, the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the company of Abiram. Fire also broke out in their company. The flame burned up the wicked. They made a calf at Horeb and worshipped a molten image.
They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Red Sea. Therefore, he said he would destroy them, had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to turn away his wrath from destroying them. Then they despised the pleasant land.
Having no faith in his promise, they murmured in their tents and did not obey the voice of the Lord. Therefore he raised his hand and swore to them that he would make them fall in the wilderness and would disperse their descendants among the nations, scattering them over the lands. Then they attached themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to the dead.
They provoked the Lord to anger with their doings and a plague broke out among them. Then Phinehas stood up and interposed, and the plague was stayed, and that has been reckoned to him as righteousness from generation to generation. They angered him at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account, for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke words that were rash.
They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and learned to do as they did. They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons. They poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. and the land was polluted with blood.
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