The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 109: A Heart of Obedience (2023)

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

As we continue to read about Saul's vanity and disobedience, Fr. Mike emphasizes the importance of the virtue of obedience in our relationship with God. He also points out how God chose David to be anointed as king because David was a man after God's own heart. Today's readings are 1 Samuel 15-16 and Psalm 61. 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.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 109, and we are reading from 1 Samuel chapter 15 and 16. We're also praying Psalm 61. As always, the Bible translation that I am using and reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I am actually reading

from the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to get that, you can track it down at ascensionpress.com or at amazon.com or wherever Bibles are sold, maybe bible.com. I don't even know. Let me buy a bible.com. It's slapped on there. I don't know. If you want to download your Bible in a Year reading plan, you can also visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You also, if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, click on subscribe and then you'll be subscribed and your whole life will change for the better, I think. I mean, I'm not making any promises. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. As I said, today is 109, and we are reading from 1 Samuel chapter 15 and 16 and praying Psalm

61. 1 Samuel 15. Saul defeats the Amalekites, but disobeys. And Samuel said to Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint you king over this people Israel. Now therefore listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, I will punish what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Talim, 200,000 men on foot, 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. And Saul said to the Kenites, go, depart, go down from

among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them, for you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites, and Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless, they utterly destroyed. The Lord rejects Saul for his disobedience. The word of the Lord came to Samuel. I repent that I have made Saul

king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. And Samuel was angry and he cried to the Lord all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, Saul came to Carmel and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal. And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, Blessed be you to the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the

best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed. Then Samuel said to Saul, Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night. And he said to him, Say on. And Samuel said, Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent you on a mission and said, Go, utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord.

I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord your God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings

and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. And Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now, therefore, I beg, pardon my sin and return with me that I may worship the Lord. And Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.

As Samuel turned to go away, Saul laid hold upon the skirt of his robe, and it tore, and Samuel said to him, The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. And also the glory of Israel will not lie or repent, for he is not a man that he should repent. Then he said, I have sinned, yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel and return with me that I may worship the Lord your God. So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord. Then Samuel said, Bring here to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites.

And Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said, As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed a gag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul, and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel. Chapter 16, David anointed as king. The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul, seeing I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse,

the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons. And Samuel said, how can I go? If Saul hears that he will kill me. And the Lord said, take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord and invite Jesse to the sacrifice. And I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I named to you. Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, Do you come peaceably? And he said, Peaceably. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.

Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, Surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel, and he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one.

Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, neither has the Lord chosen this one. And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these. And Samuel said to Jesse, are all your sons here? And he said, there remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he comes here. And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up

and went to Ramah. David plays the liar for Saul. Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. And Saul's servants said to him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our Lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre. And when the evil spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well. So Saul said to his servants, Provide for me a man who can play well, and bring him to me. One of the young men answered, behold, I have seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence. And the Lord is with him.

Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, send me David, your son, who is with the sheep. And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread, and a skin of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son to Saul. And David came to Saul, and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight. And whenever the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. Psalm 61. Assurance of God's protection.

To the choir master with stringed instruments, a psalm of David. Hear my cry, O God. Listen to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me dwell in your tent forever. I want to be safe under the shelter of your wings. For you, oh God, have heard my vows. You have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. Prolong the life of the king. May his years endure to all generations. May he be enthroned forever before God. Bid steadfast love and faithfulness watch over him. So will I ever sing praises to your name as I pay my vows day after day. Father in heaven, we give you praise and thanks, and we just give you glory today and just honor

you for who you are and all that you've done. We give you thanks not only for calling us to be yours, but also for being so patient with us. Even in our disobedience, Lord, there are consequences to our sins. There's consequences to us saying no. And yet you continue to give us mercy. You continue to restore us. You continue to be with us. In our weakness, you are strong.

In our faithlessness, you are faithful. And so we praise you and we honor you and we love you. Thank you so much. May you be praised and glorified and loved all the more in Jesus' name, in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, here we go. We're reading 1 Samuel 15 and 16. Again, just like yesterday, so many things that are happening. Once again, we see the Achilles heel of Saul. And you're going to get so sick of me saying this. Maybe you already are sick of me saying this. The Achilles heel of Saul is that he is inordinately preoccupied with what other people think of him.

The sin of vanity is not just thinking like, oh my gosh, I look so great. The sin of vanity is not being obsessed with one's appearance necessarily. The sin of vanity at its heart is an inordinate preoccupation with what other people think. So yes, we have to be concerned with what other people think. So yes, we have to be concerned with what other people think. That's actually just being kind. That's being aware of the fact that there are such a thing as other people in this world. And so we should be sensitive to what other people are thinking. The sin of vanity is being inordinately preoccupied with what other people think. And here, once again, is King Saul, who goes and fights the

Amalekites. And he's told very, very clearly, here's what you need to do. This destruction of everything and destruction of the king, the people, and all the animals. And what does King Saul do? Yep, he destroys all the people, but then he spares the life of the king, which is so strange, very interesting why he does this. And then next, he takes the life of the king which is so strange very interesting why he does this and then next he takes the best of the flocks takes the best of the herds takes the best of the animals and he uses the excuse of saying we're going to sacrifice these to god and and this is something so remarkable about this because we've said it before when it came to the book of leviticus and it comes to some of the other books that instruct how God is to be worshiped.

But sometimes we can say, oh, I'm going to give this thing to God where he's actually asked us to do something else with it. What we've done when it comes to worship is we've taken what we want to offer. We've taken what we want to give and we make that our gift as opposed to taking what God has asked us to do and simply doing that. In fact, it's one of those things where very consistently, I know this in my life, if it's very clear that God is asking me to do one thing, but that's the thing I don't want to do, I can be willing to do really a bunch of other really difficult things.

So as an example, I don't know, I'm trying to think, but way back to, say, Lent or something like this, at the beginning of the season of Lent where oftentimes we entered a season of prayer and fasting and almsgiving, if it's very clear that God is saying, okay, here's what I want you to do. I want you to sacrificially give in this area. And I really don't want to sacrificially give in that particular area. Maybe that's, you know, of my time or my resources and money, that kind of thing. And so what I'll do is a bunch of other really hard things and say, this is all really good too, right?

I know God in my heart of hearts, you're asking me to do this one thing, but that's not what I want to do. So I'll do a bunch of other hard things thinking that that makes up for it. And here's maybe something along the lines of what King Saul is doing or the people of Israel are doing. God has told them, destroy all of the flocks, all the herds, all the animals. And they say, no, no, no, no. What we're going to do is we're going to take those great things. We'll destroy all the herds, all the animals. And they say, no, no, no, no. What we're going to do is we're going to take those great things.

We'll destroy all the bad stuff, all the stuff that we don't want anyways. We're going to keep the good stuff and then give God some of those things. And you just think, okay, that's why we have this incredible, incredible saying from Samuel. He says, has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams. There's something so, so critical and so key for us to let that into our minds and to our hearts is that one of the principal virtues, one of the principal actions any of us can

do is obedience. In fact, if you ever have studied any of the religious communities or any of the lives of those men and women who have really conformed their hearts and their wills to the heart and will of God, they will tell you that the heart of holiness is often obedience and not just, I'm going to do this incredible thing. I'm going to do this great thing. I'm going to do this holy thing. Well, the holiest thing in many ways is that heart of obedience. What has God asked me to do? I only do that. What has God told me to not do? I don't do that.

You know what I'm saying? It's just so important because here is King Saul, who once again is, I guess, once again loses the kingdom. I don't know if it's once again, but he loses the spirit of God in this and through his disobedience. And it ends in catastrophe, as we're going to continue to see. Also, this is the scene where David is anointed as king. Just one quick note on King David,

or on anointed David, young David who's anointed. Remember God has said to Saul through Samuel, I will choose another who is after my own heart. And when Samuel is sent before Jesse and Jesse's sons, he sees the oldest son and the oldest son looks a lot like King Saul. He is handsome, just like King Saul. He is tall like King Saul. He looks like a king, like King Saul looked like a king.

And yet God says to Samuel, nope, I have passed over him. I've rejected him. Why? Because do not look at his appearance or the height of his stature. The Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. And this is so critically important for all of us. Again, when we assess ourselves, when we present ourselves before the Lord, I can look a certain

way on the outside, but what the Lord desires is that heart of obedience. The Lord desires a heart just like his. The Lord desires us to even just, I just want what God wants. I want to choose what God wills. And that is the heart of holiness. And that is the heart of the person who is a man or woman after God's own heart. It's hard to be that way. It's hard to obey when we don't understand.

It's hard to obey when we'd rather do other things. It's hard to listen to the voice of the Lord and respond. And because of that, we need his help. We actually can't do it without his grace. And so we pray for ourselves. We pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please, as we keep journeying, please pray for me. This is an incredible community of people who just continue to pray for each other. I know you are doing that. And I know, I can recognize, I experience your prayers for me. And I'm so glad. Hopefully, you know my prayers for you.

And hopefully, it's helping you take that step at a time to have a heart like the heart of the Father. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.