The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2023)

Episode Date: May 1, 2023

Fr. Mike talks about how revenge and violence can become a cycle that doesn't end until someone chooses to end it. He also points out how the genealogy in 1 Chronicles reflects the genealogy of Christ.The reading for today are 2 Samuel 2, 1 Chronicles 2, and Psalm 24. 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 121, and we are reading today from 2 Samuel 2, from 1 Chronicles 2. More names, thank the Lord. And we're also praying Psalm 24. If you're interested, the Bible translation that I am reading from is a revised standard

version, second Catholic edition. I'm reading from the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe, and then you'll be subscribed and it'll be great. But as I said, it's day 121. So great. We're reading 2 Samuel chapter 2, 1 Chronicles chapter 2, and praying Psalm 24.

2 Samuel chapter 2, David anointed king of Judah. After this, David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said to him, Go up. David said, To which shall I go up? And he said, To Hebron. So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David brought up his men who were with him, every one with his household, and they dwelt in the towns of Hebron. And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. When they told David, It was the men of Jabesh-Gilead who buried Saul, David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-Gilead and said to them, May you be blessed

by the Lord, because you showed this loyalty to Saul your Lord and buried him. Now may the Lord show mercy and faithfulness to you, and I will do good to you because you have done this thing. Now therefore, let your hands be strong and be valiant, for Saul your Lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them. Ish-bosheth made king of Israel. Now Abner, the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, had taken Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim, and he made him king over Gilead and the Asherites

and Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel. Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, was 40 years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. The Battle of Gibeon. Abner, the son of Ner, and the servants of Ashibosheth, the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. And Joab, the son of Zerui, and the servants of David, went out and met them at the pool of Ashibosheth, the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. And Joab, the son of Zerui, and the servants of David went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. And they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool and the other on the other side of the pool.

And Abner said to Joab, let the young men arise and play before us. And Joab said, let them arise. Then they arose and passed over by number, 12 for Benjamin and Ashabasheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. And each caught his opponent by the head, and thrust his sword into his opponent's side, so they fell down together. Therefore that place was called Helkath Hazarim, which is at Gibeon. And the battle was very fierce that day, and Abner and the men of Israel were beaten before the servants of David. And the three sons of Zerui were there, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel was as swift of foot as a wild gazelle, and Asahel pursued Abner. And as he went, he turned neither to the right hand nor to the

left from following Abner. Then Abner looked behind him and said, Is it you, Asahel? And he answered, It is I. Abner said to him, Turn aside to it you, Asahel? And he answered, It is I. Abner said to him, Turn aside to your right hand or to your left and seize one of the young men and take his spoil. But Asahel would not turn aside from following him. And Abner said to Asahel, Turn aside from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I lift up my face to your brother Joab? But he refused to turn aside.

Therefore, Abner struck him in the belly with the butt of his spear, so that the spear came out at his back, and he fell there and died where he was. And all who came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died stood still. But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner, and as the sun was going down, they came to the hill of Amah, which lies before Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon. And the Benjaminites gathered themselves together behind Abner. And as the sun was going down, they came to the hill of Amah, which lies before Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon. And the Benjaminites gathered themselves together behind Abner and became one band and took their stand on the top of a hill. Then Abner called to Joab,

shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that the end will be better? How long will it be before you bid your people turn from the pursuit of their brethren? And Joab said, As God lives, if you had not spoken, surely the men would have given up the pursuit of their brethren in the morning. So Joab blew the trumpet, and all the men stopped, and pursued Israel no more, nor did they fight any more. And Abner and his men went all that night through the Arabah. They crossed the Jordan, and marching the whole forenoon they came to Mahanaim. Joab returned from the pursuit of Abner, and when he had gathered all the people together, there were missing of David's servants nineteen men besides Asahel.

But the servants of David had slain of Benjamin three hundred and sixty of Abner's men. And they took up Asahel, and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was at Bethlehem. And Joab and his men marched all night, and the day broke upon them at Hebron. The First Book of Chronicles, Chapter 2. Sons of Israel and Descendants of Judah. These are the sons of Israel, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher, the sons of Judah, Ur, Onan, and Shelah. These three, Bathsheba, the Canaanitess, bore to him. Now Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the

Lord, and he slew him. His daughter-in-law Tamar also bore him Perez and Zerah. Judah had five sons in all. The sons of Perez, Hezron, and Hamul. The sons of Zerah, Zimri, Ethan, Heman, Chalcol, and Dera, five in all. The sons of Carmi, Akar, the troubler of Israel, who transgressed in the matter of the devoted thing, and Ethan's son was Azariah. The sons of Hezron that were born to him, Jeremiel, Ram, and Chulubai. Ram was the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab was the father of Nashon, prince of the sons of Judah. Nashon was the father of Salma, Salma of Boaz, Boaz of Obed, Obed of Jesse. Jesse was the father of Eliab, his firstborn, Abinadab the second, Shimeah the third, Nethanel the fourth, Radai the fifth,

Ozem the sixth, David the seventh. And their sisters were Zerui and Abigail, the sons of Zerui, Abishai, Joab, and Asahel, three. Abigail bore Amasa, and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite. Caleb, the son of Hezron, had children by his wife Azuba and by Jeraoth. And these were her sons, Jeshur, Shobab, and Ardon. When Azuba died, Caleb married Ephrath, who bore him Hur. Hur was the father of Uri. Uri was the father of Bezalel. Afterward, Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir, the father of Gilead, who he married when he was sixty years old, and she bore him Segub. And Segub was the father of Jair,

who had twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead. But Gesher and Aram took from them, Havath-Jair, Kenath, and its villages sixty towns. All these were descendants of Machir, the father of Gilead. After the death of Hezron, Caleb went into Ephrathah, the wife of Hezron his father, and she bore him Ashur, the father of Tekoa. The sons of Jerameel, the firstborn of Hezron, Ram his firstborn, Buna, Oren, Ozem, and Ahijah. Jeremiel also had another wife whose name was Atara. She was the mother of Onam. The sons of Ram, the firstborn of Jeremiel, Maaz, Jamin, and Eker. The sons of Onam, Shammai, and Jada. The sons of Shammai, Nadab, and Abishur. The name of Abishur's wife was Abihel, and she bore him Aban and Molid.

The sons of Nadab, Seled and Apaim, and Seled died childless. The sons of Apaim, Ishi. The sons of Ishi, Shashan. The sons of Shashan, Alai. The sons of Jada, Shammai's brother, Jether and Jonathan. And Jether died childless, the sons of Jonathan, Peleth and Zazah. These were the descendants of Jeremiel. Now Shashan had no sons, only daughters, but Shashan had an Egyptian slave whose name was Jarha. So Shashan gave his daughter in marriage to Jarha his slave, and she bore him Atai.

Atai was the father of Nathan, and Nathan of Zebad. Zebad was the father of Eflal, and Eflal of Obed. Obed was the father of Jehu, and Jehu of Azariah. Azariah was the father of Helez, and Helez of Eleasa. Eleasa was the father of Sismai and Sismai of Shalom. Shalom was the father of Jechamiah and Jechamiah of Elishema. The sons of Caleb, the brother of Jerameel, Marashah, his firstborn, who was the father of Ziph, the sons of Marashah, Hebron, the sons of Hebron, Korah, Tapuah, Rekem, and Shema. Shema was the father of Raham, the father of Jerka'am, and Rekem was the father of Shammai. The sons of Shammai, Ma'on, and Ma'on was the father of Beth-Zur. Ephah also, Caleb's concubine, bore Haran,

Moza, and Gezez, and Haran was the father of Gezez. The sons of Jedai, Regim, Jotham, Geshan, Pelet, Ephah, and Sha'af. Ma'akah, Caleb's concubine, bore Sheber and Tirhanah. She also bore Sha'af, the father of Machmanah, Sheva, the father of Machbanah, and the father of Gibeah. And the daughter of Caleb was Aksah. These were the descendants of Caleb. The sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah, Shabal, the father of Kiriath-Jerim, Salma, the father of Bethlehem, and Haraf, the father of Bet-Geder. Shabal, the father of Kiriath-Jerim, had other sons, Heruah, half of the Menuhoth, and the families of Kiriath-Jerim, the Ithralites, the Puthites, the Shumathites, and the Mishraites. From these came the Zorathites and the Eshtalites,

the sons of Salma, Bethlehem, the Netophathites, Atroth-Beth-Joab, and half of them Menathites, the Zorites, the families also of the scribes that dwelt at Jabez, the Tirithites and the Shimeathites, and the Sukathites. These are the Kenites who came from Hamath, the father of the house of Rechab. Psalm 24. Entrance into the Temple. A Psalm of David. The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from the God of his salvation.

Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory?

The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory today. We thank you so much for the unfolding of time. We thank you for the unfolding of the story, the story of salvation and the story of how, Lord God, you're willing to take time. You're willing to be patient, not only with us in our weakness, our littleness, in our falseness, you're also willing to be patient with just the passage of time with other people's decisions and the fact that we have to grow and it takes time to grow.

And so we thank you. We thank you for being patient with us. We thank you for giving us time and we thank you for allowing this time to be used. So we ask you actually, not just to thank you, Lord, but we ask you help us to use this we ask you, help us to use this time to grow. Help us to use this time not as wasted time, not as stalling out time, but as time where we can always find you. And you will always, always find us where we are in this moment. We give you praise. We thank you and make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So as I said yesterday, we have a lot of names in First Chronicles, and that's going to be how it is for the next few days. And I'm just so sorry about that. I'm not just sorry for you. I'm sorry for me. I'm sorry for myself that we have to do this, but it's going to be good. In fact, one of the great things, incredible connection. I love it. The names all mean something, right? Because every name signifies not just one individual, it signifies their entire family. And so this is remarkable that we're getting a bit of the family tree. In fact, not just any family tree, we're getting the sons of Israel and the descendants

of Judah specifically. And so what do we have? We heard today, sons of Hezron, this is in chapter two, verse nine, sons of Hezron that were born to him, Jermiel, Ram, and Shilobai. Then we go into Hezron, father of Ram, father of Aminadab, Aminadab, father of Nashon, Nashon, the father of Salma, of Boaz, of Obed. I don't know if those names, and of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David the king. I don't know if you know this, if you hear this, if you recognize this, but this is the exact order that we get in Matthew's gospel. Matthew, when he gives us the genealogy of Jesus, if you're ever at the Christmas Eve mass, we know we always read that genealogy of Jesus. We also read it a bunch of times when it comes to the Bible and it comes to church and mass

and stuff. But this is the lineup. This is the genealogy. This is the story of leading not just from Abraham all the way to David, but then beyond that, from David to Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, the one who was promised from the very beginning. And it's just so good. And that's one of the reasons why when we read all of these names, yes, at times it can be who, what, but we recognize they mean something. They mean a ton. And not only that, we have one

of those happy coincidences today where we have the connection between 2 Samuel chapter 2 and 1 Chronicles chapter 2, where, okay, remember, here is David, and David is the king of Judah, and he's going to battle against Shebosheth, the king of some of the other tribes of Israel. And David goes into battle with a couple people. Three of these people, in fact, are the sons of his sister, Zerui. And the three sons are Abishai, Joab, and Asahel. Asahel is described in 2 Samuel as being swift of foot, like faster than a deer. He's awesome, Asahel. But Asahel is doing something. He's chasing after Abner. Remember, Abner is this massively accomplished military folk person under King Saul.

And Abner looks back and says, okay, Asahel, stop chasing me. Because if I have to stand and fight you, I'm gonna kill you because, well, he's gonna. And he says, your brother Joab is gonna hold this against me. Basically, let's not have these officers in the militaries

of these group of Ish-bosheth and Davids go at each other because not only are they in battle right now because of the people reigning over them, David and Ish-bosheth, but also don't, let's not add revenge to the list of things. And Asahel wouldn't give up chasing after Abner. So Abner, in self-defense, he kills Asahel. And you know what happens next is Abishai and Joab, remember those two brothers of Asahel who just killed, the two nephews essentially of David, they chase after Abner trying to kill him. And Abner basically crawls out and says,

let's end the cycle of violence right now. Now the cycle of violence is going to continue because it seems like that's how it goes, right? And yet there was a wise moment there where Abner did call back to say to Asahel, stop fighting, stop chasing after me, or I'll have to strike you down. He does. It's one of those really unfortunate things because this is ultimately going to be, it's not going to end here. It doesn't end with chapter two. It continues as it always does. You know, violence begetting violence. And so what we do is we recognize in this story, what it's going to unfold in this family is something that is, well, it's, it's, it's devastating. It's what violence does in virtually all of our lives, that violence rarely ends on

its own, but it has to be ended. And how is it ended? Well, in any number of ways, but at some point what Jesus reveals is he takes violence upon himself rather than afflicting violence. Jesus takes violence upon himself, suffers for the sake of the unrighteous, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, and puts an end in so many ways to that cycle. And Jesus gives us an opportunity to also be part of that cycle,

not the cycle of violence, but the cycle of mercy and the cycle of allowing oneself to suffer for the other. That's why our call to forgive is so clear in Jesus's proclamation and so clear in Jesus's teaching. And yet forgiveness is one of the hardest teachings of Christianity. So that's all that to say is we've got a lot of stuff going on in 2 Samuel and in 1 Chronicles. And one of the things for today is we recognize not only the importance of the family tree,

the importance of the genealogy, which represents the promises of God, but we also recognize how deadly violence is because it rarely ends on its own. It has to be ended. And so in my heart today, I just say, okay, Lord, where are the places of anger? Where are the places where I desire revenge or a desire to be vindicated myself because what someone else did or what someone else has said, and how do I imitate Jesus and say, okay, in this moment, I let them go. In this moment, I set them free. In this moment, I'm not going to make them pay me back. I'm not going to hold it against them.

In this moment, I am going to end this anger. I'm going to end this violence. That's a thing that's hard for us to do. That's why we're praying for each other. I am praying for you. Please, as I said, pray for each other and pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow.

God bless.