The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2026)

Episode Date: May 1, 2026

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's 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're reading today from 2, 2, from 1 Chronicles, chapter 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 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, 1st 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 Hinoam of Jesrael and Abigail the widow of Neval of Carmel and David brought up his men who were with

him everyone 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 J. Beshelead 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. Ishibishath made king of Israel.

Now Abner, the son of Nur, commander of Saul's army, had taken Ishibesheth, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim, and he made him king over Gilead and the Asherites and Jesrael and Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel. Ashibesheth, 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 Gibbon. Abner, the son of Nur, and the servants of Mir, the shibishath, the son of Gibyan, and Joab, the son of Zeruai, and the servants of David went out and met them at the pool of Gibbon, 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 Ashibeshishat, 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 Helcath Hazarim, which is at Gibbon. 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 Zeroy 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 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 Abashai pursued Abner, and as the sun was going down, they came to the hill of Amma, which lies before Gia on the way to the wilderness of Gibyan, 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 Araba. 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, they were missing of David's servants 19 men besides Asahel. But the servants of David had slain of Benjamin three hundred and sixty of Abner's men, and they took up Azahel 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, Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Isakar, Zebulan, Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naftali, Gad, and Asher. the sons of Judah, Er, Onan, and Shila. These three, Bathshua, the Canaanitis, bore to him. Now Er, 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 Zara. Judah had five sons in all. The sons of Perez, Hezran, and Hamul.

The sons of Zara, Zimri, Ethan, Himan, Kalkol, and Dara, five in all. The sons of Karmi, Akar, the troubler of Israel, who transgressed in the matter of the devoted thing, and Ethan's son was Azariah. The sons of Hezran that were born to him, Jeromil, Ram, and Chulobai. Ram was the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab 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, Shimea, the third. Nathanel, the fourth.

Radei the 5th, Ozim the 6th, David the 7th, and their sisters were Zeroy and Abigail, the sons of Zeroy, Abishai, Joab, and Asahal, 3. Abigail bore Amasa, and the father of Amasa, was Jethar, the father of Amasa, was Jethar, the son of Hezran had children by his wife, Azuba, and by Jerooth. And these were her sons, Jesher, Shobab, and Ardan. When Azuba died, Caleb married Ephrath, who bore him her. Her was the father of Uri. Uri was the father of Bezalel. Afterward, Hezran went in to the daughter of Makir, the father of Gilead, who he married when he was 60 years old, and she bore him Seguib, and Sigub was the father of Jair, who had 23 cities in the land of Gilead.

But Geshire and Aram took from them, Havath Jair, Kinnath, and its villages, 60 towns. All these were descendants of Makir, the father of Gilead. After the death of Hezran, Caleb went into Ephratha, the wife of Hezran, his father, and she bore him Ashur, the father of Tekoa. The sons of Jeromil, the firstborn of Hezran, Ram, his firstborn, Boonah, Orin, Ozim, and Ahijah. Jeremy also had another wife whose name was Atara, she was the mother of Onam. The sons of Ram, the firstborn of Jerim, Maaz, Jamin, and Echre. The sons of Onam, Shemai and Jada. The sons of Shemai, Nadab, and Abashur.

The name of Abashir's wife was Abihel, and she bore him Aban and Molid. The sons of Nadab, Salad and Appaim, and Seled died childless. The sons of Apaim, Ishi. The sons of Ishi, Shashan. The sons of Shashan, Alai. The sons of Jada, Shemai's brother, Jethar and Jonathan. And Jether died childless. The sons of Jonathan, Pelleth and Zazaa.

These were the descendants of Jaramil. Now, Shashan had no sons, only daughters, but Shashan had an Egyptian slave whose name was Jharha. So Shashan gave his daughter in marriage to Jahah his slave, and she bore him Atay. Atai was the father of Nathan, and Nathan of Zabad. Zabad was the father of Eflav. And Eflal of Obed.

Obed was the father of Jehu and Jehu of Azariah. As Araya was the father of Hellez, in Helez of Eleasah, Elie Asa was the father of Sismai, and Sismai of Shalom. Shalum was the father of Jekamaya and Jekamaya of Elishima. The sons of Caleb, the brother of Jeromil, Marasha, his firstborn, who was the father of Zip, the sons of Marasha, Hebron, the sons of Hebron, Korah, Tapua, Raqam, and Shima. Shima was the father of Raham, the father of Jerkha. and Reckham was the father of Shemai. The sons of Shemai, Ma'on, and Ma'on was the father of Beth Zure.

Efa also, Caleb's concubine, bore Haran, Mozaa, and Gezzez. And Haran was the father of Gezzez. The sons of Jadae, Regim, Jotham, Gashan, Pelet, Epha, and Sha'af. Ma'akha, Caleb's concubine, bore Sheber and Tirhana. She also bore Sha'aff, the father of Makmana, Shiva, the father of Makbanah, and the father of Gibbya, and the daughter of Caleb, these were the descendants of Caleb. The sons of Her, the firstborn of Ephratha, Shabal, the father of Kiryath-Jerim,

Salma, the father of Bethlehem, and Heraf, the father of Bet Ghedair. Shabal, the father of Kiryath-Jarim, had other sons, Herroa, half of the Menuhoth, and the families of Kiryath-Jerim, the Ithralites, the Puthytes, the Shumathites, and the Mishraites. From these came the Zorothites and the Eshtalites. The sons of Salma, Bethlehem, the Netaphethites, Atrathb, and half of them Manahathites, the Zorites. The families also of the scribes that dwelt at Jabe, the Tirithites and the Shimiathites, and the Shemihethites. These are the Keenites who came from Hamath, the father of the house of Rakhab. 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 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 2, verse 9. Sons of Hezron that were born to him, Jeremy L. Ram and Shilobai. Then we go into Hezron, the father of Ram, the father of Mindadab, the father of Nishon, 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 Second Samuel Chapter 2 and First Chronicles chapter 2 where, okay, remember, here is David. And David is the king of Judah. And he's going to battle against Shibishevishat, 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 Zeroy. And the three sons are Abashai, Joab, and Asahel. Asahel is described in Second Samuel as being swift of foot, like faster than a deer.

It'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 going to kill you because, well, he's going to. And he says, your brother, Joab, is going to hold this against me.

Basically, let's not have these officers in the militaries of these group of Ishisheths and Davids go at each other because not only are they in battle right now because of the people reigning over them, David and the Shibishath. 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 Abashai 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 that 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. The violence be getting violence. And so what we do is we recognize in this story what it's going to unfold and this family is something that is, well, 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, and puts an end in so many ways to that cycle, and Jesus gives us an opportunity to all. 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' teaching. Yet forgiveness is one of the hardest teachings of Christianity. So that's all that to say is we have a lot of stuff going on in 2nd Samuel and in 1st Chronicles. And one of the things for today is we recognize, 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 I desire to be vindicated myself? Because of 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 am 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's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.