The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2024)

Episode Date: May 12, 2024

Fr. Mike focuses on trust today, specifically trusting God in difficult times. Like David, we need to learn to trust God in the midst of the battle, not wait until it's over. Today's readings are 2 Samuel 15, 1 Chronicles 19-20, and Psalm 3. 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 133. We're reading four chapters today, 2 Samuel chapter 15, two chapters in 1 Chronicles, that's chapters 19 and 20,

and also praying Psalm 3. As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the revised standard version, second Catholic edition. I'm using 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 also can click on subscribe if you wanna subscribe to this podcast. As I said, reading from 2 Samuel chapter 15, 1 Chronicles 19 and 20, and Psalm 3. One quick note before we start the readings is in 1 Chronicles chapter 19 and 20, we're gonna hear, again, just like always,

it's gonna be a little flashback. And some of the flashback we're gonna get is David and his battles. We're also gonna get a little glimpse of in the spring of the year when kings go out to battle. Joab led the armed forces and ravaged the country of the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. And David stayed at home. But we won't get the rest of the story. We're just going to get the story of the battle. And remember, that's because First Chronicles wants to highlight the fact that God is going to restore the kingdom and he's going

to restore the temple. He's going to restore the people of God and he's going to restore the worship of God. And so that's what First Chronicles is really, really focusing on. But we resume our story with Absalom and what he's doing, rebelling against his father in 2 Samuel chapter 15, and then going back and seeing how David was a great warrior king, even if he wasn't a great father here in First Chronicles 19 and 20. warrior king, even if he wasn't a great father here in 1 Chronicles 19 and 20. 2 Samuel chapter 15, Absalom usurps the throne. After this, Absalom got himself a chariot and horses and 50 men to run before him. And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate. And when any man had a suit to come before the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him and say, from what city are you? And when he said, Your servant is of such and such a tribe in Israel,

Absalom would say to him, See, your claims are good and right, but there is no man deputed by the king to hear you. Absalom said moreover, Oh, that I were judge in the land. Then every man with a suit or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice. And whenever a man came near to do obeisance to him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. Thus Absalom did to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. And at the end of four years, Absalom said to the king, Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to the Lord in Hebron. For your servant vowed a vow while I dwelt at Geshur and Aram, saying, If the Lord will indeed bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will offer worship to the Lord.

The king said to him, Go in peace. So he arose and went to Hebron. But Absalom sent secret messengers throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then say Absalom is king at Hebron. With Absalom went 200 men from Jerusalem who were invited guests and they went in their simplicity and knew nothing. And while Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the Gilanite, David's counselor from his city Gilo. And the conspiracy grew strong and the people with Absalom kept increasing. David flees from Jerusalem. And a messenger came to David, saying, The hearts of the men of Israel

have gone after Absalom. Then David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee, or else there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Go in haste, lest ye overtake us quickly and bring down evil upon us and strike the city with the edge of the sword. And the king's servants said to the king, Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king decides. So the king went forth, and all his household after him. And the king left ten concubines to keep the house, and the king went forth, and all the people after him, and they halted at the last house. And all his servants passed by him, and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the six hundred Gittites who had followed him from Gath passed

on before the king. Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, Why do you also go with us? Go back, and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner, and also an exile from your home. You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander about with us, seeing I go I know not where? Go back and take your brethren with you, and may the Lord show mercy and faithfulness to you. But Ittai answered the king, As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be. And David said to Ittai, Go then, pass on. So Ittai the Gittite passed on, with all his men, and all the little ones who were with him. And all the country wept aloud as all the

people passed by, and the king crossed the brook Kidron, and all the people passed on toward the wilderness. And Abiathar came up, and behold, Zadok came up also with all the people passed on toward the wilderness. And Abiathar came up, and behold, Zadok came up also with all the Levites, bearing the ark of the covenant of God, and they set down the ark of God until the people had all passed out of the city. Then the king said to Zadok, Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and let me see both it and his habitation. But if he says, I have no pleasure in you, behold, here I am. Let him do to me what seems good to him. The king also said to Zadok the priest, look, go back to the city in peace,

you and Abiathar, with your two sons, Ahimaaz your son and Jonathan the son of Abiathar. See, I will wait at the fords of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me. So Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem, and they remained there. But David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered, and all the people who were with him covered their heads, and they went up, weeping as they went. And it was told David, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O Lord, I pray you, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. Hushai becomes David's spy. When David came to the summit where God was worshipped, behold, Hushai the archite came to

meet him with his coat torn and earth upon his head. David said to him, If you go on with me, you will be a burden to me. But if you return to the city and say to Absalom, I will be your servant, O king, as I have been your father's servant in time past, so now I will be your servant. Then you will defeat for me the council of Ahithophel.

Are not Zadok and Abiathar the priests with you there? So whatever you hear from the king's house, tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests. Behold, their two sons are with them there, Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Abiathar's son. And by them you shall send to me everything you hear. So Hushai, David's friend, came into the city, just as Absalom was entering Jerusalem. David's friend, came into the city just as Absalom was entering Jerusalem. The first book of Chronicles chapter 19, defeat of the Ammonites and the Syrians. Now after this, Nahash, the king of the Ammonites died and his son reigned in his stead. And David said, I will deal loyally with Hanun, the son of Nahash, for his father dealt loyally with me. So David sent messengers to console him concerning his father, and David's servants came to Hanun

in the land of the Ammonites to console him. But the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun, Do you think because David has sent comforters to you that he is honoring your father? Have not his servants come to you to search and to overthrow and to spy out the land? So Hanun took David's servants and shaved them and cut off their garments in the middle at their hips and sent them away, and they departed. When David was told concerning the men, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, Remain at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then return. When the Ammonites saw that they had made themselves odious to David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent a thousand talents of silver to hire chariots and

horsemen from Mesopotamia, from Aram-Ma'ak, and from Zobah. They hired thirty-two thousand chariots and the king of Ma'ak with his army, who came and encamped before Medeba. And the Ammonites were mustered from their cities and came to battle. When David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the army of the mighty men. And the Ammonites came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the city. And the kings who had come were by themselves in the open country. When Joab saw that the battle was set against him both in front and in the rear, he chose some of the picked men of Israel and arrayed them against the Syrians. The rest of his men he put in the charge of Abishai his brother, and they were arrayed against the Ammonites. And he said, If the Syrians are too strong for me,

then you shall help me. But if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will help you. Be of good courage, and let us play the man for our people and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him. So Joab and the people who were with him drew near before the Syrians for battle, and they fled before him. And when the Ammonites saw that the Syrians fled, they likewise fled before Abishai, Joab's brother, and entered the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem.

But when the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they sent messengers and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the Euphrates with Shophak, the commander of the army of Hadadezar at their head. And when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together and crossed the Jordan and came to them and drew up his forces against them. And when David set the battle in array against the Syrians, they fought with him. And the Syrians fled before Israel. And David slew of the Syrians, the men of 7,000 chariots and 40,000 foot soldiers,

and killed also Shophak, the commander of their army. And when the servants of Hadadezar saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with David and became subject to him. So the Syrians were not willing to help the Ammonites anymore. Chapter 20. The Siege and Capture of Rabbah. In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, Joab led out the army and ravaged the country of the Ammonites, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. And Joab struck Rabbah and overthrew it. And David took the crown of their king from his head.

He found that it weighed a talent of gold, and in it was a precious stone, and it was placed on David's head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city a very great amount, and he brought forth the people who were in it, and set them to labor with saws and iron picks and axes, and thus David did to all the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem. War with the Philistines. And after this, there arose a war with the Philistines at Gezer. Then Sibichai, the Hushethite, slew Siphi, who was one of the descendants of the giants, and the Philistines were subdued. And there was again war with the Philistines. And Elchanan, the son of Jair, slew Lami, the brother of Goliath, the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature,

who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number. And he also was descended from the giants. And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimea, David's brother, slew him. These were descended from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants. Psalm 3. Trust in God under adversity. A psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son. O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me, many are saying of me, there is no help for him in God. But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory and the lifter of my head. I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. I lie down and sleep, I wake again, for the Lord sustains me. I am not afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O Lord. Deliver me, O my God. For you strike all my enemies on

the cheek. You break the teeth of the wicked. Deliverance belongs to the Lord. Your blessing be upon your people. Father in heaven, we praise you and we give you thanks. And gosh, Lord, we do thank you. We offer this word of trust, this word of confidence in you, in your goodness, in your faithfulness, even in times of insecurity, even in times of uncertainty, even in times of great trial and battle where the enemy is winning, we declare our trust in you. This day and every day, in Jesus' name, in the name of the father and

of the son of the Holy spirit. Amen. I wanted to highlight that, that fact that we declare our trust in God, um, even in the midst of the battle Psalm three, I mentioned the other day yesterday, I think it was that Psalm one 31 is one of my favorite Psalms. It's only three verses long, but it's also just this great Psalm, um, of trust and confidence, humble confidence in the Lord. But Psalm three is an incredible, phenomenal Psalm of trust. You, humble confidence in the Lord. But Psalm three is an incredible, phenomenal Psalm of trust. And now we think, okay, it's Psalm of David. So here's David, who's on his throne and he's saying, oh God, I trust you so much. But when Psalm three was written, it was written while David was fleeing from Absalom. So imagine here, everything is

falling down around you. Like you're on the run from your own son, who is trying to kill you and trying to take your throne, trying to take your authority. And everyone you know and everyone you love is now under threat of your own son. And it's your fault more or less. And it's in that context that David writes this Psalm of God, I trust in you. David's saying, I'm not going to wait till the battle is won to trust you. I'm going to trust you in the middle of the battle. And that again, gosh, you guys, I know we have the sinner David. We have the flawed human being David. We have the David that maybe you can't even

think of anymore without thinking of his massive, massive sin. But we also have this man who is like us and still trusts in God. And again, he says, I'm not going to wait for the battle to be won. Trust God. I'm going to trust God in the middle of the battle. And so we have him. And also again, flawed human beings, but here's David in 2 Samuel chapter 15. And what is he doing? He's escaping, right? Because his son Absalom. So at the beginning of chapter 15, Absalom is being smart. Absalom's back. He's, Absalom is back in Jerusalem.

And good looking guy, Brad Pitt of the, I don't know, whoever the good looking people are now, Brad Pitt of Jerusalem. And he's positioning himself at the gate. And he's saying, hey, listen, let me judge your cases for you. I'm just, I'm right. And listen, my dad can't be bothered. He can't be bothered by you, but I'll take care for you. I'm just, I'm right. And listen, my dad can't be bothered. He can't be bothered by you, but I'll take care of you. And he shows that he wants to actively take care of the people of Israel. Now, obviously he wants to do that in order to take the kingdom away from

his father, but he shows initiative there. And then when he gathers the people at Hebron to fight against his father, David knows the writings on the wall, he knows that he has to flee from the city. And there's something about David, again, let's highlight this fact, that as Absalom's leading these people into Jerusalem, these warriors into Jerusalem to kill his father, David is walking with his people out to escape Jerusalem, And he waits and they all walk by him as he makes sure they all leave the city and they're all safe. David stands there and they all have to walk by him.

And think about this. Not only is this a good sign of David saying, yeah, women and children first, you get in the lifeboats. I'm gonna wait here until everyone's out. The captain going down with a ship, essentially. David's letting them all pass by him, making sure that everyone who needs to get out is getting out. But also, you know,

they probably all knew. David, you failed as a king when you did that sin in chapter 11. David, you failed as a father when you didn't deal with Amnon who violated his sister. David, you failed as a father when you didn't deal rightly with Absalom. And he's standing there as they all have to walk by him and see him in his shame. And there's something noble about this. Again, David remains a noble person. He remains the king who truly wants to care for his people. We're going to see him humbled even more tomorrow.

We're going to see him humbled even more tomorrow. But for this part, we have David saying, okay, priests, Zadok, Abithar, take the ark of the Lord back to the temple. If God wants to bring me back, I'll be able to be in his presence again. But the Lord belongs in his tent, you know, in the tabernacle area. And he just shows this trust. He just shows this trust very, very clearly in this moment. One last note, Ahithophel is the advisor, David's advisor, and Absalom sends for him. And so when David finds out that Ahithophel has essentially been a traitor and has gone over to Absalom,

David is heartbroken. You can tell that David is truly disturbed. He's truly disturbed. And it's often thought that that's who David was thinking about when he wrote in the book of Psalms, even my friend who ate at my table, my own familiar friend whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me in Psalm 41. Yeah, you can imagine that this is that friend, possibly, Ahithophel, who was his counselor who betrayed him and traded sides and went over to Absalom. Again, in the midst of all this, David shows his humility. In the midst of all this, David shows his trust in the Lord. And in all of this, David shows a true repentance. But will it be enough? Will it be enough for him

to keep the kingdom together? Will it be enough for him to save his son? Because what we're going to find tomorrow and the following days is that David, more than almost anything, he wants this son Absalom to be safe. So if we need to act today to care for the people we love, maybe they don't know that we love them. Maybe they don't know that we've forgiven them. Maybe they've offered forgiveness to us, but we haven't received it or accepted it. That's an opportunity for us right now to take that step, to either offer forgiveness or receive forgiveness, to offer reconciliation or receive reconciliation. Because we know this all started, this all started with inaction. This all started with failing to lift up the head and act on justice, act and do what was right in David's own family,

in his own life. So I need that. I need the help to be able to act when I know I need to act in my life, with my family, with my parishioners, our students here on campus. And I think you do too, probably, in your life and with your family, in your neighborhood. Anyways, gosh, we'll pray for each other

because this is, we're in the middle, not in the middle quite, but we're halfway. We're very much into the journey and therefore we're very much into praying for each other. So let's keep praying for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. you