The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 52: Israel Continues to Journey (2023)

Episode Date: February 21, 2023

Fr. Mike kicks off our reading of the book of Numbers by explaining where Israel is at in their journey with the Lord, and how they are keeping him at the center of it all (literally). Today we read from Numbers 1, Deuteronomy 1, and Psalm 84. 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 52. We have just left Egypt and the Exodus, and we're entering into the period of the desert wanderings. This is a kind of a big step. And actually today is going to be a little bit, well, I've got some

good news for you and some bad news for you. But before that, I just want to remind you that the Bible translation that I'm using is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. One of the things that gets asked a lot, and you probably have figured this out already on day 52, is that you don't need to be following the exact Bible translation that I'm reading from. In fact, sometimes what I'll do is I'll read multiple translations, not out loud here on the recording, but multiple translations at times can give me a different layered understanding of what's being said. So if you have a new American

Bible, if you have a new Jerusalem Bible, if you have one of the other English standard version, those are all pretty good translations. Again, you can use whatever, but Jeff has always said that the Bible translation that is best to use is the one that you will use. And so we had, that's what we got going for us. So that's nice, but I'm using the revised standard version, second Catholic edition. A student just asked me, he said, Hey, um, if I want to follow along with you, it's not too late to start. If you're just starting today on day 52, how do I do that? I said, well, at the beginning of every podcast, I encourage people to download the Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.

And he said, thanks, Father. And I said, no problem, bro. So if you want to get your Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Also, you can subscribe in your podcast app. So as I said, today we have some good news and we have some bad news. And the good news is we are journeying into the book of Numbers and the book of Deuteronomy. So good. Incredible. A new period, new time period. The bad news is this, is the beginning of Numbers is kind of all about Numbers. It's where we got the title, the English title for the book of Numbers. The Hebrew title means into the wilderness, which is much more dramatic and a lot more exciting. But our translation, our title for the book of Numbers is Numbers because it begins by

numbering the people of Israel, numbering the tribes, the different 12 tribes of Israel. Now, that numbering can be discouraging for some people because you might get to the end of this day thinking, like, what the heck? That's all this was? Well, it's not all this was because it's very, very important for us to understand that God knows his people and he numbers his people. Also, at the end of the book of Numbers, he numbers them again. So just know that's coming up. Also, we're starting the book of Deuteronomy.

Now, Deuteronomy means the second law. And if you haven't heard this already, here's kind of what we're doing. The people of Israel have been in the wilderness, or they've been at Mount Sinai for one year now, basically 13 months. They were there for one year and the last month of that 13 month period, the 13th month was the book of Leviticus. That's when God gave through Moses the law for Levitical worship, right? This is after the golden calf incident. So if we think about where we've been, we had Exodus, and we had the journey into the wilderness. We had the journey to Mount Sinai, so they could worship God. But then what happens is they build the golden calf while Moses is on Mount Sinai,

or Mount Horeb, two names for the same mountain, getting the two tables of stone or two tablets of stone comes down, right? And the people have fallen into idolatry. And so what happens? The tribe of Levi raises up and they exact to God's justice on those who turn to idolatry. And so they become, they ordained themselves this day, says Moses to the tribe of Levi. Now that last month at Mount Sinai is where we're given the book of Leviticus. Now we're moving on. We begin, of course, in the wilderness of Sinai, and that's where the first couple chapters take place. But we're going to go to two other wildernesses in the course of the book of Numbers. We're going to spend the middle of the book of Numbers in the wilderness of Paran, and then we're going to spend the end of the book of Numbers. We're going to spend the middle of the book of Numbers in the wilderness of Paran, and then we're going to spend the end of the book of Numbers in the wilderness of Moab.

So keep this in mind. We're at the wilderness of Sinai from chapters 1 through 10, then from chapters 13 to 19, they're in the wilderness of Paran, and then the last chapters from 22 to 36, they're in the wilderness of Moab. One thing to understand is we're going to begin reading the book of Numbers chapter one with all the numbers. But then when we begin Deuteronomy right after Numbers chapter one, this comes from Moses's sermon, essentially his instruction to the people of Israel, basically when they're in chapter 36 of Numbers. So it's like we're starting the wilderness journey with Numbers. And Deuteronomy is when Moses is now 40 years later, Moses is speaking to the children of those who began

life in the wilderness. And he's giving them Deuteronomy or the second law, Deutero meaning second and nomos meaning law, right? So the first chapters of Deuteronomy are gonna be kind of fun for us because it's gonna be Moses recounting the entire story of Numbers. So it's kind of like this. Numbers is stretched out over 36 chapters. We're gonna get a summary of Numbers in the first few chapters of the book of Deuteronomy.

So good news, bad news, bad news, a lot of numbers in chapter one of Numbers. And good news is Deuteronomy is going to be telling us kind of a quick overview, quick summary of all that happens in the 40 years that entail the journey of people of Israel through the wilderness wanderings or desert wanderings. Wow. With all of that preface being said, let's launch into today. We're reading from Numbers chapter one, Deuteronomy chapter one and Psalm 84. The fourth book of Moses commonly called Numbers chapter one, the first census of Israel. The Lord Numbers. Chapter 1. The First Census of Israel. The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting on the first day

of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by families, by fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head, from twenty years old and upward, all in Israel, who are able to go forth to war. You and Aaron shall number them. verses 1 through 10. Reuben, Eleazar, the son of Shediur, from Simeon, Shemueliel, the son of Zerushadai, from Judah, Nashon, the son of Amenadab, from Issachar, Nethanal, the son of Zuar, from Zebulun, Eliab, the son of Helon, from the sons of Joseph, from Ephraim, Elishema, the son of Amihud, and from Manasseh, Gamaliel, the son of Petazur. From Benjamin, Abaddon, the son of Gideonai. From Dan, Ahiezar, the son of Ameshadai. From Asher, Pagiel, the son of Akron. From Gad, Eliasaph, the son of Dioel. From Naphtali, Ahira, the son of Enan.

These were the ones chosen from the congregation, the leaders of their ancestral tribes, the heads of the clans of Israel. Moses and Aaron took these men, who have been named, and on the first day of the second month, they assembled the whole congregation together who registered themselves by families, by fathers' houses according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, head by head, as the Lord commanded Moses. So he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai. The people of Reuben, Israel's firstborn, their generations by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from 20 years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war. The number of the tribe of Reuben

was 46,500. Of the people of Simeon, their generations by their families, by their father's houses, those of them that were numbered according to the number of names, head by head, every male from 20 years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war, the number of the tribes of Simeon was 59,300. Of the people of Gad, their generations by their families, by their father's houses, according to the number of the names from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Gad was forty-five thousand six hundred and fifty. Of the people of Judah, their generations by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Judah was 74,600. Of the people of Issachar, their generations by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Issachar was 54,400. Of the people of Zebulun, their generations

by their families, by their father's houses, according to the number of names, from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Zebulun was 57,400. Of the people of Joseph, namely the people of Ephraim, their generations by their families, by their father's houses, according to the number of names, from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Ephraim was 40,500. Of the people of Manasseh, their generations by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Manasseh was 32,200. Of the people of Benjamin, their generations by their families,

by their father's houses, according to the number of names from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Benjamin was 35,400. Of the people of Dan, their generations by their families, by their father's houses, according to the number of names from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Dan was sixty-two thousand seven hundred. Of the people of Asher, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Asher was 41,500. Of the people of Naphtali, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war, the number of the tribe of Naphtali was 53,400. These are those who were numbered, whom Moses and Aaron numbered with the help of the leaders

of Israel, 12 men, each representing his father's house. So the whole number of the sons of Israel by their father's houses from 20 years old and upward, every man able to go forth to war in Israel, their whole number was 603,550. But the Levites were not numbered by their ancestral tribe along with them. For the Lord said to Moses, only the tribe of Levi you shall not number, and you shall not take a census of them among the sons of Israel, but appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the covenant, and over all its furnishings, and over all that belongs to it.

They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall tend it, and they shall encamp around the tabernacle. When the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down. And when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. And if anyone else comes near, he shall be put to death. The sons of Israel shall pitch their tents by their companies, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard. But the Levites shall encamp around the tabernacle of the covenant, that there may be no wrath upon the congregation of the sons of Israel. And the Levites shall keep charge of the tabernacle of the covenant. Thus did the sons of Israel. They did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses. The fifth book of Moses, commonly called Deuteronomy. Chapter 1. Events at Horeb recalled.

These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness in the Arabah over against Suf, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dezahab. It is 11 days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea. And in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the sons of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them. After he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashteroth and in Adri. Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law,

saying, The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland, and in the Negev, and by the sea coast the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. Behold, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them. Appointment of the heads of the tribes. At that time I said to you, I am not able alone to bear you. The Lord,

your God has multiplied you and behold, you are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. May the Lord, the God of your fathers make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you as he has promised you. How can I bear alone the weight and the burden of you and your strife? Choose wise, understanding, and experienced men according to your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads. And you answered me, this thing that you have spoken is good for us to do. So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers throughout your tribes. And I charged your judges at that time,

hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien that is with him. You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it. And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do. Israel's refusal to enter the land. And we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh Barnea. And I said to you, you have come to the hill country of the Amorites,

which the Lord our God gives us. Behold, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Then all of you came near me and said, let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come. The thing seemed good to me. And I took 12 men of you, one man for each tribe. And they turned and went up into the hill country and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out. And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us

and brought us word again and said, it is a good land which the Lord our God gives us. Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. And you murmured in your tents and said, because the Lord hated us, he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. Where are we going up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt, saying, The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And moreover, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there. Then I said to you, Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes and in the wilderness,

where you have seen how the Lord your God bore you as a man bears his son and all the way that you went until you came to this place. Yet in spite of this word, you did not believe the Lord your God who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents and fire by night to show you by what way you should go and in cloud by day. Punishment for Israel's rebellion. And the Lord heard your words and was angered. And he swore, not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land, which I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb, the son of J men of this evil generation shall see the good land which I swore

to give to your fathers, except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it. And to him and to his children I will give the land upon which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord. The Lord was angry with me also on your account, and said, You also shall not go in there. Joshua, the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter, encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. Moreover, your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who this day have no knowledge

of good or evil, shall go in there, and to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea. Then you answered me, We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight just as the Lord our God commanded us. And every man of you belted on his weapons of war and thought it easy to go up into the hell country.

And the Lord said to me, Say to them, Do not go up or fight, for I am not in the midst of you, lest you be defeated before your enemies. So I spoke to you and you would not listen, but you rebelled against the command of the Lord and were presumptuous and went up into the hill country. Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah. And you returned and wept before the Lord. But the Lord did not listen to your voice or give ear to you. So you remained at Kadesh many days,

the days that you remained there. Psalm 84 The joy of worship in the temple To the choir master according to the Gittith a psalm of the sons of Korah. to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young. At your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise. Blessed are the men whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs. The early rain also covers it with pools.

They go from strength to strength. The God of gods will be seen in Zion. O Lord, God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob. Behold our shield, O God. Look upon the face of your anointed. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of

wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and a shield. He bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in you. Father in heaven, we glory in you. We praise you. We ask you right now to accept our thanksgiving, to accept our praise. Lord God, what we're going to hear in the next couple of days is that when Israel travels, the tribe of Judah leads the way. The tribe of Judah goes up first.

Judah meaning praise, Lord God. So we give you our praise now. We give you praise for scriptures that we don't understand, scripture that we might find uninspiring. We give you praise for the mystery that is you and that you reveal yourself to us in so many varied ways and so often in hazy ways, but you have revealed your heart to us truly in your son. And it's in his name, Lord God, that I ask you please receive our thanks. Receive our thanks for the ability to continue walking

with you. Receive our thanks for our forefathers and foremothers in the faith, the Jewish people, the people of Israel, and your faithfulness to them in spite of their being unfaithful to you, because your faithfulness to them in the midst of their unfaithfulness gives us the certainty that you will remain faithful even when we are unfaithful. So we thank you, God. We praise you. Please receive our thanks and praise in Jesus' name. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So what did I tell you? I said that that first chapter of Numbers is going to be a doozy. And it was. It was quite the doozy, as they say, but one important thing to understand,

okay, this is the census. We're getting a very good sense, boom, boom, boom, getting a good sense of how many people are in the wilderness. It was roughly 1.2 million men that were counted here in that numbering. So we would guess 1.2, maybe I'm a little exaggerating there. There might be an estimated 2 million people traveling with Moses at this point. So it's important to understand that here they are camped at Mount Sinai. They're going to be on their way in just a second because in chapter 2 and in chapter 3 and in chapter 4 and moving on, they're going to have to start moving and they have to start setting up the camp.

And actually chapter 2 is the order of encampment. And this is going to be kind of important, but the important part has already been said, not just the numbers, but at the end of chapter one in the book of numbers, it says that the Levites were not numbered with their ancestral tribe, right? They weren't censuses, censused. They weren't counted. What happens is the orientation of the camp is going to be such where the tabernacle, right? The place where God resides, the place where God abides in midst of his people is going to be the center of the camp, be the center of the camp. And around that center of the camp, the tabernacle is that's where the people of Levi are going

to live. They're going to live closest to the presence of God. And then fanning out in all four directions, north, south, east, and west are going to live. They're going to live closest to the presence of God. And then fanning out in all four directions, north, south, east, and west, are going to be those 12 tribes of Israel. And so this is going to be really important for us to kind of just understand, to have an idea tomorrow that's what we're going to be talking about in Numbers chapter 2. But keep this in mind, at the heart of everything is the very presence of God, that tabernacle, his presence. And in that holy place, right, of everything is the very presence of God, that tabernacle, his presence. And in that holy place, right, not only is there a pillar of fire at night and a

column of smoke by day, but in the holy of holies, there is that candle burning brightly, just like in our church, we have the presence of God in the tabernacle, in the Eucharist. And there's that candle burning brightly to remind us that this is the holy place. In fact, there are so many times throughout the building up of Europe in the West where there were monasteries and the heart of the monastery was the sanctuary, right? Was the holy place. And then how many cities in Europe were built up around those monasteries. So at the heart of those cities, even in some way is the, an echo of this, these first couple of chapters of numbers where the Lord's presence is the very heart of the city and the Levites or the priests around there. And then the city grows up around there where the heart is,

remains the Lord's presence. And as I mentioned in Deuteronomy, we're, we're getting a sermon for Moses. Again, this is 40 years in the future. So here is numbers where they're counting the people. It's been a one year, 13 months roughly since they've been delivered from slavery in Egypt. Now the book of Deuteronomy is 40 years after that. And Moses is giving a recap of all the things that happened. And so today, what does he get? He, we get a recap of the first things that happened where God led his people from slavery and into freedom at Mount Sinai. So we're going to be jumping back and forth this entire next number of days while we are

with the desert wanderings. Back to Numbers, where it's kind of like real time, and then forward to Deuteronomy, where Moses is going to do a recap for the first couple chapters. And then he's going to say, OK, here's a reminder of the law, that second law, Deuteronomy, where Moses is going to do a recap for the first couple chapters. And then he's going to say, okay, here's a reminder of the law, that second law, Deuteronomy, because Moses is going to tell the people, okay, your parents, they were not faithful. He also is going to say this, you are not going to be faithful either, but this is the Lord's law. And I need to give it to you so that you can know when you're not faithful and turn back to the Lord. This is like the mercy of the law. It's God gives us the law as a mercy, knowing that our

hearts are fickle, knowing that our hearts are unfaithful so often, but knowing also that when he gives us the law and we fail, then we can see that I failed against the standard God has set for me. And now I need to come back to him. So that's part of the lesson of Deuteronomy. But we have got days and days and chapters and chapters and so many stories in which we can dive more and more deeply into that. I'm praying for you. Keep praying for me. I always want to keep these episodes to roughly 20 minutes, but I did want to also give a

little overview of Numbers into Deuteronomy before we launched into it. So that was a little extra time before the reading and a little extra time after. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. It is day 52. Done. Check it off the list and let the Lord continue to speak to you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. you