The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 62: Spies Sent to Canaan (2024)

Episode Date: March 2, 2024

As we read Numbers 12 and 13, Deuteronomy 11, and Psalm 94, Fr. Mike reflects on the conflict between Aaron, Miriam, and Moses and explains why Miriam appears to be the only one punished. He also mentions the lack of trust the people continue to have in God, as they discover that the land of Canaan is occupied by a seemingly stronger force. 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. Today is day 62, and we will be reading from Numbers chapter 12 and chapter 13, as well as Deuteronomy chapter 11. We're also praying today, Psalm 94. As always, the translation that I'm using of the Bible is the Revised Standard Version,

the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. But whatever translation you're using, as long as you're able to follow along, that is phenomenal. And even if you long as you're able to follow along, that is phenomenal. And even if you're just using your ears to follow along, then that means you're using the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, to download your Bible in a Year reading plan. If you want to follow along and check off every day with me as I check off every day, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year and download that Bible in a Year reading plan. And if you have not yet subscribed in your podcast app, please, I invite you to subscribe. Once again, it is day 62 and

we are reading from Numbers chapter 12 and 13, Deuteronomy chapter 11 and Psalm 94. Numbers chapter 12, Aaron and Miriam speak against Moses. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all men that were on the face of the earth. And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting. And the three of the earth. And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, come out you three to the tent of meeting. And the three of them came out. And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the door of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam. And they

both came forward. And he said, hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision. I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is entrusted with all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in dark speech. And he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed. And when the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses, Oh, my Lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and

have sinned. Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother's womb. And Moses cried to the Lord, Heal her, O God, I beg you. But the Lord said to Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut up outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again. So Miriam was shut up outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out on march till Miriam was brought in again. After that the people set out from Hazeroth and encamped in the wilderness of Paran. Chapter 13. Spies sent into Canaan. The Lord said to Moses, send men to spy out the land

of Canaan, which I give to the sons of Israel. From each tribe of their father shall you send a man, every one a leader among them. So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all the men who were heads of the sons of Israel. And these were their names, from the tribe of Reuben, Shemua, the son of Zakur, from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat, the son of Hori, from the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Issachar, Egal, the son of Joseph. From the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshiah, the son of Nun. From the tribe of Benjamin, Palti, the son of Raffu. From the tribe of Zebulun, Gadiel, son of Sodi. From the tribe of Joseph, that is, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi, the son of Susi.

From the tribe of Dan, Amiel, the son of Gamali. From the tribe of Asher, Sether, the son of Michael. From the tribe of Naphtali, Nabi, the son of Vopsi. From the tribe of Gad, Giel, the son of Maki. These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, and Moses called Hoshea, the son of Nun, Joshua. Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, Go up into the Negev yonder, and go up into the hill country, and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or

many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there is wood in it or not, be of good courage, and bring some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes, so they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath. They went up into the Negev and came to Hebron, and Nachiman, Shashai, and Talmai. The descendants of Anak were there. Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. And they came to the valley of Eshol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes,

and they carried it on a pole between two of them. They brought also some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of Eshol because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down from there. At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land, and they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, we came to the land which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Yet the people who dwell in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwelt in the land

of the Negev, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the Jordan. But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it. Then the men who had gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we. So they brought to the sons of Israel an evil report of the land, which they had spied out saying, the land through which we have gone to spy out is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons

of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. And we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them. Deuteronomy chapter 11, rewards for obedience. Moses continued, you shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments always. And consider this day, since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it, consider the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, his signs and his deeds which he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to all his land, and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day,

and what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place, and what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place, and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel. For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which he did. You shall therefore keep all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land which you are going to possess, and that you may live long in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants a land flowing with milk and honey.

For the land which you are entering to take possession of is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your feet like a garden of vegetables. But the land which you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land which the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. And if you will obey my commandments, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.

And he will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you shall eat and be full. Take heed, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, and the anger of the Lord be kindled against you. And he shut up the heavens, so that there be no rain, and the land yield no fruit, and you perish quickly off the good land which the Lord gives you. You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house

and upon your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. For if you will be careful to do all this commandment which I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways and clinging to him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness and Lebanon,

and from the river, the river Euphrates to the Western Sea. No man shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that you shall tread as he promised you. Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse. for you this day a blessing and a curse. The blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandment of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you this day to go after other gods which you have not known. And when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not beyond the Jordan, west

of the road toward the going down of the sun in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, over against Gilgal beside the oak of Morah? For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in, to take possession of the land which the Lord your God gives you. And when you possess it and live in it, you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you this day. Psalm 94, God the Avenger of the Righteous. O Lord, you God of vengeance, you God of vengeance, shine forth. Rise up, O judge of the earth, render to the proud their desserts. O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult?

They pour out their arrogant words, they boast all the evildoers. They crush your people, O Lord, and afflict your heritage. They slay the widow and the sojourner and murder the fatherless. And they say, the Lord does not see, the God of Jacob does not perceive. Understand, O dullest of the people, fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? He who chastens the nations, does he not chastise? He who teaches men knowledge, the Lord, knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath. Blessed is the man whom you chasten, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law, to give him respite from days of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked.

For the Lord will not forsake his people, he will not abandon his heritage. For justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it. Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers? If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have dwelt in the land of silence when I thought, my foot slips. Your mercy, O Lord, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul. Can wicked rulers be allied with you who frame mischief by statute? They band together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death. But the Lord has become my stronghold and my God, the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death. But the Lord

has become my stronghold and my God, the rock of my refuge. He will bring back on them their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness. The Lord, our God will wipe them out. Father in heaven, we give you praise and we thank you for your word. We thank you for speaking to us. We thank you for not only speaking to us your word and letting that word that you have spoken shape our minds and our hearts and teaching us what to love and to what to hate. But we also just thank you for choosing us. We thank you for letting us belong to you.

And we ask that you please give us the grace, not only to have our minds and hearts shaped like yours, but also to let us ourselves be chosen. Give us the grace to give you permission to love us like you want to love us and to call us how you want to call us. Give us the grace to be able to say yes to you in everything this day. We make this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Oh, man.

So Numbers chapter 12 and 13, kind of a big deal. Keep this in mind. I know I remind you of this all the time, but Numbers is the, like, this is the real-time story. And Deuteronomy is, remember back when. Okay, so Numbers, this is happening right after they're free from slavery in Egypt. So this is maybe two years out at this point, where they're at the place where Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses

and where spies are sent to Canaan. So they've only been free between one and two years here. But then in Deuteronomy, this is Moses speaking back and saying, here's what happened back in the day, 40 years before this. What's going on with Moses and Aaron and Miriam? Interestingly, here's Aaron and Miriam and Moses. They're having a sibling fight, more or less. That's kind of it.

They're mad because he married a Cushite woman. Now, there've been a lot of theories on what it was about her or what it was about that marriage that Aaron and Miriam had an issue with. And there isn't necessarily an answer. There are some theories about that. But the issue is kind of like this in many families, right? We don't like the in-law for whatever reason. We don't like them because of their background, because of how they act. We don't like them because they don't like the in-law for whatever reason. We don't like them because of their background, because of how they act.

We don't like them because they don't, they aren't like us, whatever the thing is. It kind of, in some ways, since scripture doesn't necessarily specifically tell us why they don't like the woman that Moses married, we just be theorizing. The issue though, is that Moses had been chosen as a prophet, as the Lord's prophet, as speaking specifically not only with the Lord, but also on behalf of the Lord. He's been given that role. And even in marrying a Cushite woman, he hasn't done anything wrong or else the Lord God would have said something about him.

So here he is innocent and yet his siblings are essentially bad-mouthing him. And so they have this punishment. The punishment's only given to Miriam. Why is this? Well, one is because there's consequences for our actions. That's just, there's that. The second is, you see what happens when Miriam gets leprosy, immediately that unites Aaron and Moses. Both Aaron and Moses, Aaron goes to Moses and says, please pray on her behalf. Moses prays on her behalf. And it's one of those things, right, where how often has this happened? When here is a division in a family and then we have, maybe someone gets sick, maybe they

even get mortally sick and that unites people because it's like, okay, we have to be together. We realize that the differences we have are smaller than and less important than our relationship. And that's what happens is that here is Miriam, she gets leprosy, and the three of them are united in prayer once again, which is remarkable. And then after that, we have the story of the spies sent into Canaan, and this becomes a critical moment. This is chapter 13 of Book of Numbers, a critical moment because those 12 spies are sent into Canaan to scout it out, and they're promised it's going to be a land of milk and honey. It's going to be an incredible land, and I want to know, Moses says, how are the people? Are they strong? Are they weak? Are

their cities fortified? Or are they kind of open? Meaning if they're fortified, they have walls and hard to attack, really easy to defend. If they are not fortified, they're just camps, then there'd be really easy to attack and really hard to defend. I want to know this. And what happens? The people go up and remember this people has not, they're not a warring people. They have spent their entire lives as slaves. They don't know how to fight. They don't know how to leave and live in the wilderness, but they've spent their lives as slaves. And they go up and they see these people who are strong. They see these cities that are fortified. And even in spite of the fact that God had just two years before this, a year and two

years before this, God had just set them free from the most powerful nation in the world, the Egyptians, they still said, no, we can't do it. And we're going to see what happens, what happens as a consequence of the people saying, we can't, we can't go up into the land of Canaan. We can't defeat these people. Now, God has already made it clear. You're right. You can't, we can't go up into the land of Canaan. We can't defeat these people. Now, God has already made it clear. You're right. You can't. I can. But at this point, they do not have the confidence in the Lord. They do not have the trust in the Lord that they needed in order to enter into the land and take possession of it. So something

has to happen. And we're going to hear about that in the next couple of days. And then just a last note for Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy chapter 11 today, Moses again reminds the people, here is what's going to happen. You are going into the land and it's going to be awesome. It's going to be great, but there are people around there and you're going to want to be like the people. You're going to want to forget who you are. You're going to want to forget whose you are. And so I need you to remember my word. Remember what I've done for you. And so again, that the leather cases, leather small boxes with scriptures written, and they tie that around their foreheads, the Jewish people,

they tie it around their arms. The, the, uh, the Susa, that is the scriptures that are put in those containers that are mounted on the doors of people that inside have scripture that remind us of, remind them of what God has done. This is necessary for all of us as well. But we are also called to keep the Lord's action, his presence before us always. That's one of the reasons why as Catholic Christians, we have a crucifix because it's here's a reminder of God's love for you. Here's a reminder of the price of sin. Here's a reminder of the greatest miracle that's ever happened is the incarnation and redemption salvation of the world. That's why we have crosses or wear crosses. That's right. We have icons. So we have all these

reminders. It's also why we are going through the Bible in a year, because we do not want to forget what God has done for us. And so remember, remember what the Lord has done and do not forget it in times of distress and do not forget it in times of abundance. And do not forget to pray for each other. I always say this, but we need it. We need to pray for each other. I need your prayers and please know

that you have mine. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.