The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 68: The Waters of Meribah (2022)

Episode Date: March 9, 2022

Fr. Mike describes the miracle of the waters of Meribah that God performs for his people in the wilderness. He also explains the logic behind the laws God gives his people to restore their morality as they learn to live in relationship with each other. Today we read Numbers 19-20, Deuteronomy 21, and Psalm 100. 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 68, and we are reading today from Numbers chapter 19 and chapter 20, kind of a big chapter. 19 obviously is important. All the chapters of the Bible are important, but Numbers chapter 20

is kind of critical when it comes to the story. We're also reading from Deuteronomy chapter 21 in Psalm 100. We'll be praying Psalm 100. As always, I am reading from the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. The translation it is is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. If you want to get your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can download that for free from ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And lastly, if you have not yet subscribed in your podcast app to this particular podcast, please feel free to do that. Again, it is day 68. We're reading from Numbers 19 and 20, Deuteronomy 21, and we are praying Psalm 100. Numbers chapter 19 and 20. Chapter 19.

Ceremony of the Red Heifer. Now the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, this is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded. Tell the sons of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and upon which a yoke has never come. And you shall give her to Eleazar the priest, and she shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him. And Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of her blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.

And the heifer shall be burned in his sight, her skin, her flesh, and her blood with all her dung shall be burned. And the priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet stuff and cast them into the midst of the burning of the heifer. Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. And afterwards he shall come into the camp and the priest shall be unclean until evening. He who burns the heifer shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. And they shall be kept for the congregation of the sons of Israel for the water for impurity, for the removal of sin. And he who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this

shall be to the sons of Israel and to the stranger who sojourns among them a perpetual statute. Laws concerning the dead. He who touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean. Whoever touches a dead person, the body of any man who has died and does not cleanse himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not thrown upon him, he shall be unclean. This is the law when a man dies in a tent. Everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days.

And every open vessel which has no cover fastened upon it is unclean. Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. For the unclean, they shall take some ashes of the burnt sin offering, and running water shall be added in a vessel. Then a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the furnishings, and upon the persons who were there, and upon him who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave. And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day. Thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him, and he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and at evening he shall be clean. statute for them. He who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who

touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. And whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and anyone who touches it shall be unclean until evening. Chapter 20. The Waters of Meribah. And the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there. Now there was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people contended with Moses and said, Would that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord! Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness that we should die here, both we and our cattle? And why have you

made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink. Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them. And the Lord said to Moses, take the rod and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron, your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them. So you shall give drink to the congregation and their cattle. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock. And he said to them,

Here now, you rebels, shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his rod twice. And water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their cattle. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. These are the waters of Meribah, where the sons of Israel contended with the Lord, and he showed himself holy among them. Passage through Edom refused. Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom.

Thus says your brother Israel, you know all the adversity that has befallen us, how our fathers went down to Egypt, and how we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers. And when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us forth out of Egypt. And here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory. Now let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, neither will we drink water from a well. We will go along the king's highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your country. But Edom said to him, you shall not pass through

lest I come out with sword against you. And the sons of Israel said to him, we will go up by the highway. And if we drink of your water, I and my cattle, then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through on foot, nothing more. But he said, you shall not pass through. And Edom came out against them with many men and with a strong force. Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory. So Israel turned away from him. The death of Aaron. And they journeyed from Kadesh. And the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, Aaron shall be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I

have given to the sons of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor, and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son. And Aaron shall be gathered to his people, and shall die there. Moses did as the Lord commanded, and then went up Mount Hor in the sight of the congregation. And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son. And Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead,

all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days. The book of Deuteronomy chapter 21, concerning the slain. Moses continued, If in the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess, anyone is found slain lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him, then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure the distance to the cities which are around him that is slain. And the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer which has never been worked, and which has not pulled in the yoke. And the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer which has never been worked, and which has not pulled in the yoke. And the elders of that city shall bring

the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley. And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward. For the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord. And by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled. And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. And they shall testify, Our hands did not shed this blood, neither did our eyes see it shed.

Forgive, O Lord, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and set not the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, but let the guilt of blood be forgiven them. So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. Women taken captive, when you go forth to war against your enemies and the Lord your God gives them into your hands and you take them captive and see among the captives a beautiful woman and you have desire for her and would take her for yourself as wife then you shall bring her home to your house and she shall shave her head and pair her nails and she shall put off her captives garb and shall remain in

your house and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go into her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. Then if you have no delight in her, you shall let her go where she will. But you shall not sell her for money. You shall not treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her. Write of the firstborn son. If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other disliked, and they have born him children, both the loved and the disliked, and if the firstborn son is hers that is disliked, then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the disliked who is the firstborn.

But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the disliked, by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For he is the first issue of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his. Rebellious Sons If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chastise him, will not give heed to them. Then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of the city at the gate of the place where he lives. And they shall say to the elders of this city, this our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard. Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you

shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear and fear. Miscellaneous laws. And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall bury him the same day. For a hanged man is accursed by God. You shall not defile your land, which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance. Psalm 100. All lands summoned to praise God. A psalm for the thank offering.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him. Bless his name. For the Lord is good. His mercy endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations. Father in heaven, we know that you are good and you are faithful and that your faithfulness does endure for all generations. We ask you to help us to be faithful. Lord God, help us to see your faithfulness, your mercy, your justice, your truth, your goodness in all of your words. We ask you please allow your word to shape our eyes,

our minds, our vision, and shape our hearts. Help us to love what you love, to hate what you hate. And above all, help us to love you and to love our neighbor as ourself. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So as I noted before we started that chapter 19 and chapter 20 are going to be interesting. Chapter 19 obviously is going to be about worship as well as about laws concerning the dead, which is really so cool. Two things to note about chapter 19. One is it says that you

take that red heifer and burn the entirety of the red heifer. And then you throw three things upon it. You would throw the cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet stuff, whatever that is, right? Scarlet stuff. But the hyssop is going to be important. Why? Because later on, it is hyssop that Jesus Christ on the cross, he's offered wine on a sponge stuck onto a spring of hyssop. Now, this isn't the first time we've seen that hyssop in part of this. Why? Because the people of Israel, they painted the lentils and the doorposts of their homes with the blood of the lamb.

Wow. Using hyssop. And so here is Jesus Christ, the lamb of God who's on the cross. His blood is pouring out of him. And that sprig of hyssop has reached up to him. And so there's this connection between the Passover and this, but also with this ceremony of the red heifer that the, you see the hyssop once again, we see that kind of thing. We think, Oh Jesus. And again, why? Because that ceremony of the red heifer is all about forgiveness. It's all about being made from going unclean to being clean, from being estranged from the community to being brought back into the community. Later on in that same chapter 19, it says laws concerning the dead and talks about

anybody who touches the body of a dead person and all these rules, which makes so much sense. In fact, the wisdom of this being, you know, there could be a plague. It could be an illness that you could catch that could kill you. So you have to wait a while. But in that process of waiting, not only do you have to wash yourself germ wise, but also ceremonially, uh, and which is unique. One of the things that is, um, important is that it says you could walk over a grave and not know it. Later on in the Gospels, Jesus is going to say that you Pharisees are whitewashed tombs. On the outside, you seem

like, oh no, this is clean. This is pure. But inside, you're full of dead men's bones. And there's this connection there that goes back all the way to Numbers, where it has this instruction about if you come into contact with even the top of the grave, you walk upon it, then you are unclean. And later on, it kind of gives us a foreshadowing or it's a connection with what Jesus talked about when it comes to things on the outside might seem clean, but if interiorly they are not clean, then they're not clean, right? In the heart. So going into chapter 20 of Numbers, this is where we pick up the narrative once again. We keep going back and forth when it comes to Numbers of here's the story. And then we jump back and say, here's some more rules. Then we go back to the story. So chapter 19, more rules.

Chapter 20, here's the story. And this story is critical. This is the story where the people of Israel, they're at the desert of the wilderness of Zin, right? The desert of Zin, and they don't have any water. And so they complained to Moses and Aaron. God says to Moses, speak to this rock in the front of the congregation and I will pour forth water for the entire congregation as well as for their animals. And what does Moses do? He loses his temper. And instead of speaking to the rock and having this incredible miracle in front of everyone, he just spoke to the rock and it brought forth water. He strikes the rock twice in anger.

And it changes everything. Because he and Aaron do this. The word of the Lord comes to them and says, you're not gonna be entering into my inheritance. You're not gonna be leading these people into the promised land. And that can seem really unfair, especially since here is Moses and he is, he, you know, from the beginning, he has been pretty, pretty faithful. He's been the one who has been

delivering God's message so clearly and so well. And so faithfully, he's been interceding on behalf of the people before God. And he's been bringing God's word back to the people. And yet it's this lapse that is so serious. Why is it serious? Well, because we recognize that the actions of a leader, they don't have to be perfect, but they are judged in a different sense. And this is the sense that God even says, you were there essentially to witness to my righteousness. You were there to witness to my mercy and my justice. And you didn't, you acted in anger in front of everybody. And instead of it being clearly a miracle, now it just looks like you hit a rock and water came forth. But not only this, we recognize that St. Paul later on will say,

and the rock was Christ. The rock in the wilderness was Christ. And so here is Moses in this mysterious way, striking the symbol of Jesus. So we recognize again, the seriousness of this, which is just remarkable. Lastly, when it comes to before the death of Aaron, we have this passage through Edom refuse. Remember Edom are the Edomites are the descendants of Esau. Remember Esau and Jacob were the two brothers and Jacob stole Esau's birthright or he sold the blessing and he exchanged, you know, a pot of red stuff for the birthright. And so here the people of Israel say, hey, we're family, you know, we're long lost cousins.

Can we go through your land? We're not going to leave the highway. And the people of Edom are like, yeah, you're not, we don't believe you. If you come through here, we're going to destroy you because you're going to probably try to take our land. And so they were refused. They refused Israel passage through there. And again, it just shows the depth to which brokenness has entered this family.

Hey, moving on, just last little note when it comes to Deuteronomy. And in this chapter of Deuteronomy chapter 21, part of us can see, oh gosh, these laws can be so challenging at the same time. These laws, you guys are so wise. Now keep this in mind. I know that when it says, when you go out to war against your enemies and you see a beautiful woman of your enemy, you can take her for your wife. You're like, what the heck? Are you kidding me? Why? Well, because that's how it went back then, right? That's how kind of life was. But here's how God's word comes into this reality of life and says, but here's the thing. You are going to treat her in a particular way. She's not just your property.

She's not your captive. She's not your slave. So first she's going to shave her head and trim her nails. What is that a sign of? That's a sign of like, okay, she's leaving behind her old life and she's entering this new life. And then she's going to put off the clothes of her captivity and reign in your house. Okay. She's not a slave. She, if she comes to your house and

you're making her your wife, you're going to be family now. And she's not second class in your home. Thirdly, she's going to mourn her father and mother a full month. You're going to give her time to like, you would give anyone you cared about time to mourn the loss of their family, the loss of their past life. And also if you find her displeasing, again, that language just bothers us so much, bothers me a lot. If you find her displeasing, you can divorce her and whatnot, but he says, but you will not sell her for money. She's not your slave. She was your wife and you shall not treat her brutally or shall not treat her poorly. If you divorce her, eventually you will divorce her as a fully equal

member of your family. She would actually have been your wife. So you see what's happening here is the recognition of your hearts. Our hearts are broken and we are, we are a mess and you're going to want to do it like this, but here's the limitation. You're going to want to take, you know, the beautiful captive woman as yours. But if you do, you actually have to take her as your wife, not as your slave, not as a prostitute, not as any of these things. Make her your full wife. So I see the wisdom here

is here's God's word meeting our brokenness. And even the next thing, if a person has two wives, is allowing for this, like, yep, you are a mess. You should only marry one. That's Genesis chapter two, right from the very beginning of the story. But if you have more than one wife and one is loved and the other unloved, here's the deal. If the one who's loved gives birth to your second son, you're not going to say, well, I love this second son's mother more, so I'm going to give him the inheritance. No, even the disliked wife, even the, gosh, even saying this, you guys, I'm so sorry, but even the disliked wife, no, the law is this. The firstborn son gets the inheritance. That's it. Regardless of how you feel, regardless of what your temptation is going

to be to do, you're going to do it like this. And it's just so interesting. The last, again, last two pieces, I'm so sorry. I don't want to make this overly long, but the last two pieces here have to do with a rebellious, stubborn and rebellious son that could ultimately be stoned. What is this? You know, when it comes to laws, there are some laws that are oriented towards remedy, right? There's some punishments that are oriented towards remedy. That's meant to say punishments that are saying, okay, here's the punishment. Now you're not going to do that again. You've been, you've been changed interiorly. There are some punishments that are revenge, right?

You're taking revenge upon this person, maybe justice we'll say, but there are some punishments that are meant to be deterrence. And this is one of those, talking about a rebellious, a stubborn and rebellious son who when he's been corrected,

when he's been chastened, will not heed to his parents. And it talks about him being stoned to death. That is, and it goes on to say, all Israel shall hear of this and fear the Lord. And so this is the kind of punishment that is meant to be a deterrent. And we might say, well, that's not wise. I don't think that's actually fair, or I don't think that actually works. Nonetheless, that's why it exists, is this is a punishment that's meant to be a

deterrent. Lastly, before we break for the day, the last thing is if a man is committed to sin, deserving of death, and he's put to death, you hang him on a tree. His body should not remain overnight on the tree, but you bury him. And this is this moment. You might not see this as justice and mercy meeting, but this is justice and mercy meeting. If someone is doing something deserving of death and he's killed, capital punishment, you know, justly, essentially, that's justice. But also, you're not going to leave his body there for animals to destroy, to animals to tear apart,

to treat him shamefully, humiliate him. You're going to bury him before nightfall. And that's mercy. And there's something about this that, again, this is God's word coming into a brutal and violent world and making it slightly less brutal and slightly less violent. I think if we understand that whenever we read these commandments from Leviticus to Numbers to Deuteronomy, all these things, we recognize this is God's word coming into a brutal and vicious world and saying, let's make it a little less brutal, a little less vicious. For cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree. Wow. Those words point to Jesus. In fact, St. Paul comments on this Deuteronomy

chapter 21 in Galatians chapter three. And he says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. And then he quotes Deuteronomy 21. He says, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. And he's done this so that the blessing of Abraham might come upon us Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of spirit through faith. So Jesus became a cursed, right? Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree. Jesus took the curse that belongs to us and put it on himself so as to bring us into the blessing. So you have this in the middle of, at the end of this chapter 21, Deuteronomy, middle of Deuteronomy, you have this word that's going to come to pass in Jesus so powerfully and

so fully and so beautifully that, yep, it curses anyone who hangs on a tree. And here's Jesus, who lets himself be hung on a tree, lets himself accept the curse so that you and I could receive the freedom, could receive the blessing. Gosh, such a gift. I am praying for you all and I hope you're praying for me, please.

Let's pray for each other as we continue this journey. It is day 68. You've got it in the, it's in the record books. Here you are moving on as we move forward. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.