The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 71: The Source of the Law (2022)

Episode Date: March 12, 2022

Fr. Mike shares more details surrounding the Old Testament laws, including why God would give us these laws in the first place. Today's readings are Numbers 23, Deuteronomy 24-25, and Psalm 106. 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 71. You have done such a good job in keeping up with this. This might not be day 71 for you in the sense of it's not necessarily the 71st day of 2021. Whenever you are listening to this, it is your day 71,

and you are here, you showed up, and that's phenomenal. We are reading today from Numbers chapter 23 and Deuteronomy chapter 24 and 25. So we're going 23, 24, 25. We're also praying from Psalm 106. As always, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. And you can also download for free your own Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. If you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, go ahead and do that. I'm not telling you what to do, just a suggestion. That's all this is.

It's day 71 and this is Numbers 23, Deuteronomy chapter 24 and 25 in Psalm 106. The book of Numbers chapter 23, Balaam's first oracle. And the next day, Balak took Balaam and brought him up to Bamath Baal. And from there he saw the nearest of the people. And Balaam said to Balak, Build for me here seven altars, and provide for me here seven bulls and seven rams. Balak did as Balaam had said, and Balak and Balaam offered on each altar a bull and a ram. And Balaam said to Balak, And he went to a bare height, and God met Balaam.

And Balaam said to him, And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak. And he returned to him. And behold, he and all the princes of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering. And Balaam took up his discourse and said, From Aram Balak has brought me, the king of Moab, from the eastern mountains. Come curse Jacob for me. Come

denounce Israel. How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced? For from the top of the mountains I see him. From the hills I behold him. Behold, a people dwelling alone and not reckoning itself among the nations. Who can count the dust of And he answered, Balaam's second oracle. And he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. Balaam said to Balak, Stand here beside your burnt offering while I meet the Lord yonder. And the Lord met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak. And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, What has the Lord spoken?

And Balaam took up his discourse and said, Rise, Balak, and hear. Hearken to me, O son of Zippor. God is not man that he should lie, or a son of man that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? Behold, I receive a command to bless. He has blessed, and I cannot revoke it. He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The Lord their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them. God brings them out of Egypt. They have,

as it were, the horns of the wild ox, for there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel. Now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel what God has wrought. Behold a people. As a lioness it rises up, and as a lion it lifts itself. It will not lie down till it devours the prey and drinks the blood of the slain. And Balak said to Balaam, Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all. But Balaam answered Balak, Did I not tell you all that the Lord says that I must do? And Balak said to Balaam said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. The Book of Deuteronomy, chapters 24 and 25. Chapter 24. Laws Concerning Marriage and Divorce. When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has

found some indecency in her, and he writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, and the latter husband dislikes her and writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, then her former husband who sent her away may not take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring guilt upon the land which the Lord your God gives you for your inheritance. Various laws. When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be charged with any business. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife

whom he has taken. No man shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for he would be taking a life in pledge. If a man is found stealing one of his brethren, the sons of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from the midst of you. Take heed in an attack of leprosy to be very careful to do according to all that the Levitical priests shall direct you, as I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do.

Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way, as you came forth out of Egypt. When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to fetch his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. When the sun goes down, you shall restore to him the pledge that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness to you before the Lord your God. You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brethren or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. You shall give him his hire on the day he earns it before the sun goes down, for he is poor and sets his heart upon it,

lest he cry against you to the Lord and it be sin in you. The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless or take a widow's garment in pledge. But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. Therefore, I command you to do this. When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the works of your hands.

When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore I command you to do this. Chapter 25. If there is a dispute between men, and they come into court, and the judges decide between them acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense.

Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight. You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. Duty to a brother's widow. If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go into her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his brother who is dead, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, My husband's brother

refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me. Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. And if he persists, saying, I do not wish to take her, then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house, and the name of his house shall be called in Israel, the house of him that had his sandal pulled off. Various commands. When men fight with one another, and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him, and she puts out her

hand and seizes him by the private parts, then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity. You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. A full and just weight you shall have, a full and just measure you shall have, a full and just measure you shall have, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord your God. Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary,

and cut off at your rear all who lagged behind you. And he did not fear God. Therefore, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies round about, in the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget. Psalm 106, A confession of Israel's sins. Praise the Lord. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Who can utter the mighty doings of the Lord, or show forth all his praise? Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times. Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people. Help me when you deliver them, that I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation,

that I may glory with your heritage. Both we and our fathers have sinned. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wonderful works. They did not remember the abundance of your mercy, but rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea. Yet he saved them for his namesake, that he might make known his mighty power. He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and he led them through the deep as through a desert. So he saved them from the hand of the foe and delivered them from the power of the enemy. And the waters covered their adversaries, not one of them was left. Then they believed his words, they sang his praise, but they soon forgot his works. They did not wait for his counsel. But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness and put God to the test in the desert.

He gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them. When men in the camp were jealous of Moses and Aaron, the holy one of the Lord, the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the company of Abiram. Fire also broke out in their company. The flame burned up the wicked. They made a calf at Horeb and worshipped a molten image. They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Red Sea. Therefore, he said he would destroy them, had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the

breach before him to turn away his wrath from destroying them. Then they despised the pleasant land. Having no faith in his promise, they murmured in their tents and did not obey the voice of the Lord. Therefore he raised his hand and swore to them that he would make them fall in the wilderness and would disperse their descendants among the nations, scattering them over the lands. Then they attached themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to the dead. They provoked the Lord to anger with their doings, and a plague broke out among them. Then Phinehas stood up and interposed, and the plague was stayed, and that has been

reckoned to him as righteousness from generation to generation. They angered him at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account, for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke words that were rash. They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and learned to do as they did. They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons. They poured out innocent blood,

the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. And the land was polluted with blood. Thus they became unclean by their acts and played the harlot in their doings. Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people and he abhorred his heritage. He gave them into the hand of the nations so that those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their power. Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity. Nevertheless, he regarded their distress when he heard their cry.

He remembered for their sake his covenant and relented according to the abundance of his mercy. He caused them to be pitied by all who held them captive. Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,

from everlasting to everlasting, and let all the people say, Amen. Praise the Lord. Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your gift, for your word. We thank you for the reminder. This Psalm 106, we give you praise for it because it is just the synopsis and it invites us to do, Lord God, what you keep reminding us to do, which is to remember. Remember what you have done. Remember your faithfulness and remember all the ways in which we are broken, all the ways in which we have failed to belong to you. And yet you continue to call us back to yourself. Lord God, today, please call us back to yourself. Today, give us a spirit of repentance.

Today, give us a spirit of trust and confidence in your mercy for us and give us your Holy Spirit that we may be your people this day and every day. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So we continued our story with Balaam and Balak, right? So there's going to be a couple

more times where Balak tries to convince Balaam to give a curse upon the people of Israel, and it's not going to go any better than these first two. It's so interesting because everything you read, both in the New Testament, where it Balaam and in the early church fathers, you mentioned this yesterday, no one sees Balaam as a good guy. In fact, even though when you read the text itself, Balaam seems to be doing what God has asked him to do. He says, I will only say what God tells me to say. And then he only says what God tells him to say. And yet the interpretation of this is that Balaam is a man for hire. Essentially, he's out for himself and that he is not interested necessarily in doing God's will as God's will, but he's willing basically to do whatever someone will pay him to do.

And in this case, he's being prevented. God is using Balaam to bless his people, which is remarkable. God used a donkey yesterday to speak and proclaim words, and now God uses a bigger donkey. I read that once. God uses a bigger donkey in Balaam to speak his words. And yet, again, in a couple of days, we're going to see this. We're going to see what is happening. While God is blessing his people, something else is happening and just stay tuned. But in Deuteronomy chapter 24 and 25, we have the continuation of a bunch of these laws. In fact, there's various laws. We have laws about marriage. We have laws about crime and punishment, essentially, we could say. But one of the things that is uniting the laws is this, the source of the law. Now, the source of the law, of course,

is going to be the Lord. The Lord is the giver of these laws. He's the giver of this wisdom. But why do they have to be given? Now, we can read these various laws, and they might seem a little bit unnecessary to us. They might seem really arbitrary to us. And yet, if you've ever tried to organize something, whether that even is like a group of kids playing a ball game or a card game or a board game to a family, to a business, to a company, you find yourself making up laws as you go. Why? Because people are breaking the laws.

I mean, think about this. When it comes to kickball, at some point, someone was running from one base to the other and they threw the ball at the person. If you hit the person with the ball when they're not touching a base, they're out. This is how we play kickball. At some point, some kid gets hit in the head by the ball. And like, wait, does that count or not? I don't know. We never thought about this until the situation arose where a kid was running from one base to another and got hit in the head. And then they make up the rule that says, no, if you get hit in the head by the ball, you're not out.

That's kind of what we're seeing right now in Deuteronomy chapter 24 and 25 and following. What we have is a number of situations that must have arisen in the people of Israel. I mean, you have the things that like, yes, this would be necessary to make a law about. It seems like it gives a lot of forethought. And some seem to be like, wait, that was random. As an example, the command in Deuteronomy chapter 24 that says that when you are cleaning your field, you're bringing in the grain or when you're knocking the olives or the grapes, picking the grapes off of your vines. You only go over one time and you leave whatever else is there for the stranger, the sojourner, right? The orphan or widow. And that's

that again, so much goodness in there. So much forethought. You go on to say that in chapter 25, there is a dispute and these men are fighting. And one is accused by the other of being guilty of something. And if the person is found guilty, they shall be beaten, right? In accordance with the severity of the crime. It says 40 lashes, but no more than 40 lashes. Why? Because more than 40 would dishonor the man. Now in Jesus Christ, in the Shroud of Turin, we see that Jesus himself had been lashed far, far more times than just 40 because they were not following the Jewish law. They were doing whatever the Romans wanted to do. But there's a restriction on the lashes in order not to dishonor the individual. But the very next command is you shall not muzzle an ox

when it treads out the grain. Just kind of random. But what is that about? What it's about is the fact that here is an ox that as he's working, he gets to eat what he's treading out the grain. Like as he's wandering through, as he's doing the work, the ox actually gets to eat. And there's this kindness to animals that even pops into the commands of the people of Israel. That's what

we're going to find as we continue in scripture is that it might not be what we anticipate, but it is what we need. And that's such a great gift. Speaking of gifts, day 71 in the can, well done everyone. As we continue to try to be faithful, as we continue to rely upon the Lord when it comes to our prayer, when it comes to letting his word change our minds, change our hearts, shape our lens, let's pray for each other. And I am praying for you.

I know I say it every day, but it's because I am praying for you every day. You're not in this alone and we are not alone. We are here with each other. So, man, let's keep praying. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.