The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 74: Joshua Appointed (2022)

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

Fr. Mike discusses the inheritance given to Zelophehad's daughters. He also highlights the journey of Joshua as Moses' successor, and how Christ is the fulfillment of Joshua's leadership. Today's readings are Numbers 27-28, Deuteronomy 28, and Psalm 112. 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 74, and we are reading today from Numbers chapter 27 and 28, Deuteronomy chapter 28, a long chapter, and we are praying from Psalm 112. As always, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition,

using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you are interested, download your own Bible in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by hitting subscribe on whatever podcast app you're listening to this particular podcast. Once again, this is day 74. Some people catch colds occasionally, and this guy has got one. So hopefully you don't hate the deeper, raspier version of Father Mike normally reading

the Bible. So day 74, chapter 27 and 28 from Book of Numbers, chapter 28 from Deuteronomy, and praying Psalm 112. The Book of Numbers, chapter 27. The daughters of Zelophehad. Then drew near the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hefer, the son of Gilead, the son of Makir, son of Manasseh, from the families of Manasseh, the son of Joseph. The names of his daughters were Mala, Noah, Hogla, Milcah, and Tirzah. And they stood before Moses, and before Elias, or the priest, and before the leaders, and and all the congregation at the door of the tent of meeting saying, Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah, but died for his own sin. And he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be taken away from his family because he had no son. Give to us a possession among our father's brethren.

Moses brought the case before the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, the daughters of Zulphahad are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren and cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them. And you shall say to the sons of Israel, if a man dies and has no son,

then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter. And if he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. And if he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers. And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his kinsman that is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it. And it shall be for the sons of Israel a statute and ordinance, as the Lord commanded Moses. Joshua appointed Moses' successor. The Lord said to Moses, Go up into this mountain of Abirim, and see the land which I have given to the sons of Israel.

And when you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people as your brother Aaron was gathered, because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin during the strife of the congregation to sanctify me at the waters before their eyes. These are the waters of Meribah, of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin.

Moses said to the Lord, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep which have no shepherd. And the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand upon him. Cause him to stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. You shall invest him with some of your authority that all the congregation of the sons of Israel may obey. And he shall stand

before Eleazar the priest who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his word, they shall go out and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the sons of Israel with him, the whole congregation. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and caused him to stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole congregation. And he laid his hands upon him and commissioned him as the Lord directed through Moses. Chapter 28, Daily Offerings. The Lord said to Moses, Command the sons of Israel and say to them, My offering, my food for my offerings by fire, my pleasing odor, you shall take heed to offer me in its due season. And you shall say to them, This is the offering by fire which you shall offer to the Lord.

Two male lambs, a year old, without blemish, day by day, as a continual offering. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer in the evening. Also a tenth of an ephah, a fine flour for a cereal offering, mixed with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil. It is a continual burnt offering, which was ordained at Mount Sinai for a pleasing odor and offering by fire to the Lord. Its drink offering shall be a fourth of a hin for each lamb. In the holy place, you shall pour out a drink offering of strong drink to the Lord. The other lamb you shall offer in the evening, like the cereal offering of the morning, and like its drink offering, you shall offer it as an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord. Sabbath Offerings On the Sabbath day, two male lambs, a year old without blemish, and two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a cereal offering mixed with oil and its drink offering.

This is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, besides the continual with oil and its drink offering. This is the burnt offering of every Sabbath besides the continual burnt offering and its drink offering. Monthly offerings. At the beginnings of your months, you shall offer a burnt offering to the Lord, two young bulls, one ram, seven male lambs, a year old without blemish, also three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a cereal offering mixed with oil for each bull, and two-tenths of fine flour for a cereal offering mixed with oil for the one ram, and a tenth of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal offering for every lamb, for a burnt offering of pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord. Their drink offerings shall be half a hin of wine for

a bull, a third of a hin for a ram, and a fourth of a hin for a lamb. This is the burnt offering of each month, throughout the months of the year. Also, one male goat for a sin offering to the Lord. It shall be offered besides the continual burnt offering in its drink offering. Offerings at Passover On the fourteenth day of the first month is the Lord's Passover, and on the fifteenth day of this month is a feast. Seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation.

You shall do no laborious work, but offer an offering by fire, a burnt offering to the Lord, two young bulls, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old. See that they are without blemish. Also their serial offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three-tenths of an ephah shall you offer for a bull and two-tenths for a ram, a tenth shall you offer for each of the seven lambs. Also, one male goat for a sin offering to make atonement for you. You shall offer these besides a burnt offering of the morning, which is for a continual burnt offering. In the same way, you shall offer daily for seven days the food of an offering by fire,

a pleasing order to the Lord. It shall be offered besides the continual burnt offering and its drink offering. And on the seventh day, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. Offerings at the Feast of Weeks. On the day of the first fruits, when you offer a serial offering of new grain to the Lord at your Feast of Weeks. You shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work, but offer a burnt offering, a pleasing odor to the Lord, two young bulls, one ram, seven male lambs a year old. Also their cereal offering, a fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for each bull, two tenths for one ram, a tenth for each of the seven lambs, with one mill goat, to make atonement for you. Besides the continual burnt offering and its cereal offering,

you shall offer them and their drink offering. See that they are without blemish. The Book of Deuteronomy Chapter 28 Blessing for Obedience Moses continued, And if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments which I command you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your beasts, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading trough.

Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you undertake, and he will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you. The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself as he has sworn to you if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity,

in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground, within the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the reign of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail. And you shall tend upward only and not downward if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, being careful to do them. And if you do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day,

to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. Warnings against disobedience. But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God, or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading trough. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock.

Cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your doings because you have forsaken me. The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until he has consumed you off the land which you are entering to take possession of it. The Lord will strike you with consumption, and with fever, inflammation, and

fiery heat, and with drought, and with blasting, and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish, and the heavens over your head shall be brass and the earth under you shall be iron the lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust from heaven it shall come down upon you until you are destroyed the lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them and you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth. And there shall be no one to frighten them away. The Lord will strike you with the boils

of Egypt and with the ulcers and the scurvy and the itch of which you cannot be healed. And the Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind. And you shall grope at noonday as the blind grope in darkness. And you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually. And there shall be no one to help you. You shall betroth a wife and another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house and you shall not dwell in it.

You shall plant a vineyard and you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, and you shall not use the fruit of it. Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be violently taken away before your face, and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and there shall be no one to help you. Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all the day. And it shall not be in the power of your hand to prevent it. A nation which you have not known shall eat up the

fruit of your ground and of all your labors. And you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually so that you shall be driven mad by the sight which your eyes shall see. The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. The Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of

wood and stone. And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away. You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather little in, for the locusts shall consume it. You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for the olives shall drop off. You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity. All your trees and the fruit of your ground the locusts shall possess. The sojourner who is among you shall mount above you higher

and higher, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you, they shall be upon you as a sign and a wonder and upon your descendants forever. Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart by reason of the abundance of all things. Therefore, you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you in hunger and thirst,

in nakedness and in want of all things. And he will put a yoke of iron upon your neck until he has destroyed you. The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you do not understand, a nation of stern countenance, who shall not regard the person of the old or show favor to the young,

and shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed, who also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your cattle or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish. They shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you. And you shall eat the offspring of your own body,

the flesh of your sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. The man who is the most tender and delicately bred among you will grudge food to his brother, to the wife of his bosom, and to the last of the children who remain to him, so that he will not give to any of them, any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing left him in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. The most tender and delicately bred woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will grudge to the husband of her bosom, to her son and to her daughter,

her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because she will eat them secretly, for want of all things, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns. If you are not careful to do all the words of this law which are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sickness grievous and lasting. And he will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of, and they shall cling to you. Every sickness also

and every affliction, which is not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will bring upon you until you are destroyed. Or as you were as the stars of heaven for multitude, you shall be left few in number because you did not obey the voice of the Lord, your God. And as the stars of heaven for multitude, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God. And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and in multiplying you, so the Lord will delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land which you are entering to take possession of it. And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other.

And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. And among these nations, you shall find no ease and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot. But the Lord will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul. Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life.

In the morning you shall say, Would it were evening? And at evening you shall say, Would it were morning? Because of the dread which your heart shall fear and the sights which your eyes shall see. And the Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey which I promised that you should never make again. And there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no man will buy you. Psalm 112, Blessings of the Righteous. Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. His descendants will be mighty in the land.

The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light rises in the darkness for the upright. The Lord is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of evil tidings. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid until he sees his desire on his adversaries. He has distributed freely. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn is exalted in honor. The wicked man sees it and is angry. He gnashes his teeth and melts away.

The desire of the wicked man comes to naught. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. Thank you so much for your word. We thank you for filling us with your light and with your truth. We thank you for the fact that you're a God of justice. Lord God, we declare your justice to be just, and we declare your goodness to be good. Not because you need us or our declaration, but because we need to continue to declare that your justice is right and just, and that your goodness is truly good. Help us to choose the right, Lord God. Help us to obey your commandments. Help us to walk in your ways regardless of the consequences, regardless of immediate blessing or of delayed

blessing. Lord God, help us to be faithful because you are just and you are true and you are God forever. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So once again, just to remind us all about this, Numbers, the book of Numbers is the narrative book. And so that's the book that's telling us the story of the people in Israel as they're getting closer and closer to the end of their wilderness wanderings. Now, the book of Deuteronomy, right, is Moses' last speech. Deutero, second, nomos, word, so the second command, second word. This is Moses in Deuteronomy, who's recapping what has come before and is establishing once again, here are the rules. Here's the second law that we're

offering a second time or the law we're offering a second time before you go into the land of promised land of Canaan, the promised land. So what we're finding though, here we are in chapter 27 and 28 of numbers is we're coming really close to the beginning of Deuteronomy. And we're coming right up to like our timelines are coming closer and closer. So as they get to the end of their desert wanderings, chapter 27 has a couple things that we need to resolve. One is, remember Manasseh. Manasseh was one of the two sons of Joseph. So Joseph had the two sons who were both going to receive an inheritance of the tribes of Israel. So it's the kind of a very unique situation where it wasn't just Joseph, it was his two sons that make up the tribes of Israel, make up the 12. And the sons of

Manasseh was Machir. The son of Machir is Gilead and the son of Gilead is Hefer. And the son of Hefer is Zelophehad. Well, Zelophehad doesn't have any sons. Zelophehad has only daughters. And so the big question is, well, you pass on inheritance, you pass on the land to the sons. What if there are no sons, but only daughters? And it's so good here because what we have is Moses being glad that the daughters of Zelophehad came before him because he's like, we want to be just here. We want to do the right thing.

We want to honor the Lord, also honor these families and honor all these people. And so the conclusion is that if a man dies, he has no sons, then the land goes to his daughters. Now, what's going to happen is the very end of the book of Numbers, chapter 36 in the book of Numbers, it's going to talk about kind of some of those rules when it comes to female inheritance and male inheritance. One of the reasons why this is going to be kind of important is because of the way they set things up in the ancient world. So typically the inheritance would go to the sons because the dowry would go to the daughters. So the land would go to the sons,

keep that land in the family, but the dowry like property or property goods, you know, essentially, whether it be flocks or whether it be actual money would go to the daughters. And that would be one way to keep the lands separated. Because what if here's a woman who has not only the dowry, but also she has the land and she marries a man who now that other family now has land from multiple families. So it gets a little bit messy. What they're trying to be here is they're trying to be as just as possible. And in this case, in Numbers chapter 27, the response, the justice would be, yeah, if a man dies with no sons, his daughters shall receive the inheritance. And then if they're not there, then it goes to the next person, next person, next person, in as wise as possible in that particular context.

After that, in chapter 27, we also have Joshua appointed as Moses's successor. Joshua is the one, right? He and Caleb were two of the spies who went into the promised land, who came back and said, we can do it. We can take this land. The Lord God is with us. And the other 10 said, no, we can't. So now what's going to happen is Joshua is going to be the one who leads the people of Israel across the Jordan river and into battle in the promised land. And so he stands before the entire community and Moses lays his hands on him. It was almost, almost like an ordination, right? Essentially where Moses is, is bestowing that gift, that authority upon his successor, Joshua. And it's going to be incredible because not only does Joshua lead the people into the

promised land, but Yahshua, or the word Yeshua, right, is another form of the name Jesus. Yeshua, who leads the people of God through the rivers of the Jordan, right through baptism into the promised land. So just like ancient Joshua is the one who leads the people of God into the promised land, the New Testament, Yeshua, Jesus himself is the fulfillment, not only of Moses, not only of David, he's a fulfillment of Joshua. And he leads his people through the waters of baptism into the promised land. It's just really remarkable and really incredible when you realize all these different connections between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

There are so many more things to say about today's readings. The blessings and the curses of Deuteronomy chapter 28 and yet. We can talk about those as we move forward in scripture. So keep those things in mind. The Lord promises goodness even if we don't experience immediate blessings as a consequence of doing good, and we don't experience immediate curses as part of doing evil. And yet God is just, he is faithful. And ultimately we get what we choose, which is going to be one of the lessons in scripture

ultimately. But until then, we pray for each other as always, obviously. And I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.