The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 77: God Is Faithful (2023)

Episode Date: March 18, 2023

Fr. Mike points out why it's important that the tribes of Reuben and Gad agree to fight in Numbers 32 and also reflects on how God knows that his people will be faithless, and yet He remains faithful to them. The readings are Numbers 32, Deuteronomy 31, and Psalm 117. 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 77. We are reading from Numbers 32, Deuteronomy chapter 31. We're also praying Psalm 117. As always, I'm reading from the revised

standard version, the second Catholic edition, and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to get your own Bible, you can go get it somewhere. Ascensionpress.com sells them as well as almost any place where fine Bibles are sold. You also can go to AscensionPress.com slash BibleInAYear to download your Bible in a Year reading plan. If you have not yet subscribed in your podcast, you can do that to receive daily episodes. And that's about it when you subscribe. That's about all you get, just daily episodes. Anyways, as I said, today is Day 77. We are reading Numbers 32, Deuteronomy 31, in Prang Psalm 117.

The Book of Numbers, Chapter 32. Conquest and Division of the Transjordan Lands. Now the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle, and they saw the land of Jazar and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place for cattle. So the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben came and said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the congregation, Ataroth, Dabon, Jazar, Nimra, Hashbon, Eliela, Sabam, Nebo, and Bayon, the land which the Lord struck before the congregation of Israel is a land for cattle, and your servants have cattle. And they said, If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession.

Do not take us across the Jordan. But Moses said to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here? Why will you discourage the heart of the sons of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord has given them. Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. For when they went up to the valley of Eshol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the sons of Israel from going into the land which the Lord had given them. And the Lord's anger was kindled on that day, and he swore, saying, Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt from twenty years old and upward shall see the land which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me, none except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the

son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord. And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was consumed. And behold, you have risen in your father's stead, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel. For if you turn away from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all this people. Then they came near to him and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our flocks and cities for our little ones, but we will take up arms, ready to go before the sons of Israel until we have brought them to their place. And our little ones shall live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return

to our homes until the sons of Israel have inherited each his inheritance. For we will not return to our homes until the sons of Israel have inherited each his inheritance. For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan to the east. So Moses said to them, If you will do this, if you will take up arms to go before the Lord for the war, and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the Lord until he has driven out his enemies from before him, and the land is subdued before the Lord.

Then after that you shall return and be free of obligation to the Lord and to Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. Build cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep, and do what you have promised. And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben said to Moses, Your servants will do as my Lord commands. Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle shall remain there in the cities of Gilead. But your servants will pass

over every man who is armed for war before the Lord to battle as my Lord orders. So Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the sons of Israel. And Moses said to them, If the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben, every man who is armed to battle before the Lord, will pass with you over the Jordan, and the land shall be subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gile the sons of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us beyond the Jordan. And Moses gave to them, to the sons of Gad, and to the sons of Reuben, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, the land and its cities with their territories, the cities of the land throughout the country. And the sons of Gad built

Diban, Atarath-Aroer, Atrath-Shofan, Jazer-Jagbaha, Beth-Nimra, and Beth-Haran, fortified cities, and folds for sheep. And the sons of Reuben built Hashban, Elialah, Kiriathim, Nebo, and Baal-Meon, their names to be changed, and Sibma. And they gave other names to the cities which they built. And the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, went to Gilead and took it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were in it. And Moses gave Gilead to Machir, the son of Manasseh, and he settled in it. And Jair, the son of Manasseh, went and took their villages, and called them Havoth-Jair. And Noba went and took Ken went and took their villages and called them Havoth Jair. And Noba went and took Kenath and its villages and called it Noba after his own name.

The Book of Deuteronomy Chapter 31 Joshua Becomes Moses' Successor So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel. And he said to them, I am 120 years old this day. I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, you shall not go over this Jordan. The Lord, your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations before you so that you may dispossess them. And Joshua will go over at your head as the Lord has spoken. And the Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og,

the kings of the Amorites, and to their land when he destroyed them. And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you. Be strong and of good courage. Do not fear or be in dread of them,

for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of good courage, for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Rereading of the law commanded. And Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, At the end of every seven years, at the set time of the year of release, at the feast of booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place which he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God. And be careful to do all the words of

this law, and that their children who have not known it may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess. Moses and Joshua received God's charge. And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, the days approach when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting that I may commission him. And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting. And the Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood by the door of the tent. And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, you are about to sleep with your fathers. Then this people will rise and play the harlot after the strange gods of the land,

where they are going to be among them, and they will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day on account of all the evil which they have done, because they have turned to other gods. Now therefore write this song and teach it to the sons of Israel. Put it in their mouths that this song may be a witness for me against the

sons of Israel. For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them and despise me and break my covenant. And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness. For it will live unforgotten in their mouths of their descendants. For I know the purposes which they are already forming before I have brought them

into the land that I swore to give. So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the sons of Israel. And the Lord commissioned Joshua, the son of Nun, and said, Be strong and of good courage. For you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to give them. I will be with you. When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book, to the very end, Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, take this book of the law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.

For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, while I am yet alive with you, today you have been rebellious against the Lord how much more after my death. Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them.

For I know that after my death, you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And in the days to come, evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands. Psalm 117, Universal Call to Worship Praise the Lord, all nations. Extol him, all peoples. Psalm 117, universal call to worship. Praise the Lord, all nations.

Extol him, all peoples. For great is his mercy toward us. And the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord. Father in heaven, we give you praise and we give you glory. We lift up our voices to you. We lift up our voices to you. We lift up our hearts to you. We know that you are the Lord.

You are God and you are good and you call us to be yours. Even though you know our weakness, even though you know our frailty, even though you know that we will turn away from you, you still fight for us. You still call us to belong to you. You still love us. Even in the midst of our faithlessness, You love us when we do not love you. You are good. You are God, and we give you praise today. Help us in our weakness. Help us when we have fallen, when we have failed. Remind us of your faithfulness so that we can turn back to you, call upon your mercy, call upon your grace, and be restored by your love. We make this prayer in

the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So let's say this, Psalm 117. We just prayed that. It is the shortest Psalm of all the Psalms. We did Psalm 119, which is the longest Psalms of all the Psalms. Wow. That was a while back. Gosh, that was a while back. But today, Psalm 117, the shortest of all of the Psalms. We got to pray that and it was great. Okay, so here we go. Back to Numbers 32 in Deuteronomy chapter 31. One quick note about Numbers chapter 32. So remember, this is the end of the story. What's happened is the people of Israel have defeated the Midianites, right? So

now they have. They've defeated Sion, the king of the Amorites, Og, the king of Ashan. They've defeated that land. And so the plains of Moab now are theirs. And what we have is sons of Reuben, sons of Gad saying, hey, this land is really good for cattle and we've got cattle. So can we have this land? And, you know, it's so remarkable that Moses' response is saying, essentially, this is what happened the first time when we, when the people of Israel, the spies

of Israel went up and they went to Kadesh Barnea to see the land and they lost heart because it's like, you know what? Let's just not. Let's not take the promised land. Let's not go fight. Let's not take the land that God wants for us. Let's just stay somewhere else, anywhere else. And Moses is saying, okay, sons of Reuben, sons of Gad, that is exactly what you're saying

right now. Not only because this is such a powerful fact, when we're not willing to fight, people around us aren't willing to fight either. This is that, you know, we say, hey, you do you, and you can live your own life and you get to do what you want to do. And I'm not going to comment on it and I'm not going to do, but you know, the reality is we are not just individuals. We're not just atoms that are unbeholden to each other. Like we belong to each other. In fact, I think there's the quote from St. Mother Teresa who had said something along the lines of, is that we have so much violence in this life. We have so

much distress in this life. We have so much poverty in this world because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. So here is what Moses is pointing out. Okay, sons of Reuben, sons of Gad, you don't go up to fight. You know what's going to happen? The other tribes are not going to want to go up to fight either. And this is going to be the same thing over and over again. And this is true for our own hearts. We can say, you know what? I just don't feel like doing what I know I'm called to do right now. And it's fine. It's my life. I'll do what I want. And what happens is people see that. And we say, no, I'm not going to be your role model. You don't have to base your decisions off of me. And yet people do. We do that. We say, no, I'm not going to be your role model. You don't have to base your decisions off of me. And yet people do.

We do that. That's just a natural, normal thing to do. Well, if he's not going to fight, if she's not going to fight, then I don't need to fight either. And this is what Moses was very concerned about. So what did they do? They came and the sons of Reuben, sons of Gad, were like, actually, we'll fight. Let us have this land.

And so they make a compromise, not a compromise. They make an agreement. They make a pact with each other saying that, okay, you can leave your wives and kids and your cattle and everything here. But every one of you who is of fighting age has to go across the Jordan to take possession of the promised land so that the other tribes are going to be unafraid to fight as well. And it's so, so important. That's what they did. And so that's what they had committed to do. And that's what ultimately they end up doing in, well, later on as we get to the conquest and judges, that's what happens. All the tribes go into the promised land and all the tribes make the decision and the commitment to fight on behalf of each other for the Lord, right? Because this is the land that the Lord God had

given them, had promised to them, and he was going to give them, but they had to do their part too. And again, the spiritual lesson here is we have to do our part as well. God has a plan for us. He has a place he wants us to go. The kind of people he has called us and redeemed us in Jesus Christ to become, becoming that is a battle. And if you and I aren't willing to fight, then other people around us will say, well, I'm not going to fight either. Gosh, so good. Okay. Deuteronomy chapter 31, brief note on that. So not only is Joshua being named as the successor and Moses and Joshua go into the tent of meeting, they go into the presence of the Lord and the Lord gives such a powerful word. And Moses

says it multiple times. What we're going to find is in Joshua, when Joshua takes charge of the people of Israel, he's going to say the same words, the words repeated again and again, be strong and of good courage, be strong and of good courage. And not because you're amazing, not because you are strong, not because you are courageous, but because God says, because I will be with you. I will fight for you. So you and I, we can have this, we can hear these same words of God, be strong and of good courage, not because everything is fine, not because there's no battles to fight, not because there's not even defeats to be suffered, but because I will be with you.

Second note is God says, okay, write this song. And we're like, wait, wait, what song? Well, Song of Moses is coming up in chapter 32. So stay tuned tomorrow. We're going to hear the Song of Moses tomorrow. And that's the song that is repeated, the song that is sung. So the people of Israel can't claim ignorance of who God is or what he's done. And that's so important for us too, not only to be strong and of good courage, but also to be reminded of God's word. Here's what he has done and here's who he really is. That's why we're doing this Bible in a year, isn't it? Because we want and we need to be able to be reminded of who God is. I'm talking a little fast. I'm sorry.

I'm just excited. The last note is it is revealed here in chapter 31, how thoroughly, I'm slowing down, promise. It's revealed here in chapter 31, how thoroughly the Lord and Moses know that the people of Israel, while God is going to fight for them, while God is going to be with them, while he's even giving them a new leader after Moses, Joshua, he knows, he knows their hearts and he knows you are going to be faithless. I'm going to give you this land. I'm gonna fight for you, fight with you to give you this land, take possession of it. And in this land, you will grow fat.

You will grow wealthy. You will have everything you need. And when I've given you everything you need, after having fought for you, you will turn to other gods. I just, I know this. you will turn to other gods. I know this. You will turn away from me. And it's so powerful. I think at times we are tempted to turn away from God in times of pain, in times of suffering. We just think, God, where are you? And what are you doing? Why don't you care? I think more of us, we turn away from God in times of prosperity. And yet here's God who says,

but I'm still going to fight for you. I know you're going to do this. I know you're going to fail. I know you're going to be faithless, but I'm going to fight for you and I'm going to be faithful. It is an incredible, an incredible mystery of who God is that he not only promises to be faithful, he is faithful, even though he knows the people he loves, you and me, and the people of Israel here, that even though he knows the people that he loves, you and me, the people of Israel, are going to take his love and throw it into the trash. We're going to take his love and we're going to betray him.

And yet he still loves us and he still blesses us. And he still says, be strong and of good courage. I will be with you, man. We just keep praying because I want, I want to be able to love God back the way he loves me. And I know it's impossible, but I know that I can love him better than I've been loving him. I know I can love him better with my whole heart instead of just with a divided heart, with a whole heart instead of a heart that I give to so many distractions and maybe even false gods at times. But I come back to the Lord and let's come back to the Lord today and say, God, you fight for us. You're faithful. Please help me when I fail. Help me when I'm faithless. Help me to trust in your love and in your power to lift up and to restore. I'm praying for you.

I know you're praying for each other. This is, you know, day 77 and we're moving along. I don't think any of us probably could keep up with this unless we were praying for each other. Again, we're not alone in this. And your willingness to fight, your willingness to listen to God's word and let it shape you, it helps not only you,

it helps your kids, it helps your parents, helps your siblings, helps your friends, and it helps this community of people who are going through this Bible. It helps me. And thank you.

I'm praying for you, as I said. I know I asked it already, but please pray for me. Pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.