The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 89: Israel's Cycle of Disobedience (2023)

Episode Date: March 30, 2023

Welcome to the book of Judges! Fr. Mike foreshadows the events of Judges, and the cycle of disobedience we'll continue to see Israel go through. He also gives some context on the book of Ruth, and how we can find grace within the frustrating moments of Scripture. Today's readings are Judges 1-3, Ruth 1, and Psalm 133. 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.

Hey everyone, before we get started today, I want to say a quick thank you for all your prayers and support for this podcast. It's been such a gift. This whole Ascension team has been so humbled to hear about the impact of this show in your lives. We have heard unbelievable stories of renewed faith, of conversion, of grace, and we're praying for each other. So please keep those prayers coming.

And if you're able, please consider giving a small financial gift to support the production of this show. This show is free to everyone, to anyone, but it's not free to make. And so if you want to find out how to make a gift, visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. 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 89, and we are reading today from a new book, actually two new books. We're reading from Judges and from Ruth. Judges chapters one, two, and three, as well as Ruth chapter 1. We'll also be praying today from Psalm 133. As always, you probably know this, I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, and you can subscribe to this podcast in your podcast app, wherever you listen to this, wherever you're listening to my voice, and just hit that word that says subscribe.

A couple of heads up kind of issues right now. This is one of those, the book of Judges is phenomenal, and it is phenomenal not because it's a great story. It is more like you just kind of ventured into some really incredible and incredibly dark history. And so what's going to happen is in the next number of days, as we walk through the book of Judges, is we are going to hear some stories that are familiar, maybe like stories about Deborah, maybe stories about JL, maybe

stories about Samson. These are going to be some stories that we are, as I said, relatively familiar with. We might not be entirely familiar with all of the details. And the details are pretty horrible and they get worse. The book of Judges begins in the dark and ends even darker. So just heads up, that is my disclaimer that, yeah, this is real, real stuff today on day 89, reading from Judges chapters 1, 2, and 3, Ruth chapter 1, and praying Psalm 133. The book of Judges, chapter 1. Israel's failure to complete the conquest. After the death of Joshua, the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?

The Lord said, Judah shall go up. Behold, I have given the land into his hand. And Judah said to Simeon, his brother, come up with me into the territory allotted to me that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you. So Simeon went with him. Then Judah went up and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek. They came upon Adonai Bezek at Bezek, and fought against him, and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Adonai Bezek fled, but they pursued him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. And Adonai Bezek said, Seventy kings with their thumbs and their great toes cut off used to pick

up scraps under my table, as I have done so, so God has repaid me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. And the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire. And afterward the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites, who dwelt in the hill country, in the Negev, and in the lowland. And Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron. Now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath Arba, and they defeated Shashai, and Achiman, and Talmai. From there, they went against the inhabitants of Debir. The name of Debir was formerly Kiriath Sefer. And Caleb said,

He who attacks Kiriath Sefer and takes it, I will give him Aksah, my daughter as wife. And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it, and he gave him Aksah, his daughter, as wife. When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field, and she alighted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, What do you wish? She said to him, Give me a present, since you have set me in the land of the Negev, give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. And the descendants of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of Palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negev near Arad. And they went and settled with the people.

And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah. Judah also took Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. And the Lord was with Judah, and he tookon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. And the Lord was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the

plain, because they had chariots of iron. And Hebron was given to Caleb, as Moses had said, and he drove out from it the three sons of Anak. But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who dwelt in Jerusalem, so the Jebusites have dwelt with the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who dwelt in Jerusalem. So the Jebusites have dwelt with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day. The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel and the Lord was with them. And the house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel. Now the name of the city was formerly Luz. And the spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him, please show us the way into the city and we will deal kindly with you. And he showed them the way into the city. And they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go. And the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city, and called its name Luz, that is, its name to this day. Manasseh did

not drive out the inhabitants of Bet-Shan and its villages, or Taanak and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Iblam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor but did not utterly drive them out. And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer, but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them. Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalol, but the Canaanites dwelt among them and became subject to forced labor. Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Akko, or the inhabitants of Sidon, or of Alab, or of Aksib, or of Helba,

or of Afik, or of Rehob. But the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out. Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Bet Shemesh, or the inhabitants of Bet Anah, but dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Bet land. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Bet Shemesh and Abet Anath became subject to forced labor for them. The Amorites pressed the Danites back into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the plain. The Amorites persisted in dwelling in Har Haras, and in Ajalan, and in Shal'adim. But the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily upon them, and they Shal'adim. But the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily upon them,

and they became subject to forced labor. And the border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akrabim, from Sila and upward. Chapter 2. Israel's Disobedience. Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim, and he said, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you into the land which I swore to give to your fathers. I said, I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall break down their altars. But you have not obeyed my command. What is this you have done?

So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become adversaries to you, and their gods shall be a snare to you. When the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim, and they sacrificed there to the Lord. The Death of Joshua When Joshua dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work which the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten

years. And they buried him within the bounds of his inheritance at Timnath-Herez, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them, who did not know the Lord, or the work which he had done for Israel. Israel's Unfaithfulness And the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they went after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were round about them and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. They forsook the

Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to the plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the power of their enemies round about, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them, and they were in great distress. Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the power of those who plundered them. And yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so.

Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and behaved worse than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them, and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And he said, Because this people have transgressed my covenant,

which I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, from now on I will not drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, that by them I may test Israel, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did or not. So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out at once, and he did not give them into the power of Joshua. Chapter 3. Nations Remaining in the Land. Now these are the nations which the Lord left to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had no experience of any war in Canaan. It was only that the generations of the sons of Israel might know war, that he might teach war to such at least as had not known it before. These are the nations, the five lords of the Philistines,

and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who dwelt on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon, as far as the entrance of Hamath. They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by Moses.

So the sons of Israel went among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And they took their daughters to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods. Othniel. And the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, forgetting the Lord their God and serving the Baals and the Ashtaroth. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Kushan Rishatim, the king of Mesopotamia. And the sons of Israel served Kushan Rishatim eight years. But when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord,

the Lord raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel who delivered them, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. The spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the Lord gave Cushan-Rashatim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hand, and his hand prevailed over Cushan-Rashatim. So the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel, the son of Kenaz, died. Ehud, and the sons of Israel, again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord strengthened Eglon, the king of Moab, against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites, and went and defeated Israel, and they took possession of the

city of Palms. And the sons of Israel served Eglon, the king of Moab, eighteen years. But when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gerah, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The sons of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length And he girded it to his right thigh under his clothes And he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab Now Eglon was a very fat man And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute He sent away the people that carried the tribute

But he himself turned back at the sculptured stones near Gilgal and said, I have a secret message for you, O king. And he commanded silence. And all his attendants went out from his presence and Ehud came to him as he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. And he arose from his seat, and Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the sword out of his belly, and the dirt came out. Then Ehud went out into the vestibule,

and closed the doors of the roof chamber upon him and locked them. When he had gone, the servants came. And when they saw that the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, he is only relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber. And they waited till they were utterly at a loss. But when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took the key and opened them, and there lay their Lord dead on the floor. Ehud escaped while they were delayed, and passed beyond the sculptured stones, and escaped to Sir Arah. When he arrived,

he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the sons of Israel went down with him from the hill country, having him at their head, and he said to them, Follow after me, for the Lord has given your enemies, the Moabites, into your hand. So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and allowed no man to pass over. And they killed at that time about 10,000 of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men, not a man escaped. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel, and the land had rest for 80 years.

Shamgar. After him was Shamgar, the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an ox goat, and he too delivered Israel. The Book of Ruth, Chapter 1. Elimelech's family goes to Moab. and the names of his two sons were Malone and Kilian. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives. The name of one was Orpah and the name of the other was Ruth. They lived there about 10 years, and both Malone and Killian died, so that the woman

was bereft of her two sons and her husband, Naomi and her Moabite daughters-in-law. Then she started with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each of you to her mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me.

The Lord grant that you may find a home, each of you, in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, No, we will return with you to your people. But Naomi said, Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters. Go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord

has gone forth against me. Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go. And where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die and there will I be buried.

May the Lord do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you. And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, Is this Naomi? She said to them, Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has afflicted me, and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me? So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned

from the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. Psalm 133. The blessedness of Unity A Song of Ascents Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head running down upon the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you so much for your

word. We thank you for these stories that you revealed to us because you revealed to us that even in the midst of trial, even in the midst of our unfaithfulness, once again, in the midst of unfaithfulness, you are faithful and you fight for us. You give us a deliverer whose name is Jesus Christ. And it's in his name that we pray to you this day. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, gosh, oh man, you can see how this is going to happen, right? Okay, a couple things to note about judges. What's going to happen, it's already happened a couple times, is that the people of Israel, they disobey and they fall into distress. Then they repent and they're having renewal. This is the thing. It's this constant hamster wheel that we're going to

see throughout the entire book of judges. And it could become a source of frustration for a lot of people because it is this complete, you see it coming. You say, what are you doing? This is craziness. It's the insane cycle, right? Where you just keep doing the same thing, expecting a different result. There's disobedience, which leads to distress. Israel falls away. They are not faithful.

They turn to other gods. And then God gives the power of the Philistines or the Amorites or the Amalekites or the Moabites into their hand. They call out, they repent. God raises up a redeemer. And then they have renewal. And it's this pattern again and again. I want to highlight a couple of things. One, it says at the beginning of the book of Judges, it says when they go into battle, they say Judah should go up. Judah is the one who's going to go up into battle. I think this is powerful for many reasons, but one of the reasons was pointed out to

me by Jeff Cavins. He had noted that the name Judah, as we've noted in the course of this Bible in a year, the name Judah means praise. And there's something so powerful about Judah going up first, Judah going into battle. When you face a difficulty, when you face a struggle or a trial, to let Judah go up first is so powerful, to let our praise of the Lord go up first. But then in the book of Judges, it talks about the death of Joshua and the fact that after Joshua died, people were no longer faithful. While he was alive, people were faithful. While the elders who lived in the time of Joshua were alive, people were faithful. But then came a generation that did not know the Lord. It did not know who God was. And that generation turned away from service of the Lord.

As it says, and all that generation were gathered to their fathers, those who knew and saw the Lord's mighty works. There also arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work which he had done for Israel. What does that tell us? It tells us that everything that Moses and Joshua had been commanding the people and reminding the people of, of never forget, never forget what God has done for you. And also teach your children every single day what God has done for you. He's done it for them too. And they didn't.

They failed to raise up subsequent leadership, leaders who are willing to be able to call those people back to faithfulness. And so thus begins the cycle of disobedience into distress. They repent, God raises up a redeemer, and then they're renewed. Again, it's kind of like we have some alliteration going on there, right? So disobedience into distress, they repent, they have a redeemer, they have renewal. And so what you're going to hear is things like whenever there's a judge that's raised up at the end of the judge doing their thing, it says the land had rest for such and such a time. That land had rest means that during that next time they were faithful. And so when it

came to judges, we heard about these first three judges. We heard about Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar. One of the things we're going to note about judges is don't think judges with gavels, don't think someone in the long black robe. We're talking about people who are redeemers. We're talking about people who are generals. We're talking about people who lead into battle. We heard the story of Ehud, right? Who's basically an assassin who goes up against the king of Eglon, the king of Moab, and assassinates him in his upper chamber. So one of the things we recognize is that this is a very dark and violent time where here is this judge who's raised up, Ehud, who I don't want to say he's no more than an assassin, but at the very least, he is an assassin. Keep in mind, judge means redeemer. It means someone thinking like a savior. And that is what these 12 judges in the

book of Judges, that's their purpose. That's what they serve as, even though, as we've already noted, they're not perfect. That doesn't mean what they're doing is good. It just means that what they're doing is effective when it comes to defeating their enemies. One last note on the book of Ruth. We only have four chapters in the book of Ruth. That's today and then the following three days. We have one chapter each day for the next three days of the book of Ruth. One thing we note is here's Naomi, the wife of Elimelech. And what happens?

They go into Moab. And while they're in Moab, what do they do? They have their two sons, Malone and Killian, marry Moabite women, which is not something you want to be doing. And yet they do that. It's one of those, again, once again, a frustrating moment, but there's always this grace. And I mean grace, and not just like it's graceful. I mean like grace from God. There is grace that's working

in this as well, because yes, even though Elimelech and Malone and Killian die, the women they've married, the Moabite women are profoundly faithful. This is one of the things we can be reminded of is that God is not against any people. He's not against any kind of people. What he is, he's for faithfulness. He is for bringing people into the covenant. And so here is Orpah and here is Ruth. And they're both of them.

They're both of them so moved by love for their mother-in-law. They both want to go with her. It turns out only Ruth does go with her. And keep this in mind. Keep this in mind. There is nothing about ethnic battles that's going on in the book of Judges or in the book of Joshua that is actually this ethnicity versus that ethnicity. It's not about that.

What it is about is about the true worship of the Lord and belonging to his covenant versus these forms of idolatry and these forms of essentially demon worship that are happening amongst those other people. Because what we're going to see is Ruth who says, your God will be my God. It actually is true that Ruth essentially converts. She becomes a member of the covenant and it's through Ruth that we get the great king of Israel, David. And it's through that line that we get the great actual great savior, the great redeemer, the great judge of the universe, Jesus Christ, comes from this line of this woman who started out as a Moabite and died as a Moabite, but also died in covenant with the Lord.

It's through that line. Again, we keep this in mind. This is not a battle of ethnicities or races or anything like this. This is a battle between the true worship of God and belonging in relationship with him versus false worship and belonging, essentially, again, belonging to demons. That is where we're at. And it's a big deal. And also, it's such a big deal that it took us 30 minutes to get here.

So let's keep praying for each other. I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.