The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2023)

Episode Date: April 8, 2023

Fr. Mike draws our attention to Samuel's sons who turned away from God as they ruled over Israel and how the people of Israel rejected God from being their king. Today's readings are 1 Samuel 6-8 and Psalm 86. 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. Today is day 98, and this is the last day before tomorrow, which is our first messianic checkpoint, which begins the gospel of John tomorrow. But today, day 98, we're reading from 1 Samuel chapters 6, 7, and 8. We're also praying Psalm 86. As

always, I'm reading from the translation called the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you have that, you can follow along. If you don't, you can follow along as well in whatever Bible you do have. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And if you have not yet subscribed in your podcast app, you can do that whenever you want. Just click on that button that says subscribe. And then what will happen? Well, you will be subscribed. But as I said, gosh, what a gift. Day 98.

You guys, well done. I just want to say it again. Well done. 1 Samuel chapter 6, 7 and 8 in Psalm 86. The first book of Samuel chapter 6. The ark returned to Israel. The ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, what shall we do with the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said,

What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us with what we shall send it to its place. They said, If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you. And they said, what is the guilt offering that we shall return to him? They answered five golden tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the Lords of the Philistines for the same plague was upon all of you and upon your Lords. So you must make images

of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off of you and your gods and your land. Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had made sport of them, did not they let the people go and they departed? Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milch cows upon which there has never come a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home away from them. And take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart and put in a box at its side the

figures of gold which you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it off, and let it go its way. And watch, if it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth Shemesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm. But if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us, it happened to us by chance. The men did so, and took two milch cows, and yokeded them to the cart and shut up their calves at home. And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors. And the cows went straight in the direction of Beth Shemesh along one highway, lowing as they went. They turned neither to the right nor to the left. And the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Bet Shemesh.

Now the people of Bet Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and when they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, they rejoiced to see it. The cart came into the field of Joshua of Bet Shemesh and stopped there. A great stone was there, and they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the box that was beside it, in which were the golden figures, and set them upon the great stone. And the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices on that day to the Lord. And when the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned that day to Ekron. These are the golden tumors, which the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the Lord,

one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron. Also the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and unwalled villages. The great stone, besides which they set down the ark of the Lord, is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Bet Shemesh, the ark at Kiriath Jerim. And he slew some of the men at Bet Shemesh, because they looked into the ark of the Lord. He slew seventy men of them. And the people mourned because the Lord had made a great slaughter among the people. Then the men of Bet Shemesh said, Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God, and to whom shall he go up away from us? So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-Jerim, saying,

The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to you. Chapter 7. And the men of Kiriath-Jerim came and took up the ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and they consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of the ark of the Lord. From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-Jerim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. Samuel, as judge of Israel. Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel,

If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your heart to the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. So Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only. Then Samuel said, Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you. So they gathered at Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said, We have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the sons of Israel at Mizpah. Now, when the Philistines heard that the sons of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the sons of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the sons of Israel said to Samuel,

Do not cease to cry to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines. So Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And Samuel cried to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the Lord thundered with a mighty voice that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion. And they were routed before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them as

far below as Bet-Kar. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah, and called its name Ebenezer. For he said, Hitherto the Lord has helped us. So the Philistines were subdued, and did not again enter the territory of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The cities which went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and he judged Israel in all these places. Then he would come back to Ramah, for his home was there, and there also he administered justice to Israel, and he built there an altar to the Lord. Chapter 8. Israel Asks for a King.

When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, Behold, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to govern us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to govern us. And Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel,

Listen to the voice of the people and all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds which they have done to me from the day I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, listen to the sound of their voice, only you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them. So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking a king from him. He said, These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons, and appoint them to his chariots, and to be be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of

thousands and commanders of fifties and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and your donkeys and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks and you shall to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day. Israel's demand granted. But the people refused

to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may govern us, and go out before us and fight our battles. And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, Listen to their voice, and make them a king. Samuel then said to the men of Israel, Go every man to his city. Psalm 86, supplication for help against enemies. A prayer of David. Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me,

for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly. Save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in mercy to all who call on you. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer. Listen to my cry of supplication. In the day of my trouble,

I call on you, for you do answer me. There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and bow down before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things, you who alone are God. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart. And I will glorify your name forever.

For great is your merciful love toward me. You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. O God, insolent men have risen up against me. A band of ruthless men seek my life, and they do not set you before them. But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and faithfulness. Turn to me and take pity on me. Give your strength to your servant and save the son of your handmaid. Show me a sign of your favor that those who hate me may see and be put to shame. Because you, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me. Father in heaven, you are our helper, you are our comforter.

And Lord God, we ask that you are also our vindicator, that you are the one who rises up and who declares and makes us righteous, makes us, it's not our own works, Lord God, that make us righteous in your sight. It's you, it's your grace that you have given to us, that you won on the cross and you handed yourself over for us, Lord God. You made it possible for us to experience your mercy,

to have access to the heart of the Father and to be able to receive the Holy Spirit deep into our hearts. So we ask you, Father in heaven, in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, renew that spirit, your Holy Spirit in our lives so that everything we do may begin with your inspiration and be carried out by your saving and loving help to its completion, which gives you glory. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So there's a couple of questions that come up in 1 Samuel chapter 6, where we're talking about some tumors in mice. And all of a sudden, I think people can say, wait, what happened again? So remember that when the Philistines

had taken the Ark of the Covenant, that they had some health issues, we'll say. One of those health issues was that they had boils, they had tumors, they had some issues going on with them. And so here are the people. And the Philistines decided, well, what are you going to do with the ark? We're going to put it on a cart, get some cows that have never had a harness on them, never had a yoke on them. It's so good. This is actually the Philistines

have kind of a good sense here where here's a cart that hasn't been used. Here's cows that haven't been used. There's something consecrated about those kinds of things. And even though they're pagans, even though they don't know the true and living God, they still had a good sense that if we're going to send the ark of the God of Israel back to Israel, then we should be very careful with how we do that. Now, this is going to play in. You're going to see how the Israelites at one point did not do this in weeks to come, but the Philistines did. But they also had these tumor golden tumors and golden mice. Well they also had these tumor, golden tumors and golden mice. Well, they had the golden tumors as representative of the tumors that they had

experienced, right? As the skin issues that they had experienced. We didn't hear anything about the mice, but it makes sense that if they might've associated their physical illness with something like plague, as there might've been rats that were around. The Revised Standard Version translate this as mice. Other Bibles might translate it as rats. And so make the golden rats or golden mice and the golden tumors. And what an interesting thing that they say, we're going to put this on a cart. And if the cows go to basically back to Israel, then we'll know this is from the Lord, the God of Israel. And if they don't, then this is just coincidence. I think there's something wise about that. They're testing it out. In fact,

in the Catholic church, when someone claims that there's a miracle, the church doesn't just say, well, hooray, there's a miracle. The church investigates it. In fact, the default position of the church is that when someone claims a miracle, that if there's a healing or if there's something else that seems extraordinary, the default position of the church is we assume a natural cause for this thing. So if there's healing, we assume a natural healing, a natural cause for this healing. It has to be demonstrated that this is not, or it's beyond reasonable doubt that this could be claimed to be a reasonable healing, or sorry, be a natural healing and can be demonstrated to be a supernatural healing. And that's what the Philistines are doing as well.

They are saying that this could be the Lord God of Israel, or it could be just a coincidence. And that kind of test is, I don't know, pretty wise on their part. When we get back to our story, when it comes to Samuel, there's two things that are happening, obviously, in these chapters. One is revealed that Samuel is a good judge. Samuel is a good prophet. He comes from a family of priests. His father lived in Ephraim, Elkanah, right, his father. But the assumption is that he also was a priest. He was of the tribe of Levi. Now, it turns out that Samuel's sons were kind of like Eli's sons, that his sons were not good. His sons, in fact, are described as wicked.

And it just goes to show how important it is. How just there is, you know, we say in Christianity that God doesn't have grandchildren. He only has children, right? God is not our grandfather. He reveals himself and makes himself our father. And every one of us, every generation has to choose him again. And here's Samuel, whose sons did not choose him, but were like Eli's sons, who were kind of riding on the coattails of their father in some ways and had hardened their hearts

to the Lord God, which is so tragic, so tragic when that happens, because I know that so many people maybe who are listening to this Bible in a year, part of this community that we have as we're journeying through here on day 98, that you may be someone who's, I'm striving after the Lord. I'm striving to be faithful, whether or not you've always been faithful, or maybe even you've only come to faith maybe 98 days ago. There's that recognition that what's happening with my kids though. And it can be the great sorrow of so many parents' hearts. I know it's the sorrow of my heart because I say, my name is Father Mike, and that father is real. And we know that the reason why we call priests father is because of the Old Testament, right? The Levitical priesthood, they were meant to be fathers of the people because the original priesthood was the

father of the family, was the original priest of the family. And the Levites being the fathers of the community of Israel. And here in the new covenant, the priests are the fathers of the parish. And there's something so devastatingly difficult when us as parents, like me as a spiritual father, and maybe many of you as physical and biological and spiritual fathers and mothers and adopted fathers and mothers, that when we don't see the faith living in our kids, that can be even more devastating than anything else. I remember one time my sister, my little sister, Sarah, I had said something along the lines of, gosh, Sarah, I don't think I could ever be like, you know, a parent because I'd be so nervous. I'd be so scared all the time. My kid's getting hurt. And she said, well, you know, that is, that is bad, but I just

don't ever want them to lose their souls. I thought, oh, yes, thank you for the reminder, my sister, reminding the priest that that's even more important, which is why it's even more devastating when we have people in our lives that we love so much who have turned away from the Lord, who have never known his goodness, never known his love, or just maybe even taken for granted. And so we're going to join our hearts together in prayer. We often pray for parents in this part of this community, praying for kids too, praying for their kids. And we're praying now for all those who have loved ones who have turned away from the Lord,

have walked away from the church, because that can be the most devastating thing, again, in our lives. The last thing that happens in this story of 1 Samuel, before we tomorrow jump into the Gospel of John, is the people ask for a king. And it is also, talk about rejection. I mean, think about this. We're just praying about how kids can reject the faith. Here are the people of Israel who say, we want to be like other nations.

Samuel, pick for us a king, make a king for us. And here God says to Samuel, Samuel, don't be disheartened. They're not rejecting you. They're rejecting me. I know what's going on here. Because God's vision, God's purpose, God's plan, God's will was that I'll be your king. I fight for you. I guard you. I guide you. I lead you. I feed you. All these things. And yet you do not want me. And so even Samuel can give the warning. Here's what's going to happen.

If you get a king, he's going to put your sons at his service. He's put your daughters at his service. He's going to take a tenth of all your stuff. He's going to build up his own self. He's going to feed his own servants. He's going to feed his own folks. And you're going to be left with what's left over. And they said, that's fine. We want to be like everyone else, which is the story of all of our

lives. God says, let me guide and guard. Let me feed and lead. Let me be your God. And we say, ah, I'll take a secondhand God over you so often. And yet we're going to see what happens to that because God can even use some of these broken desires of ours to do something pretty incredible. But we'll get back to that a week from now because tomorrow it is day 99. And tomorrow we're starting the gospel of John because tomorrow is our first messianic checkpoint, our first launch into the New Testament where we get to just hear the entire gospel of John in seven days.

I am so excited. Please keep praying for me. I hate to keep asking for your prayers, but I know that I need them and I'm praying for you every single day. Please pray for each other as well. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. you