The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 98: Israel Asks for a King (2025)
Episode Date: April 8, 2025Fr. 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.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
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
six, seven, and eight.
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.
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But as I said, gosh, what a gift.
Day 98, you guys, well done.
I just wanna say it again, well done.
1 Samuel, chapter six, seven and eight, in Psalm 86.
The first book of Samuel, chapter six.
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 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
yoked 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-Chemesh, 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 Beth-Chemesh.
to the left, and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.
Now, the people of Beth 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 Beth 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 Bet-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 tumours, 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 Beth-Shemesh, the ark at Keriath-Jerim.
And he slew some of the men at Beth-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 Kiriat-zareem, 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-Jareem came and took
up the Ark of the Lord, and brought it into the house of Abed-Nadab on the hill, and they
consecrated his son Eliezer to have charge of the Ark of the Lord.
From the day that the Ark was lodged at Kiriath-Jareem 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 Asheroth 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 Jishanah, and called its name Ebanizer,
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 the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel,
from Ekron to Gath, and Israel rescued their territory from the hand of the Philistines.
There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites.
Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life, and he 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 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 his horsemen and to run before his chariots, and to 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 men's servants and maid servants
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 be his slaves. And in that day you 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
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 a 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 in 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 of the Holy
Spirit Amen
So there's a couple of questions that come up in first Samuel chapter six, 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 gonna do with the ark?
We're gonna 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 is 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 gonna 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 gonna play in you're gonna see how the Israelites at one point did not do
this in weeks to come but the Philistines did. But they also had these 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,
so the revised endoversion translates this as mice. Other Bibles been rats that were around. The revised endoversion translates
this as mice. Other Bibles might translate it as rats. So make the golden rats or golden
mice and the golden tumors. 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. 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 some like something else 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, 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, Elkona, right, his father, but he was, 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 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 there is you know, we say in Christianity that God doesn't have grandchildren
He only 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 there's so many people
Maybe we're listening to this Bible in a year
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 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's Father Mike
and that father's real.
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 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 are the fathers of the parish and and there's something so 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
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 a gosh, sir
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 kids getting hurt and she said well, you know, that is that is bad
But I just I just don't ever want them to lose their souls.
And 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 gonna 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 first 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 us 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 gonna happen.
If you get a king, he's gonna put your sons at his service,
he's gonna put your daughters at his service,
he's gonna take a tenth of all your stuff,
he's gonna build up his own self,
he's gonna feed his own servants,
he's gonna feed his own folks,
and you're gonna be left with what's left over.
And he said, that's fine,
but we wanna 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 second hand God over you so often.
And yet we're gonna 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,
I hate to ask, keep asking for your prayers, but I,
I know I 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