Day 59: Obligations to God — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)

hi my name is father mike schmitz and you're listening to the bible in the 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 this is day 59 and so we will be reading two chapters from numbers it's numbers chapter 8 and chapter 9 as well as deuteronomy chapter 8 just the one in deuteronomy and we'll be praying through psalm 93 as always i'm reading from the revised standard version 2nd catholic edition and i'm using the great adventure bible from ascension you can get that at ascensionpress.com or wherever bibles are sold if you want to download your own bible in a year reading plan you can visit ascensionpress.com bible in a year and if you haven't one last thing if you haven't yet subscribed to this podcast app or rated it or whatever please do that if you want to give it a good review that's great if you want to give it a bad review that's also great because if that is your opinion then you don't have to keep it to yourself as i said today is day 59 we're reading chapters 8-9 of numbers chapter 8 of deuteronomy praying psalm 93 numbers chapter 8 the seven lamps now the lord said to moses say to aaron when you set up the lamps the seven lamps shall give light in front of the lampstand and aaron did so he set up its lamps to give light in front of the lampstand as the lord commanded moses and this was the workmanship of the lampstand hammered work of gold from its base to its flowers it was hammered work according to the pattern which the lord had shown moses so he made the lamp stand the levites consecration and service and the lord said to moses take the levites from among the sons of israel and cleanse them and thus shall you do to them to cleanse them sprinkle the water of expiation upon them and let them go with a razor over all their body and wash their clothes and cleanse themselves then let them take a young bull and its cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil and you shall take another bull for a sin offering and you shall present the levites before the tent of meeting and assemble the whole congregation of the sons of israel when you present the levites before the lord the sons of israel shall lay their hands upon the levites and aaron shall offer the levites before the lord as a wave offering from the sons of israel that it may be theirs to do the service of the lord then the levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bulls and you shall offer the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering to the lord to make atonement for the levites and you shall cause the levites to attend aaron and his sons and shall offer them as a wave offering to the lord thus shall you separate the levites from among the sons of israel and the levites shall be mine and after that the levites shall go in to do service at the tent of meeting when you have cleansed them and offered them as a wave offering for they are wholly given to me from among the sons of israel instead of all that open the womb the firstborn of all the sons of israel i have taken them for myself for all the firstborn among the sons of israel are mine both of man and of beast on the day that i slew all the firstborn in the land of egypt i consecrated them for myself and i have taken the levites instead of all the firstborn among the sons of israel and i have given the levites as a gift to aaron and his sons from among the sons of israel to do the service for the sons of israel at the tent of meeting and to make atonement for the sons of israel that there may be no plague among the sons of israel in case the sons of israel should come near the sanctuary thus did moses and aaron in all the congregation of the sons of israel to the levites according to all that the lord commanded moses concerning the levites the sons of israel did to them and the levites purified themselves from sin and washed their clothes and aaron offered them as a wave offering before the lord and aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them and after that the levites went in to do the service in the tent of meeting in attendance upon aaron and his sons as the lord had commanded moses concerning the levites so they did to them and the lord said to moses this is what pertains to the levites from 25 years old and upward they shall go in to perform the work in the service of the tent of meeting and from the age of fifty years they shall withdraw from the work of the service and serve no more but minister to their brethren in the tent of meeting to keep the charge and they shall do no service thus shall you do to the levites in assigning their duties chapter 9 the passover kept at sinai and the lord spoke to moses in the wilderness of sinai in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of egypt saying let the sons of israel keep the passover at its appointed time on the 14th day of this month in the evening you shall keep it at its appointed time according to all its statutes and all its ordinances you shall keep it so moses told the sons of israel that they should keep the passover and they kept the passover in the first month on the 14th day of the month in the evening in the wilderness of sinai according to all that the lord commanded moses so the sons of israel did and there were certain men who were unclean through touching the dead body of a man so that they could not keep the passover on that day and they came before moses and aaron on that day and those men said to him we are unclean through touching the dead body of a man why are we kept from offering the lord's offering at its appointed time among the sons of israel and moses said to them wait that i may hear what the lord will command concerning you the lord said to moses say to the sons of israel if any man of you or of your descendants is unclean through touching a dead body or is a far off on a journey he shall still keep the passover to the lord in the second month on the fourteenth day in the evening they shall keep it they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall leave none of it until the morning nor break a bone of it according to all that the statute for the passover they shall keep it but the man who is clean and is not on a journey yet refrains from keeping the passover that person shall be cut off from his people because he did not offer the lord's offering at its appointed time that man shall bear his sin and if a stranger sojourns among you and will keep the passover to the lord according to the statute of the passover and according to its ordinance so shall he do you shall have one statute both for the sojourner and for the native the cloud and the fire on the day that the tabernacle was set up the cloud covered the tabernacle the tent of the covenant and that evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning so it was continually the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night and whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tent after that the sons of israel set out and in the place where the cloud settled down there the sons of israel encamped at the command of the lord the sons of israel set out and at the command of the lord they encamped as long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle they remained in the camp even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle many days the sons of israel kept the charge of the lord and did not set out sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle and according to the command of the lord they remained in camp then according to the command of the lord they set out and sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning and when the cloud was taken up in the morning they set out or if it continued for a day and a night when the cloud was taken up they set out whether it was two days or a month or a longer time that the cloud continued over the tabernacle abiding there the sons of israel remained in camp and did not set out but when it was taken up they set out at the command of the lord they encamped and at the command of the lord they set out they kept the charge of the lord at the command of the lord by moses the book of deuteronomy chapter 8 a warning not to forget god moses continued all the commandment which i command you this day you shall be careful to do that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the lord swore to give to your fathers and you shall remember all the way which the lord your god has led you these 40 years in the wilderness that he might humble you testing you to know what was in your heart whether you would keep his commandments or not and he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone but that man lives by everything which proceeds out of the mouth of the lord your clothing did not wear out upon you and your foot did not swell these forty years know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son the lord your god disciplines you so you shall keep the commandments of the lord your god by walking in his ways and by fearing him for the lord your god is bringing you into a good land a land of brooks of water of fountains and springs flowing forth in valleys and hills a land of wheat and barley of vines and fig trees and pomegranates a land of olive trees and honey a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity in which you will lack nothing a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper and you shall eat and be full and you shall bless the lord your god for the good land he has given you take heed lest you forget the lord your god by not keeping his commandments and his ordinances and his statutes which i command you this day lest when you have eaten and are full and have built excellent houses and live in them and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all you have is multiplied then your heart be lifted up and you forget the lord your god who brought you out of the land of egypt out of the house of bondage who led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water who brought you water out of the flinty rock who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know that he might humble you and test you to do good to you in the end beware lest you say in your heart my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth you shall remember the lord your god for it is he who gives you power to get wealth that he may confirm his covenant which he swore to your fathers as at this day and if you forget the lord your god and go after other gods and serve them and worship them i solemnly warn you this day that you shall surely perish like the nations that the lord makes to perish before you so shall you perish because you would not obey the voice of the lord your god psalm 93 the majesty of god's rule the lord reigns he is robed in majesty the lord is robed he is girded with strength yes the world is established it shall never be moved your throne is established from of old you are from everlasting the floods have lifted up the lord the floods have lifted up their voice the floods lifted up the roaring mightier than the thunders of many waters mightier than the waves of the sea the lord on high is mighty your decrees are very sure holiness befits your house o lord forevermore father in heaven we thank you and give you praise thank you so much for your word and thank you so much for your guidance because lord without you we're lost without your light you're you to illumine the way to light our path your word o lord is a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path help us lord to trust in your light help us to trust in the guidance that you give us help us to trust in your word because lord we can hear your word and dismiss it we can hear your word and forget it we can even see your great works lord and we can forget them and we can forget you help us never ever to forget help us always to see where you are in our lives and always to hear your voice in our lives and help us to always follow you wherever you lead no matter what god let that be our prayer today help us to follow you where you lead no matter what and we make this prayer in the mighty name of jesus christ our lord and savior amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen just a quick reminder ah book of numbers and the book of deuteronomy just our contexts here remember that the book of numbers it reminded us today in chapter 9 that this is now 13 months a short 13 months after the people of israel have been set free from slavery in egypt so they are new to all of this they're new to this freedom they're new to worship in in the wilderness they're they're they're new to trusting in the lord this is so important for us to understand and in deuteronomy this is after the 38 years of wandering in the wilderness right this is after 40 years now being free and they're about this is moses's last speech as he's about to die and be taken to the lord and then joshua is going to lead the people of israel across the jordan river and conquer the promised land and so keep that in mind so when we're reading from numbers and what we hear in numbers is about the the gold lampstand being made we hear about the law of the passover and levites consecration and service and we hear about the cloud and the fire remember this is all preparing the people of israel for this life in the wilderness and life after the wilderness so deuteronomy is going to be like okay after all this here's what we got before you go into the place of freedom going to the promised land so a couple quick things one is it's so important um let's just highlight the chapter nine in book of numbers for one moment two things in numbers chapter nine one is that the lord god in exodus he established the passover as a perpetual institution that's what it says as a perpetual institution you're gonna have this passover this this ritual where there's you offer this lamb and sacrifice you roast its flesh with bitter herbs and you eat its flesh with loin skirt and unleavened bread this is going to happen every single year on the first month and the 14th day of the month that's when that's going to happen and the question comes up well wait there's some people here who are unclean are they exempt from this are there people who are who are they're traveling they're not here with us are they exempt from this kind of worship that god is asking and moses says i'm going to consult the lord and the lord said to moses um no basically you shall participate you shall participate fully in the passover because this is an obligation that this this way of worshiping is an obligation that even uh coming into contact with a dead body which would make you ritually unclean or even being on a journey doesn't uh dispense you from and that's something so powerful for us to understand in fact it says the person who dispenses themselves right the person who excuses themselves from this kind of worship from this passover meal is cut off from the from the covenant cut off from the people of god and this is one of the things we know right that we recognize is that jesus christ at the last supper he says okay this is the chalice of my blood the blood of the new and eternal covenant do this in memory of me and so we recognize that there might be some things that are preventing us from attending mass but if it's if we elect to stay away from mass then we have essentially cut ourselves off from the people of god that's one of the the depths of the revelation in the new new testament about how the passover was a foreshadowing of the true gift of the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world which is jesus christ in the eucharist and just like the passover you were not exempt just because you're traveling or something some other reason if you exempted yourself you dispensed yourself you were cut off so too if we dispense ourselves from this true and living worship worshiping the lord and spirit and truth in the eucharist then we are cutting ourselves off on one last note in chapter nine before we jump into numbers and then one note there too um the cloud and the fire what an incredible image for trusting in the lord and remember this is numbers this is just 13 months after the people of israel have been set free from slavery they're being taught how to trust in god and so while the the pillar of fire and pillar of cloud is over the tabernacle you stay here whether it's for a day or two days or a longer time and when it moves then we move and there's something so powerful about that knowledge of that's what we're called to do as well in our lives is okay i'm lord i'll move when you call me to move and if you don't call me to move i'm going to stay put there's something so powerful about trusting the lord a last note just because deuteronomy chapter 8 is worth reading again and again again context numbers 13 months after set free from slavery deuteronomy 40 years after 38 years essentially after numbers and what does moses say he says that remember you shall remember all the ways which the lord your god has led you these 40 years in the wilderness why that he might humble you testing you to know what is in your heart whether he would keep his commandments or not now god's not testing because he doesn't know he's testing to reveal to the people okay this is the truth about me and this is oh man this is training realize this they're about to go into the promised land they're going to have to fight and they're also going to be surrounded by people who don't believe what they believe and also they're going to be blessed and they're going to have so much abundance and so here's god saying okay you were tested and trained in the wilderness to trust me and to keep my commandments when you go into the promised land please embrace those commandments you're not like them you've been set apart you're mine you're my beloved possession you're my firstborn and lastly i'm going to bless you so exceedingly that you're going to be tempted to forget me and this is something that's so powerful for all of us to realize is that oftentimes we think that we forget god in the dark and i and that's possibly true but i know too often we forget god in the sunny days we forget god when we're abundantly blessed we forget god when everything is going well because then we don't need him i i i can do without him because i did this and i'm safe and i'm secure and i have enough and that's the temptation that deuteronomy chapter 8 highlights and says when you have so much you will be tempted to say this is what i've done this is the work of my hands and i do not need to follow the lord and moses says when you come to that day please please no know that it was god's faithfulness and so that's my invitation and my prayer today too i will move when god asks me to move and i'll stay when he asks me to stay but also in times of scarcity and in times of abundance to remember all that the lord has done what an incredible gift you guys we are rounding out the um the 50s tomorrow is day 60 so what an incredible thing that's three sorry that's two months i don't even know math and calendars how they work but this is remarkable um these last 60 days 59 days we've been praying for each other we've been listening to god's word and we will not stop praying for each other i will not stop praying for you we will not stop listening to god's word so he can continue to teach us what is in his heart and so our hearts can be like his heart praying for you my name is father mike i cannot wait to see you tomorrow god bless [Music] you

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 38,428

Keywords: ascension, ascension press, ascension presents, the bible in a year, bible in a year podcast, fr. mike, fr. mike schmitz, father mike, fr. mike schmidt, biy, biay, fr. mike bible in a year, jeff cavins, bible reading plan, biblical worldview, catholic podcasts, book of numbers, book of deuteronomy, numbers 8, deuteronomy 8, old testament, passover, keeping passover, israelites, tribes of israel, trust in god, psalms

Id: 5e8Tw2TL6CY

Length: 20min 37sec (1237 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 12 2021