Day 63: Israel's Rebellion (2026)

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 the

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 63, and so we're going to be reading from numbers

chapter 14, Deuteronomy, chapter 12, and Psalm 95. We'll be praying, Psalm 95, as always. The

Bible translation that I am using is the revised standard version, the second Catholic edition,

and I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension, which is phenomenal because it has

all of the periods divided. It has some notes there that are incredibly helpful. If you want to

track down one of those Bibles, you can go to wherever awesome Bibles are sold. Also, if you would

like 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, on day 63, subscribe to this podcast. You can go into

your app, which you are using right now, and hit click or punch subscribe, and you will be

subscribed. Today, as I said, we are reading from numbers, chapter 14, Deuteronomy, chapter 12,

and we are praying, Psalm 95. The Book of Numbers, chapter 14, the people rebel.

Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the

sons of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them,

would that we had died in the land of Egypt? Or would that we had died in this wilderness?

Why does the Lord bring us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones

will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to one another,

let us choose a captain and go back to Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before

all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel, and Joshua, the son of none,

and Caleb, the son of Jeffuna, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their

clothes, and said to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, the land which we passed through

to spied out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, He will bring us into this

land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord

and do not fear the people of the land for they are bred for us. Their protection is removed from

them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. But all the congregation said to stone them with

stones. Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel,

and the Lord said to Moses, how long will this people despise me, and how long will they not

believe in me, in spite of all the signs which I have wrought among them? I will strike them with

the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater in mightier than they.

Moses intercedes for the people, but Moses said to the Lord, then the Egyptians will hear of it,

for you brought up this people in your might from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of

this land. They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people, for you, O Lord,

are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them in a pillar of

cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if you kill this people as one man,

then the nations who have heard your fame will say, because the Lord was not able to bring this

people into the land, which he swore to give to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.

And now I beg you, let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying,

the Lord is slow to anger, and abounding in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression,

but he will, by no means, clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of fathers upon children,

upon the third, and upon the fourth generation.

Pardon the iniquity of this people I beg you, according to the greatness of your mercy,

and according as you have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.

Then the Lord said, I have pardoned, according to your word,

but truly as I live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord,

none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs which I rot in Egypt and in the wilderness,

and yet have put me to the proof these ten times and have not harkened it to my voice,

shall see the land which I swore to give to their fathers, and none of those who despised me shall see it.

But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me faithfully,

I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.

Now since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys,

turn tomorrow and sit out for the wilderness, by the way to the red sea.

God's punishment of the disobedient, and the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron,

how long shall this wicked congregation murmur against me?

I have heard the murmurings of the sons of Israel, which they murmur against me.

Say to them, as I live, says the Lord, what you have said in my hearing, I will do to you,

your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and all of your number numbered from 20 years old

and upward, who have murmured against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore I would

make you dwell, except Caleb, the son of Jephina, and Joshua, the son of none. But your little ones,

who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have

despised. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and your children shall be

shepherds in the wilderness 40 years, and shall suffer for your faithfulness until the last of your

dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of days in which you spied out the land

40 days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity 40 years, and you shall know my displeasure.

I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked generation that are gathered

together against me, in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.

And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, and who returned, and made all the congregation

to murmur against him by bringing up an evil report against the land, the men who brought up an evil

report of the land, died by plague before the Lord. But Joshua, the son of none, and Caleb,

the son of Jeffersona, remained alive of those men who I went to spy out the land.

And Moses told these words to all the sons of Israel, and the people mourned greatly,

and they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country saying,

see, we are here, we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised for we have sinned.

But Moses said, why now are you transgressing this command of the Lord, for that will not succeed,

do not go up, lest you be struck down before your enemies, for the Lord is not among you.

For there the Amalekites and the Canaanites are before you, and you shall fall by the sword,

because you have turned back from following the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.

But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither the arc of the

covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed out of the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites

who dwelt in that hill country came down, and defeated them, and pursued them, even to Horma.

The Book of Deuteronomy chapter 12

pagan shrines to be destroyed. Moses continued,

these are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall be careful to do in the land,

which the Lord the God of your fathers has given to you to possess all the days that you live upon

the earth. You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess,

serve their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree you

shall tear down their alters and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their asher in with fire.

You shall cue down the graven images of their gods, and destroy their name out of that place.

You shall not do so to the Lord your God. But you shall seek the place which the Lord your

God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you

shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the

offerings that you present, your votive offerings, your free will offerings, and the firstlings of your

herd and of your flock, and there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice,

you and your households in all that you undertake in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

You shall not do according to all that we are doing here this day, every man doing whatever is

right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the

Lord your God gives you. But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your

God gives you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies round about so that you

live in safety, then to the place which the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell there.

There you shall bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings and your sacrifices,

your tithes, and the offering that you present, and all your votive offerings which you vow to the Lord.

And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters,

your men servants, and your maid servants, and the leave light that is within your towns since he

has no portion or inheritance with you. Take heed that you do not offer your burnt offerings at

every place that you see, but at the place which the Lord will choose in one of your tribes.

There you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you,

concerning eating. However, you may slaughter and eat flesh within any of your towns as much as

you desire according to the blessings of the Lord your God, which he has given you, the unclean

and the clean maid of it, of the gazelle and as of the deer. Only you shall not eat the blood,

you shall pour it out upon the earth like water. You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your

grains, or of your wine, or of your oil, or the firstling of your herd, or of your flock,

or any of your votive offerings which you vow, or your freewill offerings, or the offering that you

present. But you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God will

choose, you and your son and your daughter, your man servant, and your maid servant, and the

Levite who is within your towns, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you

undertake. Take heed that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

When the Lord your God enlarges your territory as he has promised you, and you say,

I will eat flesh, because you crave flesh, you may eat as much flesh as you desire.

If the place which the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you,

then you may kill any of your herd or of your flock which the Lord has given you,

as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns as much as you desire,

just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike

may eat of it. Only be sure that you do not eat the blood for the blood is the life,

and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. You shall not eat it, you shall pour it out

upon the earth like water. You shall not eat it, that all may go well with you and with your

children after you when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. But the holy things which

are due from you, and your vote of offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to the place which

the Lord will choose and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood on the altar of the

Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God,

but the flesh you may eat. Be careful to heed all these words which I command you,

that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever when you do what is good and

right in the sight of the Lord your God. Warning against idolatry. When the Lord your God cuts off

the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land,

take heed that you not be ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you,

and that you do not inquire about their gods saying, how did these nations serve their gods

that I may also do likewise? You shall not do so to the Lord your God. For every abominable thing which

the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in

the fire to their gods. Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do, you shall not

add to it or take away from it. Psalm 95, it called to worship and obedience.

O come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation,

let us come into his presence with thanksgiving, let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of

praise for the Lord is a great God, and a great king above all gods. In his hand are the depths of

the earth, the heights of the mountains are his also, the sea is his, for he made it, for his hands

formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker,

for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice, harden not your hearts as at Maraba, as on the day of

Massa in the wilderness when your fathers tested me and put me to the proof though they had seen my work.

For forty years I was weiried of that generation and said, they are a people who are in heart,

and they do not regard my ways. Therefore I swore in my anger that they should not enter my rest.

Father in heaven, we thank you and give you praise, we thank you so much for hearing our prayers,

we thank you for when we are unfaithful, you remain faithful, and that is what we need, that's

you are who we need, because Lord the depth to which our fears can control us, the depth to which

our lack of faith can control us is paralyzing at times, and yet Lord when we know who you are,

there is no room for fear. When we love you there is no room for fear because that perfect love casts

out whatever fear we might experience. Lord if our day today is marked with fear, we ask that you

please place your love in our hearts. If our day today is marked with uncertainty and with

insecurity we ask that you place your courage and your strength in our hearts. Lord God above all

we ask that you place us in the palm of your hand and help us to never run away. In Jesus name we

pray, amen, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Okay, as another reminder, I know I've said this many many times, but when we are reading from

numbers, especially numbers chapter 14, we are reading about the time right after the people of

Israel were set free from slavery in Egypt. When we are reading Deuteronomy, now this is the recap,

this is, they're about this after 38 more years, they're about to launch into the promised land,

to take the land. And so just keep that in mind as we continue to move forward. This Deuteronomy

is Moses's last speech, it's his last preaching teaching to the people of God, and numbers is telling

us the story. And the story that we heard today was after the 12 spies had gone up into the land of

Canaan, and 10 of them were so intimidated, they were so shocked, they were so consumed by fear

that they came back and said, we could not possibly take the land. Now their job was to go up

into the into the promised land and scout it out in that sense of being able to say, okay,

are they stronger? They weak? What kind of cities are there? Like to create a plan, not to say,

can we do this or not? It was to say, where do we go first? It was what kind of towns do we attack?

What are the people like? What do we need to repair ourselves for? But instead of saying that

this scouting report comes back to prepare them to attack, it drew them to a place of fear,

or they said, we couldn't possibly do this. And in today's chapter, numbers 14, we hear the people's

response. The people said that why didn't we just die in Egypt? In fact, they try to elect

captains to bring them back to Egypt. I mean, think about the heart of the slave that still

beat in the chests of the people of Israel saying, let's just go back to Egypt, that place of slavery

and live our days there and take whatever punishment we get for running away there. Let's just leave

God and leave this land that He wants to give us because why? Because it's going to be hard

and it's going to be dangerous and they might even beat us because that's what's going to happen,

right? Fast forward to Deuteronomy. What we're going to hear is, most as a speech, as I mentioned,

and then they're going to have to go into the land. The next book after this is Joshua. And

that book of Joshua is going to tell the story of like, hey, now you need to fight. You need to

actually do something. It's not just about being given, although the promise land was being given

to the people of Israel, but they had to cooperate with the Lord's work. Today, since they were

unwilling to cooperate because they were driven by fear and paralyzed by distrust, this distrust

that marked their lives and marked their hearts. Because of that, the Lord God says that they will

not enter the promised land. In fact, the children that you said were going to be destroyed,

they are not, they, your children are the ones who are going to go into the promised land. They're

the ones who are going to go up and they're the ones who are going to have to fight because you

are unwilling to fight. You not only do not get to see the promised land, but also your children

that you're very concerned about, they're the ones that are going to have to fight because you

are unwilling to fight. Isn't there this lesson for us to hear in that? Those of us who are adults,

those of us who are in a place of responsibility, those of us who have been given people and be given

a task that if we're not willing to do the battle, if we're not willing to do that, that fighting of

getting free from whatever burden has ensnared us, whatever slavery has been in our lives,

if we're not willing to use the grace that God has given us to move forward and freedom and to

fight against that slavery, to fight against the addictions, to fight against the bad behaviors

of previous generations, if we're not willing to do that battle, then who's going to have to battle?

Well, we might still live in slavery, but our children are the ones who are going to have to do

the battle that we were unwilling to fight. And so today, this reminder for every one of us,

to take up arms against whatever enslaves us so that our children and our children's children

don't have to take up arms against what enslaves us. This is so important for every single one of us

because if we've been given a position of authority or responsibility, then it's our responsibility

in virtue of our authority to fight so that our children don't have to fight the battles that we

were supposed to fight. They will have to fight battles on their own, but let them fight the battles

that they are meant to fight, not our battles that we were unwilling to fight. One last note,

when it comes to Deuteronomy chapter 12, the Lord God, through Moses, commands that the pagan shrines

be destroyed, which makes a complete sense. But he also says that prepare yourselves for the fact

that there's going to be one place where I'm asking you to worship. There's going to be one

location that you have to go to when we offer these these high and holy sacrifices. And that's going

to be a very important thing because it's not kind of this willy-nilly worship wherever you want,

do whatever kind of worship you want. There is going to be a place that is pointed out by the Lord,

and that's where the tabernacle is going to be. That's where ultimately the temple is going to be.

And this is going to be very important not only for the people of Israel, but for us as well,

that there are restrictions when it comes to worship, not just in how we do it, but also in

where we do it. We can pray anywhere and the people of Israel can pray anywhere. The Levites

are going to live in their towns and their villages, but there is a place where the Levites,

particularly the sons of Aaron, will exercise their priestly worship faculties. And that's going to

be in the place where the Lord God points out. Now, if you want to eat any other meat, God says,

you can eat it wherever. Just keep in mind it's got to be a certain kind of meat because why?

Because in the ancient world, almost all kinds of animals were sacrificed to all kinds of gods.

And so God is making it clear. When it comes to certain kinds of animals, you can eat however much

you want of them, but when it comes to other kinds of animals, particularly the animals that are

offered in the temple, offered in the tabernacle, be careful because if you are close to the tabernacle,

be very close to the temple, you may not just eat whatever kind of meat you would like to.

It's all connected to worship. And this is the thing to keep in mind for all of us.

This whole teaching in Deuteronomy, chapter 12, is not certainly speaking about eating. It is more

connected to worship than to anything. And hopefully, that makes some sense today. As we continue to

pray, we continue to pray for each other and ask the Lord to shape our minds, shape our hearts,

and to shape our worldviews that we can see the world him and ourselves and each other

the way that God wants us to. Especially as we're drawn closer and closer into battle for freedom

and closer and closer into worship and spirit and in truth with the true and living God.

We pray for each other. We pray with each other. And we keep on this journey through our own wilderness

and into the promised land that the Lord has prepared for us.

I'm praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.