← The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 121: Cycle of Violence (2025)
00:19:20
Fr. Mike talks about how revenge and violence can become a cycle that doesn't end until someone chooses to end it. He also points out how the genealogy in 1 Chronicles reflects the genealogy of Christ.The reading for today are 2 Samuel 2, 1 Chronicles 2, and Psalm 24.
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:04]
Fr. Mike Schmitz
Hi, my name is Fr. 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 121 and we are reading today from 2nd Samuel, chapter 2 from 1 Chronicles, chapter 2 from more names. Thank the Lord and we're also praying Psalm 24. If you're interested, the Bible translation that I am reading from is a Revised Standard Version, second Catholic Edition. I'm reading from the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com Bible in a year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and then you'll be subscribed and it'll be great. But as I said, it's day 121. So great. We're reading 2 Samuel chapter 2, 1st Chronicles, chapter 2 and praying Psalm 24 second Samuel, chapter 2 David anointed King of Judah after this David inquired of the Lord, shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said to him, go up? David said, to which shall I go up? And he said to Hebron. So David went up there and his two wives also Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David brought up his men who were with him, every one with his household, and they dwelt in the towns of Hebron. And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. When they told David it was the men of Jabeshgilead who buried Saul, David sent messengers to the men of Jabeshgilead and said to them, may you be blessed by the Lord, because you showed this loyalty to Saul your Lord and buried him. Now may the Lord show mercy and faithfulness to you, and I will do good to you because you have done this thing. Now therefore let your hands be strong and be valiant, for Saul your Lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them. Now Abner the son of ner, commander of Saul's army, had taken Ashibosheth, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim, and he made him king over Gilead and the Asherites and Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel. Ashibosheth, Saul's son, was 40 years old when he began to reign over Israel. And he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. The Battle of Gibeon. Abner, the son of ner, and the servants of Ashibosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. And Joab the son of Zerui and the servants of David, went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. And they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool and the other on the other side of the pool. And Abner said to Joab, let the young men arise and play before us. And Joab said, let them arise. Then they arose and passed over by number 12 for Benjamin and Ashibosheth the son of Saul, and 12 of the servants of David. And each caught his opponent by the head and thrust his sword into his opponent's side. So they fell down together. Therefore that place was called Helkath Hazarim, which is at Gibeon. And the battle was very fierce that day. And Abner and the men of Israel were beaten before the servants of David. And the three sons of Zerui were there. Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel was as swift of foot as a wild gazelle. And Asahel pursued Abner. And as he went, he turned neither to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner. Then Abner looked behind him and said, is it you, Asahel? And he answered, it is I. Abner said to him, turn aside to your right hand or to your left and seize one of the young men and take his spoil. But Asahel would not turn aside from following him. And Abner said to Asahel, turn aside from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I lift up my face to your brother Joab? But he refused to turn aside. Therefore Abner struck him in the belly with the butt of his spear, so that the spear came out at his back. And he fell there and died where he was. And all who came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died stood still. But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner. And as the sun was going down, they came to the hill of Ammah, which lies before Gia on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon. And the Benjamites gathered themselves together behind Abner and became one band and took their stand on the top of a hill. Then Abner called to Joab, shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that the end will be better? How long will it be before you bid your people turn from the pursuit of their brethren? And Joab said, as God lives. If you had not spoken, surely the men would have given up the pursuit of their brethren in the morning. So Joab blew the trumpet and all the men stopped and pursued Israel no more, nor did they fight any more. And Abner and his men went all that night through the Arabah. They crossed the Jordan, and marching the whole forenoon they came to Mahanaim. Joab returned from the pursuit of Abner, and when he had gathered all the people together, there were missing of David's servants 19 men besides Asahel. But the servants of David had slain of Benjamin 360 of Abner's men. And they took up Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was at Bethlehem. And Joab and his men marched all night, and the day broke upon them at Hebron. The First Book of Chronicles chapter 2. Sons of Israel and descendants of Judah. These are the sons of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. The sons of Judah, Er, Onan and Shelah, these three Bathshua the Canaanitess, bore to him. Now Er Judah's firstborn was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he slew him. His daughter in law, Tamar, also bore him Perez and Zerah. Judah had five sons in all, the sons of Perez, Hezron and Hamuel. The sons of Zerah, Zimri, Ethan, Heman, chalkol, and dera. 5 In all, the sons of Carmi Achar, the troubler of Israel, who transgressed in the matter of the devoted thing. And Ethan's son was Azariah, the sons of Hezron that were born to him, Jerameel, Ram and Chullubai. Ram was the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, prince of the sons of Judah. Nahshon was the father of Salma, Salma of Boaz, Boaz of Obed, Obed of Jesse. Jesse was the father of Eliab, his firstborn, Abinadab the second, Shimeah the third, Nethanel the fourth, Radai the fifth, Ozem the sixth, David the seventh. And their sisters were Zerui and Abigail, the sons of Zeruai, Abishai, Joab, and Asahel. 3. Abigail Bore Amasa and the father of Amasa was Jether, the Ishmaelite. Caleb, the son of Hezron, had children by his wife Azubah and by Jerouth. And these were her sons Jeshur, Shobab and Ardan. When Azuba died, Caleb married Ephrath, who bore him Hur. Hur was the father of Uri. Uri was the father of Bezalel. Afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Makir, the father of Gilead, whom he married when he was 60 years old, and she bore him Segub. And Segub was the father of Jair, who had 23 cities in the land of Gilead. But Geshur and Aram took from them Havath, Jair, Kenath and its villages, 60 towns. All these were descendants of Makir, the father of Gilead. After the death of Hezron, Caleb went in to Ephrathah, the wife of Hezron, his father, and she bore him Ashur, the father of Tekoa, the sons of Jerameel, the firstborn of Hezron, Ram, his firstborn Bunah, Oren, Ozem and Ahijah. Jerameel also had another wife whose name was Atarah. She was the mother of Onam, the sons of Ram, the son, the firstborn of Jeremiel, Maaz, Jamin and Ekur, the sons of Onam, Shammai and Jada, the sons of Shammai, Nadab and Abishur. The name of Abishur's wife was Abihail, and she bore him Aban and Molid, the sons of Nadab, Seled and Apaim. And Seled died childless. The sons of Apaim, the sons of Ishi, Sheshan, the sons of Sheshan, Alai, the sons of Jada, Shammai's brother Jether and Jonathan. And Jether died childless. The sons of Jonathan, Peleth and Zazah. These were the descendants of Jerameel. Now Shashan had no sonsons, only daughters. But Shashan had an Egyptian slave whose name was Jarha. So Shashan gave his daughter in marriage to Jaha, his slave, and she bore him a tie. Attai was the father of Nathan and Nathan of Zebad. Zebad was the father of Ephlal and Ephlal of Obed. Obed was the father of Jehu and Jehu of Azariah. Azariah was the father of Helez and Helez of Eleasa. Eliasa was the father of Sismi and Sismi of Shallum. Shallum was the father of Jechemiah and Jechemiah of Elishama, the sons of Caleb, the brother of Jerameel, Mareshah, his firstborn, who was the father of Ziph, the sons of Mareshah, Hebron, the sons of Hebron, Korah, Tapuah, Rekem and Shimeah. Shema was the father of Raham, the father of Jorkaham and Rekem was the father of Shammai, the son of Shammai, Ma'on and Ma'on was the father of Beth Zur, Ephah. Also Caleb's concubine bore Haran, Moza and Gazez and Haran was the father of Gazez, the sons of Regem, Jotham, Geshan, Pelet, Ephah and Sha'af Maachah. Caleb's concubine bore Sheber and Tirhana. She also bore Sha'ath, the father of Machmana Shiva, the father of Machbanah and the father of Gibeah and the daughter of Caleb was Achsa. These were the descendants of Caleb, the sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah Shobal the father of Kiriath, Jearim, Salma the father of Bethlehem and Haraph, the father of Beth Geder. Shobal the father of Kiriath. Jearim had other sons Haroah, half of the Menuhoth and the families of Kiriath, Jearim, the Ithralites, the Puthites, the Shumathites, and the Mishraites. From these came the Zorathites and the Eshtolites, the sons of Salma, Bethlehem, the Netophathites, Atroth, Beth Joab, and half of them Menahathites, the Zorites, the families also of the scribes that dwelt at Jabez, the Tirathites and the Shimeathites, and the these are the Kenites who came from Hamath, the father of the house of Rechab. Psalm 24 entrance into the A Psalm of David the earth is the lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully he will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of The God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the king of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory today. We thank you so much for the unfolding of time. We thank you for the unfolding of the story, the story of salvation and the story of how, Lord God, you're willing to take time. You're willing to be patient not only with us in our weakness, our littleness, in our falseness. You're also willing to be patient with just the passage of time, with other people's decisions and the fact that we have to grow and it takes time to grow. And so we thank you. We thank you for being patient with us. We thank you for giving us time. And we thank you for allowing this time to be used. So we ask you, actually, not just thank you, Lord, but we ask you, help us to use this time to grow. Help us to use this time not as wasted time, not as stalling out time, but as time where we can always find you and you will always, always find us where we are in this moment. We give you praise, and we thank you and make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So, as I said yesterday, we have a lot of names in 1 Chronicles, and that's going to be how it is for the next few days. And I'm just so sorry about that. I'm not just sorry for you, I'm sorry for me. I'm sorry for myself that we have to do this. But it's going to be good. One of the great things, incredible connection. I love it. The names all mean something, right? Because every name signifies not just one individual, it signifies their entire family. And so this is remarkable that we're getting a bit of the family tree. In fact, not just any family tree. We're getting the sons of Israel and the descendants of Judah specifically. And so what do we have? We. We heard today sons of Hezron is in chapter 2, verse 9, sons of Hezron that were born to him, Jermiel, Ram and Shilobi. Then we go into Hezron, father of Ram, father of Mindedab, and father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salma, of Boaz, of Obed. I don't know if those names and of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David, the king. I don't know if you know this, if you hear this, if you recognize this, but this is the exact order that we get in Matthew's Gospel, Matthew, when he gives us the genealogy of Jesus. If you're ever at the Christmas Eve mass, we know we always read that genealogy of Jesus. We also read it a bunch of times when it comes to the Bible, when it comes to church and mass and stuff. But this is the lineup, this is the genealogy. This is the story of leading not just from Abraham all the way to David, but then beyond that from David to Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, the one who was promised from the very beginning. And it just is so good. And that's one of the reasons why when we read all of these names, yes, at times it can be who, what? But we recognize they mean something. They mean a ton. And not only that, we have one of those happy coincidences today where we have the connection between two Samuel chapter two and one Chronicles chapter two, where, okay, remember, here is David. And David is the king of Judah, and he's going to battle against Shibbosheth, the king of some of the other tribes of Israel. And David goes into battle with a couple people. Three of these people in fact are the sons of his sister Zerui. And the three sons are Abishai, Joab and Asahel. Asahel is described in second Samuel as being swift of foot, like faster than a deer is awesome. Asahel. But Asahel is doing something. He's chasing after Abner. Remember, Abner is this massively accomplished military folk person under King Saul. And Abner looks back and says, okay, Asahel, stop chasing me because if you, if I have to stand and fight you, I. I'm going to kill you. Because, well, he's going to. And he says, your brother Joab is going to hold this against me. Basically, let's not have these officers in the militaries of these group of Ish Bosheths and Davids go at each other because not only are they in battle right now because of the people reigning over them, David and the Shibasheth, but also, don't. Let's not add revenge to the list of things. And Asahel wouldn't give up chasing after Abner. So Abner, in self defense, he kills Asahel. And you know what happens next is Abishai and Joab, though. Remember those two brothers of Asahel, who just killed the two nephews, essentially of David. They chase after Abner, trying to kill him. And Abner basically calls out and says, let's. Let's end the cycle of violence right now. Now the cycle of violence is going to continue because that seems like that's how it goes, right? And yet there was a wise moment there where Abner did call back to say to Asahel, stop fighting, stop chasing after me, or I'll have to strike you down. He does. It's one of those really unfortunate things, because this is ultimately going to be. It's not going to end here. It doesn't end with chapter two. It continues as it always does, you know, violence, begetting violence. And so what we do is we recognize in this story what it's going to unfold in this family is something that is. Well, it's devastating. It's what violence does in virtually all of our lives, that violence rarely ends on its own, but it has to be ended. And how has it ended? Well, in any number of ways. But at some point, what Jesus reveals is he takes violence upon himself rather than inflicting violence. Jesus takes violence upon himself, suffers for the sake of the unrighteous, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, and puts an end in so many ways to that cycle. And Jesus gives us an opportunity to also be part of that cycle. Not the cycle of violence, but the cycle of mercy and the cycle of allowing oneself to suffer for the other. That's why our call to forgive is so. So clear in Jesus's proclamation and so clear in Jesus teaching. Yet forgiveness is one of the hardest teachings of Christianity. So that's all that to say is we have a lot of stuff going on in Second Samuel and in First Chronicles. And one of the things for today is we recognize. We recognize not only the importance of the family tree, the importance of the genealogy which represents the promises of God, but we also recognize how deadly violence is because it rarely ends on its own. It has to be ended. And so in my heart today, I just say, okay, Lord, where are the places of anger? Where are the places where I desire revenge or I desire to be vindicated myself? Because what someone else did or what someone else has said, and how do I imitate Jesus and say, okay, in this moment, I let them go. In this moment, I set them free. In this moment, I'm not going to make them pay me back. I'm not going to hold it against them. In this moment, I am going to end this anger. I'M going to end this violence. That's a thing that's hard for us to do. That's why we're praying for each other. I am praying for you. Please. As I said, pray for each other and pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.