B (9:47)

And you do protect us.

A (9:49)

You do care for us. You bear us up as on the wings of eagles. And you bear us up lest we dash our foot against the stone. Yet, Lord God, we do not put you to the test. Because we are tested every day. Every day we are tried. And every day life reveals the truth of our hearts. It reveals our fickle hearts. It reveals our shaky and quick to forget hearts. Lord, help us never forget what you have done for us. Help us never forget who you are. Help us never forget what you revealed about our own hearts. Help us to never forget you. Lord God, we make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So there are a number of things to talk about today. The first is in the Book of Numbers. There's this thing called the Nazarite vow. You might be familiar with the Nazarite vow because there was a couple people in the Bible who seem to have been underneath. Beneath the Nazarite vow. Now, here's normally what the Nazarite vow was, was just a temporary kind of a thing, right? So the two people I can think of at least right offhand, who took a Nazarite vow for life. One was Samson. He did not followed that Nazarite vow. Super. Well, then again, I guess it was his parents who chose it for him. Sometimes, you know, the Nazarite life chooses you. You don't choose the Nazarite life. But truthfully, Samson was set aside from his mother's womb. And the angel of the Lord who appeared to his mother told him that he'd be set apart and that he would not cut his hair and that he would be. He would not touch strong drink. He failed in that. We're going to get to that story when we get to the Book of Judges. The other person that we know of at least, who had a lifelong Nazirite vow is John the Baptist. And to our knowledge, he successfully held to that Nazirite vow. So again, it was not cutting hair. It involved not touching strong drink or anything of the fruit of the vine. Now, normally those were two exceptions. Normally they did not last for one's entire life. Normally it was kind of like dedicating time of your life to the Lord, right? So we've talked about A lot about in Leviticus and in Numbers. So far, we've talked a lot about dedicating places to the Lord, right? So here's the articles of the temple, so dedicating things to the Lord. When we get to Mount Zion, that space where the temple is going to be built is going to be dedicating a place to the Lord. Even. Remember with the story of people like Jacob, when Jacob has the dream of the angels going up to heaven and descending from heaven, and he dedicates that place, he consecrates that place and builds an altar there. So we've heard all about dedicating things and spaces to the Lord. The Nazarite vow is kind of a way to dedicate time to the Lord. We say, okay, for the next week, maybe two weeks, maybe four weeks, I am going to kind of go away. And basically a general analogy would be kind of like, say I'm going to go on retreat. And while I'm on retreat, I am not going to drink and I'm not going to cut my hair or shave. And then at the end of that retreat, at the end of that time that's been dedicated to the Lord to consecrate it to him for his. For worship of him, for love of him. I am going to not only offer the sacrifices that are prescribed, like the different animals, but also the hair that grew during that time, I will shave that off as kind of a sign of the time, right? So, I mean, our toenails, fingernails grow and our hair grows. And so there's a sign where there's kind of a sense where that growth is a marker of time. And so at the end of that time, however far your hair has grown, you would cut that off and that would be actually part. Placed on the altar as part of the sacrifice, kind of, again, just think of the imagery there. It's kind of really cool. I mean, burnt hair doesn't smell the best, but the imagery is really cool where it has that sense of Lord. That whole time I offer to you, that was yours, as is represented here by the hair that is cut off of my head. And I just think that's pretty. It's just really cool.

B (13:47)

Last or last.

A (13:48)

When it comes to numbers, the last thing we have in the chapter six of Numbers is the priestly benediction. It's called the Aaronic blessing. So after Aaron, not ironic, but Aaronic, Aaron, I C. Aaronic blessing, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you. Be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. That's this powerful blessing. I remember hearing Jeff Cavins, who, you know, he's featured on this podcast, he helps us out every single time we come to a new time period. Him pointing out that that is a great prayer of blessing for parents to pray over their children. And specifically, I would just invite fathers who are listening to pray that prayer that the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Because Aaron, again, that tribe of Levi, being the firstborn, was also in some ways like the father, because remember, the priesthood was always related to the fatherhood. And so there's that father's blessing that's built into the Aaronic blessing as well. Now, when it comes to the book of Deuteronomy, oh, my goodness, what incredible gift. What we have is what's called the Shema. And the Shema is the word in Hebrew for hear. To hear. Now to hear. So hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Right? So we've heard this because we know the Gospels. We also have heard this because of Deuteronomy, chapter 6. This is the great Commandment. And if there's any one commandment that united the people of Israel, Obviously there's the Ten Commandments, obviously there's all 613 commandments of the Old Covenant. But this one commandment, this great Shema, this hear, O Israel, sums everything up. And so to hear in Hebrew, that Shema doesn't just mean, hey, you guys, listen up. It means, like, hear and obey. It means to receive and actually put this into practice. And so here are the people of Israel who that Moses is speaking to them because he's said some commandments, right? We went through the Ten Commandments. He's going to continue with other laws. But this is the heart of all of the laws. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. Why does he bring this up? Because he knows not only did they come from Egypt, where there are multiple gods, they're going into Canaan where there's multiple gods. And you have to be on guard against this. Now, how are you on guard against this is not just like I'm going to hold dogmatically to my beliefs. It involves also remembering. It's not just simply saying, well, this is what I believe, and that's what I believe. It's Remembering that the Lord God, the God is the one who brought you out of that place of slavery. And that's what your sons in the future will say. What are these ordinances? What are these commandments? And you need to remind your children of all that the Lord, your God, who is one, has done for you. That's why we obey these commandments. And it's so important for all of us to realize that all the rules come out of relationship. Every single one of the rules we have in the church, every single one of the rules that we have in Scripture, they all come out of relationship. Without relationship, the rules are fine. They're wise. I mean, they're good and good to live by. But without the relationship, those rules can also be hollow. They can also be dead. They can also be empty. They can be wise, of course, but they're empty of the reason. And the reason for the rule is the relationship. That is why Moses is reminding the people, remember, okay, take these words and bind them on your forehead. Take these words and bind them on your arm. Put them on the lintels of your doorpost. In fact, if you go to many, almost any Jewish home, you have a thing called mezuzah that is called a mezuzah. And it's usually typically metal container in which these words of the Lord are written on a very tiny piece of paper. And they're put there. And every time a Jewish person walks in or walks out, oftentimes they will touch that mezuzah as a reminder, like, no, never forget what the Lord has done.

B (17:39)

In fact, the scripture says that you take these words of mine and bind them on your foreheads, wear them on your foreheads, and bind them on your arms. That is what's known as the phylactery. So Jesus, later on, he calls, he says that the Pharisees would widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. In Hebrew, that word is tefelyn. So for the phylacteries is tefilin. The word for the tassels is the word tzitzit. Fun things to know. But in the phylacteries, they're again, they're made out of leather, leather boxes and leather straps that still, right now, even orthodox Jewish men will continue to use when they're praying. They will have the boxes that have scripture inside of them. And then with the leather straps, they'll affix that to their arms, forearms, and or to their foreheads. And that is the fulfillment of what is written in Exodus 13, in Deuteronomy chapter 6, Deuteronomy, chapter 11, where it talks about having those. Those words of God always on our mind, you know, always on our arms. As Christians, one of the things that we will do is if you've ever gone to a Catholic Mass, you know that before the Gospel is proclaimed, the priest or the deacon or the bishop would proclaim and say a reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew. And people respond, glory to youo, O Lord. And as we say, glory to youo, O Lord, what the priest does is he makes the sign of the cross on the words of the text and then on himself. And all the people make the sign of the cross on their foreheads, on their lips and on their hearts. And one of the things that we're saying internally when we're making that sign of the cross over our foreheads, over our lips and over our hearts is, may the word of the Lord be on my mind, be on my lips, and be in my heart. And so it's kind of a spiritual way of still having that idea of keeping the word of God on our foreheads and our arms before us always. And that's what we say every. Every time we go to Mass and we hear the words of the gospel.

A (19:25)

Proclaimed, oh, my goodness, what a gift, right? Because we are keeping the Bible in our ears and we are not forgetting what the Lord our God has not only done for the Jewish people, not only done in the New Covenant for the people of the world, but also what the Lord our God has done for us. By reading this, by listening to God's words, like you're doing right now, this year, you are obeying the commandment of Deuteronomy chapter 6, to remember and never ever forget what the Lord our God has done for us here. O Israel, the Lord our God is one, and you shall love him with everything you got. You guys, I am proud of you. You've made it to day 57 and we are trucking right along. We are praying for each other. Please know that I am praying for you. You are doing so, so well. We're moving and God is blessing so many of you. What you're reporting is that, gosh, even in days of missing days, missing a weekend, maybe even missing a week, but you're getting back on the horse, right? You're getting back on there and getting back in the saddle. You're either catching up or keeping up. You don't need to catch up to where we are right now. Just need to go at your own pace and just never, ever stop because this is the commandment. This is the commandment is to listen to the Lord. Hear, O Israel. Oh, my goodness. I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.