Day 163: Faith Over Success (2024)

This episode focuses on the theme of faithfulness over success, exploring biblical narratives to illustrate how true success stems from steadfast faith and obedience to God.

1. Faithfulness is more crucial than success; true success is God’s reward for loyalty.
2. Divine justice and mercy are recurring themes; God rewards the faithful and punishes betrayal.
3. Historical biblical battles serve as allegories for spiritual warfare in contemporary life.
4. Prophetic stories are used to illustrate the consequences of disobedience and the virtues of steadfast faith.
5. The episode encourages listeners to reflect on their own spiritual faithfulness versus their pursuit of worldly achievements.

1: Introduction

Fr. Mike Schmitz introduces the theme of faithfulness over success, setting the tone for the episode. He briefly outlines the biblical texts to be discussed. Fr. Mike Schmitz: "Today, we explore what it truly means to succeed in the eyes of God."

2: The Divided Kingdom

Discusses the split between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, highlighting the internal conflicts and moral lessons derived from these historical events. Fr. Mike Schmitz: "Judah represents the line of David and is central to God's plan, emphasizing the importance of divine lineage over territorial gains."

3: The Role of Prophets

Examines the crucial role prophets played in guiding kings and the people, stressing the importance of heeding divine guidance. Fr. Mike Schmitz: "Prophets are God’s messengers, crucial in guiding us back to faithfulness when we stray."

4: The Consequences of Disobedience

Narrates specific biblical incidents where disobedience led to dire consequences, reinforcing the peril of ignoring God’s commands. Fr. Mike Schmitz: "Disobedience brings downfall, as illustrated by the dramatic divine interventions recounted in the scriptures."

5: Reflections and Conclusion

Fr. Mike reflects on the episodes' stories, encouraging listeners to pursue a path of faithfulness to attain true success. Fr. Mike Schmitz: "Let us strive not for earthly success but for divine approval through our faithful actions."

1. Reflect daily on your actions to ensure they align with God’s will.
2. Study the Bible regularly to understand the depth of faithfulness required by God.
3. Engage in community prayer to strengthen collective faith and resilience.
4. Seek guidance from spiritual leaders when faced with moral dilemmas.
5. Practice humility and repentance to maintain a close relationship with God.

Fr. Mike touches on the last acts of King Rehobo'am and the rise of his son, Abi′jah. He also explains how we can see the importance of faith over success through the mistakes of Israel's leaders. Today's readings are 1 Kings 13, 2 Chronicles 12-13, and Song of Solomon 2.

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Fr. Mike Schmitz

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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 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 163. We are reading from one kings, chapter 13, two chronicles, chapters twelve and 13, and we're in the second chapter of the song of Solomon. As always, the Bible translation that I am using is the revised standard Version, the second catholic edition. I'm using the great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com bibleina year.

Also, you might not know this, but you can subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe in whatever app allows you to subscribe to this podcast. So do that if you'd like. As I said, today is day 163. I'm reading from one kings, 13, 2nd chronicles, twelve and 13. A couple things to keep in mind as we're listening to this scripture.

We have the kingdom of Judah now, right? This is the period of the divided kingdom. The kingdom in the north is the kingdom of Israel, and that's the ten tribes in the north. They're essentially what you might call the rebellious tribes of Israel. So when we refer to Israel now, at this point in our story, this is, in some ways, I guess we'll say this, the kingdom of Judah in the south, which is only two tribes, Judah is the bloodline from David all the way to Jesus.

And so this is the line that we're really, really preoccupied with. At the same time, God had promised that the people of Israel would be blessed, right? So that means all of the tribes, all of the twelve sons of Israel and the twelve tribes that came from the sons of Israel, are important. And that's why we're also following the story of the people in the north, the kingdom of Israel. But in this story, we're going to hear about how Israel came against Judah.

And like, wait, who do I root for? Well, it's really difficult because it's like, it's kind of like civil war in this in some ways, where brother is against brother, or at least family against family. And so we recognize that difficulty at the same time, to keep things straight in our minds. One of the things to keep in mind is, okay, the kingdom in the north, Israel, the kingdom in the south, Judah. Judah is small.

And yet it is through Judah that God is going to bless the entire world. He's going to restore worship. It's in Judah that he's going to bring forth the king of kings. And so we are very much preoccupied, or at least very interested in the kingdom of Judah in the south. We also are interested in the kingdom of Israel in the north, but in a different way.

I'll just. I'll let it. I'll let that be what it is. Okay. Wow.

Day 163. Let's get started. The first book of kings. Chapter 13. A man of God from Judah.

And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense. And the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, o, altar, altar. Thus says the behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name. And he shall sacrifice upon you the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and men's bones shall be burned upon you.

And he gave a sign that same day. This is the sign that the Lord has spoken. Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out. And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, lay hold of him. And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up so that he could not draw it back to himself.

The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. And the king said to the man of God, entreat now the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me that my hand may be restored to me. And the man of God entreated the Lord. And the king's hand was restored to him and became as it was before. And the king said to the man of God, come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.

And the man of God said to the king, if you give me half your house, I will not go in with you, and I will not eat bread or drink water in this place. For so was it commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, you shall neither eat bread nor drink water, nor return by the way that you came. So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel. Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. The words also which he had spoken to the king they told to their father.

And their father said to him, which way did he go? And his sons showed him the way which the man of God who came from Judah had gone. And he said to his sons, saddle the donkey for me. So they settled the donkey for him and he mounted it. And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak.

And he said to him, are you the man of God who came from Judah? And he said, I am. Then he said to him, come home with me and eat bread. And he said, I may not return with you or go in with you. Neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place.

For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, you shall neither eat bread nor drink water there nor return by the way that you came. And he said to him, I also am a prophet as you are. And an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied to him. So he went back with him and ate his bread in his house and drank water.

And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah. Thus says the Lord, because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God, commanded you, but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, eat no bread and drink no water. Your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers. And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he settled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back.

And as he went away, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road and the donkey stood beside it. The lion also stood beside the body. And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, it is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord. Therefore, the Lord has given him to the lion which has torn him and slain him according to the word which the Lord spoke to him. And he said to his sons, saddle the donkey for me. And they saddled it, and he went and found his body thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey.

And the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it upon the donkey and brought it back to the city to mourn and to bury him. And he laid the body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, alas, my brother. And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, when I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones. For the saying which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar at Bethel and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.

After this incident, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would he consecrated to be priests of the high places. And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.

The second book of Chronicles, chapters twelve and 13. Chapter twelve. Egypt attacks Judah. When the rule of rehoboam was established and was strong, he forsook the law of the Lord and all Israel with him. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, because they had been unfaithful to the Lord.

Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem with 1200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen, and the people were without number, who came with him from Egypt, Libyans, Sukiim and Ethiopians. And he took the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. Then Shemaiah the prophet came to rehoboam and to the princes of Judah, who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak and said to him, thus says the Lord, you abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak. Then the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, the Lord is righteous. When the Lord saw how they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah.

They have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless, they shall be servants to him, that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of their countries. So Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem. He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house.

He took away everything. He also took away the shields of gold which Solomon had made, and king rehoboam made in their stead shields of bronze, and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard who kept the door of the king's house. And as often as the king went into the house of the Lord, the guard came and bore them and brought them back to the guard room. And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the lord turned from him so as not to make a complete destruction. Moreover, conditions were good in Judah.

The death of rehoboam. So king rehoboam established himself in Jerusalem and reigned. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city which the lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. His mother's name was Naamah the amanitess. And he did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.

Now the acts of Rehoboam, from first to last, are they not written in the chronicles of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer? There were continual wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam, and Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. And Abijah, his son, reigned in his stead. Chapter 13 Abijah's reign over Judah in the 18th year of King Jeroboam, Abijah began to reign over Judah. He reigned for three years in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Micaiah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. Now there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. Abijah went out to battle, having an army of valiant men of war, 400,000 picked men. And Jeroboam drew up his line of battle against him with 800,000 picked mighty warriors. Then Abijah stood up on mount, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and he said, hear me, O Jeroboam and all Israel, ought you not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt.

Yet Jeroboam the son of Nabat, a servant of Solomon, the son of David, rose up and rebelled against his lord, and certain worthless scoundrels gathered about him and defied rehoboam the son of Solomon, when rehoboam was young and irresolute and could not withstand them. And now you think to withstand the kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David? Because you are a great multitude, and have with you the golden calves which Jeroboam made you for gods. Have you not driven out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and made priests for yourselves, like the peoples of other lands? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull or seven rams becomes a priest of what are no gods.

But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken him. We have priests ministering to the Lord who are sons of Aaron and Levites. For their service, they offer to the Lord every morning and every evening, burnt offerings and incense of sweet spices. Set out the showbread on the table of pure gold. And care for the golden lampstand that its lamps may burn every evening.

For we keep the charge of the Lord our God. But you have forsaken him. Behold, God is with us at our head. And his priests with their battle trumpets to sound the call to battle against you. O sons of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, the God of your fathers, for you cannot succeed.

Jeroboam sent an ambush around to come on them from behind. Thus his troops were in front of Judah, and the ambush was behind them. And when Judah looked, behold, the battle was before him and behind them. And they cried to the Lord. And the priests blew the trumpets.

Then the men of Judah raised the battle shout. And when the men of Judah shouted, God defeated Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. The men of Israel fled before Judah, and God gave them into their hand. Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter. So there fell slain of Israel 500,000 picked men.

Thus the men of Israel were subdued at that time, and the men of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the Lord, the God of their fathers. And Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took cities from him. Bethel with its villages and Jeshanah with its villages, and Ephron with its villages. Jeroboam did not recover his power in the days of Abijah, and the Lord struck him, and he died. But Abijah grew mighty, and he took 14 wives and had 22 sons and 16 daughters.

The rest of the acts of Abijah, his ways and his sayings are written in the story of the prophet Iddo, the song of Solomon. Chapter two. A springtime canticle. I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. As a lily among brambles, so is my love.

Among maidens, as an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love. O that his left hand were under my head and his right hand embraced me.

I adjure you, o daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the deer of the field, that you stir not up nor awaken love until it please the voice of my beloved. Behold, he comes leaping up on the mountains, bounding over the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice. My beloved speaks and says to me, arise, my love, my dove, my fair one, and come away.

For behold, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth. The time of pruning has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vine are in blossom, and they give forth fragrance.

Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away, o my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the COVID of the cliff, let me see your face. Let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet and your face is comely. Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards. For our vineyards are in blossom. My beloved is mine and I am his.

He pastures his flock among the lilies until the day breathes and the shadows flee. Turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young stag upon rugged mountains.

Father in heaven, we give you praise and we give you glory. We thank you so much for your word and for continuing to speak to us and for continuing to pursue us. Ah, lord, our hearts are broken, and yet you draw near to mend them. Our lives are full of darkness, and yet you bring your light into them. Heal what's been broken and bring light to where there is darkness.

And may everything that we do and everything we say and everything that we are give you praise and glory now and forever. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

So, one note again. Just. Gosh. The song of Solomon. Again.

It's love poetry. And in it here is God, who is the pursuer. He's pursuing us. He's pursuing the people of Israel. He's pursuing the people who belong to him in the church.

It's Christ the bridegroom pursuing the bride and just reveals again just this longing, a longing for of God, for us, a desire of God just to be able to love us. And our respondent desire. You know, it's not that we have loved God, but that he has first loved us. And that's a key thing to realize, especially as we read through the song of Solomon or the song of songs, we hear this and we realize, wow, it was not I who chose the Lord, but he has chosen me. And same thing is true for all of us.

It's God who loves us first. He loves you first. And this is so important because that means we don't have to work for his love. That means we don't have to do anything to earn his love. He already loves you.

And so our task essentially is what we always say, which is, will you let him love you? Will you love him in return? Will you give love for love? Ah, so that's a sign of songs. And so good.

But here we are also with one kings and two chronicles. And, gosh, it's so incredible to recognize the different ways in which these two different books are telling the same story as they travel along this division between the kingdom of Israel and the north and the kingdom of Judah in the south. One of the many things that plays out is faithfulness. One of the themes that is the theme of this whole time, well, of the entire Bible is faithfulness. And we recognize that when the people of Israel or the people of Judah are unfaithful, then bad things happen.

When they are faithful, then they are blessed by the Lord. So we have the story of rehoboam and rehoboam, right, the son of Solomon. And he has been unfaithful. In fact, in two chronicles, chapter twelve, it says that essentially Jerohoboam turned against the lord. He was unfaithful in the fifth year of king Rehoboam because they had been unfaithful to the Lord.

This egyptian king Shishak comes up against Jerusalem with this massive army. And so what happens? Well, they're going to get destroyed. They're going to get defeated. And yet the people, the prophets, right, remind Shemaiah, the prophet, reminds rehabbum, this can be so key.

This can happen again and again. There's a king, there's people of God, and then there's the prophet who speaks. And sometimes the people listen, sometimes they don't listen. This is one of those cases where rehoboam and the other princes of Judah, they listened to Shemaiah the prophet, and they repented of their sins, said, the Lord is righteous. And so.

And God says, okay, great. Because of this, you're not going to be destroyed. There is a consequence, though, and the consequence is Shishak does come up and he despoils. That's. I think that's the right word.

He despoils the Judahites, right. The kingdom of Judah. And what happens in all of Solomon's reign? Right, all of David's reign and Solomon's reign, these two, his, this man's father and grandfather, they amassed this incredible fortune, massive fortune. Remember how we went through, how Solomon had made those hundreds and hundreds of golden shields, the large shields and the small shields?

Well, here in, like, one line, it says, shishak, the king of Egypt, came up and he took away the shields of gold Solomon had made. Bam, gone. In five years, Rehoboam loses the massive wealth that his father and his grandfather had amassed over the course of 40 years, or 80 years prior to this. In five years, he loses all of it. He loses with a majority, at least, of this.

And that's remarkable. How easy is it for us to have a lifetime, a lifetime of virtue, a lifetime of grace, a lifetime of life built on the Lord that we can lose if we turn away from the lord. In fact, it goes on to say that rehoboam, in their stead, he made shields. There were shields of bronze. And think about this.

It went from a kingdom of gold to a kingdom of bronze in five years. A kingdom of gold to a kingdom of bronze in five years. And that is. That's devastating. That's horrible.

And yet that's how it goes, right? So then rehoboam dies and his son Abijah comes up. And this is really important for us, because Abijah turns out to be a relatively good king at this time. He turns out to be faithful. In fact, when he fights against Jeroboam, right?

Jeroboam, the king of Israel in the north, those ten tribes in the north, when he fights against Jeroboam, he doesn't rely upon his own strength. He says, actually, we are fighting. You're fighting Jeroboam and others against the Lord your God. Are you going to trust. Are you going to keep trusting in these golden calves that Jeroboam has made?

Because you can't. You can never, with your false gods, ever defeat the Lord God. And so Abijah shows himself, in this case, to be a solid king. And, yeah, faithful king. That's the measure of the kingship in this.

In this case is, are they faithful? Are they unfaithful? And that's one of the things, one of those lessons for us as well, when it comes to following the Lord, it's not necessarily are we successful? As much as it is are we faithful. I think that famous tree, uh, quote from Saint Mother Teresa was this, God does not desire me to be successful.

He merely desires me to be faithful. And this is one of those cases where here is Abijah, the king of Judah, who is successful. Why? Because he's faithful. That's the key.

One last note from one kings 13. Because we kind of skipped over this story. Here is in this one chapter. Here's a man of God who comes from Judah, so he's unnamed. Where does he go?

He goes from the kingdom of the south up to Jeroboam. And Jeroboam is up there worshiping false gods. And the man of God has his prophecy for Jeroboam, saying, you know, basically, you keep doing this things, bad things are coming for you. And so there's the sign. It comes true.

His hand gets withered. His hands comes, his hand gets restored, essentially. And this is. So this is where things get strange, where the man of God is invited by Jeroboam to have a meal with him, and the man of God says, no, I was told by the Lord to just simply go home to neither eat nor drink anything while I'm here and to go back by a different way. And there's this other prophet in Bethel, and he says, no, go get this guy.

So he goes. Gets it. Gets him on a donkey. And he lies to him and says, no. An angel told me to tell you that you can eat and drink with me, and it's going to be completely fine.

As a result of this, the man of God believes him. As a result of that, he has the food. As a result of that, on his way home, he gets eaten, or, sorry, killed by a lion, but not eaten by a lion, gets killed by a lion. And this prophet, from Bethel, in some ways, repents of what he's done. He realizes that he knows that he lied to this man.

And he realizes, here's the justice, that this man knew what the Lord God had asked him. He lied to him. The prophet had lied to him and deceived him. So that he went. The man of God went against the word of God.

So he puts him, he buries him in his own grave and then instructs his sons, when I die, bury me with this man whose death I am responsible for. It's this very interesting, very strange kind of story. But one of the themes is consistent with this whole book that revealed the divided kingdom in whole books of the Old Testament, which are all about, okay, when you know what God wants you to do, just do that. When you know what God has asked you to do, just do that. Because the temptation for all of us is to say, wait, does someone else have a different kind of teaching?

Does someone else have a different kind of insight into this? Even St. Paul says, even if an angel of light were to tell you a gospel different than the one we've shared with you, do not believe them. And that is a maybe veiled reference to this chapter, chapter 13 of first kings, where the man of God did believe the prophet of Bethel, who said that he had received a message from an angel of God. We are called to do what we know God has called us to do.

Even if someone were to say, hey, go against that, even if someone we respect were to say, go against that, we would know that, no, God has not told me to go against that. I must be faithful to the Lord. That's the key. Faithfulness and unfaithfulness are the theme. And so we pray that we are faithful because we know our hearts.

Our hearts have a tendency to become massively unfaithful. And so we need to pray, and we need to pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Fr.

Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.