Day 60: Intercessory Prayer (2026)

0:00Before we get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thank you to all those who have supported the catechism in here or the Bible in your podcasts We hear stories every day about how those shows have transformed people's lives and because of your prayers of financial gifts You are a significant part of that. You might ask a question though. Question is, what does ascension do with these financial gifts? Great question. The answer is we make authentically Catholic podcasts and videos in other digital content To help people know the Catholic faith and grow closer to God and we do it all for free If you found this podcast be helpful in your life and we're like to help us continue making free Catholic content We can post online. Please consider making a financial contribution and ongoing financial contribution by going to ascensionpress.com Slash support. That's ascensionpress.com slash support. Thank you and God bless Hi, my name is Father 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

1:04Using 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 60 as I say yesterday That is two months not three. It's two months of being able to be formed of being formed by God's word Congratulations. This is it is an accomplishment. They say it takes 30 days to make a make a habit and if you've made it here today 60 you have a double habit today on day 60. We're reading Numbers chapter 10 in Deuteronomy chapter 9 will also be praying from Psalm 10 Psalm 10 is what we're praying with today 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 slash Bible in a year And also if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast I invite you to take a little moment and click on subscribe and then you'll be subscribed and Your job will be done as we read from Numbers chapter 10 Deuteronomy chapter 9 in Psalm 10

2:10The Book of Numbers chapter 10 the silver trumpets The Lord said to Moses make two silver trumpets of hammered work You shall make them and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for breaking camp and when both are blown All the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the entrance of the tent of meeting But if they blow only one then the leaders the heads of the tribes of Israel should gather themselves to you When you blow an alarm the camps that are on the east side shall set out and when you blow an alarm the Second time the camps that are on the south side shall set out An alarm is to be blown whenever they are to set out But when the assembly is to be gathered together you shall blow but you shall not sound an alarm and the sons of Aaron the priests Shall blow the trumpets the trumpets shall be to you for a perpetual statute throughout your generations And when you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets That you may be remembered before the Lord your God and you shall be saved from your enemies

3:15On the day of your gladness also and at your appointed feasts and at the beginnings of your months You shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings They shall serve you for remembrance before your God. I am the Lord your God Departure from Sinai In the second year in the second month on the 20th day of the month The cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the covenant and the sons of Israel set out by stages from the wilderness of Sinai And the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Peron They set out for the first time at the command of the Lord by Moses the standard of the camp of the men of Judah set out first by their companies And over their host was Nashon the son of a Minadeb and over the host of the tribe of the men of Isaacar Was Nethanel the son of Zuer and over the host of the tribe of the men of Zebulin was Eliab the son of Helan And when the tabernacle was taken down the sons of Gershon and the sons of Marari who carried the tabernacle set out And the standard of the camp of Rubin set out by their companies and over their host was Elizur the son of Shedur and

4:21Over the host of the tribe of the men of Simeon was Shilomil the son of Zerushadai and Over the host of the tribe of the men of Gad is Eliasaph the son of Deul Then the coethites set out carrying the holy things and the tabernacle was set up before their arrival And the standard of the camp of the men of Ephraim set out by their companies and over their host was Elishama the son of Amihud And over the host of the tribe of the men of Menasa was Gamaliel the son of Pedizur and Over the host of the tribe of the men of Benjamin was Abidhan the son of Gideonai Then the standard of the camp of the men of Dan acting as the rear guard of all the camps set out by their companies And over their host was Ahiezar the son of Amishadai And over the host of the tribe of the men of Asher was Pagiel the son of Okran and Over the host of the tribe of the men of Naftali was Ahaira the son of Inan This was the order of March of the sons of Israel according to their hosts when they set out and

5:23Moses said to Hobab the son of Raoul the Midianite Moses's father-in-law We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said I will give it to you Come with us and we will do you good for the Lord has promised good to Israel But he said to him I will not go I will depart to my own land and to my kindred And he said do not leave us I beg you for you know how we are to encamp in the wilderness And you will serve as eyes for us and if you go with us whatever good the Lord will do to us the same will we do to you So they set out from the mount of the Lord three days journey and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them three days Journey to seek out a resting place for them and the cloud of the Lord was over them by day Whenever they set out from the camp and whenever the ark set out Moses said arise O Lord and let your enemies be scattered and let them who hate you flee before you And when it rested he said

6:24Return all Lord to the 10,000 thousands of Israel The book of Deuteronomy chapter 9 Consequences of rebelling against God Moses continued Here O Israel you are to pass over the Jordan this day to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves Cities great and fortified up to heaven a people great and tall the sons of the anachim whom you know And of whom you have heard it said who can stand before the sons of anach Know therefore this day that he who goes over before you as a devouring fire is the Lord your God He will destroy them and subdue them before you So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly as the Lord has promised you Do not say in your heart after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me into possess this land Whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you

7:28Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart Are you going into possess their land but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out before you And that he may confirm the word which the Lord swore to your fathers to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob Know therefore that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness for you are a stubborn people Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath and the wilderness from the day You came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place You have been rebellious against the Lord Even at horub you provoked the Lord to wrath and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you When I went up the mountain to receive the tables of stone the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you I remained on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights I neither ate bread nor drank water and the Lord God gave me two tables of stone written with the finger of God

8:28In on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly And at the end of 40 days and 40 nights The Lord gave me the two tables of stone the tables of the covenant Then the Lord said to me arise go down quickly from here for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them They have made themselves a molten image Furthermore the Lord said to me I have seen this people and behold it is a stubborn people Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they So I turned and came down from the mountain and the mountain was burning with fire and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands And I looked and behold you had sinned against the Lord your God You had made yourselves a molten calf You had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you

9:30So I took hold of the two tables and cast them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before 40 days and 40 nights I neither ate bread nor drank water because of all this in which you had committed In doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger For I was afraid of the anger and hot this pleasure which the Lord bore against you So that he was ready to destroy you But the Lord listened to me that time also And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time Then I took the sinful thing the calf which you had made and burned it with fire and crushed it grinding it very small Until it was as fine as dust and I threw the dust of it into the brook that descended out of the mountain Atabra also and at Masa the Kibraath Hattava you provoked the Lord to wrath And when the Lord sent you up from Kadesh Barnea saying go up and take possession of the land which I have given you

10:32Then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and did not believe him or obey his voice You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these 40 days and 40 nights Because the Lord had said he would destroy you and I prayed to the Lord Oh Lord God do not destroy your people and your heritage whom you have redeemed through your greatness whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand Remember your servants Abraham Isaac and Jacob do not regard the subordinous of this people or their wickedness or their sin Lest the land from which you brought us say Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them and because he hated them He has brought them out to dislay them in the wilderness For they are your people and your heritage whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm

11:32Psalm 10 prayer for deliverance from enemies Why do you stand afar off O Lord? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble in arrogance The wicked hotly pursue the poor Let them be caught in the schemes which they have devised For the wicked boasts of the desires of his heart and the man greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord In the pride of his countenance the wicked does not seek him all his thoughts are there is no God His ways prosper at all times Your judgments are on high out of his sight as for all his foes he puffs at them He thinks in his heart. I shall not be moved Throughout all generations. I shall not meet adversity His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression Under his tongue are mischief and iniquity He sits in ambush in the villages in hiding places. He murders the innocent His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless

12:33He lurks in secret like a lion in his den He lurks that he may seize the poor he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net The hapless is crushed sinks down and falls by his might and he thinks in his heart God has forgotten. He has hidden his face. He will never see it Arise, O Lord O God lift up your hand forget not the poor Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart you will not call to account You see yes you note trouble and vexation that you may take it into your hands The hapless commits himself to you You have been the helper of the fatherless Break the arm of the wicked and evil doer seek out his wickedness till you find none The Lord is king forever and ever the nations shall perish from his land O Lord you will hear the desire of the meek You will strengthen their heart You will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed

13:36So that man who is of earth may strike terror no more Father in heaven we thank you and we give you praise just like the psalmist praying this psalm 10 Lord God it seems like so often those who do not listen to you And those who do whatever they want those who hurt other people among us seem to be the most blessed sometimes The ones who say who cares about God where's God seem to have even happiness they seem to even have joy they seem to have maybe even sometimes more Love than those who are listening to your word and those who look for you and everything Lord those who follow you Sometimes seem to have more problems than those who forget about you Those who ignore you even those who outright reject you Lord God this is such a mystery to us So just like the psalmist we recognize the truth the truth is that there are some people who Want nothing to do with you God that seem to have everything going right for them

14:38And some people who love you with their whole heart and seem to be Forg seem to be forgotten But we know the truth Lord God that you are just and you do not forget The cry of the poor you do not neglect those whom you love And so we continue to cry out to you We continue to listen to your word we continue To place our trust our hope in our entire lives in you alone In Jesus name we pray amen the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen. So as we said We are going through numbers chapter 10 and Deuteronomy chapter 9 a couple things just to kind of keep in mind Numbers they're going into the wilderness and so this is this is the the move This is where they first start moving. This is the narrative book. Remember numbers is Along those the line of the books that are the narrative books of the Bible This story in numbers is when he hear the people they're consecrated They're divided into their tribes right to write into their families

15:41And now the Lord God is said just like he said yesterday in yesterday's readings When the column of fire the column of cloud lifts up you're going to follow it and that's what happens And the standard of the camp the children of Judah set out first Remember we said this before Judah his name means praise and so Judah leads the way Because we always lead with praise lead with praising of the Lord But they begin the journey and something is important to note remember when the people of Israel the the camping in the wilderness How that was described at the center of everything was the tent of meeting or the tabernacle And that's where the Levites were and then around them in those four directions north south east and west Where the remaining remaining families remaining tribes of Israel And so now as they're being led it goes forth half the tribes of Israel lead And then comes the tabernacle temp tent of meeting with the Gershianites and the coathites and the Mererites And then the remaining tribes following so in the center even as they're traveling is

16:41The presence of the Lord and the sacred objects In the tent of meeting or in the tabernacle and that's something so powerful once again just to remember They set out on a journey of three days and they went to the wilderness of paran One thing to note is that there are three kind of main locations in the book of numbers The first is where we've been for the last Ultimately now about two years and that is the wilderness of Sinai. They're at the Mount Sinai Now they're headed to the wilderness of paran They're going to spend most of their time the wilderness of paran and the third place is the wilderness of Moab Right Moab is right across the Jordan River and from Moab you can see Jericho You can see the promised land and that's where they're going to cross the Jordan River I don't want to spoil our alert. They're going to cross the Jordan River and go into the wilderness or sorry go into the promised land But keeping this in mind that the children in Israel the three deserts are three wildernesses the wilderness or the desert of Sinai the wilderness of paran That's where they're headed today and The wilderness of Moab that's where Moses is giving his speech He's giving that speech in the wilderness the plains of Moab as they look out over the Jordan River across the Jordan River

17:46Into the promised land and one of the things that we hear in today's I'm reading from Deuteronomy now again Numbers at the beginning of their journey Deuteronomy is at the end of their journey What we hear is through Moses God is saying I Know that you are going to fail Here through Moses God is saying This is your story part of your story is Immediately when I set you free from slavery in Egypt and brought you to this place Immediately you turned away and I know that's what your hearts are like And so Moses recounts a number of places where this happened where it was the golden calf at Sinai. They talks about tabara A tabara that we're going to hear read about that in Numbers chapter 11 which is coming tomorrow. It's the place where The people of Israel immediately complained Against gods Providing for them Then he talks what a place called Massa and then we already heard about that next to this chapter 17 where they were tempted

18:52Then we're going to talk about Kibrat Hatava, which means the graves of craving And this is also in Numbers chapter 11 It's where we're going to hear about tomorrow that they craved for all those treats they had back in Is back in Egypt and so here is these places of a failure here. These places where God had brought his people to provide for them and they failed to trust in him and also Moses goes on to Communicate that I interceded on your behalf That it took a mediator between God and man To give you his mercy One of the reasons why we realized that Jesus is the fulfillment of Moses that Jesus is the new Moses Not only because he gives us a new law right in the be attitudes and the sermon on the mount But also because Moses is that or Sir Jesus is like Is mo like Moses in the sense that he stands in the gap just like Abraham stood in the breach before the Lord

19:54Here is Moses who multiple times when we read through the book of Numbers We'll stand between the Lord and the people interceding on their behalf and calling upon the Lord's mercy And the Lord here is the prayers of Moses just like here is Jesus Christ on the cross Saying Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing And we realized that Not only does Moses and Abraham and the whole Bible Ultimately Jesus reveals that the the depth of the heart of God is the heart of mercy That even when we are unfaithful God gives us his mercy that we when we fall away that God remains steadfast And so he gave Moses the opportunity to stand in the gap Jesus Christ was sent as the one mediator between God and man And we are also called We are called to pray for each other we're called to stand in that gap and be like Moses to stand in that gap And be like Jesus and to be able to say I'm lifting up my brothers and sisters right now Because here we are on day 60 and I gotta tell you

20:57Those of us who are walking this journey We need each other I know that I need your prayers so much And I I know that so many of you are going through so much right now that just it's just this weight of Of life this burden of feeling crushed That just knowing that you have brothers and sisters who are praying these words with you who are listening to these words with you are going through this Bible in the year with you and they're also praying for you They're also mediating and interceding on your behalf. So let's keep praying for each other Because we need each other We have our Lord Jesus and he intercedes he lives to intercede at the right hand of the Father We have each other We keep praying for each other we give God praise and let you to go up first And we keep showing up my name is Father Mike and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow when you show up again God bless

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