Father Mike Schmitz hosts day 68 of the Bible in a Year podcast, reading from The Great Adventure Bible using the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. Today's readings cover Numbers chapters 19-20, Deuteronomy 21, and Psalm 100.

The episode explores the ceremony of the red heifer and laws concerning ritual purity, followed by the critical moment when Moses strikes the rock in anger rather than speaking to it as God commanded. This act of disobedience costs Moses and Aaron their chance to enter the Promised Land.

The readings continue with Israel's refused passage through Edom, highlighting ongoing family tensions between Jacob and Esau's descendants, and conclude with Deuteronomy's laws about captive wives, inheritance rights, and capital punishment that demonstrate God's mercy within justice.

The Red Heifer Ceremony and Ritual Purity Laws

The red heifer ceremony requires burning the entire animal with cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet material - the same hyssop used in Passover and later offered to Jesus on the cross.

Laws concerning contact with the dead require seven days of purification, including cleansing on the third and seventh days with special water mixed with the heifer's ashes.

Jesus later references these purity laws when calling the Pharisees 'whitewashed tombs' - clean on the outside but full of dead men's bones inside.

Moses Strikes the Rock: A Leadership Failure

At the wilderness of Zin, God commands Moses to speak to the rock before the congregation to bring forth water, but Moses strikes it twice in anger instead.

"Because you did not believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them" - God's judgment on Moses and Aaron.

Paul later identifies the rock as Christ, making Moses's angry striking of it symbolically significant as violence against the symbol of Jesus.

Leaders are held to different standards - Moses's faithful service doesn't excuse this public failure to witness God's righteousness and mercy.

Edom Refuses Passage: Family Brokenness Persists

Israel requests passage through Edom's territory, appealing as family since Edomites descend from Esau and Israelites from Jacob.

"You shall not pass through, lest I come out with sword against you" - Edom's refusal despite Israel's promise to stay on the king's highway and pay for any water used.

The rejection demonstrates how Jacob's theft of Esau's blessing created generational family division that persists centuries later.

Deuteronomy's Laws: Mercy Within Brutal Realities

Laws about captive wives require treating them as full family members - they must be given time to mourn, cannot be sold as slaves, and must be divorced with dignity if the marriage fails.

Inheritance laws protect firstborn sons even from unloved wives, preventing favoritism from overriding legal rights and family stability.

Capital punishment laws require burial before nightfall - "His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall bury him the same day" - showing mercy even in justice.

These laws represent "God's word coming into a brutal and vicious world and saying, Let's make it a little less brutal, a little less vicious."

Christ as the Cursed One Who Brings Blessing

Deuteronomy 21 states "cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree," which Paul quotes in Galatians 3 to explain Christ's redemptive work.

"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us... that the blessing of Abraham might come upon us" - Paul's interpretation of the hanging curse.

Jesus voluntarily accepted the curse that belonged to humanity, hanging on the tree of the cross to transform curse into blessing for all people.