Day 201: Keys to the Kingdom (2026)

**Fr. Mike Schmitz** (0:04)
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 201, 201 days. We're reading from Isaiah chapter 21 and 22, Nahum, I keep saying that, I don't know why I do it, but we do it, Nahum chapter 3, it's only three chapters long, so we read the entire book in two days. Also, we're reading Proverbs chapter 10 verses 29 through 32 I said reading Proverbs, not eating Proverbs, hopefully you caught that. As always, the Bible translation that I am reading from, not eating from, is also the revised standard version, 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/bible in a Year. You can also subscribe in your podcast to receive daily episodes every day. That's how daily episodes work. But as I said, today is day 201, reading Isaiah 21 and 22, Nahum chapter 3, and Proverbs 10 verses 29 through 32
The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 21, Oracles Concerning Babylon, Edom and Arabia. The Oracle Concerning the Wilderness of the Sea.
As whirlwinds in the Negev sweep on, it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. A stern vision is told to me, the plunderer plunders, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam, lay siege o Medea. All the sighing she has caused I bring to an end. Therefore, my loins are filled with anguish. Pengs have seized me like the pengs of a woman with labor pains. I am bowed down so that I cannot hear. I am dismayed so that I cannot see. My mind reels. Horror has appalled me. The twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling. They prepare the table. They spread the rugs. They eat. They drink.
Arise, O princes, oil the shield. For thus the Lord said to me, Go, set a watchman. Let him announce what he sees. When he sees riders, horsemen and pairs, Riders on donkeys, riders on camels, Let him listen diligently, very diligently.
Then he who saw cried, Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord, Continually by day, and at my post I am stationed whole nights. And behold, here come riders, horsemen and pairs. And he answered, Fallen, fallen is Babylon, And all the images of her gods he has shattered to the ground. O my threshed and widowed one, What I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I announce to you.
The Oracle Concerning Dumah.
One is calling to me from Sair, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman says, Morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire, come back again. The Oracle Concerning Arabia. In the thickets of Arabia, You will lodge, O caravans of the Deatonites, To the thirsty bring water. Meet the fugitive with bread, O inhabitants of the land of Tima. For they have fled from the swords, From the drawn sword, From the bent bow, And from the press of battle. For thus the Lord said to me, Within a year, According to the years of a hireling, All the glory of Kadar will come to an end, And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men Of the sons of Kadar will be few. For the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.
Chapter 22, An Oracle Concerning the Valley of Vision.
The Oracle Concerning the Valley of Vision.
What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops, you who are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town? Your slain are not slain with the sword or dead in battle. All your rulers have fled together. Without the bow, they were captured. All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled far away.
Therefore, I said, look away from me. Let me weep bitter tears. Do not labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people. For the Lord of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, a battering down of walls and a shouting to the mountains. And Elam bore the quiver with chariots and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield. Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen took their stand at the gates. He has taken away the covering of Judah.