Day 208: The Futility of Idols (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 208 We're reading today from Isaiah 37 and 38 We're basically halfway through Isaiah, it's pretty phenomenal. We're also reading from the last two chapters of the Prophet Baruch, chapters 5 and 6, also Proverbs 11 verses 25-28.
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is 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 to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes. As I said, today is day 208 We are reading today from Isaiah 37 and 38, Baruch 5 and 6, Proverbs 11, verses 25-28.
The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 37 Hezekiah Consults Isaiah. When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shepna the secretary and the senior priests clothed with sackcloth to the Prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz. They said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace. Children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the Lord your God heard the words of the Rapshaka, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left. When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, Say to your master, Thus says the Lord, Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land. The Rapshaka returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libna, for he had heard that the king had left Lakshish. Now the king had heard concerning Tirhaka, king of Ethiopia, he has set out to fight against you, and when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah. Do not let your god on whom you rely deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them utterly. And shall you be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations which my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezef, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of the Savarphiim, the king of Hanna, or the king of Eva?
Hezekiah's Prayer Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear, open your eyes, O Lord, and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Of a truth, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore, they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says the Lord the God of Israel, Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib, king of Assyria, this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him. She despises you, she scorns you, the virgin daughter of Zion. She wags her head behind you, the daughter of Jerusalem. Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and heartily lifted your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel. By your servants you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains to the far recesses of Lebanon. I felled its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses. I came to its remotest height, its densest forest. I dug wells and drank waters, and I dried up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.