Day 212: God's Instrument (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 212 We're reading from Isaiah 45 and 46, also Ezekiel 6 and 7 and Proverbs 12, verses 9-12. The Bible translation that I'm reading from, as always, is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd 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 and updates and all those kinds of things that we do. It is day 212 As I said, we are now in Isaiah 45 and 46, Ezekiel 6 and 7, and Proverbs 12, verses 9 through 12
The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 45, Cyrus, God's instrument.
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and uncover the loins of kings, to open doors before him, that gates may not be closed. I will go before you and level the mountains. I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel, my chosen, I call you by your name. I surname you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. Besides me, there is no God. I clothe you, though you do not know me, that men may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create woe. I am the Lord, who do all these things. Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness, let the earth open, that salvation may sprout forth, and let it cause righteousness to spring up also. I, the Lord, have created it. Woe to him who strives with his maker, an earthen vessel with the potter! Does the clay say to him who fashions it, What are you making? or Your work has no handles? Woe to him who says to a father, What are you begetting? or to a woman, with what are you suffering labor pains? Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his maker, Will you question me about my children, or command me concerning the work of my hands? I made the earth and created man upon it. It was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their hosts. I have aroused him in righteousness, and I will make straight all his ways. He shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward, says the Lord of hosts. Thus says the Lord, the wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Ethiopia and the Sibians, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours. They shall follow you, they shall come over in chains and bow down to you. They will make supplication to you, saying, God is with you only, and there is no other, no God besides him. Truly, you are a God who hide yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior. All of them are put to shame and confounded, the makers of idols go in confusion together. But Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation. You shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity. For thus says the Lord who created the heavens, He is God, who formed the earth and made it, He established it, He did not create it a chaos, He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I did not speak in secret in a land of darkness, I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, Seek me in chaos. I, the Lord, speak the truth. I declare what is right.
Assemble yourselves, and come, draw near together, you survivors of the nations. They have no knowledge, who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a God that cannot save. Declare and present your case, let them take counsel together. Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides me. A righteous God and a Savior, there is none besides me.