Day 225: Our Will Versus God's Will (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 225 We're reading from Jeremiah chapter 2 We just started yesterday, Jeremiah chapter 1 and Ezekiel chapter 28 We're also reading from Proverbs chapter 14 verses 9 through 12 As always, the Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition. I am 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 also can subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and you receive daily episodes right in your, I was going to say inbox, but you don't get them in your inbox, you get them whenever you open up your app. Then you see them right there. Bam! Day 225, if you subscribe today, tomorrow it will be day 226, which is pretty incredible.
As I said, it's day 225 We are reading from Jeremiah 2, Ezekiel 28 and Proverbs 14 verses 9 through 12
The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapter 2, Israel's Apostasy. The word of the Lord came to me saying, go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest. All who ate of it became guilty, evil came upon them, says the Lord.
Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord, What wrong did your fathers find in me, that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? They did not say, Where is the Lord who brought us up out of the land of Egypt? Who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells? And I brought you into a plentiful land, to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? Those who handle the law did not know me. The rulers transgressed against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after things that do not profit.
Therefore, I still contend with you, says the Lord, and with your children's children I will contend. For cross to the coasts of Cyprus, and see, or send to Kadar, and examine with care. See if there has been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory, for that which does not profit.
Be appalled, O heavens, at this. Be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the Lord. For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
Is Israel a slave? Is he a home-born servant? Why then has he become a prey? The lions have roared against him. They have roared loudly. They have made his land a waste. His cities are in ruins, without inhabitant. Moreover, the men of Memphis and Taphanes have broken the crown of your head. Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord your God when He led you in the way?
And now, what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates? Your wickedness will chasten you, and your apostasy will reprove you.
Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God. The fear of me is not in you, says the Lord God of hosts.
For long ago you broke your yoke and burst your bonds, and you said, I will not serve. Yes, upon every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down as a harlot. Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine? Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, says the Lord God. How can you say, I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals? Look at your way in the valley, know what you have done. A rest of young camel interlacing her tracks, a wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind. Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves. In her month they will find her.