Day 241: Daniel and the Den of Lions (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 241 We're reading today from Jeremiah chapter 24 and 25, also Daniel 6 and 7, and Proverbs chapter 16 verses 5 through 8 As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the 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 and daily updates and all the things you need for every day. Not all the things, but the things when it comes to The Bible in a Year. It's day 241 As I said, we are reading from Jeremiah chapter 24 and 25, but Daniel chapter 6 and chapter 7, Proverbs chapter 16, verses 5 through 8
The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, chapter 24 Two Baskets, Good and Bad Figs.
After Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had taken into exile from Jerusalem, Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the princes of Judah, the craftsmen and the smiths, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision. Behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. One basket had very good figs, like first ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. And the Lord said to me, What do you see, Jeremiah? I said, Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten. Then the word of the Lord came to me.
Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
But thus says the Lord, like the bad figs, which are so bad, they cannot be eaten. So will I treat Zedekiah, the King of Judah, his princes, the remnant of Jerusalem, who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land, which I gave to them and their fathers.
Chapter 25, The Babylonian Captivity Foretold The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah from the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened. You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord persistently sent to you all his servants, the prophets, saying, Turn now every one of you from his evil way and wrongdoings, and dwell upon the land which the Lord has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever. Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm. Yet you have not listened to me, says the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, because you have not obeyed my words, I will be told, I will send for all the tribes of the north, says the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about. I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting reproach. Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones, and the light of the lamp. This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the King of Babylon 70 years. Then, after 70 years are completed, I will punish the King of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.