Day 248: Cut to the Heart (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 248 We are reading from Jeremiah chapters 35 and 36, as well as Judith chapters 6 and 7, and Proverbs chapter 17, verses 1-4. As always, the Bible translation I am 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 if you haven't done that yet. I'm not challenging. I'm just inviting. I'm not even inviting. I'm just letting you know that it's available if you want, if you wanted to. If you wanted to subscribe, you can. I mean, whatever, no big deal. It does, I don't take it personally.

It's fine. It's fine, you guys. It's fine.

As I said, it's day 248 We're reading Jeremiah 35 and 36, Judith 6 and 7, and Proverbs 17, verses 1 through 4

The Book of Jeremiah, Chapter 35, the Reckobites commended.

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, King of Judah, go to the house of the Reckobites and speak with them, and bring them to the house of the Lord into one of the chambers, then offer them wine to drink. So I took Jehazeniah, the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazeniah, and his brothers, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Reckobites. I brought them to the house of the Lord into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdalaiah, the man of God, which was near the chamber of the princes, above the chamber of Maasaiah, the son of Shalom, keeper of the threshold. Then I set before the Reckobites pitchers full of wine and cups, and I said to them, Drink wine. But they answered, We will drink no wine. For Jonadab, the son of Reckob, our father, commanded us, You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons, forever. You shall not build a house. You shall not sow seed. You shall not plant or have a vineyard. But you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn. We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab, the son of Reckob, our father, and all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or field or seed, but we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done all that Jonadab, our father, commanded us. But when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against the land, we said, Come and let us go to Jerusalem, for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and the army of the Syrians. So we are living in Jerusalem. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction and listen to my words, says the Lord? The command which Jonadab, the son of Rehkab, gave to his sons to drink no wine has been kept, and they drink none to this day. For they have obeyed their father's command. I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened to me. I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently, saying, Turn now every one of you from his evil way, and amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell in the land which I gave to you and your fathers. But you did not incline your ear or listen to me. The sons of Jonadab, the son of Rehkab, have kept the command which their father gave them, but this people has not obeyed me.

Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing on Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them and they have not listened. I have called to them and they have not answered. But to the house of the Rehkabites, Jeremiah said, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab, your father, and kept all his precepts and done all that he commanded you. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab, the son of Rehkab, shall never lack a man to stand before me.