Day 252: Queen of Heaven (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 252, day 252, and we're reading from Jeremiah chapter 43 and 44, the final two chapters of Judith, the great heroine of the Old Testament, verse 15 and 16, as well as Proverbs chapter 17, verses 17 through 20 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 and receive daily episodes.

Now, that was a secret. I don't want people finding out about the ability to subscribe, but I want to trust you, you alone with this insider information of the ability to subscribe and then you get the podcast delivered to you, to your pocket or to your computer or wherever you listen to this podcast. As I said, it's day 252 We're reading Jeremiah chapter 43 and 44, Judith 15 and 16, final two chapters, as well as Proverbs chapter 17 verses 17 through 20

The Book of Jeremiah chapter 43 Jeremiah warns of judgment.

When Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people, all these words of the Lord their God, with which the Lord, their God, had sent him to them, Azariah, the son of Hoshiah, and Johanan, the son of Korea. And all the insolent men said to Jeremiah, You are telling a lie. The Lord our God did not send you to say, Do not go to Egypt to live there. But Baruch, the son of Neriah, has set you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may kill us or take us into exile in Babylon. So Johanan, the son of Korea, and all the commanders of the forces and all the people did not obey the voice of the Lord, to remain in the land of Judah. But Johanan, the son of Korea, and all the commanders of the forces took all the remnant of Judah, who had returned to live in the land of Judah from all the nations to which they had been driven, the men, the women, the children, the princesses, and every person whom Nebuchadnezzar the captain of the guard had left with Gedalia, the son of Ahikam, son of Shefan, also Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch, the son of Neriah. And they came to the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the Lord. And they arrived at Tapanes.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in Tapanes. Take in your hands large stones, and hide them in the mortar in the pavement, which is at the entrance to Pharaoh's palace in Tapanes, in the sight of the men of Judah, and say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and he will set his throne above these stones which I have hid, and he will spread his royal canopy over them. He shall come and strike the land of Egypt, giving to the pestilence those who are doomed to the pestilence, to captivity those who are doomed to captivity and to the sword those who are doomed to the sword. He shall kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt and he shall burn them and carry them away captive. He shall clean the land of Egypt as a shepherd cleans his cloak of a vermin, and he shall go away from there in peace. He shall break the obelisks of Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt, and the temples of the gods of Egypt he shall burn with fire.

Chapter 44, Denunciation of Idolatry in Egypt.

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews that dwelt in the land of Egypt, at Migdal, at Tapanes, at Memphis, and in the land of Pathros. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, You have seen all the evil that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. Behold, this day they are at desolation, and no one dwells in them because of the wickedness which they committed, provoking me to anger, in that they went to burn incense and serve other gods that they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants, the prophets, saying, Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate. But they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from their wickedness and burn no incense to other gods.