Day 275: Esther Becomes Queen (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 275

Well done, everybody. Great day. What a gift. We are reading Nehemiah, Chapter 6 and 7, Esther Chapter 1 and 2 after we read Chapters 11 and 12 yesterday, as well as Proverbs Chapter 21, Verses 1 through 4 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, here's a little secret. You can visit ascensionpress.com/bible in a Year. Also, another little secret that people don't know about, you can subscribe to this podcast and you can receive daily episodes and updates every day, including today, day 275 And we're reading Nehemiah chapter 6 and 7, Esther chapter 1 and 2, Proverbs chapter 21 verses 1 through 4

The Book of Nehemiah chapter 6, Enemy Plots Avoided.

Now when it was reported to Sanballat and Tobiah and to Geshum the Arab and to the rest of our enemies that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it, although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates, Sanballat and Geshum sent to me saying, Come and let us meet together in one of the villages in the plain of Ono.

But they intended to do me harm, and I sent messengers to them saying, I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you? And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. In the same way, Sanballat, for the fifth time, sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. In it was written, It is reported among the nations, and Gesham also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel. That is why you are building the wall, and you wish to become their king according to this report. And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, there is a king in Judah. And now it will be reported to the king according to these words. So now come, and let us take counsel together.

Then I sent to him, saying, No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind. For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done. But now, O God, strengthen my hands. Now, when I went into the house of Shemaiah, the son of Deliah, son of Mahatabel, who was shut up, he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. At night they are coming to kill you. But I said, Should such a man as I flee?

And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in. And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me an evil name in order to taunt me. Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, oh my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.

The wall completed. So the wall was finished on the 25th day of the month Elul in 52 days. And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations round about us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah's letters came to them. For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shekiniah the son of Arrah, and his son, Johanan, had taken the daughter of Meshulam the son of Barakiah as his wife. Also, they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him, and Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.