Day 277: Such a Time as This (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 in his day 277 We're reading Nehemiah chapter 9, Esther chapter 4 and 14, as well as Proverbs chapter 21 verses 9 through 12 As always, the Bible translation I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd 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 the daily episodes and daily updates. It's day 277 We're reading Nehemiah 9, Esther 4 and 14, Proverbs chapter 21 verses 9 through 12

The Book of Nehemiah chapter 9, Public Confession and Worship.

Now on the 24th day of this month, the sons of Israel were assembling with fasting and in sackcloth and with earth upon their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day. For another fourth of it, they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God. Upon the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shabaniah, Buni, Shirabiah, Bani, and Shanani. And they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabaniah, Shirabiah, Hodiah, Shabaniah, and Pethahiah said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

Ezra's prayer to God. And Ezra said, You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. And you preserve all of them, and the host of heaven worships you. You are the Lord, the God who chose Abraham and brought him forth out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and gave him the name Abraham. And you found his heart faithful before you, and made with him the covenant to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And you have fulfilled your promise, for you are righteous. And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry at the Red Sea, and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted insolently against our fathers. And you got yourself a name, as it is to this day. And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths as a stone into mighty waters. By a pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go. You came down upon Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments. And you made known to them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant.

You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought forth water for them from the rock for their thirst. And you told them to go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them. But they and our fathers acted presumptuously, and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey, and were not mindful of the wonders which you performed among them. But they stiffened their neck, and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. But you are a god ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and did not forsake them. Even when they had made for themselves a molten calf and said, This is your god who brought you up out of Egypt, and had committed great blasphemies, you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud which led them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night which lighted for them the way by which they should go.