Day 287: Eleazar's Sacrifice (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 is Day 287 We're reading from 1 Maccabees, Chapter 6, as well as Sirach 16, 17, and 18 I've been doing those 3 days, 3 chapters a day with Sirach for the last few days. We're also reading Proverbs 22, Verses 17-21. As always, the Bible translation that I'm 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 being subscribed. You get to receive daily episodes, daily updates. This day is Day 287

And, gosh, also, let's just say it. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad. Day 287 We're reading 1 Maccabees, Chapter 6, Sirach 16, 17, and 18, and Proverbs 22, 17 through 21

The First Book of Maccabees, Chapter 6

The Last Days of Antiochus Epiphanes.

King Antiochus was going through the upper provinces when he heard that Elemaeus in Persia was a city famed for its wealth in silver and gold. Its temple was very rich, containing golden shields, breastplates, and weapons left there by Alexander, the son of Philip, the Macedonian king who first reigned over the Greeks. So he came and tried to take the city and plunder it, but he could not because his plan became known to the men of the city, and they withstood him in battle. So he fled and in great grief departed from there to return to Babylon. Then someone came to him in Persia and reported that the armies which had gone into the land of Judah had been routed, that Lysias had gone first with a strong force, but had turned and fled before the Jews, that the Jews had grown strong from the arms, supplies and abundant spoils which they had taken from the armies they had cut down, that they had torn down the abomination which he had erected upon the altar in Jerusalem, and that they had surrounded the sanctuary with high walls as before, and also Betzur his city. When the king heard this news, he was astounded and badly shaken. He took to his bed and became sick from grief because things had not turned out for him as he had planned. He lay there for many days because deep grief continually gripped him, and he concluded that he was dying. So he called all his friends and said to them, Sleep departs from my eyes and I am downhearted with worry. I said to myself, To what distress I have come, and into what a great flood I now am plunged, for I was kind and beloved in my power. But now I remember the evils I did in Jerusalem. I seized all her vessels of silver and gold, and I sent to destroy the inhabitants of Judah without good reason.

I know that it is because of this that these evils have come upon me, and behold, I am perishing of deep grief in a strange land.

Then he called for Philip, one of his friends, and made him ruler over all his kingdom. He gave him the crown and his robe and the signet, that he might guide Antiochus his son and bring him up to be king. Thus Antiochus the king died there in the 149th year. And when Lysaias learned that the king was dead, he set up Antiochus the king's son to reign. Lysaias had brought him up as a boy, and he named him Eupator.

Renewed attacks from Syria. Now the men in the Citadel kept hemming Israel in around the sanctuary. They were trying in every way to harm them and strengthen the Gentiles. So Judas decided to destroy them and assembled all the people to besiege them. They gathered together and besieged the Citadel in the 150th year, and he built siege towers and other engines of war.

But some of the garrison escaped from the siege, and some of the ungodly Israelites joined them. They went to the king and said, How long will you fail to do justice and to avenge our brethren? We were happy to serve your father, to live by what he said, and to follow his commands. For this reason, the sons of our people besieged the Citadel and became hostile to us. Moreover, they have put to death as many of us as they have caught, and they have seized our inheritances. And not against us alone have they stretched out their hands, but also against all the lands on their borders. And behold, today they have encamped against the Citadel in Jerusalem to take it. They have fortified both the sanctuary and Beth-Tur. And unless you quickly prevent them, they will do still greater things, and you will not be able to stop them.