Day 292: The Power of Words (2026)

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 292 We're reading 1 Maccabees, Chapter 11, continuing the history of the story of the people of God, Sirach 28 and 29, Proverbs 23, 9-12. As always, the Bible translation 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. And why not? Why not wait and say, you know what? Day 292, that was my day.

I didn't want to do it right away. And I also didn't want to do it like halfway through. But on day 292, kind of a palindrome of a number, that's the day that I wanted to subscribe. As I said, it is day 292 We're reading 1 Maccabees 11, more palindromes or at least a lot of ones, and Sirach 28 and 29, Proverbs 23 verses 9 through 12

The first book of Maccabees, chapter 11, Ptolemy invades Syria. Then the king of Egypt gathered great forces like the sand by the seashore and many ships, and he tried to get possession of Alexander's kingdom by trickery and add it to his own kingdom. He set out for Syria with peaceable words, and the people of the cities opened their gates to him and went to meet him, for Alexander the king had commanded them to meet him since he was Alexander's father-in-law. But when Ptolemy entered the cities, he stationed forces as a garrison in each city. When he approached Asiatus, they showed him the temple of Dagon burned down, and Asiatus and its suburbs destroyed, and the corpses lying about, and the charred bodies of those whom Jonathan had burned in the war, for they had piled them in heaps along his route. They also told the king what Jonathan had done to throw blame on him, but the king kept silent. Jonathan met the king at Joppa with some pomp, and they greeted one another and spent the night there. And Jonathan went with the king as far as the river called Eleutherus. Then he returned to Jerusalem. So King Ptolemy gained control of the coastal cities as far as Seleucia by the sea, and he kept devising evil designs against Alexander. He sent envoys to Demetrius the king, saying, Come, let us make a covenant with each other, and I will give you in marriage my daughter who is Alexander's wife, and you shall reign over your father's kingdom, for I now regret that I gave him my daughter, for he has tried to kill me. He threw blame on Alexander because he coveted his kingdom, so he took his daughter away from him and gave her to Demetrius. He was estranged from Alexander, and their enmity became manifest. Then Ptolemy entered Antioch and put on the crown of Asia. Thus he put two crowns upon his head, the crown of Egypt and that of Asia. Now Alexander the King was in Cilicia at that time because the people of that region were in revolt, and Alexander heard of it and came against him in battle. Ptolemy marched out and met him with a strong force and put him to flight, so Alexander fled into Arabia to find protection there, and King Ptolemy was exalted. And Zabdiel, the Arab, cut off the head of Alexander and sent it to Ptolemy. But King Ptolemy died three days later, and his troops in the strongholds were killed by the inhabitants of the strongholds. So Demetrius became king in the 167th year.

Jonathan's Diplomacy In those days, Jonathan assembled the men of Judea to attack the citadel in Jerusalem, and he built many engines of war to use against it. But certain lawless men who hated their nation went to the king and reported to him that Jonathan was besieging the citadel. When he heard this, he was angry, and as soon as he heard it, he set out and came to Ptolemaic, and he wrote to Jonathan not to continue the siege, but to meet him for a conference at Ptolemaic as quickly as possible. When Jonathan heard this, he gave orders to continue the siege, and he chose some of the elders of Israel and some of the priests, and put himself in danger. For he went to the king at Ptolemaic, taking silver and gold and clothing and numerous other gifts, and he won his favor. Although certain lawless men of his nation kept making complaints against him, the king treated him as his predecessors had treated him. He exalted him in the presence of all his friends. He confirmed him in the high priesthood and in as many other honors as he had formerly had, and he made him to be regarded as one of his chief friends. Then Jonathan asked the king to free Judea and the three districts of Samaria from tribute and promised him 300 talents. The king consented and wrote a letter to Jonathan about all these things. Its contents were as follows.