Hi, my name is Father 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 unfold and how we fit into that story today. It is day

304. We're reading

today from the second book of the Maccabees chapter 7, wisdom, chapter 3 and 4, as well as Proverbs chapter 24, 27 through 29. 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 at ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.

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and daily updates. As I said, today is day 304. One of the things you want to note is that yesterday we had the story of Elie Azar, who was willing to be a martyr rather than abandon the laws of his fathers. Today, we have the story of the mother and her seven sons, these seven brothers. And so it's a little bit graphic when it comes to the martyrdom that they undergo. So in the past, people have reached out and said, hey, could you give us a heads up when there's going to be some kind of more intense scenes, maybe some PG-13 scenes? And so this is your heads up because it is an incredible story.

But it's also, I think it's an incredible story of faithfulness. And it, well, you know your kids if you're listening with your kids. So, yeah, here we go. It's day 304, reading second Maccabees chapter 7, wisdom 3 and 4, Proverbs chapter 24 versus 27 through 29. The second book of the maccabees chapter seven the martyrdom of the seven

brothers it happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king

under torture with whips and cords to partake of unlawful swine's flesh one of them acting as their

spokesman said what do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress

the laws of our fathers. The king fell into a rage and gave orders that pans and cauldrons be

heated. These were heated immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesmen

be cut out, and that they scalp him and cut off his

hands and feet while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on. When he was utterly helpless,

the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke

from the pan spread widely, but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly,

saying,

The Lord God is watching over us, and in truth has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his song which bore witness against the people to their faces when he said, and he will have compassion

...