Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 36–37; Psalm 110; Revelation 19 Click HERE to give! One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on the Daily Radio Bible, a daily Bible‑in‑a‑year podcast with 20‑minute Scripture readings, Christ‑centered devotion, and guided prayer.This daily Bible reading and devotional invites you to live as a citizen of Jesus’ kingdom, reconciled, renewed, and deeply loved.
TODAY'S EPISODE:
Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible. Today is September 14th, and our readings are Ezekiel 36–37, Psalm 110, and Revelation 19.
Today we are given one of Scripture’s most extraordinary pictures of restoration and hope: Ezekiel standing in a valley filled with dry, scattered bones.
God asks Ezekiel a remarkable question: “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”
Humanly speaking, the answer seems obvious. These bones are beyond repair. There is no life here. There is no future here.
But God sees something Ezekiel cannot yet see.
At God’s word, bones begin coming together. Tendons and flesh appear. Breath enters them. What had been dead stands alive.
Ezekiel also speaks of God giving his people a new heart and a new spirit, replacing hearts of stone with hearts that are alive to God.
Psalm 110 looks toward God’s victorious King, and Revelation 19 gives us another sweeping vision of that victory, culminating in the appearing of Christ.
Through all these images, we are being invited to see beyond appearances.
Death does not have the final word.
Failure does not have the final word.
Exile does not have the final word.
God is the God who brings life out of death. And in Jesus, the One who is Resurrection and Life, we discover that this new life is not something we achieve.
It is gift.
TODAY'S DEVOTION:
Can These Bones Live? People can get the wrong impression about God.
That's part of what I hear in Ezekiel today.
When people look at suffering, hardship, exile, and loss, they can begin to wonder whether God is really good.
Or perhaps whether God is good but simply isn't powerful enough to help when we really need him.
Ezekiel's people had plenty of reasons to wonder.
Their world had fallen apart.
They had lost their land, their city, their temple, their security.
Everything that once seemed permanent was gone.
And then God takes Ezekiel into a valley.
A valley filled with dry bones.
Not dying people.
Not sick people.
Bones.
Dry, scattered, dismembered bones.
There is no fixing this.
There is no program for making these bones try harder.
There is no religious technique that can restore them.
They are dead.
And God asks Ezekiel:
“Can these bones live?”
Ezekiel gives the only answer he can.
“O Sovereign Lord, you alone know the answer to that.”
And then God speaks.
The bones begin to move.
They come together.
Flesh appears.
And finally the breath of God enters them.
They live.
Maybe this is what God wants us to see.
God's intention toward us is life.
And ultimately, if we want to know what God is like, we look at Jesus.
Jesus stands before the grave of Lazarus and says, “I am the resurrection and the life.”
Jesus enters death itself.
And on Easter morning, death discovers that it cannot hold him.
This is who God is.
The One who brings life out of death.
The One who breathes into dry bones.
The One who replaces hearts of stone with hearts of flesh.
The One who meets us in the places where we've concluded that nothing can possibly change and says, “Watch what I can do.”
And here's the beautiful thing.
The bones don't resurrect themselves.
They don't earn resurrection.
They don't prove that they're worthy of another chance.
They're bones.
God gives them life because God is the giver of life.
And that's grace.
Maybe there are places in your life today that feel like that valley.
Something has died.
Something has been lost.
Something looks beyond repair.
Don't confuse what you can see with everything God can see.
The valley of dry bones is not the end of the story.
Jesus is.
Resurrection is.
Life is.
So today, hear the question again:
“Can these bones live?”
Yes.
Because the One who is Resurrection and Life is here.
That's the prayer I have for my own soul.
That's the prayer I have for my family, for my wife, my daughters, and my son.
And that's the prayer I have for you.
May it be so.
TODAY'S PRAYERS:
Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.
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