The Daily Audio Bible
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The Valley of Dry Bones
37 The hand of the Lord was upon me. He brought me out by His Spirit and set me down in the center of the valley. It was full of bones. 2 He led me around the valley. I saw there were very many bones, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, only You know that.” 4 He said to me, “Speak in My name over these bones. Say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord.’ 5 This is what the Lord God says to these bones: ‘I will make breath come into you, and you will come to life. 6 I will join you together, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin, and put breath in you to make you come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
7 So I spoke as I was told. And as I spoke, there was a noise, the sound of bones hitting against each other. The bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked and saw that parts had grown to hold them together. Flesh had grown, and they were covered with skin. But there was no breath in them. 9 Then He said to me, “Speak to the breath in My name, son of man. Tell the breath, ‘The Lord God says, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these dead bodies to make them come to life.”’” 10 So I spoke as I had been told. The breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet. They were a large army.
11 Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are all the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is gone. We are all destroyed.’ 12 So speak in My name and tell them, ‘The Lord God says, “I will open your graves, My people, and make you come out of them. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 Then, My people, you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and brought you up. 14 I will put My Spirit within you, and you will come to life. I will place you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and have done it,” says the Lord.’”
Judah and Israel under One King
15 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 16 “Son of man, take one stick of wood and write on it, ‘For Judah and for the people of Israel with him.’ Then take another stick of wood and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the people of Israel with him.’ 17 Then join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand. 18 And when your people say to you, ‘Will you not let us know what you mean by these?’ 19 tell them, ‘The Lord God says, “I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the people of Israel who are with him. And I will put it with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick. They will be one in My hand.”’ 20 Hold in front of them the sticks you write on, 21 and tell them, ‘The Lord God says, “I will take the people of Israel from the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land. 22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king will rule over all of them. They will no longer be two nations, and they will no longer be divided under two kings. 23 They will no longer make themselves unclean with their false gods, or with their hated objects of worship, or with any of their sins. I will keep them from turning again to these sins, and will make them clean. They will be My people, and I will be their God.
24 “My servant David will be their king, and they will have one shepherd. They will follow and keep My Laws, and obey them. 25 And they will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children will live in it forever. And My servant David will be their leader forever. 26 I will make a peace agreement with them, one that lasts forever. I will bring good to them and make them many in number. And I will set My holy place among them forever. 27 I will live with them, and will be their God, and they will be My people. 28 Then the nations will know that I am the Lord Who makes Israel holy, when My holy place is among them forever.”’”
Words against Gog
38 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 2 “Son of man, look toward Gog of the land of Magog, the leader of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and speak against him. 3 Tell him, ‘The Lord God says, “I am against you, O Gog, leader of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. 4 I will turn you around, put hooks into your mouth, and bring you out with your whole army. Your horses and horsemen will be dressed for battle. The army will be very large, with all the men holding battle-coverings and waving swords. 5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Put will be with you, all with battlecoverings and head-coverings. 6 There will be Gomer with all its army, and Beth-togarmah from the farthest parts of the north with all its army. Many nations will be with you.
7 “Get ready and keep ready, you and all the armies gathered around you, and watch over them. 8 After many days you will be called. In future years you will come into the land where people have been gathered from many nations and have lived without fear of war. You will come to the mountains of Israel, which had been a waste land for a long time. But its people were brought out from the nations, and all of them are living without fear. 9 You and all your army will come up against them like a storm. You will be like a cloud covering the land. Many nations will be with you.”
10 ‘The Lord God says, “On that day, thoughts will come into your mind, and you will make a sinful plan. 11 You will say, ‘I will go up against the open country, where people are quiet and live in peace. They live in villages without walls and have no iron pieces or gates.’ 12 You will go to rob the land and fight in the waste places where people now live. You will go up against the people who were gathered from the nations and are rich with cattle and good things and who live at the center of the land. 13 Sheba and Dedan and the traders of Tarshish and all its villages will say to you, ‘Have you come to take prizes of war? Have you gathered your army to carry away silver and gold, cattle, good things, and many prizes of war?’”’
14 “So, son of man, speak in My name and tell Gog, ‘The Lord God says, “On that day when My people Israel are living in peace and without fear, will you not know it? 15 You will come from your place in the far north, and many nations will be with you. All of them will be riding on horses, a large and powerful army. 16 You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud covering the land. In the last days, O Gog, I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I show Myself holy through you in front of their eyes.” 17 ‘The Lord God says, “Are you the one I spoke of in the past, through My servants of Israel who spoke in My name? At that time they said for many years that I would bring you against them.
18 “On the day when Gog comes against the land of Israel, I will become very angry,” says the Lord God. 19 “In My jealousy and in My burning anger I have said that on that day the earth will shake in the land of Israel. 20 The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the wild animals of the field, all the animals that move upon the earth, and all the men on the earth will shake before Me. Mountains will be thrown down, the mountain sides will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground. 21 I will call for a sword against Gog on all My mountains,” says the Lord God. “His men will turn their swords against one another. 22 I will punish him with disease and with blood. I will send down a hard rain, hailstones, fire and sulphur upon him and his army and the many nations with him. 23 I will show the many nations that I am great and holy. And they will know that I am the Lord.”
19 My Christian brothers, you know everyone should listen much and speak little. He should be slow to become angry. 20 A man’s anger does not allow him to be right with God. 21 Put out of your life all that is unclean and wrong. Receive with a gentle spirit the Word that was taught. It has the power to save your souls from the punishment of sin.
22 Obey the Word of God. If you hear only and do not act, you are only fooling yourself. 23 Anyone who hears the Word of God and does not obey is like a man looking at his face in a mirror. 24 After he sees himself and goes away, he forgets what he looks like. 25 But the one who keeps looking into God’s perfect Law and does not forget it will do what it says and be happy as he does it. God’s Word makes men free.
26 If a person thinks he is religious, but does not keep his tongue from speaking bad things, he is fooling himself. His religion is worth nothing. 27 Religion that is pure and good before God the Father is to help children who have no parents and to care for women whose husbands have died who have troubles. Pure religion is also to keep yourself clean from the sinful things of the world.
The Rich and the Poor
2 My Christian brothers, our Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord of shining-greatness. Since your trust is in Him, do not look on one person as more important than another. 2 What if a man comes into your church wearing a gold ring and good clothes? And at the same time a poor man comes wearing old clothes. 3 What if you show respect to the man in good clothes and say, “Come and sit in this good place”? But if you say to the poor man, “Stand up over there,” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 are you not thinking that one is more important than the other? This kind of thinking is sinful. 5 Listen, my dear Christian brothers, God has chosen those who are poor in the things of this world to be rich in faith. The holy nation of heaven is theirs. That is what God promised to those who love Him. 6 You have not shown respect to the poor man. Is it not the rich men who make it hard for you and take you to court? 7 They speak against the name of Christ. And it was Christ Who called you. 8 You do well when you obey the Holy Writings which say, “You must love your neighbor as you love yourself.” 9 But if you look on one man as more important than another, you are sinning. And the Law says you are sinning.
Keep the Whole Law
10 If you obey all the Laws but one, you are as guilty as the one who has broken them all. 11 The One Who said, “You must not do any sex sins,” also said, “You must not kill another person.” If you do no sex sins but kill someone, you are guilty of breaking the Law. 12 Keep on talking and acting as people who will be told they are guilty or not by the Law that makes men free. 13 Anyone who shows no loving-kindness will have no loving-kindness shown to him when he is told he is guilty. But if you show loving-kindness, God will show loving-kindness to you when you are told you are guilty.
Faith Without Works Is Dead
14 My Christian brothers, what good does it do if you say you have faith but do not do things that prove you have faith? Can that kind of faith save you from the punishment of sin? 15 What if a Christian does not have clothes or food? 16 And one of you says to him, “Goodbye, keep yourself warm and eat well.” But if you do not give him what he needs, how does that help him? 17 A faith that does not do things is a dead faith.
A Psalm of Praise
117 Praise the Lord, all nations! Praise Him, all people! 2 For His loving-kindness toward us is great. And the truth of the Lord lasts forever. Praise the Lord!
28 The sinful run away when no one is trying to catch them, but those who are right with God have as much strength of heart as a lion.
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