September 3rd, 25: Trusting God Amidst Judgment: Silent Awe in the Face of the Sword and the Lamb

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One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on 'The Daily Radio Bible' for a daily 20-minute spiritual journey. Engage with scripture readings, heartfelt devotionals, and collective prayers that draw you into the heart of God's love. Embark on this year-long voyage through the Bible, and let each day's passage uplift and inspire you.

TODAY'S EPISODE:

Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible, where we journey together through the Scriptures every day. In today’s episode, host Hunter invites you to the third day of September—day 247 in our year-long adventure through God’s Word. We find ourselves steeped in powerful passages from Ezekiel 20 and 21, Psalm 11, and Revelation 8, exploring themes of rebellion, judgment, and above all, God’s unwavering love and justice.

As the story unfolds, we hear about Israel’s persistent straying and God’s profound mercy, the sobering vision of judgment, and the psalmist’s reminder that—even as terror and the sword are prophesied—our hope and safety are found in the Lord. The episode moves from somber warnings to a vibrant assurance: God’s dream isn’t destruction, but a world made new, humanity reconciled, and shalom restored through Jesus.

Along the way, listeners are encouraged to pause in awe before the Lamb, practice faith through silence and worship, and remember that, no matter what we face, we are deeply loved. So, take a breath, open your heart to today’s readings, and join the global DRB family as we draw near to God together.

TODAY'S DEVOTION:

Terror and the Sword—And the Face of God.
How sobering it all is, the prophet cries “Tear, tear, tear”—the sound of the eagle’s warning. And again, “A sword, a sword, a sword,” proclaims Ezekiel, as judgment comes upon the world’s rebellion against God. This is a hard and honest picture—one in which the world’s great rebellion exhausts itself in its own fury, and where God, in justice, brings the rebellion to an end. The prophets give us this clear message: a world bent on violence, on idolatry, on turning from the Lord, must one day face a reckoning.

But before we despair over the terror and the sword and the brokenness described by the prophets, the psalmist speaks: “The righteous Lord loves justice. The virtuous will see his face.” God desires a relationship, face to face. He’s not a God intent on destruction, but a God intent on drawing his people close to himself. Yet, our violence, pride, and idolatry have separated us from him—have blinded us to his face. In love and in justice, God has made a way for us to meet him as we are and as he is.

When the Lamb breaks the seventh seal, all heaven falls silent. There’s awe in the recognition of the coming terrors, yes, but there’s also an invitation: to trust in the Lord for protection. The psalmist asks, “Why do you say to me, fly like a bird to the mountains for safety?” Our true place of refuge is not in fleeing from the world’s danger, but in flying to Christ himself—to Calvary, “the mountain of safety.” It’s there that the Lamb of God absorbed all violence and judgment at the hands of his rebellious creation. There, he did not strike out in vengeance, but stretched out his hands in forgiveness. By his self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering love, he extinguished the power of death and the grave and began making all things new.

So we are invited to remain in awe, to stand in silence at the wonder of the Lamb’s sacrifice—the one who offered himself for the world. God’s dream is not endless destruction, but a world restored, humanity awakened to the fullness of life and shalom, reconciled and made new. Jesus has come to accomplish this: God’s dream for you, and for all creation, will not fail.

Paul saw the day when Christ is “all and in all”—he saw the dream come to completion. While the violence and darkness around us may be easy to see, God’s dream requires our hearts to be trained in faith: to see what God sees, to believe what God has done, and to press forward into his promise. Let us fix our eyes on Christ, training our souls to know God face to face and to know his joy. Let us receive his peace, his joy, his forgiveness—and let us become ambassadors of this radically reconciling love.

That’s a prayer I have for my own soul. That’s a prayer for my family, for my wife, my daughters, my son. And that’s a prayer I have for you.
May it be so.

TODAY'S PRAYERS:

Gracious and everlasting God, you have brought us through the shadow of night into the promise of a new day. You go before us with your mercy, sustain us by your grace and keep us from wandering paths of fear or pride. Let every word we speak and every step we take be formed by the goodness of Christ. O Lord, gather your people far and near. May every tribe and tongue come to know your peace. Let justice roll like a river and healing flow where there has been division. Pour out your spirit upon all flesh and bring us closer to the day when your kingdom comes in fullness through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

And now, as our Lord has taught us, we are bold to pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory,
forever and ever.
Amen.

 

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