Day 268 · Friday, September 25
"And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes."EZEKIEL 47:9
Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 268, Everything Will Live.
"And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes." Ezekiel 47:9.
This is, without exaggeration, one of the most beautiful images in the whole Bible. Ezekiel is given a vision of a restored temple, and suddenly he notices something strange: a trickle of water flowing out from under the altar. Just that — a small stream. But as he follows it, chapter after chapter, the water keeps growing. First it's ankle deep. Then knee deep. Then waist deep. And finally it becomes a river so deep no one can cross it on foot — only by swimming.
Notice where the water is born: from under the altar. From the very place of God's presence. This life comes from nowhere else but God Himself. It isn't just some water that happens to pass near the temple — it's water that springs up from inside Him.
And wherever this water arrives, it transforms everything. "Very many fish" — this isn't modest, barely-surviving life. It's abundance. It's exaggeration. Where God's water touches, life explodes far beyond what anyone would expect.
But the most striking detail comes next: this river flows all the way to the Dead Sea. And if you know a bit of biblical geography, you know the Dead Sea is exactly that — dead. So salty that nothing can live there. It's the perfect symbol of a barren, lifeless, hopeless place. And what does the text say? That the water of the river reaches it and makes the salt water fresh. It transforms the dead sea into fresh water, full of life.
Do you understand what that means? There is no place in your life so salty, so barren, so dead that God's life cannot reach it and transform it. That relationship that feels impossible to restore. That dream you already buried. That part of your soul you swore would never hope again. God's river reaches all the way there.
And the promise repeats, almost like a refrain: everything will live where the river goes. Everything. Not part of it. Not whatever's convenient. Everything.
Jesus laid claim to this very image centuries later, telling the woman at the well that whoever drinks the water He gives will never thirst again — because that water would become in her a spring welling up to eternal life. Ezekiel's river finds its fulfillment in Christ. He is the living water. He is the one who turns what was dead into something truly alive.
So today, I want to invite you to do something simple but deep. Think of one area of your life that feels salty today — barren, dry, lifeless. It might be a relationship, a dream, or even your own faith, which sometimes feels like it's wandering in a desert. And pray, asking Christ's living water to flow exactly there. Not to the easy place. To the saltiest place.
Because wherever God's river flows, everything will live.
Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.