Word & the Wild

This is Word and the Wild. It's a one year Bible adventure with friends, and my name is Owen. I'm your host and your guide. Delighted. To be walking together with you on this 12 month journey as a podcast plus community where we read the Bible for ourselves, but not by ourselves, my friend, here we are.

This is week nine. Can you believe it? And we're out here about to cross the 60 day reading mark and leave Leviticus in the dust. You deserve a medal, my friend, if you've made it this far, congratulations to you. And guess what? We are about to gear up and break camp, following the Israelites and Moses away from Mount Sinai through the wilderness up to the border of the promised land.

Finally, am I right? Hey, so welcome and hello, a special welcome to our Word and the Wild Plus community members. It's their support of this nonprofit endeavor that makes space for all of us here on this Bible reading adventure. So thank you sincerely and truly so, so much. You know, as part of the Word and the Wild Plus tribe, They enjoy access to our private, safe online space, where no question is a dumb question.

Along with weekly livestream Q& A's, bonus content like articles, interactions, even occasionally some meetups, and even some livestream teaching gatherings with yours truly. So, if any of that sounds like your jam, then check out the show notes for how to become a member yourself. Or, get all the details over at wordandthewild.

com. Now with that, let's get a little bit nostalgic here. As we prepare to pull up stakes with the Israelites. Sitting here as we are at the foot of storied Mount Sinai. We're about to pack it up and head out into the wilderness once again. Let's pick up the trail there.

So right here now in the story, as we are just about to wrap up Leviticus and Exodus and, and break camp with Moses and the Israelites, we're gearing up. to hike it out from here. We're at Mount Sinai now. We're about to go up through the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula to a place called Kadesh Barnea.

And as we do that, as it happens, you know, when you're packing up, getting ready to move, cause it's been a year, believe it or not, that we have been at the base of Mount Sinai. A year in story time, of course. Uh, this is one of those nostalgic moments, you know, where we can Take a break from the packing and look back on what we've seen in the story so far.

And if we think back to the very beginning, well, there was nothing to see at all, right? Only the dark void of infinite space in the beginning. And then, boom. The Creator God brought the universe into existence with nothing but the power of his spoken word. And through his creative actions, we began to understand so much about our main character, the Creator God.

Of course we saw that he's powerful, but we also saw that he is personal. He creates human beings on the sixth day of creation, and he makes it clear from the start that he wants to have a relationship with them. And so because of that, we also got a brief. And beautiful picture of, of life, the good life, the way God intended it to be.

Remember that, uh, a life where, where humans walk the path of friendship with God and. And joyfully care for his creation with this effortless delight as human beings, Adam and Eve, uh, act as almost like an extension of God himself, representing God inside this beautiful world that he had made. This is the Garden of Eden.

Ah, and it was perfection. And it was a heartbreakingly short lived, it only took us a few pages in to see everything fall apart. Because God wants to be loved, his perfect garden also contained choices, and Adam and Eve selfishly desired the one thing in that perfect garden that did not belong to them, they didn't have access to, and they reached out to grab that forbidden fruit and took a bite.

And in that moment, we learned, uh, as a human race, we learned to walk the other path, not the path of friendship with God, but the path away from him. But remember that while humans chose their path. God chose a path of his own, and we saw that there, even in the aftermath of eating that forbidden fruit there in Genesis chapter 3.

God's path is a path to restore the broken friendship between him and his beloved creation. A path to repair the damage done by the human choice to walk away from him. A path to rescue those who trust in him, and to lead those people back to himself. And, and on that path, we met some flawed, uh, but faithful friends of God.

People who chose to walk with him. Guys like, uh, Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham. These are the, the people that have proven to us that even on this side of Eden, that friendship with God remains possible. For the rare few who do choose to walk with him and then in the middle of that for no good reason God does choose Abraham and his descendants as the people through whom his rescue mission will occur It's gonna be Abraham and his descendants who will have a land they are promised They are they will have a future that they are promised.

They they will be God's people it's a promise and and their family will be the vehicle of God's blessing to every other Family on earth, but that path that God walks with his people Toward those ends. Oh, it's not been a direct path. It has not been an easy path. I mean Isaac Jacob and then Joseph.

Remember Joseph and his story, which brought his brothers and their families down to Egypt. Eventually all of the children of Israel end up in Egypt, which Egypt started as a haven for them. Remember that famine and, but later it became hostile and and God's people became Egypt's involuntary workforce as they were down in Egypt for over four centuries, but when the time was right, the creator God made his move to move his plan forward.

Moses became his man to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. We've seen the plagues, the red sea, and we see that God never forgot his promise to Abraham and Abraham's family. And, and God eventually carried. This ragtag band of formerly enslaved people, he brought 'em out of Egypt, as he himself describes it on Eagle's wings.

He just swooped up and grabbed them and carried them away. He brought Moses and the Israelites out of Egypt, up to Mount Sinai, and he did it for a purpose. He did it to, to enter into this, this covenant, this. Binding two way agreement. God explained that, that, that the Israelites were rescued for relationship.

And if they agreed to it, God, God wants to, to shape them into a nation of people who will represent Him in this world. And as it turns out, we saw just a few weeks ago, they agreed. And so, we've been out here at the foot of Mount Sinai for a little more than a year. As God has provided the guidelines to a good life with him, with ourselves, with our neighbors.

We've heard God speak his ten commandments in his own voice from the smoke and fire and lightning atop this sacred mountain. Uh, we've watched as the Israelites learn how to avoid disease, how to maintain their relationship with God. Now to build the tabernacle how to treat each other with justice and with dignity and all of this has been to prepare the Israelites for their destination and quite honestly their Ultimate destiny going to Canaan to the promised land, but not just to hang out there The purpose is is for them to establish a community A community of people where the joys and abundance of life with the Creator God can be experienced by everyone, can be learned, and can be joined.

A community where healthy people care for their flocks, their fields, and enjoy the bounty that results. A community where the good life of friendship with God, that turns into friendship and love of yourself. And your neighbors where every human life Heart, soul and mind is held with value and dignity as the sacred spaces they are because of the sacredness of the God who made and loves them.

That's their destiny. That's their destination. And so Moses and the Israelites have spent more than a year trying to get ready for that destination, for that. Destiny and, and the walk across the dry and dangerous cyan peninsula that we're about to jump into. Well, that's only the very first of many obstacles they will face.

Uh, perhaps their greatest threat is the culture of those Canaanites they will encounter in their future homeland. Their health and safety as individuals and as a people depends on their careful obedience to the guidelines God has laid out for them. That's their safety, that's their security, that's their ticket to their future with God together.

Can they remain loyal to each other and to the God who brought them out of Egypt? Will they fulfill their destiny to be a nation of people who represent God? and provide access to Him. There, where God's taking them to the physical crossroads of the world. These are the questions on the table as we pack our bags and prepare to leave Mount Sinai.

Now for Moses and the Israelites, on the map, it shows about a 10 day journey on foot from Mount Sinai to the border of the Promised Land. But, as we will see, some things happen along the way that reveals some Some trouble with their preparations and the trip will take much much much Longer than it should and just like that my friend.

You're ready to set out toward the promised land with God's people and with our people too Now Word and the Wild, this is our one year Bible adventure with friends. I'm just having a blast with it and I hope you are too. All you Word and the Wild Plus community members, I'll be seeing you in the wild.

That's our private online community space. Everybody else, hey, don't be a stranger. First off, subscribe to this podcast and then follow Word and the Wild on Facebook. for some interaction there. The Word and the Wild is a LineHouse community. It's part of the LineHouse Community Network. It's a non profit organization with a mission to bring neighbors together to promote awareness, appreciation, and understanding of the Bible.

Because friendship and God's Word change lives. And change cities word. And the wild is presented by the LumaVoz podcast network. You guys are awesome. Thank you so, so much. And with that, my friend, we're out. I'm Owen, I'm your host and your guide until next time. I'll see you out there on the trail in the word and the wild have a good one.