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Word in the Wild is a one year Bible adventure with friends. Join from anywhere and enjoy a fun, rewarding, and doable 12-month journey through the Bible where you read it from cover to cover and understand it. It’s not a devotional or recap. It’s a guide by your side through God’s Word. With support from a weekly podcast and an online community of fellow travelers, this is the year when you finally explore the Bible in its own words and on its own terms for yourself.
INTRO
This is Word and the Wild...a one year Bible adventure with friends. My name is Owen. I'm your host and your guide, and together we are on a 12 month journey as a podcast plus community...where we read the Bible for ourselves, but not by ourselves.
This is WEEK NINE... We're about to cross the 60 day reading mark and leave Leviticus in the dust... as we gear up to break camp and follow Moses and the Israelites away from Mt. Sinai through the wilderness to the border of the Promised Land. Finally... am I right?
So... hello and welcome in. And, a special welcome to our Word and the Wild PLUS community members. Their support of this non-profit endeavor is making space for all of us on this Bible reading adventure. As part of the Word and the Wild PLUS tribe, they enjoy access to our private, safe online space where no honest question is a dumb question... along with a weekly livestream Q&A, and bonus content like articles, interactions, meet-ups, and even some livestream teaching gatherings with yours truly.
If any of that sounds like your jam, then check 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 bit nostalgic here as we prepare to pull up stakes with the Israelites at the foot of storied Mt. Sinai....
Right now in the story, we're breaking camp with the Moses and the Israelites and gearing up to hike from here at Mt. Sinai up through the wilderness to a place called Kadesh Barnea.
This is a great moment to take a break from packing and look back on what we've seen so far.
In the beginning.... there was nothing to see at all. Only the dark void of infinite space. And them BOOM... The Creator God brought the universe in to 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, God.
He is powerful.
He is personal. He creates human beings and wants to have a relationship with them.
We also get a brief and beautiful picture of the good life the way God intended it to be. A life where we walk the path of friendship with God, and joyfully care for his creation as an extension of God himself. The Garden of Eden.
It was perfection. And it was short-lived. Because God wants to be loved, his perfect garden also contained choices. Adam and Eve selfishly desired the one thing in the Garden that did not belong to them... they reached out to grab the forbidden fruit and took a bite. And in that moment, the learned to walk the other path. Not the path of friendship with God...but the path away from him.
But, while humans chose their path, God chose a path of his own. A path to restore the broken friendship between him and his beloved people. A path to repair the damage done by the humans choice to walk away. A path to rescue those who trust him to lead them back toward himself.
And, on that path we met some flawed but faithful friends of God... Enoch, Noah, Abraham...
People who prove that friendship with God remains possible for the rare few who chose to walk with him.
For no good reason, God choses Abraham and his descendants as the people through whom his rescue mission will occur. They will have a land. They will have a future. They will be God's people. Their family will be the vehicle of God's blessing to every other family on earth.
The path God walks with his people toward those ends has not been direct... or easy. Joseph and his story brought his brothers and their families down to Egypt... which started as a haven then later became hostile. God's people became Egypt's involuntary workforce.
But, when the time was right, the Creator God made his move... and Moses became his man to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. The plagues. The Red Sea. God never forgot his promise. He carried this ratty band of enslaved people out of Egypt "on eagles wings" as God described it. He brought Moses and the Israelites out to Mt. Sinai to enter into a covenant with them.
They were rescued for relationship. If they agreed to it, God wants to shape them into a nation of people who would represent him in the world.
They agreed. And so, we have been out here at the foot of Mt. Sinai for a little more than a year as God has provided the guidelines to a good life with him, ourselves, and our neighbors. We have heard God speak his 10 commandments from the smoke, and fire, and lightening atop this mountain. We have watches as the Israelites learned how to avoid disease, how to maintain their relationship with God, and how to treat each other with justice and dignity.
All of this to prepare them for their destination...and their destiny. Canaan. The promised land.
....To establish a community of people where the joys and abundance of life with the Creator God can be experienced, learned, and joined. Where healthy people care for their flocks and fields and enjoy the bounty. Where the good life of friendship with God that results in friendship and love of self and the 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.
Moses and the Israelites have spent more than a year getting ready for what's ahead. The walk across the dry and dangerous Sinai peninsula is only the first obstacle they face.
Their greatest threat is the culture of the 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. Can they remain loyal to each other, and to the God who has brought them out of Egypt? Will they fulfill their destiny to be a nation of people who represent God and provide access to Him at the crossroads of the world?
For Moses and the Israelites, the map shows about a 10 day journey from the foot of Mt. Sinai to the border of the Promised Land. But, as we will see... some things happen along the way.... and the trip takes much, much longer.
OUTRO
And just like that,
Word and the Wild is a one year Bible adventure with friends. I'm loving it and I hope you are, too.
All you Word and the Wild PLUS community members, I'll be seeing you in THE WILD... our private online community space. Everyone else, don't be a stranger. Subscribe to this podcast and follow Word and the Wild on Facebook for some interaction there.
Word and the Wild is a LineHouse Community. It's part of the LineHouse Community Network, a nonprofit 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.
And... presented by the LumaVoz podcast network.
And with that, 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.