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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.
This is Word and the Wild. It's a one year Bible adventure with friends. My name is Owen. I'm your host and your guide. Together we are on a 12 month journey as a podcast plus community where we read the Bible for ourselves, but not by ourselves. And this is week 27, friend. A strange calm happens on the trail this week after weeks of bad kings, feisty prophets, and stormy politics.
We see a good king push back on the chaos and bring his people back to a love for god So hello and welcome in I want to say 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.
As part of the Word in 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 live stream Q& A and bonus content like articles, interactions, and live stream teaching gatherings with yours truly. If any of that sounds like just the thing you're looking for, then check out the show notes for how to become a member yourself or get all the details over at word and the wild.
com. Now is a great time to join the word and the wild plus community. Once again, look in the show notes. Or check us out at word and the wild. com
Now, let's get you set up for a calm restful week on the trail and The return to God by his people that gets us there
Well this week in the story, we're seeing some things we haven't seen in quite a while the kind of things that used to Honestly kind of bore We got tired of it. We would see and hear them so often. Remember the weeks we spent with Moses and the Israelites in the aftermath of the Exodus? You know, Mount Sinai, the law, the commandments, the sacrifices and festivals, Passover, all the detail, all the repetition it felt good.
We were happy to move forward in the story past the Leviticus numbers, Deuteronomy, all of that, and get to the action, right? That awaited us in the promised land. Well, now, on the other hand now we're happy to take a break from all that action, quote unquote action. Honestly, it's been a lot. A lot of heavy things, a lot of heavy thoughts, a lot of cautionary tales, a lot of battles and blood and schemes.
And so when we open up this week and we see a, a King Hezekiah lead what's left of his kingdom, the kingdom of Judah into this return. To God, and there is just a real sense of relief. It's familiar things, essential things that return. We see the law. We see the sacrifices, the festivals, Passover, a community of Israelites worshiping together in a centralized place at a restored home.
Temple building the things that once felt routine. Well, now they bring comfort and calm and the Renaissance of these rhythms, these, these healthy patterns established long ago and long ago, forgotten. The renaissance of these rhythms signal health and stability. God's people are back to community worship.
Worship of the Creator God in the way He asked them to worship. And, best of all, They're king leads them from the front after watching the stormy relationship between God and his people is ripped lives and nations apart now it feels good to be back to the way things should be it's a relief it's a calm in the storm.
And if you zoom up to the 30,000 foot level, you'll be even more impressed. If you take a look at a, at a map, a map of Judah and their surrounding neighbors there in the ancient near east at this time, you see there's just a, the tiny island of Judah. Completely surrounded by an angry sea of Assyrian territory.
The powerful Assyrians and their high tech war machine have ripped through all of Judah's neighbors, including the Jews. The kingdom of Israel to their north ripped through them all like an F5 hurricane. And that Assyrian storm has been beating against the tiny kingdom of Judah like a, like a rising sea pounding the surf.
But somehow, Judah holds out and holds on and that makes this moment of calm all the more impressive. It's a time of this intense pressure and adversity for Hezekiah and his people but yet they stand firm. Their ability to resist the powerful outside forces that push against them and at the same time Return to God that's happening on the inside of their nation this resisting outside forces returning to God They're happening at the same time and it's no coincidence coincidence.
It's their very move back to God that enables them to push back against the storm. They're an island of calm in an angry sea because they have a leader who is leading from the front, guiding them to victory. into a wholehearted, good relationship with God. It's the secret to their success. Now this week is, is all about in many ways, going back to when things were good with God and his people.
Not only do we see Hezekiah lead his people back to a functioning relationship with God, we also see a return of some familiar voices. From Israel's glory days Hezekiah repairs and reforms the temple and as he does it is also seems to unearth some more wise Sayings from King Solomon along with some other Proverbs And so we this week we get to enjoy some of those newly discovered bits of wisdom So look for those up on the trail this week.
And they are among, in my opinion, some of the most memorable of all the Proverbs, you're going to find yourself chuckling, nodding your head suppressing, suppressing a full scale laugh at points. So enjoy it. And then in another blast from the past, we're also going to enjoy a selection of psalms. We're not done with the psalms yet, we have a few more to go.
These psalms don't have a specific date when they were written, and so our chrono bible puts them here. And it's the perfect spot for them, honestly. Because here we are in this calm moment, created by this return to God by Hezekiah and his people. And so we have some great psalms. Peaceful space to allow the beauty of these ancient songs to soothe us, to refresh us.
And if you remember from our conversation about Psalms a few weeks ago, what Psalms do so well, they, they help carry us into a catharsis of our own emotions that draws us closer into a relationship with God. So now is a great time in this week as it unfolds to just drink it all in. After all. We're discovering this week just how powerful a heart aligned with God's heart can be.
Look what it did for Hezekiah. Look what it did for Judah. Imagine what it could do for you.
Enjoy the journey this week, my friend. If you're looking for a refresher, getting something out of Psalms and Proverbs, we've got you covered. Look back in the word and the wild podcast archives for a couple episodes. One's called. How to read a psalm and get something that's in week 19. The other one is called how to crack a proverb It's in week 22. Both of those can be found right here on the platform where you are enjoying this podcast now Word and the wild is a one year bible adventure with friends I'm loving this.
I hope you are too. Why not invite a friend in to join us? All your word in the wild plus community members. Thanks again, especially to you for making this journey a reality. I'll be seeing you out there in the wild this week. That's our private online community space. Everybody else. Hey, looking for you on social.
And while you're at it, subscribe to this podcast, follow Word in the Wild on Facebook. We'll get into some interaction there as well.
Word and the Wild is a LineHouse community. It's part of the LineHouse Community Network, a nonprofit organization with the mission to bring neighbors together to promote awareness, appreciation, and understanding of the Bible because friendship and God's word change lives and change lives.
Word and the Wild is presented by the LumaVoz podcast network. As always thankful to our friends at LumaVoz for giving us the space. And with that, my friend, we are out once again, I'm Owen, your host and your guide. Until next time, I'll be seeing you out there on the trail and the word and the wild have yourself a great.