This is the Bamo podcast with Marty Solomon. I'm his co-host Brent Billings. Today we

are discussing the first in a series of images we find in the desert. We will learn about

what it means to be a shepherd in the biblical world.

Yes, we've gotten up to book a number now. We did Leviticus in one podcast. We can believe

that. We're going quick now. Just about in time to slow down for the book a number.

We'll be able to see the book. It's going to pick up quite a bit here.

But yeah, we've gotten through Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus. We're just about

ready to go into numbers. The numbers is really the period of time in the narrative where

God's people wander in the desert. There's no way I want to get into numbers without

trying to introduce us to the desert. I'll do that in just a moment. Just to review,

that's important to us, starting in Genesis. We've had a preface where we talked about the

big picture concepts, the nature of God, the nature of humanity, the nature of the world,

that essentially God is trying to get us to trust that we are okay. We're loved, we're

accepted. If we'll trust that, incredible things can happen as we partner with God to

take creation somewhere. If we don't trust that, if we try to preserve self, if we seek

the agenda of self-preservation, bad things happen, tragedy ensues. Then we're introducing

the introduction. Genesis 12 through 50 to the family of God. People like the patriarchs

of Ram Yitzhak, Shakao, these are guys that they're going to show us what's possible when

they do trust the story. It kind of takes this big picture, kind of lofty abstract concepts

and brings it down into real life. In the midst of struggle and dysfunctional families,

and we learn about hospitality, we learn about trust, we learn about forgiveness, we learn

about the things that are possible, we're not going to be perfect, but we can actually

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