Hey, this is John at the Bible Project. This summer we've been releasing a series that

was originally aired on our YouTube channel on a live stream. We've gotten requests to

take that audio and put it on a podcast, so we're doing just that. In this episode, Tim and

I host a Q&R question and response on the book of numbers. The book of numbers is a wild ride

and the Old Testament documents Israel's journey through the wilderness after they were rescued

from Egypt. They're on their way to the Promised Land if they could just get their act together.

Tim and I discuss questions about the bronze snake, the pagan sorcerer, Balum, and the difference

in the Old Testament between being simple and being unclean. Thanks for joining us. Here we go.

So this is just the book of numbers. Five sections. Five sections overall. Yeah, the book's one big

journey. And there are three collections of stories, one around Mount Sinai at first,

where Israel's ending their one year stay. They've been here for a year. A year. In a desert.

Yeah, under a mountain. Yeah, hanging out. Yep, getting along. Yep, that's a long backpacking trip.

It's a long camping trip. They get organized, you know, they get the camps, the ordering of the camps.

It's all cool. They take a census. If I was there for a year at that point, I'd probably be like,

you know what, this might just be home. Yeah. You might just be chilling here for us to mount. Yeah,

it's a pretty desolate part of the world. You'd be anxious to get out of there. Yeah, it's not a

great place to stay. So numbers actually means in the wilderness. That's right. The book of numbers

is it's a Greek name and it refers to the two censuses. Senses? Senses? There's one at the beginning,

there's one at the end of the book. The Hebrew name, which is much older, is Ba'midba' in the wilderness.

So they begin in the wilderness. They end in the wilderness. And the book has two travel sections

that frame the center, which is a bunch of tragic stories that also take place in the wilderness.

Right here. Yep. So different places of the wilderness, but it's all on this long journey. So

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