Hey, this is Shelby and Scott, and today we begin the book of numbers.

Can you just give us a little bit of an overview?

What do we need to keep in mind as we read the book of numbers?

All right.

So I have a quote because this book is wild.

So there's a quote from Gordon Fee and Douglas Stewart in their book,

How to Read the Bible Book by Book.

And they say this, that if Loviticus tends to be an unappealing book to contemporary readers,

the numbers must be one of the most difficult in terms of what in the world is going on.

And I love that quote because there's so much

happening in this book. You've got census lists, traveling narratives, spies scouting out the

promised land. There's a lot of complaining, a bunch of laws, a guy named Balaam, who we're going to

talk about later, who shows up. Moses gets told he won't enter the promised land. There's just so much

happening in this book.

And we're going to get into all, which I'm excited about. But broadly speaking, numbers tells

the story of a few different things. First, God organizing Israel into an army and leading them to

the promised land. Secondly, this book is about how Israel refused to go into the province land. And thirdly, how God

punished them by making them wander in the wilderness for 40 years. So the whole 40-year period in

the wilderness is found in this book. And then lastly, numbers shows how God brings them once again

to the edge of the promised land a generation later, which is where Deuteronomy will pick up.

Yeah. Well, I'm excited to get into all of that with you. I feel like some of those things you mentioned are like stories that I'm

familiar with, but maybe I haven't read those chapters in a long time. So it'll be fun to get in.

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