The Book of Numbers is the fourth scroll in the Bible.

In Hebrew, it's called through the wilderness, and that's exactly where we're at.

Israel wandering through the wilderness on their way to the promised land.

The wilderness constitutes a test for whether Israel will trust Yahweh and bring about little

gardens of Oasis, of refuge in the wilderness, and whether they're going to obey God's words.

And you can already anticipate where that's going to go.

In the next three episodes, we're going to read about three testing stories, all of which

intensify and build on each other.

The first test is for all the people of Israel.

It's a well-known story of the twelve spies who are commissioned by Moses to go and scout

out the promised land and bring back a report.

Go see what the land is like, whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, few,

or many.

How is the land where they live?

Is it good or is it bad?

Now when we read testing stories in the Bible, it's wise to remember the first test, the

story of Adam and Eve, at the tree of knowing good and bad.

The narrator is clearly using vocabulary of that choice that lay before Adam and Eve,

about the fruit and the trees of gardener they go to bad.

And it's about an inhabitant in the garden land.

It's the same choice before Adam and Eve.

They could trust God's word.

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