Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the start of the book of Numbers, chapters 1 to 16, as well as Psalms 38 to 41.

Numbers can be a tricky book to make sense of, seeming like a patchwork of pictures shared for different purposes which might not fit together as neatly as we think they should.

But these purposes are important and reveal ways of life which could recognise the specialness of God and an ideal quality of life people would struggle to attain. There would be consequences for actions, but also ways to restore relationships. God’s people were ultimately a family, bound together by common history and heritage.

Reading Numbers as a set of religious rules might make us overlook this, but hearing it as a reminder of relationships and why they are important can point us towards God and what he has been doing through history to rebuild relationships and restore people to good, love-driven life. This is something the author of Psalms 38 to 41 seems to need and want desperately.

The next part of our boxset will look at beginning of the end of Numbers, chapters 17 to 36. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.