Joshua 1-4: Joshua takes control of the people after the death of Moses and crosses the Jordan River in dramatic fashion.

The Story of the Bible is taking a break. We will return in the fall, taking on Joshua and the Judges.

Numbers 26-36, Deuteronomy 31-14. Moses says goodbye. After four decades leading the people of God he passes on leadership to Joshua, lays out one more reminder of the law, and goes up the mountain. He will see the promised land but not enter it in this life.

Numbers 22-25 Israel finally finished their battles over Sihon and Og and sit next to the Jordan to stage the coming invasion, but someone comes against them. Balak and Balaam set evil in motion. Talking donkeys, sexual sin, and a priest spearing two people at once. Mayhem in the wilderness continues.

Numbers 20-25, Deuteronomy 2-3. Israel passes a generation in the desert. The death of Aaron, an attack battle, snakes in the camp, no one is really having a good time. Then, once everyone is dead they have to fight a warrior king and a giant.

Numbers 15-19, Deuteronomy 1: Unable to enter the Promised Land, Israel sits in Kadesh and tries to figure out what comes next. Korah makes a play for leadership, it does not end well for him or his followers.

At long last, the people of God are brought to the very border of the land God promised to Abraham centuries before. They have the Law, they have the leader in Moses, all they have to do is get there and take it. They have a better idea.

Exodus 19-40, Leviticus: Yahweh, the Lord God, gives the people He has brought from Egypt His Law. They promise to obey it, but fail spectacularly before He has even finished giving it to them. Let's hope this doesn't become a pattern.

Exodus 15:22-18 No water, no food, no military and no unity. A mob of freed slaves is wandering behind a cloud in the wilderness of the Sinai peninsula. What could go wrong? God shows His remarkable patience and care as He leads His people to the mountain.

Exodus 12-14: Death stalks Egypt and the people of God finally make their escape. The most important festival in Judaism, the very beginning of the Jewish calendar, remembers the events of this story as the people of God become a people.