I never thought I would enjoy preaching through Leviticus as much as I have. It’s honestly been one of my favourite books to preach through. We’re coming up to the final sermon this Sunday, as I write. It has been challenging but it’s also been richly rewarding as it’s pointed us to Jesus. The structure of Leviticus is crucial. The middle is its high point: The Day of Atonement. It’s here that sacrifice is made, atonement is granted and God’s people are declared holy. Everything leading up to that day is how, by God’s gracious provision, Israel approached atonement. Everything that follows that day is how Israel were to respond to that atonement as his holy people.
Structure can be so important to understanding the point of a book. In this edition, that’s something that Jonathan Thomas helpfully draws out as he helps explain the message of the book of Esther. It’s also important to know where a book comes in relation to God working with his people, and this is something that Mark Barnes engages with as he explains how we relate to the Old Testament Law – an article that would have been helpful before starting to preach Leviticus!
As always, we are jam packed with all kinds of carefully curated articles on a variety of topics designed to do you good. Catrin Carolan helps us to recognise God’s work in our everyday lives, while Aled Jones, a farmer, draws on his own experience as he shares about his time spent with God. We share the life story of Mair Davies, who went to be with Jesus earlier this year and was a big part of Evangelical Movement of Wales. Nate Morgan Locke helps us to see the culture’s hero narrative as fulfilled in Jesus.
We have some wonderful tales of God’s work in Alex Madden’s personal story, the story of a church in North Wales and in universities around the world. Will Bassett looks in depth at how we rightly interpret Scripture and we have a wonderfully composed prayer from the cross written by Sammy Davies and an extract from a brilliant book by Matt Searles. Jam packed is about right, so you’d better get stuck in!