NUMBERS:
30-day devotional
By Christopher Wright with Elizabeth McQuoid
IVP. 90 pages. £3.29
ISBN 978 1 783 597 208
Numbers might not be everyone’s first-choice Bible book for personal devotions, but God has written and preserved it for our good, so we shouldn’t be surprised to find nourishing words in these lesser-thumbed pages.
This 30-day devotional helpfully identifies key passages and quickly connects them to the reader. For each day, a short passage is selected, the key verses printed and a concise explanation given before turning to some thoughtful personal applications, often drawing on a relevant verse from elsewhere in the Bible.
Hits home
Each section is accessible and easy to read. Most of the text handling is sharp and most of the application hits home – the authors have done a great job to encourage personal engagement with the text rather than just teaching dry truths.
Any such devotional has to be selective. All of the readings are taken from Numbers 10-24, leaving 21 chapters untouched – I would have liked to hear more from these, including the long lists of names! Perhaps this is one of the reasons that the chosen selection did not leave me with a strong sense of the overall story arc of Numbers.
On Day 11 we are helpfully reminded that the whole Bible points to our Lord Jesus. I was well fed with some insightful lines to Christ and his cross, but wanted them to be more frequent, particularly in the first half of this volume.
A key aspect of Keswick Ministries is the teaching of God’s Word to Christians of all ages and backgrounds. This volume is part of their ‘Food for the Journey’ series; and it is faithful, accessible and applied enough to be exactly that.
