Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the Old Testament prophets Hosea and Joel, and Psalms 52 to 65.

What does God want most from people? Some parts of the Bible make it look like religious practice is the most important thing, while others make following rules in the rest of life seem vital over everything else.

But when God spoke through prophets about how life had been going with this, a couple of things emerged. For one, there were repeating patterns of failure, resulting in people suffering and injustice thriving. The other was maybe more surprising - that God’s promise of hope to remedy this was a revelation of what he really wanted most - relationships in which he would be properly known, and his heart shared, making justice, transformation and healing possible.

Working out how to make sense of the Bible, especially prophecy, can be tricky. Can we do it on our own, or can we only do it within relationships? We’d love to encourage you to make time to listen to God and pray through whatever you find grabs your attention here, and chat about it with people. We’re very open to this at church, so get in touch if you would like to!

In next part of our boxset, we’ll look at more of the prophets, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, as well as Psalms 66 to 72. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.