Joshua 8
SELECTIVE READING

We had a couple over for dinner one night who were very interested in the Bible. They were asking us lots of questions about it, which we did our best to answer. We got on to the topic of resurrection, and one of them asked, “What sort of body do people get raised with?” How often do you get a question like that, one that is directly answered in the Bible?

We turned to 1 Corinthians 15, and I read, “But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?’” Then I paused, skipped a few words, and carried on with, “… What you sow does not come to life unless it dies…” (1 Corinthians 15 v 35, 36).

I was cut off at that point by the person asking the question. “You should be reading it all,” she said.

I hadn’t wanted to offend them, so I had left out the words Paul used between the question and the answer: “How foolish!” I had not read the word of God honestly.

When Joshua read the words of the law to all Israel, he did a much better job of it than I did with my selective reading. “Afterwards, Joshua read all the words of the law – the blessings and the curses – just as it is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.” (Joshua 8 v 34 – 35).

Let’s remember that the Bible is God’s word, not ours. Let’s not edit it for him. He knows best. Let us be honest.

May God’s word speak truth to us today.

With love in our Lord
Robert

In Jericho, Not Of It
At the time Jericho was defeated, Rahab was still living in it. The walls had fallen, and utter destruction was happening right throughout the city. Rahab and her family would have been in their house looking out on chaos. The world, as they knew it, was disintegrating. All that stood between Rahab, and the… Read more at www.thinkythings.com/sharon