Whether hard or pleasant

Joshua read aloud all the words of the law—the blessings as well as the curses…There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read. (Joshua 8:34-35)

Those words struck me today.

Joshua didn’t just read the parts of God’s word that he liked. He read the parts that were hard to read too.

Not all places in the Bible are pleasant, talking about God’s love and mercy.

Some places are hard, talking about God’s justice and judgment.

Forgetting that can lead us to treat sin, and more importantly, God, lightly as Achan did (Joshua 7).

But beyond that, whether hard or pleasant to hear, all God’s words are for our good.

So let’s not just read the parts of the Bible we like and which are easy to read. Instead, like Joshua, let’s read all of it, not failing to read a single word.