Lesson 1 | Read Well
What’s at Stake: All of Life
Before we dig into the content of each lesson, we will take a moment to highlight the significance of the lesson’s topic. As in a game of chess, if we do not understand what is at stake, we will be prone to carelessness that may cost us dearly. Conversely, knowing what is at stake can help us establish right priorities and walk wisely. With each lesson, we will provide both a positive and a negative example from Scripture—someone who experienced the fruit of paying careful attention to Scripture and someone who exemplifies the risks of being careless with God's word.
Gain:
A life shaped by the word of God
This first lesson sets the foundation for the rest of the course. “Reading well” is all about being a careful, attentive reader with a view toward genuine discipleship. What’s at stake? Quite simply, all of life. God calls us to a life wholly shaped by the word of God. Joshua exemplified such a life. In commissioning Joshua as Moses’s successor, the Lord encouraged and exhorted him saying,
Joshua heeded the Lord’s instruction and experienced the promised blessings. His heart was tuned to pay attention to God’s word.
Joshua had come to see that all of life was under the sovereign hand of God, and the Lord blessed Joshua and all Israel throughout his days.
Loss:
A heart dulled to the message of Scripture
In response to Joshua, the people of Israel swore their allegiance to the Lord (Jsh 24:21). Joshua then reaffirmed the Lord’s clear instruction:
Nevertheless, we turn only one page in the Bible’s narrative to Judges 1 and discover utter failure—tribe after tribe, they could not (or would not) drive the Canaanites out of the land.
As a consequence, the next generation of Israelites began to serve the Canaanite gods. Hence forth, the consistent theme throughout the OT is Israel’s persistent idolatry. And behind that idolatry was their failure see and believe what the Lord was doing on their behalf. They blatantly turned their backs to God, ignoring his word to them.
So we have before us two patterns for living: Joshua, whose heart was tuned to pay attention to God’s word so that he might always walk in God’s ways; and rebellious Israel, who had rejected God and his word, and shaped their lives according to their own fears, passions, and schemes. We might think the better choice between the two paths is obvious, but generation after generation down to our own has proven otherwise.
Therefore, friends, take heed to know what is at stake in how you read your Bible!