The Whole Bible is Good

We live in a day of having the great privilege of being able to hold God's word in our hands and read the full revelation of God in the 66 books of the Bible.  We can read God's promises and see how they were fulfilled in due time.  This is one reason we ought to continuously make a pilgrimage of reading through the Bible, and once we have read it there remains much for us to glean and grow from by reading it again.  The Bible isn't just a book we read and "know" like a movie, book or comedy sketch, but one through which we learn of God's character, our need for Him, and His worthiness of being trusted.

As we read through the Bible and become increasingly familiar with historical events and people therein, there remain gaps in our understanding that provoke questions other parts of the Bible explain.  For instance, God promised to drive out all the inhabitants of Canaan before the Hebrews.  But as we read through the books of Joshua and Judges, we see God's people did not drive out the inhabitants of the land, nor could they.  After the Hebrews were established in the land, they provoked the LORD to anger by their idolatry.  Judges 2:20-22 says, "Then the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and He said, "Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My voice, ²¹ I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, ²² so that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the LORD, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not."  On the surface this seems like God went back on His word, but if we go back to an earlier book of the Bible we see God has doing exactly as He said.

God said in Deuteronomy 11:22-23:  "For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do--to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him--²³ then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves."  God's promise to drive out all the nations before His people was a conditional upon their obedience, on their faithfulness to keep God's commandments.  They forsook the LORD and His commands, and thus God fulfilled His word to not drive out all the inhabitants of the land.  God is not obligated to reward His people for their disobedience and unwillingness to remain faithful to Him.  God did not give His people the silent treatment, disown or cast them off, but He explained the reasons why the Hebrews were unable to drive out nations they assumed God would help them drive out.

Joshua told the children of Israel in Joshua 23:13, due to their lack of love and obedience to the LORD ,"...know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. But they shall be snares and traps to you, and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the LORD your God has given you."  While God's people were unfaithful to Him, He remained faithful to them and the covenant He made with their fathers:  they remained His people, and He remained their God.  Their unwillingness and inability to drive out the Canaanites was redeemed by God because He made them like scourges on their sides and thorns in their eyes.  Being scourged or being blinded by a thorn in the eye leads to a person seeking medical attention, and the LORD allowed Canaanites to remain with the purpose of chastening His people to repentance, to prompt them to turn to Him as deliverer and saviour.  Those who remained in the land were thus evidence of God's love, grace and faithfulness to them in an unexpected way.

While the Bible may not answer every question we have (as our questions often miss the mark), God has provided us the entire Bible to help us better understand God's purposes.  It reveals not only historical events but our need to change the way we think and live to better align with God's wisdom and ways.  We can better recognise conditional promises God has given us, and reading leads us to examine our hearts to see if we have been faithful and obedient to all God requires of us, to love Him with our whole being.  We should not be surprised when we are unwilling to do what God has commanded we end up being unable to do what only He can do for us.  Even our failures and pains can be evidence of God's grace and faithfulness to us, for our struggles and troubles prompt us to seek the LORD with increased urgency.