A couple of weeks ago we started looking at the book of Joshua. This book is in the Old Testament! It is part of the story of the escape of the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and into the land that God had promised them – a land of milk and honey. When they came to the border of the land the first time, the Israelites chickened out. They didn’t trust God to help them and so they were destined to wander for another forty years in the desert. All this time, they were led by Moses but at the end of that forty years, Moses died and God appointed Joshua to lead them into the Promised Land. The book of Joshua is about the conquest of the Promised Land with Joshua leading the people.
In the first chapter God repeatedly told Joshua to be bold; he would take the land. He was to live by God’s word and God would be with him.
I want to get into chapter 2 but I do want to make a couple of comments about the remainder of chapter 1.
V.10 says, “Joshua then commanded the officers of Israel....” Joshua had been told to lead and he did. God had repeatedly told him to be bold, which probably indicates that he was not naturally bold. Leadership is not easy. Leadership should be approached with some trepidation. There are responsibilities that go with it and there are difficulties. The person who is too eager to lead is probably the wrong person to lead. Leadership requires boldness and obedience just as much as any other ministry.
Joshua began leading – despite his diffidence. Joshua took up the reigns. Joshua stepped into Moses’ big shoes. Joshua trusted that God would be with him.
Finally, in that chapter, there is like an oath of allegiance from the people. Followership is also not easy. Followership is a matter of obedience as much as leadership is. These people swore to obey Joshua just as they had obeyed Moses and to deal with anyone who rebelled against him.
READ Joshua 2
1. Why did Joshua send spies into the land when that had failed so miserably last time?
Forty years earlier the spies had said, “We can’t conquer it. There are giants in the land.” This time the question was not whether the land could be conquered. Joshua had explicitly said, “God is giving us this land.” The spies were sent in to see, not if they could conquer it, but how they could conquer it.
2. What were these good Jewish men doing going to the house of a prostitute?
Maybe they went there because that would be one of the last places you would expect to find God-fearing Jews. Or, tradition says that Rahab was also an innkeeper and history shows that women innkeepers were often also prostitutes. If she was an innkeeper, then staying in an inn would arouse no suspicion. It doesn’t necessarily suggest immorality on their part.
3. Rahab was a prostitute who told lies and betrayed her own people. Why did God save her?
Rahab is listed in the Hebrews 11 catalogue of the great heroes of faith. Really? Perhaps even more surprisingly, she is listed in Jesus’ family tree. If you look at Matthew 1, this Canaanite prostitute was Jesus’ great, great, great... 29 greats... grandmother.
Rahab said the spies had left the city. They hadn’t. They were on her roof. Is lying OK?
No, it is not. Honesty is one of the key characteristics of Christian character. Jesus said, “Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No’.” Our speech is to be straightforward, honest and clear.
The fact that Rahab lied doesn’t make lying right. But she was a Canaanite. The Canaanites were a thoroughly wicked and perverse people who worshipped pagan gods. Rahab had no knowledge of the ethical standards that God had given to the Israelites, such as the commandment to not bear false witness against your neighbour.
Alan Bennett said the other day that people in Thailand will lie because they will say what they think you want to hear and what will avoid shame. In countries where there is no Christian heritage there is also no Christian ethic. Increasingly, in our society, people do not have a basic understanding of right and wrong. At the point of coming to faith in Jesus, they may still reflect their old values, or lack of values. But God accepts them and then starts the process of refining.
God doesn’t expect us to be Christlike before we come to faith, but He does expect us to become Christlike afterwards.
So the king’s men went off to search the road – which, obviously was going to be a fruitless exercise because the spies were under the flax on the roof. At night, Rahab went up to talk to them. What was it that she said that meant that God saved her? Why is she considered a woman of faith? Wasn’t she just afraid? Did she not simply betray her own people out of self-interest, so as to save her own skin?
Look at v.11: The Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
That is a declaration of faith! Rahab almost certainly had worshipped the Canaanite gods Baal and Asherah – a highly sexualised fertility cult. But she had had a revelation. The God of the Israelites was the God of heaven and earth. It might look as if she had turned against her own people but the bigger truth is that she has turned away from their gods to worship the one true God.
It doesn’t matter that she was a prostitute. It doesn’t matter that she was dishonest. God still loved her. She put her faith in Him and He delivered her and her family.
This is story of God’s grace to a person who didn’t deserve it but who, in her desperation, turned to Him.
God’s judgement was about to come on Jericho.
Deut 7:1-6 1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you- 2when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. 3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. 5 This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. 6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
These seven nations worshipped pagan gods with worship that involved all sorts of immorality. God said they were to be destroyed completely lest they lure the Israelites into worshipping false gods and into immorality. God was going to destroy them because the Israelites were to be a holy people.
But there was one person who had faith. God would rescue her and her family. Rahab’s faith wasn’t strong. She probably didn’t even understand much about God, but she recognised that the God of the Israelites was God in heaven above and on earth below. And she acted on it. That is crucially important.
Hebrews 11:31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
Rahab had come to her conclusion about God some time earlier. She showed the reality of that belief by welcoming the spies. She demonstrated which side she had chosen to be on. She was saved not by her belief. All of the people of Jericho shared that belief. Rahab said that their hearts had all melted and no one was courageous enough to fight against Israel. They had all heard that this God had delivered Israel through the Red Sea on dry land and had defeat the two kings on the east side of the Jordan. They all shared that belief that this was an awesome and powerful God. The belief didn’t save them. Rahab was saved because she welcomed the spies. She believed enough to act on it.
James 2:25-26 25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
The difference between Rahab and all the other “Jerichoites” was that she chose to entrust herself to this new God. It was a risk. She might still have been killed by the Israelites. She might have been killed by her own people for having betrayed them. She still chose to align herself with Israel’s God and to trust Him. She demonstrated that faith by welcoming the spies. It is our actions that show the reality of our faith. Faith without works is dead.
We might tell people that we trust Jesus. We do. We really do. But if someone said, “Show me that you trust Jesus” what would you show that person? Faith without works is dead.
It was the evidence of God’s supernatural power that persuaded her. Today it is so often the supernatural that convinces people. It might be through the use of spiritual gifts – a miracle or a prayer answered or a healing. But people also have to hear the gospel. The word and the works are meant to go together. The last verse in Mark’s gospel reads:
Mark 16:20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed His word by the signs that accompanied it.
The signs confirm the words.
But sometimes it is another type of miracle. It is the miracle of a changed character. It is the witness of a person who is being changed by Jesus. It is the fact that people see love, compassion, trustworthiness, integrity, a person who will do what is right, courage. It is the miracle of a person who has died to himself/herself – who is selfless. Jesus said people would believe because of our love for one another.
Is the supernatural apparent in our lives? Can people see God in us; in our ministry; in our character?
Rahab recognised God and entrusted her life to Him. Her neighbours recognised God and feared but chose to die as pagans.
Most people in our society are living lives far from God – some as blatantly immoral and godless as the people of Jericho. Some live apparently respectable lives – but actually still worship other gods. Good people but they haven’t come to the point that this prostitute came to of knowing that they are in danger of God’s judgement and therefore putting their lives into God’s hands.
God delayed the Israelite conquest of the land so that He could rescue one person. In fact, God’s grace extends to families. Rahab had a baby faith but her faith was sufficient for her family to also be saved. Of course, they had to show some faith too. They had to be in her house believing that this might be the means of escape. Because of Rahab’s faith, God’s grace was extended to her family.
They had to be in her house and hang a scarlet cord from the window. Many people see that scarlet cord as a symbol of blood. Forty years earlier the Israelites had been instructed to paint the blood of the Passover lamb on their door posts. Where there was no blood, the firstborn in each house perished but where there was blood the angel of death passed by.
Centuries later, the blood of Jesus would be shed to save the whole world. Those who trust in the blood are saved. Those who don’t aren’t. God required Rahab to hang the scarlet cord from her window.
This whole story is a story of God’s grace to a helpless sinner who believed and trusted. What was the outcome? Was Rahab saved? We won’t find out for another four chapters! But, as you probably already know, when the city fell, Rahab and her family were saved.
Is it time for you to choose which side you are going to be on? There is judgement ahead. Now is the time to choose to be on God’s side and to demonstrate that choice by your action. It doesn’t matter what your past has been. It doesn’t matter that your faith might be only new. If you choose to trust God, He will be merciful and you will be saved. Understand that Jesus’ blood was shed for you. Trust in that. Hang that scarlet cord outside your window. My only hope is in the blood of Jesus shed for me.
Is it time for you to tell someone else about this salvation that is freely available? Rahab, as a brand new baby believer, invited her family. Who should you be inviting?
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