Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - The spies and Rahab, part 2. Jos 2:1-11.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - The spies and Rahab, part 2. JOS 2:1-11.   

 

Announcements / opening prayer:

 

 

Josh 2:1 Then Joshua the son of Nun sent two men as spies secretly from Shittim, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." So they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there.

 

Jericho was two hours' journey to the west of the Jordan, situated in a plain that was formerly very fertile, and celebrated for its palm trees and balsam shrubs, but which is now quite desolate and barren. It is early spring and the people have begun to harvest grain. This plain is encircled on the western side by a naked and barren range of mountains.

 

 

Jericho was known as the city of palm trees.

 

JOS 2:2 And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, "Behold, men from the sons of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land."

 

Someone recognized the unusual appearance of the two men and was able to correctly conclude that they were Hebrews and correctly deduced the reason for them being there.

 

JOS 2:3 And the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab, saying, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land."

 

JOS 2:4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them, and she said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.

 

JOS 2:5 And it came about when it was time to shut the gate, at dark, that the men went out; I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them."

 

JOS 2:6 But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them in the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof.

 

JOS 2:7 So the men pursued them on the road to the Jordan to the fords; and as soon as those who were pursuing them had gone out, they shut the gate.

 

The fords are the places in the path of the Jordan that are easily crossed and so would be the likely places to find them and the gate is shut so that they can’t backtrack and sneak back into the city.

 

JOS 2:8 Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof,

 

JOS 2:9 and said to the men, "I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you.

 

The terror in the hearts of the people of Jericho was prophesied 40 years prior in the song of Moses sung directly after the crossing of the Red Sea.

 

When your enemy fears you, you have already defeated him.

 

“Of the four wars that happened in my lifetime, none occurred because America was too strong.” [Ronald Reagan]

 

Israel cannot live in past successes. They must continue to follow God if they want to experience peace in the land.

 

Past successes don't guarantee future ones. We never arrive. We must continue to follow God if we want to enter His rest.

 

JOS 2:10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.

 

JOS 2:11 And when we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

 

The word "courage" is the translation of the Hebrew ruach which means the spirit of a man. There no longer remained spirit within them. They lost all strength of mind for acting, in consequence of their fear and dread.

 

Her confession of faith is the very one of the Israelites.

 

DEU 4:39

Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.

 

Yet her confession does not indicate that she yet believes that there is no other God but Jehovah. It may be that she is still polytheistic and is coming to believe that there is no other God but Him.

 

But these miracles of divine omnipotence which led the heart of this sinner to truth faith, which might not have come until she witnessed the walls fall. Jehovah Elohim, who became to her a Savior of life unto eternal life, produced nothing but hardness in the unbelieving hearts of the rest of the Canaanites, so that they could not escape the judgment of death.

 

HEB 11:31

By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.

 

Faith is the means by which God has chosen to convey all things to man.

 

Rahab’s faith saves her and changes her life.

 

Faith saves us, learning strengthens it, trials strengthen it more, and once faith is sufficiently strong in us then its application is for others.

 

Once my faith is sufficiently strong to go wherever God calls me, the trials and sufferings in life do not cease, but become the means in which God calls me to serve others, whether in direct service of those who are suffering or as a witness of the strength of Christ to them.

 

HEB 11:1

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

 

Faith grows in strength to the point of smiling at the future, any future, and it is at this point that now God can use your faith as a witness, guide, and encourager to others.

 

No believer ever arrives to a place where he can no longer grow, but he does come to a place where returning to a life without faith is fairly impossible. He does not fear any future. His trust is in God to do the impossible when necessary and he knows God will. His questions change from, "When will the trial end, when we God change my life to prosperity?," to, "What is God's will in the trial?"

 

Php 4:9

The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you.

 

HEB 12:3

For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.

 

Rahab's faith is that the God of Israel can do anything, and of course she is right. Faith alone is meaningless without an object that is worthy of it.

 

If Joshua was asked to get a million plus people across the raging Jordan that was overflowing its banks, and that he couldn't lose one life, and to do so on his own, he would have rightly said that it was impossible. But it was the ark, the visible manifestation of God that stopped the water in a heap.

 

God is not stopping rivers in our lives in the church age, He is producing the fruit of the Spirit in all and every circumstance. This is His greatest miracle in all history.

 

Joshua's faith grew to a place where he did not look back, but his battles were not over. As he fought on, taking town after town, his faith in God working through him became a great benefit to others and a witness of Jehovah's glory.

 

COL 1:26-27

the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.