Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - The spies and Rahab, part 3. Jos 2:8-21.
length: 63:18 - taught on Oct, 13 2015
Class Outline:
Title: Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - The spies and Rahab, part 3. JOS 2:8-21.
Announcements opening prayer:
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.
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 [spirit] remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.
On Sunday we focused on the principle of faith and how faith is strengthened by God in our own lives through the application of His word throughout the various circumstances in our lives that He allows to transpire and then, once sufficiently strong, God continues to allow trials and sufferings so that our faith is now a witness and an encouragement to others.
God makes us sufficiently strong so that we will be like Him - a servant of others.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
Faith becomes hope and hope smiles at the future, any future because the child with faith trusts in His Father with his very life and does not fear, for the Father goes ahead of him and strikes fear into the hearts of his enemies.
'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord,' plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
JOS 2:12 Now therefore, please swear to me by the Lord, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father's household, and give me a pledge of truth,
JOS 2:13 and spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death."
Her father's household: Amazingly they believed Rahab's word, the promise of the spies, and so by her faith as well as theirs, her family was delivered.
JOS 6:23 So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives, and placed them outside the camp of Israel.
One of the greatest blessings in life is to witness your own family come to faith as you have. There is a natural bond to family that God has put in the hearts of man. That bond combined with the greater bond of unity in the royal family makes for a very special blessing in life.
JOS 2:14 So the men said to her, "Our life for yours if you do not tell this business of ours; and it shall come about when the Lord gives us the land that we will deal kindly and faithfully with you."
They vow their lives for hers in that God would punish them with death if they did not deliver Rahab and her father's household.
They do not evoke the name of God, but she asked that they swear by Jehovah, and so it is concluded that their vow would mean God killing them if they break it.
video of city https:www.youtube.comwatch?v=bYrSkikZhxI
JOS 2:15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall, so that she was living on the wall.
JOS 2:16 And she said to them, "Go to the hill country, lest the pursuers happen upon you, and hide yourselves there for three days, until the pursuers return. Then afterward you may go on your way."
A range of white limestone hills extends on the north, called Quarantania, rising to a height of from 1,200 to 1,500 feet, and the sides of which are perforated with caves. It was prudent to flee in that direction rather than to the ford directly to the east since that ford is exactly where their pursuers were heading.
JOS 2:17 And the men said to her, "We shall be free from this oath to you which you have made us swear,
JOS 2:18 unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself into the house your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father's household.
JOS 2:19 And it shall come about that anyone who goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be free; but anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if a hand is laid on him.
JOS 2:20 But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be free from the oath which you have made us swear."
JOS 2:21 And she said, "According to your words, so be it." So she sent them away, and they departed; and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
Often in biblical covenants, God appointed some physical or material "token" to remind the people of what had been promised. His covenant with Abraham was "sealed" by the rite of circumcision (GEN 17:9-14; ROM 4:11). God had the children of Israel put the blood of the pascal lamb on the doorposts of their house so the angel of death would pass by. When God established His covenant with Israel at Sinai, both the covenant book and the covenant people were sprinkled with blood (EXO 24:3-8; HEB 9:16-22). God gave the rainbow as the token of the covenant with Noah (GEN 9:12-17), and the Lord Jesus Christ used the broken bread and the cup of wine as tokens of the New Covenant (LUK 22:19-20; 1CO 11:23-26).
The token for Rahab is a scarlet thread, the color of blood, the color of the veil before the holy of holies. It is a type of the cross of Christ.
This token is more than just a marker for the Israeli army to know which house not to assault.
In this large, extremely fortified city of stone, there hangs one thin, frail, scarlet thread that is a type of Christ and it alone delivers the one family that survives.
Amidst the walls falling, the people scrambling for their lives, the bloodshed of the fallen, the tension of broad muscles that wield sword, spear, and shield, the cries and screams of sudden and massive battle; there hangs a small, frail, scarlet thread in a window.
Then he answered and said to me, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts.
Zechariah has seen four visions and he is now roused for a forth.
ZEC 4:1 Then the angel who was speaking with me returned, and roused me as a man who is awakened from his sleep.
ZEC 4:2 And he said to me, "What do you see?" And I said, "I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it;
ZEC 4:3 also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side."
This is undoubtedly a figurative reference to the golden lampstand that stood in the holy place in the tabernacle.
Zerubbabel is commissioned with rebuilding the temple and Zerubbabel is a type of Christ who will build the spiritual temple of God.
We say figurative because there are some additions to this candlestick, which are the bowl at the top, the seven sprouts or tubes that would have distributed oil to each lamp, and the two olive trees. I do not wish to offer here an interpretation of these three additions but just to find in this lamp the connection to the scarlet cord in the Lord Jesus Christ.
ZEC 4:4 Then I answered and said to the angel who was speaking with me saying, "What are these, my lord?"
ZEC 4:5 So the angel who was speaking with me answered and said to me, "Do you not know what these are?" And I said, "No, my lord."
ZEC 4:6 Then he answered and said to me, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts.
That is to say, through this vision Zerubbabel is informed that it-namely, the work which he has taken in hand-will not be effected by human strength, but by the Spirit of God.
Zereubbabel is commissioned with rebuilding the temple.
The significance of the lampstand in the holy place centered in its seven lamps, which were lighted every evening, and burned through the night.
The golden lampstand is a type of Christ as the light of the world. That light now shines through the church. The oil a type of the Holy Spirit who anoints and empowers the church.
Not by human might does the church do what it does and the individual believer within her, but by the Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts.
The Lord also revealed His light through Israel who through His word, the Holy Spirit who empowered some, and the types of Christ within her rituals and objects streamed that light into the night of a world estranged from God.
As the nation of Israel was to represent the Lord in the world, so the disciples of Christ were called:
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Php 2:15
that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,
"As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
As the vine supports the branches and the branches cannot bear fruit without the vine so the lamps do not shine without the lampstand which carries them, and the oil that provides the needed energy.
In this respect it might be taken as a symbol of the kingdom of God as the divinely appointed organism for the perpetuation and life of the church. But the lamps received their power to burn from the oil, with which they had to be filled before they could possibly burn. Be filled with the Holy Spirit, walk by means of the Spirit, and do not grieve or quench the Holy Spirit.
ZEC 4:5 So the angel who was speaking with me answered and said to me, "Do you not know what these are?" And I said, "No, my lord."
ZEC 4:6 Then he answered and said to me, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts.
ZEC 4:7 'What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"'"
These words refer to the finishing of the building of the temple as the top stone refers to the finishing stone. The great mountain refers to the opposition that Z and Israel would face in building it.
How is it that the temple would actually be completed in the midst of the surrounding peoples who desperately tried to stop it? How is it that the walls would be rebuilt as well as the city in the midst of the same? Not by human might would this be accomplished, but by the Spirit of God.
Why can a scarlet thread save the lives of a family in the middle of a violent and deadly battle?, the Spirit of the Lord. Our Lord through the Spirit, obedience, humility, and love delivered all of us and through faith, which seems of no more substance than a scarlet thread, saved us. How will you overcome the oppositions, heartaches, demons, sin, evil, tribulations, and sufferings in this life? You will through faith, the size of a mustard seed, in His word, His Spirit, His person, His character, His promises, and His faithfulness and love for you.
Zerubbabel is but a type of the Branch, the coming Messiah, who would build the temple of God, the spiritual temple which would come to be known as the church.
ISA 11:1 Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
ISA 11:2 And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and strength,
The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
ISA 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives,
And freedom to prisoners;
ISA 61:2 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord,
Christ read this very prophecy in the synagogue of His home town of Nazareth and claimed:
And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and strength,
The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
ZEC 4:6 Then he answered and said to me, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts.
ZEC 4:7 'What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"'"
The great mountain, therefore, is apparently a figure denoting the colossal difficulties, which rose up mountain high at the continuation and completion of the building of the temple.
There was a great mountain standing in the way of this building of Zerubbabel's-namely the power of the world, or the imperial power-and this God would level to a plain.
The great mountain is a symbol of the power of the world that opposes God's purposes. And the kingdom of God, by means of God's power, is the plain. God will mow it down.
The people will shout, "Grace, grace!" This is significant as it was the unmerited favor from God that made it all possible and not the might of man, and this shout is made by those who recognize it.
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