Sermon Tone Analysis

Turn in your Bibles to the book of Joshua, were going to continue our study in the book of Joshua.

Now were going to really start racing through the text.

Were going to do the entire second chapter of Joshua as we try to give you a great big picture, remember that Joshua is a book where you go from bondage/slavery to recovery to victory.

They are getting ready to enter the land but before they do there’s an exciting thrilling spy story thats going to unfold.

Some of you might not have read this since you were in Sunday School but turn to chapter 2.

The title of the message is this covenant with Rahab.

(Let’s Pray)

Joshua 2:1

Joshua 2:2-

The book of Joshua began with a commission to Joshua, now it continues with a covenant with Rahab, perhaps one of the most unlikely people you would think would enter into a covenant.

This story is kind of a spy thriller, like any good spy thriller, in order for the story to be riveting the stakes have to be very, very high.

In this story the consequences of the drama are going to save Rahab and her family, but its also going to set in motion a series of events that are going to have a final ending in the book of Matthew and in the geneology of Jesus.

To the coming of the Lord!

This is the story of two spies and a brave woman who is going to risk everything to save them, but in the process of doing everything she can to save them shes also going to save her family.

The womans conversion is gonna take place in the most unlikely place and shes gonna become an ancestor of JEsse and David and Jesus.

This begins with a spies assignment.

The mission it’s top secret,and classified.

Now remember Joshua is a seasoned spy himself, he along with Caleb were given the task of spying out the land and his experience left a permanent scar in his heart.

If you will remember that time 12 spies went and 10 of them delivered a bad report 2 of them delivered a good report but the mission was known to all of the people.

so Joshua decides that He’s going to conceal the mission even from the other tribe members just in case they come back with a unfavorable report.

Now we learn about the Acacia grove, this is the last stop before you enter into the land.

So when you read Acacia Grove read THE LAST STOP BEFORE WE ENTER INTO THE PLACE THAT GOD HAS GIVEN TO US.

So for me the Acacia Grove becomes a type and picture of the last moments of bondage and the numbing journey in the wilderness.

They are so close to finishing the mission, now remember the mission it is to view the land and focus on Jericho.

Jericho is a strategic city that controlled the trade routes.

Numbers

Jericho is kind of in the center of the land.

So within 3 days the people are gonna break camp and their going to come into the land.

So the spies make their way into the land and they find themselves in the house of a prostitute named Rahab.

Now just for your info.

this is all taking place about 1400 B.C. by the way out of all the people living in the city of Jericho how many of the names do we know?

NONE

Rahab’s the only name we know, she is the only one we are aware of.

Were not even given the spies names or even the king of Jericho were only given her name.

She appears again an unlikely character to be the hero of the story.

She is a prostitue!

But if you can imagine she operates a house of prostitution, in the Hebrew language the word harlot is very similar to the word used for in keeper.

You’ll notice she is an inn keeper, but I suspect she is running a prostitution ring.

Why? because of the repitition in the NT in Hebrews and James where she is specifically called a prostitute, but the real problem is not that she lives a life of sexual brokenness, the real problem is that she is a sinner, just like you, just like me.

I want you to think for a moment, she is living in Jericho she is a sinner, she is living in a city that is destined for judgment.

This is the story of all humanity.

We are sinners, we are all living in a world that is all destined for Judgment, and so it gives us a picture of hope.

Even the worst of sinners can experience the fullness of God’s grace and god’s mercy, people can turn to the Lord in faith an find deliverance.

So remember when your making your journey in the outside world it doesnt matter how far gone an indivudual is, they are capable of experiencing the life changing power of Jesus Christ.

The people of Jericho were the object of God;s divine judgement.

God reserved the right to use Joshua and the children of Israel to be the instrument of that divine judgment.

The people of Jericho were hopelessly depraved.

In case you don’t believe me.

Leviticus 18:21-26

God paints a putrid picture of the grossest the most severe, the most disgusting activities and behaviors of a people group.

Imagine a nation who sacrifices its children to satisfy what it sees to please the gods, imagine a nation with no restrictions of any kind whatsoever.

Imagine a city where everyone who lives there is like a Jeffery Dahmer or serial killer.

so the people of Jericho are hopelessly depraved and they had chosen to fight against Israel instead of seeking mercy like Rahab and so this becomes an important question for you, if we ask and answer the question does God have the right to judge the world that HE created OF COURSE HE DOES!

But think about Jesus who says

John 3:16

These people are going into this circumstance to spy out the land, and this is the real concern with all those who are critics of the Bible.

DOES GOD HAVE THE RIGHT TO PUNISH SIN?

The real concern of every critic of the Bible is their asking a different kind of a question does God have a right to judge me and hold me acountable for what I am and what I’ve done?

Listen carefully Rahab believes God, she believes God is going to destroy Jericho she believes in the God who has set the children of Israel free 40 years earlier she believes its strong enough, that she is willing to turn her back and risk her life, to be made right with god and avoid judgement.

What do we know about her?

Again she is sinner, an owner of a brothel.

But we know something else about her

The writers in the NT point to her faith that’s informed by grace.

they give us a picture of a person who is under condemnation, God had already decided that He is going to overthrow and destroy Jericho, its only a matter of time.

Everyone Everything in the city of JEricho is about to become completely wiped out.

Do you think the people inside felt they were doomed?

Do you think that the people inside thought that they were safe?

Im going to suggest to you that they did think they were safe, they were living in a fortified city, Im saying that they probably felt for the most part that they could withstand whatever siege was coming.

They didnt really comprehend the fact that there was an immenant judgment coming from God Himself.

Again just think about our own culture and society.

Are there people who think about the end of the world?

yes there are.

People envision and asteroid comgin from outerspace and wiping out the Earth or some climate catastrophe, or some nuclear war, or some plague or something.

I mean I know that there are people who live inconstant fear that life as we know it is going to come to an abrupt hault.

But I am going to tell you that most people don’t think that way, most of your family and most of your neghors dont think that this could be their last day, they dont think that this could be their last cup of coffee.

They dont think that they could have a car accident or get cancer or have a heart attack.

Im gonna just say that the vast majority of people in Jericho had no idea what was about to happen.

But also it becomes a type and a picture of the people we live with.

most people who go to bed tonight will not even consider what the Bible says about the future.

so

Uhoh the secret mission is exposed!

This is a top secret classified op.

how did they find out, how was the king of Jericho told, how did they discover these guys?

Now the Bible doesn’t tell us how this happened, were they clothed differently we don’t know.

A great deal of archeological research has been done in the ruins of Jericho, and at the time of Joshua the city covered about 8 acres.

That doesn’t seem like very much to us does it?

Imagine a city that

The city had an outer wall and an inner wall.

The inner wall was 12 ft thick, and the outer wall was 6 feet thick.

Both the outer and the inner wall was about 30 feet high, and excavations show that the walls were violently destroyed and burnt in times past.

So there is great evidence to support the Bibles account of what is going to happen later on in the book of Joshua.

So why does the king seek out Rahab and how does he know that Rahab has knowledge of the spies?

were not told.

But apprently they had good intel, so the King makes every effort to find these men.

Now we have every reason to believe that the spies were unaware of their danger at this point, they have no idea they have been made, they have no idea that the king is after them.

So if I can speculate for a moment.... how did they know?

Could be language, could be dress, could be physical appearance but we have to remember that Rahab spares them and saves their lives.

One of the things you should be thinking about as were reading.

Could she have turned them in at any moment… yeah she could have said “You know what I aint gonna play this game I live here I am going to turn them over but she makes the courageous decision to hide them.

Not to reveal there presence