2019-11-10 Joshua 2
Notes
Transcript
1 Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two men as spies from the Acacia Grove, saying, “Go and scout the land, especially Jericho.” So they left, and they came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab, and stayed there.
2 The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelite men have come here tonight to investigate the land.”
3 Then the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab and said, “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, for they came to investigate the entire land.”
4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. So she said, “Yes, the men did come to me, but I didn’t know where they were from.
5 At nightfall, when the city gate was about to close, the men went out, and I don’t know where they were going. Chase after them quickly, and you can catch up with them!”
6 But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had arranged on the roof.
7 The men pursued them along the road to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as they left to pursue them, the city gate was shut.
8 Before the men fell asleep, she went up on the roof
9 and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and everyone who lives in the land is panicking because of you.
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 Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings you completely destroyed across the Jordan.
11 When we heard this, we lost heart, and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.
12 Now please swear to me by the Lord that you will also show kindness to my father’s family, because I showed kindness to you. Give me a sure sign
13 that you will spare the lives of my father, mother, brothers, sisters, and all who belong to them, and save us from death.”
14 The men answered her, “We will give our lives for yours. If you don’t report our mission, we will show kindness and faithfulness to you when the Lord gives us the land.”
15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, since she lived in a house that was built into the wall of the city.
16 “Go to the hill country so that the men pursuing you won’t find you,” she said to them. “Hide there for three days until they return; afterward, go on your way.”
17 The men said to her, “We will be free from this oath you made us swear,
18 unless, when we enter the land, you tie this scarlet cord to the window through which you let us down. Bring your father, mother, brothers, and all your father’s family into your house.
19 If anyone goes out the doors of your house, his death will be his own fault, and we will be innocent. But if anyone with you in the house should be harmed, his death will be our fault.
20 And if you report our mission, we are free from the oath you made us swear.”
21 “Let it be as you say,” she replied, and she sent them away. After they had gone, she tied the scarlet cord to the window.
22 So the two men went into the hill country and stayed there three days until the pursuers had returned. They searched all along the way, but did not find them.
23 Then the men returned, came down from the hill country, and crossed the Jordan. They went to Joshua son of Nun and reported everything that had happened to them.
24 They told Joshua, “The Lord has handed over the entire land to us. Everyone who lives in the land is also panicking because of us.”
jsh 2:1-
I. Rahab focuses the book of Joshua.
I. Rahab focuses the book of Joshua.
1 Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two men as spies from the Acacia Grove, saying, “Go and scout the land, especially Jericho.” So they left, and they came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab, and stayed there.
2 The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelite men have come here tonight to investigate the land.”
3 Then the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab and said, “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, for they came to investigate the entire land.”
4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. So she said, “Yes, the men did come to me, but I didn’t know where they were from.
5 At nightfall, when the city gate was about to close, the men went out, and I don’t know where they were going. Chase after them quickly, and you can catch up with them!”
6 But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had arranged on the roof.
5 At nightfall, when the city gate was about to close, the men went out, and I don’t know where they were going. Chase after them quickly, and you can catch up with them!”
6 But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had arranged on the roof.
jsh
A. Rahab shows that the people of God are not defined by their nationality.
A. Rahab shows that the people of God are not defined by their nationality.
5 No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. I will be with you, just as I was with Moses. I will not leave you or abandon you.
6 “Be strong and courageous, for you will distribute the land I swore to their fathers to give them as an inheritance.
6 “Be strong and courageous, for you will distribute the land I swore to their fathers to give them as an inheritance.
5 At nightfall, when the city gate was about to close, the men went out, and I don’t know where they were going. Chase after them quickly, and you can catch up with them!”
6 But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had arranged on the roof.
Illus: When talking about the people of God there is often a disconnect between who we believe the people of God are today, and who we believe the people of God were in the Old Testament.
Today the people of God are the church, Christ followers, people who have trusted Jesus Chris by faith and live for him.
Becoming apart of God’s people does not happen because you are born into a Christian family or into a christian nation.
Your blood does not make you apart of God’s people. Jesus’ blood makes you apart of God’s people.
We understand that God’s people today are defined by the finished work of Jesus Christ. “Jesus change” makes you apart of the people of God.
Follow me. When we look at the Old Testament, we have falsely believed that becoming apart of God’s people is through birth into a Jewish family.
Here in our passage, the very first story about the formation of a nation in Joshua, and conquest of the land is the story of Rahab. Don’t miss that scripture purposely defines Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute, as apart of the people of God so that it is seen that one’s birth does not make you a part of God’s family, but instead one’s faith makes you apart of God’s family.
What makes you apart of God’s people in the Old Testament is the same thing that makes you apart of God’s family today. FAITH!
In the Old Testament they believed in the future promise of Jesus Christ. We believe in the perfect finished work of Christ. Either way, the people of God are defined by their faith.
When building a royal ancestry, one does not tend to include to ethnic variances which dilute the line. When scripture built a royal ancestry for David and King Jesus, they included Rahab to prove that the people of God have always been defined by faith and not by birth.
5 Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse,
6 and Jesse fathered King David. David fathered Solomon by Uriah’s wife,
B. Rahab proves that the people of God have always been defined by their faith.
B. Rahab proves that the people of God have always been defined by their faith.
5 No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. I will be with you, just as I was with Moses. I will not leave you or abandon you.
6 “Be strong and courageous, for you will distribute the land I swore to their fathers to give them as an inheritance.
5 At nightfall, when the city gate was about to close, the men went out, and I don’t know where they were going. Chase after them quickly, and you can catch up with them!”
6 But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had arranged on the roof.
Illus: Take a moment and think about all the reasons Rahab should be disqualified from the people of God. At least from a worldly perspective.
1. She was a woman. In ancient cultures, that would have made her about as valuable as the cattle in the barn. Women were not valued in these days, and her inclusion as into God’s people, and frankly her elevation to a hero in this story is truly remarkable.
2. She was a Canaanite. She was apart of the very people who were to be extinguished. These were a people so vile that Scripture says the land would vomit out. Including her into the nation would be to taint and dilute the purity of the bloodline of Israel.
3. She was a prostitute. Hello!!! She was not morally good enough. Why on earth would you include a prostitute in the line of David. Those are the people you conveniently ignore and exclude.
Yet, what made Rahab worthy enough to be apart of the people of God, and more than that, apart of King David and Jesus’ line was not who she was before faith, but instead that she was a woman transformed by faith.
How often do we attempt to do that today.
1. Like Rahab’s status we somehow think that there are people unworthy of God’s grace. We make room for people who are financially well to do, but then look down with disdain for those without means.
2. How often do we attempt to believe that our ethnic background makes us closer to God. You believe that the color of your skin makes you a better person… and that people of darker, or even Arab skin colors are more prone to wickedness. Have you bought into the lie that one’s skin color determines their value?
3. How often do we devalue people because of their past. Do you know who they were.
BUT Rahab’s story is essential in understanding who are the people of God. You are not defined by your status, your race, or your former sins. You are defined by your faith. We as people need to stop using worldly ways to devalue one another. Rahab the Canaanite prostitute is a blood bought born again believer in the promise of God. She is a coheir with Jesus.
It does not matter who you were born to, what your race is, or what your past was. Jesus died for you, and when you trust him by faith, you are a child of God and a brother or sister in the faith.
The writer of Hebrews makes it abundantly clear, it is by faith and faith alone that one is a part of the people of God.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after being marched around by the Israelites for seven days.
31 By faith Rahab the prostitute welcomed the spies in peace and didn’t perish with those who disobeyed.
Heb 11:30-31
II. A right understanding of God begins in fear.
II. A right understanding of God begins in fear.
8 This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to meditate on it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.
9 Haven’t I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
10 Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people:
11 “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get provisions ready for yourselves, for within three days you will be crossing the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you to inherit.’ ”
8 Before the men fell asleep, she went up on the roof
9 and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and everyone who lives in the land is panicking because of you.
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 Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings you completely destroyed across the Jordan.
11 When we heard this, we lost heart, and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.
A. Rahab knew her fate.
A. Rahab knew her fate.
12 Now please swear to me by the Lord that you will also show kindness to my father’s family, because I showed kindness to you. Give me a sure sign
13 that you will spare the lives of my father, mother, brothers, sisters, and all who belong to them, and save us from death.”
Jsh 2
James 2:
Illus: We need to move away from the positive vibes for of Christianity and understand it for what it is.
OUr understanding of love, justice, grace, forgiveness, and God begins in fear.
That’s right fear.
When we understand who God is, who we are, and what we really deserve from God, then love, justice and forgiveness make sense.
Rahab counted herself as a woman destined for death. That is how she was able to stand up to the king of Jericho, because she feared God more than she feared the king.
Rahab knew that her only way of survival was to throw her self on the mercy of God.
Our story is the story of Rahab. We are people destined for death.
We understand that our only hope is the mercy of God, so we turn our backs on all that the world offers because only the mercy, forgiveness and grace of God can save us.
look at what scripture teaches about any Israelite or Canaanite or American who does not fear God…
God did not hold a double standard...
18 Anyone who rebels against your order and does not obey your words in all that you command him, will be put to death. Above all, be strong and courageous!”
This is the fate of every person.
jsh 1:
Rom 1:18-
18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,
19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.
B. Rahab, by faith, found God’s mercy.
B. Rahab, by faith, found God’s mercy.
14 The men answered her, “We will give our lives for yours. If you don’t report our mission, we will show kindness and faithfulness to you when the Lord gives us the land.”
Jsh
Illus: When a lifefuard jumps into a pool to save a drowning person, the lifeguard does not say, the are such a good swimmer that I will save them.
A paramedic does not look at the lifeless body and say, they are doing such a good job at breathing, I will give them CPR.
Those men bring life to people who have failed.
Mercy is not that Rahab deserved it, but that God gave it.
When God looks at you, he does not say, because you are living such a good life, I will save you.
When God looks at you, he sees your complete and utter failure, and offers to pull you out of the pool of your own death.
Faith is trusting God to accomplish what you can’t. It is admitting that your are dead, and turning to God to find life.
25 In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route?
26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
James 2:25-26
III. Rahab chose to fear God and not men.
III. Rahab chose to fear God and not men.
21 “Let it be as you say,” she replied, and she sent them away. After they had gone, she tied the scarlet cord to the window.
22 So the two men went into the hill country and stayed there three days until the pursuers had returned. They searched all along the way, but did not find them.
jsh 1:
A. Rahab turned her back on all that she was because she feared God.
A. Rahab turned her back on all that she was because she feared God.
Illus: The step of faith is a step of saying what you fear, value, live for.
Faith is an all in step. It is turning your back on all that you may know.
It is turning your back on finding fulfillment in things that are not God.
It is turning your back on sins that have held you.
It is turning to Jesus to both fear and love.
8 Dear friends, don’t overlook this one fact: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
8 Dear friends, don’t overlook this one fact: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.