August 30, 2020 Sermon

Introduction

The first step to conquering the land was to take Jericho. ‘

This was a massive city sitting just north of the Dead Sea and across the Jordan River. They had high walls and a spring that came up in the center of the city. In order for Joshua to lead Israel into the new land they had to go through Jericho. In order to do this, they needed to get the lay of the land. So two men were sent in as spies to check out this large border city.

Joshua 2:1 ESV

1 And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there.

Now I don’t know about you but I’ve often wondered why the men went to the house of a prostitute. I mean these were the people of God and these men were on a mission. In any normal world going to a prostitute was sin and not something you do.

That said, stop and think for a second. If you are in an old city in te East and you know no one, where do you stay? Where do you go especially if people have heard of this huge group of people coming into the land and they suspect strangers?

You go to the house of a prostitute. In a culture that allows prostitution no one is surprised when someone goes into that house. No one looks twice because everyone’s used to looking away. So these men fairly unsurprisingly found a place to go in the house of a prostitute.

So the men had what they thought would be a good strategy. Sadly the spies were quickly spied.

Joshua 2:2–3 ESV

2 And it was told to the king of Jericho, “Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.” 3 Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.”

Rahab was a woman with a family who we can only imagine had grown up in the area. She knew what it was like to live in Jericho, she knew the city. At this moment she had a decision to make.

Rahab had to decide whether to go with the life she had known or act to save a couple men she didn’t know. She had to choose to do and protect what everyone around her was protecting. Or she could choose something new in faith.

There will be moments in all our lives where we must choose between what we know and what we believe in faith.

Let’s see what Rahab chose.

Joshua 2:4–5 ESV

4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. 5 And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.”

Rahab lied blatantly to the messengers of the king!

Now we must not let ourselves get caught up thinking the ends always justify the means. Lying isn’t good. But Rahab chose to lie in order to save the lives of two men

Joshua 2:6 ESV

6 But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof.

Not only did Rahab lie to save the men, she also worked to hid the men. Today most of us have roofs that are angled to make sure the water and ice run off them. In that culture it was very common to have a flat roof and a way to get up there. You would use it for entertaining guests or for drying flax. Rahab chose to hide guests on her roof.

And it worked

Joshua 2:7 ESV

7 So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. And the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out.

Rahab chose against all odds to save the two spies. She chose against what the people of Jericho wanted to do something against the culture. She acted in betrayal of the city!

We see the action of Rahab as a good thing because of who she saved....God’s spies. But I want you to realize that first of all she was rejecting the town she knew. She was rejecting her culture. She was betraying people she probably knew as friends.

Rahab chose act in faith to serve God…and she betrayed her city in the process.

There may be a moment in our lives when choosing to follow God looks like betraying our family or our loved ones or even our culture and city.

There may be moments when doing what God asks feels like cutting all ties with what and who we have known.

Choosing God can be scary.

Why in the world did Rahab choose to protect the spies?

Let’s return to the story

Joshua 2:8–9 ESV

8 Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof 9 and said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.

Now we get part of the story. God had spread a fear of the Israelites through the land.

Joshua 2:10 ESV

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 devoted to destruction.

So the people of Jericho had heard some things about Israel.

The Red Sea gets dried so Israel can walk through

Sihon and Og are destroyed.

Now the story of the Red Sea took a little bit of faith for anyone who hadn’t been there to believe. But the kings on the other side of the Jordan took less faith.

This is the equivalent of looking to the other side of the Wabash River. Jericho was closer to the Jordan than we are to the Wabash River right now at the church.

Stories, survivors and more certainly made their way to Jericho sharing the victories of the people of Israel. Rahab and the other people had reasons to believe.

These stories struck fear into the hearts of the people of Jericho

Joshua 2:11 ESV

11 And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

Everyone was living in fear because of what they heard.

Yet not everyone drew the same conclusion.

Rahab was the only one we know of who acted to support God’s people.

Everyone fears the power God displays, but not everyone chooses to worship God.

Today we live with a lot of fears.

We fear the power and presence of the Coronavirus to affect or lives or the lives of those we love.

We fear cancer and other diseases inflicting pain in our lives.

We fear politicians winning or losing.

We fear the effects of the hurricane on our country.

We fear not being able to provide.

In every area of life we see powerful effects that God controls. But many people chose to reject God and cling to what they know instead of choosing to let their fear drive them to seek God. God offers the opportunity to find peace and hope in Him.

Opening Up Joshua What Prompted Rahab to Act as She Did (2:1–24)

Faith is believing the truth that God has revealed.

I love that quote. A lot of times we think of faith as holding onto something we can’t see or know and just have to wish it’s true.

Think about a famous faith passage.

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

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

We often think of faith in this “hoped for, unseen sense.” Many times, however, faith is simply choosing to believe something God has already shown you to be true. It’s believing a truth you already have seen/heard.

Now faith for Rahab wasn’t just something she held in her head. She didn’t just chose to believe in God’s power and just sit there thinking. She took action. She lied to protect the spies. Then she spoke up to save her family.

Joshua 2:12–13 ESV

12 Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign 13 that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.”

Rahab spoke up and bargained for the life of her family. As one minister put it so well, “Rahab stood in the gap for her family.” She stood in to save her parents, her siblings and those they who belonged to them.

Rahab used the full extent of the power she had to save the ones she loved.

Two questions arise for us today.

What do we believe?

God has revealed much of Himself to us in the world around us and through His word. He has shown the power of nature and the power of disease calling us to trust in Him. Will we choose to trust in and obey him.

Are we willing to act for those we love?

How will we stand in the gap in faith for our family and friends? Do we literally have our loved one’s names printed on a list we pray to God every day? Do we speak up to share what we have accepted as true in our lives?

Joshua 2:14–15 ESV

14 And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.” 15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall.

The spies agreed and Rahab let the me go out the window and down the wall.

As the spies left they told Rahab to leave the scarlet cord she let them down on dangling out the window as a sign to save the people in that house.

Joshua 2:18–19 ESV

18 Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. 19 Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head.

What did Rahab accomplish with her faith?

Can you imagine being in Rahab’s shoes waiting to see what would happen? Can you imagine wondering if Israel really would win?

Let’s pick up a little of the story later in the book of Joshua.

As Joshua leads Israel up to the city he makes this proclamation.

Joshua 6:17 ESV

17 And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.

Joshua 6:22–25 ESV

22 But to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, as you swore to her.” 23 So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel. 24 And they burned the city with fire, and everything in it. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. 25 But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

Rahab succeeded in saving herself and her loved ones by her act of faith before God.

Hebrews 11:31 ESV

31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

Rahab was even mentioned hundreds of years later for her faith.

How does the story of Rahab challenge us today.

Jericho was under a sentence of destruction from God.

We are also under a sentence of God’s wrath and eternal destruction for sin.

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Israel was marching under the orders of God to destroy Jericho. In the same way God’s justice and judgement are “marching” towards all humanity because of sin in their lives.

Our Scarlet Cord

Everyone, just like Rahab we also have a scarlet cord to hang in the “window of our lives.” That’s Jesus.

The only solution for sin is payment Jesus came to the earth for the express purpose of paying for our sin through His death on the cross. Jesus paid that price so you and I wouldn’t have to.

Jesus completely paid the penalty for us on the cross. All we have to do is chose to believe in the truth of what Jesus already did for us.

Have we made the choice to believe in what Jesus did for us on the cross? Do we believe what the Bible teaches about salvation, sin, and life through Jesus.

Will you receive the scarlet cord of God’s mercy today?

How could your choice to believe in and obey God save those you love?

A Change of Countries.....A Changed Life

Rahab made a choice that changed her from being a faithful resident of Jericho to an Israeli. She changed allegiences and that changed her life completely.

Rahab didn’t continue on in the life she had, she took her place among God’s people and she even became an ancestor of Jesus.

God calls us to a new life as well.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Who do you serve? Does your life as a believer look anything different than your unbelieving friends? God calls us to be citizens of Heaven.

God’s Massive Mercy

God was willing to save someone who lived in a sinful city working a sinful profession. Rahab shows us just a snapshot of the massive mercy of God.

Nothing you can do is beyond the massive mercy of God!

A long time ago there was a man by the name of John Newton. He made his living selling people. He would travel to Africa, buy a whole bunch of people, treat them terribly, and transport these people to other countries to be sold as slaves. He was known for drunkeness, blaspheming God, and living a sin-filled life.

But then God interrupted John Newton’s life. God called Newton to faith in Jesus and that changed everything for this man.

(We can only wish that salvation would have convicted more people faster about the evils of slavery.)

God called Newton and Newton like Rahab chose to believe. He gave up slave trading and his life of sin. He spent the rest of his life learning to follow God. And he wrote this song many of you are familiar with.

Amazing Grace

Opening Up Joshua The Wideness of God’s Mercy

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found;

Was blind, but now I see

Opening Up Joshua The Wideness of God’s Mercy

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed!