Joshua 2:1-24

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Joshua 2:1-24

“And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there. 2 And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither to night of the children of Israel to search out the country. 3 And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house: for they be come to search out all the country. 4 And the woman took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were: 5 And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: whither the men went I wot not: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them. 6 But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof. 7 And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords: and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate. 8 And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof; 9 and she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. 10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. 11 And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. 12 Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a token: 13 And that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. 14 And the men answered her, Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be, when the LORD hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. 15 Then she let them down by a cord through the window: for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall. 16 And she said unto them, Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned: and afterward may ye go your way. 17 And the men said unto her, We will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear. 18 Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee. 19 And it shall be, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless: and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him. 20 And if thou utter this our business, then we will be quit of thine oath which thou hast made us to swear. 21 And she said, According unto your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet line in the window. 22 And they went, and came unto the mountain, and abode there three days, until the pursuers were returned: and the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but found them not. 23 So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Num, and told him all things that befell them: 24 And they said unto Joshua, Truly the LORD hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us.”

Introduction

“Chapter 2, has anyone read ahead? Several of you, that’s good. We have come to this interesting chapter in regards to spying out the land of Canaan. It begins by saying, “And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there.” (verse 1) (Shittim, an area where Acacia grows) So Joshua now, isn’t it interesting, on the edge of the Promised Land, Jericho is within view. The Jordan River is at floodtide, overflowing its banks, we’re not told what jeopardy these men were in, they had to put themselves in to get across the Jordan River. But he sends only two into the land. Twelve’s a sore number with Joshua, because 38 years before this he was one of 12 that went in to spy out the land, and one of only two that came back and said ‘Let’s go get ‘em.’ And because they were outvoted ten to two, they wandered for 38 more years in the Wilderness. Joshua’s very careful this time, he only picks out two, knowing he doesn’t want to do that again. And it says he sent them secretly. Now it doesn’t tell us specifically, does it mean he sent them secretly in regards to the Canaanites or secretly in regards to the nation of Israel? wanting them to come back and report to him first before the children of Israel hear the report. But he sends two of them, and he tells them to go search out the land, to go and see this land, that he had seen many years before this, ‘Spy out the land,’ and he says “even Jericho.” Jericho was about the size of our property, somewhere 9 to 10 acres inside the walls, the walls were 30 to 40 foot high, there were two walls, an outer wall, they estimate around 10 foot thick, and a 15 foot space and an inner wall about 15 foot thick, and it was a formidable fortress. It was one of the oldest cities in the world [the Jericho Tell has layers going back to pre-Flood in archeological layers], it was in the middle of a trade route, those that would come all the way from the Euphrates, would come through the area of Damascus and then down and meet up with the Via Maris way and come south, traveling down this area from Tyre and Sidon. Many of those trade routes went through Jericho and on down into Egypt. So it was a city in a very important location, it was undoubtedly a fortress, it was the first battle they [the Israelites] would face, the whole nation could see it from where they were camped. And Joshua sends over two spies and he says to them ‘I want you to go, I want you to search out the land, and I want you to, particularly, look at Jericho, and get a gander of what’s going on in there.’ “And they went,” it tells us “and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there.” I don’t know if Joshua specially gave them those directions. Great plan guys. [Actually, militarily, the information about everything going on in the city would be available in a harlot’s house, so it was one of the wisest moves they could have made, far less dangerous than walking through the city as strangers, asking a bunch of questions. But it was a “double-edged sword” move as we see, because nothing goes unnoticed in a harlot’s house—look at how the king of Jericho was notified of their presence and Rahab could have just turned them in. It was a no-brainer that the king would have spies of his own camped out at Rahab’s establishment.] Now some say she wasn’t a harlot, that she was an inn-keeper, because sometimes in ancient culture that was a duel role. Well we hear about her in three places in the New Testament, we’re specifically told in the Greek that she’s a prostitute, there’s no confusion about it at all. God doesn’t hide that, he doesn’t hide it in any of our lives. What we were before we came to the Lord, it doesn’t shame him it glorifies him, that he set us free, taken us from the strands of broken lives that we lived and cleansed us and called us his sons and his daughters. The Bible doesn’t hide anything, this woman is a harlot. Now, the place that she owned may also have been used, you know, like a Motel-6 or something, ah, I don’t know that. But they go there, which may have been a normal, cultural situation, going into a strange city, ah, many men would go to the home of a harlot, and they would take opportunity to be her patrons, and also then to get room and board in that place. Maybe, incognito, this won’t really be noticed, they come to her home, all the while behind the scenes God is guiding, there’s something very remarkable taking place here that I’m sure the two spies and Joshua back in the camp have no idea about at this point in time. Neither does Rahab, I’m sure. “And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither to night of the children of Israel to search out the country. And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house: for they be come to search out all the country.” (verses 2-3) This king is very well informed. We’re going to find out that Rahab tells these spies that ‘the entire nation is terrified of you, the entire nation is melting before you, is afraid of you.’ In Exodus after they cross the Red Sea in chapter 15:14-16 when they sang the song of victory, part of that song says “The people shall hear and be afraid. Sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed, and the mighty men of Moab trembling shall take hold upon them, and all of the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.” That word “melt” is the same word we’re going to find here in Joshua chapter 2. “Fear and dread shall fall upon them, by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone, till thy people pass over,” and I wonder if they knew when they were saying “pass over” what that meant, “till thy people pass over O LORD, till thy people pass over which thou hast purchased.” So, the king, the inhabitants of Jericho and Canaan are very paranoid at this point in time. Before 12 spies came into the land and left, and it seemed that nobody noticed. This time only two come on, and the king of Jericho evidently has cameras everywhere, like you go too fast through a light you get a ticket, they had everybody watching everywhere, and these two guys come in, they’re dressed differently, they know they’re not normal locals, and they go with a harlot, which is something they had taken notice of, somebody mentioned it to somebody, and somehow the king even knows that they are in the house of Rahab. Now look, you have to understand, the city’s on high-alert. As they stand on the walls of Jericho looking over the river at the children of Israel, at night there’s a pillar of fire on the other side of the river, going up into the sky at night. And no doubt they’re on the walls of Jericho going, ‘Oy, oy, oy,’ you know, they’re looking at this thing thinking ‘Our name is mud,’ they’re on alert. So the king sends to Rahab and says ‘Look, we’ve heard that these guys have come in, we believe they’re Israelis, they’re here to spy out the land, and they’re in your place, we want you to give them up, we want you to hand them over.’

Rahab Could Have Turned The Spies In Right Away--Instead She Hides Them

Verse 4 says this, and I love this, look at what the LORD says, “And the woman” not the Harlot, because he knew, she was somebody’s little girl, she’d been a toddler, he knew the world had just beat the tar out of her, left her broken and shattered, I love the LORD, he says “And the woman took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist [know] not whence they were:” ‘Well ya, it’s true, there came two men to me,’ (no great moves, I’m a harlot, that happens all the time), but I wist not, I didn’t know where they were from,’ she says. “And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: whither the men went I wot not: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them.” (verse 5) Now it seems honest enough, she says to the king ‘Hey, I got guys coming and going, you know the drill, that’s why you sent to me, and these guys came in about the time it got dark, when they wouldn’t want to see their wives, you know their wives wouldn’t see them leaving, that’s when they went out, I didn’t know where they were from or where they’re going, but it hasn’t been that long, if you pursue them you’ll probably be able to catch up with them.’ It seems reasonable. Verse 6 says this, “But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof.” Now it tells us that it’s springtime, that’s when the flax was harvested. Now I want to back up and look at that verse. Let’s go down a few verses, “And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords: and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate.” (verse 7) So she sends them on a snipe-hunt. You guys know what that is? I was in the Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, got all the way to Life, I was two merit badges from Eagle and I got involved with the wrong crowd, and I don’t know if my scout master ever forgave me, I bailed out. But snipe-hunt, you guys know what a snipe-hunt is, when you send people out hunting for snipe, there’s no such thing, but that’s what she did, she sent these guys on a snipe-hunt. So it says here that ‘the men of Jericho pursued after these guys, and they went the way of Jordan,’ so they’re assuming they’re going to go across the Jordan and go back to the camp of Israel on the other side, “unto the fords” by the edge of the Jordan River, “and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate.” (verse 7b)

What She’s Heard About This God Has Touched Her Life--He’s A God Of Slaves

We’re back to the two spies now, “And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof;” (verse 8) So her house is on the wall of the city, it would be typical with an inner and outer wall, fifteen foot apart, to actually lay big beams across and build the house right there spanning both walls, tremendous foundation in the natural mind. And these two men, not only are they on the wall, then above that they’re up on the roof of the house. Imagine the view they have from where they are. Imagine what it was like for them to look down into Jericho, the city itself, imagine what it was for them to look over the camp where their God was, and to see that pillar of fire at night, imagine the view these two men had as they looked. We’re going to find out these were remarkable men, Joshua has picked his spies carefully. But she came up onto the roof, to these two men, and listen to her. “And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.” (verse 9) Listen, “I know” not ‘I suppose, I guess,’ “I know” notice this, “that the LORD hath given you the land,” (If you have the King James, it’s capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that’s Jehovah, Yahweh, the God of the Jews) she says, “I know that the LORD” she knows his name, notice, past tense, “hath given you the land,” ‘we’re sitting ducks,’ she says ‘I know what the story is, I know what’s happening here, I know that the LORD, he’s given you the land,’ “and that your terror is fallen upon us,” notice, “and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.” (verse 9) here it is “faint,” the Hebrew word is “melt” because of you. That’s exactly what they were told on the other side of the Red Sea, “they melt because of you.” Notice this in verse 10, “For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.” “For we have heard,” faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. “We have heard,” not we watched the video. “We have heard” notice this, “dried up the water of the Red Sea,” she didn’t say ‘We’ve heard how you got through the Reed Sea, we heard you guys made it through the Swamp, we heard you guys were all muddy and mucky trying to get through there.’ She says “We heard how God dried up the waters of the Red Sea,” forty years before this. And it was a great and notable wonder. She takes issue with it, ‘We heard about the parting of the Red Sea.’ I don’t know how old she is. Maybe she remembers hearing the story as she was a young girl. She’s grown up somewhere, now, who knows, 30, 40, 50, she’s a harlot. She says ‘We have heard, we’re melting before you, we know what’s going on.’ She may have heard from patrons, she’s a prostitute, we don’t know who she heard it from. She said “We’ve heard how that the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when you came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.” (verse 10) Now Sihon and Og, that’s a current event, just happened within a year of this. There’s a 40 year span between those two events, and she got the whole thing tracked out. She says ‘We’ve heard what you did to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.’ I mean, the whole land was terrified of Sihon and Og. You know, as a harlot she was kind of like a bartender, like a psychologist in the day, she not only had patrons, but I’m sure they’d pour out their hearts, she had merchants, this was a city where they had merchants and traders, and they would come and she would hear, as she plied her business of harlotry, from some of her customers, Yes, my father’s business was destroyed in Egypt, with the plagues that came on the land, the frogs and the lice, the whole land eaten up, and all their firstborn died, and the Egyptian army, businesses, terrible, you should have heard, this God of the Jews, what he did,’ she must have heard over and over from different reports, and then she’s hearing what happened to Sihon and Og. There’s no radio, she didn’t see it on Fox News or CNN, ‘We’ve heard what he did to Sihon and Og,’ these things had come to her. And they had not only come to her, they had ministered to her heart in a very particular way, look at verse 11, “As soon as we heard” this is it again, “these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.” I mean, I wish every harlot in America was saying that, don’t you? Wish every politician in America were saying that as a matter of fact. “the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.” Just listen to what’s happening in her. We’re going to find out that what she’s heard about this God has touched her life. She’s going to say, verse 12, “Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token.” She wants part and parcel of this, because not only has she heard of his power and his might. You see, the unrepentant heart, the others in Jericho and many in Canaan were terrified, and they were fearful, and they melted away. But as she listened, she heard something else. ‘This is a great and terrible and awesome God, but he’s a merciful God, he is a God of slaves,’ and she thought ‘I’m a slave, I’ve been a slave too long, and his people were being whipped in Egypt, I’ve been a slave too long, making bricks for the Pharaoh,’ and she thought ‘I’m so tired of plying my trade, and he delivered his people, he’s a God whose the God of slaves, and he’s the God who delivers them.’ Aren’t you glad, because I was a slave, to drugs, to immorality. You know, I watch the news now, and I see so many things being put in front of our nation, nobody anymore is saying ‘This is good,’ or ‘this is bad, this is right, or this is wrong.’ But I can look back in my own life and look at those things when I lived in them and say ‘That was wrong, and what’s happening in my life is right!’ ‘That was bondage, and what’s happening in my life now is freedom, and when I lived by those standards I was a slave to the devil, and Jesus Christ has set me free, and I’m completely clear on the issues of right and wrong, there is a higher Kingdom and a higher politic, there’s someone else to look to, and he sets slaves free, and wants to do it for everyone in this nation [and I might add, the world], he sets them free, and he set me free, and he set you free.’ [applause] She heard that, and somehow it has resonated with her. While the rest of the land is terrified, this harlot on the wall has opened her heart to this Living God, a God of slaves, a Deliverer, a merciful God. And she’s thought ‘Maybe I have a place.’ It tells us in the Book of Hebrews, it says “By faith the harlot, the prostitute, Rahab perished not with them that believe not, when she had received the spies with peace.” James, talking about our works proving our faith, said, “Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way.” At the risk of her own life, at the stake of lying to the king of Jericho, there was something higher in her heart and her mind than her own earthly prosperity at that particular time. She had embraced something higher, and James said she demonstrated her faith by the way she treated these two men that the entire city was after. She sent them out another way.

There’s Something Different About This Woman, She’s Not Your Everyday Prostitute

Verse 6 tells us this, when we look at this, it’s very interesting, it says “But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof.” Notice this, please notice, “which she had laid in order upon the roof.” Gathering flax was an extremely laborious trade, it was dirty, hard work. And to take those stalks of flax, and take them then all the way up onto the wall and onto the roof, I don’t like to go to the second floor sometimes and I live on a split-level. Imagine taking them all the way up there, the labor that was involved in that, and she took them up there, and then they would soak them, so she had to carry water up there. And then when they soaked them, for about two to three weeks, then they would lay them out in order, and the sun would dry them, and they would split open. And the strands of fiber in there, they wove clothing from that, some of the fine linen clothing made from this flax that they wore in that culture, and they would dye it. And we’re told here that she was not only someone who was gathering flax and working with her hands, but she had some of this dye which was very expensive, there was stone, mineral in the area that was taken and put in these iron pots, and they would crush it and boil it in water, they would boil it down until the color was extremely intense. And then they would take, because you didn’t have a way to store dye back then, they would take a rope and coil it around inside that pot, and then boil it the rest of the way down until all the water went out, the dye then would be housed in the rope. And pieces of that rope were then sold, if you bought clothes, you would take a piece of that rope and put it in the pot with linen clothes or cotton clothes or whatever you have, and it would dye them. And you only needed six to eight inches of a piece of that rope to dye garments. So the fact that she has a rope that goes from her window to the ground, at least 30-foot long, tells us she is running quite a business there on her roof, she’s running quite a business. It tells us this, in the Book of Proverbs, about the virtuous woman, it says “She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands” (Proverbs 31) God describing the virtuous woman. I think this woman is already demonstrating before these two men get there, that she has a genuine faith in the Living God, gathering flax, making dye, is not the work of a harlot. It is a laborious task, and there’s some demonstration in this woman’s life, that the God of Israel has already touched her heart, and already had a tremendous effect on her. She must have been praying ‘How do I get to be part of this? God I know what I’m doing is wrong, I know you are the God of love, you are THE God, you are the LORD, and you’re a God of slaves. How do I get to be a part of this?’ And she’s walking in the city, praying, and bumps into two Israelis, now what are the chances of that? Joshua said to the spies, ‘Go over to the land, and spy out the land.’ They’re going to come back and he’s going to say, ‘Tell me about the land,’ and they’re going to say ‘Ah, well we really didn’t see much of the land,’ ‘but what did you see over there?’ ‘Prostitute’s house,’ ‘Guys, are you kidding me!’ ‘What kind of war-plans are we gonna make?’ and they’re gonna say, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute, she’s a sister, she’s a daughter of Abraham, she’s a believer, and she gave us this report, the entire land is terrified of us, they’re melting away, what God told us is completely true.’ In Deuteronomy chapter 2, around verse 25 he said the same thing, ‘The report of you will terrorize those that are in the land.’ This is not a military espionage journey, this ends up to be a trip for the benefit of one woman, as it were, that lives on the wall, and it ends up to be one trip to enhance faith. This report is so different than the one that the spies came back with at Kadesh Barnea 38 years earlier, these two guys are going to come back, and they’re going to say ‘The whole land is trembling before us, the whole land is trembling before us.’

Joshua Picked These Two Spies Very Carefully--They And Rahab All Have A Genuine Faith

Look at verse 12, she says to the spies, “Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token: and that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.” (verses 12-13) Now she’s assuming ‘the victory is yours.’ “And the men answered her, Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be, when the LORD hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee.” (verse 14) ‘Even up, if this is what you want, this is what we’ll do, our lives for yours, if you utter not this our business, if you keep this secret, and you don’t tell anyone, then your life will be spared,’ “And it shall be when the LORD hath given us the land…” notice it doesn’t say ‘and if the LORD gives us the land.’ Joshua picked these two spies very carefully. He was listening to what was coming out of their mouths before he sent them in. They’re probably saying ‘Spy?! Send us in there, we’ll get ‘em, just let us go in there, we talk to Caleb every night, just let us in there, we’ll stab those giants in the knees, when they bend over we’ll poke them in the eyes, just let us in,’ he picked these guys very carefully. Because they say to this harlot, ‘and WHEN God,’ not ‘if God,’ “when God gives us the land, we will deal kindly and truly with thee.” Now, imagine what this harlot is going to have to do. I’m not sure, you know, it is a strange culture, but the truth is in every culture, harlotry has been looked down upon. It was certainly not something that a mom and a dad wanted their daughter to be, ‘Hey honey, what do you want to be when you grow up?’ ‘Eh, I want to be a harlot on the wall.’ That’s not the kind of thing that any parents want to hear from their daughter. And this is a solitary faith. Maybe you feel like you’re the only one in your family, and you’re alone [yup]. Listen to her. She’s gonna have to go to her father’s house, to her mother, to her brothers who might despise her. She’s gonna have to say to them, ‘Israeli spies came to my place.’ ‘What!?’ ‘The God of Israel, that big pillar of fire over there, that God who slaughtered the Egyptians, who killed Sihon and Og, he’s given a token to me, a token of kindness, and they promised me that if you come to my house when the children of Israel come in and destroy the city, we’re gonna be spared.’ And her brothers saying ‘I’m fighting in the army of Jericho, what are you talking about when they defeat us?’ and she says, ‘No, no, no, you don’t understand, I’m going to hang down a scarlet rope from my window, and all of the other families are going to be slaughtered, but we’re going to be spared because of that scarlet thread hanging in my window.’ What was it like for her to try to explain that to them, what’s it like for you to try to explain to your family, ‘Ya, everybody’s destroyed except for somebody that has the scarlet thread.’? ‘Everybody dies except those who have the blood of Jesus.’ The scarlet thread goes from Cain and Abel and the sacrifice in the Garden of Eden all the way to Jesus Christ on the cross, it goes all the way through the Old Testament and it winds its way through our culture today. And it’s still as simple as that, the scarlet thread, the blood of Jesus Christ, what a picture it is for us. And think of how difficult, look, if you’re in a difficult time with your family, don’t be afraid, because every wall is going to fall to the ground, the Bible tell us that, not just Jericho. The wall that’s called America is going to crumble. We have sown to the wind, we’re going to reap the whirlwind. God owes it to the rest of the world to let this experiment fail. We don’t guard our borders to keep people in, we guard our borders to keep people out. Did you ever notice that? And people are thinking this is the last great hope, and I am a patriot, I love this nation, I think it’s the greatest experiment in democracy that’s going, but it will also fail, the Bible tells us that. [Comment: It is also very healthy for us to not ignore the real history and sins of our nation, toward other nations, and toward the people living within our nation. See and read this entire book-length piece I’ve titled America-ModernRomans, starting at: https://unityinchrist.com/topical%20studies/America-ModernRomans1.htm] And in this scene, a trumpet will blow, and everything will begin to fall down, and in our culture the day is coming when a spiritual force and a great leader named Joshua [Jesus Christ] will have his way, descend with a shout, the voice of the archangel and the Trump[et] of God, and the walls of man’s culture and civilization are going to go down (cf. Zechariah 14:1-15). And the ones that are going to be spared are the ones who have genuine faith (cf. Revelation 3:10). It’s interesting, when we get to chapter 6, it says they blew the trumpets, and they all went up (into the city through the collapsed walls of Jericho). I just like the way that sounds, I just like the way that sounds. What an interesting woman, what a solitary faith she has, one that goes to witness to her mom and dad and say…we’ve all done that, we all have that burden, very interesting picture.

Rahab Gives The Spies Instructions To Keep Them Safe

Then it says in verse 15, after they said ‘you keep our business secret, you work with us, you’re going to be spared,’ it says “Then she let them down by a cord through the window: for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall.” the Hebrew is “a rope.” “And she said unto them, Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you; and hide yourselves three days, until the pursuers be returned: and afterward may ye go your way.” (verses 15-16) She’s telling them to go west, where Jericho is, those of you who go you’ll see, Jordan is eastward, and Jericho was built on the plain, and you have to go west, go up into the mountains. She’s saying ‘Don’t get east towards the river, that’s where they’re going to be looking for you, go west, go up into the hills,’ she’s saying to them, she says “Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned: and afterwards may ye go your way.” (verse 16) ‘after three days they’re going to be tired of looking for you, they’re going to figure you’re back over on the other side, then it will be safer.’ “And the men said unto her, We will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear.” (verse 17) ‘We’re going to stick to this.’ “Behold,” consider, “when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee.” (verse 18) now it wasn’t a scarlet thread, because they had just let themselves down with it, it really would have to be strong thread, it was a rope. We long to do that, don’t we? bringing in our father’s household, with our moms and our dads and our families, to see them saved. You guys that are witnessing to your parents, don’t give up, don’t grow weary. My mom, I witnessed to her for nineteen years before she got saved, and she’s a believer now, nineteen years. And the first ten, at least they thought I was a raving lunatic. Because before that it had been, you know, the Bhagavata, the Upanishad, was a vegetarian for a number of years…I mean, I was in outerspace, and all of a sudden I was talking about Jesus, and they thought ‘Oh no, it’s Jesus, it’s gonna be flying saucers next, that’s all that’s left after this!’ But then they watched the change, they saw something consistent, you know, it says we’re living epistles, known and read of all men, and they couldn’t deny, then they started coming to church once in a while, thinking ‘All these poor people here, listening to him,’ and wonderfully, wonderfully, my mom and my dad, and my dad’s home with the Lord now, both gave their lives to Jesus Christ. [If you’re fans of the popular West Wing, what we’re essentially doing is giving our lives to the future King of the World, King of kings and Lord of lords, to serve in his West Wing as future administrators, kings and priests, in his coming Kingdom (Revelation chapters 2-3; 5:9-10; 1^st Peter 2:9)]. Don’t grow weary, continue to share the truth, love them, God’s Word doesn’t return void. ‘Gather with you your father, your mother, your brethren, your father’s household, bring them all home with you.’ “And it shall be, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless: and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him.” (verse 19) Now, you have to understand they haven’t read the end of the chapter before, it’s an interesting problem they’re going to have here. They’re going to go back across the river, and convince Joshua that their spying campaign was successful, and I’m sure as he listens he’s going to understand what God was doing. And then they’re going to say ‘But we made a covenant with her because she helped us, she’s a believer,’ ‘Well what kind of a covenant?’ ‘Well we just told her, Look, hang the red rope out your window,’ and they didn’t know about marching around, but as the children of Israel march around the city of Jericho they’re gonna see it every time they go around, they’re going to see that scarlet rope. But Joshua is going to say ‘Hey guys, I don’t know what you told this woman, but the LORD told us we’re going to walk around seven days, the seventh day we’re going to walk around seven times, we’re going to shout and blow the trumpets, and all the walls are going to fall down, and you made her a promise her whole family should be in a house ontop of the wall? I don’t know what’s going to happen here.’ Now of course when we get to chapter 6 what we find out is, all the walls fell down except one portion of the wall that stood there with a house on top of it with a red rope hanging out the window, and I’m sure Rahab and her family used it to get down. There were no more stairs, the city was gone. But these guys don’t know, imagine as they’re going to come back and report to Joshua, and then hear what the plan for this conquest is going to look like. And they said, “And if thou utter this our business, then we will be quit of thine oath which thou hast made us to swear. And she said, According unto your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet line in the window.” (verses 20-21) Now look, believing God’s Word, how preposterous does this sound, hang the scarlet line out of your window, everybody’s going to be destroyed, but you’re gonna survive--she’s changed her citizenship, brought her family in, she’s gone through all of this, and she’s going to convince them all, like you’re trying to convince your friends, ‘Ya, it’s just that simple, it’s just that scarlet thread, it’s that simple, it’s not because we do good, I was a harlot, it’s because of who this God is, because of how merciful he is, and all we have on our behalf is the scarlet thread, and we’re going to be preserved,’ that’s the same story you’re trying to convince your friends and relatives who grew up religious, and you can appreciate that, but they’re not born-again, they don’t know Jesus Christ. And you’re trying to convince them of the simplicity of God’s covenant and all of this, as this harlot had to undertake with her life.

These Two Spies Came Back With A Different Fruit Than The Fruit Of The Ten Spies

“And they went, and came unto the mountain, and abode there three days, until the pursuers were returned: and the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but found them not. So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all things that befell them:” (verses 22-23) But Joshua is going to hear, you know, 38 years before this, in the Book of Numbers, it says there “And they came unto the brook of Eschol, they cut down from thence a branch with a cluster of grapes, and there they bare it between the two of them on a staff, and they brought of the pomegranate and the figs, the place was called the Brook of Eschol because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from there, and they returned from searching out the land for forty days, and they went and they came to Moses, to Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh, and they brought back word unto them, unto all the congregation, and they showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him and said, We came unto the land wither thou sentest us, and surely it flows with milk and honey, and this is fruit of it,” and then of course, “nevertheless, the people are strong,” ‘they’re terrible and so forth’ These two guys come back with a report of a completely different kind of fruit, ‘We have seen, Joshua, fruit in the land unimaginable, we found a harlot living on the wall, just the word of our God has transformed her life, Joshua the fruit is wonderful. And the rest of the nation that would be rebellious are in terror, their melting in front of us.’ Much different kind of fruit they come back and report to Joshua. “And they said unto Joshua, Truly the LORD hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us.” (verse 24) Listen, several things as we look at this, part of this is God loves one harlot, back in Genesis chapter 15, verse 16, God there said to Abraham he was going to take his descendants down into Egypt for 400 years, because he said “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet come a full,” God is so patient with a nation, he waits and he waits, and he waits, and he waits to bring judgment. He waited in regards to Canaan 400 years. And there were those in the land of Canaan that knew of Abraham, that knew of Jacob, that knew what happened when Joseph sent up a great envoy from Egypt to gather Jacob and his brothers. There were those in the land of Canaan that knew the great deliverance that took place, in fact some historians feel that one of the Pharaohs after probably Hatshepsut, who was probably the daughter of the Pharaoh who destroyed the Hebrew babies, the Pharaoh after her was so angered [actually the son of the Pharaoh after her, Amenhotep II], came up into Canaan because he thought that’s where the children of Israel were, but they had been wandering for 40 years, but this Pharaoh [Amenhotep II] came up and slaughtered thousands in the land of Canaan, just taking vengeance in Canaan [and he also took 102,000 slaves out of Canaan to replace the Israelite slaves he had just lost], and the Canaanites are thinking, ‘Man, we don’t stand a chance against them, and the God of Israel destroyed them, well how are we ever going to stand before the God of Israel?’ [Comment: for the secular and Biblical history of the Exodus from Egypt, and these lines of Pharaohs that were involved, including the Pharaoh of the Exodus, Amenhotep II, see https://unityinchrist.com/lamb/exodus1.html]

Rahab Takes Away Our Excuses And She Demands Genuine Faith

And Rahab is always a testimony of the fact that in any culture God is gracious and is willing to stoop down, even to the harlot, the crack addict, the pusher on the street. He’s willing to gather to himself anyone in any condition that’s going to believe in him. And we have the story of this one harlot that lives on a wall, this is an exhortation for us, Rahab takes away all our excuses, and she demands faith from us. There isn’t anybody sitting here this evening that can say ‘I was too bad, God can’t love me. I was too immoral, I’ve ruined my family wasting all our money on Atlantic City, done too many things, I’ve stepped over too many lives, God can’t love me.’ Rahab takes away our excuses and she demands genuine faith. If you look at these spies, the challenge for you is, to spy out what they have spied out. Do you really want to enter into the promises of God and all of the things that he has for you? Then you need to realize it’s not by works, it’s not by anything you do on your own, that God of heaven has sent his Son to die in your place, he shed his blood, and that scarlet thread is the lesson that hangs in front of us in regards to receiving the promises of God by faith. Oh it doesn’t give us an excuse to live however we will, that’s not what I’m saying at all. But you and I should spy out what these spies spied out, listen, God loves this woman. God loves this woman more than you can imagine. And she turned to him in simple faith. She’s gonna marry an Israelite, this prostitute is gonna marry an Israelite. She’s going to have children, her son’s name is Boas, and when others would turn their back on Ruth because she was a Moabite, Boas has no problem, because his mother had been a Canaanite prostitute who had come to genuine faith in the Living God, and had taught him his whole life about the love and the power of God. And Boas her son would take Ruth, who will have a son named Obed, who will have a son named Jesse, who will have a son named David. This is the great, great grandma of the king of Israel. And she is the great, great, great, great, great (keep adding “great’s”) grandma of David’s King. It says in Matthew chapter 1, “The book of the generations of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judas” I know you think all these begots will put you to sleep, “and his brethren, Judas begot Pharez and Zerah of Tamar” who had posed as a prostitute, “and Pharez begot Ezron, Ezron begot Aram, and Aram begot Aminadab, and Aminadab begot Naason, Naason begot Salmon, and Salmon begot Boas of Rahab” Salmon is going to marry, Rahab [And Salmon was one of those two spies]. “And Boas begot Obed of Ruth, and Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king of Israel” and we follow it all the way down to Jesus Christ, the King of Israel, who chose Rahab, the prostitute on the wall to be in his family photo. You know, we send those out at Christmastime, family pictures. And in the Lord’s picture, Rahab, a harlot…my great, great, great, great, great, great grandma, Rahab the prostitute. She takes away all of our excuses, there isn’t anyone here tonight that has an excuse to turn away from Jesus Christ. You can make them up, but they are not substantiated in God’s Word. You can make mistakes and think that you’re not perfect, you ain’t, that’s not news, it ain’t going to be on TV. ‘The whole country is shocked, that just discovered so and so is not perfect!’ we all know that. Revelation chapter 5 says that John wept bitterly because no man was found worthy in heaven, on the earth, or under the earth. I don’t know, when I finally saw that, it was a tremendous relief for me, because I thought for sure I had to be the one who was worthy. ‘No man, no man, no one has ever been found worthy, but the Lamb, behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he hath been found worthy to open the scroll, to loose the seals thereof, and I turned, and behold, lo, in the midst of the throne, in the midst of the elders, in the midst of the cherubim was a Lamb with the marks of slaughter upon him, having seven horns with seven eyes that go out into all of the earth, an omnipotent, omniscient Lamb with the marks of slaughter, the scarlet thread, the scarlet thread.’ He loves you, he’s paid the price in full for you, if you don’t know him you can come to him this evening, and make him your Lord and Saviour. Those of you who are believers, that are learning and growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, and spying out the promises of God, spy this one out. Make sure you see her clearly, make sure you understand the grace of God demonstrated, before you try to take anything in and of your own merit. Make sure you understand. Let’s have the musicians come, let’s lift our hearts to the Lord in song, there’s time for two songs tonight, and I would just encourage you, if you got a ma or a pa that you haven’t got into the house yet, as it were, and you’re tired of witnessing to them, bring that before the Lord tonight. Rahab had a very solitary place and a solitary faith, and as a complete failure she had to go to her parents and gather them to her house, and they were there, they were there. If you feel too unclean, unlovable, you don’t know Jesus Christ this evening, as your Saviour, religion has always been a bummer. Listen to me, trying to be a Christian is a bummer, it’s much easier to let the Lord live through you than trying to be a Christian. He will take you the way you are, zero, it’s so much easier, you get a football jersey, just get two zeros on it, it relieves all the pressure, it’s simple, he’ll receive you the way you are, he’ll commit to the good work he’s begun in you, he’ll conform you into the image of his Son, not because of you, in spite of you, and he’ll extend the grace to you that sometimes we’re afraid to trust, because no one has ever loved us the way that he loves us. If you don’t know him this evening, as we worship, as we sing, if you want to be saved, you come. ‘Especially come forward if you’re a prostitute tonight,’ every girl saying, ‘I ain’t going down there, everybody’s going to think I’m one [laughter],’ that’s not my point, my point is it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, he loves you. So tonight if you want to give your life to him, you come, you know, you come, and stand here as we worship, give your life to him. Those of you who are struggling with his forgiveness and his love, you need to spy this chapter out, you need to sit alone with it, you need to see the love of God, because she was able to come to him without all the advantages we have, she didn’t have a New Testament, she didn’t know the Gospel as fully as we know it, she just had the witness of the Living God, and the Word of God that worked in her life and had brought her into the light from the darkness to the truth, and her life was transformed. Let’s stand, let’s pray, if you want to sit you can sit, let’s pray and let’s lift our hearts to the Lord…[transcript of a connective expository sermon given on Joshua 2:1-24, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]