Joshua
3 - Chapter 2
In this chapter we learn of the two spies sent out by Joshua to look over the land in general, but in particular to report on the city of Jericho. That fortress was strategically important lying as it did at the entrance of the mountain passes which led to the hills of Judea and the interior of the land of Canaan.
The Israelites had now come down from the high plateau of Moab which today is in the country of Jordan and they were encamped about fifteen kilometres back from the river Jordan. The Jordan flows from the Sea of Galilee through a fifteen kilometre wide rift valley about 250 metres below sea level.
Joshua, under the guidance of God, had avoided attacking Canaan through the country to the south known as the Negev. There was a string of fortresses throughout that region which he decided to outflank. his strategy was to push into central Canaan, then strike southwards and northwards in quick succession. So you can see that the capture of Jericho was vital to the whole campaign.
The spies were led in the goodness of God to a house where they were welcomed and not betrayed. It belonged to a woman who was probably linked in some way to the vile practice of temple prostitution. That was one of the evils of the Canaanite worship of Baal. Men and women served as prostitutes receiving offerings for Baal and hoping to please him by sexual activity. All this gives some idea of the depravity of the Canaanites and why God's people were to have no part in their way of life.
It is important for us to have this background information so as to be clear in our mind that God's Holy nature will in no way tolerate wickedness or turn a blind eye to it. This one aspect of Canaanite life was but a small part of a whole mass of corrupt, evil and cruel practices which are laid out for us in the book of Leviticus chapter 18.
It was in the house of this woman that the two spies learned that fear had gripped the inhabitants of the city because they had heard about the miraculous experiences and victories of the Israelites since leaving Egypt. It is always a good things when unbelievers are subdued and humbled when they see God's power at work in the lives of Christians today.
Rahab hid these two men on the flat roof of her house, covering them with stalks of flax which were laid out to dry. The fibres were used to spin and weave linen, a very cool fabric for those high temperatures in the Middle East. Rahab deliberately misled the King's servants by sending them out of the city eastwards to the Jordan. Had her faith been stronger or more mature, she would no doubt not have needed to resort to lying in order to protect the men. However, it was a difficult situation as the King had ordered her to produce the two Israelite visitors.
Rahab then went up to the spies on her roof, confessed her faith in God and his mighty power and pleaded for mercy in the impending attack, not only for herself but also for her family. If you have known God's forgiveness, do you not also desire it for your loved ones? Pray for them and live a Christian life before them.
She was assured of safety when the city was attacked, and letting the men down from the window by a scarlet cord, she was advised to show it in her window as a sign for protection in the battle. The spies then fled to the hills roughly a mile to the west of Jericho where there are many caves. After the hue and cry had died down they safely crossed the Jordan again and returned to their camp. The triumphant message they brought to Joshua was, "Truly the Lord has delivered into our hands all the land." How much sense of triumph and victory is there in your life, or do you go down under the attacks of Satan and the pressures of the world around you?
Now I want to look with you at two great object lessons in Joshua chapter 2. First we have a place - Jericho and then a person - Rahab.
Jericho was the great obstacle confronting the Israelites as they were about to enter the promised land. It was the barrier in front of their entrance into the place of blessing afforded them by God. Jericho is a picture of the world hindering the people of God from entering the place of service and fellowship with Him, and from entering the place of rest and enjoying a foretaste of the eternal rest in the heavenly presence of God. You can read about that in Hebrews chapter 4 and Revelation chapter 14 verse 13.
Jericho is a picture of all that stops us in this life from enjoying what God has made available to His children. You and I have to fight to enter the "Promised Land". There is conflict and opposition to be faced before we can begin to experience God's promised blessings. The New Testament describes the Christian as a soldier who uses spiritual weapons against spiritual enemies. Do not expect to receive blessing and growth into maturity without waging constant warfare against your own corruptions and the many temptations thrown up by Satan. Reading a well-written devotional book, or having some kind of special experience at a meeting, isn't going to do it either.
Remember, Jericho was a city over which hung the judgement of God. It was NOT the sort of place where you would want to stay when the hand of God fell on it. It was a place marked out for destruction. So it is with this present sinful world. Are you a part of it? Do you like all that it has to offer? Are you captivated by its pleasures, it profits and its pursuits? Do you want them to go on for ever, uninterrupted and never ending? If so, you are inside the walls of Jericho and you will perish when God judges the world. Look up Ephesians chapter 5 verses 3 -7 and you will see there a whole list of things marked our for judgement by God.
Jericho is not a place to be entered and enjoyed. It is not a place to linger. Jericho was going to be destroyed. There was to be no compromise, no treaty signed, no agreement to live and let live. That is the tragic failure of many Christians and we all need to guard against it. It is a painful case of some of Christ and some of the world. Partly with the people of God and partly with what goes on in Jericho. That is why so often our testimony has insufficient cutting edge. That explains the weakness of our witness before others. If you are a child of God you don't belong to Jericho.
The same can be equally true for churches. You may know of a church that seems to embrace the world and its ideas instead of being engaged in spiritual warfare against it. Instead of having a clear-cut testimony and straightforward preaching from the Bible, it wants to be not too different from the world around. Its preaching disturbs no one; its standards are not too demanding. You can relax in a fun-loving, entertaining atmosphere and generally come and go as you please. That is not the way Jericho will be taken. Rather, in time, Jericho will subdue such a church. Hardly a voice or weapon will be raised against the tide of compromise that will soon sweep over that church.
So much for the PLACE that has occupied our attention. Now we shall look at the PERSON - Rahab. We know nothing about her before this incident except that she had been born and brought up in pagan darkness, superstition and evil. That was how it was in Canaan as well as in Jericho. That is how it is now all across the world, except for the light of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. that may be exactly how it is with you, born and brought up in a modern day Jericho. For Rahab the wonder was that in spite of all the ignorance and darkness, a ray of light had broken into her gloom. God had had given to her an understanding of who He was and what He had accomplished by his mighty deeds for His people, the Israelites. News had reached Jericho, probably through traders or travellers, about the deliverance from Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea, and the astonishing defeat of the powerful kings to the east of the Jordan. Listening friend, has the message of the Bible broken into your darkness yet?
Now when this news came it caused fear because those kings were powerful. But there is something else in the words of Rahab that show how God had dealt mercifully with her in spite of her sinful life. Her faith and conviction were such that she said to the two spies: "The Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and in the earth beneath." That may seem very ordinary to you and me, but probably no-one else in Canaan believed that. Throughout the land it was the commonly held belief that Baal was lord above and on earth, the storm god and the god of fertility. Moreover, different tribal groups gave him different names. Baal had not rescued the Israelites from Egypt, that much was certain for the Canaanites.
Remember that there were no Old Testament scriptures in Jericho, no prophets, no Sabbath day, no Passover feast and yet Rahab had come to understand exactly who the Lord God was. Was it by chance? By intuition? By meditation? No! We have the answer in the New Testament, in Matthew chapter 11 verse 25, where the Lord Jesus prays to His heavenly Father, thanking Him because He had hidden spiritual truths from the wise and learned but had revealed them to ordinary people, to people who had faith like a little child. You will recall that when Peter acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God, the Saviour said to him that he was blessed because no man had revealed that truth to him, but it was God the Father in heaven. That's Matthew chapter 16 verse 17.
It seems that Rahab did not know a lot, but she knew enough. She believed with great certainty in the Living God, and trusted Him for deliverance. A little faith is still a genuine faith. Our Lord in his teaching spoke of having faith as a grain of mustard seed - something tiny, but which will grow in time. Certainly Rahab is regarded as being genuine in the Bible for she is mentioned honourably, not only in our Saviour's family tree in Matthew chapter one, but also in Hebrews 11 verse 31 and James 2 verses 25.
Perhaps you are asking, "Do I have a genuine, saving faith, even though it is small and weak?" Well, what kind of faith is it? Is it faith that trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation? Is it faith that admits to being a sinner who has broken God’s law and stands in need of a saviour? If it is then that is saving faith. If you do not have such faith, then pray that God will give you His gift of faith and enable you to believe in that simple way. In Jericho, all around Rahab, people heard the news but did not believe as she did although they had the opportunity. Be like Rahab today and "seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near."