The Spies and Rahab

This week we look at the covenant that Rahab entered into with the spies and how God had already gone before Israel in the land of Canaan. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hello and welcome to a pastor depth and the podcast. My name is Daniel Arona, and just remember this simple truth: the Father loves you, Jesus loves you, and the Holy Spirit loves you. Once again, I hope that you've had a great week. I hope that you've had time to spend with the Lord in prayer and also again in his word. I know I say it every single week, but I truly, truly mean it. Like we are quickly, quickly, quickly approaching what I believe is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ back for his bride. Um, if you need additional teaching on that, um, I would challenge you to go back and and look, listen to a study that I did on that on the Jewish wedding. Um, it is a fascinating tale about the the covenant that's made, and then the bridegroom goes, prepares a place um for us. Um, it's actually going to be talked about in detail in the next book that I have coming out, which is the cross, the the uh second part of the iniquity of the cross um and uh redemption. So um just make sure that we are putting in the work. I mean, that's really what's so important, is that you gotta realize, and my pastor and I were talking about this earlier this week, is that you know, whatever's gonna go in that rapture is gonna be spiritual. There's nothing carnal that's going to go. So it's important that we maintain our spirituality, maintain our closeness and intimacy with him in putting in the work. Amen. And continuing to learn and grow. Stagnant water is good for no one, and that's the key here. Stagnant water is good for no one. It's it'll become dirty, nasty. Um, it's not good for anything. Uh, but water that is flowing, that is moving, that is growing, that is hot, um, then it it'll it'll create its purpose. So um just make sure that you're you're putting in that work again um as well. So just a couple of housekeeping items. We're gonna get into Rahab and the spies today um to really talk about that because we're going into the promised land. We've gone through the day of provocation, um, we've gone up to the point where now Moses is dead, and now as Joshua was, we know that the land has been given over to Israel, but we're gonna look at a pretty important story here regarding Rahab, and there's some pieces in here that talk about the redemption um that Jesus Christ is going to offer as well. Um, but again, all of our scripture comes from the New King James Bible. If you'd like a copy of the New King James Bible, feel free to drop me a note at path to redemptionohio at gmail.com. More than happy to get one into your hands. Also, my book's out. Um, Grace Abounds is out. If you'd like a copy of that, drop me a note at Path to Redemption Ohio at gmail.com. Um, the first part of the trilogy, uh, Iniquity, the cross and redemption, is out. The first book being Iniquity. Um, that is out. It's available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble right now. Um, so feel free to grab a copy of that. It's a it's a deep, deep study in iniquity, um, where it came from, where it started. Um, and then I'm I'm working on the editing piece right now for the second book of that, talking about the cross. So um just you know, if you like a copy of those, again, those are available on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. And then finally, once again, don't take my word for it. Make sure that you are studying to show yourself approved under God. Uh, make sure you are putting in the work. I cannot stress that enough, and I kind of already talked about it a little bit. You know, freedoms are are are at a premium these days, um, whether it's you see what's happening in the Western world, as we've kind of talked about before, um, certainly what's been going on in the eastern world. So just make sure that we are putting in that time now. Because if we can't do that now, if we cannot put in the work now, if we're not willing to do the things that God wants us to do now when we have the freedom, when there's a church on every corner, then we're not going to be able to do it when the time gets really hard. So look, so jumping into this week's episode, we have talked a lot about the land of Israel. We have talked about the provision that God has given Israel of this land, how it is God's land, and how he chose to give it to Israel, how they are his chosen people, his inheritance. Um, we've talked about the borders of it and how God gave provision for all the descendants of Abraham. Um, you know, we've we've also talked about how this land is Israel's. God gave it to them, it is theirs, and how he's already gone before them and has made the Canaanites that inhabit the land into their hand and how he's already given it to them. And we saw that last week whenever uh whenever we saw God talk to Joshua specifically about that and how he would be with him, just as he was with Moses, and we talked about that transition. And now it's time to go into the promised land. And look, it's not going to be easy. Uh, there are giants in the land, there are people that do not want Israel there, and will eventually deceive them, but they must go forward. And there's a lesson there for us too. And we're but then there's one other thing that we need to kind of talk about here before we kind of fully get into this. But Joshua 112 through eighteen says, And to the Rubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, Joshua spoke, saying, Remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying, The Lord your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land. Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of Jordan. But you shall pass before your brethren armed, all your mighty men of valor, and help them, until the Lord has given your brethren rest, as he gave you. And they also have taken possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it, which Moses, the Lord's servant, gave you on this side of the Jordan toward the sunrise. So they answered Joshua, saying, All that you command us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you. Only the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words, and all that you command him shall be put to death, only be strong and of good courage. So the one thing that we have to kind of clear up here is about the tribe of Reuben, Gab, and half of the tribe of Manasseh. And they wanted their inheritance on the eastern side of Jordan. And we know that Moses granted that in Numbers 32, 1 through 5, where it says, Now the children of Reuben and children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock, and when they saw the land of Jazer, then the land of Gilead, that indeed the region was a place for livestock, the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, to Eliezer the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying, Adaroth, Dibon, Jazar, Nimrah, Heshbon, Eelah, Shibam, Nebo, and beyond, the country which the Lord defeated before the congregation of Israel is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock. Therefore they said, If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan. They were their inheritance now and did not want to go into the land that God had promised them. And I find this absolutely fascinating. And look, I understand that the land may have been good for cattle there, but it wasn't the land that God wanted to give them. And I think that's a key point here because there would have been places in the land that would have been great for their cattle as well, if not probably better. You know, in Numbers 32, when you read that chapter, it seems more like a negotiation. Because Moses is trying to tell them, look, if you're going to do this, you're still going to have to go over armed, and you know, your brethren aren't going to find rest. They're not going to fight this battle without you. And then they're like, Well, we'll go and we'll fight and then we'll come back and we'll do the do those things. And Moses is trying to get them to go over and get the inheritance with their family, but and with the rest of the tribes of Israel, but they don't want to. So Moses relents and agrees and lets them have that land. And the land, that land was what their inheritance was. God allows them to take it. Um, but I still believe that this is what he had intended, because he had intended with Abraham, this land that you walk is what is the land that I'm going to give you. He tells Joshua, the land where you set your foot is the land I'm going to give you. So there's a land that God wants to give Israel, yet here you have two and a half tribes basically saying, you know what, we're good. We don't need it. And I have no doubt that the land they saw was great for for the cattle. But I I personally equate this a lot to kind of Matthew 6 2, where Jesus says, Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and the streets, that they may have glory for men. Assuredly I say to you, they have their reward. They took their reward in the wilderness and not the promised land. And I think that's key. The true purpose again was for Israel to be given an inheritance in a land that God had promised them not, not in where they were where they were going to go. And think about this. And this is the way that it kind of feels with the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, is that they see this land, they see that it's good, and they're like, okay, I'm just gonna settle here. And you know, God's not gonna override them on that. If that's really what they want, and God can be okay with it, then that's what's gonna happen. But for us, we've got to make sure that we go all the way with God. Whatever he has for us will always, and I truly mean always, be better than what we could ever ask or think. We must go forward with him. Don't stay on this side of Jordan. If God has promised you something, then go forward. Don't try to make it come to pass, as we saw with Hagar, as we saw with a bunch of things that we've studied up until this point. Make sure that you are going fully over with him. So the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, they would eventually go over with their brethren to fight, but they would set their barns and their places for their cattle would all be on the east side of the Jordan. And look, there's some purposes in that. There's going to be some things that happen with Gilead, and eventually the border will extend that far. Um, if you read Ezekiel uh 48 and 49, you know, in the millennial kingdom, those types of things, like the it absolutely will extend that far. But that was not the purpose here. The purpose here was for them to go over into the land of Israel. Okay, so understanding all of that, you know, we have to see, we have to make sure that we go forward with God to everything that He wants us to do. And you know, my pastor tells a story about a guy who says, you know, I don't want to get over there, and I don't want to hear the Lord say, Well done, thou good and faithful one, enter into the joy of the Lord. But and he said, I don't want to hear the Lord say, but I had so much more for you. And to be honest, that's always been a concern of mine. I want to do everything that God wants me to do. I want to fulfill everything that He has for me. I want to do as much as I possibly can, but there's always that thing in the back of my mind that am I doing enough? Am I am I am I doing all that he is asking me to do? Is there more that I could do? You know, and and you know, I don't know the answer to that. I pray about it constantly. He doesn't, he just tells me to keep abiding, is what I feel. Um, that's what I feel led to do, and that's what I'm gonna continue to do with this podcast, with the books and those types of things. Um, you know, I need to to get more time to be able to push those things through. But um at the end of the day, though, it it's about making sure that I'm doing what God asks me to do. So after this, this scripture, we see an important aspect of the Jericho story as we are introduced to Rahab the harlot. Now Joshua 2, 1 through 7 says, Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia grove to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, especially Jericho. So they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country. So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the country. Then the woman told who took the two men and hid them, and she said, Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And it happened as the gate was being shut when it was dark that the men went out. Where the men went, I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you may overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof. Then the then the the brought the men pursued them by the road of to the Jordan and to the fords, and as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate. Now this is an interesting story. Here you have a woman who knows these men are from Israel, and rather than telling the king whose people she is and where they are, she hides them on the roof and covers them. She even goes as far to say that they have already gone out and as to put her own people, the people that she lives with, on a different path. Now why would Rahab do this? And the answer to that is in Joshua two, eight through eleven, where it says, Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, and the terror that of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint hearted because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihong and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things our heart melted, neither did there remain any more courage in any one because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. So she did this because she believed in the Lord God Almighty. She clearly says in verse eleven that your God is the Lord God. Now there are a couple of people that were Gentiles that made it into the lineage of Jesus Christ. Rahab Hab is one of them. Matthew 1 5 says Salmon begat Boaz by Rahab. Boaz begot Obed by Ruth. Obed begot Jesse. So think about this. You know, she being a Gentile of the lineage of Jericho, she is not part of Israel at this point. She gets to be able to be in the lineage of Jesus Christ. And not only that, but she gets to birth one of the key characters in the book of Ruth in terms of Boaz. And then Boaz marries Ruth, who is a Moabitus, again, not a Jew, not of the lineage of Israel. And then Ruth gets to begat Jesse, and Jesse's the one who would ultimately have David. So here you have Ruth, who is the grandmother of David, and then you've got Rahab, who is the great-grandmother of David. And that is a phenomenal thing to say. And there's a lot of things here. And I want to stop here because she already did something that the previous generation of Israel did not do. She believed God. In both covenants, whether it's the Old Testament or the New Testament, there is a belief that God is God and that He is the Almighty God. We will look at this later, but David did a whole host of evil things. But the one thing that he did not do is waver in his faith about who God was. David would never worship other gods, but only but would only stay true to the God of Israel. Yes, he was a murderer. Yes, he he was he he had numerous wives. Yes, he was a liar. Yes, he did a bunch of things. But at the end of the day, he would never, ever leave God or leave his faith in God. So that's what separates out these people. That's what made David a man after God's own heart. Because even though he messed up, even though he fell numerous times, he always wanted to do what God wanted him to do. And we see that same faith from Rahab here. She knows that the land is theirs and that God is God. This declaration of faith is why she hid the spies and why her and her family were protected from the destruction that was set forth for Jericho. This goes for us as well. As we declare our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are then separated from those that are set to destruction in hell. And like Rahab, we must tell others of Jesus that they may come into the same protection as well. Just like she told her family, hey, come into my house, get into my house, that way we will be protected. That doesn't mean that this was an easy thing for Rahab to do. I doubt it was. But she demonstrated her faith in God by her actions. Remember what as James says, faith without works is dead. Are we saved by our works? Absolutely not. You are saved by one thing, that is your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the redemption of your soul and the in the work that He did on the cross. That is what saves you. But you are saved unto works, and the works that you have will be judged at the Bemisy judgment. That's not about salvation, but that's about the rewards that we all received because of the work that we did according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Did we fulfill the calling? Did we do the things that He had our per that he said was our purpose? Did we do that? Right, we all have that. We all have works that we are supposed to do, that we are called to do, right? So that's what's going to happen. But this was not an easy thing. But she demonstrated her faith, she put her faith to work by hiding the spies, and then she's going to go in with a covenant with them. But yes, this was during the time of law, but the law is still based on the faith that God is the God of gods. And the other thing here is that also remember that Rahab was a Gentile. She was a Gentile. So what does that mean? That means she would be justified by faith in a form of grace, the same way that Abraham was. Now, there was a covenant made that day between the spies and Rahab, and it's in Joshua twelve two, twelve through twenty-one, where it says, Now therefore I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you will also show kindness to my father's house, and give me a true token, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. So the men answered her, Our lives for yours, if none of you tell this business of ours. And it shall be when the Lord has given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with you. Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall. She dwelt on that wall, and she said to them, Get to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you. Hide there three days for the pursuers have returned, or until the return of the pursuers have returned. Afterward you may go your way. So the men said to her, We will be blameless of this oath of yours, which you have made us swear, unless we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and let it and unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father's household to your own home, so it shall be that whoever goes outside the door of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if a hand is laid on him. And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath, which you made us swear. Then she said, According to your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet cord in the window. So they agreed to protect her and her family from what she did, as long as she put the scarlet cord on the window. And I and I find this fascinating. Her literal home was on the wall, and we know from the story, it's a well-known story in terms of the walls of Jericho, that they're going to come tumbling down. Yet there's a section, a section that will remain standing that will be protected. Why? Because of the scarlet thread hanging outside the window. Now we'll talk about the scarlet thread a little bit more in detail later. But just as the children of Israel had redemption with the scarlet blood of the lamb, Rahabs would come through the scarlet cord. It's a picture again of the protection of the blood, a protection of the things that happened. And actually, according to Jewish tradition, on the Day of Atonement, there's a cord that would actually go or turn from scarlet to white every time on the Day of Atonement. But again, this covenant was different. Of the Gentiles. Ours is by faith. Rahab's was by faith. The cord represents her faith in God Almighty. So it's the separator. It was what separated her from the rest of the people. It's what created sanctified her, if you will. And that's what sanctification means. It means to be separated out from the rest of the world. And look, she did it. She set the cord, she got all the people in her home, and her section of that wall was protected because of that. And I think that's miraculous because God took had to take down every last bit of that wall. But had he taken down that section of the wall, the wall, she would have died, and everyone in her family would have died. But because of that scarlet cord out there, because of that sign of the covenant that was made between Israel and between Rahab the harlot, that was what caused that area to keep standing. So the chapter ends with Joshua 2, 22 through 24, saying, They departed and went to the mountain and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned. The pursuers sought them all along the way, but did not find them. So the two men returned, descended from the mountain, and crossed over. And they came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen them. And they said to Joshua, Truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are faint hearted because of us. The last line is what I want to focus on, you know, Joshua 224. And they said to Joshua, Truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are faint hearted because of us. This is very different from what we saw with the children of Israel in the day of provocation. You see, this generation learned what not to do. They learned to put their faith in God. They learned to put their faith in God Almighty the same way that Rahab did. And the line is right here in Joshua 224. It shows a change of heart. This is not that same generation that murmured and complained against against God, against Moses, against Aaron. This is not that generation. This is a generation that will follow its leader Joshua because they saw him fight the Amalekites. They saw him, you know, be with Moses and learn at Moses. They saw him be anointed and the mantle passed over to him from Moses. And you even saw it at the end of chapter one where they said, Whoever does not follow you and does not do your word shall surely be put to death. That's the reverence and respect that they had for this man Joshua. So you see again here that the country is faint-hearted because of the things that God had done, because the miracles they had done. Even though their only covenant that was made was with Rahab, because she recognized that it was God's, and that and that God was gracious enough to her to let the spies go into her home and not another one's home, then ultimately, even though that covenant was there, the rest of the people of Jericho still believed that Israel was this warlike nation that God Himself was protecting and that God Himself was giving it. Because you hear it from Rahab's own words. Oh, we so we heard how you destroyed Og of Bashan and what happened in Egypt. We have heard all of that, and we know, we know that your God is God. But at the end of the day, they could have thought that they were going to fall into their walls and everything was going to be fine, but they were all faint-hearted, and she said that the entire city's hearts melt melted because of that. You see, this was very different than the day with the that we saw with the children of the day of provocation. And now it's time for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham. And how does he choose to do it? He chooses to do it through a harlot, through a harlot named Rahab that protected these spies, and that proved to Israel, not only to Joshua the son of Nun, but to all of Israel that God was with them and that God had truly given them the land, because the country is faint-hearted because of Israel. See, the Lord will do what he says he is going to do. The word of God is yay and amen to the believer. You see, now here's the other thing I'd tell you, though, is that did they expect that they were gonna have to walk around Jericho and you know to see the walls come tumbling down? I I doubt that at this point. I truly doubt that. Um I doubt that they were expecting to see the miracle that they're about to see that we'll talk about next week, which is another big deal. You know, I we're you have to understand here that this generation was different. This generation trusted God, this generation saw what happened with their parents, this generation saw that they all died in the wilderness, awaiting for the promised land, never having obtained it because of their murmuring and complaining, and because of the things that they did. So, but ultimately this generation will move forward. And I truly believe that there's a generation rising up that's gonna be a very similar to this Joshua generation here that we're looking at. One that saw what their what their parents did, saw their parents not make God the center of everything, saw their parents, you know, that they that they talked about God, but they didn't really fully trust him or believe him in those things. And I believe there's a generation that's gonna raise up that's really going to put God in the center, that's going to be able to um to follow him, that's going to do all the things that God will ask of them to do. You know, and I think it's important that that there are leaders raised up like Joshua who maybe learned at the feet of Moses and learned from the prior generation what he needed to in order to lead them into the promised land. But without Joshua, there's no there's no real leadership here, and that's the key. There has to be leadership and there has to be teaching, but but we'll we'll kind of talk about that as we continue on in this study of the book of Joshua. But it's a fascinating story, it's important because Rahab's part of the lineage. She was shown the grace by God. The scarlet thord cord represented the the covenant that was made between her and Israel, and ultimately her and God in this situation. And you know, her and her family would ultimately be spared. So look, I hope you got something out of this. Until next week, uh, we're going to talk about um what happens when they cross over the River Jordan and some other pieces here, um, particularly as they talk about the the mountain of blessing and cursing with Gerizim and Ebel. Um, we'll talk about that as well. But until next time, just remember the simple truth the Father loves you, Jesus loves you, and the Holy Spirit loves you. God bless.