Side Mission

Joshua | Joshua 2:1-24

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Before I I think I've told you this story before, I'm going to tell it briefly, but there was a boss of mine that I am positive in my late teens and early 20s that thought, why in the world did I hire this guy? I was working construction for a guy by the name of Sean, and we we were, he was a remod guy, so we would go into other people's houses and we would take on massive projects. We take on small projects, we also take on like complete guts and redo and the whole thing, put on additions. But it was a slow season and he needed stuff done on his own house, and so he asked me and a couple buddies who um he wanted to see was a nice guy and he still wanted to give us work. And I was grateful for him for this, but he asked us to help him do some stuff on his own house. Um and it was August, and he set me up in the attic because he wanted I honestly, it's long enough ago now that I don't remember exactly what he wanted me to do. I think it was add or take away insulation. But it was, you know, it was a 95-degree day in the middle of August. And the the last thing he said to me was two things. Make sure you drink a lot of water because you're gonna sweat a lot up there. And the second thing is, make sure you walk on the floor, Joyce. I don't want you like going through my living room ceiling. And I was like, sure, Sean, that sounds great. And I went up there and I forgot my water. And I was doing all this work, and a buddy of mine was downstairs. I was like, it must have been we were adding insulation, so he was throwing me up insulation for me to put in. And I stood up too fast. I was standing on a floor joist at this time. I stood up too fast, and it was where it was uh I was too close to where the you know the pitch was happening, and I stood up too fast, and my head, believe it or not, this short little head of mine hit one of the floor joists that had a nail in it, and it got me right here. And I was already kind of woozy, anyways, because I didn't bring my water up there, and it knocked me off of the floor joist, and I literally stepped through his ceiling, and my buddy ran around the corner because he heard me. I might have said a word I shouldn't have said as I was falling, and just one leg was hanging in the middle of his living room, and my buddy just fell over laughing, just completely fell over laughing, and Sean goes, What did you do? and comes around the corner and he sees my leg and he just goes, You're fired. Walks back into his garage and he started doing now. He rehired me uh about 15 minutes later, but I do think that he often thought, Why did I hire this guy? And more importantly, why did I let him do stuff on my own house? This morning we are going to be transported to a story where we wonder, how did these guys get this job? How how uh like how did these guys get this job? They seem so bad at it, and how did they get this job? But there's a very, very important reason why they got this job that we will see, and why this unexpected story and this unexpected place is a very important story for us as Christ followers. This morning we're going to cover the rest of chapter 1, Joshua, chapter 1, and chapter 2. We started this last week. John started us off last week, so I don't want to uh belabor the point too much, but Joshua has been elevated to the guy, the leader of Israel. He was one of the guys that was a spy originally in Numbers chapter 13, the first time they made it to the land, and they wanted to go fight figure out if they could get in or not, and they sent all these spies, they spent 12 spies, and there were two, only two, Joshua being one of them, that was like, Yeah, we should go do this. We should go take it. And everybody else is like, they're too large, they're too big, we can't go in. And their lack of faith, the wilderness generation wandered for 40 years and was unable to make it into the land, including even Moses. Now, we it ended last week with Joshua chapter, uh, Joshua 1, verse 9. It says, Have I, have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous, do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. This is what God relayed to Joseph, or to Joshua, and the rest of chapter 1 is Joshua relaying that message to the rest of the nation. God is going to do something, he's gonna go before us wherever he's calling us to be strong and courageous, but he's going to go with us wherever we go. Where he calls us to go, he's going to go with us. And the truth is, what you expect to happen in chapter 2 is not what happens. It ends with kind of everybody getting organized, everybody kind of getting ready, and they're about to assemble the armies to go to Jericho and Canaan and take the land that God has given to them. And you expect chapter two to be what happens in chapter three, where they actually start to go. But there's this odd little side story, this odd little side mission in Joshua chapter 2, where the namesake of the book Joshua plays a bit part in many ways. He is a supporting character at best. And what we have here is this story of this woman that is an unexpected woman who says an unexpected thing and then is able to do an unexpected thing as well. So again, starting in Joshua chapter 2, we're gonna start in verse 1, and we're gonna read the first part of verse 1. We'll just keep marching through this. So if you have your Bibles, if you don't have a Bible right in front of you, there's a um a Bible under the seat. Feel free to grab that. We're gonna be in Joshua chapter 2, starting in verse 1. And Joshua, the son of Nun, sent two men secretly from Shiddam as spies, saying, Go view the land, especially Jericho. So Joshua kind of goes back to the well. He's like, I remember once upon a time I was sent to kind of go check things out. I'm gonna send a couple guys as well. I'm not gonna send all those guys because that didn't end very well. I'm gonna send two guys, two handpick guys that they picked, that he picked. And now, in the second part of verse one, a curveball is thrown. So he's spic he grabs these two guys, these two men, secretly to go be spies. Continue on in verse one. And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. Um what? I didn't I didn't think that's how this was gonna go. Sent these spies, he picked these two guys secretly, sent into the land, and to go figure out kind of what the lay of the land, what it looks like, what Jericho looks like specifically, and they go to a prostitute's house. Okay. Now, the words that the author used here does raise some questions as exactly why they went there. I don't believe, and most scholars don't believe, there's debates, but they don't believe that they went there to actually do what you normally do there, but they were just there to kind of hide as an innkeeper, potentially. But it raises a lot of questions. Why did they go there? Did they go somewhere else first? Was it their intent to go there and do what normally is done there? Or did they legitimately just stumble in there? There's so many questions, but the truth is we don't really know the answer. We just know that that's where they ended up. Most scholars believe that it's innocent and they were there not to use those services that would happen typically in that house, but the truth is we do not know. Now, continuing on, for the sake of our time, she is called a prostitute. Some believe her to be just an innkeeper because sometimes those professions went hand in hand at that time. We don't, again, we don't know, but the word that is chosen to be used is prostitute. So she's probably exactly what the author calls her to be. Now that is a fascinating way to start this passage here in verse 1. And here comes some of the other, like, we're gonna get to the meat of the story, which we actually already read as the um as the scripture reading this morning. So it's kind of like we just set down the first bun. We're gonna build a bit of a sandwich here. Okay? Verse 2. And it was told to the king of Jericho, behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land. 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. Okay. I thought they were sent in secret, and I thought they were spies. So not only did they find themselves in a place that they probably shouldn't have gone, but it's already made its way to the king. It's alright, like they it not only is it known that they're there, it's known why they're there. They're not very good at their job. So he sends the cops to go to Rahab's house and get those guys because they're doing things I don't want them to do in my city. The king finds out, sends a police to Rahab's house. Verse 4. But the women had taken the two men and hidden them and said, True, the men came to me, but I do not know where they were from. 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. So verse 4 is a bit of a flashback. When they get there, Rahab knows that this is there is going to be some trouble, and the cops are going to find out. I don't know how she knows, but she knows. So she hides them. And then when the cops question her about it, she told them, Yeah, yeah, they were here, but I have no idea where they're from. And then they left right before the gate close to the city. I I have no clue where they went. Uh you should probably go after them now, though, because I think if you go after them now, you'll be able to get them. The cop cops are, oh, oh, oh, okay. Continue on with another flashback in verse six. But and so in verse six, uh, but she she had brought them up on the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax, and she said uh that she had laid in the corner of the roof. So again, the narrator again flashes back to let us know that we already know that she did hide them, and now we know where she hid them. Verse 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. So sh they take, the cops take her advice. Go, I guess we're gonna have to, yeah, we should go chase after them, and they go out, and then the the gate to the walls is completely shut, and everybody's in for the night. Okay. Let's try to boil down, just let's make sure we have the stage set as we continue on. Spies are sent on a reconnaissance mission. They seem to be immediately clocked. It had to be hidden by this woman who's in a sh doing shady business. The king finds out, the king sends the cop. Rahab lies to the cops, and now the cops are chasing after a ghost because they're not on the run. They're still in the house. And we still don't know why. Why did she do this? She is risking a lot. Why would she decide to hide these guys and then lie to the cops who then are gonna have so it's essentially lying to the king? Why? Why is she doing this? And we're going to be privy to a conversation that she has with the spies, but it's really more of a speech than a conversation. To start out, at least. But it's a very important speech. Verse 8. Before the men lay down, so this is nighttime, she came up to them on the roof. Up until this point, again, we have no idea what she's doing, but she is now approaching them to talk to them about whatever her agenda is. What is her end game? Verse 9. And said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For you have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the sea of the Red Sea before when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan in Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. Verse eleven. 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, and in the heavens above and the earth beneath. She starts with, I know that this land that I'm living in right now, this city, Jericho, that I'm living in right now, she claims to know that God, Yahweh, has given it to Joshua and the Hebrews. Given it to Israel. This is their land. Not the Canaanites anymore. She is making a confession. She is acknowledging something that is utterly astounding when you stop and think about it. This Canaanite woman who has the profession that she has, who has lied to the cops, is making a confession about the promise that God made to Israel. But she confesses even more. They fear the Lord, all of Jericho and the Canaanites, and she says that they are melting away in fear. Why? And she starts to confess the greatness and the mighty acts of God. She mentions the parting of the Red Sea. She's heard about the destruction of the Amorites, and all these great and mighty acts of God has struck fear into the heart of the Canaanites. And then in verse 11, she boils it down. 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 the earth beneath. So here in verse 11, this is where her confession culminates. Again, reiterates the fear of the Lord, which in Proverbs is the beginning of wisdom. And finally, she says, Your God. Yeah, he is the one true God, the God of heaven and the God of earth. In other words, he is the God of gods. He is the God of everything. This Canaanite woman makes this confession. And it's revealed why she did what she did. The risks that she's taking, she starts to realize actually the real risk is not converting. And she makes this incredible confession regarding Yahweh that is completely shocking when you really stop and think about it. She makes this confession and then she makes a plea. Verse 12. Now then, please, swear to me by the Lord, that as I have dealt kindly with you, you will also deal kindly with my father's house, and give me a sure sign that you will save my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death. Verse 14 says, And the men said to her, Our life is 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. She also makes a plea for Yahweh to save her. She was kind or Hesed to them by hiding them, and she pleads with them to be kind, Hesed to her, save her and her household from destruction that is going to come when the armies arrive. She has faith that God is God, and now she wants to take refuge in him. She understands the power of God, and now she is begging for his mercy. The men agree. If you not tell anyone, or in other words, if you help us and let us escape, then we will deal kindly with you as you have dealt kindly with us. Now that is the meat and the heart of this story, this confession that this woman Rahab makes. And now we have the falling action the rest of the time. Now comes the rest of the sandwich fixings, if so to speak. Verse 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. And she said to them, Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned, then afterward you may go your way. So we found out, find out another detail here. The author gives us another detail that her house, in fact, is actually built on the city wall. These giant walls that we'll hear a little bit more about in the chapters to come. But these giant walls, she lives actually in the wall. It's presumably very up high, at least high enough that you can't just jump down. Now, again, there's some speculation as to whether or not verse 16 is a flashback. Otherwise, it will read like they they have this conversation while they're hanging out the window by a rope. But they're bad at their job, so maybe that's exactly what's happening.

unknown 18:34

Right?

SPEAKER_00 18:34

They're like, all right, we're gonna get out of the wall and like, oh, can we have another conversation in the middle of the night, hanging off the wall? These guys are bad at their job. But she gives them instructions to ensure that they are not caught. So again, still potentially hanging outside of the window of the wall of the city. Now, verse 17, then the men said to her, because this is where the conversation happens. The idea is potentially they are literally hanging out the side of a window on a rope, and then this conversation happens. But potentially it's just a flashback. Truth is we don't know. But verse 17, then the men said to her, We will be guiltless with respect to this to this oath of yours that you uh have made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet rope in the window, which you let down to us, and you shall gather into your house your father and your mother, your brothers, and all your father's household. Then, if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and he sh and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood will be on our head. But if you tell this business business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear. And she said, according to your words, so be it. Then she sent them away, and they departed, and she tied the scarlet wor scarlet cord in the window. I think it's hilarious to imagine them threatening her while they're hanging outside of the rope. I think that's hilarious to think about. But either way, essentially they say, okay, you've got to gather everybody in, and if they go outside of that, that's not on us anymore. But you've got to gather everybody in and you've got to tie this cord out there, this scarlet cord, so that when we come back, we know it's your house and we know to go up to your house and get all of you guys out. But if you don't do that, or if you tell anybody about where we're going, or if you tell any of the secrets, then all of this is null and void. Okay? Cool? And she says, okay, cool. Then finally, the other piece of the bread to the sandwich, Joshua chapter 2, verses 22 through 24. They departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned. And the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing. And the two men returned, they came down from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua, the son of Dun, and they told him all that had happened to them, and they said to Joshua, Truly, the Lord has given all the land into our hands, and also all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us. They return to the exact place that they started, conversation with Joshua, and they tell them all that had happened to them. And the quote that they give is literally Rahab's confession. Truly, the Lord has given all the land into our hands, and also all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us. So this passage ends exactly where it began with Joshua talking to spies about the land that they're going to possess. And it ends in stark contrast to Numbers chapter 13. Or now they are ready. Somehow Joshua gets all the information that he needs. The funny thing is, when you think about These spies, they didn't, he didn't tell them anything. He wasn't like, well, this is where this is how the guards stand, and this is the other station, and this is when one guard goes away. This is like when they replaced, and we actually, you know, we have a five-minute window here, and this will be good. Like he, none of that. They end up in this prostitute's house, Rahab, and Rahab's like, I know that this land is yours because God gave it to you. So I'm gonna hide you, I'm gonna keep you, I'm gonna tell the cops a lie so that they run away, and then we can keep you, and then you can go back home. And they just go and they're like, the land is given to us because Rahab told us so. Spies of return, confident that God will go before them and will be with them as they move forward. Okay. There's a lot of directions we could go this morning with this passage. Has a lot in it. But I do think that we need to start with something that I said earlier is the placement within the fuller narrative of Joshua. It is curious. It is interesting. I mentioned at the beginning of our time that the the placement and the fact that this story is quite curious. It does not uh does not in any way advance the narrative. It doesn't advance the story. If this story wasn't in here, the truth is nothing would really change. Joshua would still lead the nation into the promised land and he would still probably take it, and there would be this one verse in chapter six where they talk about Rahab that they could just kind of explain away in one little sentence. But they devote this whole chapter to it. The author devotes this whole chapter to it. And along with that, Rahab is literally only mentioned one other time in the Old Testament, period. And it is Joshua chapter six where they just say, and then they went and got her and family. Just curious. Joshua plays no real role. He sends some spies, and he hears their report later. And they're bad at their job. I think there's a very important reason that this story fits into, and it fits into the major themes of scripture. The main character of this story matters greatly being Rahab. So I want to spend some time talking about her and what we find out about her in this story. The thing that she is most famous for is something that the author we find out is not overly concerned with. But again, she is a pagan prostitute. She is a true outsider in every sense of the word. Ethnically, morally, socially, covenantally. She is slated to be destroyed because all who oppose or resist Yahweh are destined for destruction. That was true then, and it's true now. And beyond that, what this is this story is so famous because she lies. And good things come out of that lie. And it's been debated throughout the years of like, so what does this mean? She tells the cops that she doesn't know anything about those spies, and they were here, but then they left and went towards the Jordan. And meanwhile, she hid them and in essence saved them, showing them kindness. But nevertheless, she lied. And the issue of this lying is one of the big interpretive questions of Joshua chapter 2 in many ways. Did Rahab sin by deceiving the king's men? And should we commend her lie? I'm going to be honest with you. The text is neutral on it, it just tells us that it happened. It states it as a matter of fact. And then it moves on. It's actually not that interested in the ethics of it. There's a sense in which we are missing the forest for the trees in some ways when we approach this story and we walk away being like, I wonder if that was a good thing. I will admit though, it can feel a bit confusing. Just tell me. Is lying like that okay or not? I just want to know. Can somebody tell me? Here's the answer. I I don't know. I I think it is a good debate. John and I had it for a while. Obviously, John likes to lie, so he was on the lying side. You didn't like that joke. I'm sorry. Oh no, okay. No, but we did. We actually did go back and forth, and the truth is we both kind of looked at each other and was like, I don't know. So maybe we'll record that that conversation another time. You guys can listen to it on the podcast. But, anyways. I don't know. But I said this wasn't mentioned again in the Old Testament. So I do kind of want to put that aside for a lack of time this morning. I do think that there is a debate at whether or not the outcome of that lie and what it did, and like lying to an evil person and lying to, like, is there something there? Like, I don't know. So she's mentioned once in the Old Testament again, a couple chapters later, but she's also mentioned three times in the New Testament. And I think it's worth exploring the three times that she's mentioned in the New Testament. And what the New Testament authors have to say about her. Hebrews 11 commends her reception of the spies. And it says, By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. This is Hebrews 13, 31. And James 2 commends her action as evidence of living faith. James 2, 25 says, Was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? So let me just say this. The New Testament does not say Rahab lied and therefore lying is good. Doesn't say that. The emphasis, they emphasize her allegiance that shifted. She sided with the Lord and his people, not the Canaanites and Jericho and the king anymore. In other words, the New Testament highlights her faith. It was an imperfect faith, of course, but it was a faith that was real. Rahab did not know everything, but she knew enough to know that Jericho was doomed and the Lord was God. And she gave her allegiance to him. Okay, let's boil this down. We see in the story that the author shares with us that this idea that saving faith hears what God has done, believes who God is, and takes refuge in his mercy. Say that again. Saving faith hears what God has done, believes who God is, and takes refuge in his mercy. There's implications to this, there's many implications to this. I'm going to highlight three quick ones as we close our time. We should not confuse hearing about God with trusting God. The whole city heard. Jericho heard about the Red Sea. Jericho heard about the defeat of the Amorites. Jericho heard that the Lord was giving the land to Israel. All these things. She communicates this and she says, everybody knows it, and we're all scared. There's the fear of the Lord is running rampant through Jericho. But hearing did not save Jericho, did it? It's possible to hear sermons, know Bible stories, sing true songs, sit under gospel teaching, and still not personally respond in faith. It's possible. We all must do something with what we have heard. You've heard what God has done in Christ. We have heard what God has done in Christ. Has that hearing become faith? The difference between Rahab and Jericho was not that Rahab had heard more, it was that Rahab believed what she had heard, and it affected her life in a way that changed everything for her. She believed in what she heard about God, and then she took the step to trust him. Second thing, true faith begins to see everything differently because it sees God rightly. She says in verse 11, The Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. So that means Rahab now sees Jericho differently. She sees Israel differently. She sees herself differently. She sees the future differently. The walls still look strong, but they're not ultimate. The king still has authority. The king in Jericho still has authority, but he's not ultimate. Israel looks vulnerable because they can't penetrate these walls. But she realizes that the God of the Bible is bigger and mighty and sovereign. Rahab still has a past, but now she sees mercy is possible. So faith is not just adding God to your life. Faith changes the way you see reality. It reveals the true reality. Saving faith sees the world differently because it sees God truly. Where has fear, comfort, reputation, or control become bigger in your eyes than our great God? Lastly, come to God's mercy as your only refuge, as our only refuge. Rahab does not come to God with leverage. She does not negotiate from a position of strength. She comes as someone who knows judgment is coming and mercy is her only hope. But she does not ask for mercy while staying local in Jericho. Her request for mercy includes surrender. She's in effect saying, My hope is no longer in this city, this king, these walls, or my old life, my hope is in the Lord and in his mercy that he can provide to me. That only he can provide to me. She can't cling to Jericho and take refuge in the Lord at the same time. To take refuge in mercy means surrendering the false refuges that cannot save. We often want mercy without surrender. We want comfort. We want God to comfort us, forgive us, help us, protect us, and we still want to remain king over our own lives. The story helps to show us that saving faith does not work that way. We don't just get to add God's mercy to our life. She abandons Jericho as her hope and throws herself on the mercy of the Lord. That alone would be mercy. She was in the city under judgment, and God provides refuge. She heard what God had done, believed who God was, and took refuge in his mercy. But Rahab was not only rescued from judgment, she was brought into the people of God. She was not only saved from Jericho, she was given a place in his family. When Matthew opens up his gospel, he gives us the genealogy of Jesus. And Rahab's name is in there. Of all places. Salmon, the father of Boaz by Rahab. Matthew chapter 1, verse 5. She is a true outsider, yet in mercy she is brought in. Not barely, not reluctantly, not as a footnote. She is woven into the family line of the Messiah. Rahab is not saved because she's innocent. She's saved because she takes refuge in God and God alone. This is for us to take heart, to know, to claim. Mercy cannot mean that God ignores sin. So at the cross, we see how God can be both just and merciful. Sin is judged in Jesus, and sinners are sheltered in him as well. Rahab's scarlet cord marked a house of refuge in a city under judgment, but Jesus' blood secures the true refuge for all who believe. Matthew 1 shows us that Rahab herself is brought into the family line of Jesus. The woman spared from judgment becomes an ancestor of the Savior who could bear, who would bear our judgment. The outsider becomes family, the guilty receives mercy, and through Christ, everyone who takes refuge in him is not only spared, but welcomed into the family of God that is your story and my story when we submit ourselves to Christ. No one, and I mean no one, is too far from God. Christ can graft anyone into his family. Even you and me. Saving faith hears what God has done, believes who God is, and takes refuge in his mercy.