Faith Like Rahab

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at Joshua chapter 2. We're going to talk about the faith of Rahab, hiding the spies. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the blessing it is to get to read your word. Lord, we pray that you would please help us to understand it. Teach us your ways, Lord. Let us walk in your paths. Father, we need your spirit to enlighten our eyes. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, I don't know where my, there's my spectacles. I was telling the kids the other day, it's getting harder and harder for me to keep reading without glasses, so here we go.
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 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 in the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof. Then the men pursued them by the road to the Jordan, to the fords. And as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate. Now before they laid down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know that Jehovah has given you the land, that the terror 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 Jehovah 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, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you. For Jehovah your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.
Now, therefore, I beg you, swear to me by Jehovah, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will 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 will be yours. Sorry, 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 the wall. And she said to them, Get to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you. Hide there three days until 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 when we come into the land you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, 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 doors 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. 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, descending 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, Jehovah has delivered all the land into our hands. For indeed, all the inhabitants of the country are fainthearted because of us." Well, we need to ask ourselves our three questions. A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize? And C, what are we called to do? What is this whole section about?
This is a story of the spies going across the Jordan to Jericho, spying out the land. They go to the city, they find a very unlikely person, although it's a good cover story, right? They go to Harlot's house as a prostitute, a woman of the night, right?
She's selling herself for money and they go to her house because this is a place that they could lodge and people aren't going to be suspicious of them and asking them questions. They go there and they find her faith. They find her believing in the Lord. I don't think she's acting out of fear here. I think she's acting out of faith. Notice what she says, and this is what I have underlined as the best verse here.
I know, verse nine, I know that the Lord has given you the land, and the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. And then she talks about hearing about what God had done in bringing them over the Red Sea, or through the Red Sea, and then what they had done to the kings on the Transjordan side, on the east side of the Jordan. she was telling them we've heard about all this and people are afraid but she says to them our hearts melted neither did there remain any courage in anyone because of you for the lord your god he is god in heaven above and on earth beneath i have that double underlined with three stars next to it this is her confession of faith She's heard about this Covenant King. She's heard about this Lord. She's heard about this God who isn't just relegated to the heavens, nor is He just a terrestrial God in charge of some little piece of land, but He is the God of heaven and earth, the skies and the land, the air and the ground.
She's believing in Him. She knows, and this is the amazing thing, right? She could run away from that God in fear, but this is what faith does. By faith, she runs towards that God. We're going to find out later in the book of Joshua that she actually marries one of the leading men of Ephraim. I think I'm getting that tribe right.
But the point is, right? She believes and she hides them. Now there is this question about whether or not she's lying or not. This is a time of war. I'll let you go and you can research the ethics of what she did. But the book of Hebrews picks up this story and puts Rahab in the hall of faith.
What she did was by faith because she was trusting in the covenant king. And she preserves herself and her household. her father, her mother, all that are in her house. There's a token, there's a sign of her salvation. And that's the scarlet cord that she used to bind on her window. Now the walls there, it's like apartments that are built into the wall, right? And so she's got one of these chambers that if it's wartime, they might fill it up with a whole bunch of stuff to fortify the wall. But the point is, she's able to have strength or have safety because of her faith. I think that's what this is about, and that's what this is calling us to, right? There's a type of fear that people have that's a slavish fear, that they hear about God and they run away from Him. They hear about the judgment to come, and they run away.
But we don't run away from God, even though we know that He is holy and just and righteous. No, what does a person of faith do? We run towards Him. Make no doubt about it, Jesus is going to come again to judge the living and the dead. And when he comes, he'll have written on his thigh, King of kings and Lord of lords and his robe will be dipped in blood. And for some people, that's scary and they run away because we know that our sins deserve death. But for those of us who have faith, we know that we're able to run to him. because he is also the one who is able to save. He's also the one, the just, who has died for the unjust, that we may have life. So trust in him. Have faith like Rahab.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this example. Lord, one that we wouldn't expect. Rahab is an unexpected example, but Lord, what a beautiful picture it is when a sinner, instead of running away from you, finds salvation in you. Lord, we pray that that would be true of us as well in Jesus' name. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the faith of Jesus Christ. May you run into the arms of the Lord. And may you find safety in Him, your high tower. I'll see you next time. Bye.