Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Joshua Chapter 2

Sermon scripture is Joshua chapter 2. Please stand. Joshua chapter 2. “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 a harlot’s house named Rahab, and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither tonight 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 have entered into thine house, for they be come to search out all the country. 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. 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 know not.

Pursue after them quickly, for ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof of her house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof. 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. And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof.

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 all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites that are on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.

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. Now therefore, I pray you swear unto me by the Lord since I have showed you kindness, that you will also show kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token, and that you 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.

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.’ 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. And she said unto them, ‘Get ye 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.’ And the men said unto her, ‘We will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear.

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. And it shall be that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood will be upon his head, and we will be guiltless. And whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our heads, if any hand be upon him.

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 word, so be it. And she sent them away. And they departed. And she bound the scarlet line in the window. And they went and came into 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. And they said to 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.’”

We thank God for his word and pray that he would illuminate our hearts. You may be seated. At this time, the younger children may go to their Sabbath schools if their parents desire that of them.

Sermon for emphasis, but I have moved it instead. Okay, we continue on now through the book of Joshua and in the providence of God, we have come to the second chapter and I’ve entitled my talk “Salvation, Resurrection and Conquest” or “Death, Resurrection and Conquest” in the providence of God. This is a good visual aid, I guess, for the sermon I’m about to give. The cross reminiscent of Christ’s death and our salvation. The Easter lily at the base, which probably some of you can’t see, and the empty cross, of course, significant of the resurrection.

And then the purple cloth—purple being the sign of royalty or the kingship of our Savior—and with his resurrection, he conquered. I didn’t put this here and we didn’t put it here. The other church did, but in the providence of God, it’s a nice visual illustration of the main points of the sermon.

Today is of course the day that millions literally of Christians across the globe celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ—Easter. And we have, as I said, in the providence of God, come to a story that is very significantly tied to the theme of resurrection and the things that we celebrate on Easter. And while there are different ways you could approach this particular portion of scripture, I’ve decided to approach it along this theme of resurrection and conquest, which I think is very significant for an understanding of Christian salvation and why we’re here again.

As we said last week, the big picture of what we are doing on this planet earth—this story is fraught with images of resurrection. The Numeric Bible, which I quoted last week, mentions that the term “three days” is used three times in chapters 1 and 2. In chapter 1, remember they were going to prepare for 3 days for the crossing of the Jordan. In chapter 2 here, Rahab tells the spies to go out and to hide in the mountains for 3 days.

And then at the end of the 3 days, it’s repeated again for emphasis later in the chapter. They come down from the mountains, descend, and go back across the Jordan into the land on that side of the Jordan, and report back to Joshua. And commenting on that, the American Bible says this: “Gleams of resurrection break out through all these verses, for it is by resurrection power alone that we can cross this river of death that is the Jordan and enter into our inheritance.” And that’s certainly true.

And the way I’ve decided to approach this—these the outline I’ve given you—the basic verses fall out very nicely into this five-part outline: verse 1, I’ve entitled the introduction, “Resurrection and Conquest.” It is essentially an introduction to the rest of the chapter and also some would say it’s the commissioning by Joshua of these two spies. And the next verses 2 through 7 is a section where we read about the attempts to capture the spies on the part of the king of Jericho.

Verses 8-14, we have a prolonged speech by Rahab and it is essentially a profession of faith, and so I’ve entitled it that. And then after that, there’s a section dealing with the scarlet cord, their escape from the city and return to Joshua in verses 15-21. And then 22-24 is their formal report back. So it breaks out nicely into those sections and you could categorize each of these segments differently from what I have.

But one thing I wanted to point out as we begin this discussion is that at the centrality of this chapter—and this is a very precise unit, very obviously from the text—at the centrality of this is the profession of Rahab. And that’s a very important point and we’ll comment more upon that as we go along, but that is at the center of this story. This is real history the scriptures give us, and we’ll find later of course—and many of you already know—that Rahab becomes part of the line of Christ. One of those people that God chooses to be in the genealogy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Real woman, real events, real history here, real things going on, and yet with tremendous impact for understanding of the world around us in the Christian faith. So let’s talk first a little bit with this introductory sentence about this basic theme of resurrection and conquest. And please, don’t—you know, we’re using some illustrations here that are illustrative of resurrection, and I think that it’s important as we read an introductory statement like this to any section of scripture that we think it through very carefully—the names that are given, the significance of what’s going on. It really sets up the rest of the story.

And so verse 1, we read: “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 out and came into a harlot’s house named Rahab.”

Now we have there basically a synopsis of this story. We have the mention of Joshua, the son of Nun. We have the mention of where this is happening. They’re in Shittim. Now, this is the launching place essentially for the conquest. We have the commissioning of two secret spies. We have them going into the land and specifically to spy out Jericho. And we have the place they’re going to end up lodging—the harlot Rahab’s house—mentioned significantly as well in this first verse. So we get the whole thing in kind of a summary form here.

And so it’s very important that we just spend a little bit of time thinking through these people that are talked about here. First we have Joshua. And now it’s interesting in the sense of—again as an example or an illustration of resurrection and life, death to life and change as a result—you may not know this but Joshua’s name was not always Joshua. We read in Numbers 13:16 that Moses called Hoshea—or Hosea, the son of Nun—Jehoshua, which became shortened to Joshua. Moses himself changed Joshua’s name from Hosea to Joshua. Now that’s significant, I think, particularly in this story for a couple of reasons.

One: a change of name indicates some sort of change in the person, and oftentimes when we talk about a Christian, the name of a somebody upon conversion, their names would be changed. Now I don’t know that’s why Joshua’s name was changed necessarily, but we see that model throughout all scripture. And of course, most of us can think of Saul and Paul. The name change didn’t occur till after Paul’s conversion, but it was linked to that conversion. And so we have Joshua, a reborn man, as it were, a new name. Interestingly enough, Hosea means “help,” and Joshua means “Yahweh helps.”

So we have the correct emphasis of salvation coming from Joshua in his new name, as it were. It’s also interesting because the book of Hosea—of course, whose name originally was Joshua’s name. Of course, the prophet Hosea lived much later. But the book of Hosea, we see in the very opening verses of that book something that is somewhat akin to this where Hosea the prophet is told to marry a prostitute. And we see throughout the scriptures this model of the marriage of the prostitute, the salvation of the prostitute.

We’ll talk about this more later, but obviously a picture of the church of Christ who had been idolatrous and had been adulterous with other gods, as it were, being brought to salvation in Christ and becoming married to him. So Joshua’s emissaries, as it were—the two spies—and Joshua, of course, himself is but an emissary for the Lord Jesus, the great King of Kings, go out and convert Rahab.

Okay, so we’ve got Joshua mentioned here, and Joshua is the son of Nun, and that’s interesting too. Nun, his father’s name, means “perpetual” or “continually.” In Psalm 72:17, we read of the Savior who will redeem souls and save the poor: “that his name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as long as the sun.” That word “continued” is the same basic root word as the son of Nun. So perpetuity in the Savior Jesus Christ is pictured through that name as well.

We have Joshua, the son of Nun, then, who sends out of Shittim. And again here, let’s think a little bit about why this place is so important as a picture of death to resurrection. If you remember back to Numbers 25, this is the location Shittim where the people of God committed harlotry with the daughters of Moab. And then we had, as a result of that harlotry, God’s plague upon the people. That’s where Phinehas throws the spear through the couple, etc. So Shittim was a place of curse, as it were. The people fell into harlotry and idolatry with the gods of the Moabites as well there at Shittim, and as a result, we see Shittim then being a thing of really a scandalous place in its origins—the wilderness wanderings.

But now we see it having a second chance, as where it becomes now the launching platform for a different generation of Israelites who are faithful to the God of the scriptures and who are not idolatrous with other gods and adulterous with other gods or women who serve other gods. This new generation sets out from Shittim for the conquering of the land, and that’s where the spies are sent out from.

Shittim, by the way, has the meaning essentially of “acacia grove,” referring back to the acacia tree, and the acacia tree has thorns on it—some pretty good-sized thorns. We have another picture there of curse. And so in the very mention of the term Shittim here as a launching pad for the conquest, we see change. We see death and resurrection. We see wilderness leading up to garden and conquest. And so I think it’s important that we have these associations as we look at this text.

Okay, so he sends out from Shittim two spies secretly. It’s very interesting. Remember he doesn’t send out 12, like we said before. He sends out two. And he’s not having—when they come back they are not going to report back to all the people. Joshua has learned a lesson in leadership, and that is that the people are not prepared to make every decision that a leader must make. The people heard a bad report from 10 of the 12 spies when Joshua, in Joshua’s day, when he was one of the two good spies with a good report.

And so he sends these guys forth secretly to report simply to him. And so he’s got a shepherd’s heart for the people here in making sure that they don’t receive information that might spook them the way they had earlier. In any event, he sends out two, not 12 spies. And here again, we normally think of spies as people that go out and get military information to develop a plan of battle for attacking a place.

But in the scriptures, you don’t see spies that way. Normally, these spies are really given out or sent out rather to bring back not really technical data about military installations, but rather to bring back an encouraging report. And we’ll look at an incident in the life of Gideon later on in the book of Judges, and we’ll see this same basic motif as it is in other places as well where God sends out spies and has stories of spies to bring encouragement to the people that God is leading into victory.

Okay, and that’s what’s happening here. “Go into the land, even Jericho.” Jericho was an interesting place. It is apparently the lowest town on the globe. It’s 750 feet below sea level. And it was certainly a town full of wickedness and idolatry. We know that, as we said last week, this conquest is happening in the context of the sins of these people being come to fruition. And Jericho was a stronghold, a heavily fortified city.

The name can mean “moon,” and the worship of the moon might have been going on there at the time. It can also mean “fragrance,” and we’ll see that Jericho itself really receives no resurrection, as it were, apart from the resurrection of Rahab, the one who comes out of her to join the holy people of God. So Jericho is where this scene is going to take place. And then, as we said, they go out and they come to a harlot’s house.

Who is Rahab? Rahab is another good picture of death and resurrection. I think that the centrality of this story, the central text of this story, is her profession of faith and is the evidence that she has passed from death into life in a belief in the salvific power of Yahweh and his grace and mercy, and acknowledging that he is Lord of heaven and earth. And so right at the center of this text we have death and resurrection related to Rahab herself.

Now, so we have then in this first section of scripture several examples or models for us of men and places that have been brought to resurrection. Joshua, the son of man—the son of perpetuity, changed from Hosea to Joshua. We have Shittim, where once there was war declared on Israel because of her sins, but now Shittim becomes the launching place for war being waged rather by the Israelite people, the people of God, raised up to war on the city-state of Jericho.

We have the two secret spies who, of course, are the people that spend three days in the mountains hiding, then come up, so to speak, in a symbolic resurrection, back to life, and come back and bring a good report back to Joshua. Additionally, these two spies, when they’re in Rahab’s house, are hid on the top of her house amongst—underneath the flax. She has these cords of flax laid out, and they’re hid underneath that. They’re buried, as it were, on the top of her house, and saved that way from the king of Jericho’s men who want to kill them, of course. And they come forth into new life as well.

And this resurrection model can be seen in their lives, and certainly can be seen in Jericho in the life of Rahab. Here we have a sinner among sinners, a harlot and a sinner of the worst kind, as it were. The scriptures repeatedly use harlotry as indicative of idolatry. And Rahab is in the city of idolators, and she herself is a harlot. And yet she is brought to conversion, from death to life, through the news of the mighty acts of God as he brings forth his people into salvation.

So we have the land in which this iniquity has been found, which will be destroyed, sending forth a representative of it, as it were, in the life of Rahab, who comes forth now—comes out of that land that is doomed to destruction—and becomes part of the mighty conquering army of the Israelites, the people of God, as they move into the promised land. She immediately takes her place as a full citizen, and eventually her salvation and the blessings that God pours upon her are indicated by her joining the genealogical line of our Savior Jesus Christ.

So at the very opening of this text we have a nice synopsis of everything that’s going on, and in the middle of what’s going on is the conversion of Rahab. And the context for all that—for the resurrection of Rahab and her conversion—is this conquest that’s going on. And Rahab becomes a participant in that conquest as well.

Okay, let’s look at the next section of this story. However, we read about the confusion of earthly rulers beginning at verse 2: “And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither tonight of the children of Israel to search out the country.” So after this initial success he has some initial success, the king of Jericho does. Now history indicates that at that time you basically had city-states—okay, and that’s why we hear here about the king of Jericho—but they did have an organized political structure with organized intelligence agencies, which is significant for the text, I think. And at first they have some initial success.

But following this initial success, just listen to the story of what happens to his information gatherers. “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.” He obviously wanted to from prison, kill them, interrogate them, whatever.

“The woman took two men, hid them, and said, ‘Thus, they did come to me, but I don’t know where they are now.’ And it came to pass about the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out. Whither the men went, I don’t know. Pursue after them quickly. Maybe you’ll overtake them.”

So here we have a common prostitute lying through her teeth, as it were, to these trained investigatory agencies of the king, his intelligence gatherers. You think they’re going to fall for this story? Well, indeed they do. They fall right before it. “She brings them up to the roof of the house. She’d hid them with the stalks of flax which she had laid in order upon the roof.”

And in verse 7, “the men pursued after them the way of Jordan to the fords. And as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate.” So they hear this story. And I think that what we have here is the confounding of the kings of this world, as it were. When God’s mighty forces are moving out and God providentially protects them through the confounding of the kings of the earth, why did he listen to the report of this harlot? It’s ridiculous if you think about it. And yet we have the confounding of these men.

And probably normally they wouldn’t have acted like this, but in the providence of God and under his divine authority, the confusion of earthly rulers is accomplished, and as a result the people of God are spared. That as well.

Now this is a common theme in conquest stories throughout the scriptures. You think a little bit—the Egyptians, of course, 40 years earlier, were confounded by God’s curses that he brought upon them till the end. And they just said, “Get out of here. Take off. We don’t want you here anymore.” The earthly rulers were confounded. In the birth of our Savior, Herod is confounded as well. When the wise men don’t come back to him the way they were supposed to do, Herod is confounded, and he keeps trying to get Jesus, but he can’t do it.

The rulers of this earth are confounded and put to nothing. Book of Acts is replete with stories like this. Paul himself has a similar experience at in recorded in 2 Corinthians where he himself is led out of a wall in a basket and saved that way. And again in the book of Acts, we see the earthly rulers trying to stamp out the power of the gospel, but they cannot do it. They’re confounded at every turn.

It’s almost like in each of these stories it becomes like a Keystone Cops sort of thing when the rulers of this world are blinded by God’s power and his strength and his control of them. And God’s omnipotence is declared in these conquest narratives. Psalm 2, of course, is the preeminent model of this where he laughs at the conspiracies set forth by the rulers of the earth to put his people to persecution and to stamp out the Lord Jesus Christ and those that would follow him.

So I think it’s important here that we recognize again that the context for Rahab’s profession is conquest, and one of the important themes in all conquests is the confounding of earthly rulers by God’s power and might. In the middle of these things, this should be an encouragement to us. If it is true that this is what the normal pattern is in the scriptures—that the opposition to the gospel are essentially confounded by God—then as we look forward to the church of Jesus Christ coming out of her period of wilderness in the last hundred years in this country and reclaiming the scriptures and reclaiming a biblical worldview and going forth and preaching the gospel and the implications of the gospel and discipling the nations, we can look for the same confounding of the rulers in our conquests as well.

And in fact, of course, we could spend some time talking about that confounding and how it’s worked to our benefit in terms, for instance, of educational liberty in this state. The confounding of the rulers is an important part of biblical conquest, and it’s a thing to rejoice in and to be encouraged by.

But then third, we come to the centrality of this text, and that is the profession of Rahab’s faith. It is at the center of this. She has a faith in the Lord of conquest which is based upon his objective acts in history. Those objective acts lead to the centrality of Rahab’s profession in the center of this text, and then a plea for mercy or salvation from her which is answered in the affirmative by God’s representatives. Let’s look at the text verses 8 and following.

“Before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof, and she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.”

Terror, fainting. These are really again pictures of death. And Rahab confesses her own death, as it were—the terror and fainting of her own heart. But she comes to believe that God indeed will conquer all things in terms of this land and give it to his people. So she has a declaration of faith here that the Lord indeed has given the people of his choosing this particular land. This is faith, however, that is based upon, as Schaeffer—Francis Schaeffer in his commentary—puts it, propositional truth, propositional knowledge, things that can be demonstrated.

“For we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt. And when you did what you did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts did melt. Neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you.”

So we have here objective realities of God’s conquering might demonstrated in the history of his people. Rahab knows of that objective propositional truth. And on the basis of that, comes to believing faith that God will conquer and his people will indeed conquer the land. And this then leads to the statement that really is at the heart of her profession of faith, her confession of the might of Yahweh:

“For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath.”

Now, this is a significant formulation. In Deuteronomy 4:38-39, we read the following: “That God will drive out nations from before thee, greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance as it is this day. Know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart. So God is telling his people: do it. For here’s what I want—here’s the conclusion I want you to come to when you see my mighty acts in history. Know this day and consider in your heart that the Lord, he is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath, for there is none else.”

Rahab comes to the same profession of faith that God wanted his covenant people to come to based upon the propositional truth of his acts in history. Those acts, of course, point to this act. And so we are in the same way confronted with the propositional truth of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. And we have been brought by that propositional truth to faith in him for our personal salvation. But more than that, I think that faith should include an acknowledgment that God conquers all things for his people. And that’s the faith that Rahab came to.

So she could make this profession: that Yahweh is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. This salvation of hers and her profession of faith leads to her own personal plea for mercy or a prayer for salvation. We could call it.

“Now therefore I pray you swear to me by the Lord—uh, which I have show, excuse me—since I have shown you kindness, that you will also show kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token, and that you will save alive my father and my mother my brothers my sisters and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.”

Rahab pleads here for salvation or mercy. She asks for kindness. That word kindness—we’re supposed to love mercy and to do justice and to walk humbly with God. And Rahab says she’s demonstrated to the people of God. And she prays that God and his people will show her kindness and bring her to salvation as well in terms of her physical life here as well as her eternal state, I’m sure.

And she thinks covenantally. The family is the basic unit of the covenant, and she thinks covenantally here in terms of her father and her mother and her brothers and sisters as well. And so Rahab at this point is changing sides. She’s forsaking Jericho. She’s forsaking her world that she knew. She’s turning against it, and she’s identifying herself with the people of God and acknowledging the acts of God in history and making the same profession of faith they came to make. They came to make. And also asking for the hesed—the mercy of God—to be demonstrated to her through God’s covenant people.

She changes and identifies now with God’s covenant people. And that really is much of the essence of salvation as well. A turning on the old world—the dying world, the world that is doomed to destruction, Jericho—and an embracing of the new world and the new humanity in Jesus Christ. Or in this case, the prefigurement of that, the nation of Israel. Rahab identifies herself at great personal risk.

We might add here, with the people of God. It’s not going to be easy for her while they’re gone and they’re getting ready for the attack. These spies already know—or, excuse me—the king’s agents already know that she had put these guys up. She’s already on the list. And if they get some kind of idea that she’s collaborating with them, you know what’s going to happen to her and probably to her family as well. So at great personal risk and with great devotion, Rahab is separating herself from the people of fallen man to the people of God.

And she asks then for this prayer of salvation. This prayer is responded to in the affirmative by the ministers of God who have come in God’s providence to her place. They then answer her in verse 14:

“Our life for yours if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be when the Lord has given us this land. Not if the Lord gives us this land, but when the Lord gives us this land. They weren’t searching out to see if they could do it or not. They were searching out to bring encouragement back to Joshua. And [when] the Lord given us this land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee.”

And so the ministers of God here responded affirmative to the plea for grace from one who is brought to confess that Yahweh is Lord of heaven and of earth. They see in Rahab faith with works. It’s interesting there are three mentions of Rahab in the New Testament.

One is, as I said, in the lineage of our Savior in Matthew 1:5 and 6. But the other two references are in the book of James and the book of Hebrews. In James, the whole section where Rahab is mentioned is talking about faith without works is dead. And he gives two examples from the Old Testament—just two. He gives Abraham, father of the faith, and Rahab. “Faith without works is dead,” says in verse 25:

“Likewise also was not a Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way?”

So Rahab is given as an example of faith that works. The other occurrence is in Hebrews 11:31 where her faith is stressed:

“By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believe not when she had received the spies with peace. Her peace went upon the spies, and the peace of God came to her as well.”

So Rahab is the picture of the in the hall of faith—of Hebrews 11. And that faith that works in James 2. And Rahab then is a picture of the conversion of men to real faith. Faith that is demonstrated in their lives and in actions. This faith is perceived and received by the emissaries of God—these two spies—the emissaries of Joshua, and of the greater Joshua, the Lord Jesus himself, as they come into this land. And they respond affirmatively to her profession of faith and her request for mercy from God.

And so should we. We are in the blessings of God encountered. We encounter people that God has providentially prepared to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. And when they ask us of mercy, we should be quick to grant it to them the way that these emissaries of God were. As well, one commentator put it: “the salvation of sinners is never foreign from God’s purpose and is never far or absent from God’s heart.”

And so it should be with us. If on the one hand we pronounce the judgment of this world, on the other hand, we hold out the assurance of goodwill and blessing for all who out of this world turn to God. And that’s what these spies did. They held out the conquering of Jericho. But they also held out the hand of grace for those who would turn from the wickedness of the sin of Jericho and would embrace Yahweh as the God of heaven and earth.

As we said, Rahab was a picture of the chief of sinners, as it were. She was a gentile. She was a foreigner. According to Ephesians 2, to the covenant of promise, without hope, without God in the world. She was apparently an Amorite. And while all the nations that were going to be driven out were wicked, the Amorites are particularly singled out by God as being particularly corrupt or evil. And here in the midst of Amorite, gentile—we also have a woman who was a harlot, a chief of sinners.

And yet God brings her to salvation. And the people of God accept her profession of faith and her request for mercy in spite of her being this incredibly wicked—of such wickedness, the wickedness of her own personal sin. Forgiveness—biblical forgiveness based upon profession of faith and a demonstration of that in the lives of people—was a real and vital part of the people of God in a sense at their height here.

This is a generation that knows God, that are going to go forth in obedience to God, who are going to go forth and conquer. And so we want to look at those people at that particular time in their walk as good and exemplary patterns for us in the New Covenant times as well. And right at the heart of their conquering here, we see in the middle of a story of conquest, the story of personal salvation of Rahab the harlot and the extension of grace and forgiveness from the people of God.

I mean, after all, she did not become an outcast. She fairly early probably married into the line that would eventually, as I said, result in David and then from David on down to Jesus Christ himself. And so she was the recipient of the forgiveness of God’s people. It’s very interesting that we have this book of the conquest. Again, I know I’m repeating myself, but it’s very important to recognize this. The first two characters identified in the book of Joshua and dealt with are Joshua and Rahab.

Okay, and that’s very significant that the first character besides Joshua is Rahab. And the first story in the story of the conquest, after the commissioning by God in chapter 1, is her story. This first story then is the story of God’s mercy and grace and not of God’s wrath. Ultimately, this first story—even though we’re reading of conquest, God’s wrath against evil people—the preeminent place is given to a story of grace and mercy, God’s compassion, and not to his wrath. Very important.

Okay, so here in the midst of conquest, we have the salvation of Rahab. And there is a definite connection. I’m going to skip Roman numeral 4 in your outline and talk a little bit about that at before we have communion.

So let’s go to Roman numeral 5. We’ll skip over a section of the narrative and go down to verse 22. The triumphal conquest assuring return to Joshua. Verse 22:

“And they went and came into the mountains and abode there three days. And here’s that reminder again of their own model, or symbol, I suppose. And not intentionally it’s hard to discern whether or not this is intentionally given to remind us the resurrection. But certainly three days in the scriptures is frequently a picture of that. And there’s nothing wrong with making those sorts of associations by way of application.

In any event, the abode there three days until the pursuers were returned. And the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but found them not. As the Keystone Cops at work, and they can’t find them.

“So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and it’s interesting, of course, we could talk a little bit about the fact that they were hiding in the mountains and that they’re on top of Rahab’s roof when the conversation takes place and their salvation in terms of protection from the enemies of God’s people occurs being protected by God’s people and his environment, etc. But we’ll go on. The two men returned, descended from the mountain, and they passed over. And in terms of the scarlet cord and what I’m going to say there, just keep in mind that this term “passed over” is always the term used for passing over a riverbed or other place, but it also is the same term when God passes over the Jews in Egypt the night of the Passover. Okay. And they came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him all things that befell them.

And they said unto Joshua, Truly the Lord hath delivered our hands into our hands all the land for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us.”

So they’re telling Joshua, we’re going to face an enemy here without good intelligence. They know that by now that God is confounding these Keystone Cops—the king of the city-state of Jericho—and an enemy people who are scared stiff, or maybe better, scared limp. Their hearts are melting in the face of Israel and her mighty God. So it’s a good report that they bring back. It is a report assuring the conquest of the land.

Now one might ask: why is it that these spies were sent out? And I don’t know the exact reason why what Joshua was thinking about, but I know what I think God was thinking about. I think that one of the purposes of this trip from God’s perspective was, as we said, the demonstration of the salvific grace of the God whom they worshiped—even in the context of conquest—pointing forward to the conversion of all the gentile peoples in time.

We have here a metaphor, a picture of what’s going to happen as history progresses. And I’ll talk about that a little bit more in a couple of minutes. Secondly, I think that what happens—so we have this picture of salvific grace. That’s one of the reasons for the trip by the spies. They go to Rahab, and that’s a lot of what’s going on is her conversion. Secondly, though, as we’ve said here, it is encouragement for people that have become recipients of salvific grace.

So God’s people—Joshua emblematic of all God’s people, those who have received the grace of God into salvation—they are encouraged in their own walk and in the conquest that God has called them to do through this mechanism, through this spy narrative as some people call it. And really, these two things are brought together in Rahab. She is the harlot who has become part of the genealogy of Christ, who’ve been ushered into the kingdom of God, as it were. And she also is the one who gives them the knowledge that the people of the land are faint and their hearts are melting because of them.

And so in Rahab, we have this encouragement and this demonstration of God’s salvific grace brought together into one thing.

Now, Schaeffer in his commentary says that some people ask: “Is it really fitting that Rahab should become part of the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ?” And Schaeffer says with an excellent answer: “It is most fitting.” It is most fitting.

If we cannot see in Rahab ourselves, then we don’t understand how the scriptures work and we don’t understand the depth of our depravity. As I said before, the scriptures are replete with references of adultery or prostitution and fornication to idolatry. And we are Rahab essentially. Rahab is a picture—the early church taught—of the church itself, in that the church, we all come out of backgrounds, or we have for various reasons identified ourselves with foreign gods, idols of our own creation, idols of destruction.

We’re all—and we do this more often than not. We follow other gods or other idols for personal gain, right? People decide to follow this particular religion or this particular god, this particular idol for what you can get out of it. That’s what America is all about right now in the ’70s and ’80s, and that’s what the people have been about for a long time. Well, what does that make you?

If you’re going to sell yourself into obedience to a false god for the purpose of personal aggrandizement, personal benefit—what does that make you? No, it makes you a prostitute, is what it makes you. And so all of us at the core in our rebellion against the God who is our rightful God and our acceptance of false [gods] are really Rahabs. And so we all have been recipients of the grace that was extended to Rahab. And if she was the chief of sinners, so was the Apostle Paul when he recognized that. And so can each of us say—but we also have been in rebellion against God until God graciously brought us into his covenant through the demonstration of the propositional truth of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, and our response in faith based upon God’s quickening of us through the Holy Spirit.

So it is certainly proper—truly proper—that we have a harlot in the line of our Savior Jesus Christ, because those are the kind of people the only kind of people that he saves. Throughout the scriptures, of course, we see it. We see the woman at the well with Jesus. We saw the harlot who washed Jesus’s feet with her tears and anointed him. Hosea and his wife, etc. Throughout scripture, you find this theme. And that’s why—because essentially at its core, it’s the picture of all people that are brought to salvation in Christ.

Turn to Joshua or Judges 7, verses 13 and 15. Verses 13 and 15 for this encouragement. I said we’d mention this briefly, and we will. Judges 7—it’s an even stronger statement as to why spies are sent out normally. In this case, it’s Gideon himself who’s the spy.

Judges 7:13 and 15. And God’s going to do some conquering here through Gideon. Look at verse 13:

“And it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, Arise, get thee down into thy host, for I have delivered it into thine hand. But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Purah thy servant down to the host, and thou shalt hear what they say. And afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then went down with Purah his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host. And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude. And their camels were without number as the sand by the seaside for multitude.

And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came upon a tent, and smote it, that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along. And his fellow answered and said, ‘This is nothing else but save the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel, for into his hand hath God delivered Midian and all the host.’ And then Mo—then Gideon, of course, is encouraged.”

Here we have another spy story. It’s a spy story where Gideon goes down and finds out through his spying encouragement to have him go forward and conquer. God gives us these stories for our own use as well. We’re part in the time of conquering—which always involves the falling away of people away from the true God. That’s what the days we’re in today in the American world.

We go forth conquering as a very small band—just in terms of reconstruction. Not that reconstructionists are the only ones conquering, but Gary North in a newsletter this last week put out the number of people that are on his newsletter list. And you might think it’s many tens of thousands, right? After 10, 15, 20 years of building his mailing list. 2,000 people. 2,000 people—remnant. And that was the whole point of his mailing was that we are a remnant.

People that are self-conscious about winning the world for Jesus Christ through the preaching of the gospel and its application to all things—they are a small group of people in terms of the number of Christians and certainly in terms of the number of the people of this world. God wants us to know though that when he calls the people up with a vision to go forth in conquest that he will supernaturally work for us through that host of multitudes—like the grasshoppers in the sense of Gideon’s narrative—so many of them. And there’s so many people in the world that don’t believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that reject this word.

The great bulk of them reject this word as the standard for life and faith. So how can we possibly hope to conquer in our day and age? Well, we hope to conquer because we know, as Gideon knew, that God had given these people into his hand. Remember, God even had Gideon taken down the number of people that would go with him. And in the times of Joshua in the story we’ve just read, God sends these two spies out.

I don’t know what Joshua’s purpose was. God’s purpose was to encourage his people to conquer. And so we should be encouraged today.

Okay, what are some lessons for this? First, Rahab contra mundum. Well, it’s a phrase that Athanasius used—whose dates were 295 to 373. One of the early church fathers who wrote the Nicene Creed. He held the deity of Jesus Christ when almost all the church did not hold to it for years. He was alone. “Athanasius contra mundum” means against the world. And Athanasius was a true believer, and he took this word of God and understood it correctly, and he had to stand against the world in standing for the divinity and the deity of Jesus Christ.