Highlight

“(30)By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days. (31) By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.”

Hebrews 11:30-31

Explanation

The Faith of Joshua and the People

Once you hear the details of the story of the battle against Jericho, you realize that this is certainly a story in which the people involved required faith.  When we think of what it would take to battle a walled city in ancient times we would certainly be thinking about tactics, implements of war, and numbers of troops.  Do you we use the element of surprise?  These are all the ways that we as finite people think about waging war within our own power.  We use the strategies and tools at hand to do the task.

But this is not how God called them to wage the battle.  In fact, He commanded them to wage the war in a way that would be counterintuitive to human wisdom.  What he was asking them to do seemed foolish.  It seemed non-sensical.  Let’s read the account in Joshua 6.

1 Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.

2 And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.

Joshua 6:1-2

• God proposes to Joshua that the battle is already won.
• Who gives the victory?  God does.  The battle belongs to the Lord.
• At this point though, the battle has yet to be waged.
• God is declaring their victory, and then asking Joshua, as the leader, to lead his people to act on that faith through dependence on God.  You see that in the instructions given in verses 3-5.

3 And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.

Joshua 6:3

• Imagine what those six days would be like.
• Did they all get up and prep with battle regalia?
• Later on we are told that Joshua forbade the people from talking.  In verse 10 he tells them not to make any noise with their voice, not even to speak until the day he tells them to shout.
• I imagine that one advantage of doing this is so that they would not discourage themselves through complaining or questioning.  It certainly would have been tempting to do so.
• God gave them the instructions and foretold what would happen on the seventh day.

4 And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.

5 And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.

Joshua 6:4-5

• Here is the plan, Joshua.  Trumpets and shouting.  That’s your part.
• Question:  Did the walls really fall ultimately because of trumpets and shouting?
• If at  church on Sunday we had 200 enemies of Trinity Baptist Church marching around our building and then yelling and blowing trumpets, would that physical event cause our building to topple?  Of course not.
• What was God asking them to do?  Put their faith in Him into action.
• They did their part- to believe. They trusted God.
• And what happened?
• God gave the victory.

20 So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

Joshua 6:20

The Faith of Rahab and the Spies

Joshua 2 tells us the story of the prostitute Rahab.  She was an inhabitant of Jericho.  Two spies were sent into the city by Joshua.  They ended up at the house of Rahab, and were hidden by her from the king of Jericho.  She told the spies the viewpoint of the people of the land when she was hiding them.

9 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 that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.

10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.

11 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.

12 Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token:

13 And that ye 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.

14 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.

15 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.

16 And she said unto them, Get you 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.

17 And the men said unto her, We will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear.

Joshua 2:9-17

Rahab was not a woman who was known for her upright moral character.  She was a harlot.  Yet she took the revelation that she was given and believed it.  Her faith lead to her actions.  She honored God and honored God’s people.  She was rewarded for that faith.  After the destruction of the walls of Jericho, Joshua helped keep those spies promise to her.

22 But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot’s house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her.

23 And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel.

Joshua 6:22-23

You find something pretty incredible about Rahab in Matthew 1:5-6.

5 And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;

6 And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;

Matthew 1:5-6

Rahab, the Harlot, who justified her claim to faith by her works toward the spies and the nation of Israel, becomes integral not only in their history, but in their line.  She is the mother of Boaz, who is the husband of Ruth.  In this 

line is Obed, Jesse, David, Solomon….and eventually Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Christ!

The functioning thesis of this chapter is that the just shall live by faith.  This is what James said about Rahab:

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

James 2:25

Her faith was substantiated in the way that she lived out her faith in the very little revelation that she had.

Application:

Faith, by definition, is difficult in the execution, but pays off big in the end.  

• The children of Israel had the discomfort of waging a war in a way that seemed foolish.  But when the walls were down and the victory was theirs, God got the credit and they got the blessings of that.
• Rahab the harlot had to go against her own culture and previous lifestyle to do the right thing with the spies.  She lived through the battle against her city and became part of the redemptive line of Jesus Christ.

As believers in Christ, we may seem weird to the world.  We may sacrifice in this life things that others would think is weird.  The just shall live by the kind of faith that produces works.  Those works may cost us.  Yet in the end we will be rewarded.  In the end we are part of the victory because of what God has wrought for us, and if we are blessed in us and through us.

Response:

Lord God, today I want to live by faith.  I don’t know how all of this will play out, but I want to live trusting you and not just the blessings you give.  I want to live by faith. I confess my sin to you…Please forgive me.  Help me to walk away from it.

Help me to live for you today.

Amen.