A Walk Through Joshua: A Faith that was Assured

A Faith that was Assured
Verses 17-24

The author tells us that after Rahab had helped the spies and asks for mercy from the coming judgement of God the spies make an agreement with her to spare her and her family when the city finally falls. The spies tell Rahab that she needed to tie a scarlet cord in her window so that when the Israelites attacked the city they would know that her house was to be kept safe in the midst of judgement. The spies also tell Rahab that she needed to make sure that all her family was in the house because those outside would not be spared. Like Noah’s ark when the floods rose or like the houses with lamb’s blood smeared on the doorframes when the angel of death passed through Egypt, Rahab’s house would not suffer God’s judgement.

And Rahab’s experience of salvation is parallel to all those who come to faith in Jesus Christ today.

For we are Rahab if we truly understand the story!

We were not part of the people of God; we were not one of the faithful Israelites about to administer God’s judgement on the land. We were part of a corrupt and sinful generation that despised God; we were a citizen of Jericho, just as Rahab was.

But we were part of God’s plan; for we were chosen before the foundations of the earth were set. And God who loved us as a son or daughter enacted his sovereign will to lead us to faith – our faith was part of God’s plan. God brought his messengers into our life and through them we learnt of the great act of salvation that God has done in Christ Jesus. We ground our faith in what God has already done; we ground our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus – We have a faith grounded in what God has done. And we work this faith out in action as we reject the ways of our people and identify with God’s people – We have a faith that works itself out into action.

And as a sign of that, the blood of Jesus, like a scarlet cord, is given to us that we may hang it in our window and over our lives. The blood of Jesus shows God that we are saved and that though we still live in Jericho, we are part of his kingdom.

And now we live as part of his kingdom, although we remain in Jericho as we await the time of his coming judgement and with it our complete deliverance.

Friends if we have faith in Christ then we have a faith that is assured. Like Rahab, we who have faith in the blood of Jesus know that we have the mercy of God and that on the final day when the wicked are judged, we will be shown mercy.

A Walk Through Joshua: A Faith that Worked itself out into Action

A Faith that worked itself out into Action

 So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. Now she had said to them, “Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.” (Joshua 2:15,16)

In James chapter 2 the apostle James is in the middle of his great argument about how faith and works are always inextricably linked and that faith without works is dead! And as he is making his point he turns to his readers (in case they hadn’t agreed with his argument up to this point) and says: “Look at Rahab the prostitute!” he says in Rahab the prostitute you see someone who gets what it means to live of faith that works itself out into action.

Rahab’s faith led to real action, she hid the spies, put her family at risk, she turned her back on her people and joined a foreign nation. Rahab didn’t just hear about God and believe in him. She heard about God, believed he was true and changed her whole life because of it!

We can all too often confine our faith to simply being head knowledge of who God is and what he has done and nothing more. But if that is all our faith is then the bible tells us that we are no different from the demons who know that there is a God and who hear his name and shudder!

Knowledge of God never saves. Faith, working itself out into action is what saves!

See all who lived in Jericho had heard what God had done in Egypt and in the desert, they knew about him but only Rahab acted on this knowledge, only Rahab decided to turn away from the sinfulness of her people and their false gods and seek refuge in the God of Israel. 

Faith must always work itself out into real action in every area of our life. Our faith must be always working itself out in the way we speak, the way we act, the way we use our money, the way we prioritise our time and in our relationships!

So many people hear about God, believe that he is real but never let their faith work out to change their life. They are just like a skydiver who jumps out of his plane believing that the parachute he has can save him, but who never acts on that belief by pulling the cord.

Is your faith more than head knowledge? Are you someone who comes to church each week but on a Monday morning is exactly the same as the person next to him on the street? If you are then learn from Rahab’s faith and work your faith out into life changing action!

A Walk Through Joshua: A Faith that was Grounded in what God had done

A Faith that was Grounded in what God had done

Verses 9-11 of this passage is sometimes called Rahab’s confession. In this confession we see that real faith is always grounded in what God has done. Rahab had faith in God because she knew what God had done for the Israelites, how he delivered them from their slavery to Pharaoh and how he defeated their enemies in the desert. Rahab didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to follow God, rather she had heard what God had done and from these things she knew that there is only one God in heaven above and on Earth below.

If you are in a relationship – a special friend type relationship, then you’ll know that you didn’t fall in love with the other person by just sighing and oohing and ahhing as you looked into each others eyes. Rather you talked and communicated and found out about each other – your pasts, your character your likes and dislikes etc. The notion of love at merely first sight is ridiculous; romance has its basis in knowledge! So too is the case with faith, Rahab’s faith was not just a warm cosy feeling towards God, her faith was a trust based on knowledge of what God had done.

Friends we like Rahab have heard how God has delivered his people and brought judgment to his enemies. We ground our faith in the real and true historical Jesus who died and rose again. Our faith is not just a vague belief that there is a God and that the bible is true so therefore we should live good lives and be kind to people. Nor is it just a warm cosy feeling we get when we hear that God loves us that helps us get through the tough times. No we have heard that God raised this Jesus from the dead showing to the entire world that this Jesus is both Lord and Christ! We know from this that he is alive today and that he has conquered death and sin and that we share in this victory. And we know that when we die we will not descend to the dead but will live forever with Christ in glory.

We know this because our faith, like Rahab’s faith, is grounded in what God has done.

A walk through Joshua: A faith that was in God’s plan

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. (Joshua 2:1)

The passage begins with Joshua sending out the two spies to survey Jericho and to get an accurate picture of its strategic weaknesses. Joshua sends out the spies because he is a good general, he didn’t know at this point that God was going to miraculously make the walls of Jericho crumble, and so Joshua in his foresight sends out the two spies to formulate his plan of attack.

Saving Rahab, however, was definitely not part of his plan.

 So too the spies, they are good soldiers, their mission is simple, to go and get a good look at the city and to report its weaknesses back to the general. When they get into Jericho they plan to go to a prostitute’s house – the one place where they wouldn’t be asked embarrassing questions, and where they could go as quickly as they came. It makes sense for the spies to plan to stay in a prostitute’s house, where do you disappear in a city but the red light district?

Saving Rahab, however, was definitely not part of their plan.

Rahab was not in Joshua’s plan, Rahab was not in the spies plan, but Rahab was in God’s plan.

Rahab was one of God’s children, even if she didn’t know it yet, she had been elected by God and loved by him like a daughter since the creation of the world. God had been working in Rahab’s heart and now God was using his people, even though they didn’t know it, to lead her to faith and physically save her. Friends, God always enacts his sovereign will to bring his lost sheep back into the flock.

He did this for you just as he did it for Rahab! If you were born into a Christian family and were raised in a church community, then that was God’s plan that you would come to have faith. If you came to Christ through the witness of a friend at high school, then that friendship was in God’s plan for you to be saved! If you came to Christ because you found a gospel tract flapping in the wind down at the train station, then it was in God’s plan to lead you there! Just as Rahab was in God’s plan so too are you!

And knowing this gives us renewed purpose to live as Godly and visible Christians wherever God has placed us. Why are you at your workplace? Why are you at your University? Chances are God is using you for a purpose, and so live as a Godly and visible Christian, shining like a star in a dark place, even though you may not know how God is using you. The next time an opportunity to talk about Jesus comes up with someone at work, at uni or on the bus remember that God directed the feet of the spies to Rahab’s door and he still directs people’s feet today.

A Walk through Joshua: Rahab, an example of faith?

By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient Hebrews 11:31

Joshua chapter 1 ends with the people of God ready to cross the river and fight heir way into the Promised Land! Joshua has been exhorted to be strong and courageous and he in turn has exhorted the people to be strong and courageous! Everyone is ready to go, we’re at battle stations! It is time to cross the river!

But then the story stops and zooms in on a quirky little story about a woman and two spies. It is a story you could take out of Joshua and not really miss it! I mean Joshua 1 ends with the people ready to enter the land and Joshua 3 begins with the people entering the land. We don’t need chapter 2! But of course the author of Joshua is quite intentional in his placement of the story there because the author is not just writing chronologically, he is also writing theologically! So he tells us the story of Rahab to give us a great example of faith!

Well if you remember, in Chapter 1 we met Joshua. Joshua was the kind of kid that was raised in a strong Christian home to loving Christian parents who were active in their church. His whole life he knew and loved God and worked his faith out in humble, consistent and faithful obedience. Joshua is just the kind of Christian person who reads his bible every day and is just putting one obedient foot in front of another as he walks the Christian life.

Well here in Chapter 2 we meet someone who is about as opposite to Joshua as you can get! Rahab!

Rahab was born into a pagan, Amorite, family, she never knew God, she never even heard of him. She most likely would have joined in with the various idol worship of her community, which included sacrificing children. We can probably assume that around the teenage years Rahab started hanging with the wrong crowd, around bikies (no, not the kind that ride the Tour de France). It wasn’t long before she ended up at the red light district of Jericho, the Kings Cross equivalent and started selling her body for sex. Rahab was about as opposite to Joshua as you could get.

But when we get to the New Testament we read that Rahab is an example of great faith! The New Testament tells us on two separate occasions (Hebrews 11 and James 2) that Rahab the Amorite prostitute is someone we need to look at to understand what saving faith is. The author of the Hebrews puts her in the same league as Abraham, Moses and Noah. And when the apostle James is arguing in his letter that faith without works is dead he holds up Rahab as an example of what saving faith is.

Rahab is someone who we can learn from what it means to have true faith! And so as we go through chapter 2 we are going to look at Rahab’s faith and learn what it means for us to have saving faith. We are going to study four elements of Rahab’s faith:

 

1/ It was a faith that was in God’s plan (verses 1-7)

2/ It was a faith that was grounded in what God had done (verses 8-11)

3/ It was a faith that worked itself out into action (verses 12-16)

4/ It was a faith that was assured (verses 17-24)

A walk through Joshua: Be Strong and Courageous!

In our last post we saw that God is concerned that the people are not afraid because God knows that fear leads to disobedience but courage leads to obedience. Thus God says be strong and courageous! Well, we may ask how? It is not as though we choose to be afraid – as we may choose to steal – no rather fear just comes upon us! Well courage doesn’t mean you don’t have any fears, courage means you act in spite of those fears.

In the first ever episode of LOST, the main character Jack needs to get Kate to stitch up a wound he has, Kate however is too afraid. So Jack tells her about the first time he operated, he was s nervous that he accidently cut something and blood started pouring out, Jack tells Kate of the terror that swept over him at that point. But then Jack tells Kate that he only gave the terror 10 seconds that he slowly counted to ten and that at ten he would have to act to fix it. This is courage, not the absence of fear, but action in spite of fear! Courage is something that needs to be developed and worked on; it is something we need to be growing daily in our Christian life. Courage is something that with God’s strength we can develop!

But how can we grow in strength and courage?

Well God tells Joshua that he needs to do two things going to be strong and courageous!

1/ Firstly Joshua was to meditate on God’s word.

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn away from it to the right or the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it”

Joshua was to meditate on the law day and night. Joshua is the first person in the bible who is like us in the way that God communicates with us. Before Joshua God spoke with people through burning bushes and on mountain tops, he gave them clear instructions for building arks and he walked with them in gardens. But since Joshua, God’s primary mode of communication has been through his word. He still does speak directly sometimes of course, but the primary way in which God communicates with us is through his word. Thus if we want to know God more intimately if we want to grow in communion with God we must meditate on his word. Meditation in the Christian sense is about filling our minds and our hearts with God’s word and letting it shape us. Christian meditation has life application as its goal, it is not just about getting to know your bible better, although that is a part of it, rather it is about having your life changed as you become more intimate with God. Part of that change is growing in courage as we come to know God more personally and more intimately.

2/ Secondly we can have courage because God is with us.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go”

God doesn’t simply expect obedience from his followers, rather he is with them, guiding them and empowering them as they serve him. Joshua was God’s messiah, his anointed one, chosen to lead the people of God and so God was with him. And Joshua knew this deeply all his life. This was the key that made him such a clear example of humble, consistent and faithful obedience! He really understood what Paul would later write: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” This is why Joshua could see the fortified cities and the strength of the inhabitants and not be afraid of where obedience would take him. Joshua knew that God was with him, and thus he could say to the Israelites: “Do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”

Joshua trusted God and he meditated on his word and thus he saw God at work in his life. The other spies felt like grasshoppers in the eyes of the Canaanites, but for Joshua it was the other way around. Knowing that God was with him gave Joshua the strength and courage to obey!

And just as God was with Joshua, so too he is with us as we live out our Christian lives in obedience. We are God’s anointed ones, we are his ambassadors and his priests! God is with us, strengthening us and enabling us to live lives of obedience – wherever that may take us. The Holy Spirit is actively at work in our lives, renewing us, sanctifying us, and strengthening us. And this is the key for us to be strong and courageous.

In John 14, as Jesus is preparing to go to Jerusalem to die he pulls his disciples aside and says to talk to them. Jesus knows that they will face persecution and sacrifice because they obey him. He knows this because that is exactly where he is going. He is concerned about them and so he tells them this:

“The counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you… Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid”

Jesus has gone back to the father, but he is not gone, he is still with us in the person of the Holy Spirit, and from this we draw much courage to be obey him wherever he leads.

Friends, God has called us to live a life of complete obedience to his word. It is a life that, this side of glory, will attract persecution and sacrifice, it will not be an easy road to walk. We may be tempted to allow our fear to withhold us from obeying him, but friends let us remember that we are not alone as we walk this road, the Lord is with us, guiding us and giving us strength to obey him no matter where that obedience leads. Be strong and courageous, meditate on God’s word and see that he is with you, and join with Paul in declaring “if God is for us, who can be against us”

A Walk Through Joshua: Is Fear Bad?

“Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous.” (Joshua 1:6-7)

Why is God encouraging Joshua to be strong and courageous? Joshua doesn’t have a history of being timid or fearful, Joshua was one of two spies to trust that God could defeat the Canaanites when they first went into the promised land, moreover at this point he has already been the military leader for decades, literally leading the charge when Israel went into battle!

Sure his mission was huge, seemingly impossible and his army consisted of slaves who had been wandering in the dessert, but I don’t think Joshua was sitting in his tent shaking in his sandals! Rather I think God exhorts Joshua to be strong and courageous to remind him of how sinful fear is.

Wait up, being afraid is sinful? Where do you get that from? How can being afraid be sinful – it’s not like you choose to be afraid, in the same way you may choose to steal! How can you say that fear is sinful!

Well, to understand this you need to remember that this is not the first time they have tried to move into the promised land, in Numbers 13 and 14 Moses sends spies into the land. When they return they tell the Israelites that it is an impossible task, the Canaanites are too many and too well defended. Then the people become afraid and they rebel against God. Of course Joshua and his colleague Caleb are not afraid and they want to go into the land, Joshua then ays this: “he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. ⁹ Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” (Numbers 14:8-9)

Joshua is saying that fear is rebellion, it is sin! Moreover after they say this the Israelites contemplate stoning Joshua and Caleb, why? Because people often respond in anger when their sin is exposed. While the people are considering stoning Joshua and Caleb the LORD descends to the tent of meeting and says to Moses: “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? ¹² I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them” (vv11-12).

It is clear that fear is contempt and rebellion, it is sin! Fear is not trusting God. Standing on the edge of the promised land the Israelites (including Moses) sin against God by being afraid. God then punishes their rebellion by not letting them into the promised land until everyone of fighting age in that generation dies.

Thus standing on the edge of the promised land, the second time over, God is careful to remind Joshua of their previous sin that they may not repeat it! Thus: “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous.” (Joshua 1:6-7).

Now God will tell Joshua how to be strong and courageous, he will tell him how to avoid sinning through fear, God doesn’t just expect people to strong and courageous – and we will look at this in the next post. When you see why you can be strong and courageous you see how anyone can overcome their rebellious fear.

So, on that note, what does this mean for us? Well God is clear that Christians are called to complete, uncompromising obedience. A submission to Gods will for their lives. This submission will again and again lead them into persecution. Jesus says we are sheep amongst the wolves! No one wants to be persecuted, it is not fun and yet all through the bible you see people willingly, bravely going to persecution, indeed even rejoicing in their persecution! They are strong and courageous! When they face the difficulties of obedience to God they do not treat God with contempt by fearing. So too you and I will experience persecution, it is expected. May we not sin in those times by fearing.

But how?

Well we’ll look at this question in the next post

A walk through Joshua: Whats the plan?

I

Before: 7 Nations of Canaan

I like to know what the plan is. I hate not knowing what is happening.  If I am doing something I don’t want to be blind about it, I want to know the plan of attack, the next step! My bet is you are probably the same. And I bet Joshua son of Nun was exactly the same as you and I! he had just become the leader of the nation and was preparing to move into the land. I reckon his mind would be buzzing about how he was going to do it, where he would attack, how he would organise the troops. I know I would be!

See we like to be in control of our destiny, as a society we’re obsessed with planning our fate. We don’t like handing over control to someone else. We hate it! Don’t believe me? Go buy a hallmark card, read your horoscopes or even better, go plan a wedding!

Well often in the Christian life we are called to give up control of what happens next. Rather we are not told how things are going to happen, we are just told what the outcome will be!

This happened to Joshua and it also happens to us!

“Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. ³ I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. ⁴ Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west.” Joshua 1:2-4

So Moses has just died, Moses who had been leading God’s people for generations. Moses who parted the Red Sea, who received the law, who won countless battles, who met with God, whose face literally shone with the glory of God!! Moses was now dead. Joshua is standing on the edge of the Jordan, his mentor and leader has just died and in front of him are 7 warrior tribes who are well established in the land with high walls and who I would bet were not going to give up their homes without a fight!

After: The twelve tribes of Israel

God has just promised to give Joshua the whole land of Canaan (see them maps) Unfortunately God doesn’t really go in details on how it is going to happen. He just tells Joshua what the outcome will be. As I am writing this I am on a train to Katoomba, now if you came to me this afternoon and told me you would take me to Katoomba, the first thing I would ask is ‘how?’ So too Joshua must have had this question running through his mind. How are we meant to take this land? How is it going to happen? Where is the step by step plan?

I would want to know what the plan is because it seems an almost impossible task doesn’t it! The nation of Israel against 7 other nations! The Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites were all standing in between where Joshua is now and what God has just promised.

We, like Joshua, also know the outcome of God’s promises but not the plan. We know that Jesus is the alpha AND the omega, that a date has been set for the conclusion of this age and the beginning of the next. We know that God will resurrect all things and bring his people to be with him physically in the new Eden. We know that thousands upon thousands of people from every language, tribe, nation and people will surround his throne to worship him and call him Lord. We know that death will be done away with and there will be an end to war and huger and poverty. We know this seemingly impossible task will happen!

We just don’t know how.

But we can rest and be assured that all of God’s promises are faithfully and completely fulfilled, we can be assured that even though we may not know how, Jesus is still building his church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. And so we, like Joshua, follow God to a destination that we know, while on a path we do not. But we trust that he is faithful and will bring about what he has promised.

It reminds me of these words from one of my favourite hymns by William Fullerton that I will finish this post with:

I cannot tell how He will win the nations,

How He will claim His earthly heritage,

How satisfy the needs and aspirations

Of East and West, of sinner and of sage.

But this I know, all flesh shall see His glory,

And He shall reap the harvest He has sown,

And some glad day His sun shall shine in splendour

When He the Saviour, Saviour of the world is known.

I cannot tell how all the lands shall worship,

When, at His bidding, every storm is stilled,

Or who can say how great the jubilation

When all the hearts of men with love are filled.

But this I know, the skies will thrill with rapture,

And myriad, myriad human voices sing,

And earth to Heaven, and Heaven to earth, will answer:

At last the Saviour, Saviour of the world is King

A walk through Joshua

Joshua son of Nun,

One of my favourite books of the bible is the book of Joshua. Although to be honest you do have to wade through some pretty dense, slow going sections when the land gets divided up. But besides that I think it is one of the most interesting and insightful books in the bible. But as a book it often gets over looked. I was in a christian bookstore the other day and the section on Joshua was tiny compared to the other sections around it. There are so few commentaries written on Joshua, and of the ones that are written, a fair proportion have combined it with another book. I wonder why that is?

Now let me say from the outset that this is not an endeavour to fix this, these posts will be nothing like a commentary on Joshua, rather I am hoping to put up some thoughts, ideas, insights and questions that I have as I go through the book. The plan is to slowly follow the course of the book like a you would a garden path, slowly meandering down, stopping every now and then to look at something that catches your attention before you slowly keep on going.

Well without further ado..

Why is the book called Joshua? The previous five books weren’t named after their chief human character, so why suddenly name this book Joshua?

I don’t know the real reason, we can only speculate! But I think it is because in Joshua you find the first leader of God’s people who is always faithful and obedient, who never turns from Gods instruction and does something awful. All the heroes up to now (with the exception of Joseph) had at one point (usually more) done something quite disgraceful. It doesn’t take long before you can think of the ugly sinful side of Adam’s apple, Noah’s drunken naked party, Abraham claiming his wife was his sister, Isaac doing the same thing as Dad, Jacob and that fateful bowl of soup, Moses not trusting God at the border of Canaan etc. But Joshua is different.

Up to this point we have only had small encounters with Joshua but in all of them he has been quietly obedient and so too during the book of Joshua he is obedient and at the end he is still obedient and encourages Israel to be obedient! The book of Joshua is at one level the story of God fulfilling his promise to Abraham, at another level however it is the story of one person, appointed by God to lead, who just quietly and consistently puts one foot in front of another in obedience to God’s word.

This is my guess for why the book is called Joshua. It is a way of saying: “Hey, look at this guy Joshua and be like him!”

Isn’t this something that we constantly need to be encouraged to do! To live a life of quiet obedience is the greatest honour for a Christian person. I hope as we continue our walk through Joshua you and I will be encouraged to be like Joshua and like him, faithfully put one foot in front of another in quiet obedience.