Joshua 03: Active Faith

Joshua chapter 2

Active Faith

Do you consider yourself to be a Christian?

On what basis, by what standard do you consider yourself to be saved. Many people are Christians on their own terms, more centred around themselves than around what God wants.

Hope to understand a bit more about what a relationship with God should look like as we look at Joshua 2.

Remember in chapter 1

Joshua has received instruction from God /He is going to lead the people into the promised land / He is called to be strong and courageous / And God instructs him to keep obeying His word /

And so Joshua instructs the leaders of the various tribes / Tells them to get their people ready / And they respond with obedience / And they recognize that by following Joshua they are following God.

Joshua chapter 2 / Joshua sends out 2 spies / And he gives them a simple instruction /

Vs 1 … “Go and look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.”

They find safety in the house of a prostitute / Probably one of the last places you’d expect to find safety / The king of Jericho finds out about this. / So he sends a message to Rahab

verse 3:

³ So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”

Look at what happens next:

⁴ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. ⁵ At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” ⁶ (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) ⁷ So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

Then she goes up on the roof to talk to them. / And she talks to them about their God. / And what she had heard that their God had done. / How everyone was fearful of Israel because of what God had done. / And there’s a recognition from her as to who God is.

And because she realizes how powerful God is. / She asks them to show her mercy for when they come later on to attack Jericho. / So they ask her to tie a scarlet cord in her window / So that when they do attack, the can instruct the armies not to attack the house with the scarlet cord. / This should ring some bells / the Passover.

She ties the scarlet cord in her window. / And then the spies head back. / They have to hide in the hills for a few days to avoid the pursuers. / And eventually they get back home after their mission. / And they report back to Joshua in verse 24:

²⁴ They said to Joshua, “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.”

2 characters (1 is a set of characters) in this story:

The first character or characters that I would like us to look at are the Spies that obey. / at the beginning of the chapter they’re sent by Joshua to go and check out the land. / Jericho

Now let’s remember that in Israel’s history this wasn’t the first time that spies had been sent out. / Just under 40 years before this, Moses had sent 12 spies into the promised land.  / You can go and read the story in Numbers 13. / So these 12 spies get sent out 40 years ago. / And 10 of them came back with a skeptical report. / They were intimidated by the other nations. / It’s interesting that they felt this way. / Having so recently been rescued from Egypt. / They had seen God do amazing things. / Yet they didn’t trust God to help them defeat these other nations. / God had promised them the land. / So they were doubting that God would actually keep his promises. / So because of their doubt God didn’t let that whole adult generation enter the land. / And out of all of those spies, Joshua and Caleb were the two who came back positive. / who still trusted God’s promises all those years ago. / so they were the only ones of that generation who were allowed to enter the promised land.

So here you have these spies who now go and check out the land. / They are obedient. / They risk their lives. / Because they know the instruction that was given to Joshua. / Be strong and Courageous. / For the LORD your God is with you. / They believed God was with them. / And they acted on it. / They end up at Rahab’s house. / They hide. / They make a promise to Rahab, / Which we know they keep if you read Joshua chapter 6. / Rahab was spared. / And then they’ve got get back to their camp / And they’ve got to do this while they are being pursued by the enemies.

But they could be strong and courageous / They could trust God / They could trust in the promises of God / Because God is faithful to keep his promises / God has the power to keep his promises

They’re willing to do something very risky. / But they trust God.  / And they made it back alive. / Their faith in God’s promises showed because of the action that they took. / They’re an example of what it means to believe in the promises of God, and that belief is evident by their actions.

Do you live like you believe that God is in charge of the world? / that if you do the right thing, God will take care of you? / eg. Relationship / business deal / eg. Christians being persecuted.

The next Character that I would like us to look at is the Prostitute who submits.

We’re introduced to her straight away in verse 1. / The spies are given instructions for their mission. / Then the next thing you know, they’ve entered the house of a prostitute, named Rahab.

Why did we have to know that it was a prostitute? / There is a lesson that we can learn here from the fact that Rahab is a prostitute. / If you think about the moral standard that God had put before His people. / 10 commandments. / Here was someone who would have violated God’s commandments countless times. / would have led many men into sin. / She would have caused many men to commit adultery. / She was also a citizen of a pagan nation. / She would have worshipped other gods. / She would have gone along with all the things that pagan nations did. / the least likely candidate to be saved by the LORD, the God of Israel. / The God who is Holy. / But yet she recognizes God for who He is and she is saved.

Here she pleads to God for mercy. /

⁸ Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof ⁹ and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. ¹⁰ We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea^[a] for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.^{[b] 11} When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.

¹² “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign ¹³ that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.”

She is recognizing that God is God. / the great rescuer of Israel. /  it was God who dried up the Red sea. / plus she is recognizing that God is going to destroy those who aren’t on His side. / And so she is pleading for mercy.

Look at verse 12 again:

¹² “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign ¹³ that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.”

Do you recognize who God is? / Do you recognize that he is the one in charge? / Do you recognize that He is the Holy God who hates sin? / Do you recognize that those who aren’t on His side, will suffer Judgement? / Do you recognize that those who aren’t on His side will face His punishment / will face His wrath?

Rahab recognized that. / Rahab showed faith. / And the thing we need to note about Rahab’s faith./ Is that it was an active faith. / she recognized who God was and she acted on it / This is why she took in the spies / She believed in God enough to change sides. / She totally changes her allegiance. / She no longer aligns herself with the people of Jericho. / She aligns herself with the Israelites. / God’s people / She knows that to be on any other side, other than God’s side will lead to her destruction. / active faith

Imagine if the king of Jericho found out that she was hiding these men. / There must have been a certain amount of fear that this could happen. / But her fear of the Lord was even greater.

Her fear of God was greater than her fear of man. / eg. Preacher on talk show – “I fear the disapproval of God more than I fear your disapproval or the disapproval of society”

Hebrews 11, you see Rahab mentioned as a person of faith. / And that faith was evident because she acted. / She welcomed the spies. / And she was saved.

James chapter 2. / James makes it quite clear that her faith was active.

James 2 vs 24-26:

24 ²⁴ You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.²⁵ In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? ²⁶ As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. 

Rahab here is used as an illustration of faith with deeds. / Faith with Action. / James is trying to show his readers that faith without deeds / without action is dead, it’s not faith.

He’s not saying we’re saved by deeds, but that faith without deeds is dead. / True faith is faith that results in action. / Rahab’s faith resulted in action.

Is your faith, just a belief that you have. / is your faith just an opinion. / You say you believe in God. / But you don’t believe enough to switch sides. / your allegiance. / Your fear is more of the disapproval of society / of those around you. / The way that you live your life doesn’t show an allegiance to God. / You say that Jesus is your king / But you’re not living under His rule. / You say you believe, but where’s the evidence.

So there’s those 2 sets of characters who show active faith. / The spies, and Rahab.

Let’s remember that whoever the characters are / God is the hero of this story. / We see that in Rahab’s story. / She submits to God. / We see that in the spies. / Yes they do what Joshua instructs them. / But they do it because they’re obeying God.

But we need to note that this is a vital part of God’s plan in terms of his greater plan to save the world. / So when you get to the New Testament. / Matthew chapter 1. / We see Rahab’s name mentioned. / Matthew starts with a genealogy. / He starts with the family history of Jesus. / And when you look at Jesus’ ancestry, there’s a guy called Salmon / 1 verse 5 tells us that Salmon is the father of Boaz, / Whose mother was Rahab.

This story about Rahab is all part of a bigger picture / It’s all part of God’s bigger story. / God is working / God’s plan is going ahead. / Maybe not in the way we would expect / He may not use whom we expect Him to use. / But God is working to fulfil his purposes. / He is faithful / He is powerful to be able to fulfil His purposes and promises. / He is a God in whom we shouldn’t hesitate to put our trust.  / Is your faith an active faith?

And when you look at Rahab being shown mercy / a prostitute from a pagan background / How is that mercy possible? / how is it possible for any of us as offenders of God to be shown mercy? / Only through God’s plan of salvation. / The scarlet cord. / The blood on the doors. / All pointed to what God was going to ultimately do to redeem us. / Pointing us to the blood of Christ. / That’s where our faith should be. / a faith that is placed in a God who rescues. / Is a faith that is active.

Home Group notes:

Read Joshua 2:

Note the obedience of the spies, and their willingness to obey Joshua, and ultimately their willingness to obey God. Prepared to put themselves at risk. They trusted the command to be strong and courageous because God was with them.

Note how Rahab submitted in such a way that she changed allegiance from Jericho to the people of God.

She was an unlikely candidate, but yet God saved her. a great lesson on the grace of God.

James 2 vs 24-26 uses Rahab as an example of Faith with deeds, ie. active faith.

Matthew 1 vs 5 shows us Rahab is actually part of God’s bigger story, as she is in the genealogy.

Home Group Questions:

1. What does this passage tell us about the spies?
2. What does this passage tell us about Rahab?
3. What does this passage tell us about God?
4. What does this passage tell us about faith?