Josué 2
Charles Spurgeon · Citado em PreceptAustin
Josué 2
Spurgeon reminds us that "Behold is a word of wonder; it is intended to excite admiration. Wherever you see it hung out in Scripture, it is like an ancient sign-board, signifying that there are rich wares within, or like the hands which solid readers have observed in the margin of the older Puritanic books, drawing attention to something particularly worthy of observation." I would add, behold is like a divine highlighter, a divine underlining of an especially striking or important text. It says in effect "Listen up, all ye who would be wise in the ways of Jehovah!" Believers Study Bible - (vv. 2-7) Note the remarkable nature of Rahab's faith in view of her background and her situation (cf. 2Co 4:18). Her ethics must be viewed in light of that faith and that background. Pr 12:22 expresses how much God values truth. Nevertheless, the N.T. praises the faith that motivated her lie (Heb. 11:31). Behold (02009) hinneh is an interjection meaning behold, look, now; if. "It is used often and expresses strong feelings, surprise, hope, expectation, certainty, thus giving vividness depending on its surrounding context." (Baker) Hinneh generally directs our mind to the text, imploring the reader to give it special attention. In short, the Spirit is trying to arrest our attention! And so hinneh is used as an exclamation of vivid immediacy (e.g., read Ge 6:13)! Hinneh is a marker used to enliven a narrative, to express a change a scene, to emphasize an idea, to call attention to a detail or an important fact or action that follows (Isa 65:17, Ge 17:20, 41:17). The first use of hinneh in Ge 1:29 and second in Ge 1:31 All the uses of hineeh in Joshua - Jos. 2:2; Jos. 2:18; Jos. 3:11; Jos. 5:13; Jos. 7:21; Jos. 7:22; Jos. 8:20; Jos. 9:12; Jos. 9:13; Jos. 9:25; Jos. 14:10; Jos. 22:11; Jos. 23:14; Jos. 24:27 George Bush - Notes Critical and Practical on the Book of Joshua - Chapter 2 2. Behold there came men—to search out the country. This could have been only a conjecture, yet they affirm it as a matter of absolute certainty. As they could conceive of no other motive for which they had come, it was perhaps natural that they should confidently assign this as the true one Joshua 2:3 And the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab, saying, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land." Bring: Jos 10:23 Ge 38:24 Lev 24:14 Job 21:30 Joh 19:4 Ac 12:4,6 to search: Ge 42:9-12,31 2Sa 10:3 1Ch 19:3 Joshua 2 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries THE KING'S DEMAND FORCES RAHAB TO MAKE A LIFE CHANGING DECISION And the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab, saying, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land." - The King of Jericho was accurate in his assessment. His royal command forced Rahab to make a choice, a choice that ultimately would affect her eternal destiny! This was a crisis not of her own making, but brought her to the point of decision. Was there some risk in choosing the side of the spies? Possibly, for if she were discovered to be lying, she surely would have been executed (but see Campbell's comment below). Campbell points out that "In keeping with oriental custom the privacy of even a woman such as Rahab was respected and the king’s men refrained from bursting into her house and searching it." (The Bible Knowledge Commentary Old Testament or Here) A W
Josué 2
Spurgeon - Driving Out the Canaanites and Their Iron Chariots Utterly destroyed (destroyed completely)(02763) charam means to destroy, to doom, to devote. This word is most commonly associated with the Israelites destroying the Canaanites upon their entry into the Promised Land (Deut. 7:2; Josh. 11:20). It describes the practice of completely destroying the spoils of war as a way of consecrating them to a deity (Joshua 6:17 uses the related word 02764 herem). Surrendering something irrevocably to God = devoting to service of God, excluding it from use or abuse of man &/or putting it under a ban for utter destruction. [Dt 7:2, 20:17] Usually haram meant a ban for utter destruction, compulsory dedication of thing impeding or resisting God's work which is considered to be accursed before God. Uses in Joshua - Jos. 2:10; Jos. 6:18; Jos. 6:21; Jos. 8:26; Jos. 10:1; Jos. 10:28; Jos. 10:35; Jos. 10:37; Jos. 10:39; Jos. 10:40; Jos. 11:11; Jos. 11:12; Jos. 11:20; Jos. 11:21. Related Passages that use charam Deuteronomy 2:34 “So we captured all his cities at that time and utterly destroyed (charam) the men, women and children of every city. We left no survivor. Deuteronomy 3:6 “We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon,utterly destroying (charam) the men, women and children of every city. Deuteronomy 7:2 and when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy (charam) them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. Deuteronomy 13:15 you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying (charam) it and all that is in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword. Deuteronomy 20:17“But you shall utterly destroy (charam) them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the LORD your God has commanded you, George Bush - Notes Critical and Practical on the Book of Joshua - Chapter 2 10. For we have heard, &c. The first of these events, the drying up of the Red Sea, had happened forty years before, and though it had produced a deep impression at the time, on all the surrounding nations, yet in the lapse of that long interval, which was a season granted them for repentance, it is not unlikely that their alarm had in great measure died away, till now it was revived again by their nearer approach, and by the recent overthrow of the two Amoritish kings. The convictions of sinners are apt to come and go with the alarming or afflictive dispensations of God’s providence. So it is said of Israel of old, Ps. 78:34–37, ‘when he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned (changed their mind) and inquired early after God. Nevertheless, they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues; for their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant.’ Joshua 2:11 "When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. When we heard it, our hearts melted: Jos 5:1 7:5 14:8 De 1:28 20:8 Isa 13:7 Na 2:10 no courage remained in any man: Heb. rose up, Rev 6:16 for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath: De 4:39 1Ki 8:60 Ps 83:18 102:15 Jer 16:19-21 Da 4:34,35 Da 6:25-27 Zec 8:20-23 Joshua 2 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passage: Deuteronomy 4:39 (NOTE SIMILARITY OF RAHAB'S WORDS TO THOSE OF MOSES!) “Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the LORD, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. (See also Acts 14:15; 17:23–28) RAHAB'S DECLARATION OF FAITH IN JEHOVAH When we heard it - Heard what? 40 years earlier about the Red Sea and probably more recently the defeat of the Sihon and Og. Our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you - Notice the phrase we heard implying that while other Canaanites heard ("we"), it was only Rahab who responded in faith! (cf Mt 7:13, 14+) (Listen to Spurgeon's sermon Rahab's Faith where he describes her "singular faith" - see transcript below). Rahab reiterates how news of the acts of Israel's God disheartened, demoralized and discouraged the citizens of Jericho. This is almost like saying they were already defeated! As someone has quipped they may have even started singing "This Land Is Your Land!" God's miraculous acts and displays of great power prompted fear in the people, but it was only a fear like the demons' fear James described writing "You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder (tremble)." (James 2:19+) They were like Felix when he heard the Gospel, Luke recording "But as he (PAUL) was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened and said, “Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you.” (Acts 24:25+) For the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath - Rahab confesses that Yahweh is the sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all that exists (cf. Dt 4:39+; Acts 14:15+; Acts 17:23-28+). Clearly Rahab believed in the miracle working God of Israel. Miracles don't save by themselves but they can be used by God to bring souls to belief in the One Who performs the miracles. Most of Israel sadly failed to believe in Jesus despite His countless miracles. Her statement is noteworthy, since the Canaanites worshiped multiple deities (see Exod 23:24, 32–33; 34:15; Deut 11:16, 28; 12:2–3, 30–31). Don Anderson - The PROMISE of faith and the POWER of faith has now led to this great statement - the PREEMINENCE of the Lord God . It is interesting that Rahab's description of God was similar that which Moses declared to the children of Israel "Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the LORD, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other." (Deut 4:39+) THOUGHT - God knew the "soil" of Rahab's heart and He sent two men to bring salvation to this soul. Are we open to similar providential circumstances in our live, in which God may bring a person (even a very unlikely candidate) into our path who needs to hear the Gospel and is prepared to received the Word implanted which is able to save their soul? (James 1:21+) All followers of Jesus need to be on the "lookout" for the "Rahab's" in our life who are "good soil" who hear "the word (THE GOSPEL) in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance." (Lk 8:15+) Donald Campbell asks "how could Rahab have such a remarkable faith and still be a harlot, and so glibly tell lies? The answer would seem to be that as she responded in belief to the message she heard about God’s works, she later responded to further messages concerning God’s standards of life and obeyed. After all, spiritual maturity is gradual, not instantaneous. Even John Newton, who wrote the gospel song “Amazing Grace,” continued for some time after his conversion in the slave trade before he was convicted about this base and degrading practice and gave it up. (The Bible Knowledge Commentary Old Testament or Here) Rahab the harlot would have agreed with John Newton's great hymn Amazing Grace... Amazing grace How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now I'm found Was blind, but now I see 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear And grace my fears relieved How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed Francis Schaeffer asks how did she know He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath? We are not told. Often in Scripture we find that people knew things, though we are not told how they came to know them. But Rahab knew! And what she knew was totally against her culture. She believed in a new God, a God totally and diametrically opposed to the gods of Jericho but a God above all other gods, a universal God. In the midst of the Canaanites, the Ammonites, the Amorites – in the midst of their horrible, polluted worship, laden with sex symbols and sex practices – Rahab affirmed a true theological proposition about who God really is. Utley on He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath - This is a strong theological statement of God’s transcendence and imminence. This is the paradox of YHWH as “the Holy One of Israel” and on the other hand, the ever present God of creation. This is an affirmation of monotheism. William Blaikie - Rahab made a most explicit confession of her faith, not only in Jehovah as the God of the Hebrews, but in Him as the one only God of heaven and earth. It would have been nothing had she been willing to give to the Hebrew God a place, a high place, or even the highest place among the gods. Her faith went much further. “The Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and in earth beneath.” This is an exclusive faith—Baal and Ashtoreth are nowhere. What a remarkable conviction to take hold of such a mind! All the traditions of her youth, all the opinions of her neighbours, all the terrors of her priests set at nought, swept clean off the board, in face of the overwhelming evidence of the sole Godhead of Jehovah! (Joshua 2 The Spies in Jericho) Henry
Josué 2
Spurgeon - Morning and Evening - “She bound the scarlet line in the window.” —Joshua 2:21 Rahab depended for her preservation upon the promise of the spies, whom she looked upon as the representatives of the God of Israel. Her faith was simple and firm, but it was very obedient. To tie the scarlet line in the window was a very trivial act in itself, but she dared not run the risk of omitting it. Come, my soul, is there not here a lesson for thee? Hast thou been attentive to all thy Lord’s will, even though some of his commands should seem non-essential? Hast thou observed in his own way the two ordinances of believers’ baptism and the Lord’s Supper? These neglected, argue much unloving disobedience in thy heart. Be henceforth in all things blameless, even to the tying of a thread, if that be matter of command. This act of Rahab sets forth a yet more solemn lesson. Have I implicitly trusted in the precious blood of Jesus? Have I tied the scarlet cord, as with a Gordian knot in my window, so that my trust can never be removed? Or can I look out towards the Dead Sea of my sins, or the Jerusalem of my hopes, without seeing the blood, and seeing all things in connection with its blessed power? The passer-by can see a cord of so conspicuous a colour, if it hangs from the window: it will be well for me if my life makes the efficacy of the atonement conspicuous to all onlookers. What is there to be ashamed of? Let men or devils gaze if they will, the blood is my boast and my song. My soul, there is One who will see that scarlet line, even when from weakness of faith thou canst not see it thyself; Jehovah, the Avenger, will see it and pass over thee. Jericho’s walls fell flat: Rahab’s house was on the wall, and yet it stood unmoved; my nature is built into the wall of humanity, and yet when destruction smites the race, I shall be secure. My soul, tie the scarlet thread in the window afresh, and rest in peace. THE SCARLET LINE IN THE WINDOW A Sermon PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28TH, 1909, DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. “She bound the scarlet line in the window.”—Joshua 2:21. EVERY little incident in a remarkable conversion like that of the harlot Rahab is worthy of notice. The apostle James selected her as an illustration of the fact that faith is always attended by good works, and he asks, “Was she not justified by works when she had received the messengers?” while Paul quotes her as an instance of justification by faith, and says, “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not.” If both these eminent apostles found an illustration of an important doctrine in her life, we, surely, may do the same. If the hiding of the spies under the flax had some significance, so also had the hanging out of the scarlet line. The two spies whom Rahab had concealed made an agreement with her that she should hang out a scarlet line in the window by which she had let them down, that they might know, in the day of battle, the house in which she dwelt. She fulfilled their request, and displayed the chosen emblem. In connection with that scarlet line, I observe four things. I. First, I see here AN OBEDIENT BELIEVER. She was told to tie the scarlet thread in the window, and she did it; there was exact obedience. It was not merely a thread, a line, but the scarlet line. She did not substitute a blue, or a green, or a white line. The order was this scarlet line, not another, and she took that particular one. Obedience to God will be very much seen in small matters. Love always delights to attend to the little things, and thereby makes the little things great. I have heard of a Puritan who was charged with being too precise, but his answer was excellent, “I serve a precise God.” The Lord our God is a jealous God, and he is very jealous of his commands. It appeared a little mistake that Moses made when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it, and yet he could not enter into the promised rest because of his offence. A small action may involve a great principle, and it is for us to be very cautious and careful, searching out what the Master’s will is, and then never halting or hesitating for any reason whatever, but doing his will as soon as ever we know it. Christian life should be a mosaic of minute obediences. The soldiers of Christ should be famous for their exact discipline. I commend scrupulous obedience to all of you, and especially to those young people who have lately made a profession of their faith in Christ. Do not be as your fathers were; for the generation which is now going off the stage neither reads its Bible nor cares to know the Lord’s will. If people searched the Scriptures, we should find them come together in union; but the least-read book in all the world, in proportion to its circulation, is the Word of God. It is distributed everywhere, but it is read scarcely anywhere with care and attention, and with a sincere resolve to follow its precepts at all hazards. You come and listen to us, and we give you little bits taken from it here and there, but you do not get a fair notion of it as a whole. How can you? Ministers make mistakes, and you follow them without enquiry. One elects this leader, and another that, to the creation of varieties of opinions and even of sects, which ought not to be, and would not be if all stood fast by the standard of inspired truth. If the Bible were but read, and prayed over, many errors would die a speedy death, and others would be sorely crippled. Had that inspired Book been read in the past, many errors would never have arisen. Search ye, then, the Book of God, I pray you; and whatever you find there, be sure to attend thereto. At all costs, keep to the Word of God. Notice, next, that hers was obedience in a very small matter. She might have said, “I do not think it is essential to tie a piece of line in my window. Can I not be preserved just as well without it, seeing that I believe in the God of Israel? I have faith, and I have shown it by my works by hiding the spies, you cannot suppose for a moment that I shall perish simply because I have not complied with a regulation about a scarlet line.” In this way many, nowadays, enquire whether they may not omit those duties which they consider to be non-essential to salvation. Now, this is a question which I never intend to answer for anybody else, because I never intend to ask it on my own account. Whether or no a believer will perish because some known duty or Scriptural ordinance is neglected, is a question which only selfishness would raise. Are we only to do that which will procure our progress, or secure our salvation? Are we so grossly selfish as that? Does a loving child say, “If I refuse to do my father’s will, shall I not still be my father’s child? Shall I not still be fed and clothed by him?” Only an evil child would talk thus. The true son enquires, “What would my father have me do? I will do it cheerfully for his sake. What doth my father forbid? for what he forbids shall be hateful to me.” Rise above all questions concerning essential and non-essential, and learn to obey in all things; if it be only tying a scarlet thread in the window, or washing in water, do as you are bidden, and in nothing rebel against the Word of the Lord. Remember, too, that this small matter of obedience, as some call it, had an important symbolical signification. I am not sure that the spies meant by it that the scarlet thread should be the same to Rahab as the blood on the lintel and on the two side posts had been to Israel in Egypt, but it does strike me as being very probable. Those two men were so acquainted with the passover, and the sprinkling of the blood, and the consequent preservation of all in the house, that it was very natural that they should give Rahab a sign akin to the token which God had ordained for his people Israel when his angel passed them by in the day of doom. Therefore, trifling as the colour of the cord might seem, it had a deep significance; and even so commands of God, which are little in themselves, are great in symbolic teaching. Great errors have come into the Christian Church by the alteration of simple points in God’s commands; and, therefore, since a little thing in the sign may involve a great thing in the substance, it becomes us to cultivate exact obedience. “Oh!” says one, “but I fear we shall always be in error.” Assuredly we shall, unless we endeavour to avoid it. Unless we give abundant attention to the Word of God we shall fall into mistakes beyond number; errors are unavoidable if we do not study our perfect Chart, even as it is certain that a man will lose his way if he never enquires about it. At any rate, we need not rush into mistakes by omitting to use our judgment, and to inform our understanding. Ask the Lord to teach you by his Holy Spirit, and you will not be taught wrongly. Commit yourself to his instruction, and be willing to do what he teaches you, and you will not go amiss. This woman’s obedience also arose out of real faith, and was the exponent of that faith; for, when she tied the scarlet line in the window, she expressed her confidence in the fact that Jericho would be destroyed, and that she would be saved because she had received a promise to that effect. She would not have hidden the spies if she had not believed in their God; and after having done so, if her faith had failed her, she would not have complied with the covenant requirement to hang the scarlet line in the window. Beloved, obey in faith. The obedience of the slave is worth little; the obedience of the child is precious, for it is the fruit of love. That keeping of God’s commands which comes of slavish fear lacks the very heart and bowels of obedience, for love is absent; but, as God’s dear children, resting alone in Jesus, confiding in your Father’s promise, feel that because you believe you must obey, not because you dread hell, or expect to-win heaven through any works of your own, but because you have believed in Jesus to the salvation of your soul, and therefore, it is your joy to do his bidding. Thus I have enlarged upon the first point of the text, that, in the hanging out of the scarlet line, I discern an obedient believer. II. Now, secondly, I see here AN APPROPRIATED COVENANT. These men had made a covenant with her that she should have her life spared, and the lives of her family, if she concealed their secret, and if she tied a scarlet line in the window. As she tied up that line she did, as it were, say, “I claim the covenant that you have made with me.” Beloved, let us speak about this for a moment, for we want more and more to be able to appropriate covenant blessings. How do we appropriate Jesus? By simple faith. Faith is the hand which touches the head of the great sacrifice, and lays sin upon it, that sin may no longer lie upon the sinner. Faith grasps Jesus as the Bread of life, and makes that Bread to be our own, that we may feed upon it, and may live for ever. Thus the grand thing for appropriating Christ is to obtain faith, and to gain more and more faith. Do you remember when first of all you tied a scarlet line in your window, and said, “Christ is mine”? I do remember the very hour and the precise spot, but many cannot tell the moment or the occasion, nor need they agitate themselves about it if they still continue to tie that line in its place. Still, you do remember that there was such a time when you could say, “Jesus is mine.” You apprehended Christ because he had apprehended you. If such an hour as that has never come to you, may it come even now! Jesus Christ can save you, but he must be appropriated, or he will be no Saviour to you. Remember that God the Holy Ghost himself, though he is the Author of faith, cannot believe for you; you must believe personally for yourself. Certain persons talk very much of repentance as the gift of the Holy Spirit, and their witness would be true if they would not exaggerate it so as to leave the impression on men’s minds that the Holy Ghost repents, and that the sinner has little or nothing to do with it, for that is not true, since it is clear that the Holy Spirit has nothing to repent of, that repentance is an act of the repenting sinner’s own soul, and faith a personal exercise of the heart, “for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” If we do not ourselves repent and believe, Christ is not ours, and we are none of his, neither shall we obtain any benefit from his life and death. Tie the scarlet line in your window, for it will not be tied there for you; you must do it with your own hand. And I do pray that, even now, you may have boldness through Christ to say, “Yes, Jesus shall be mine; I dare with humble confidence to appropriate him for myself, since he is given freely to poor needy sinners, and I am such a sinner.” Faith is the first and grandest way of tying the scarlet line in the window, but let your faith follow on in the use of the ordinances and means of grace, for these assist her in laying hold upon Jesus. I have often found it most blessed to sit at the communion table, and feel, while I ate the bread and drank the wine, that faith was in active exercise, so that I said to myself, “Yes, as certainly as this bread is put into my mouth, and goes into my bodily system, so as to become a part of myself, so that nobody can ever take it away, even so I have by faith believed on and received into my soul the incarnate God, and in that way has he become mine, so that none can separate him from me, or me from him.” The ordinance itself will not give you Christ, but often does the symbol blessedly enable the soul to realize Jesus, and contemplate him so as to partake of him. In that draught of wine, so typical of his blood, how often has our soul said, “I rest entirely upon the Redeemer’s bloody sacrifice. His substitutionary pangs, griefs, and merits are all my trust before God, and I receive them as my sole reliance for the remission of sin, and take them into my very self, just as I drink of this cup, and thereby the juice of the vine courses through my veins.” Continue, beloved friends, thus to appropriate Jesus Christ, and let every communion season be a tying of the scarlet line afresh in the window. Let your whole life be a course of action correspondent to the belief that Christ is yours. I am afraid many believers live as though Jesus Christ did not belong to them at all, nor yet the blessings of the covenant. Do you think that we should be so desponding when we have losses in business if we really believed that all things are ours, and if we had tied the scarlet line in the window, and appropriated all things as ours in Christ? Do you think we should be so soon fluttered, and made to doubt whether we are saved or not, in times of temptation, if our faith took a firm grip of Christ, and tied the scarlet line in the window fast and firm, by claiming the covenant of grace as ours? Beloved, some of you have only appropriated a part of Christ. You believe you are pardoned, but you scarcely know that you are justified. You are justified, and covered with his righteousness, but you have not laid hold upon the sanctification which Jesus gives you. You have a measure of grace, but you have not yet believed that Christ can sanctify you wholly, spirit, soul, and body. We are stinted and stunted, lean and lethargic, because of our failure to grasp with holy confidence the infinite treasure which is stored up in our all-sufficient Lord. He is ours, and all things are ours in him. “According to your faith be it unto you,” is the rule of that great house over which Christ presides. This woman took the covenant which she had made with these men to be hers, and showed that she did so by tying up the scarlet line in the window. The covenant was made with her, and she knew it, and believed it; in like manner, O brother in Christ, by a living faith, grasp the promises of God, and claim them as your own! Here let me also say, let us do this by displaying a corresponding restfulness. After Rahab had tied the line in her window, we do not read that she did anything else, except bring her father, and her mother, and her brethren under her roof. She did not make preparations to defend the house against the siege; there is no notification that she appealed to the king to have a special guard to protect that part of the wall. I do not believe that she had a solitary fear, or a moment’s terror; the scarlet line was in the window, and she felt secure: she had appropriated the promise, and she believed it would not be broken. It is a high privilege to dwell peaceably and quietly in the finished work of Christ, and in the sure immutable promise of God, who cannot lie. Why fret ye yourselves, and question ye yourselves, and go about with a thousand anxieties when salvation’s work was finished on the accursed tree, and Christ has gone into the glory, and has carried in his perfect work before his Father’s face? Why mourn ye, and suspect your safety, when the Lord hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in him? We who have believed do enter into rest; the peace of God is ours; so let us, by our resting, show that we have tied the scarlet line in our widow, have claimed the finished work of Christ, and therefore rest henceforth from our own works as God did from his. III. Thirdly, I see here AN OPEN DECLARATION. Rahab tied the scarlet line, not in some secret part of the house, but in the window. It was her public declaration of faith. I do not say that everybody understood what she meant by that; only those understood it who were in the secret with her, and that sufficed. She hung out the red signal from the window, where it could be seen by those who needed to see it. It was not that she was ostentatious, and wished to attract attention; but she was bound to make a public sign, and she did it. Now, some of you believe in my Lord Jesus, and yet you have never united with his people. You are resting in him, but you are mightily afraid that anybody should know it. Be not ashamed of Jesus! The wonder is that he is not ashamed of you. If he was not ashamed to take upon him your nature, and die for you, you need never blush to own his name. Come forward, ye trembling ones, tie the scarlet line in your window, and say, “We are his, and we confess it.” Let it be a scarlet line that you tie in the window, however, namely, an avowal of true faith in his precious blood, a declaration of confidence in atonement by blood; for there are some who profess a sort of faith, but it is not faith in the substitution of Christ. It is unfashionable, nowadays, to believe in the old doctrine of atonement. Modern “culture” has expunged it, or altered it in such a way that no real atonement is left. There are many who are too advanced to avow the old-fashioned gospel; but, as for us, we tie for ever the scarlet line in our window, and stand by the truth once delivered to the saints. Our declaration of faith is that we believe in the real and literal substitution of Christ, who died, “the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” In the midst of a thousand new gospels, none of them worth the breath that utters them, we hold to that ancient gospel of the prophet Isaiah, “the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Beloved believer, if the doctrine of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and his substitutionary atonement be indeed your hope, avow it; avow it boldly, and let there be no mistake about it in these evil times; tie the scarlet line in your window, and if nobody else will see it, your brethren will mark it, and be encouraged. If nobody else will be pleased with it, your God will smile upon you, and you will be a sweet savour unto him. No man, that I know of, saw the blood upon the lintel and the two side posts, at the dead of night, in the land of Egypt, for there were none abroad to look upon it; but God saw it, and it is written, “When, I see the blood, I will pass over you.” When God sees our simple confidence in his dear Son, and perceives us resting upon his Word, without the admixture of human reason and opinion, then, beloved, he will accept us in the Beloved, and our house shall stand when others fall. Every Christian ought to make his faith in the precious blood visible in many ways. It ought to be manifest in our common conversation; if we are resting in the blood of Jesus, we ought not to be able to talk a quarter of an hour without thoughtful persons perceiving that we are indeed followers of Jesus. I have heard of a man who was so entertaining and instructive in his conversation that it was said that you could not stand under an archway for five minutes with him, to get out of a shower of rain, without learning something from him. Every Christian man ought to be of this sort, in a higher style, so that you cannot be with him many minutes without perceiving him to be a man of God. Of course, in the Church of Christ, the Christian man ought to hang a scarlet line out of his door at once, and let his fellow-worshippers see that he is decided and resolute for the Lord his God; but he ought to do the same in his business. Customers should soon see that in your shop the common tricks of trade are detested. The scarlet line is over this door. In the house, the mistress in the management of her servants, the master as a husband and as a father, should be known to be better than others. There is a certain sect of people called “the peculiar people”; I wish we were all peculiar people in this respect, that the blood-mark set us apart as not our own, but bought with a price. The Lord grant that it may be so with us! IV. The last point is this. Here was A DEDICATED HOUSE,—a house with a scarlet line in its window. Coming here, the other afternoon, and walking down one of the back streets, I amused myself by observing how many houses were insured. I noticed the marks of the different Insurance Companies. There was the sun on one, with his bright face looking down upon us, as much as to say, “There shall be no loss here.” The globe, the star, the Phœnix, all were there as seals of safety. Now, there was only one house in Jericho that was insured, and that had for its symbol and mark of insurance a scarlet line tied in the window. What a mercy it is when houses are insured by the grace of God, and dedicated to the Lord,—the very houses, and much more the inhabitants of those houses. How can you dedicate a house? I was reading, the other day, that, in Cromwell’s time, you could go down Cheap-side, at a certain hour in the morning, and you would see the blinds down at every house and hear the families singing, all the way along, “for,” says an old divine, “in those days, a drawn blind was the scarlet line in the window.” People knew, as they passed along, that there was an altar erected to God in that house. I am afraid that there are a great many streets in our towns and cities which you might traverse at any hour of the day, and not discover a solitary sign of family prayer going on. The practice has gone out of fashion even among many who profess to be the people of God, and farewell to any progress in godliness till we bring it back again. I believe that, when the house and the church pull together, things are right; but when religion is made to be a thing of the church, and not of the house, when the priest is looked to instead of the father, when men cease to be priests in their own houses, then the very sinews of vital godliness have been cut. If I had to give up all week-day services, and shut up every place of worship in Christendom from Sunday to Sunday, I would prefer to do that rather than lose the morning and evening gatherings of devout households worshipping God. How much Scotland owes to her family devotions! You need not that I remind you of “The Cotter’s Saturday Night.” It is the very glory of that country that they do there worship God in their houses. “There is much formality about it,” cries one. Well, was there ever anything good which did not degenerate here and there? But I have witnessed, full many a time, the hearty devotion of morning and evening prayer in the North. I wonder how many houses represented by you come up to Matthew Henry’s third standard. He says, “Those who pray, do well.” You get up to that, I hope. “Those that read the Scriptures and pray, do better. Those that read the Scriptures, and pray, and sing, do best of all.” I think so. This is the scarlet line with the threefold cord to it, and I would that every house hung out that scarlet line as meaning, “This house belongs to King Jesus. The devil need not trouble himself to come here, for the strong man armed keeps his goods in peace.” The beauty of it was that all inside Rahab’s house were saved. “Come in, dear mother,” said she. Who among us could bear the thought of our mother being lost? It breaks our hearts to think of such a thing. My mother lost? Oh, no, that must not be! And your father lost? Oh, have you an unconverted father? I beseech you, give no slumber to your eyelids till you have done all you can to set before him the way of peace, and have pleaded for him before God with sighs and tears. And then she said, “Come in, dear brothers and sisters.” I delight in Rahab for loving her household. If you have brothers and sisters who are not yet under the scarlet line, pray to God to bring them in, that all your house may be dedicated to the Most High, and, without exception, all may dwell beneath the blessed blood-red token which infallibly preserves all who are sheltered beneath it. I leave this point to notice that there are other things besides family prayer which should be like the scarlet line in the house. For instance, there should be, in every Christian house, a scarlet line put up in the selecting of the company that is kept. The Christian should carefully select his friends and associates. He should say, “He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.” As for the drunkard and the swearer, and those who use unchaste language, let them be what they may, they shall not visit within our doors, we will not tolerate them. If we are masters of our household, we try to find our children friends whom we should like to be their companions in eternity. Some parents introduce their children to young men and young women who happen to be “very respectable”, as they say, but who are worldly and ungodly, and thus they do much to ruin them. It should not be so. Hang the scarlet line over the door, and if they do not love that scarlet line, religious conversation will before long make the place too hot for them. If you talk much of Jesus, the frivolous will consider that they have notice to quit. A Christian man’s house should have a scarlet line over its reading. I confess to great sorrow whenever I see, in a Christian man’s house, commonly laid about for the use of the girls, that dreadful rubbishing yellow stuff which pollutes every railway bookstall, much of it downright ungodliness, and the best of it abominable nonsense, the reading of which is a sheer waste of time. When there are thousands of good and interesting books to be read, it seems a pity that Christian people should give their time to reading which cannot profit them. Let the asses have their thistles, I never grudge them; and so I will not say that worldlings should not read such books; they suit them, let them have them. I have never murmured at a farmer when I have seen him going along with his great mash of all manner of garbage to give to his hogs; so long as he did not give me a basin of it for dinner, I was satisfied to let the swine have their food; and there are a great many romances and a vast mass of literature which it is vain to deny to ungodly people, for it is after their nature; but as for us, let us have none of it. I should as soon expect to see the archangel Gabriel feeding out of a hog’s trough as to see one who is a joint-heir with Christ finding his pleasure in books that are half lewd and the other half absurd. Hang a scarlet line over your library door as well as everywhere else. So let it be with all amusements. There are some amusements that we cannot say are absolutely bad in themselves, but they lead to evil. They go up to the edge of the precipice, and there are many who only need to get so far and they are sure to fall over. Besides, they make the Christian so like the worldling that nobody could tell which is which. Now, tie the scarlet line up. I would do so even as to what pictures I would hang up in my house. I am often sad to see, especially in the houses of the poor, Roman Catholic pictures exhibited on the walls, because they happen to be rather pretty and very cheap. Popish publishers have very cleverly managed to get up pictures of the Virgin, and the lying fable of her assumption to heaven and all sorts of legends of saints and saintesses; and being brightly coloured, and sold very much under price, these vile things have been introduced into thousands of houses. I have seen, to my horror, a picture of God the Father represented as an old man, a conception almost too hideous to mention, yet the picture is hung up in the cottages of England; whereas the Lord has declared that we should make no image of him, or represent him in any way, and the attempt is blasphemous. If you have a bad picture, no matter how good a work of art it is, burn it; and if you have a bad book, no matter how much it may be worth, do not sell it for somebody else to read, tear it in pieces. Let the Christian hang up the scarlet line, and make certain that nobody shall be debauched in mind or body by anything that he tolerates in his house. I may seem to be too severe; but if my Master were to speak out of heaven, he would not rebuke that as a sin on my part; far rather would he say that we need to be much more precise and decided about evil things. Well, you shall do what you please, you have your own liberty; but, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” and the blood-red line shall be in my window. My father’s father, do I not remember how, when I was a child, I used to hear his prayers for my father and for me? Well do I remember my father’s conversion in answer to my grandfather’s prayers. And my father, can I ever forget how he wrestled for us at the mercy-seat; and God forbid it should happen that in my son’s house, in years to come, there should be no altar to my God! I would sooner be without a tent for myself than without an altar for the Lord. Wherever we are, we must hang up the scarlet line. We cannot expect a blessing if we do not. Of course, I am not speaking to those who are not fathers or heads of households. If they are servants, they cannot help what is done in the house. If they are underlings who have not the power, they cannot arrange as they would; but I am speaking to those who fear the Lord, and can do it. Do, beloved, dedicate your house to God from the garret to the cellar. Let there be nothing even in the cellar which you would be ashamed for Jesus Christ to see. Let there be nothing about the house but what shall be so ordered that, if your Lord should come, you could open your door, and say, “Come and welcome, Master, there is nothing here that thy servant desires to conceal.” Believe in Jesus, O ye who know him not; and ye who know him, practise what you know; and God bless you! Amen and Amen. George Bush - Notes Critical and Practical on the Book of Joshua - Chapter 2 21. According to your words so be it. I readily agree to the terms; they are reasonable, and I have nothing to say against them. And she bound the scarlet line in the window. Probably not immediately, for fear of exciting suspicion, but in season to avail herself of the benefit of it. Joshua 2:22 They departed and came to the hill country, and remained there for three days until the pursuers returned. Now the pursuers had sought them all along the road, but had not found them. but had not found them 1Sa 19:10-12 2Sa 17:20 Ps 32:6,7 Joshua 2 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries They departed and came to the hill country, and remained there for three days until the pursuers returned - The two spies do exactly as Rahab had instructed. Clearly they trusted her with their lives. Now the pursuers had sought them all along the road, but had not found them - The king's men would have have been searching the most logical route of escape which would have been along the road to the Jordan River. Campbell an interesting note - "Scarcely a half-mile west of Jericho are limestone cliffs about 1,500 feet high, honeycombed with caves. Here the spies hid (in the hills) for three days (cf. Joshua 1:11) until the soldiers of Jericho gave up the hunt. Then under cover of darkness the spies swam back across the Jordan (ED: THEY POSSIBLY COULD HAVE GONE ACROSS A "FORD" - SEE NOTE ON Joshua 2:7), made their way quickly to the camp at Shittim (cf. Joshua 2:1), (The Bible Knowledge Commentary Old Testament or Here) Blaikie on three days - A little explanation is needed respecting the time when Joshua said the Jordan must be crossed – “within three days.” If the narrative of the first two chapters be taken in chronological order, more than three days must have elapsed between the issuing of this order and the crossing of the river, because it is expressly stated that the two spies who were sent to examine Jericho hid themselves for three days in the mountains, and thereafter recrossed the Jordan and returned to Joshua (Joshua 2:22). But it is quite in accordance with the practice of Scripture narrative to introduce an episode out of its chronological place so that it may not break up the main record. It is now generally held that the spies were sent off before Joshua issued this order to the people, because it is not likely that he would have committed himself to a particular day before he got the information which he expected the spies to bring. (Joshua 2 The Spies in Jericho) Matthew Henry Concise Comments - Verses 22-24. The report the spies brought was encouraging. All the people of the country faint because of Israel; they have neither wisdom to yield, nor courage to fight. Those terrors of conscience, and that sense of Divine wrath, which dismay the ungodly, but bring not to repentance, are fearful forebodings of approaching destruction. But grace yet abounds to the chief of sinners. Let them, without delay, flee to Christ, and all shall be well. George Bush - Notes Critical and Practical on the Book of Joshua - Chapter 2 22. Abode there three days. Not three entire days, but one whole day and part of two others. They were sent out on the sixth day of the month Nisan, and escaped from Jericho the same night. The seventh day they spent in the mountains. On the eighth they returned to the camp. These three days are reckoned in the same manner as the three days of our Lord’s burial. Matt. 27:64. Joshua 2:23 Then the two men returned and came down from the hill country and crossed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they related to him all that had happened to them. Joshua 2 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Then - Then is an expression of time which should always draw our attention. It will force us to examine the context and discern what is the progression of events in a text. In context this is after the spies had remained in the hill country for 3 days and after they had crossed back over the Jordan river to meet Joshua at Shittim. The two men returned and came down from the hill country and crossed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they related to him all that had happened to them - The fact that the spies report to Joshua and not to all of Israel (as in Numbers 13-14) indicates that this had been a "top secret" mission by Joshua who wanted to avoid any chance of a Kadesh-Barnea debacle of doubt and disbelief. The hill country is most likely a reference to the mountainous terrain, with many caves, west of Jericho, which would have been the direction opposite where the search had been concentrated. George Bush - Notes Critical and Practical on the Book of Joshua - Chapter 2 23. Passed over. Over Jordan. Told him all things that befell them. Heb. ‘all things that found them.’ They probably made their report to Joshua alone, or to him in company with the elders, without whose concurrence no matter of importance seems to have been concerted or undertaken. Joshua 2:24 They said to Joshua, "Surely the LORD has given all the land into our hands; moreover, all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before us." Surely the LORD has given all the land into our hands: Jos 1:8 21:44,45 Ex 23:31 Nu 13:32,33 Pr 25:13 all the inhabitants: Jos 2:9-11 Ps 48:5,6 Rev 6:16,17 have melted away before us Jos 2:9,11 5:1 Ex 15:15 Joshua 2 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passage: LXE (English of the Septuagint) And they said to Joshua, The Lord has delivered all the land into our power, and all the inhabitants of that land tremble (perfect tense = this was their state; Greek = katapthesso: 3SPAI: crouch down : all uses in Septuagint: Jos 2:24, Pr 28:14,29:9,30:30) because of us. SPIES' REPORT AFFIRMS GOD WOULD GIVE THEM THE LAND They said to Joshua, "Surely the LORD has given all the land into our hands - The spies had heard God's promise of the land but now their faith was undergirded by facts, the facts including one pagan's (Rahab) confidence that Yahweh had indeed given Israel the land. Moreover, all the inhabitants of the land have melted away (mug) before us - This would have been great news for Joshua for there is nothing more deadly in an army than fear. It is the antithesis of being strong and courageous! This news would have strengthened Joshua's faith that Yahweh would surely make good on His promise. Contrast the report of the two spies with that of the majority of the 12 sent out from Kadesh-Barnea (interesting that Joshua did not send out 12 spies!!!) But the men (10 SPIES) who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.”(Num. 13:31+) William MacDonald sums up Rahab the harlot - Rahab’s “works” and not her “words” justified her (Jas. 2:25). The Bible does not commend her deceit (vv. 4, 5) but it does commend her faith (Heb. 11:31). James also calls her deed a work of faith (Jas. 2:25). She risked her life to save the lives of the spies because she believed in the power and sovereignty of their God. So in our Lord’s day some outside the commonwealth of Israel showed more faith than those who were eyewitnesses of His glory (Luke 7:2–9). Great faith, wherever it is found, is always rewarded (see chap. 6), for it is pleasing to God (Heb. 11:6). (Believer's Bible Commentary)
Josué 2
Spurgeon - Rahab's Faith (or listen to the audio Rahab's Faith) "By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace."—Hebrews 11:31 In almost every capital of Europe there are varieties of triumphal arches or columns, upon which are recorded the valiant deeds of the country's generals, its emperors, or its monarchs. You will find, in one case, the thousand battles of a Napoleon recorded, and in another, you find the victories of a Nelson pictured. It seems, therefore, but right, that faith, which is the mightiest of the mighty, should have a pillar raised to its honor, upon which its valiant deeds should be recorded. The apostle Paul undertook to raise the structure, and he erected a most magnificent pillar in the chapter before us. It recites the victories of faith. It begins with one triumph of faith, and then proceeds to others. We have, in one place, faith triumphing over death; Enoch entered not the gates of hades, but reached heaven by another road from that which is usual to men. We have faith, in another place, wresting with time; Noah, warned of God concerning things not seen as yet, wrestled with time, which placed his deluge a hundred and twenty years away; and yet, in the confidence of faith, he believed against all rational expectation, against all probability, and his faith was more than a match for probability and time too. We have faith triumphing over infirmity—when Abraham begetteth a son in his old age. And then we have faith triumphing over natural affection, as we see Abraham climbing to the top of the hill and raising the knife to slay his only and beloved son at the command of God. We see faith, again, entering the lists with the infirmities of old age and the pains of the last struggle, as we read, "By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff." Then we have faith combating the allurements of a wealthy court. "By faith Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt." We see faith dauntless in courage when Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, and equally patient in suffering when he endured as seeing him who is invisible. We have faith dividing seas, and casting down strong walls. And then, as though the greatest victory should be recorded last, we have faith entering the lists with sin, holding a tournament with iniquity, and coming off more than a conqueror. "Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace." That this woman was no mere hostess, but a real harlot, I have abundantly proved to every candid hearer while reading the chapter. I am persuaded that nothing but a spirit of distaste for free grace would ever have led any commentator to deny her sin. I do think this triumph of faith over sin is not the least here recorded, but that if there be any superiority ascribable to any one of faith's exploits, this is, in some sense, the greatest of all. What! faith, didst thou fight with hideous lust? What! wouldst thou struggle with the fiery passion which sendeth forth flame from human breasts? What! wouldst thou touch with thy hallowed fingers foul and bestial debauchery? "Yea," says faith, "I did encounter this abomination of iniquity; I delivered this woman from the loathsome chambers of vice, the wily snares of enchantment, and the fearful penalty of transgression; yea, I brought her off saved and rescued, gave her purity of heart, and renewed in her the beauty of holiness; and now her name shall be recorded in the roll of my triumphs as a woman full of sin, yet saved by faith." I shall have some things to say this morning concerning this notable victory of faith over sin, such as I think will lead you to see that this was indeed a super-eminent triumph of faith. I will make my divisions alliterative, that you may recollect them. This woman's faith was saving faith, singular faith, stable faith, self-denying faith, sympathising faith, and sanctifying faith. Let no one run away, when I shall have expounded the first point, and miss the rest, for you can not apprehend the whole power of her faith unless you remember each of those particulars I am about to mention. I. In the first place, this woman's faith was SAVING FAITH. All the other persons mentioned here were doubtless saved by faith; but I do not find it specially remarked concerning any of them that they perished not through their faith; while it is particularly said of this woman, that she was delivered amid the general destruction of Jericho purely and only through her faith. And, without doubt, her salvation was not merely of a temporal nature, not merely a deliverance of her body from the sword, but redemption of her soul from hell. Oh! what a mighty thing faith is, when it saves the soul from going down to the pit! So mighty is the ever-rushing torrent of sin, that no arm but that which is as strong as Deity can ever stop the sinner from being hurried down to the gulf of black despair, and, when nearing that gulf, so impetuous is the torrent of divine wrath, that nothing can snatch the soul from perdition but an atonement which is as divine as God himself. Yet faith is the instrument of accomplishing the whole work. It delivers the sinner from the stream of sin, and so, laying hold upon the omnipotence of the Spirit, it rescues him from that great whirlpool of destruction into which his soul was being hurried. What a great thing it is to save a soul! You can never know how great it is unless you have stood in the capacity of a saviour to other men. Yon heroic man who, yesterday, when the house was burning, climbed the creaking stair-case, and, almost suffocated by the smoke, entered an upper chamber, snatched a babe from its bed and a woman from the window, bore them both down in his arms, and saved them at the peril of his own life, he can tell you what a great thing it is to save a fellow-creature. Yon noble-hearted youth who, yesterday, sprang into the river, at the hazard of himself, and snatched a drowning man from death, he felt, when he stood upon the shore, what a great thing it was to save life. Ah! but you cannot tell what a great thing it is to save a soul. It is only our Lord Jesus Christ who can tell you that, for he is the only one who has ever been the Saviour of sinners. And remember, you can only know how great a thing faith is by knowing the infinite value of the salvation of a soul. "Now, by faith, the harlot Rahab was delivered." That she was really saved in a gospel sense as well as temporally, seems to me to be proved from her reception of the spies which was an emblem of the entrance of the word into her heart, and her hanging out of the scarlet thread was an evidence of faith, not inaptly picturing faith in the blood of Jesus the Redeemer. But who can measure the length and breadth of that word—salvation. Ah! it was a mighty deed which faith accomplished when he bore her off in safety. Poor sinner! take comfort. The same faith which saved Rahab can save thee. Art thou literally one of Rahab's sisters in guilt? She was saved, and so mayest thou be, if God shall grant thee repentance. Woman! art thou loathsome to thyself? Dost thou stand at this moment in this assembly, and say, "I am ashamed to be here; I know I have no right to stand among people who are chaste and honest?" I bid thee still remain, yea, come again and make this thy Sabbath house of prayer. Thou art no intruder! Thou art welcome! For thou hast a sacred right to the courts of mercy. Thou hast a sacred right; for here sinners are invited, and thou art such. Believe in Christ, and thou, like Rahab, shalt not perish with the disobedient, but even thou shalt be saved. And now there is some gentleman in the audience who says, "There's a gospel for you; it is a kind of sanctuary for wicked men, unto which the worst of people may run and be saved." Yes, that is the stale objection which Celsus used against Origen in his discussion. "But," said Origen, "it is true, Celsus, that Christ's gospel is a sanctuary for thieves, robbers, murderers, and harlots. But know this, it is not a sanctuary merely, it is an hospital too; for it heals their sins, delivers them from their diseases, and they are not afterwards what they were before they received the gospel." I ask no man to-day to come to Christ, and then continue his sins. If so, I should ask him to do an absurdity. As well might I talk of delivering a Prometheus, while his chains are allowed to remain upon him and bind him to his rock. It cannot be. Christ taketh away the vulture from the conscience, but he taketh away the chains too, and maketh the man wholly free when he doeth it all. Yet, we repeat it again, the chief of sinners are as welcome to Christ as the best of saints. The fountain filled with blood was opened for black ones; the robe of Christ was woven for naked ones; the balm of Calvary was compounded for sick ones; life came into the world to raise the dead. And oh! ye perishing and guilty souls, may God give you Rahab's faith, and you shall have this salvation, and shall with her stand yonder, where the white-robed spotless hosts sing unending hallelujah to God and the Lamb. II. But mark, Rahab's faith was a SINGULAR FAITH. The city of Jericho was about to be attacked; within its walls there were hosts of people of all classes and characters, and they knew right well that if their city should be sacked and stormed they would all be put to death; but yet, strange to say, there was not one of them who repented of sin, or who even asked for mercy, except this woman who had been a harlot. She, and she alone was delivered, a solitary one among a multitude. Now, have you ever felt that it is a very hard thing to have a singular faith? It is the easiest thing in the world to believe as every body else believes, but the difficulty is to believe a thing alone, when no one else thinks as you think; to be the solitary champion of a righteous cause when the enemy mustereth his thousands to the battle. Now, this was the faith of Rahab. She had not one who felt as she did, who could enter into her feelings and realize the value of her faith. She stood alone. Oh! it is a noble thing to be the lonely follower of despised truth. There be some who could tell you a tale of standing up alone. There have been days when the world poured continually a river of infamy and calumny upset them, but they stemmed the torrent, and, by continued grace, made strong in weakness, they held their own until the current turned, and they, in their success, were praised and applauded by the very men who sneered before. Then did the world accord them the name of "great." But where lay their greatness? Why, in this, that they stood as firm in the storm as they stood in the calm—that they were as content to serve God alone as they were to run by fifties. To be good we must be singular. Christians must swim against the stream. Dead fish always float down the stream, but the living fish forces its way against the current. Now, worldly religious men will go just as every body else goes. That is nothing. The thing is to stand alone. Like Elijah, when be said, "I only am left and they seek my life;" to feel in one's self that we believe as firmly as if a thousand witnesses stood up by our side. Oh there is no great right in a man, no strong-minded right, unless he dares to be singular. Why, the most of you are as afraid as you ever can be to go out of the fashions, and you spend more money than you ought because you think you must be respectable. You dare not move in opposition to your brethren and sisters in the circle in which you move; and therefore you involve yourselves in difficulties. You are blindfolded by the rich fabric of fashion, and therefore many a wrong thing is tolerated because it is customary. But a strong-minded man is one who does not try to be singular, but who dares to be singular, when he knows that to be singular is to be right. Now, Rahab's faith, sinner as she was, had this glory, this crown about its head, that she stood alone, faithful among the faithless found." And why should not God vouchsafe the same faith to thee, my poor, sinning, but contrite hearer? You live in a back street, in a house which contains none but Sabbath breakers, and irreligious men and women. But if you have grace in your heart you will dare to do right. You belong to an infidel club; if you should make them a speech after your own conscience, they would hiss you; and if you forsook their company, they would persecute you. Go and try them. Dare them. See, whether you can do it; for if you are afraid of men, you are taken in a snare which may prove your grief and is now your sin. Mark you, the chief of sinners can make the most daring of saints; the worst men in the devil's army, when they are converted, make the truest soldiers for Jesus. The forlorn hope of Christendom has generally been led by men who have proved the high efficacy of grace to an eminent degree by having been saved from the deepest sins. Go on, and the Lord give you that high and singular faith! III. Furthermore, this woman's faith was A STABLE FAITH, which stood firm in the midst of trouble, I have heard of a church clergyman who was once waited upon by his church warden, after a long time of drought, and was requested to put up the prayer for rain. "Well," said he, "my good man, I will offer it, but it's not a bit of use while the wind is in the east, I'm sure." There are many who have that kind of faith: they believe just so far as probabilities go with them, but when the promise and the probability part, then they follow the probability and part with the promise. They say, "The thing is likely, therefore I believe it." But that is no faith, it is sight. True faith exclaims, "The thing is unlikely, yet I believe it." This is real faith. Faith is to say, that "Mountains, when in darkness hidden, are as real as in day." Faith is to look through that cloud, not with the eye of sight, which seeth nought, but with the eye of faith, which seeth every thing, and to say, "I trust him when I can not trace him; I tread the sea as firmly as I would the rock; I walk as securely in the tempest as in the sunshine, and lay myself to rest upon the surging billows of the ocean as contentedly as upon my bed." The faith of Rahab was the right sort of faith, for it was firm and enduring. I will just have a little talk with Rahab this morning, as I suppose old Unbelief did commune with her. Now, my good woman, don't you see the absurdity of this thing? Why, the people of Israel are on the other side of Jordan, and there is no bridge: how are they to get over? Of course they must go up higher toward the fords; and then Jericho will be for a long time secure. They will take other cities before coming to Jericho; and, besides, the Canaanites are mighty, and the Israelites are only a parcel of slaves; they will soon be cut in pieces, and there will be an end of them; therefore, do not harbor these spies. Why put your life in jeopardy for such an improbability? "Ah," says she, "I do not care about the Jordan; my faith can believe across the Jordan, or else it were only a dry-land faith." By-and-by, they march through the Jordan dry shod, and then Faith gets firmer confidence. "Ah!" says she, secretly within herself, what she would willingly have said to her neighbors, "Will you not now believe? will you not now sue for mercy?" "No," they say; "the walls of Jericho are strong; can the feeble host resist us? And lo on the morrow the troops are out, and what do they do? They simply blow a number of rams' horns; her neighbors say, "Why, Rahab, you do not mean to say you believe now? They are mad." The people just go round the city, and all hold their tongues, except the few priests blowing rams' horns. "Why, it is ridiculous. It were quite a new thing in warfare to hear of men taking a city by blowing rams' horns." That was the first day; probably the next day Rahab thought they would come with scaling-ladders and mount the walls; but no, rams' horns again, up to the seventh day; and this woman kept the scarlet thread in the window all the time, kept her father and mother, and brothers and sisters in the house, and would not let them go out; and on the seventh day, when the people made a great shout, the wall of the city fell flat to the ground; but her faith overcame her womanly timidity, and she remained within, although the wall was tumbling to the ground. Rahab's house stood alone upon the wall, a solitary fragment amid a universal wreck, and she and her household were all saved. Now would you have thought that such a rich plant would grow in such poor soil—that strong faith could grow in such a sinful heart as that of Rahab? Ah! but here it is that God exercises his great husbandry. "My Father is the husbandman," said Christ. Any husbandman can get a good crop out of good soil; but God is the husbandman who can grow cedars on rocks, who can not only put the hyssop upon the wall, but put the oak there too, and make the greatest faith spring up in the most unlikely position. All glory to his grace! the great sinner may become great in faith. "Be of good cheer, then, sinner! If Christ should make thee repent, thou hast no need to think that thou shalt be the least in the family. Oh! no, thy name may yet be written among the mightiest of the mighty, and thou mayest stand as a memorable and triumphant instance of the power of faith. IV. This woman's faith was A SELF-DENYING FAITH. She dared to risk her life for the sake of the spies. She knew that if they were found in her house she would be put to death; but though she was so weak as to do a sinful deed to preserve them, yet she was so strong that she would run the risk of being put to death to save these two men. It is something to be able to deny yourselves. An American once said, "I have got a good religion; it's the right sort of religion; I do not know that it costs me a cent a year; and yet I believe I am as truly a religious man as anybody." "Ah!" said one who heard it, "the Lord have mercy on your miserable stingy soul, for if you had been saved you would not have been con tent with a cent a year"—a halfpenny per annum! I hazard this assertion, that there is nothing in the faith of that man who does not exercise self-denial. If we never give any thing to Christ's cause, work for Christ, deny ourselves for Christ, the root of the matter is not in us. I might call some of you hypocrites: you sing, "And if I might make some reserve, And duty did not call, I love my God with zeal so great, That I could give him all." Yes, but you would not, though; you know better than that, for you do not, as it is, give all, no, nor yet half, nor yet the thousandth part. I suppose you think you are poor yourselves, though you have got some thousand pounds odd a year, and so you keep it yourself, under the notion that "He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord." I don't know how else it is you make your religion square with itself, and be at all consistent. This woman said, "If I must die for these men, I will; I am prepared, bad name as I have, to have a worse name still; as a traitor to my country I am prepared to be handed down to infamy, if it be necessary, for having betrayed my country in taking in these spies, for I know it is God's will it should be done, and do it I will at every hazard. "O men and brethren, trust not your faith, unless it has self-denial with it. Faith and self-denial, like the Siamese twins, are born together, and must live together, and the food that nourisheth one must nourish both. But this woman, poor sinner as she was, would deny herself. She brought her life, even as that other woman, who was a sinner, brought the alabaster box of precious ointment, and broke it on the head of Christ. V. Not to detain you too long, another point very briefly. This woman's faith was A SYMPATHISING FAITH. She did not believe for herself only; she desired mercy for her relations, Said she, "I want to be saved, but that very desire makes me want to have my father saved, and my mother saved, and my brother saved, and my sister saved." I know a man who walks seven miles every Sabbath to hear the gospel preached in a certain place—a place where they preach the gospel. You know that very particular, superfine sort—the gospel, a gospel, the spirit of which consists in bad temper, carnal security, arrogance, and a seared conscience. But this man was one day met by a friend, who said to him, "Where is your wife?" "Wife?" said he to him. "What! does she not come with you?" "Oh, no," said the man; "she never goes anywhere." "Well, but," said he, "don't you try to get her to go, and the children?" "No; the fact of it is, I think, if I look to myself that is quite enough." "Well," said the other, "and you believe that you are God's elect, do you?" "Yes." "Well, then," said the other, "I don't think you are, because you are worse than a heathen man and a publican, for you don't care for your own household; therefore I don't think you give much evidence of being God's elect, for they love their fellow-creatures." So sure as our faith is real, it will want to bring others in. You will say, "You want to make proselytes." Yes; and you will reply, that Christ said to the Pharisees, "Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte." Yes, and Christ did not find fault with them for doing so; what he found fault with them for was this—"When ye have found him ye make him tenfold more the child of hell than yourselves." The spirit of proselyting is the spirit of Christianity, and we ought to be desirous of possessing it. If any man will say, "I believe such and such a thing is true, but I do not wish any one else to believe it, I will tell you, it is a lie; he does not believe it, for it is impossible, heartily and really to believe a thing, without desiring to make others believe the same. And I am sure of this, moreover, it is impossible to know the value of salvation without desiring to see others brought in. Said that renowned preacher, Whitefield, "As soon as I was converted, I wanted to be the means of the conversion of all that I had ever known. There were a number of young men that I had played cards with, that I had sinned with, and transgressed with: the first thing I did was, to go to their houses to see what I could do for their salvation, nor could I rest until I had the pleasure of seeing many of them brought to the Saviour." This is a first-fruit of the Spirit. It is a kind of instinct in a young Christian. He must have other people feel what he feels. Says one young man, in writing to me this week, "I have been praying for my fellow-clerk in the office; I have desired that he might be brought to the Saviour, but at present there is no answer to my prayers." Do not give a penny for that man's piety which will not spread itself. Unless we desire others to taste the benefits we have enjoyed, we are either inhuman monsters or outrageous hypocrites; I think the last is most likely. But this woman was so strong in faith that all her family were saved from destruction. Young woman! you have a father, and he hates the Saviour. O! pray for him. Mother! you have a son: he scoffs at Christ. Cry out to God for him. Ay, my friends—young people like myself—we little know what we owe to the prayers of our parents. I feel that I shall never be able sufficiently to bless God for a praying mother. I thought it was a great nuisance to be had in at such a time to pray, and more especially to be made to cry, as my mother used to make me cry. I would have laughed at the idea of any body else talking to me about these things; but when she prayed, and said, "Lord, save my son Charles," and then was overcome, and could not get any further for crying, you could not help crying too; you could not help feeling; it was of no use trying to stand against it. Ah! and there you are young man! Your mother is dying, and one thing which makes her death-bed bitter is, that you scoff God and hate Christ. Oh! it is the last stage of impiety, when a man can think lightly of a mother's feelings. I would hope there are none such here, but that those of you who have been so blessed, as to have been begotten and brought forth by pious men and women may take this into consideration—that to perish with a mother's prayers is to perish fearfully; for if a mother's prayers do not bring us to Christ, they are like drops of oil dropped into the flames of hell that will make them burn more fiercely upon the soul for ever and ever. Take heed of rushing to perdition over your mother's prayers! There is an old woman weeping—do you know why? I believe she has sons too, and she loves them. I met with a little incident in company, the other day, after preaching. There was a little boy at the corner of the table, and his father asked him, "Why does your father love you, John?" Said the dear little lad, very prettily, "Because I'm a good boy." "Yes," said the father, "he would not love you if you were not a good boy." I turned to the good father and remarked that I was not quite sure about the truth of the last remark, for I believed he would love him if he were ever so bad. "Well," he said, "I think I should." And said a minister at the table, "I had an instance of that yesterday. I stepped into the house of a woman who had a son transported for life, and she was as full of her son Richard as if be had been prime minister, or had been her most faithful and dutiful son." Well, young man, will you kick against love like that—love that will bear your kicks, and will not turn round against you, but love you straight on still? But perhaps that woman—I saw her weep just now—had a mother, who has gone long ago, and she was married to a brutal husband, and at last left a poor widow; she calls to mind the days of her childhood, when the big Bible was brought out and read around the hearth, and "Our Father which art in heaven" was their nightly prayer. Now, perhaps, God is beginning some good thing in her heart. O! that he would bring her now, though seventy years of age, to love the Saviour! Then would she have the beginning of life over again in her last days, which will be made her best days. VI. One more head, and then we have done. Rahab's faith was a SANCTIFYING FAITH. Did Rahab continue a harlot after she had faith? No, no, she did not. I do not believe she was a harlot at the time the men went to her house, though the name still stuck to her, as such ill names will; but I am sure she was not afterward, for Salmon the prince of Judah married her, and her name is put down among the ancestors of our Lord Jesus Christ. She became after that a woman eminent for piety walking in the fear of God. Now, you may have a dead faith which will ruin your soul. The faith that will save you is a faith which sanctifies. "Ah!" says the drunkard, "I like the gospel, sir; I believe in Christ;" then he will go over to the Blue Lion to-night, and get drunk. Sir, that is not the believing in Christ that is of any use. "Yes," says another, "I believe in Christ;" and when he gets outside he will begin to talk lightly, frothy words, perhaps lascivious ones, and sin as before. Sir, you speak falsely; you do not believe in Christ. That faith which saves the soul is a real faith, and a real faith sanctifies men. It makes them say, "Lord, thou hast forgiven me my sins; I will sin no more. Thou hast been so merciful to me, I will renounce my guilt; so kindly hast thou treated me, so lovingly hast thou embraced me, Lord, I will serve thee till I die; and if thou wilt give me grace, and help me so to be, I will be as holy as thou art." You cannot have faith, and yet live in sin. To believe is to be holy. The two things must go together. That faith is a dead faith, a corrupt faith, which lives in sin that grace may abound. Rahab was a sanctified woman. O that God might sanctify some that are here! The world has been trying all manner of processes to reform men: there is but one thing that ever will reform them, and that is, faith in the preached gospel. But in this age preaching is much despised. You read the newspaper you read the book; you hear the lecturer; you sit and listen to the pretty essayist; but where is the preacher? Preaching is not taking out a manuscript sermon, asking God to direct your heart, and then reading pages prepared beforehand. That is reading—not preaching. There is a good tale told of an old man whose minister used to read. The minister called to see him, and said, "What are you doing John?" "Why, I'm prophesying, sir." "Prophesying; how is that? You mean you are reading the prophecies?" "No, I don't; I'm prophesying; for you read preaching, and call it preaching, and I read prophecies, and, on the same rule, that is prophesying." And the man was not far from right. We want to have more outspoken, downright utterances of truth and appeals to the conscience, and until we get these, we shall never see any very great and lasting reforms. But by the preaching of God's word, foolishness though it seem to some, harlots are reformed, thieves are made honest, and the worst of men brought to the Saviour. Again let me affectionately give the invitation to the vilest of men, if so they feel themselves to be, "Come, ye needy, come and welcome, God's fine bounty glorify: True belief and true repentance— Every grace that brings us nigh— Without money, Come to Jesus Christ and buy." Your sins will be forgiven, your transgressions cast away, and you shall henceforth go and sin no more, God having renewed you, and he will keep you even to the end. May God give his blessing, for Jesus sake! Amen. David Jeremiah - Heroes of the Faith RAHAB LIVING ON THE WALL OF JERICHO (JOSHUA 2) Joshua was certainly a model of faith for us today in many respects. But our second hero in the story of Jericho is a model of a different sort. Compared to Joshua, Rahab knew next to nothing about the God of Israel. Yet she stepped out in faith on the little she knew—and found herself in God’s Hall of Faith. Joshua 2 tells us Rahab was a citizen of Jericho, a woman who made her living as a harlot (Joshua 2:1). She had met two of Joshua’s spies whom he sent into the city to check it out prior to the conquest. The spies were discovered and Rahab hid them in her house until they could escape. But that’s not the reason she is noted in Hebrews 11:31. The Confession of Faith (Joshua 2:8–11) What you may not know about Rahab is that God had been working in her heart long before Joshua ever came near the city. Her amazing confession of faith takes place on the roof of her house where she had hidden the spies. Here is a woman who has had no contact with Israel or her God, and yet just on the basis of the rumors through the grapevine she has a sense that the God of these invading people is the one and true God—the God of heaven and earth. She had heard about Israel’s passage through the Red Sea, the defeat of the Amorites, Sihon and Og. We might wonder how she possibly knew so much about Israel before they ever arrived in Canaan. Remember—she was a prostitute. She had travelers coming in and out of her house all the time who talked about this nation of a couple million people who had come out of Egypt 40 years before and who had their eyes fixed on Canaan as the place they were going to live. Maybe it was just fear, the desire to stay alive. But somehow the word about the works of the God of Israel had changed her heart. The Covenant of Her Faith (Joshua 2:12–14; 17–21) Rahab made a covenant with the two spies (verse 12). She agreed to protect them if, when Joshua returned with his army, she and her household would be protected. The spies agreed, and a covenant was made between them. Because her house was located on the wall of the city, the spies told her to hang a scarlet cord from her window so they would know which house was hers. That red cord became like the red blood of the Passover lamb in Egypt which protected the inhabitants from death. Their covenant was sealed, and the spies made it safely back to Israel’s camp. The Completion of Her Faith (Joshua 6:17, 22–23, 25) Joshua was told of the covenant and agreed to keep Rahab and her family safe (verse 17). Out of that entire city, the lone family of Rahab was going to be saved—by her faith. Do you see now why Rahab was included in the Hall of Faith? The ratio of her faith to her knowledge would put many modern believers to shame! She knew practically nothing and yet managed to save herself and her household from destruction. All it took was a few insights into the power and character of the God of Israel for her to know that He was the One who could save her. Compare her situation with ours. We are overflowing with knowledge about the faithfulness of God and yet find it hard to trust Him in our own experiences of spiritual battle. When Rahab came out of pagan life in Jericho she was assimilated into the nation of Israel and married a man named Salmon. We discover in Matthew 1:5–6 that Salmon and Rahab were the parents of Boaz, who fathered Obed, who fathered Jesse, who fathered David the king of Israel. And from the loins of David of Israel came the line from which the Lord Jesus Christ received His royal right to rule over Israel as king. So Rahab the harlot, by faith, finds herself in the lineage of the Savior of the world. What better place to end our studies of God’s Hall of Faith than with the life of Rahab, a woman who stepped out in faith with the little she knew. May God give you, and me, the conviction to do the same. May we someday meet in God’s eternal Hall of Faith. Kitto - Daily Illustrations - It must have been very evident to Joshua that the large and strong city of Jericho, which lay embosomed among its palm trees on the other side of the river, must be the first object of his operations on entering the land of Canaan. Very much depended upon the result of this initiatory step. Jericho was, for that age, a strongly wailed town; and we have already had occasion to observe that the Israelites were considerably afraid of walled towns—though such as lay in plains, like this Jericho, were, doubtless, less formidable to them than such as were stationed upon the hills. It was obviously desirable, therefore, that, before commencing operations, they should endeavor to receive such information as might tend to their encouragement in this great enterprise. We cannot, indeed, question that the Hebrew host had been put in good heart by its victories on the east of the Jordan; but still they probably entertained, from the traditions of the spies, most exaggerated notions of the power of the proper nations of Canaan, and they very probably supposed those whom they had overcome on the east of the river to be less mighty than the ancient nations on the west. It was evidently under the influence of such considerations, and less for his own information than to give confidence to the people, that Joshua concluded to dispatch two men on the delicate and dangerous task of entering the city, and of bringing back a report of its condition. The expedition is full of curious and interesting indications of Eastern manners and usages—some of which well deserve to engage our attention. Although it is likely that considerable vigilance was exercised in the presence of an enemy separated from the city by little more than the breadth of the river, yet the two spies succeeded in getting into the town. As there was no friend in the place to receive them, and as it might have been dangerous to go at once to a public khan or caravanserai, they went to lodge at the house of a woman named Rahab. They had not been there long, before an alarming intimation reached them that their presence, not only in the town, but in that very house, was known, and that their errand also was more than suspected; for messengers came from the king of Jericho requiring the woman to produce them. In modern Europe the officers of the government would have entered the house without wasting the precious time in parley. But formerly, as now, in the East, the privacy of a woman was respected, even to a degree that might be called superstitious; and no one will enter the house in which she lives, or the part of the house she occupies, until her consent has been obtained, if, indeed, such consent be ever demanded. In this case it was not asked. Rahab was required not to let the messengers in, but to bring out the foreigners she harbored. The keen-witted woman, gathering, from what the messengers said, who her guests were, at once determined to save them; for, from a consideration of the wonders the Lord had wrought for Israel, her confidence in their ultimate success was so strong that she concluded to take advantage of this opportunity, by laying the men under such obligations as would ensure the safety of herself and friends. She withdrew from the window, whence probably she had heard the messengers for a moment; and hurrying the spies to the flat roof of the house hid them under the stalks of flax which had been laid out there to dry, probably informing them at the moment, that the king’s messengers were at the door inquiring for them. In this we see, what has not hitherto appeared, that the houses were at this time, as they still are, flat or terraced; and then as now, formed an important part of the economy of oriental life. This is the place where, in the cool of the day, the fresh air is breathed, by a people who never walk out expressly for air or exercise. Here they sleep during the nights of summer, when the interior apartments are too hot and sultry for refreshing repose, and when the coolness then enjoyed, enables the constitution to bear up against the heat of the day. These were especially important matters in the almost tropical climate of the plain of Jericho. Here, also, such matters as required to be dried by the heat of the sun are laid out in a situation which effectually protects them from depredation or even notice, and at the same time exposes them in the completest manner to the action of the solar heat. The woman then returned to the messengers, and assured them, that although the two men had come to her house, they had not tarried till then. In the dusk, just before the time for shutting the town gate, they had departed. Whither they went she knew not, but they had gone so recently, that she thought they would be overtaken if vigorously pursued. The men believed her; for not only could there be no perceivable reason to them why she should seek to shelter such deadly foes—but the falsehood was ingeniously framed to deceive, for nothing could be more natural than that the men should take their departure at the time she indicated, when the shades of evening would allow them to pass out without any close inspection. Some have thought from this instance that gates were shut only in time of war—or when danger was apprehended from a foe: but it appears to us that gates were then—as at present in the East—always shut in the evening and opened in the morning, it being necessary even in times of peace, to guard against the night incursions of plunderers and beasts of prey. Not only are the gates in the East habitually thus closed in the evening—generally, as in this case, when it becomes dusk—but so rigidly is the keeping them closed enforced, that the guards themselves usually cannot open them to admit any persons without a special order from the governor of the place, which is not often obtained unless by persons of some consideration. Hence it not seldom happens, even in winter, that persons arriving too late are obliged to spend all the night outside the walls—and the apprehension of being shut out of the place to which they are going, makes all travellers push on briskly towards the close of day. But what is to be said of Rahab’s being so ready with a lie—declaring that the men were gone, when they were really in the house? That sense of truthfulness which is the growth of Christian culture, is shocked at an untruth so circumstantial—and we cannot allow the motive as an excuse, seeing that it is forbidden to do evil that, good may come. It has been urged that by her act she had taken part with the Israelites, and that what would have been done by them in regard to their enemies might be done by her—it being lawful to deceive an enemy in war, as was often done by good men among the Israelites. Without discussing this closely, and simply observing, that the mere fact that the state of war renders “lawful” so many practices which the truth of Christian principle condemns, is one of the strongest arguments against war itself—we pass on to observe that among the ancient Heathen, as among those which still remain in the world, lying was scarcely regarded as a venial error, much less as a crime. There was no principle of truthfulness; and although men generally spoke truth where there was no benefit to gain or evil to avert by telling an untruth, as without this the common intercourse of social life could not be carried on—yet the slightest inducement was sufficient to drive them to the resort of a lie. An oath was obligatory—and for the most part a man might be believed as to what he affirmed on oath—but a mere word was but lightly regarded. It is observed by missionaries among the heathen, that so weak is the feeling of obligation as to the observance of strict veracity, that even apparently sincere converts have the greatest difficulty in freeing themselves from the habit of equivocation, and need continual watching and admonition in that respect. It is among the most important of the many social advantages which Christianity has conferred upon mankind, that to its teaching we owe the feeling—prevalent among all Christian nations—that a falsehood is a disgrace and a sin; and that a man is bound no less, religiously and morally, by his word than by his oath. All this was unknown, however, to poor Rahab; who, having been brought up among a people so unprincipled as the Canaanites, had probably never heard that there was the least harm in lying—much less when an apparently good end was to be answered by it. These considerations may be fairly urged in extenuation of Rahab’s falsehood. God himself claims from us according to what we have, and not according to what we have not. In us, who have opportunities of better knowledge, untruthfulness must be judged by a different standard here and hereafter. When all was safe, Rahab went to the risen, and relieved them from the flax. She told them that the people of the land were stricken with terror at the presence and known designs of the Hebrew host—having fully heard of all the marvellous deeds which has, been wrought in their behalf. She was perfectly assured that by the might of their God they must prevail—and in that confidence she exacted a pledge of safety for herself and for hers in consideration of the aid she had afforded. This was readily given by the men. She was to tie a scarlet cord which they gave her to a particular window of her house. This was to enable them to recognize the house; and they pledged themselves for the safety of all who might be in that house when the city should be taken. We have little doubt that the sign was chosen by the spies with some reference to their own passover solemnity, when the door-posts were sprinkled with blood, to denote that the destroying angel had passed by the doors so marked when the first-born of Egypt were slain. Meanwhile the gates had been shut after the pursuers had gone, and they were probably guarded with unusual care to prevent the escape of the spies should they still be in the city. But the house of Rahab being situated upon the town wall, at a distance from the gate, she was enabled to let them down by a cord from one of the windows, in the very same manner as that in which Saul made his escape from Damascus. II Corinthians 11:33. They made their way to the wild mountains which border the plain of Jericho, as Rahab had advised; and when the pursuit after them had cooled, they returned to the camp. They felt they had discharged their mission; for the intelligence they brought as to the alarms of the Canaanites was in the highest degree encouraging to the people. Rahab - Francis Schaeffer (The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer) In the last chapter we focused on the continuity of the national portion of the Abrahamic covenant as it flowed down to the time of Joshua and beyond. Is there anything in the crucial moment of history in which Joshua lived which can show us the continuity of the spiritual blessing? Indeed there is: Rahab the harlot. The Spies’ Perspective While the Israelites were camped at Shittim, Joshua sent two spies across the Jordan. “And they went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there” (Josh. 2:1). Why did the two spies go to a harlot’s house? The answer is simple: they went where they could easily “get lost,” where they could find shelter with some degree of freedom. There is no place like a harlot’s house for people coming and going. There is no indication whatever that they went there for any immoral purpose; this simply does not exist in the story. Rahab gave the spies two things. First, she gave them shelter. They were filled with thankfulness that she had hid them and saved their lives, not only because they escaped personally, but because her help made possible the success of their venture. Second, she spoke the words which provided the key to the spies’ report to Joshua: 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 [literally, melt] because of you. 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, who were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye 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. (Josh. 2:9–11) In this remarkable set of words Rahab verbalized the truth to these two spies. The spies came to a most unlikely place, and the words of this woman told them exactly what the situation was. There was a parallel event in the life of Gideon. God told Gideon that Gideon would save Israel from the hand of the Midianites, and Gideon asked for two different signs to confirm this. After responding to Gideon’s request, God gave him one more sign that he did not ask for. God told him to go down at night to the camp of the Midianites. So Gideon went down with his servant. Standing on the periphery of the camp, they heard two Midianites talking: 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 unto 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 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 it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshiped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian. (Judg. 7:13–15) As with the two spies and Rahab, what Gideon heard was giving encouragement through the words of an enemy. This convinced him of the final outcome, thus enabling him to say with courage, “There is no question that we are going to be victorious.” From the mouth of somebody on “the other side” came a verbalization that completely settled the situation. The spies had real faith. For when they responded to Rahab’s request, they told her that her life would be saved “when the Lord hath given us the land” (Josh. 2:14). Not if but when. These men understood that God’s promises were going to stand sure. This was a complete contrast to the ten spies at the time of Moses. Also a great contrast to the failure of thirty-eight years before was the reply the two men gave 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” (Josh. 2:24). This sounds almost exactly like what Joshua and Caleb had said. The two spies sent to Jericho were faithful, not just in the sense of having good eyes, but in the sense of believing the promises of God. Rahab’s Perspective Rahab was a harlot in a heathen land. Some people have been embarrassed by this and have tried to tone it down, but it is impossible to do so. That is really what she was. It is the only thing the Hebrew word in Joshua 2:1 can mean. When she had the men in her house, Rahab besought them in this way: Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have shown you kindness, that ye will also show kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token; 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. 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 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. 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 by which thou didst let us down; 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 shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless: and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, 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 words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed; and she bound the scarlet line in the window. (Josh. 2:12–21). There is no mention here of husband or children. Those designated to be saved are of her “father’s household.” Verse 18 shows that none of her family lived with her. This is consistent with the word Scripture uses to describe her. Later, when Jericho was taken, who did the spies bring out? “Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren … all her kindred … Joshua saved Rahab, the harlot, alive, and her father’s household” (Josh. 6:23, 25). We miss the whole point of the story, therefore, if we become embarrassed and soften it: Rahab was a harlot in a heathen land. But Rahab had two things going for her. First, she had heard something propositional. She had heard what had happened in space-time history when the Hebrews came out of Egypt and when they had fought against Sihon and Og, two nearby powers. Second, in her presence were two spies who represented to her the whole Israelite nation. This is one reason why it was important that the two men did not go to her because she was a harlot. To her they were representatives of God’s people. And they did not waver in their faith before this woman (Josh. 2:14). What she had was the message and the tangible contact with two spies. Surrounding Rahab, however, was a hostile and awesome environment: Jericho, the mighty fortress, with its great walls. Jericho had stood for hundreds of years; it was impregnable, or so its inhabitants thought. So, though Rahab had heard a propositional message and though she had the two spies standing before her, she was still surrounded by a monolithic mentality, an entire world-view. She was pressured by a powerful city and an ancient culture continuing on in its normal life—eating, drinking, marrying and so forth. At that moment she could see nothing with her eyes which indicated it would fall. What did Rahab do? In the midst of this tension, Rahab believed. This is the crux of the story. “I know that the LORD has given you the land,” she said. “The LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath” (Josh. 2:9, 11). Her statement about God was universal and total. How did she know that? We are not told. Often in Scripture we find that people knew things, though we are not told how they came to know them. But Rahab knew! And what she knew was totally against her culture. She believed in a new God, a God totally and diametrically opposed to the gods of Jericho, but a God above all other gods, a universal God. In the midst of the Canaanites, the Ammonites, the Amorites—in the midst of their horrible, polluted worship, laden with sex symbols and sex practices—Rahab affirmed a true theological proposition about who God really is. Abraham in his day believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Joshua also made a personal choice: “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood [that is, on the other side of the Euphrates], or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Josh. 24:15). Rahab stood in exactly the same position. Surrounded by those who worshiped the Canaanite and Amorite gods, she made her decision: “By an act of the will, on the basis of the knowledge that I have, I declare in faith that God is the God of Heaven above and the earth beneath. He is the universal God.” Peter preached to the Jews on Pentecost that the covenant was fulfilled in the coming of Christ, but that each person had to believe individually. As Paul preached throughout the Roman Empire, non-Jews began to believe. At the time of Joshua, Rahab stood in the stream of the spiritual portion of the covenant as a believing non-Jew. She stood where the Gentiles stood in the New Testament when they first believed the gospel in Antioch. She stood exactly where most Christians stand today, for most of us are non-Jewish believers. This non-Jew believed and passed from the kingdom of the Amorites to the kingdom of the Jews. But she did something much more profound than exchanging one human citizenship for another. She also passed from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God’s dear Son. The book of Hebrews makes a tremendous statement about Rahab, paralleling her to other heroes of the faith: “By faith the harlot, Rahab, perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace” (Heb. 11:31). There were those who did not believe, but she did believe; so she did not perish. More than this, she became something that not all the Jews were, because, as we have seen, not all the Jews were spiritual Jews. Many who stood in the natural line of the covenant never partook of the spiritual blessings because they did not make Rahab’s choice. So curiously enough, she who had been a non-Jewish heathen suddenly became not only a part of the nation of Israel, but also a part of the true Israel. With one act of faith, she stepped into the nation and beyond many of the Jews themselves to become a member of spiritual Israel. The Scarlet Cord In Joshua 2 we also find the interesting story of the scarlet cord. This cord, on which Rahab let the spies escape from her house, was also to be the mark upon her house to show that she was different from all the rest. Joshua 2:21 says that the spies departed, and she hung the scarlet line in her window. It seems to me that this indicates that she did not want time to pass without that mark upon her house. So we can imagine her, after she let the spies down, pulling up the rope and tying it to her window. In the preaching of the Christian Church, all the way back to Clement of Rome (perhaps earlier, but we do not know), this has been taken as a sign of the blood of Christ, the Lamb. One should not be dogmatic about it because the Bible does not explicitly make this connection; nevertheless, many in the Church have emphasized over the centuries that the scarlet cord was a mark of something beyond itself. Because she placed this mark upon her house, she dwelt in safety. This clearly paralleled the Passover lamb. The Israelites killed the Passover lamb, put its blood on their houses, and then were perfectly safe as the angel of death passed over Egypt. The mark of the blood covered them and their households. The Passover lamb, of course, was looking forward to the coming Messiah. So there is, after all, a parallel between the cord and the blood of the Lamb. We can imagine Rahab rushing out and gathering all her family into her house upon the city wall. We can imagine her going through the city and calling out, “Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Come under the mark of the scarlet cord!” Lot did the same thing in Sodom, you remember, but without success. He went throughout the city trying to gather in his family, including his sons-in-law. But they refused and laughed at him; so they died in the city’s destruction. In the days of Noah, those who were gathered into the ark were safe. In Jericho, Rahab’s family, gathered in the house marked by the scarlet cord, were safe. We see the spiritual element of the covenant blessing flowing on. When the children of Israel were about to leave Egypt, they were given the blood of the Passover lamb under which to be safe. When the people were about to enter the land, they were met by a different, but parallel, sign—a red cord hanging from the window of a believer. Faith in Action The Bible expressly says that Rahab demonstrated her faith by her works. The spies did not take her away with them. She had to remain in the kingdom of the Amorites between the time when she declared her allegiance to the living God and the time when judgment fell. In Joshua 2 we are reminded forcefully that there was a king in Jericho; and if he had known what had occurred, undoubtedly he would have killed Rahab in the cruelest fashion he could have thought of. “And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house” (Josh. 2:3). Here was war—war between the king of Jericho and the king of the Jews; that is, between the king of Jericho and God. In the book of James, Rahab is the only person paralleled to Abraham: “Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works, when he had offered Isaac, his son, upon the altar?… In like manner also was not Rahab, the harlot, justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?” (Jas. 2:21, 25). To properly exegete the book of James, we need to understand that Abraham had faith, but it was a faith open to demonstration. In fact, it was demonstrated at a tremendous cost: he was willing to trust God and to offer his son. Rahab, too, had a faith that had teeth in it, structure to it, strength in it. She was willing to suffer loss to demonstrate that her faith was valid. This woman Rahab stood alone in faith against the total culture which surrounded her—something none of us today in the Western world has ever yet had to do. For a period of time she stood for the unseen against the seen, standing in acute danger until Jericho fell. If the king had ever found out what she had done, he would have become her chief enemy and would have executed her. Just before the Israelites came out of Egypt, they sacrificed the Passover lamb. They did it “with loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand” (Ex. 12:11), and they became pilgrims. One cannot partake of the Passover lamb without being ready to see the world as a place of pilgrimage and war. Rahab is an even greater illustration of our position in regard to this, because until Jericho fell she lived as a pilgrim surrounded by her old alien culture. This is exactly how the Christian lives, and Rahab is a tremendous example for us. Though you and I have stepped from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, we are still surrounded by a culture controlled by God’s great enemy, Satan. We must live in it from the moment we accept Christ as our Savior until judgment falls. We, too, are encompassed by one who was once our king, but is now our enemy. It is just plain stupid for a Christian not to expect spiritual warfare while he lives in enemy territory. Rahab: Ancestor of Christ But there is even more to Rahab’s story of the spiritual continuity of the covenant. Joshua 6:25 says of Rahab: “She dwelleth in Israel even unto this day.” She lived the rest of her life as a citizen among God’s people. Not only that, she married among these people and became an ancestor of Jesus Christ! Study the genealogy of Jesus as Matthew records it: “And Nahshon begot Salmon; and Salmon begot Boaz of Rahab; and Boaz begot Obed of Ruth; and Obed begot Jesse; and Jesse begot David, the king” (Matt. 1:4–6). David, of course, was a forebear of Christ. Rahab’s position is mentioned by implication in the book of Ruth: “Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram, and Ram begot Amminadab, and Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon, and Salmon begot Boaz [of Rahab, as Matthew says], and Boaz begot Obed, and Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David” (Ruth 4:18–22). (See also the parallel in 1 Chronicles 2:11–12.) The book of Numbers provides a key to Nahshon’s identity. When the tabernacle was raised in the days of Moses (about thirty-nine years before the events involving Rahab), twelve princes came, one from each tribe, and made a special offering. The first one who came was of the tribe of Judah: “And he that offered his offering the first day was Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah” (Num. 7:12). So Nahshon was a great prince of the tribe of Judah, and his son, Salmon, married Rahab. Chronologically, it fits; the timing is just right. Isn’t that tremendous? The harlot who became a believer became the wife of a prince of Judah! Unhappily, some people ask, “But is it fitting that this woman should become a princess and an ancestor of Christ?” I would reply with all the strength that is in me: it is most fitting! In having been unfaithful to the Creator, is not the whole human race a harlot? Indeed, it is most fitting that Rahab should stand in the ancestral line of Christ. Matthew mentions five women in the genealogy he records, and moral charges were brought against every one of them. Jesus Christ did not come from a sinless human line. All, including Mary, needed the Savior. Even she said, “My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior” (Luke 1:47). All the men and all the women in the ancestral line of Christ needed Christ as their Savior. After all, Rahab did not stand with the people of God as an unclean harlot. She had come under the blood of the coming Christ; she was the harlot cleansed. Is Rahab any worse than we? If it is not fitting that she should be the ancestress of Christ, is it fitting that we should be the bride of Christ? Woe to anybody who has such a mentality as to be upset by Rahab! Such a person does not understand sin, the horribleness of the whole race turning into a prostitute against the living Creator. We all stand in Rahab’s place in the sight of the holy God. Probably we are even worse, for she had little knowledge. There is probably no one reading this book who has as little knowledge as Rahab had when she made her step of faith. We are all sinners. Each one of us is like this woman living up there on the wall. Each of us deserves only one thing—the flaming judgment of God. If it were not for the spiritual portion of the covenant of grace and Christ’s death on Calvary’s cross, we would all be lost. If we do not cast ourselves upon Christ, and His finished work, then we are not as wise as that harlot in a heathen land. We are under the judgment of God and will stay under it until we do what Rahab did. She believed. She came under the work of the real Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ. And she passed from the midst of unredeemed humanity to redeemed humanity on the basis of His blood. So it always is. Jesus Christ stands before all men in one of two capacities (there is no third): either he is Savior or he is judge. When he stood as captain of the Lord’s host, for one woman and her household he was Savior; for the rest of Jericho, he was judge. Let those of us who have believed in Christ ask God to help us so that our works will prove our faith, even if this means a threat to us, even if this places us in as much danger as it did Rahab. By God’s grace, may our faith have such a structure that even if it is at great cost, even if we are facing danger, we stand fast. Many thousands of our brothers and sisters in Christ are this day facing danger. The great persecutions did not just occur in the past in the land of Caesar. In North Korea, Africa, Vietnam, Laos and other places, Christians are being killed for being Christians. And many more are not always physically killed, but “killed” by being alienated from their own families. It is hazardous to be a Christian in an age like ours, in a culture that is increasingly alienated from God. But if we have believed, even if we are surrounded and threatened by the kingdom of our previous king, the evil one, may our faith be like Rahab’s, observable by courage and by works. Rahab blazes abroad as a tremendous example for all of us. The Bad Girl Who Made Good - Stuart Briscoe Scripture: Joshua 2:1–21, especially verse 1b: So they . . . came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and lodged there. Introduction: In the conquest of Canaan, Joshua sent spies to determine the strength of Jericho. Arriving there, the men went to the house of the harlot Rahab, and she received them and made a remarkable confession of faith—that their God was the true God. She made it abundantly clear that she wanted to disassociate herself from her society and commit herself to the Lord. In the process, she became the means of helping the spies escape. They told her that if she would tie a scarlet cord through her window, she would be spared during the conquest. When we come to the New Testament, we find that Rahab is mentioned three times, which brings a new aspect to the whole story, letting us know that God does indeed work in unusual ways through unusual people to accomplish His eternal purposes. Rahab’s transformation is one of the most remarkable in Scripture. 1. The Factors that Contributed to Her Transformation. A.The Prudence of Joshua. God had previously told Joshua, in effect, “You’re going into battle and facing an appalling conflict, but you can be certain of one thing—you’ve already won!” Joshua said, “I am a man of God who believes the promises of God, but I’m also a general in the army, responsible for engaging in solid military practice.” So he sent spies into Jericho to spy out the land. It’s not a contradiction to believe the promises of God while, at the same time, going about in a practical way finding out how the promises of God are to be worked out. God accomplishes ends through means. Matthew