Lord, may you graciously help
me, I'll turn your prayerful attention to a summary verse
in Hebrews chapter 11 regarding the faith of Rahab that we read
about in Joshua chapter 2. So the text you will find in
Hebrews chapter 11 verse 31. Hebrews 11 and verse 31. This Hebrews 11 is a list of
those who in the Old Testament who walked by faith and obtained
the Lord's blessing and did great exploits by the grace of God. Hebrews 11 verse 31, By faith
the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not,
when she had received the spies with peace. Hebrews 11 verse
31. We have in this account of Rahab That faith that was given Rahab,
who was not of the children of Israel. We have Joshua coming
into or trying to enter the promised land. Jericho is one of the first
cities that they come to after they pass through Jordan. And
they're about to pass through Jordan and then go to start to
conquer the land. And Jericho is going to be the
first city that they really come to. after they come across Jordan. And Joshua is the new leader.
He sends out these two spies and they come into Jericho, this
walled city, and they find a place to lodge in, in this house of
this woman Rahab. She lodged these spies. And this account then is given
of this faith of Rahab. And really she had many things
that were against her, many things, many disadvantages. But we've
just been reading a singing of the simple, the blind and the
lame who learn to walk the best. And really Rahab's faith outstrips
many in Israel. She had so much disadvantage
and yet she clung on to what she knew and she was greatly
rewarded for it and greatly blessed. Well, let us look at this account
then of the conquest or what took place when these spies came. So they came into the house of
Rehab. But let us just picture what
we've got here. We've got the children of Israel
wanting to enter into the promised land. God had given them this
promised land, but it was currently occupied by the people, the Canaanites,
that were in the land. And that would include the city
of Jericho. that Jericho was where the people
of Jericho obviously lived and they were living there and they
had heard that there was this coming army, this coming people
who originated from Egypt as slaves, and they came out, had
been living for 40 years in the desert, wonderfully, miraculously
sustained by the power of God, something like 2 million of them
in a desert, sustained on a daily basis, not just for a few days,
but for 40 years. A constant miracle had been taking
place for their lives to be preserved. And these people had been given
a commission, they knew, to possess the land of Canaan. So for the
Canaanites, it was a frightening thing. It was frightening to
think, you think of it, if you had, like perhaps in the Second
World War, you knew that there was Hitler over the channel in
Germany, intending to have all that area and then come over
the channel and also occupy the whole of England. And naturally,
then, that person in control would be somebody that we would
hate, somebody that we would be against. Well, of course,
in this situation, this was God had given them the land. The people from Jericho, we read
the Canaanites were idol worshippers, and God had said that he would
wipe them out and he would put Israel in its place. But for
them it was a frightening thing and it seemed that Israel was
a great enemy that they should fight against. So that's the
background really. And so the background of the
people that lived in Jericho was that they had heard of Moses
and heard how the people of God had been brought through the
Red Sea, they'd heard these things, and what was going to happen
next for them? Well, Rahab hid these spies and protected
them. She hid them because she realised
that their God, the God of Israel, was the true God, and she gives
that testimony to them. If we pick up the account in
Joshua 2, verse 8, she brought them up to the top
of the house. She'd hidden them. So
when the king of Jericho came and tried to find these men,
she said that they'd gone away. She deceived, really, her own
people. She was a traitor, really, you could say, to Jericho. But in verse 8 we said, and she
came, before they laid down, she came up unto them upon the
roof. And she said unto them, unto
the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land. and
that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants
of the land faint because of you." Remember the spies had
gone out to spy out the land, and they had this information,
this inside information from Rahab as to what the whole people
thought. And this was universal. This
was not unique to Rahab. This was universal for the Canaanites. They were terrified of what the
Israelites and this Israelite God was going to do. your terror
is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint
because of you." So this was something common to the Canaanites,
not unique to Rahab. For we have heard how the Lord
dried up the water of the Red Sea for you. So Rahab had heard
how that that Moses brought the children of Israel under God's
direction through the Red Sea. They'd heard that the sea dried
up, they'd heard that they'd gone through on dry land, and
no doubt that the Egyptians following them got drowned. And that what
you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other
side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed." So they
were the other side of Jordan. Israel had already destroyed
them and possessed that part on that side of Jordan. So this
was all common knowledge to not just Rahab, but to all the people
of Jericho and all the Canaanites. It's clear. And in verse 11,
she said, 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. So that was really a
report of the situation of what the feeling was like in Jericho. And yet in verse 11, then we
have a, halfway through, we have a difference. For the Lord your
God, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. Now that
part was not universal to the people in Jericho. They despised,
they hated, Israel, and they hated Israel's God, because he
was the one that was going to come and wipe them out as they
saw. They hated it. They rejected
it. They thought that his judgments
were wrong, and they were going to fight against them. So there we have the two characters. By faith, the harlot Rahab perished
not, with them that believed not. Brahab was one that had faith. She believed that the God, in
a sense, her faith was really, we've just been reading of the
simplicity, but it was simple. It was simple in the sense that
it said the God that can dry up the Red Sea and can bring
all these millions or two million people through the Red Sea, the
God that can sustain them in the wilderness, He is also able
to bring them across Jordan and also our city walls are really
no defense against such a God. That God must be the true God.
This was really her faith. But the solemn thing is, you
see, that Israel, many of the children of Israel, walked through
the Red Sea, They'd had the daily miracles, but they, with all
their privileges, couldn't see that God could bring them on.
The next problem they came to, they said, oh, well, how are
we going to do? How is it going to go on? But
Rahab, you see, had this simple, powerful faith. She had this
faith that God could do everything. For the Lord your God is God
in heaven above and in earth beneath. She realised that, you
see, they had in their idea in Jericho, they had a God for one
place, a God in the valley and a God in the hill, or a God in
different places. There wasn't one God over all,
but she realised that Israel's God was the true God and that
he was over everything. You see, in verse 10, we said,
for we have heard. Faith cometh by hearing. Ray
hath heard. She heard that there was this
God. But she didn't just hear it,
she then believed it. She believed the report that
she heard. She believed that this was true.
It was not just some false report and no doubt in one sense the
other people believed it was true in the sense that they did
indeed come through the Red Sea, that they were hoping to invade
them. I think they believed that much. But what was their reaction
to this God? And you see this is, in a sense,
similar to us today. There is today. You could say that Rahab was
living in a city of destruction. It was a city that was destined
for destruction. It was marked. God had said that
Israel should destroy the land and take possession of this place,
and that included Jericho. So Rahab was living in the city
of destruction, you can say. And so are we. If you take Pilgrim's
Progress, the picture that Jung Bunyan paints there, it is that
Christian, as he became to be called, was living in the city
of destruction. And he realised that if he stayed
there, he would be destroyed. And he could not find any place
of true security in the city of destruction. He realised that
he needed to have help. He needed to have his sins forgiven. He needed help. He could not
stay there and live there in the city of destruction. And
Rahab realised that too. You see, the others, the other
people, their reaction was, well, this God's coming along, or this
people that have Israel, have their God, well, we'll resist
him. We'll put up the barriers. We
read later on that Jericho was straightly shut up. They barricaded
the gates. There was no way that anybody
could get through this impregnable walls. So they thought. They would battle it out. But
Rahab didn't. Rahab realised that this was
futile. She realised that battling it
out against a god that can dry up the sea, a god that can sustain
2 million people in the desert for 40 years, was a futile thought. She believed that that was not
the solution. She realised that she needed
that God to be her God. She realised that she needed
to find conditions of peace and not to stand there and try and
fight him. And you see there's pictures
in our world today. What city walls do the world
put up against God today? We live in a society, as I mentioned
it in prayer, that's growingly hostile to the thought of God.
The walls are impregnable, they say. We believe in these millions
of years. And everything has happened by
chance. God is not in all our thoughts.
There's no need for the God to create this universe. It all
happened by random chance. We have the intelligence today.
We have the great philosophers. They know how it all happened.
We have these strong walls. And we will be safe behind those
strong walls. How safe were the walls of Jericho?
If you think about it, those walls never took one shot. They never stood one shot. They fell down on their own accord.
And you see evolution and all the refugees of lies that this
world is creating to try and say there is no God, that he
has not made us, that we can do what we want, that we can
decide whether we're male or female, that we can decide who
we have relationships with, we can do what we want, it's ours,
our bodies are our own, says the world. It's the lies, you
see. It's the same philosophy of bolt
the gates. Stop this king. He's not coming. We don't want anything to do
with him. By faith, the harlot Rahab perished
not with them that believe not. The only difference between Rahab
and her fellow citizens were Rahab believed that that God
of Israel was the true God, and she believed that He was a merciful
God. The others just saw Him as a
terror, something to be fought against, something to fight against,
something to go against. And of course you could say that
Rahab, you see, she hid these spies, she protected them. And
by doing so, she actually made herself extremely vulnerable.
She protected those spies at the cost, really, of potentially
her own life. If that King of Jericho, when he came to her
house and said, or the men from the King of Jericho, when she
hid them, if they'd have found out that she was not telling
the truth and was hiding these men, she would have been killed.
She'd have been an absolute traitor. And you say, are Christians?
Are Christians meant to be traitors? Are Christians meant to act like
this? Well, put it this way. Satan would love you to follow
his dictates and to spend your life following what he wants
you to do. And I ask you this morning, is Satan worthy of your
faithfulness? Is he worthy of your life? Is
he worthy to listen to what he tells you to do and to what this
world tells you to do? Is that worth being faithful
to? Or do we have to say what the
Bible says? You cannot serve God and Mammon.
You cannot serve Satan. You can't follow his dictates
and listen to what he's saying and do it. and follow the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Rahab couldn't. In a sense,
she couldn't, could she? She couldn't be faithful to the
King of Jericho and follow the Lord. She couldn't
do both. She had to ultimately come to the conclusion, which,
wherein do my priorities lie? What is actually worthy of my
faithfulness? And you think of it. Satan has
A reward for those who faithfully follow him. The reward is to
be with Him forever in eternal damnation. This is the reward
that you get for continually to be faithful to His dictates,
to fight against God, to hate God, to despise God, to reject
Him, to say, we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. And in
a thousand ways today we see it in society. This is the great
cry. We desire not the knowledge of
Thy ways. Away with this man! We have our
wisdom, we have our science, we have our understanding, so
called. And we can fight against this
God. We will make the walls strong.
We will win these Israelites and their God that have to be
left outside. But Rahab didn't think like that.
Rahab had that simple faith, a powerful faith. And she realised
that the God that could dry up the sea, could dry up Jordan,
could make the walls of Jericho as no obstacle, and they were
in his hands. But what's interesting is that
the way, when Rahab talks to the men, she says, I know that the Lord has given
you the land and that your terror is fallen upon us and that all
the land faint because of you. I know that the Lord has given
you the land." But in her speech to them, she doesn't ever say
that this is a problem. She doesn't say, you must have
a horrible God to have said this. How could you have a God? How
could you worship a God that was going to destroy this land?
How could you do that? She has no criticism for Israel
and for their God. And you see, this is a mark of
coming to true faith. By faith the harlot Rehab perished
not with them that believe not. She perished not because instead
of fighting against that edict, instead of saying it's unfair,
it's wrong, no, she realised that actually It was just. They had sinned. They had gone
into idle worship. And of course she personally
was also, in a sense, in terms of morality, she was probably
one of the worst ones in Jericho. She was in what we'd call today
a prostitute. She had been. She was right on
the worst end of the spectrum of morality. And yet, you see,
she believed that God's judgment was right. I think of another
one at Calvary that also had such a judgment. The dying thief
who was next to Jesus on the cross, one of the thieves criticized
the Lord, but the other one answered, Dost thou not fear God, seeing
thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our sins. But this man hath done
nothing amiss. So you see, the dying thief came
to realise that the condemnation that he was receiving was just. And Rahab came to realise that
the condemnation of her city of Jericho, their lifestyle,
their way of carrying on was justly obnoxious to God. But
what does she do? Carry on fighting? Carry on building
up the walls? Carry on living in hatred and
opposition? If these spies come in, come
and kill them as quick as possible? We hate these people. No, she
was one who sought to know that God for herself. By faith, the
harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she
had received the spies with peace. And so she did. She received
them with peace. She was kind to them. She realised
that their God was the true God. Just as Ruth said to Naomi, she
wanted their God to be her God really. And you see, she wanted
a true token. She wanted an agreement between
this formidable army, this frightening army that made all the inhabitants
of Jericho to fear, and yet she wanted to make a league, wanted
to make an agreement with this mighty God and these children
of Israel. Verse 12, now therefore I pray
thee, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness,
that you will also show kindness unto my father's house and give
me a true token. You read on, she's concerned
about her father, her mother, her brothers, her sisters. She's
concerned for the people in Jericho. She wants them to also make peace
with this great and formidable one who is coming to conquer
the land. And the spies answered, our life
for yours, if you utter not this our business. And then there's
an agreement between her and these spies. In verse 17 of chapter
2 of Jericho, and the men said unto her, we will be blameless
of this sign oath which thou hast made us swear. Behold, when
we come into the land, Thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread
in the window which thou didst let us down by, and thou shalt
bring thy father and thy mother and thy brethren and all thy
father's house home unto thee. And it shall be that whosoever
shall go out of the doors of thy house into the streets, 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. So there
was an agreement between her and these men. And there was
this line that she had let these men, or was going to let these
men down by, so that they could escape and didn't need to go
through the city gates and be killed. So she had made an agreement
with these things. And those words then became everything
to her. She was to bind this scarlet
thread. She let these people down through
a scarlet thread. And they said that you put that
scarlet thread in the window. And everybody who is amongst
your brethren, if you like, everyone in Jericho that believes, that
believes in this God, that believes that there is a mercy to be had. You see, in a sense, they were
giving themselves over to Israel and to their God. Now, if they
felt that God would be a God that had no mercy, then they
were giving themselves over to the enemy. But they believed
that this God was the true God. By faith, the harlot Rahab perished
not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies
with peace. So we see here is a picture of
the gospel, a picture of man lost and ruined in the fall,
destined for destruction, desperately trying to fight to keep out the
enemy, desperately trying to build up the walls. And of course,
the king of Jericho, he wanted to find these spies and you know,
what would have happened to those spies if he'd have found them?
He'd have killed them. He would have done away with them. He'd
have done everything against them. He hated them. They were
his enemies. But you see, by faith Rahab came
to see that Israel and the God of Israel was the true God. And
therefore, her concern was, how can I be made right with God?
How can I have fellowship with this one who is a formidable,
powerful God? Well, there was one way. In this
picture, there was one way, and that was to be in that house
with a scarlet thread on the outside. And we think of the
scarlet thread, we think of the precious blood of Christ. We
think that there is one place of safety. And that is behind
the scarlet thread. Just as it was with the Israelites
on the day of the Passover, there was one place of safety behind
the blood-stained doorposts. There was a place of safety.
Well, for Rahab and her household, there was one place of safety.
And you could say, well, I don't see that this is very safe. If
the walls are going to fall down and your house is on the city
wall, then how can you say that your house is a place of safety? Your house will no doubt fall
with the rest." But it didn't. It was on the city wall. All
the walls fell down, no doubt apart from the house that Rahab
had on the city wall. So there was one place of safety.
They needed to be gathered together. All her brethren couldn't be
around the city. They couldn't just be anywhere.
There was one place of safety, and that was inside that house,
behind the scarlet thread. And why did that look more safe
than every other place? For one reason. because of the
agreement that the men had made with Rahab. And you see, the word then between
those men and Rahab became everything to Rahab. Those words, she hung
her life on those words. The scarlet thread, why are you
doing it? Because they said so. Why do
we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? Because he's faithful. Why do
we do these things? Because the Word of God says
so. The Word of God then becomes precious. And the Word of these
men to Rahab became so important. And she followed it exactly.
And as she let them down, we read that. That as soon as, that's right,
in verse 21, and she said, according unto your word, so be it. And
she sent them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet
line in the window. Immediately, she did it. They
didn't come immediately, but she immediately hung that scarlet
line, and no doubt gathered her family, and her mother, and her
father, and her brethren into that house, the only place of
safety. And as we know, there was then,
Israel came across Jordan, and then they went round the city
of Jericho. First of all, once a day, for
six days. On the seventh day, they went
seven times, so a total of 13 times, marching round the city
of Jericho. Not a wall, not a stone of the
wall moved. Everything intact. Didn't seem
that it had any effect. But you see, Then there was that
time, shout, for the Lord has given the city. The walls fell
down. And then there was the only place
of safety was shown to be that place where Rahab was, trusting
in what the agreement that she'd had with the spies. And so, you
see, today we have the Word of God. We have an agreement. We have his words that he has
said, come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. And the others could have said,
no, but I'm the king of Jericho and I've got a much more comfortable
place than your city, your house on the city wall, Rahab. I've
got much a more comfortable place to live, but the one place of
safety was Rahab's house. was marked by this scarlet thread.
And so, if we think of the Gospel, there is one place of safety. One place is not to be fighting
against God. It's not to be running away from
God. It's not to be building the walls
of evolution higher and higher. It's to declare that this is
no obstacle. This is futile. We're wasting
our time. After death, the judgment, they
had this judgment day that was clearly coming. Rahab feared
for her life. our life for yours." You see,
she wanted to deliver the lives of those that were living, her
friends and her family that were living in Jericho. She was concerned. And of course, you see, we know
that everything that was feared took place. In Joshua 6, we can
read it. Joshua 6, it goes on, if you
look in verse 22. But Joshua said unto the two
men that had spied out the land, Go into the harlot's house and
bring out thence the woman and all that she hath. Everyone that's
in that house, bring them out as ye swear to them. And the
young men that were spies went in and brought out Rahab and
her father and her mother and her brethren and all that she
had. And they brought out all her
kindred. and left them without the camp of Israel and they burnt
the city with fire. There was destruction on everybody
else apart from those who had sought for mercy from this great
God of Israel. May we then in our lives be amongst
those who seek for mercy. Don't listen to the lies. You
see, the people of Jericho may have try to encourage each other. Really we have got a very strong
wall system in our city. Jericho really is impregnable. But Rahab wasn't listening to
that. Rahab didn't have an ear for
that. She believed that it was all futile. There was one thing
that needed to be done and that was to make conditions of peace
with the God of Israel. And when it comes to us today,
what must we do? We must repent and believe the
Gospel. You see, she believed and therefore
she was saved. When she had received the spies
with peace, she believed and of course it affected her life.
You see, her faith had actions and she risked her life. She
hid those spies at the cost of her own life nearly. Of course,
it eventually turned out to be for her salvation, but it was
a risky thing to do. And it seemed to be that she
was a traitor. And you might think, well, I
don't want to be a traitor to this world. I want to be one
with them. I want to have the spirit of the world. I want to
have the things of the world. I want to live like the world.
Well, you could have done. Rahab could have done. But she
would have also read the same end as the rest of the people
of Jericho. But in verse 25 of chapter 6, we have these words, and Joshua
saved Rahab the harlot alive and her father's household and
all that she had. Here we have it ascribed to Joshua,
that Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive. The two names, Joshua,
Rahab. You could think the New Testament
name for Joshua is Jesus. You have Rahab the sinner. You
have the Saviour and the sinner. Together, Joshua saved Rahab
alive. I want you to think of this as
well, because I think there can be wrong thoughts about the Lord
Jesus. And it's encouraged often in
some Christian circles that the Lord Jesus is just going to be kind to everyone.
If you read in Acts 17 verse 30, in the times of this ignorance
God winked at, But now commandeth all men everywhere to repent,
because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised
him from the dead." Clearly the Apostle is speaking about Christ.
Christ, the Lord Jesus, is going to be ultimately the formidable
judge of all the earth. People say, Jesus is to them a figure of
mercy, and yes he is, but outside of what he has said in his word
to repent and believe the gospel, he is going to be the most formidable
character they can imagine. In fact, it was said of Jesus,
wasn't he? He said himself that people should be calling on the
rocks to fall on them, to keep themselves away from him that
sits on the throne. It's going to be a most awful
time. And I want you to see these two sides in Joshua. In Israel's
time, the name of Joshua meant two things to the two different
people in Jericho. You think of what the name Joshua
meant to those who were being killed at the time of the conquest
of Jericho. Joshua was a formidable character. He was one that came and they
were being killed and ruined and their city destroyed. He
was a frightening, a character of judgment. But Joshua saved Rahab. alive. The same one who was the
formidable judge of the Canaanites also was the saviour of those
that believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. He was, in a natural
sense, became the saviour of Rahab. The two sides. By faith, the harlot Rahab perished
not with them that believe not, when she had received the spies
with peace. So the vital thing is, which
side are we? Are we amongst those that believe?
Are we amongst those that realise that our warfare against the
almighty God that created the universe is utterly futile? and that we may seek conditions
of peace, that we may say, tell me, can there be mercy for one
like me? Can there be a way that I may
be saved? And that's why the Gospel is
such wonderful news, because it says that there is a way back
to God from the dark path of sin. But we need to take seriously
this Joshua. He's a formidable enemy to those
who resist him. but he's also a gracious saviour
for those who come to love him and come to be conquered by him
in their love. Just one other character that
you associate with Jericho is Achan. Rahab was an outsider that came
to love Israel's God, came to cling on to those words and was
blessed. Achan was an insider. He was
an Israelite. And he despised the words that
Joshua said. He despised the fact that they
were told not to take the goods of Jericho for themselves, and
he did. And he hid them in his tent, and he thought he'd got
away with it. And his end was a very, very solemn one. You
see, he had all the privileges of being an Israelite and he
despised it. Rahab had none of the privileges.
of being an Israelite, and yet she saw the blessedness of the
people of God. She saw that they were the true
people of God. And if you turn into Deuteronomy,
Deuteronomy 33 and verse 29, happy art thou, O Israel, who
is like unto thee? O people saved by the Lord, the
shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency.
This is Moses speaking at the end of his life, just before
this happened. about the beauty of Israel and Rehoboam and she
fled for refuge. Achan despised it and he perished
in his sin. Well may we be then by faith
Those who believe, take seriously the warnings of God's word. Don't
listen to this world that ridicules it, this world that plays with
death, this world that laughs at the occult, this world that
makes fun of all the most serious things that you can imagine. But leave them, they don't deserve
your affinity. Cleave to the Lord, his word,
and may you know an expected end, to be with Christ, which
is far better. Amen.