We're in Joshua chapter 2 and
verse 1. And Joshua the son of Nun sent
out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the
land, even Jericho. And they went and came into an
harlot's house named Rahab and lodged there. And it was told
the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither
to-night of the children of Israel to search out the country. And
the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the
men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house,
for they be come to search out all the country. And the woman
took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men
unto me, but I wist not whence they were. And it came to pass,
about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that
the men went out. Whither the men went, I wot not. Pursue after them quickly, for
ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to
the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax,
which she had laid in order upon the roof. And the men pursued
after them the way to Jordan unto the fords, and as soon as
they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the
gate. And before they were laid down,
she came up unto them upon the roof. And she said unto the men,
I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror
is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint
because of you. For we have heard how the Lord
dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out
of Egypt. and what ye did unto the two
kings of the Amorites that were on the other side Jordan, Sion
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. Now therefore
I pray you, Swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed
you kindness, that he 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 court 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
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 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. And they
went and came unto the mountain and abode there three days, until
the pursuers were returned. And the pursuers sought them
throughout all the way, but found them not. So the two men returned
and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to
Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all things that befell them. And he said unto 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. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Today we come to an interesting
story, an interesting account of a lady called Rahab. And this woman is highly honoured
in God's word. not only for the service that
she performed in this chapter by hiding and saving the two
spies that had been sent from Joshua to spy out the land, but
because Hebrews tells us she did these things by faith. Here we meet Rahab. And we learn from scripture that
Rahab is a woman of faith. She's a Canaanite woman. She's
a deceitful woman. She is a sinful woman and she
is identified by the word of God as a harlot. And yet she
nevertheless feared God and she trusted the Lord and she acted
in faith. for the glory of his name and
the assistance and protection of his people. Joshua had sent
these two spies to Jericho not because he doubted the Lord's
word or his commission to Joshua to enter the land and possess
it, but in order rather to provide confirmation for the people by
the spies' testimony of how the Lord would give Israel victory
in the coming battle. The spies came to Rahab's house,
probably for food and for accommodation. But Rahab recognised that they
were from the children of Israel. And when rumours spread of their
presence in the city, she hid them on the roof of her house
that was built upon the wall of the city. And when the king's
guards came searching for the men, Rahab lied about their presence
there and she sent the soldiers off searching in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, she helped the spies
to escape and she gave them directions that they might not be caught
by the returning soldiers. However, as well as the brave
actions of this woman, we discover that the reason for helping the
spies and her conversation and her agreement with them is very
interesting. Not only are the facts of this
story intriguing, but we see that she had an understanding
and she had a desire from these men. Rahab gave the spies the
intelligence that they needed concerning the country. and the
fear that the whole land was in because of the Jews. And she
revealed by this that she was a believer in the one true God. And she desired safety for herself
and for her family. By the saving of the spies from
their enemies, she said, in effect, I'll help you if you help me
and my family. To which the spies agreed. And this incident might seem
a very small matter, as a single event, but the impact and the
results of it were huge. And I want just to look at a
few lessons that this passage teaches us. The first one is
this, that Rahab knew the Lord. Rahab knew the Lord. I don't know how Rahab knew so
much about the God of Israel, but she did. Now it's true that
it was no secret what the Lord had done. Indeed it was clear
from a number of reasons that the people of Canaan as well
as the people of Egypt knew about the children of Israel. People
talk and news travels. And as these nations traded with
one another and as visitors moved between the nations, undoubtedly
the story of Israel and the circumstances of this nation that was now wandering
out in the wilderness came to the ears of the people. And the
people of Canaan knew that the children of Israel were journeying
towards their land and they knew that they had a claim on that
land. But these were not just facts
to rehab. This wasn't just a story or an
account. Though she was a Canaanite, she
was no idolater. She knew and she testified this
truth. She said, for the Lord your God,
he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. I wonder if Rachel knew, sorry
not Rachel, Rahab, I wonder if Rahab knew that she was a believer. She called the Lord, the Lord
your God, but whether she yet realised it or not, he was really
truly and savingly the Lord her God. Why do I know that? Because the
Lord knew Rahab. He knew her more than she realized
and the Lord her God had been working in her life for many
years. It was the Lord that ordained
her trade. It was the Lord that located
her house on the wall. It was the Lord that gave her
knowledge that she possessed concerning Israel. It was the
Lord who effected the decision of the spies to enter her home
rather than any other home. It was the Lord who planned to
save Rahab when all the city of Jericho was destroyed, because
he knew her and he loved her in the covenant of grace from
the foundation of the world. Rahab knew the Lord, but the
Lord knew Rahab. And here's another lesson that
we learn from this passage. Rahab desired deliverance. Make no mistake about it, if
Rahab had delivered these two spies into the hand of the king,
she would have been a hero in the city. If she had handed these
spies over, maybe the king would have made a parade for her. Maybe
the king would have given her a trophy. But she didn't want
a parade and she didn't want a trophy. She wanted to live
and she wanted her family to live. And she knew by revelation
that she was in a dangerous place. because the children of Israel
were approaching her city and her home and God had given that
city and the whole land into the hand of the people of Israel. Rahab knew that. She had been
given a revelation and she knew that except she get help except
she get a promise from these men, she would surely die with
everyone else. When the Lord plans to save a
soul, he places a desire for salvation and deliverance in
the person's heart and in the person's mind. When the Lord
plans to save a soul, he shows them their need. And maybe they don't know how
they'll be saved, but they know they can't save themselves. And these messengers were like,
or these spies were like God's messengers to Rahab. They opened
a way of escape for her. These men would protect her and
all her family who entered her house. Rahab's love for her family
is a pleasing addition to this account. Like Noah in the Ark,
or the people under the Passover blood in Egypt. She would say
to her family, come with me, come into my house, come under
the protection of this promise. There's safety in my house. I
have a promise from God, the God of heaven above and the earth
beneath, and I believe this promise. I have faith in his word. Come
with me. and trust him too. That was Rahab's
words to her family. And we learn this too concerning
Rahab, that the cord with which she let the men down from the
window on the city wall, the town wall, from her home on the
wall, was a symbol of that promise. Rahab had let down the men from
her house with a scarlet cord or a rope with a scarlet thread
through it. And this, said the spies, would
be the token of the promise made to Rahab. If she would place
it in the window, it would be a sign to the invading children
of Israel that the occupants of the house were protected under
the promise of deliverance. Now today, the signs of the Old
Testament have given way to the reality of our deliverance in
Christ. We don't need the signs and the
symbols or the tokens anymore because we see the reality, the
types give way to the anti-type and the fulfilment of the pictures
are seen in the person of Christ and in his accomplishments at
the cross. We don't need signs anymore because
we have the real Saviour. Christ is our way of salvation
and deliverance. But the salvation and deliverance
that we see for Rahab and her family now becomes spiritualised
in the person of Christ. Being in Christ, being under
the effect of His sin-cleansing blood, we are safe who believe
in Him. because we trust God's promises. Rahab wrapped the cord in her
window as she had been instructed, but she didn't believe that it
would be the cord that would save her. It was just a piece
of rope. But it represented a promise,
and she had faith in the promise and she had confidence in the
God of heaven and earth. I wonder how many people entered
Rahab's house and were delivered with her. We don't know exactly
how many there were, but a few chapters further on, after Jericho
had been conquered, we read these words. It's in Joshua chapter
6 verse 23. And the young men that were spies
went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother
and her brethren and all that she had and they brought out
all her kindred and left them without the camp of Israel. and
Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive and her father's household
and all that she had and she dwelled in Israel even unto this
day because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out
Jericho. Rahab's faith was vindicated. She and her family in her house
were saved. I mentioned at the beginning
of our talk that this incident might seem a very small matter,
a single event, a few people in the history of the world that
interacted for a few minutes and the story is recorded in
the word of God. But in truth, the effects of
this event, this incident, were huge. In the purpose and the providence
of God, we discover that after Rahab was saved, she married
a man of Israel called Salman. And they had a child called Obed. and Obed was father to Boaz. Boaz married Ruth the Moabitess
and these two were parents to King David and ultimately in
the line of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. So that we discover that
Rahab was in the direct line to Christ. Without Rahab of Jericho,
there would have been no Boaz. Without Boaz, there would have
been no David. Without David, there would have
been no Christ, the son of David. You see, all God's plans work
together for good. There are no accidents with the
Lord, but there is salvation with Him. May the Lord bless
to us this little story of Rehab and may he open it to our minds
to show us the greatness of his plan and purpose of salvation
in the very smallest of details right through to the accomplishment
of his will in the salvation of his people. Amen.