Chapter 2. Heavenly Father, bless this study. As we look into this book of
Joshua, may we find you there and be encouraged in the knowledge
of who you are and what you've done for us. Forgive our sins,
Lord, lest they be used by the devil, by Satan, to make it impossible for us to
worship. deliver us from any condemning
sense of guilt. For we know that the blood of
Christ has cleansed us from all sin, and therefore may that blood be a token for us as it was on
the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. May it testify to us that there
will be no judgment for us, but you will pass over. In the name
of Christ we pray it, amen. Now, so far the leadership of the
people of Israel has been transferred from Moses, the representative
of the law, unto Joshua, whose name is the very same name that
our Lord Jesus had. Jesus is simply the Greek equivalent
of the Hebrew name Joshua. Actually, in Greek, it would
have been Iesu. But as it came down through the years, it eventually
came to where we English-speaking people pronounced it Jesus. In fact, in the New Testament,
on at least a couple of occasions, you will find the word Jesus
used For example, in the book of Hebrews, it said, if Jesus
had given them rest, well, we know that the Lord Jesus Christ
gave us rest. Who's it talking about? Joshua.
So Jesus and Joshua are the same name. They mean, the name Joshua
means Jehovah is salvation. And so in the transfer of leadership
from Moses to Joshua, we have an illustration of going from
the old covenant to the new, of going from the oversight of
the law to be put under the gospel of God's grace in Christ Jesus. Now, before they entered the
land, Joshua sent three men into the first city that they would
attack, and that was Jericho. A certain woman there named Rahab
knew who they were. In fact, a lot of people realized
that these were Jewish men. But Rahab recognized them, and
she was a prostitute. Now some try to say she was an
innkeeper, and that may have been the case too. But once you
get to the Greek New Testament, it is quite evident that the
New Testament writers, when they referred to her, Rahab the prostitute. And there was no way to confuse
the words there. So possibly she had a place of
business where people did stay the night. but she also applied
her trade as a prostitute in conjunction with that. She was
not a reformed prostitute or a former prostitute. She was
a prostitute when the spies arrived. But she knew who they were, and
she knew who they represented, that they were among those people
whose God is Jehovah. And she had heard the stories
about the Jewish people, the things that God had done for
them as they had come across the wilderness, and the way they
had been able to annihilate kings which were formerly invincible
for all intents and purposes. And she knew that when they came
in the land, that they would be victorious. So she calls these
men into her house, and she says, spare me and my family, my parents,
my brothers and sisters, and all that belonged to them. She hid them, and then when the
time was appropriate, she let them crawl through a window. Her house was on the city wall,
so a window would get you on the outside of the city wall.
And she let them down by a rope, told them to go hide in the mountains
until those who were looking for them had given up, and then
they could go on back to where the rest of the Israelites were
there in Shittim. Now, they promised her that they
would not do her any harm, that when the Jews came to Jericho,
they would spare her. But they said, as they made this
oath, we'll be free of this oath unless, unless you take this
scarlet cord and you hang it out the window. And so she said
that's what she would do. And indeed, she did. And in verse
21 of Joshua 2, it says, agreed, she replied, let it be as you
say. So she sent them away, and they
departed, and she tied the scarlet cord in the window. Now, this
scarlet cord and Rahab's tying that cord in the window has a lot of connections to gospel
truth. Let's look at some of these.
First of all, Rahab hanging that cord in the window was an act
of faith. Act of faith. Look over at Hebrews
chapter 11, verse 31. Now, some have called Hebrews
11 the Hall of Fame of Faith, and that's an unfortunate title. We are not made famous for faith.
But it does list those, many of those in the Old Testament
who were noted for their faith and the things that were accomplished
by them and through them because of their faith. And it says here
in verse 31, by faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the
spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. Now this
verse itself contains a great deal of truth about matters relating
to the gospel. It says, by faith the prostitute
Rahab, Now, it does not say, by faith, the former prostitute,
or by faith, the repenting prostitute. It just calls her what she was.
She was a prostitute. and yet even as a prostitute.
And I'm not saying that she continued this business. Later on, she
actually lived among the Israelites later on. I doubt she continued
this practice. Nonetheless, it says here that
her faith was exercised even as she was in the state of being
a prostitute. She was spared. She was not killed. Why? She welcomed the spies. And welcome here means more than
we would normally think of. When we welcome someone, it's
just, OK, we're glad you're here. Fine, all that. To welcome someone
back then actually meant to receive them in, to do them good, to count them to be your people, to receive them, to accept them. And so when she saw these three
or these spies come, she was not the least bit reluctant
to open the door of her home and her business to them. She was not afraid to be associated
with the people of God. She feared the Lord. And at that
point, it may have been something of a slavish fear. That is, she
just realized what the Lord was capable of doing. But nonetheless,
just like Moses, who said he would rather suffer reproach
with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season,
she was doing the same thing. By faith, she accepted them in,
she welcomed them, she provided for them, she protected them,
and then she gave them a way of escape, and she covered their
escape by telling them She told the people, no, I didn't
see those men. I don't know what came of them. But this was an act of faith. She was casting her lot with
the people of God and with the God of that people. And then
it goes on to say, she was not killed with those who were disobedient. Now, you hear the word disobedient,
what do you first think of? Well, someone who has broken
a command. But that's not the issue here.
Because quite frankly, when it came to breaking God's command,
she was just as disobedient as anybody else. The disobedience
spoken of here, and actually it's what disobedience often
means in the Old Testament, it's the same thing as unbelief. disobedient to the word of the
gospel. Those in Jericho, with their
fortified city, they believed that they could withstand the
Jews. They did not come out of the city, they did not open the
gate. and say, we have sinned in worshiping false gods. We
have sinned in that we have not honored God, the true God, as
he should be honored. And we now count ourselves to
be worshipers of the God of the Jews. They didn't do that. They
fortified themselves against the Jews and their God. She was
the only one that took sides with the people of God and the
God of the people. And in doing so, what was she
saying about Jericho? Now think about it. She was saying
what God is going to do to Jericho is right. Jericho deserves the
judgment of God. And she wouldn't have excluded
herself in that confession. So it was an act of faith on
her part, an act of rather profound faith. to go from this citizen
of Jericho, having a character that fit entirely with those
who have no fear of Jehovah in their heart, living the life
of a prostitute, and that was the way she was expressing her
rebellion against God and her rejection of the God who made
the heavens and the earth, and here in just a moment, She repents and believes. And by faith, she was spared. And part of that profession of
faith was hanging that scarlet cord out the window. And then
look over here at James 2, verse 25. Now this is a passage of
scripture over which many stumble. I stumbled over it over a lot
of years. I believe I have some understanding
on it, but we know that Paul says that a
man is justified by faith without works. And then James says, well,
can a man be saved by faith that doesn't have works? Well, you've
got to understand that Paul and James were not disagreeing with
one another. Because Paul was speaking of
true God-given faith, James was speaking only of a profession
of faith. In fact, James says... Hang on just a minute. Nonetheless, some will say, I
have faith. I have faith. And that's the
point. They say they have faith. Well,
a faith that exists in the mouth only, is that the kind of faith
that saves? Is that the kind of faith that
justifies? But also, James and Paul don't
mean the same thing when they're talking about works. Paul is
talking about the works of the law, works of obedience to God's
commands, works by which we obtain the favor of God by doing that
which is pleasing to Him. Actually, in James, it would
be better if they just translated it as deeds, things you do, but
they aren't necessarily moral things. They are things which
are consistent with the faith that you claim. So we read in
verse 25 of James chapter two, in the same way was not even
Rahab the prostitute considered righteous, that is she was justified
for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent
them off in a different direction. Now imagine that those spies
had showed up. Maybe they showed up at her place.
She goes, I know who you are. I've come to believe you're God.
And I believe your God's going to destroy Jericho. And Jericho
deserves it. I'm with you guys. But I can't
have you in my house. That's too dangerous. I can't
be found out hiding you. I can't provide you with a way
of escape." What would she be doing? By her actions, she would
prove that she didn't really believe that the God of the Jews
was really God. She would be proving she didn't
actually believe that Jericho was going to be destroyed. Now,
what she did was not a moral work. There was no law that said
she had to hide the spies. It's called a work of faith.
Paul speaks of that. He said, all that counts is works
of faith and labor of love. She simply did that which was
consistent with the faith that she professed. Consequently, Rahab's faith was
not just understanding and believing some doctrines. It was not just
something she said. It was something that showed
itself in the action she took in the face of what she knew
was about to happen. There are some, well, in the
New Testament, it is said that there were some Pharisees who
believed Jesus but they would not confess him because they
feared the people. Now friends, if you really believe
the Lord Jesus, you will confess him before men. So much so that
our Lord says, if you won't confess me before men, I won't confess
you before the Father. So these are the kind of deeds
that arise from the faith that truly believes and lays hold
of God in Christ. So this woman hanging this cord
out the window was an act of faith and shows us that being justified by faith we have
peace with God. Hanging this scarlet cord out
the window was a testimony of her sin. You can look over at
Isaiah 118. Now remember, this cord was called
a scarlet cord. When I was in elementary school,
my mother taught afternoon Bible class called Good News Club.
And they had what they called the wordless book. And it was
a book where each page was just a particular color. And there
was even a song that went along with it. But the first page was
black. And that black was supposed to
be a representation of our sin. And of course, later on, when
all the sins are cleansed away, the page is white. And I remember
when I was in Bible school, they were talking about childhood
education in the church. They pointed this out, that whether
or not black stands for sins and white stands for righteousness
and purity, whether it had any foundation in racism, You know,
I doubt that it did. Nonetheless, given the day and
age in which we live, to call white good and black bad is probably
not a good idea. But I remember the teacher pointing
out and said, and also, the Bible never calls sin black. Notice
the color. Bible ascribes to sin, Isaiah
118, come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though
your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. I don't do the laundry very often.
I'm not an expert in it, but I have been told. that it is
nearly impossible to get red or scarlet or some red-like color. A red stain, it's there. You're
not gonna get rid of it. And therefore, the scriptures use that color
to indicate sin. And I suppose there are several
reasons it could do that because sin brings about death and death
is symbolized by the shedding of blood, red, It could do so
because, indeed, once something is stained scarlet, there's not
much anything you can do to change that fact. But what do the Scriptures
say to us about our sin? Does it say, stop sinning and
God will forgive you all your former sins? Does it say, do
your best and God will cut you some slack? If we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. To confess it. I believe, as
I understand it, all through the ages, scarlet has been a
color that symbolizes prostitution. We even still occasionally refer
to that area of town where prostitutes are known to ply their trade
as the red light district. So as she hangs this scarlet
cord, she didn't hang a white one out there. She didn't even just, you know,
hang a typical brown type cord or something like that, the red
one. What was she doing? Well, as the Jews approached
Jericho, what's that chord saying? Here lives a sinner. Here lives a violator of God's
commands. Here lives one deserving of the
death that is about to come upon Jericho. The interesting thing is, that's
the only part of the wall that did not fall down. Why? Did not the Lord Jesus Christ
say, I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners to
repentance? They decried him for being the
friend of sinners and tax collectors, of receiving them and welcoming
them. You know, most of religion, even
most of the Christian religion, is an attempt to prove oneself
to be worthy, to prove oneself to have a sufficiently small
amount of sin that God will receive us. Yet the gospel keeps telling
us this counterintuitive truth. This goes against our natural
way of thinking. We find forgiveness of our sins
not by minimizing them, but by declaring them in their fullness,
of calling them exactly what they are, nothing more, nothing
less. That Nathan came to David after
he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and then in order to
cover it up, had Bathsheba's husband killed in battle. And
when he was confronted with that by the prophet, he simply said,
I have sinned against the Lord. No excuses. David didn't say, yes, I did
what was wrong, but you know, that wasn't my fault. I mean,
I just looked out the window and there she was naked on her
roof. What do you think a guy's going
to do? And then I was caught. I mean,
I didn't really kill Uriah. I did nothing, you know. I mean,
we just sent him into battle and I said, kind of back up away
from him. And if he'd have looked, he could
have seen they were backing up and he could have backed up too
and saved his life. So really, when you think about it, it wasn't
all my fault. No, he said, I have sinned against
the Lord. And Nathan's response, he says,
the Lord has forgiven your sin. He didn't say the Lord forgives
your sin. He said, He already has before
I ever came, David. Your sin was forgiven. God is not looking for righteous
people. He knows there aren't any. He's looking for sinners. He
says, I came to seek and to save that which is lost. I remember
when Brother Mahan, one time, I hadn't been going to that church
very long, but he said, The Lord Jesus Christ is going to seek,
he's come to seek and to save that which is lost, and he's
going to seek them, he's going to find them, and he's going
to save every one of them. He says, well, isn't everybody
lost? He said, no, just ask them. It's hard to find a lost person.
No pun intended there. Go around trying to find someone
who, yes, I'm lost, I'm without hope. I'm gonna die someday and I know
what's gonna happen. God's gonna send me to hell and
that's the right thing for him to do. Try to find someone like
that. Third, her hanging that scarlet
cord out the window was an identification with the people of God. I found
it interesting, this word when it says hang the cord out the
window, the scarlet cord, Everywhere else, that word is translated
hope or expectation. They can kind of see the connection.
As those spies were going out the window, what was supporting
them? That cord. They were hanging
on to it. So, you know, it's a lifeline,
so to speak. And as I understand it, this
cord was the very same cord by which
she had let them down outside the window. Now, what does that say? It says
that her hope and their hope were one and the same. They went down by that cord.
They escaped by that cord. And she hung that cord out. And
that was her hope and expectation of deliverance in the time of
judgment. And then fourthly, and you know
we've already gone out of time, so I'm going to save this for
next week. I'll just give you the heading. That cord is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll give that in detail
next week. You're dismissed.