In a recent article D. A. Carson wrote about an incident that took place on a radio talk show with a large audience in Chicago. The host had several guests that day as he discussed the issue as to whether anyone could be saved apart from Jesus. Finally, he turned to one guest who was a Jew who had believed in Christ and was on the faculty of the Moody Bible Institute. With everyone aware of the man’s ethnic background, the host asked him if he thought that any of “his fellow Jews could be saved apart from Christ.” Carson then notes his response, writing, “This Christian brother began to weep, and then to sob quietly, uncontrollably.” Finally, after a couple minutes passed the host spoke up, declaring that he had “never heard a more compelling reason to become a Christian.”1
When I read that, it took me aback for a second. And the reason was not because I was ignorant of the fact that Jesus is the only way to heaven. I stand and preach that. It was not even because I know we should weep on account of the fact that many die without Christ and go to hell. Again, I am aware of that fact. What took me aback in the moment was that as I read of the man’s reaction I felt anew the reality of these truths we read about in the Bible. That is, I can say that sin is disgusting and harmful and is bringing about great tragedy left and right in our world. However, when you hear a story about a child crying because he doesn’t understand why his mommy is leaving the family to go have a life with her male co-worker, and you consider that child’s pain, it’s much more powerful than just hearing that divorce is hard on children, isn’t it? That’s the effect Carson’s story had on me as I read it.
Sometimes seeing truths fleshed out in real-life situations have a way of gripping our hearts. It’s not necessarily that you learn something you were ignorant of a few moments earlier. But it may be that your heart feels it afresh, and in that sense you are learning something. It’s as if you’ve rediscovered what you already know because the knowledge has now moved your heart. I think Joshua 2 is a chapter that conveys some truths in a powerful way because it shows us these truths lived out in a powerful narrative. That’s not to say that it’s more beneficial than biblical texts that state truths in a propositional form (i.e., “You have been saved by grace through faith”). Of course not. In fact, were it not for such propositional statements in the Bible, we would not be able to describe what’s happening in a text like Joshua 2. However, this chapter gives us a glimpse of truths being fleshed out in real-life situations. Joshua 2 gives us a glimpse of a moment in Israel’s history when much was going on. They were getting ready to conquer the Promised Land, they were sending spies into the land to scout out the situation, and they encounter a woman named Rahab. And it is by looking at this moment of Israel’s history that we get to see a picture of the way God works in our lives, of the way that we respond to God, and about the transformational power of redemption. But we get to feel it as well because we can see and taste the impact that these things have in these individual’s lives. Therefore, it’s my prayer that as we contemplate the truths demonstrated in this text that we are moved beyond merely acknowledging such truths to feeling them, even the way Carson’s story helped me to feel the reality of the truth that men are saved only through Christ.
So, with that, let us first take a glimpse of God’s work in this chapter. What this chapter reminds us of is that God is much greater than we think. Or more specifically, God is so wise and powerful that he is always doing more through and in each moment of our lives than we imagine.
The events in Joshua 2 give us a glimpse concerning God working in the world. The narrative itself repeats something that took place years earlier. You will remember that Israel was on the brink of coming into the Promised Land years earlier, and they sent twelve individuals to spy out the land to see what was there. When they came back, only two thought that they should take the land. Ten of the spies reported that it was impossible, and this led to a discussion among the people as to how they might return to Egypt.
The Lord responded to this report and the people’s obstinacy and unbelief by making the people wander about in the wilderness until that generation of Israelites died. Now, we come years later and again they are going to send spies into the land prior to going in and conquering it. This time, however, they only send two spies, Joshua commanding them, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho” (v. 1). So the spies set off and go into the house of a prostitute named Rahab.
Now, going to the house of a prostitute was probably not by accident. The logic is perhaps something like this. If you want information concerning what people in a city are thinking and what’s going on, then you need to go to someone who knows the people in the city. And, in an immoral place, the individual who might know the thoughts of the men best in that city would be a prostitute. Therefore, they come into the house of a woman named Rahab.
Soon, however, word spreads to the king of Jericho that some men have come to the house of Rahab and are lodging there so that they might spy out the land. Therefore, the king sends some men to go retrieve them. But what happens when they arrive at Rahab’s place is surprising. Rahab had hidden the spies, and when the men tell her to bring them out she deceives them, saying to them that it is true that some men had come there but she didn’t know where they were from and that the men had already left, and she didn’t know where they were. Then she encouraged the men to go get them quickly so that they might overtake them. So the king’s men head off, pursuing as far as the Jordan and the gate of the city is shut so that it seems the men will be unable to get out.
This is where it seems that the story is about to get really exciting. You can feel the tension as we wonder how the men are going to be able to escape from the city in light of the fact that this walled city has already been shut up for the night. However, though we feel this tension after verse 7, the answer to this problem is not revealed until verse 15. What lies between verses 7 and 15 is a conversation Rahab has with the Israelite spies.
As she comes to them on the roof we see why it is that she has been willing to hide the spies and not to reveal their hiding place. She says to them, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” (vv. 8-11).
Here we get a glimpse of the way that God had been working in Israel’s history. When God led the Israelites out of Egypt there were two things he did that surface in Joshua 2. One of them was that he parted the Red Sea. Now, at the time this seemed amazing. Israel had been backed into a corner, and God miraculously pushed the sea back so that the people could walk through on dry land. Then, when the Egyptians pursued, he brought the sea back together and drowned them.
A second event took place when they seemed to be in another difficult situation. They were traveling and wanted to pass through the land of the Amorites, but the king, Sihon, refused to allow them to do so. Therefore, they did what they had to do and conquered that king and passed through his land. They also conquered another Amorite king named Og.
Now these two episodes are great events in Israel’s history. God had parted the sea and allowed them to conquer two Amorite kings. But what the spies learn as they speak to Rahab is that God was doing much more in those moments than they knew. You see, the Israelites were not necessarily thinking a number of moves ahead when they were leaving Egypt, but God was. And Rahab was now telling the spies that God’s work through those events had a big impact on the present.
One of the things that helped those in Jericho feel secure (besides the wall surrounding the city, which will be addressed in future chapters) was the fact that they were separated from the Israelites by the Jordan River. I mean, it’s one thing for a couple of spies to wade through the river, but to bring an entire people through a river was another issue. It seemed there would be no way all of the Israelites would be able to come through the Jordan River into Jericho. Another note of security was simply their willingness to fight.
However, as God is working in Israel’s history, they begin to get reports first that God has dried up a sea so that the Israelites could all pass through. If God can dry up the sea, what is the Jordan River going to stop? Also, when they crushed the Amorites, those in Jericho were taking note. And Rahab tells the spies, “As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” (v. 11). She tells them that the men in Jericho are basically already defeated. They know they stand no chance and that Israel’s God is indeed the God of the heavens and the earth.
You see, God did know everything that he was planning on doing with the Israelites. The future was going to be no surprise to him. Therefore, even when the Lord was doing miraculous things by parting the sea and crushing the Amorites, he was doing more than that as well. He was crushing the spirit of those in Jericho.
This note given to us in Joshua 2 is a reminder to us that God is doing more in each moment than we can imagine. Even in the moments when we rejoice because God has done something we feel amazing, he is no doubt doing even more good than you can imagine because he has charted out our lives from beginning to end. God backed the Israelites up to the Red Sea not simply because he was going to crush the Egyptians but also because he was going to crush those in Jericho.
Therefore, we must see that the God we serve is still that same God. He’s leading you through glorious and difficult events, but in the midst of all of them we must cry out to him, trust him, and thank him for his awesome abilities.
I’ve shared this story a couple of times in different settings, but back in 2001 I sat down with Lili during a difficult season of life and just wanted to leave. And I told her that I just wanted to pick up, leave Jackson, and go study, eventually doing a Ph.D. under Steve Wellum at Southern Seminary. The Lord blessed us immensely during that time, however, and ultimately brought me to the point that I want to spend the rest of my life in Jackson as one of the pastors of Cornerstone Community Church. Now, I can look back on that time that the Lord brought me through and say, “Wow, look at what he was doing? He was putting together the kind of people here at Cornerstone who would be the kind of people I want to spend the rest of my life with. He was bringing to me men to pastor alongside of me that I treasure.” But there was something else he was doing in that season. He was leaving me here and surrounding me with some other pastors who would one day say to me, “Lee, we think the desire in your heart that you can trace back to 2001 is the Lord’s will” and giving to me such a precious congregation who would say to me, “Go, we will provide for you as you’re gone, and we will await the day you return.”
That is, in that moment, the Lord wasn’t just getting me through a hard time, enabling me by his grace to stay and labor here instead of running off to Louisville, KY to work on a Ph.D. He was putting things in place so that this desire that he placed within me would take place as well. And last April I received a letter from Southern Seminary that said, “You’ve been received into the Ph.D. program … your supervisor is Stephen Wellum.”
Why do we doubt God in difficult situations and why do we praise him little when going through delightful situations? He is able to and, I’m convinced, is doing more in this moment of our lives than we can imagine. Joshua 2 gives us a glimpse of God working this way, but I believe we can know that God continues to work this way in our lives in this day as well.
A second thing that our text provides for us is a picture of two ways we can respond to this kind of God.
The first of these ways we see in the life of Rahab. After Rahab shares with the spies that there is no spirit left in any of the people and that she is sure they’ll be conquered, she places her hope, her faith, her trust in God, the one she has declared is the God of heaven and earth. She tells them, “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death” (vv. 12-13).
She presses them to spare her, to swear to her that they will spare her, and to give her a sign that they will spare her and all her family. And they declare to her that if she tells no one about their business that she and her family will be spared. Then, finally, we get our answer to how the spies will escape the city. Rahab lets them down through a window “for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall” (v. 15). They tell her to tie a scarlet cord in the window, and that her house will be spared when they come to conquer the city, and they leave.
Rahab’s response to the men is a picture of faith. She does not simply claim to hold to certain truths; she risks her life to demonstrate her trust in God. She hides the spies, helps them escape, and boldly asks them to spare her life. She thinks the only way she’ll survive is not by taking up arms in the city but by trusting entirely in the deliverance the God of Israel can provide. This is a picture of faith. This is how we must respond to this God.
Yet, we also see another response to God, that of those in Jericho besides Rahab. She’s told the spies that the men in the city are afraid of them, that they are melting before them, and that there is no spirit left in any man because of them. However, what do we see happen when the king gets word that there are spies in Jericho? They don’t come to Rahab and say, “We want to trust in their God and submit to them.” No, they run and pursue the spies. And, later when the Israelites come to the city to conquer it, these men will not open the city gates, come out and request to become followers of the God of heaven and earth. They would rather choose to fight.
This is a picture of the folly of sin. The foolishness of sin is seen in that even when we know there is no hope of satisfaction or victory or whatever else, we still pursue that which is empty. And we’ve all done it. We’ve all told ourselves that there is no lasting pleasure in sin, would scream that truth from the mountaintops, and then go off in sin. Sin is foolish. And we get a glimpse of the foolishness of sin in this picture. Men who know there’s no hope of conquering their enemies run off to oppose them.
So, there are only two ways to respond to our great God. We either respond in faith or in sin. This is the choice for those who aren’t believers, and it’s the choice we as believers make in our day-to-day lives. In each moment, you can choose to believe in God, his promises, his commands, and his word, and you can obey him in faith or you can not believe him and sin. But know that pursuing sin is folly, and I hope that this picture of these foolish men of Jericho provides us with enough of a picture that it affects us. These men died and faced God’s judgment when they knew he was worthy of worship. So is it folly for us to sin.
But there’s one other thing I want us to see in this text. It is in connection with responding to God in faith, and it is this: God is powerful to redeem completely those who respond to him in faith.
Now, the chapter ends with the men coming back, and telling Joshua, “Truly the LORD has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us” (v. 24). It’s a beautiful ending to this chapter and sets us up to read of the people crossing the Jordan and eventually taking Jericho.
However, it’s not the end of the story. In another sense, it’s only the beginning of the story of Rahab. Prior to this day, Rahab was a prostitute. That is to say she sold herself out to have sex with men. It’s not as if this is a difficult word to translate in Hebrew so that it could mean that she is a prostitute or it could mean that she is a nanny. No, she’s a prostitute, and her life was full of grotesque sin. Such sin necessarily involves such a woman thinking lowly of herself. There is no way you can value your body so little unless you think of your value as little. Perhaps Rahab woke up in the morning and thought of herself as worthless and her only value to be to provide men, perhaps men she didn’t even know, with pleasure as they used her and discarded her again and again.
Now, the chapter ends with her receiving a promise that she’ll be spared of God’s judgment. Her life will not end when all others’ in Jericho die. She will be spared, and she will be brought to live among the people of God. And sure enough, when Joshua 6 recounts the story of the fall of Jericho, we read in 6:25, “But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.”
It’s a good story. But we might think that she lived among the people, but she obviously lived among them as a second-class citizen. But we would be sorely mistaken. She was redeemed, brought in among the people of God, and eventually was married to an Israelite named Salmon. Perhaps we know little of Salmon, but together they gave birth to a son named Boaz. We know Boaz because he reached out to another believing non-Israelite woman, a Moabite named Ruth, and took her as his wife. Together they had a son named Obed who had a son named Jesse who had a son named David. And eventually that line produced a son from Nazareth named Jesus.
That is to say, Rahab is not only spared, she is used to bring about the Messiah. Speaking of God doing more in each moment than we can imagine, Joshua 2 in some sense is a story about how God accomplished our salvation. He spared a prostitute named Rahab so that through her line he could bring our Savior into the world. Rahab’s salvation is the means for our salvation.
But my fear is that we would let this story be less than real to us, and by doing that we would allow ourselves to underestimate God’s redeeming power. So, just to put this in stark terms, it is my prayer that at Cornerstone we would see girls who’ve lived lives of prostitution believe in the gospel, know the redemption they have in Christ, be healed from the wounding they have brought to themselves and marry our sons. That is, your sons and mine. And if that thought makes us hesitate, I think it may be a sign that we underestimate the power of redemption, the power of the gospel.
My wife is really gripped with pain by the idea of the sex slavery going on around our world, even in this country as even little girls are taken and sold in prostitution. O how glorious it would be to see a girl rescued out of that lifestyle, redeemed, and marry one of our men who’ve come to Union because they’re pursuing the pastorate. That is what Christ does. That is what the gospel does. It redeems and it heals. It takes a prostitute in Jericho and uses her ultimately to bring the Messiah into the world.
Now, some of you might say that you feel as if you identify with Rahab. You’ve sinned in such ways that your shame nearly paralyzes you. You’ve been sexually promiscuous, perhaps had abortions, have sinned in such ways that you would rather me not say it from the pulpit because just hearing the act makes us cringe. And you have feelings of hate for yourself. You feel that you are worthless, and at best you think you are relegated to forever being a second-class citizen of the church. Well, Joshua 2 screams to you, “That’s a lie.” If God can use a prostitute as a means to bring his Son into this world, then he can and will use you.
Here is what you must do, however. Place your faith in Christ. That is, just like Rahab, you must place your entire hope in what he has done for you, dying on the cross for your sins and being raised from the dead. You must rest completely in him and what he has done for your hope of being acceptable before God. Your thought must be, “If what Christ has done is not enough, then I will face God’s wrath in hell because I am trusting entirely in him – not in my own works, not in anything else.” And I will tell you, any other response is sin, and it is foolish, leading ultimately to hell.
But if your response to Christ is to believe, then you are redeemed. God will cleanse you and heal you and use you. And there is nothing that makes you less than any other individual that Christ has redeemed. There is nothing that will keep you relegated to a position of being a second-class Christian. O, so respond in faith to our gracious Lord.
And, Christian, if you sit here today with your sin weighing on you, perhaps feeling that you too are unworthy to be a follower of Christ in so many ways, then remind yourself of God’s redemption. This morning if you repent and have trust in Christ’s death and resurrection for you, then you too are cleansed. Stop believing the lies that you have been ruined to the point of being worthless. Confess your sins, delight in forgiveness, and serve the Lord.
Yes, there are consequences for our sin, but there is nothing that makes you less acceptable to God than another if you will trust in and follow Christ. Therefore, let us this morning ponder how our God does more than we can imagine, how the only response to him is one of obedient faith, and the power of redemption.
We all should be relegated to second-class citizenship for our sin. We all deserve his punishment. And if everyone else knew all our sin we would run in terror from their presence. But as we come to the table this morning, let us be reminded that there is one who indeed knows all our sin, and he has said, “It has been paid for through my Son. You are forgiven. You are redeemed.” Let us come to the table and thank God, our God and Rahab’s God - the one who redeems prostitutes and has redeemed us. This meal is a celebration of our redemption in Christ. Amen.