“The Lord Your God is God in Heaven” Joshua 2:8-11

It’s interesting how God can use unexpected things and people to confirm His plans for us. We can be go about our usual business, aware of God’s leadership in something, only to have someone or something out of the blue affirm that we are where God wants us.

Today’s passage shows us how God used an unexpected person to let Joshua and Israel know they were to have success in claiming the Promised Land.

Background

One of the first cities Israel would encounter as they crossed into the Promised Land was Jericho. Jericho was an ancient city, famous for its daunting fortifications. If Israel was to have success, it would have to conquer Jericho first. There was no way to go around it. It had to be taken.

Joshua had been one of 12 men to explore the Promised Land from one end to the other. He, along with Caleb, encouraged the people to go with confidence to take the land. The other ten spies said it couldn’t be done, but Caleb and Joshua knew that God could bring about the success they wanted.

Having spied the country himself, now Joshua sent two men to look over the land. He wanted them to pay special attention to Jericho. Probably, Joshua wanted to get an idea of what he was facing.

The two spies entered Jericho, going to the house of a prostitute. No, this wasn’t the Sunday School thing to do, but it was a reasonable response. Two strangers coming to the city looking for some place to stay and for some companionship would seem less suspicious than two guys walking around the town and asking questions.

Word came to the king of Jericho that the spies were in the city, and it was decided that they had gone to the prostitute’s house. Her name was Rahab, but Rahab had a plan. When asked if the two men had come to her house, she admitted they had, but she said they had left. In reality, she had hidden the men under stalks of flax lying on her roof. Rahab told the soldiers she didn’t know where the men had gone, but she encouraged them to chase after the recently departed men. The soldiers did what she suggested, and they began searching for the men along the road leading to the Jordan River.

Meanwhile, back at Rahab’s house, she wanted them to know why she had hidden them and not turned them over to her own people.

I don’t imagine it’s easy to decide to change sides. The people of Jericho must have known that Israel was coming and that a siege was likely. Yes, Jericho had walls and had probably withstood sieges before. Still, with war, there is always the chance that something can go wrong. To turn one’s back on those with whom we live and share is something that must come with a heavy heart.

And it comes with a grave danger. To be discovered as a traitor generally results in dire consequences, not unusual to end in death. The shame visited upon traitors and those who turn their backs on a cause lasts beyond a lifetime. What do most of us know of Benedict Arnold other than that he betrayed the American Revolution?

Rahab had taken a huge gamble when she provided cover for the two spies. Now, as they prepare for a night on her rooftop, she takes the time to explain to them why she has done what she has done. She gives three statements that reveal a lot not just about her but also about God’s working in His promise to give the land to Israel.

It is here that God reminds Joshua and us that God gives victory to those who remain in His will.

Central Truth: God’s actions never go unnoticed.

Hearing about God:

Affirms His plans (vs. 8-9)

The first thing Rahab tells the men is what she knows to be true. “I know that the Lord has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you” (v. 9).

Rahab is able to turn her back on her people because she knows in her heart that God has already given the land to Israel. Not a single battle has been fought in Canaan, but Rahab already knows the entire land belongs to Israel. The reason she is so certain is because God has already given the land to them.

By Rahab’s words, God is telling the spies what He has already told Joshua and the nation. He has given them the land. These people who seemed as giants in the eyes of the 12 spies now quiver in fear before God and before Israel.

Imagine yourself to be one of the two men on the rooftop. As you hear what Rahab is saying, what are you to make of it? “We know that God has given this land to you.” I can almost feel the faith within the two men growing, the praise filling their hearts as they realize that God’s working in this land is already seeing effects. Hearing what Rahab has to say must have been like fresh cool water offered to a thirsty person. The reason she is protecting these men is because she knows God has given them the land.

She didn’t say, “God is going to give you the land,” or “God will probably give you the land.” Her words are a statement of an already accomplished deed. “God has given you this land.”

By Rahab’s words, God is affirming His plans to the spies, to Joshua and to Israel.

God speaks to us in strange ways, sometimes in ways we would never expect. Maybe it’s a word of confidence in you from someone whom we know isn’t a person of faith. Maybe it’s a general comment made regarding the plans before us. God works in our world to affirm His plans to us if we will listen.

Here we need to insert a warning. Sometimes, we hear what we want to hear, see what we want to see. We need to be careful that we don’t “hear God” unless we know He is speaking to us. Remember God’s words to Joshua. God told him to stay in the Word, to hold it close to him. If we will hear God’s voice, we must be close to Him in our obedience and in our awareness of Him. Just as the spies didn’t go looking for affirmation, we need to let God bring it to us.

Comes from unexpected places (v. 10)

It’s amazing how word can spread from place to place. Long before there was all-day cable news or television and radio, there were people who saw things and returned to their homes where they would tell their neighbors and the neighbors would then tell other neighbors.

Reading the Bible, there was no mention of other people being with Israel during their travels across the desert. There were certainly no people we know of who witnessed the parting of the Red Sea and the destruction of the armies of Pharaoh, yet Rahab knew of it. The destruction of the small kingdoms ruled by Sihon and Og may have been witnessed by others; somehow, Rahab knew about this, too.

Regardless of how Rahab heard about Israel’s conquests in leaving Egypt and in conquering the lands east of the Jordan, Rahab was quick to give credit to God first and Israel second. She correctly attributed the parting of the Red Sea to God’s activity. While she doesn’t give God direct credit for the destruction of the two kingdoms, she does use a word that we interpret as “destroyed.” The word refers to the giving over of a thing or people to God as an offering. Often, this is done by completely destroying the people in question. God did not accept the practice of human sacrifice, but He did use Israel to exact punishment for the sins of the people whom Israel conquered. We will see it numerous times as we consider the book of Joshua. Here it is enough to know that Rahab attributes the destruction of the two kingdoms as in keeping with the worship of God and obeying His commands.

The Bible is filled with things people say about God, and often these people have no relationship with God. Think of the centurion at Jesus’ crucifixion. He acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God. Whether that was a personal profession of faith or not, we can’t say. But the soldier did make the acknowledgment. There are numerous other times in the Bible and outside the Bible where people with no relationship with God will acknowledge His hand in the working of some improbable event.

Rahab’s words to the spies were a confirmation that she knew what she was talking about. She hadn’t just heard rumors and “conspiracies” and reached an erroneous conclusion. She spoke of things these two men had personal about, and to hear her speak about it was a confirmation to them, Joshua and Israel that God was indeed acting to give the Promised Land to Israel.

We need these affirmations periodically in doing God’s task that He’s called us to. God’s words to Joshua about not being discouraged or terrified apply to us as well. Satan likes to use the quiet times to cause us to doubt our actions and our calling. God will affirm His work if we will only listen to Him and to those around us.

Gives God the Glory (v. 11)

The result of what Rahab is telling the men is that those same people who were presented to them as giants in the land and people to be greatly feared are in fact people who are scared to death about Israel. It’s not just Israel that they fear; they fear the One who goes before them and fights for them. Listen how she describes God: “For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.”

There is an awareness that Rahab knows God is the One who is behind all of Israel’s success. It is God who parted the Red Sea. It was God who gave them victories over their enemies as they traveled to the land of Canaan. Now it is God who has given them the land. Rahab knows there is nothing she nor her people can do to stop the inevitable. And it is this knowledge that leads Rahab to make the choices she is making.

By harboring the spies, by deflecting attention away from where they are hiding, Rahab is throwing in her lot with God’s people. God’s actions and God’s victories have led Rahab to see that the only real option for her is to accept this same God and to follow Him.

By telling the spies that everyone in Jericho is terrified of Israel and Israel’s God, she is reaffirming what Joshua and Caleb told Israel when the spies first brought the report back to Israel. Yes, the task was difficult, but God would give the people into their hands if only they would trust in God and follow Him. It took 40 years to do so, but now Israel is ready and God is reassuring them of how He his giving Canaan to Israel, just as God had promised to Abraham so many years ago.

Conclusion

God has a habit of using the ordinary to convey His messages. He used Rahab in this passage to confirm for Israel that victory was theirs because God has already sent fear throughout Jericho and the surrounding lands.

Maybe you think you’re just an ordinary person with no extraordinary talents. Maybe you think you really don’t have a message and that others are more qualified to speak God’s truth.

You would be wrong.

All it takes to speak God’s truth is to see God at work and tell others about it. That’s what Rahab did. That’s what God wants each of us to do.

It’s when we do God’s will that the ordinary transforms into the extraordinary.

Are you ready to be extraordinary?