Joshua 2:1-21.\u00a0 I had network problems this morning and the blog site also was down most of the day. \u00a0I lost the whole post this morning and had to redo it. \u00a0Then I couldn’t publish it. \u00a0Sorry this is getting our so late. \u00a0I hope it is helpful. \u00a0This is a very interesting and controversial story. \u00a0The controversy is because of how Rahab handles the soldiers who come to her door and because of\u00a0 the deal the spies make with her. \u00a0In Proverbs 6:16-19 it is clear that god considers lying a sin (Sin is an archery term that means we missed the mark. \u00a0In our lives not doing the things God wants us to do is sin). \u00a0In Deuteronomy 7:1-6 God told the Israelites to destroy of ban the people of the promised land when they took it over.\u00a0 They were told not to make any treaties with them.\u00a0 The reason given in theses verses is so that the Israelites will not turn away fro God.\u00a0 In Deuteronomy 20:16-18 the instructions were even more clear, the inhabitants were to be killed.\u00a0 But in Deuteronomy 20:10-15 we see that they were allowed to leave people alive in cities that were further away.\u00a0 The issue seemed to be staying pure and true to God.<\/p>\n
Most people think that Rahab lied to the soldiers about the spies.\u00a0 But I wonder if she did.\u00a0 Now she clearly did not tell all that she knew.\u00a0 When she was asked to bring out the men who had come to her house she admitted that they had come.\u00a0 She then told the soldiers that she did not know where they had come from.\u00a0 It is possible that when they first came to her house that she did not know where they were from.<\/p>\n
Rahab had clearly heard about the Israelites and their God.\u00a0 She had even come to the point in her life of believing that the Israelite God was the one true God. She had rejected the gods of her own culture. She even knew his personal name Yahweh.\u00a0 Not only did she believe in Yahweh, her belief influenced her actions.\u00a0 In James 2:21-25 Rahab is commended for her actions with respect to the spies.\u00a0 Some scholars point out that that passage does not mention her \u201clies\u201d when commending her.\u00a0 Perhaps that is because she did not lie.<\/p>\n
In Hebrews 11:31 she is listed as one of the Old Testament people who was an example of extreme faith.\u00a0 In Hebrews 11:2 we see that God affirmed theses people.\u00a0 There is no doubt that that does not mean that God approved of all of their actions but these two parts of the New Testament clearly link what she did to save the spies with her faith.\u00a0 It seems that God was in favor of what she did.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rahab is mentioned one other place in the New Testament.\u00a0 In Matthew 1:5 she is listed as an ancestor of Jesus.\u00a0 This of course does not mean that she did not lie, David is also listed and he was an adulterer and murderer.\u00a0 Rahab might have lied and she certainl was a prostitute but God accepted her in spite of her sins.<\/p>\n
Rahab then told the soldiers that at the time that the city gates were to be locked that the spies left and that she did not know where they had gone.\u00a0 Again this could have been true, they could have left, gone somewhere that she did not know about, and then have returned.\u00a0 So again she may have been telling the truth, just not all of it.\u00a0 She then told the soldiers to chase after the spies and suggest that they might even catch them.\u00a0 Again\u00a0 tricky but not necessarily a lie.\u00a0 Later she lets the spies down out of a window so that they could escape and tells them to go west, away from the river, and to hide until the soldiers gave up.\u00a0 She clearly was good at strategy but I don\u2019t know that she lied.<\/p>\n
Because of her faith in who God was and what He was doing Rahab knew that the Israelites would take over her country so she asked the spies to protect her.\u00a0 The spies assured her that she would be protected if she did not give them up and if she and her family would stay in her house during the attack.\u00a0 She would also have to put a scarlet thread in the window to identify her house.\u00a0 This part of the story would cause any Israelite to remember the Passover\u00a0 (Exodus 11:4-12:13) where the Israelites were protected from the last plague that God used to get Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave Egypt.\u00a0 If they would mark their door frames with blood and stay in the houses god wouldnot destroy their firstborn.\u00a0 If they left, however, they would die.\u00a0 The New Testament identifies the Passover as a symbol of the ultimate sacrifice Jesus would make for our sins (Read \u201cThe Old Testament Connection\u201d).\u00a0 An Israelite reding Rahab\u2019s story would see the Passover provisions being applied to this Canaanite prostitute.<\/p>\n
But God always had more in mind that just the Israelites.\u00a0 The promise made to Abraham what that one of his descendants would save the world (Genesis 12:3).\u00a0 Galatians 3:8 tells us that Jesus was that descendant and that it through our faith that Jesus is applied to our lives.\u00a0 Rahab had received who God was and what He was doing into her life.\u00a0 By faith she had believed in Jesus 1400 years before he was ever born (see John 1:12).<\/p>\n
God is a loving and forgiving God.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if Rahab lied or not, she certainly was a sinner, as are all of us.\u00a0 I also don\u2019t know if the spies technically broke a rule or not but they certainly seemed to support the intentions of God when we take the whole story together.\u00a0 Peter tells us that God doesn\u2019t want any to perish.\u00a0 But purity is important too.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad I\u2019m not god having to balance all of this out.\u00a0 But he is God, no problem for him.\u00a0 Lor thank you for being forgiving.\u00a0 Thank you for loving me in spite of who I am and what I have done.\u00a0 Thank you for offering your love and forgiveness to the who world.\u00a0 It is clear that there are rules, Rahab could only be saved if she obeyed.\u00a0 We see now that Jesus was the way to safely.\u00a0 Thank you for the way and thank you for telling us.\u00a0 Let my life please you and give me wisdom to do what is right in difficult situations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joshua 2:1-21.\u00a0 I had network problems this morning and the blog site also was down most of the day. \u00a0I lost the whole post this morning and had to redo it. \u00a0Then I couldn’t publish it. \u00a0Sorry this is getting our so late. \u00a0I hope it is helpful. \u00a0This is a very interesting and controversial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions\/466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}