Great Faith!

The framework of the law was never designed to bring us into the Promised Land that is the presence of the Lord but rather served as a tutor. It did not take long for men to realize they needed deliverance from it. Moses  dies at the very edge of the wilderness and his assistant Joshua, whose name means “Yahweh is salvation”, will guide the Israelites into the Promised Land. There are many beautiful analogies to be found in the book of Joshua that hint at the coming Messiah. As we ponder these spiritual truths let us not just marvel at them but apply what we learn to our own spiritual walks.

God opens chapter one by explaining to the Israelites that He is the source of their strength and to keep their eyes on Him alone. He gives them all this great inhabited land that that is sprawled out before them. He stakes off a great territory for them to conquer and inhabit. He instructs them to be strong and of good courage and that He will divide up the land as an inheritance to all twelve tribes of Israel. A great truth for everyone can be found in Joshua 1:9 and is a great verse to memorize “Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” We all need to remember that!

One of my favorite bible stories of all time is found in chapter two of Joshua; it’s the story of how Rahab hid two Israelites who landed in Jericho overnight to gather intelligence for Joshua. When word got to the king that two Hebrew spies were inside the city gates and staying at Rahab’s house he demanded that she hand them over into his custody. However, Rahab took the two spies and hid them inside her house. Then she lies to the king’s men and tells them that “yes” the men had stopped there but left the night before as the city gates were being closed and that if they wanted to overtake them they had better hurry in pursuit of them.

Here we have Rahab lying about the whereabouts of the two Hebrew spies. We shall see later that she is rewarded for her act of kindness and how God ultimately blesses her family for it. On the surface this situation seems hypocritical to holiness and something that God would strictly prohibit. Many would call this a moral dilemma but for me it’s a simply a glimpse into God’s merciful, gracious heart. In fact its interesting to note that Rahab is mentioned in  Joseph’s genealogy found in Matthew chapter one.

We read in Joseph’s genealogy  that Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jessie, and Jessie begot David the king. So here we have several Gentile women in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. If Rahab had not shown mercy to the Hebrew spies then king David would have never been born. If king David had never been born then a large portion of Messianic prophecy begins to crumble and fall to the ground without a genealogical foundation to be built on. For your information Mary, the mother of Jesus, is also related to king David through another of David’s sons but that’s another story with a different twist.

We discover from the text in Joshua 2:8-11 why God chose to pour out His grace and mercy on Rahab and her family. “Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, and said to the men: I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted 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 you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath.”

Rahab displays more faith, more belief and more trust than all the Israelites put together. You see its always been our faith that saves us. Jesus told us to believe in Him, to trust in Him that He alone was the way to enter into God’s presence and that is all the Lord God has ever wanted from us just to sincerely trust and believe in Him.  Jesus said in John 14 “I am the way, the truth and the life”.