Sermon Tone Analysis

Rahab Hides the Spies

And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.”

· Shittim - City in the plains of Moab located just east of the Jordan River.

The Hebrew city name Shittim means “acacia trees.”

The city was likely named after a great quantity of the trees present at its location.

Acacia wood was a valuable commodity in the ancient Near East, and Shittim would have been a key locale for trade and commerce.

Biblical Relevance

· The Israelites gathered at Shittim to make final preparations before crossing the Jordan (; ).

· While at Shittim, Balak of Moab tried to prevent them from entering Canaan by using Balaam to curse them ().

· Many Israelites fell into Baal worship and intermarriage while among the Moabites and the resulting plague of judgment killed 24,000 people ().

· At Shittim, Joshua succeeded Moses (), sent out spies to gather information on Jericho (), and finally broke camp to cross the Jordan (3:1)

· remembers Shittim and “the righteous acts of Yahweh” there.

The city was a reminder to the people of the idolatrous depths to which they could fall if they did not guard themselves against the allure of neighboring pagan nations.

· Give history of Shittim from Israel’s past ()

· Apparently acting on his own, Joshua, himself a former scout (), sends out two spies secretly to gather tactical information about Jericho.

· These two spies, who are never identified by name, are called “men” by both the narrator (2:1; 6:22) and the king of Jericho (2:3).

· They are also labeled “young men” in (ESV)

23 So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her.

And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel.

· This latter term more than likely does not emphasize the age of the spies (Joshua sent out two lads/youths), but rather their military function as part of Joshua’s entourage.

Two points of interest emerge from the first half of v. 1.

a.

The first is the information that Joshua dispatched the two scouts from Shittim, Israel’s last stop in the wilderness wanderings.

The ancient site has not yet been identified by archaeologists, but according to the first-century a.d.

Jewish historian Josephus (Antiquities 5.1) it is located sixty stadia (approximately seven miles) from the Jordan.

informs us that it was at Shittim that the Israelites “played the harlot” (zanah) with the women of Moab.

And, of course, from Shittim the two Hebrew spies will spend their time in Jericho in the house of a harlot (zonah).

b.

A second item of interest is how one interprets Joshua’s decision to scout out Jericho, presumably to bring back vital information about the walled city’s vulnerability, or lack thereof, to siege.

His action could be judged negatively as a lack of trust in the word of God.

That is, why does a targeted city need to be scouted when (in the preceding chapter) God has given almost unconditional guarantees of success (e.g., “no man shall be able to stand before you”)?

Or, his action may be judged positively.

That is, the promises of God do not negate human responsibility; rather, they advance it along the lines of “faith without works is dead.”

And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there.

Entered the house of a prostitute The narrative avoids terminology that would suggest any sexual contact took place.

If this had been the meaning, the phrase “the house of” would have been omitted

(compare ).

Samson and Delilah

Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her.

Only two women are personally named in , “The Hall of Fame of Faith”: Sarah, the wife of Abraham (v.

11), and Rahab, the harlot of Jericho (v.

31).

There is quite a contrast in these two women, from a worldly view point.

· Sarah was a godly woman, the wife of the founder of the Hebrew race; and God used her dedicated body to bring Isaac into the world.

· But Rahab was an ungodly Gentile who worshiped pagan gods and sold her body for money.

Humanly speaking, Sarah and Rahab had nothing in common.

But from the divine viewpoint, Sarah and Rahab shared the most important thing in life: They both had exercised saving faith in the true and living God.

Not only does the Bible associate Rahab with Sarah; but in

, it also associates her with Abraham.

(ESV)

21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.

24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

James used both Abraham and Rahab to illustrate the fact that true saving faith always proves itself by good works.

But there’s more: The Bible associates Rahab with the Messiah!

(ESV)

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

When you read the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ in , you find Rahab’s name listed there (v.

5), along with

Abraham

Isaac

Jacob

Judah, and his brothers (the 12 tribes)

Boaz

Ruth

Jesse

David the king

Soloman

Hezekiah

Zerubbabel

Joseph

Mary

Jesus - Messiah

and the other famous people in the messianic line.

She has certainly come a long way from being a pagan prostitute to being an ancestress of the Messiah!

“But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” ().

But keep in mind that the most important thing about Rahab was her faith.

That’s the most important thing about any person, for “without faith it is impossible to please Him [God]” ().

Not everything that is called “faith” is really true faith, the kind of faith that is described in the Bible.

What kind of faith did Rahab have?

We will look at her faith in just a minute.

1. Courageous faith.

2. Confident faith.

3. Concerned faith.

4. Covenant faith.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the spies’ decision to stay at the house of a prostitute worked to their advantage.

It provided them with cover.

It provided them with access to valuable information.

And it was told to the king of Jericho, “Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.”

3 Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.”

4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them.

And she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.

5 And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out.

I do not know where the men went.