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Reading Hebrews 11:30-31 and reading about Joshua and the Israelites destroying Jericho by faith and how Rahab the harlot was saved by the grace of God. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith, Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient. After welcoming the spies in peace when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .utt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky and greetings everyone. My voice is doing much better, so we're back to our regular scheduled programming. I try to do New Testament study on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Old Testament study on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.
So back to our New Testament study, we have Hebrews 11 to finish up. I'm going to pick up reading in verse 30 and we'll go through verse 36 for today's reading out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord.
By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith, Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient. After welcoming the spies in peace.
And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I recount Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, as well as David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith, conquered kingdoms, performed righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong from weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, women received back their dead by resurrection, and others were tortured, not accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection.
And others experienced mockings and floggings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. I'll go ahead and read the rest of the chapter. Verse 37, they were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword.
They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in desolate places and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had promised something better for us, so that apart from us, they would not be made perfect.
We'll see how long it takes us to get through these 11 verses here. So back to verse 30, by fate, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. Do I really need to tell you which story this is?
But we'll look at it anyway. So it's in Joshua chapter 6, where we read about the Israelites marching around Jericho, then giving a loud shout, and the walls came a-tumbling down. But the whole thing began at the start of Joshua, in chapter 1, where after Moses died, Joshua becomes the leader of Israel, and the Lord says to Joshua, Be strong and very courageous.
Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn aside from it, to the left or to the right, so that you may be prosperous wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.
For then you will make your way successful, and then you will be prosperous. Joshua 1 .9, Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be in dread or be dismayed. For Yahweh your God is with you, wherever you go.
Now I've heard some preachers do this text, Joshua 1 .1 -9, and they'll say like, Joshua was actually kind of meek, you know, he didn't have a whole lot of courage, he wasn't really brave, and so that's why God had to tell him over and over again, be strong and courageous.
Well certainly the odds were against Israel. They were the visiting team, they didn't have home field advantage, there wasn't anywhere that they could go and replenish supply or anything like that. They were a small army, they were not that large, and the Lord even told Israel through Moses in the book of Deuteronomy, don't think it's because of anything great that you've done that you're going to receive this land.
It's because the people are evil, and I'm putting the fear of me in their hearts so that they will be given over into your hands when you come into the land to receive all that God had promised as an inheritance, that which had been promised to Abraham's descendants.
So that's why the Lord reminded him, be strong and courageous. It wasn't because Joshua was some kind of reluctant soldier. He had already led the armies of God against his enemies in battle and had been successful, and even saw Israel prevail against mightier enemies.
So the Lord reminded him, be strong and courageous, that your courage or your trust would not be in the strength of Israel, since again, they were kind of the underdog in a certain sense. If you were to just go by the might of the army or who had the advantage, it didn't belong to Israel, but whoever has the Lord is in the majority.
So if you look at it from that perspective, all of the pagans of the land, well, they didn't have a hope. The Israelites were going to be successful and God would fulfill what he had promised to the descendants of Abraham.
So this is why Joshua was told, be strong and courageous. And notice that it is also said of him to follow the word of God. If you follow God's word, if you meditate on it and do all that is said in it, then you will be prosperous in all that you do.
Prosperous in this sense, meaning that you would receive the promised land. It's not a passage that means that if you just do what God says or you trust in God or whatever, he'll give you all kinds of prosperity.
You'll be prosperous on earth. That's not what that means, unless you're reading prosperity in the sense of we will receive the kingdom of God, because yes, certainly you put your trust in Christ, you obey him, you live for him as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to the Lord, then yes, you will be prosperous.
You will receive the eternal kingdom of God. But in this context, in Joshua 1, we're talking about receiving the promised land. Joshua trusted God. He was strong and courageous in the Lord and being careful to obey all that God had commanded Joshua and the Israelites through the law that had been given to them.
They were prosperous in entering the land. Now in Joshua 2, it says right at the start of verse 1, Joshua, the son of Nun sent two men as spies secretly from Shittim saying, go see the land, especially Jericho.
So they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, behold, men from the sons of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.
And the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab saying, bring out the men who have come to you who have entered your house for they have come to search out all the land. But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them.
And she said, yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. Now it happened when it was time to shut the gate at dark that the men went out. I do not know where the men went, pursue them quickly for you may overtake them.
But she had brought them up to the roof and concealed them in the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof. So the men pursued them on the road to the Jordan. And as soon as those who were pursuing them had gone out, they shut the gate.
Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know that Yahweh has given you the land and that the terror of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you.
For we have heard how Yahweh 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 Sion and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.
Indeed we heard it and our hearts melted and a courageous spirit no longer rose up in any man because of you. For Yahweh your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. So now please swear to me by Yahweh, since I have shown you loving kindness, that you also will show loving kindness to my father's household and give me a pledge of truth and preserve my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters alive with all who belong to them and deliver our lives from death.
So the men said to her, our life for yours, if you do not tell this business of ours, and it will be when Yahweh gives us the land that we will show loving kindness and truth to you. So we have the men that come into Jericho to spy out the place.
Rahab hides them. They are able to return back to Joshua and a vow is made between Rahab and the spies that when the Israelites come against Jericho, she and her household will be protected. We go on to read in verse 15, she let them down by a rope through the window for her house was on the city wall so that she was living on the wall.
And she said to them, go to the hill country, lest the pursuers reach you and hide yourselves there for three days until the pursuers return. Then afterward, you may go on your way. And the men said to her, we shall be free from this oath to you, which you have made a swear, unless when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down and gather to yourself into the house, your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father's household.
And it will be that anyone who goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head and we shall be free. But anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him.
But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be free from the oath, which you have made us swear. So there was the exchange. And of course, we see that come up in Hebrews 11, verse 31. We read about the actual destruction of Jericho in Joshua, chapter six and verse two.
Yahweh said to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and the valiant warriors and you shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once you shall do so for six days.
Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark. Then on the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And it will be that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city will fall down beneath itself and the people will go up every man straight ahead.
Now notice the first words of Yahweh there in Joshua six to see, I have given Jericho into your hand. So Israel was successful because God had made it happen. We continue on into verse six. So Joshua, the son of none called the priests and said to them, carry the ark of the covenant and let seven priests carry seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of Yahweh.
Then he said to the people, go forward and march around the city and let the armed men go on before the ark of Yahweh. And so it happened that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of ram's horns before Yahweh passed on forward and blew the trumpets and the ark of the covenant of Yahweh came after them.
And the armed men went before the priest who blew the trumpets and the rear guard came after the ark while they continued to blow the trumpets. But Joshua commanded the people saying, you shall not shout, nor let your voice be heard, nor let a word proceed out of your mouth until the day I tell you shout, then you shall shout.
So he had the ark of Yahweh taken around the city circling at once, and then they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp. Then Joshua rose the next morning and the priest carried the ark of Yahweh and the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of Yahweh went on continually and blew the trumpets and the armed men went before them and the rear guard came after the ark of Yahweh and they continued to blow the trumpets.
Thus, the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp, they did so for six days. Verse 15, then it happened that on the seventh day they rose early at the breaking of dawn and marched around the city in the same manner seven times.
Only on that day they marched around the city seven times. Now it happened that on the seventh time the priests blew the trumpets and Joshua said to the people, shout, for Yahweh has given you the city and the city shall be devoted to destruction.
It and all that is in it belongs to Yahweh. Only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in the house shall live because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest as you are devoting them to destruction, you also take some of the things devoted to destruction and make the camp of Israel devoted to destruction and bring trouble on it.
But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to Yahweh. They shall go into the treasury of Yahweh. So the people shouted and the priests blew the trumpets. And when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down beneath itself so that the people went up into the city.
Every man straight ahead and they took the city and they devoted to destruction everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old and oxen, sheep and donkey with the edge of the sword. Now to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, go into the harlot's house and bring the woman and all she has out of there as you have sworn to her.
So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had. They also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel.
But they burned the city with fire and all that was in it, only the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of Yahweh. However, Rahab the harlot and her father's household and all that she had, Joshua preserved alive and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
Not only did she live among them, but she even married into the line of Judah and Rahab is mentioned in the ancestry of Jesus in his genealogy, which we read in Matthew 1 5. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab and Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth and Obed was the father of Jesse.
So there was a man named Salmon who married Rahab and they had a child named Boaz and Boaz would marry Ruth and the two of them would have Obed and then Obed would father Jesse, who would be the father of David and of course from the line of David would come the Messiah.
So what a wonderful way that the Lord ended up blessing this woman and what a demonstration of forgiveness as well. This woman was a harlot and yet she got to marry into the tribe of Judah and by God's grace she even became an ancestor of the Christ who would come.
What a beautiful story that is. Because of her faith she was rewarded and she's even listed in Hebrews 11 as a hero of the faith, as one whom we are to imitate in our faith. Not who she was before she came to faith, not the harlot, but the forgiven woman who was made righteous by God because she put her faith and trust in him.
And so by fate the walls of Jericho fell down. Now you probably have heard that there was a big excavation of Jericho in the early 1900s. This was from 1907 to 09. There was a group of German archaeologists who discovered the city and we would expect to find in that archaeological discovery some evidence that matches the biblical story.
And sure enough, when the Germans excavated at Jericho they discovered a portion of the wall on the north side of the city had not fallen. All of the rest of the walls in the city fell down. They fell straight down or the way that it's worded in Joshua 6, let me see if I can find that again.
The wall fell down beneath itself. It's like it fell under itself or something underneath collapsed so that the wall just came down. And that's exactly what they found. It was so baffling to the archaeologists that they didn't know how to explain the way these walls collapsed.
Furthermore, there's that portion of the wall on the north side of the city that had not fallen. And that very likely was where Rahab and her family lived. The Lord spared Rahab and her family the destruction because she trusted in God.
Moreover, there were houses built on the rampart against the outer city wall and the walls of these dwellings were thin, only one brick in width indicating that this was likely a poor part of the city.
It is plausible that this was the place where Rahab's house was located, and though the wall was weakest there, that was the wall that was left standing. After Israel marched around it and blew the trumpets and the walls again came a tumbling down, you can't say that about the walls of Jericho without adding a tumbling, the walls came a tumbling down.
And it was because of Rahab's faith that she and her family were spared. So verse 31 again of Hebrews 11, by faith, Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient after welcoming the spies in peace.
And likewise, for you and me, my friends, we will not perish along with those who were disobedient if we trust in the Lord as she did. Christ is our Savior, he who died and rose again. He died as an atoning sacrifice.
He rose from the dead, conquering death so that all who believe in him will not perish under the judgment of God. But we will have everlasting life, imitate the faith of Rahab. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read here in this word, and may this remind us to put our trust in Christ, to not be as the world, but called out from the world to be followers of Jesus Christ in this world.
And just as we have come to salvation through the message of the gospel that we have heard of Jesus, who died and rose again, ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, who is coming back again to judge the living and the dead.
We have trusted in him and so we are saved. It is only by this message of the gospel that anyone is saved. So give us courage even in these days to preach the gospel of peace to those who are perishing so that they will have peace with God and live by faith.
We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
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Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study when we understand the text.