Rahab Hides The Spies / The Scarlet Cord (Joshua Chapter 2)

Rahab Hides the Spies and the Scarlet Cord in Joshua 2

Okay, so we are continuing our study of the book of Joshua. Tonight, as you can tell, we're in chapter 2 where Rahab hides the Israelite spies. So we're going to look at that and also look at the significance of the scarlet cord.

Of course, by now we know that the theme of the blood of Christ is a theme that runs straight through the Bible. Whether it's the first sacrifice in the Garden of Eden or the Passover lamb, it has been said that there is a scarlet thread that is woven through the tapestry of scriptures.

And it all points to Jesus shedding his blood on the cross. So the scarlet cord that Rahab hangs out the window, obviously that's what it represents. It's not a coincidence that it's a red or scarlet cord.

So that's what we're going to look at in Joshua chapter 2. So we'll play the video and then we'll go through it more closely.

Rahab Hides the Israelite Spies

Now Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly. Go, view the land, especially Jericho. So they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho, behold.

Men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the.

Country. So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, bring out the men who have come to.

You, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the country.

Then the woman took the two men and hid them. Yes, the men came to me, but I did.

Not know where they were from. And it happened as the gate was being shut, when it was dark that the men went out. Where the men went, I do not know. Pursue them.

Quickly, for you may overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof. Then the men pursued them by the road to the Jordan, to the fords.

And as soon as those who pursued 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 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 faint-hearted 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, Sion 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 earth beneath. Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's house, and give me a true token, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they can deliver our lives from death.

Our lives for yours, if none of you tell this business of ours. And it shall be when the Lord has given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with you.

Then she led them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall. She dwelt on the wall, and she said to them, Get to the mountain, lest the.

Pursuers meet you. Hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Afterward, you may go your way.

We will be blameless of this oath of yours which you have made us swear, unless, when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father's household to your own home, so it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless.

And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our.

Head if a hand is laid on him. And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath which you made us swear. According to your words.

And she sent them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet cord in the window. They departed and went to the mountain, and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned. The pursuers sought them all along the way, but did not find them.

So the two men returned, descended from the mountain, and crossed over. And they came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen. Truly, the Lord has delivered all.

The land into our hands, for indeed, all the inhabitants of the country are faint-hearted.

Because of us. So chapter two begins with Joshua sending out two men to spy out the land, especially to spy out the city of Jericho, which would be the first major stronghold they encounter in the conquest of the land of Canaan.

Now, remember, here's the neat thing about it. Forty years earlier, Joshua himself went out on a mission like this, didn't he? He was one of 12 spies sent out on a similar mission. So how fitting is it that he's now the one leading the nation?

Since back under Moses in the book of Numbers, remember, it was Joshua and Caleb who had faith and said, let's take the land. It's ours. God has promised it to us. Let's take it. And then the 10 spies tried to discourage the nation, which they did.

So it's very fitting that Joshua is now the leader. So now Joshua and the children of Israel, where are they camped? Where does it say they're camped? Acacia Grove, which if you look at a map, this is about 15 miles away from Jericho.

And the Jordan River is in between. The Jordan River serves as sort of like a barrier in the middle. So it's about seven or eight miles from Acacia Grove to the Jordan and then another seven miles or so to the city of Jericho.

Now, is it a problem crossing the Jordan? Well, for two men, for two spies on a mission like this, it's not really a problem. But for the Israelite army, which numbers about 600 ,000 men, yeah, that's a.

Big issue. Yes, Marcus? It's not that deep or it's not that wide. When I was there, we had a baptismal on our side and then a Jordanian, a bunch of Christians being baptized on the other side.

Yeah, I guess it depends where it is you're crossing. But we're going to see a miracle happen in the next chapter, similar to Moses parting the Red Sea. We're going to see something along those same lines, just on a smaller scale that happens under the ministry of Joshua.

But that's next week. God is going to solve that problem of crossing the Jordan. Yes, Ray? Might it have been.

A little bit more water back then since the Lord had blessed the land and it was full of milk and honey at the time?

Certainly possible. Possibly. Just desert. Certainly possible. Yes. Okay, so how many are sent out? Two. Right. Not 12. Sending out 12 last time did not work out so well. So Joshua chooses two men. Presumably he chose two men that he knew were faithful.

I don't think Joshua was going to take any risks to have repeated what took place 40 years earlier. So I believe these are faithful men that Joshua hand selected. They come to the city of Jericho and they find Rahab.

She's called Rahab the harlot and verse one says that they lodged there. Okay, so a lot has been said and a lot has been written on this issue. What exactly is the situation here? Some claim that this would be a minority, but there are some people who claim that Rahab really isn't a harlot.

That she's just an innkeeper and this reputation she has is really just all a misunderstanding. That she's not actually a prostitute. Others believe that she was formerly a prostitute, but that reputation has just followed her throughout her life.

Others say no, she is currently at this moment, she is an active prostitute and she was running something like, an inn, but it would be more akin to a brothel. Well, if that's the case and the two spies, these two men come into the city and they're staying in her house, you can imagine what some people reading the scripture have assumed of why they were there.

That they were there with some sort of impure motives. Now in studying this, this is one of those things I came across. Honestly, I've read this story many times. That thought, it just never occurred to me.

I don't know. Has that occurred to you? Maybe it should occur to you. I don't know. But going back to what I said a moment ago, I am convinced that these are two, again, faithful men. So I was never under the impression that they went there for those reasons.

In fact, this would be the perfect place for them to go. As spies, what are they trying to do? They're trying to blend in. So if she is running a house of ill repute, which it looks like that's what's happening, this would be a place that strangers and passersby and weird people frequent.

So that this is where they would want to be, to just kind of blend in. And I think that's what's happening. So they would want to be inconspicuous. But either way, despite their best efforts, somebody notices them, don't they?

Okay. And the report gets back to the king of Jericho. And I know when we usually think of a king, a king rules over a country. But back then you had city states basically. So you might call that a mayor, but you did have kings over cities.

So anyways, word gets back to the king. And so the scripture doesn't really give us specifics about the situation, but going back again, I think these men are faithful. So somebody figures it out, whether it's their dialect, the way they talk, their accent, or just the way they look, they can tell that these two spies are Israelites.

So what would be the first thing that they assume? Has the reputation of the children of Israel gotten out? Well, I think we've already seen that going through chapter two, that it has. So the children of Israel, the people in the city of Jericho have heard the rumors.

Certainly Rahab has heard the rumors. They've heard about what God did to the Egyptians. They heard how the Israelites were winning one battle after another, and they're moving closer and closer to the land of Canaan.

So the people in Jericho, they figure, hey, we're next. So the city is probably on high alert. The word on the street is there's two spies. They're spying out the city. They're going to attack us soon.

And these two men stayed at Rahab's place. So verse three, it says, so the king of Jericho sent 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 country.

So the people are wise to what's going on. Now what happens next is Rahab, she lies to the king in order to protect the spies. She's in the process of defecting. So she wants to become a member of the nation of Israel.

We don't know what has led up to this. Maybe it just starts out that she's afraid. It's either convert to the nation of Israel, join them, or I'm dead. Because the whole city, we're all dead. And fear can be a powerful motivator.

There have been many people who have converted to Christ out of fear of hell or fear of, they want to escape the judgment. So that kind of thing certainly does happen. So she hides the spies and makes an agreement with.

Them. Jim, you had your hand up. If you look at verse 10, I think what's feared, because she uses the words, and we means not only her, but a number of people have heard about what happened, have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the river sea, of the Red Sea, for you, when you came out of Egypt and what you did on the two kings of the Amorites.

So that would cause fear. And then she goes on and says that the other side of Jordan was high on iron, and you destroyed them. So she was in fear of what they could probably do to Jericho.

Yeah. Yeah. She says that much, that the people in general in Jericho were afraid. Okay. So she makes this deal, strikes this deal with the Israelite spies. So there's a few things we need to discuss here.

First, she lied to the king. We all agree she lies. Okay. So the first thing was she justified in lying? If I ask you, is lying right? Is lying the right thing to do? Is lying a violation of one of the commandments?

Is lying wrong? You say, yeah, lying's wrong. Every Christian would say lying is wrong. So was she justified? That's the first thing. The second is really the principle that no matter who a person is, no matter their background, their ethnicity, anybody could join the nation of Israel.

Anybody. So let's address that first, because it's an easier question. So clearly we know after going through Genesis and Exodus, we know that God has made a promise with Abraham and made a covenant with him and his descendants.

So we're accustomed to thinking of Abraham and his seed and people who descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Obviously Rahab is not descended from them, but anybody could join the nation of Israel.

How did they do that? Remember, there are some rules given in the book of Exodus. Who remembers what they were? Circumcision. Okay. Circumcision is part of it. Also, they would have to observe the Passover.

They would basically have to accept, they'd have to assimilate. That's the word we would use. Okay. Yeah. I mean, they wouldn't be able to join the priesthood and there's certain things that would be off limits, but if they assimilated into the nation, they could join the people of God.

Yes, Marcus. Well, the direct answer to your question is, I don't know, but I was thinking about Ruth and then I was thinking, Joshua judges Ruth, but wasn't Ruth actually written earlier? Or maybe not.

But Ruth said, your people will be my people and your God will be my God. And so it sounds to me as if you can do this. Right. And let's go back. Yeah.

Ruth comes after this when they're already in the land, but let's go back even further. So there's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Another name for Jacob is Israel. Israel had a son named Joseph. And Joseph married, remember he's in Egypt, Joseph married an Egyptian woman.

So the heads of two of the tribes, or one half tribe and half tribe, Ephraim and Manasseh, these two men were half Hebrew, half Egyptian. So really there was never, even from the start, there was never this pure bloodline, I mean, whatever that means, even from the very beginning.

Yes, the Israelites did keep track of genealogies. That was very important. Who is part of which tribe, but anybody could join. It really wasn't about the bloodline. What was it about? Faith in God. Yeah.

Faith in the one true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So in the old Testament, you see these genealogies. Yeah, Karen. This is going back to the question,.

Is it right to lie? You said she was in the midst of trying to become an Israelite. So maybe she hadn't gotten to the point that she totally trusted God.

So she figured she was going to help him out. Okay. All right. That's an interesting thought. Was that verse the end justifies the mean? Yeah. Hezekiah six verse eight. Doesn't exist. Okay. I've never really thought of it that way, but even unbelievers, like you don't need to be an Israelite or you don't today, you don't need to be a Christian to know that it's wrong to lie.

This is one of those things where is a Romans chapter two, where God's law is written on people's hearts. Like people know instinctively that it's wrong to lie and steal and commit murder and adultery.

Like people know that already. Uh, so I'll address that more specifically in a second, but in the old Testament, you have genealogy. So that was important in the new Testament. We are told what to avoid genealogies chapter three, verse nine of the book of Titus tells us that.

So in this age, your ethnicity, your bloodline descended from Abraham or not today, it doesn't make any difference. Jew, Gentile, Paul says we're all one in Christ. Jesus, uh, John the Baptist, when he began his preaching ministry, do you remember what he said?

Matthew chapter three, verse nine, he said, do not think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children of Abraham from these stones. The point is the issue is not your lineage.

The issue is not who your father was or who your mother was. The issue is who is your God. So if Rahab accepted the God.

Of Israel, she could become an Israelite. It's, it's that simple. I think she was convinced that God that they worshiped was a true God. Right. And we're going to see that come out.

Right. So Rahab, maybe she hasn't done it yet. We don't know exactly where she stands. She's called Rahab the harlot, but we do know what she joins the nation. She turns away from her former life. And now on top of that, she wants out of paganism.

So she joins the nation of Israel. And who is the other woman, the well-known woman in the old Testament that joined the nation? You brought her up. Ruth. Right. And both Rahab and Ruth are mentioned in the genealogy of Christ.

And that's Matthew chapter one. So Ruth was a Moabite. And she told her Israelite mother-in-law Naomi, she said, your people shall be my people and your God, my God. Okay. Let's turn to Hebrews chapter 11.

So don't get too fixated on, Hey, this person isn't really descended from Abraham. I don't want to say it didn't matter back then because it did. And God definitely had a plan for Abraham's descendants.

And we often say, yes, we believe he has a future plan for them as well, but it's really more the issue of who do you worship? Okay. Hebrews chapter 11. I think the application, because I'm always trying to make application to the new Testament church, what would this mean?

We could say that you are not a Christian because your parents are Christians. You are not a Christian because you were sprinkled as, as an infant. Nobody is saved because of their parents' faith. A person is saved because of their faith.

So you have to make a personal decision to trust in Christ. And that's what Rahab did. I mean, she didn't know the concept of Christ necessarily, but she made a decision. And in making that decision, Rahab knew this could cause some problems, right?

She had to lie to the King. Her life was at risk. It's the same thing today. When you become a Christian, okay, maybe your life isn't at risk, but there are potential problems. Uh, when converting to the Lord, uh, if your family, if they're not believers that could cause problems with them and cause all sorts of problems.

Some people, uh, one theologian once said, you know, my life didn't get complicated until I became a Christian, but is it worth it? And you need to, you need to make that decision. Is it worth it? And of course, yes, it's well worth it.

And for Rahab, it was certainly well worth it. Look at Hebrews 11 verse 31. It says by faith, the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace.

So in the new Testament, Rahab is praised for her faith, which then leads to this other question. We know she lied about harboring the spies and that's all tied up in this. So was it wrong for her to do that?

Because the author of Hebrews seems to praise her. So let me just throw that question out there. Was it right or was it.

Wrong for her to lie? Certainly you look at it as being wrong, but there's plenty of instances in scripture where God has, uh, used people of all kinds of characters, liars, murderers, everything that, uh, for his purposes.

Okay. Well, at the time, was she a member of the Israelite family in under the law?

Yeah. As of that moment, she was not an Israelite. Well, I'm going to say it was right for her to lie. I, you know, you hate as a pastor to come out and say, you know, there are some times where it's okay to lie because someone will take that clip and say, he said that it's okay to lie.

That's what I said when you first mentioned it. Castanho, aren't you? Yes, Larry. Well, just like we are commanded to obey the authorities that are put over us. But there again, we see in the book of Acts that there are times where the authorities told the apostles to stop teaching in Jesus's name, but they didn't.

So if you're doing, if, if it goes against the Lord, it's wrong, even though it may be, or then you're going with men, but to go against men when it's right to go.

For the Lord. Right. And that's what she was doing. Yeah. I mean, two years ago, technically I was doing the wrong thing by keeping the church open for, uh, whatever, March, April, even though we were outside, we technically weren't doing, uh, I, if someone wants to disagree with this, that's up to you.

But I was under the conviction that the Lord told us to meet. And now that we have more information, we have more facts on, I believe it was the right thing to do. I believe it was the right thing to do for her to hide the spies, even though it was illegal for her to do that.

And it was illegal for her to lie to the King of Jericho. But in this situation, I believe it was the right thing to do. Joyce, she did start out with the.

Truth. She did admit that they had been there. Yeah. And I'm not trying to like set up. Okay.

Well, as long as you do this, cause we've touched on this before. Remember back in, in Genesis, we talked about Abraham and his wife, Sarah, Abraham told Pharaoh, and he made this agreement with Sarah.

Hey, tell Pharaoh you're my sister. And they told Pharaoh she is my sister. And we kind of went back and forth. Was that a lie? I said, well, she was his sister, but well, he didn't tell Pharaoh the whole story.

So, I mean, there are those complicated.

Questions. Jim. Something more recent within the last 70, 80 years, if anybody's ever heard of the paperback book, God smugglers, they would bring Bibles and hide them in any way that they could put them in their gas tanks to cross over into countries that didn't or wouldn't allow scriptures at all.

So they were lying. Yeah. And then when they get to the border, they necessarily, but, um, yeah. We're told them that they were in there. They had to get discovered, but a lot of times they didn't. So it's the same kind of a situation.

They were doing it for serving the Lord and the Lord recognized that Christian missionaries.

Cannot go to communist countries. They cannot go to Islamic countries, get to the port of entry and tell them the truth about why they're there and get in the country. Now they're going to try to avoid lying.

And we should listen. Lying is wrong and we should not lie. But there comes those situations where to tell the truth is at least to a greater evil. The classic example is in world war two, when Germans were hiding Jews in their house and the Gestapo comes and knocks on the door, you know where any Jews are.

Yeah. Here, go take them to the death camps. There's nothing virtuous in telling the truth in that situation. Yeah. Marcus. So two wrongs don't.

Make a right, but sometimes one wrong is all right. I don't know about that, but here's another.

Situation. Uh, the Hebrew midwives are seen as heroes for saving the lives of the Hebrew children. They had to lie to Pharaoh or the Egyptian officials because all of the male Hebrew babies would have been killed.

Uh, Hebrews chapter 11, verse 23, uh, mentions the parents of Moses, who presumably lied to the Egyptian authorities in order to save the lie, the life of Moses. So scripture has many occasions like this, where if they told the truth again, it would have led to a greater evil.

So I think it, what it comes down to is one's motivation. If you're lying to kind of save your own skin. Yeah, that's wrong. Um, and I, I don't have the perfect answer, but I don't.

Think what Rahab did was okay. I'll write you a letter. There's no such thing because it's not a vaccine. There you go. No part of the virus. Obviously this can open up a can of worms and.

Get into all sorts of situations. I don't have all the answers. Uh, James chapter two, verse 25 says likewise was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way.

Again, that was illegal. She lied. And yet James says she was justified before God for doing it. And so when James asked that, it's a rhetorical question. Yes, she was justified. Okay. Let's go back to Joshua chapter two, but don't, don't, don't you walk out of here and says, well, pastor grant says it's okay to lie.

We can say the Bible says so in Hezekiah.

You get the point. Okay. So as you're turning there, Rahab, she hides the two spies. She lies to the King. She says, yes, the men came to me and I did not know where they were from. And it happened as the gate was being shut when it was dark, that the men went out where the men went.

I do not know, pursue them quickly for you may overtake them. But in reality, they were upstairs hiding on a roof. So she goes up and speaks to them and look at what she says. Verse nine. She says to them, 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 faint hearted because of you.

What's another term for faint hearted chicken? Yeah. They're terrified. Absolutely terrified. Verse 10 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 are on the other side of the Jordan in whom you utterly destroyed.

And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any courage in anyone because of you. Why for the Lord, your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth. Any that's amazing that she would come to that recognition.

Why? Because people back then, the way they viewed religion and the way they viewed different deities that supposedly existed. I think we know the difference between polytheism and monotheism, right? What's a polytheist?

Many gods. Okay. Someone who, it's not just someone who believes in many gods. They serve more than one God. That's a polytheist, a monotheist. Christianity is a monotheistic faith. We believe that there is only one God, but people back then, many of them were actually not.

Most of them were not monotheist. That was actually a very rare thing. Most of them or many were not actually even polytheist. There is something called henotheism. Who knows what henotheism is? And I'll give you a hand.

It's not the worship of chickens. No. Who remember we've, we talked about this at least once before. So a henotheism is when you acknowledge that yes, there are other deities. There are more than one God, or there is more than one God.

But for us, there's only one God that we worship. So a tribe, a nation would have their God. To them, as far as they're concerned, we will serve one God, but all the other gods are real. They're just lesser deities, but our God is number one.

So it's likely that Rahab originally had that mindset. So the amazing thing is, it's not that she views the God of Israel as, you know, the top God, one of many. She seems to acknowledge that He is God of heaven and earth, as in He's the creator.

He is the only true God. So for her to come to that conclusion and believe it, she was justified because of that. As we talked about last week, and I alluded to James chapter two a moment ago, Rahab's faith, because it was a living faith, because she had true saving faith, it resulted in her actually doing something about it.

What did she do? She protect, she protected God's servants and she helped in the war effort, enlisting in the army, if you will. And she played a pivotal role in the conquest of the land of Canaan. So bringing that idea into the new covenant, what's a possible spiritual application you could make from that?

Okay, so we fight, back then they're fighting physical battles. Today we fight spiritual battles. Who are the soldiers in the Lord's army? Okay, so these spies came to Jericho. You might come across a soldier in the Lord's army.

It might be a fellow believer who's just out doing something. It could be missionaries, could be pastors, could be evangelists. If the point is, if you see one of God's soldiers, so to speak, out on a mission and they're in need and they need assistance in the providence of God, if you find yourself in one of those situations, you need to be like Rahab.

Hey, I believe, I believe in the Lord and I pray for his people. Okay, great, but you actually got to do something and help the person out in their time of need. So she asked the spies to swear an oath.

And because she has shown kindness, she asked them, please spare me and my family. And they agreed. And when the coast is clear, because her house was on the city wall, she was able to let them down by a cord.

And this is the scarlet cord. So the arrangement is, the spies say, make sure that cord is hanging there when we come back, when the army comes back. Look at verse 18. They say, to bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down.

So as long as the scarlet cord was in the window, when the Israelite army showed up, her and all those in her household, they were, what we would say, they were under the blood, right? They were under the Lord's protection, the scarlet cord, obviously being symbolic for the blood of Christ.

Matthew Henry writes this about the scarlet cord, like the blood upon the doorpost at the Passover. This recalls to remembrance the sinner's security under the atoning blood of Christ, and that we are to flee thereto for refuge from the wrath of a justly offended God.

The same cord Rahab used for the saving of these Israelites was to be used for her own safety. And what we serve and honor God with, we may expect he will bless and make useful to us. So I would simply close by asking you, what are you doing to serve God?

What are you using to honor God? Are we willing to be like Rahab and assist those who are fighting the Lord's battles? Because are there spiritual battles to fight? Are there spiritual battles going on right now?

There are, and we need to help. We need to do our part in the war effort. So the chapter closes with verses 23 and 24, which says, so the two men returned, descended from the mountain and crossed over, and they came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen them.

And they said to Joshua, truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are faint-hearted because of us.