Disclaimer: Please forgive any typographical, grammatical, and/or content errors in the following notes. They are not meant to be an exact transcription, but rather a helpful guide for those who appreciate the written word along with the spoken word. If you have any questions on what was taught, feel free to reach out on our ‘Contact Us’ page.
Before we dive into today’s message, I want to start with a very brief recap of last week’s message, highlighting how rest is the primary fruit of faithfulness, and that our ultimate rest is in Jesus Christ.
This was an evident theme that appeared multiple times in the first 17 verses of chapter 6, which of course led to a fun conversation about the sabbath, the sabbath year, and the year of Jubilee. Which all of those points mentioned, ultimately served the purpose of pointing to Jesus Christ. Who had come to usher in the year of jubilee, proclaiming liberty to the captives and now through His good news, his gospel, we find our rest in him.
Now, whether you have heard the last message or not, you will not be lost in hearing this message, but because we are speaking on a rather sobering topic of God’s judgment, it is important to hold onto the comforting truths behind God’s desire for us to find our rest and our confidence in him, and how his heart is directed towards us. How the God of the Old covenant is the same as the new, that sin can not go unanswered and unpaid for,
Which is why any and all who place their faith in who Jesus is and the works that he had done and is still doing, can operate this life, this battle, from a place of rest.
Amen?
So now that the tone has been set, please, if you would turn to Joshua chapter 6 and meet me starting in verse 16 and going through to the end of the chapter.
And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the LORD has given you the city. And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the LORD; they shall go into the treasury of the LORD.” So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.
But to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, as you swore to her.” 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. And they burned the city with fire, and everything in it. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, “Cursed before the LORD be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho.
“At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates.” So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land.
This is such a familiar story, so many people who are not familiar with the bible at all, know of this battle. And the walls of Jericho falling down flat after a few laps around the city, a trumpet blast and a shout.
Anytime we see a supernatural work of the Lord, the temptation is always going to be there to have our attention be fixated on that work. But oftentimes the miracle will just be pointing us to the greater work, the truth message being conveyed, and it is our job to not lose sight of the forest through the trees as they say.
Church, the story of the battle of Jericho was not an allegory or a metaphor, this is history, this happened. The bible does not try to hide that this has happened, or shove it off to the side. So neither should we.
After all Remember 2 Tim 3:16 and 17—All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The good news of the bible is so good church, only because the bad news is really so bad so we must never lose sight of what it was we have been spared from, and ultimately what so many will come to know as their ultimate reality.
Within today’s message we will be spending our time answering three questions that come from our text. First of which is who are the Cannanites? This will give a backdrop of information to help a greater understand of not just chapter six but the rest of the book of Joshua.
Then we will ask and answer the question that if God is love, how can he order this judgment, even upon children?
Which the answer of that question will transition us nicely to ask What is God’s sovereign judgment? This is where we will look at God’s judgment from a more doctrinal point of view revealing to us more of who God is, and His judgment that is yet to come.
So who are the Canaanites?
The first time we get introduced to the Land was back in genesis, this was not only the land that God had brought Abraham to but in Genesis 15, we read that this land was apart of the covenant that God gave to Abraham. This land would later become known to us as the land of Canaan.
Canaan was a grandson of Noah and his descendants were known as the Canaanites, but while the term Canaanite referred specifically to his descendants it was also used in a broader sense when referring to anyone who lived in the land of Canaan.
The land was often contested over for generations, for how fertile and full of life it was in some areas and the natural defenses that the landscape would provide as well. The land was really made up of two different types of geography, the coastal lands and the Jordan rift valley. Because of its rather central location in the ancient known world, it served as a land bridge to Africa, Europe and Asia.
It was vitally important for not just trade but the spreading of culture and ideas. The natural terrain of the area would however only allow for a very limited amount of passageways through this land.
Wisely enough, the Cannanite people would exploit these factors of its location and build strong well fortified cities right on the trade routes. This would allow them to tax and regulate the intercontinental trade routes between massive empires while simultaneously giving them some political power that their size and strength would not have demanded.
Naturally, this would make the land of Cannan a highly sought after land, key for any aspiring conquering civilization to control, which in turn as a result, made the Canaanites no stranger to invading armies. But because of the terrain, and strategic locations of these city states any military campaign would prove to be very difficult.
While the land of Canaan did not fly a single banner, but rather had a similar model to what we know as the Greek city-state which would come some time later in history.
From time to time, if they had shared a common threat, like we see Israel becoming to them, they would form a coalition of Kings to fend off the invader.
More often than not though, their warfare would be more of a vollying back and forth from the city states who were trying to expand their influence and power within the territory by wrestling for control of these cities that controlled these major trade routes.
There were between 20 and 30 heavily fortified, major cities states occupied this whole land, all of which would have smaller villages on the outskirts of them. In the North Jordan Rift valley the powerhouse was Hazor which we will see later in the book of Joshua, and in the south was where we find ourselves today in Jericho.
Now the city of Jericho was the capital city of the Amorites within the land of canaan. It was not the largest city in the land of Canaan, but it was the largest city of the south Jordan rift valley, and quite possibly the most well fortified city in all of Canaan, because of its placement nestled on a hill in between mountains and controlling all access to fresh water.
In verse 2 of chapter 6 God was sure to mention that shut up within the city walls were its king, people and their mighty men of valor.
Just like David’s mighty men of valor, that was not an adjective given to just anyone who can muster up the energy to pick up a sword. These men were no strangers to war, certainly in comparison to Israel’s army. I am sure these men of valor to the Canaanite people were something fierce and to be feared. Remember the report the spies Moses had sent into the land came back with? How they spoke of these heavily fortified cities with walls that reached the heavens, that were occupied by giants
But with great risk comes great rewards, right? Even the grapes they took back from the land couldn’t be carried by one Israelite spy alone. The city of Jericho would have been an impressive sight for these desert wanderers to witness.
The city, like many cities, was built on a hill to allowed them the best strategic position to fend off any attackers, but what separated Jericho from most in its day was that it had two separated layers of walls, and from the top of the interior wall to the bottom of the exterior retaining wall that cut into the hill was believed to be about 45 feet tall. That would be equivalent to a 4 story building. In total this city was roughly 9 acres, so not very large, where we are today at Liberty high school according to their website is situated on 22 acres and has 3 stories. Scholars estimate it would take about an hour for Israel to go around the city one time.
Now part of what was implied in verse 2 with everyone shutting themselves in the city was that everyone who lived in the smaller villages or farms around the city would have shut themselves into the city behind its massive walls for protection
Most estimate based on its size, 3,000 people would be a on the high side of how many people would have gathered within the city walls of Jericho at the time of the marching. Now these cities were independent from each other, they were however largely unified in the worship of their polytheistic sets of gods, and the worship practices that came along with them.
Church as a universal truth, people become a reflection of that which they worship, and in the worship and emulating of their demonic deities the society as a whole was wicked.
As a summary here is some of the endearing qualities we can see from the word of God in Leviticus 18, 19 and 20 along with some well verified extra biblical sources that outline Baal, El, Asherah and Molic worship, and as a disclaimer, their practices are rather disturbing but all found in the bible
The Canaanites had practiced divination and witchcraft in which they pronounced curses on people, they would commune with the dead through the utilization of mediums and necromancers, they had engaged in adultery, homosexuality, transvestism, pedophilia, bestiality and incest all of which were normal practices in their day to day life, but while at their temples all of these practices would be magnified and celebrated through orgies and prostitution. They would perform strange ceremonial practices of cutting their bodies and bleeding out, to try and elicit some sort of response from their God we witnessed that at Mt. Carmel with Elijah. But above all of those other evil practices they would burn alive and sacrifice their own children to the worship of their demonic lower case g gods.
When it is a community who sins, or a society who is perpetrating evil, it is the society and community who will be judged for it. Here with in our text we find the time of God’s judgment to have come up Jericho, verse 17- 24 speak directly to the judgment the city will receive. God commanded for the lives of about 3,000 men, women and children to be slaughtered. Soldiers, farmers, mothers, babies, grandparents and the livestock, then burn down the city. Devote it to the Lord.
Leading us to ask our second question for today.
If God is love, how can he order this to happen?
This is a very legitimate question, that is not just reserved for people who do not follow Christ.
The temptation is certainly there for believers to just move past this question and say something like, His ways are higher than my ways and thoughts are higher than my thoughts.
But Church, 1 Peter 3:15 exhorts us to always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.
While we still are in the history portion of today’s message and before we dive into more of an apologetic approach to this question.
It is worth noting that these actions would be on par for the warfare of the day in the late bronze age. If a conquering nation was going to occupy an enemy territory, that would often take more resources than it would be worth, occupying the land would mean they would always need to have some form of military presence there to quench any potential uprising, and while the soldiers would be there that meant they were not going to be then advancing or defending their nations interest elsewhere. So by no means was this something that singled out the Israelites as something that would be overly cruel for the culture that was around them. And of course there was always the slavery option too that many nations in that day would choose forcing the inhabitants into slavery over occupying,
But back in Leviticus 18-20, well before any of these events had taken place, the Lord had warned Israel of the practices of the canaanites and to stay away from them, if these things were to be practiced within the camp they were to kill anyone committing these abominable acts
A little leaven, leavens the whole lump, sin is like a cancer, church. It needs to be killed and cut off the body. God just finished doing this to the generation of Hebrews that went before in the previous generation by letting them die off in the wilderness before entering into the promised land. This seriousness about not allowing these Canaanites practices contaminate the camp of Israel was illustrated by our text in verse 23.
Yes, they honored the commitment made to Rahab, even bringing salvation to her whole household, but for a time and we don’t know how long, they had some period of assimilation where they too were not allowed inside the camp.
God is love, but sin is sin, church, and we know that the penalty of sin is death and that God is a just God.
So the real question becomes then how can God be just and merciful at the same time? We can look to another very familiar story, the one of King David and Bathsheba.
And you know the story, David stayed home from battle when he saw this beautiful, married woman bathing on her rooftop, and one thing led to another pretty fast, and she got pregnant. God tells David that the cost of sin is death, not his death but the death of the child that was conceived through it. We see David, then begin to fast and pray that his child may live. But the judgment that God had declared has come to pass and the child dies.
It was then David declared “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”
David had a confident expectation that the child was not going to return to him but he would go to the child and it is through this text theologians gather that even though we are all sinful and all deserve death, God shows his mercy on those who have not yet reached a point of being capable of understanding their own sinfulness
So although they are guilty, as we all are, God views them as innocent bringing salvation to any who die before they reach an age of being held accountable.
So back to today’s text, sin is sin and it can not be overlooked. So how can a God who is love order something like this to happen?
I feel it would be a pretty safe bet that those young ones would grow up to follow right in the footsteps of their parents. To a point of life where they would be accountable knowing the weight of their choices.
Their death now, would not be like the many child sacrifices their Fathers had done before to appease a demon god. Their death was mercy from the Lord, growing up almost certainly ensured they would continue the practices of their parents at the very least, but potentially even worse, they could have led those practices into the camp of Israel.
We tend to only look at the here and now, but if we set our eyes on the eternal we can see the great mercy the Lord had on these children by allowing them to die before they would become accountable for their actions. While still not comprising on his character of being a holy just God.
Church, specifically now for the younger ones listening to this message, the bible does not provide any specific age that children are to become accountable, if you have reached a point where you have begun to understand what sin is and how your heart desires the very temporary pleasures that come with it, even though you know it is wrong, you have reached the age where you are accountable for your own faith, to which you and you alone will answer for.
Now these answers certainly help us to understand this specific situation of God’s judgment.
But we are still going to need to answer the last question we sought to answer for today, What is God’s sovereign judgment?
But first as simple as this may seem, lets first establish common ground as to the definition of judgment so we can build our understanding off of that
Judgment is a decision given after careful consideration, with the effectiveness of the decision directly in relation to the level of authority of the one who has handed down the decision.
It is a term meant to elicit a legal connotation, where the decision that is to be rendered is to fall within the legal boundary already established by the law, enforcing the original intent of the law and will never be contradictory to the law
Now ultimately there will be two separate judgments, and today we have enough time to scratch the surface of one of them
First, is called the judgment seat of Christ or the bema seat, this is a judgment that as followers of Christ we will be subjected to.
For the sake of time, we just can not cover this. But it is a really cool study and in my notes there are verses that can help guide and direct you in doing your own study if you want:
2 Corinthians 5:10, Romans 8:1, Romans 14:10-12, galatians 3:22 1 corinthians 3: 10-15, 1 Corinthians 9:24-25, 1 Thessalonians 2:19, 2 Timothy 4:8, 1 Peter 5:4, and Revelation 2:10
Now we are left with the judgment that will fall upon all who have not placed their faith in Christ. They will stand before the great white throne of judgment described in revelation 20:11-15 where John records his vision of seeing God sitting on this great white throne, and all of the dead would stand before his throne where they were to receive judgment based on their lives and according to what they had done. And anyone whose name was not found in the book of life would experience what was called the second death and be thrown into the lake of fire
We know, church, this will be the final result of God’s judgment, but let’s take a dive into understanding how it got to this point. And through this exploration, we are going to be able to learn more of who our God is.
The first time we witness God’s Judgment being rendered was in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve had brought sin into the world and with it as promised, death. This is the first time we see the concept of substitutionary atonement, the first time we see the death of an innocent creature who had taken the place of the guilty to cover their penalty owed.
Church, God’s Judgment is not a part of his character
it is an action, that comes as a result of his perfect character. God is a sovereign God of order, who is just, merciful and patient. He is so patient church, he is so loving. If God were to overlook any bit of sin then he could no longer be just. Every judgment that is brought down by God is meant to serve the function of restoring the order of creation that he had first put in place that our sin has thrown out of balance
Hosea 6:6
For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
God’s love for us was so much greater than any other aspect of his creation, for the sole reason that he made us in his image. There is nothing, I repeat Nothing that we did to earn his love. This truth is something that I have known for sometime now in my walk with the Lord, but now with my wife being pregnant with our first child, our daughter. This is a thought that comes to my mind, that has struck me harder than it ever has before.
I have heard from so many parents that there is just no words that can adequately describe the greatness of the love that a parent feels for their child.
I haven’t experienced that yet, admittedly, but as one who enjoys reflecting on these things, I can’t help but think of this innate, crazy, indescribable, unstoppable love that goes from a parent to a child is a gift that God has given us, built in to our very own nature, to have a greater recognition of the love he has for us. I can’t wait to be able to experience that kind of love for my own child,
Church, our Sin came with a great price, which had to be paid for with death. But not our death, because of sin entering into our very nature, we already were dead. Being made in the image of God, we are going to be living for eternity. You know how we receive new bodies in the resurrection that will allow for us to spend eternity forever united with our creator?
Well, if I read my bible right, the poor souls damned to Hell will have that too, kind of. The bible in Daniel 12 and Revelation 20 give insight that those who will be thrown into the lake of fire will also be apart of the resurrection and receive bodies. And like the parable in Luke 16 with Lazarus and the rich man, the rich man went down into Hades and was suffering torment begging for Lazarus to just dip his finger in some water to touch his tongue to cool it.
Their new resurrected bodies are ones that will be able to withstand an eternity of anguish, suffering and complete separation from life itself.
God’s judgment, is as a result of God’s character, God being a Just God and a God of Order will always have the judgments he decrees will always serve to restore His order. And we see evidence of God being a God of order popping up everywhere, so before we can understand God justice and the judgments that come from that it is imperative to understand why God is a God of order.
If you want to turn in your bible to the book of Romans, chapter one for you to look at while I summarize.
Paul in verses 18-23 beautifully demonstrates this point by stating how God has made himself known to all of humanity through his divine nature and eternal power. How everything we witnessed in the entirety of creation would point us to the fact that there is a God who has created everything together so beautifully. Establishing an order to creation that could only point to that fact there was a creator.
But rather than worshiping God the creator, man decided to worship nature and science and claiming to be wise they became fools.
Paul goes on in the next eight verses until verse 32, to explain how this decision man has made to give the glory that the creator deserves to his creation rather than to him, brings about God’s judgment. This judgment first decreed by God, is to them over to their sinful nature. Giving full ability to pursue the lusts of their hearts. The pursuit of the lust of their heats will then led to the further corruption of their passions and when this stage of judgment is reached it can be easily identified by its sexual immorality that will run rampant. And, lastly, once a society or individual has reached this point and still has not turned to God and given him the honor that was due the Lord will give the people up to a debased mind and Paul gives a telling list of adjectives of what that looks like in those last few verses.
They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
That final judgment leads to a complete and utter breakdown of any bit of morality in their character, and quite frankly, all the traits Paul just mentioned are direct opposites of God’s character.
Highlighting how, when man is left to himself, will grow further and further away from representing the image of God that he was created to reflect.
Church, it wasn’t just through nature that God established order but Paul goes on in Romans 2 to say the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.
Church, this judgment from God that we see here, is really another form of his mercy to us, for as long as he still allows for man to breath, there is still opportunity to turn to him.
When one thinks of God’s judgment, they may think of a flood that will drown the whole world, or fireballs raining down from the heavens, plagues or famines. Or even like the scene at Jericho. And yes, while that is true, it is never the first response God gives. God is so patient with us because he loves us so much and wants the wicked to turn to him. There is never a distance too far that his love can not reach. Amen?
There is only one sin that is unforgivable. And that is as Christ puts it, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, and all that means is you have gotten to the end of your life, whenever or however that may come, and even still, you have rejected the work of God in your life. Ultimately, the rejection Jesus Christ
The much more common form of judgment we witness God handing down is just to give man over to themselves. Remember, judgment was first initiated in the garden. There man chose to rebel against the very character of God, and break away from the order he had designed in creation. And every time we see Gods judgment at a very high level view it is that same pattern of rebellion from God’s order that cause it. This judgment rendered led man down a path that we discussed ran rampant in the land of Canaan.
Chapter 1-3 of Romans wonderfully highlight the overall depravity of humanity. Paul really makes an airtight argument of how everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We all deserve condemnation, this is why there is no such thing as a good christian apart from Christ. But yet despite that, God loves us so much still!
And that is why we have good news, Church!
Christ, who was not from the seed of man, but came from the seed of woman, which I don’t know if you know this, but that’s not how biology works. But was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit and became God incarnate, Emmanuel, God with us.
Church, Christ was not plan b that God had after death’s reign over this world began in the garden. No, he was the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world according to Revelation 13:8.
For creation to be perfect and enter into that permanent eternal rest with our creator that we were talking about last week, sin had to be defeated and it was going to take more than the blood of goats and bulls to do that. Christ was called the last Adam in 1 Corinthians 15, and Hebrews 1:3 says, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.”
In other words, he wielded the authority God had given to the first Adam but instead of apart from God’s order he restored it here. Being the only man who was not born into death, he would be born to die. One sacrifice once and for all, tearing the veil between God and man and as we spoke about last week ushering in the year of jubilee, proclaiming liberty to the captives, perfectly fulfilling God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.
We by faith are allowed to share in his death, God allows for the death of his son where Christ, who knew no sin, took on the full penalty of sin, allowing us by faith to be put in good standing with our creator. The sacrifice of Christ, showcased beautifully God’s characteristic of being perfectly Just and merciful. God is Good, full of mercy compassion and grace, but He is just.
Church, Ezekiel 33:11 says, “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.”
Sin can not be simply overlooked, it had to be paid for
I am the way, the truth, the life there is no way to the father except through me – John 14. This is an extremely narrow and limited statement from Christ, but the truth is narrow, church. “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Jesus’s words in Matthew 7:13-14.
The people who will experience the second death, they will be the people who reject this as truth. And Church, they are not just in Jericho, they are everywhere. I would wager some would even be listening to this message. By this point of the message, in hearing God’s word and His truth, there should no longer a question to why God brings is his judgment upon us, and how every one of us in our own sinful nature is deserving of his condemnation. The real question is not how can God my creator condemn me, but rather how is it that he can love me so much that he had his son take on the punishment that was due for to me?
Please turn with me to one final spot today to Romans 9 for the last point that ties this all together.
Romans 9:11-13 – Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
If God’s love for us is dependent only on that fact we were made in his image then how can he hate Esau here? God loving Jacob and hating Esau, comes down to the context and translation. It has nothing to do with the emotions that we tie into either love or hate, but rather has everything to do with God choosing one man and his descendants and rejecting another man and his descendants.
God, in fact, blessed Esau abundantly in many ways. We read in Genesis how he had a large family who was thriving in the land. God loved Esau, but God chose Jacob. The concept expressed through this verse is really the final piece to the puzzle of understanding God’s judgment. It is in his sovereignty, His ultimate right to choose to rule and reign as Lord over all, the way that he sees fit
The text was clear to mention that, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, God chose Jacob. Paul further elaborates this point in starting in the next verse 14-18 – What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
If you can hear and read this truth, along with the rest of the truth we covered today, and still have a part of you that says that isn’t right? Well, Paul, through the Holy Spirit-inspired, infallible word of God has got you covered, let’s continue reading 19-24 –
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
This is the word of God, church, not my words.
Back to our text today, we see God had chosen the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob, to be instruments to carry out his judgment.
Remember Deuteronomy 9:5. God said not because of your righteousness, but because of their own wickedness I am going to drive them out of the land.
As the sovereign creator who has put into a place from the beginning a plan into motion, choosing specific people, to fulfill his perfect will, bringing about his maximum glory. Which brings us in today’s text to Rahab and her household. Chronologically, Rahab now joins the ranks of Noah and his family, who God has spared from the flood. Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family being spared from the destruction of Sodom. Little baby Moses being spared from the edict decreed by pharaoh to kill the babies of the Hebrews. And most recently the Hebrew people who the Lord had redeemed and set apart, through the plagues of Egypt.
And 1,500 years before the gospels would ever be written, Rahab, a prostitute, who came from a wicked city, who lived among wicked people, would take a step of faith. We saw her story in chapter 2. We read that her home was part of the foundation of the wall. She was told by the spies to tie a scarlet thread to her window to signify to the army of Israel which house to spare.
They were instructed by the spies, who could not have known how this battle was going to play out, to stay in her house, and anyone who leaves the house would die.
Now here is chapter 6 we see that she and her entire household, despite all of the walls crumbling down around beside her, by faithful obedience stayed in the house, marked by the scarlet cord.
Church, God’s plan was for her to become adopted into his family, for her to have a Son named Boaz, for her family line to be apart of the genealogy of Christ according to the book of Matthew. God’s plan always led to Jesus, by whom a way of salvation was made delivering those who have placed their faith in him from the just, judgment of eternal damnation by paying off the debt that was owed by all of mankind.
Church, look at verse 17 of chapter 6 of Joshua again, “Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.” No longer in this verse were spies called spies, they were messengers. They went into the land as spies, but the purpose God had for them was to be a messenger. Their very presence back in chapter 2 brought about a response from Rahab, a response of saving faith, and not just to her but to all in her household. Those spies, or messengers, were instruments. God had chosen them to be tools of accomplishing his will and bringing Rahab the prostitute into the genealogy of Jesus Christ.
Church, we can look at ourselves as the spies, messengers, or the harlot. The commonality that we need to witness is the faithful obedience of these chosen individuals to their God. The covenant that they made with each other allowed for the salvation of both parties was beautifully represented by the scarlet cord tied in her window. Representing to us, the saving blood of Jesus.
Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
I know there can be a lot of information in these messages, believe me when I tell you there is so much more, especially on the topic of judgment. And thankfully, if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, you will have all of eternity to search it out. Today, we did cover a lot. We had set out to answer three questions which were:
Who were the Canaanites? How can God be a God of love and order this killing? And what is God’s sovereign judgment?
But there is one more question that came to my mind during this message. Church, while doing this research on the wicked practices of the Canaanites, if you remember those things, don’t you see America? There is nothing on that list of Canaanites practices that America does not do bigger and better.
I want to first make it very clear, I am grateful, Church, and everyone of us should be very thankful to God, that he has placed us in America, a country that allows for so many opportunities and freedoms to worship him. Being here in America I am afforded the opportunity to be actively looking for new ways, to be able to free up my time, talents and treasures to be able to best serve my creator and live a life of worshipful obedience to him. Check out my Go Fund Me – teasing of course!
I want to spend one last minute addressing this similarity, then I would like to pray together with you all for our nation. We see the war advancing all around us, pushing forward with the agenda of the enemy. There is no new shocking headline that I can share with you all that you don’t already know. I don’t want to rile anyone up here really in any way and have you lose sight of what is important. Only one very sobering link between Jericho and America is what I want to focus on. And that has to do with sacrificing of children.
The intentional killing of those who were knitted together in their mothers’ wombs to reflect the very image of their creator. The Center for Disease Control has listed on their website that heart disease was and is the number 1 leading cause of death in America for quite a few years running now: 696,962 deaths attributed to it back in 2020.
The truth is heart disease has been runner up to the leading cause of death since 1973.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, as a yearly average 890,000 babies are killed through an abortion every year. That’s roughly 25% more than those who died to heart disease last year. This is just in America. Just a little bit of perspective in light of today’s text: that number is about 300 times the population of Jericho. This is the number of babies whose lives are legally being sacrificed in just one year. In 1991, the year I was born, was the highest year, it was about 1.5 million lives.
Now, a great victory has recently been won in our nation’s supreme court, but by no means does that ruling outlaw abortion. It is simply leaving the legality of abortion to each state as they see fit. The battle still rages on, Church, and you see how fierce the enemy is fighting to kill off the image of God anyway he can, even before they leave the womb.
In Genesis 15, in the covenant God making with Abraham while describing the land portion of the covenant he says in verse 16 – And they (Israel) shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.
The iniquities of the Amorites or the Canaanites had reached its completion by the time Joshua arrived with Israel. Which led me to wonder about the question, when will America’s cup of iniquity be full? When will the sins of the world have reached its limit? To quote Ruth Graham, “If God doesn’t soon bring judgment upon America, He’ll have to go back and apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!”
Church, I only bring up America because this is the land God, in his sovereignty, placed you and me in, but judgment is coming for the world. The battle of Armegedon is coming. And while prayer is important, Church, and should certainly not be overlooked the Lord has chosen you to act.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. As a church we are called to spy out the land, identify the Rahabs, and be messengers to them. The presence of those spies came with a message, telling Rahab that the Lord over all of creation was coming, judgment was coming, and we see Rahab’s faith not just saving herself, but all of those in her household.
God met Rahab where she was at, did not wait for her to renounce her people and her way of life before he brought the spies to her. We are the remnant in the land of America, church, let us be a city set on a hill. Letting the good works that God has prepared for us to do before the foundation of the world set, not be hidden under a basket but rather be the light of the city, a light in the darkness for all the Rahabs of the world to see to turn to and see the path of their salvation.