Supporting Cast Joshua Entering the Promised Land The Faith of a Prostitute (Is it ever right to lie?) (Joshua secretly sends 2 spies into promised land, especially Jericho. Went to Rahab the prostitute s house and stayed there. King of Jericho finds out and sends message to Rahab to bring them out. Rahab had hidden them on the roof under stalks of flax. Rahab lies about where the men are and tells the men sent to look for them to hurry to catch them. The men leave looking for the spies.) Rahab talks with the Spies o Joshua 2:8-14 8 Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof 9 and said to them, I know that the LORD has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea [a] for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. [b] 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. 12 Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign 13 that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them and that you will save us from death. 14 Our lives for your lives! the men assured her. If you don t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land. (Rahab lets them down out of window with rope and tells them to hide for 3 days. The men made an oath with Rahab: bring your family in to your house and tie a scarlet chord in window. Men left and hid in hills for 3 days.) Report back to Joshua o Joshua 2:24 24 They said to Joshua, The LORD has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.
Crossing Over (Time to walk into the promise) (Camp by the Jordan for 3 days. Officers go through camp & give orders: o follow the priests carrying the ark. o God will show you which way to go. o Keep a distance of about 3,000 feet from ark. Joshua instructs the people to consecrate themselves because tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you. Priests pick up ark and go.) God Promises to Establish Joshua s Leadership o Joshua 3:7 7 And the LORD said to Joshua, Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. (Flood stage for the Jordan river. Priest step in and the Jordan piled up like a heap. People pass through on dry ground.) God does what He says o Joshua 4:14-14 That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him all the days of his life, just as they had stood in awe of Moses. (12 men told to gather a stone from the river.) Remember This o Joshua 4:20-24 20 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites, In the future when your descendants ask their parents, What do these stones mean? 22 tell them, Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground. 23 For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea [b] when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God. (Circumcision, Passover, Manna Stops Joshua 5:1-12) The Fall of Jericho Commander of the Army of the Lord (God is for God!) o Joshua 5:13-15 13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, Are you for us or for our enemies? 14 Neither, he replied, but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come. Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, What message does my Lord [e] have for his servant? 15 The commander of the LORD s army replied, Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so.
Exodus 23:20-30 20 See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. 22 If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23 My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. 24 Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. 25 Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, 26 and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. 27 I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. 28 I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. 29 But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. Marching Orders o Joshua 6:1-7 Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. 2 Then the LORD said to Joshua, See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in. 6 So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant of the LORD and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it. 7 And he ordered the army, Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the LORD.
Faith the Wall will Fall o Joshua 6:8-21 8 When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the LORD went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the LORD s covenant followed them. 9 The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. 10 But Joshua had commanded the army, Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout! 11 So he had the ark of the LORD carried around the city, circling it once. Then the army returned to camp and spent the night there. 12 Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. 13 The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the LORD and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets kept sounding. 14 So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days. 15 On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. 16 The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, Shout! For the LORD has given you the city! 17 The city and all that is in it are to be devoted [a] to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. 18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. 19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the LORD and must go into his treasury. 20 When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. 21 They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. Hebrews 11:30 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.
Saved Through Faith o Joshua 6:22-25 22 Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, Go into the prostitute s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her. 23 So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel. 24 Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD s house. 25 But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho and she lives among the Israelites to this day. Believed and was Saved Hebrews 11:31 31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. Believed Enough to Respond James 2:25-26 25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. God had a plan for her belief Matthew 1:5-6 5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David. God has a Plan for Your Faith (Saved and Sent) Ephesians 2:1-10 - As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh [a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.