For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU

JOSHUA (WEEK 2/9: ...GOD’S PROMISES) SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

CONNECT (from last week): How can you grow more confident in the certainty of God’s promises? How practically could you explore any barriers and/or grow in your understanding of God’s faithfulness?

WARM-UP Questions 1. Has anyone ever made a promise to you that they didn’t keep? How did that experience make you

feel? 2. What sort of things, do you think, help build strong and healthy relationships?

READ Joshua 2:1-11 3. Why do you think Joshua sends spies to spy out Jericho? Why did this appear to be such a bad plan? 4. Why does Rahab hide the spies? Where do her loyalties lie? 5. What is Rahab saying about God in v.11? Why is this such an amazing admission? 6. Has God proved faithfully to you in the past? How does that change how you trust God today? Is there

a difference between ‘us getting what we want’ and ‘God being faithful’? How so? READ Joshua 2:12-20 7. In your own words, what is Rahab asking of the spies in v.12? How do they respond? 8. What is Rahab doing to ensure her family has a future? 9. What is the condition the spies put on their protection? What might be the significance of this? 10. Why are there so many oaths and promises being made? What does this say about human

relationships? READ Joshua 2:21-24 11. What do you think it would have been like to be Rahab as you tied the scarlet chord to the window? 12. Did the spies come back with much information? What advantage, if any, did Joshua gain? 13. Whose faith is emphasised in this passage? What does this tell us about God and the type of people he

can use? 14. What role does this story play in the greater story of the Bible (see Matthew 1:5; Hebrews 11:31;

James 2:25)? What might this say about your life story and how can use your story?

APPLY (to this week): How can the story of Rahab and the two spies shape your prayer life? Make a list of promises that God has made and write down how you recognise these as fulfilled, being fulfilled, and – ultimately – will be fulfilled in your own life?

PRAY: Dear God, thank you that you are faithful to all your promises. Thank you for Jesus who came to fulfil all righteousness and save us. Please help us to trust you in all things and look to you to redeem all creation when Jesus returns. In Jesus’ name Amen!

For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU

JOSHUA (WEEK 2/9: ...GOD’S PROMISES) GOING DEEPER RESOURCES & SUGGESTIONS

Each week we provide additional resources that help to go deeper with whatever series we’re currently focusing on as a church. Resources could include recommended books, articles, online

sermons, courses, or videos. These are optional extras! Please don’t feel under pressure to look at every resource, but consider what could be useful to.

Video • VIDEO: This overview by the Bible Project is an excellent summary of the major themes in the book of

Joshua: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqOqJlFF_eU • VIDEO: “Rahab” A lunchtime Bible Talk by Paul Clarke

http://www.st-helens.org.uk/resources/media-library/src/talk/53238/title/rahab • CHILDREN’S VIDEO: “Rahab and the spies”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWkbq50tH5A

Talks & Other Audio • AUDIO: “The Sovereignty of the Lord and the Prostitute” a sermon by Dan Wells

http://www.allsouls.org/Media/Player.aspx?media_id=110913&file_id=121015 • AUDIO: “Watching the Handwork of God” a sermon by Philip Burns

http://bendigopc.org.au/2016/01/watching-the-hand-of-god-at-work-joshua-21-24/

Articles and Other Reading • BOOK: “Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone” by Professor John Goldingay. Available at Koorong (by

order), or: https://www.bookdepository.com/Joshu-Judges-and-Ruth-for-Everyone-John-Goldingay/9780281061280?ref=grid-view&qid=1492859279769&sr=1-1

• EXCERPT: An excerpt from the above book is available at: http://stbarts.com.au/2017/04/22/violence-in-the-book-of-joshua/

• COMMENTARY: A thorough commentary on Joshua 2 by Ken Mansfield http://resources.thegospelcoalition.org/library/rahab-and-the-spies-part-1 http://resources.thegospelcoalition.org/library/rahab-and-the-spies-part-2

• ARTICLE: “Preparing to Enter the Land” an article by J. Hampton Keathley https://bible.org/seriespage/2-preparing-enter-land-joshua-21-24

• ARTICLE: “The Walls of Jericho” an article about the archaeology of bronze age Jericho http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2008/06/The-Walls-of-Jericho.aspx

• ARTICLE: “What can we learn from the life of Rahab” a helpful article about Joshua 2 https://www.gotquestions.org/life-Rahab.html

• INFORMATION: Information about Rahab ministries referred to in the sermon: https://www.rahab.com.au

Talk 2/9 (Joshua: Trusting in the promises of God): 30/04/17

“Can we trust his promises?” by the Rev’d David Browne

Bible Passage: Joshua 2:1-24

INTRODUCTION \\

This morning is week 2 of our Joshua series, last week Adam gave a great intro to the whole book of Joshua.

• At this point in the Bible the Hebrew people have come to the edge of the land God had promised them

• They’re camped at Shittim, poised to enter the Promised Land but in front of them lies the flooded river Jordan and the fortress city of Jericho

• In Chapter 1 we saw how leadership of the people of Israel was passed on from Moses to Joshua

• As they entered into the promised land the people were to remember that the God they served is a God who keeps his promises, this was to strengthen Joshua as the people entered the land and unite Israel as a nation

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• This week in Joshua 2 the spotlight turns from Joshua and the people onto a story which is part spy thriller and part comedy

• Ultimately this account answers one big question, that might have been on the minds of the people as they peered into the promised land:

• Can we trust God’s promises?

• Perhaps you’ve asked yourself the same question…

• This story focusses on one woman Rahab and the faithfulness of the God of Israel

• Can we trust God’s promises? Rahab did.

Rahab is an example for us today of trust in what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do.

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RAHAB: TRUSTS what God had done \\ Joshua 2:1-11 Our account this morning begins on a knife edge.

• Joshua sends two spies from Shittim to go ‘look over the land’

• and they go straight to the red light district

• Biblically these first two verses ring all sorts of alarm bells

• First > Spies

• Spying hadn’t worked well for the Hebrews in the past

• Forty years before this point Moses had sent 12 Hebrew spies to check out the promised land (Numbers 14)

• They all found a land flowing with milk and honey but ten of the spies were afraid and didn’t trust that the land would be given to them

• Only two spies, Joshua and Caleb, had faith that God could be trusted and would give them the home he’d promised,

• Because of this lack of confidence in God the people of Israel wandered around the wilderness until that faithless generation had died out apart from Caleb and Joshua

• spying hadn’t worked before �4

• Second > Shittim

• Shittim was a low point in Israel’s history,

• It was here that the Israelite men had indulged in sexual immorality with Moabite women and made sacrifices to Baal, the same god to whom the Canaanites sacrificed their own children

• This makes the third aspect of this opening verse so concerning Rahab > the spies go straight for the house of Rahab a pagan prostitute of an enemy city,

• what could go wrong?

• Is history about to repeat itself?

• Is this going to be another stuff up on behalf of the people?

• The mission looks doomed. The king learns that spies are down at the brothel and comes to capture them…

Ironically this is where the story takes a twist, rather than hand over the spies Rahab hides these two strangers from her countrymen.

There is more to Rahab than meets the eye �5

• Jericho at the time was a desert outpost run by a local King who was more like a war lord

• Rahab confronts the King with a well timed: “they went that way!” • She doesn’t deny that the men had been with her but sends her countrymen off in the

wrong direction • Much ink has been spilt among scholars questioning the ethics of Rahab’s actions here: • is it okay to lie or should she have come clean? • what we need to remember here is that this passage describes rather then proscribes

Rahab’s actions • It would be terrible use of the Bible to argue that Rahab’s actions here justify lying • Christians are to hold truth in high regard However Rahab’s actions save the lives of the spies and as they get ready to go to bed she explains her actions to them:

Rahab trusts in what God has done (look with me in v.9)

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• She relates as if she were Moses himself what God had done, she doesn’t know God personally but she trusts in what he has done:

• He’s given the Hebrews the land • He dried up the sea so the people could come out of Egypt • He defeated Sihon and Og • He has melted the hearts of her people • She’s heard the rumours now she has God’s chosen people in her house

Rahab protects the spies because she knows that the Lord is with them and that to resist God is pointless

RAHAB: TRUSTS what God is doing \\ Joshua 2:12-20

But Rahab doesn’t just trust in what God HAS done, she also trusts in what God IS doing Notice that the WHOLE CITY had heard the rumours of what God had done to Egypt and to their neighbours in the east

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but Rahab is the only person who is willing to do anything about it, besides prepare for a siege • She’s not prepared to just passively allow her family and all she loves to be

destroyed

• RAHAB wants in on what God is doing

• In verse 12 she says please “swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family”

• I’ve saved your lives now you need to do the same for me and my family • What is interesting about this word kindness is that it describes God’s covenant

kindness and love with his people • She’s accepted these spies into her house and been faithful to them because she knows

what God has done, • now she IS asking these representatives of the Lord’s people to extend that same

loyalty and kindness, which they enjoy from God, to her and her family Rahab wants to be part of God’s promises, she trusts what God is doing

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Rahab sees that the life the one true God promises is far better than what she has at the moment

Prostitution is one of the world’s oldest professions but not by choice • Whatever reasons people find for sex work they are almost always economic • Rahab is the bottom of the heap, she’s been used and abused by the men of her city

and seems to have no husband or pimp to care for her or her family • While everyone around her may detest her she sees an opportunity to be part of

something • Rahab sees what God is doing among this ragtag community of former slaves, • she sees the intimacy these people enjoy with God, • she sees that God is doing something powerful among them and wants to be part of

God’s kindness and love She uses all the influence she has and puts her life in God’s hands Can Rahab trust God’s promises? > She’s banking on them!

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Rahab’s story should remind us that no one is beyond God’s love

As we go about our lives we need be mindful that there are people, like Rahab, just waiting to put their trust in Jesus if they could only be shown how

• I was given a wonderful insight into what this looks like in practice when I heard from someone in our church who works with an organisation that cares for sex workers quite aptly named: Rahab

• Rahab volunteers reach out with friendship and love to show women working in the sex trade that God cares about them regardless of who they are or their circumstances

• God is reaching out with his promises to them

• Rahab provides crisis support, day or night, to women facing domestic violence, drug abuse and other horrors which sex workers experience

While this is not everyone’s gifting or calling we can all look for opportunities to speak into the lives of those around us, especially those many would deem ‘unloveable’

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and encourage them to embrace God’s promises.

(PAUSE!) Back at Rahab’s place the spies grant her her request: v.14 “Our lives for your lives” • So Rahab lets the Hebrew spies down over the walls from a rope and as in any good

western movie, tells them to head for the hills and lay low • It’s here where the spies figure out how to use their words, • some commentators suggest that at this point in the narrative they are still hanging

from the walls of Jericho when they add to their agreement with Rahab • She must tie a scarlet chord in the window as a sign for when Jericho is overrun to

identify her house

Too much can be made of this chord and what it symbolises. • but for Christians we can’t help but see in the imagery of the red chord a sign • pointing us to the blood that was painted over the doorposts, a sign of faith on the

night of the first Passover • Ultimately it should point us to the red blood of Jesus Christ which flowed out for all

the world upon the cross our only hope of salvation �11

• Salvation not from a marauding armies but from sin and death itself • As the blood of the lamb was a sign of God’s protection and the faith of the people, so

the scarlet chord was a sign of God’s protection and Rahab’s faithfulness, • We have a much more tangible and effective sign of God’s faithfulness to his promises,

the blood of Jesus Christ What was for the spies a marker for the invasion, became a way for Rahab to exercise her faith in God, and ultimately a symbol of his amazing Grace

RAHAB: TRUSTS what God will do \\ Joshua 2:21-24Rahab sees God had done, she trusts in what God is doing and she believes in what God will do So she sends the spies away • She ties this scarlet chord in her window and puts her trust in God’s promises • What stuns me about this passage is that the spies return to Joshua with not much • They were meant to scope out the land but they return • not with a blue print of the city

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• no list of its secret weaknesses • they don’t even have an idea of how strong the army of Jericho is • All they seem to have is the directions to Jericho’s red light district • But the spies do have something, the faith of Rahab. • When they return to Joshua they regurgitate Rahab’s words:

“They have surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us”. v.24

• Their hearts are bolstered by the account they have been given by Rahab

• her faith in God is contagious

She knows that God will keep his promises and hand Jericho over to the Israelites, now they believe it too

• We finish our passage with a few loose ends, will the spies keep their word to Rahab? Will she and her family be saved?

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• To these questions I’m going to have to say: “To be continued…”

This part of the story has an amazing continuation but I don’t want give away spoilers you’ll have to come back over the next couple of weeks to find out what happens to Rahab (or you could just read on in your Bible)

CONCLUSION \\

While I’m leaving you with a cliff hanger, please don’t leave this morning wondering if we Can trust God’s promises

• You see Rahab’s story is the story of her faith and God’s incredible faithfulness

• Rahab survives and becomes part of God’s people, she has children and one of her descendants becomes King of Israel - King David

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• Rahab goes from prostitute to a precious member of God’s family!

• If this were not enough the name Rahab comes up later in the Bible, Matthew 1 that boring list of names we sometimes skip over tells of how Rahab becomes the ancestor of another great King:

• Jesus Christ

• Rahab protected the spies and saved her family

• but her descendant Jesus Christ came to save the whole world, defeated sin and death on the cross and will return to redeem all of creation

• Rahab trusted in God’s deliverance but even her great faith, I imagine, could not have foreseen how marvellously God would fulfil his promises.

• The final references to Rahab come in Hebrews 11 the Bible’s Hall of fame for those who trusted in God’s promises

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• and James 2 where her active faith in hiding the Hebrew spies is upheld as an example to us all

• While Rahab’s story might at first seem like a happy coincidence of wise woman and some desperate spies making the best of things

• as far the narrative of the Bible is concerned, this event is a key part of God’s plan

• It’s another glorious example of how God works in us and through us to fulfil his promises

• Rahab is an example of trust in what God has done, what God is doing and what God will do

• She becomes a key part of salvation history

• As a church we get to be part of God’s family,

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• we get to enjoy the fulfilment of God’s promises and can live in the sure hope that God is bringing about all things to good of those who love him and for his glory

• If you’re a Christian I encourage you to let Rahab’s story remind you that no one is beyond God’s love and that God is faithful to his promises

If you wouldn’t consider yourself a Christian this morning then perhaps Rahab’s experience of God resonates with your story

• Perhaps you’ve heard what God has done, perhaps you’ve seen what God is doing around you, perhaps you want to enter into his family and trust his promises to you right now

• Today there are no red chords, spies or invading armies but God’s promises still stand true

• By trusting in Jesus, all he has done, all he is is doing and all he will do, we enter into God’s promises and become part of God’s family

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• Can we trust in God’s promises? Rahab's story answers that question with a big Yes, and yours can too.

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