Good morning brothers and sisters. Good to be back with you again and to each and every one of you. May God bless you and keep you. Please would you turn in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 2. I'd love for us to look at the interesting story of the woman of Rahab. You will know her, I'm sure, from the story. I want us to look at a number of aspects about the story in order to learn two things. That God is a great God. He delivers from sin. Amen? And that no matter your past history, no matter your life beforehand, God can save completely. Those two things. You might say, well, it's surprising we go to this passage to see those two things. The other passages, you'll see it. But it's always good to look back in terms of the progression of Scripture and to read the Old Testament through the eyes of our New Testament faith. And so won't you bow with me as we ask God, with Bibles open, to open our minds and hearts. Father, we are always under your gaze. We have sung that you are holy. That is true. There is no one like you. What a great God you are. Worthy of all our adoration and praise. Worthy to be esteemed and honored as the only true God. As our Lord and our Savior. We come before you today to ask, O God, as we have so many times before, would you shape us? Would you create in us the mind of Christ and the love of God that our lives, our words may show forth the working of your Holy Spirit in our lives? Would you do that, O Lord, we pray? Amen. Joshua chapter 2 is where I'm at. I want to read both chapter 2 and then part of chapter 6. Joshua chapter 2, the character of Rahab. In Joshua, the son of Nun sent two spies, two men secretly, from Shittim as spies saying, go view the land, especially Jericho. And they went and came into a house, into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land. And the king of Jericho said to Rahab, saying, Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land. But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from. And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. And so the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. And the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out. Before the men lay down, she went up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were before the Jordan, to Sion and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord, that as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house. And give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death. And the men said to her, our life for yours, even to death, if you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land, we will deal kindly and faithfully with you. And she led them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall. And she said to them, go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward, you may go your way. And the men said to her, you will be guiltless with respect to this oath of ours that you have made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie the scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father's household. Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear." And she said, according to your words, so be it. and she sent them away. They departed, and she tied the scarlet cord in the window. They departed and went into the hills, and remained there three days until the pursuers returned, and the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing. Then the two men returned. They came down from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua, the son of man, and they told him all that had happened to them. They said to Joshua, truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands and also all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us. This is the word of the Lord. What do we know about this woman? We know that she is described, because of the Hebrew word, as a prostitute who who is only known to us because these two spies going into the land went into her house. She hides these Israelite spies. She lies for them. She protects them and helps them escape from the city. She is a woman who plays an incredibly important role. I want to show you a number of things from the story. She was a Canaanite and a prostitute, possibly also an innkeeper, possibly both. We know that Josephus describes her as an innkeeper, and it could be that she, in fact, had both this business and this hotel, as it were. I know the NIV describes it as an innkeeper. Either way, she's just like the rest of us. dead in her trespasses and sins. The word used here literally means a prostitute woman. You've got to see, in her story, your story. Her lifestyle was sinful, yet God shows mercy upon her. Brings her brings her an interesting form of salvation. We're going to get there. Secondly, note where she lives. She lives in the wall, with the window in the city wall overlooking the outside of the city. This was both a means of escape, but also a problem later, because you know, God was going to destroy all the inhabitants of that city, and he was going to do so by flattening the walls in which she lived. How would that happen? It is fascinating to read, and you can read a lot about this, in terms of the archaeology of the site of Jericho. Let me read to you some of the articles. Jericho is one of the earliest continuous settlements in the world, dating perhaps from about 9000 BC. Archaeological excavations have demonstrated Jericho's lengthy history. The city site is of great archaeological importance. It provides evidence of the first development of permanent settlements and thus of the first steps towards civilization. Another article reads, the ruins of Jericho, this ancient city, are believed to be part of the archaeological site now called Tell es Sultan, an enormous mound or tell situated on an ancient lake bed north of the Dead Sea in what is today West Bank of Palestine. The oval mound stands about 8 to 12 meters tall above the lake bed, a height made up of the ruins of 8,000 years of building and rebuilding in the same place. This place covers an area of about two and a half hectares. The settlement that the tell represents is one of the oldest, more or less continuously occupied locations on our planet and is currently about over 200 meters below sea level. Another article, by about 8000 BC, inhabitants had grown into an organized community capable of building a massive stone wall around the settlement strengthened at one point at least by a massive stone tower. The size of this settlement justifies the use of the term town and suggests a population of about 2,000 to 3,000 people. Another article, the walls of Jericho, massive stone walls surrounded surrounding an ancient Neolithic settlement in Jericho built around 8,000 BC. The mound or tell of Jericho was surrounded by a great earthen rampart. I need to describe this to you so that you understand what God did. A great earthen rampart, right? Surrounded or an embankment with a stone retaining wall at its base. The retaining wall was some four to five meters high. On top of that was this mud brick wall going up above us, about 2 meters thick and about 6 to 8 meters high. So if you're standing on the base, you've got a retaining wall, and then you've got a wall on top of it, 4 to 5 meters high, and this one 6 to 8 meters high. There's no way you're scaling that. At the crest of the embankment, right at the top, was a similar mud brick wall whose base was roughly 14 meters above ground level. So you've got this and this and then the slope and another wall on top of that and the total height 14 meters above ground level outside the retaining wall. This is what loomed high above the Israelites as they marched around the city each day for seven days. Humanly speaking, it was impossible for the Israelites to penetrate this impregnable bastion of Jericho. What else do we know about her? Apart from a few passages in the Psalms and Job and Isaiah that use her name as a symbolic name referring to Egypt and to pride, she is unknown in the rest of the Old Testament apart from Joshua chapter 2 and chapter 6. She lived a life of insignificance without background or history, and yet doesn't this show God is able to use anyone, no matter your insignificance or education or knowledge of the Bible? We read from the New Testament, which she has spoken of three times, that she is the great-great-grandmother of David, husband of Salmon, mother of Boaz, Grandmother of Obed, great-grandmother of Jesse, and great-great-grandmother of David, and thus part of the lineage that would bring Christ to this earth. God is a gracious and mighty God who can save anyone. Can I say that again? He can save anyone. Sometimes we think that God can only save a certain type of people. I live in an area where we have a number of prostitutes around us. I'm very aware of their trade, and I'm aware, too, that God can save even these. Firstly, her actions and words prove her faith in God. Isn't it interesting the way she describes the God of the Israelites? She has come to know about the power of God by what He has done. she uses the name of the Lord Hashem in Joshua 2 verse 9 and 11 and there is a growing understanding of who this God is that he is a mighty God that he's going to do a great work of destruction of all of that the place where she lives. We read her words of faith, which she speaks to those two spies, they take them back to Joshua himself, and Joshua is encouraged by what she has said about her own understanding of this God, but also of all the peoples of that place. Seventhly, the red cord. Please don't make a thing out of the redness of the cord and the symbolic link of the color of the blood of Christ. Scripture doesn't. You shouldn't either. Come with me to Joshua 6. Read the rest of the story that you can see how remarkable it is what God does. I have considered this story many times. I did so even this last week in terms of how God engineers the first miracle in this land. Chapter 6 verse 1. Now Jericho was shut up inside and out because of the people of Israel. None went out and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, See I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus you shall do for six days. Now think about this. God could have said a word, flattened the wall, That's not what he did. Thus you shall do for six days. Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout. If you were there that day, Maybe one of those in the army, or maybe one of those blowing, or maybe the long line behind. You would have felt embarrassed, I'm pretty sure. Day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6. You would have been the laughing stock by day 6. This is not how you go to war. Day seven, seven times round, shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up every one straight before him. That is, you are to encircle the entire city, and you are to invade the city like that, closing in. And he said to the people, go forward, march around the city, and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the Lord. And just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests, bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns, before the Lord went forward, blowing the trumpets with the ark of the covenant of the Lord following them. The armed men were walking before the priests who were blowing the trumpets, and the rear guard was walking after the ark while the trumpets blew continually. But Joshua commanded the people, you shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth. Until the day I tell you to shout, then you shall shout. And so he caused the ark of the Lord to circle the city, going about at once. And they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp. Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. And the seven priests, bearing the seven trumpets of the ram's horns, before the ark of the Lord, walked on, and they blew the trumpets continually. And the armed men were walking before them, and the rear guard was walking after the Ark of the Lord while the trumpets blew continually. This is not how you go to war. On the second day, they marched around the city once and returned into the camp, and so they did for six days. On the seventh day, they rose early at the dawn of day, marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that city that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpet, Joshua said to the people, shout, for the Lord has given you the city. What would you have said right then? Would you have said, yay? Or would you have screamed? You've already been embarrassed for six days. You can imagine the people on top of the wall 17 and the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction That is you have to burn it with fire 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 least when you've devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel and a thing for distraction 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." You know what happens next at the next city, at Ai. And 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. And 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 belonged to her, as you swore to her. And 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 and only the silver and gold, 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, when it was written, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy on Jericho. Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, cursed before the Lord, be the man who rises up and rebuilds the city Jericho. And you can read the rest of the story as to what happens to that man because the city has been built. Let me carry on reading. Her faith in God, in this God of the Israelites, saves her entire family, or rather entire father's family, from destruction. They were seven days in the house. We're not told how big the family is, we're not told how big the house is. Maybe it was standing in Ramona, we're not sure. But certainly, a week with your family in close proximity, you would start to feel enough now. Right, Buddhaji? It's fascinating as you read the rest of the story of the archaeological remains. Let me read it so that you know what happened. After the seventh trip around the city on the seventh day, scripture tells us in chapter 6 verse 20 that the wall fell down flat. The Hebrew here carries the suggestion that it fell beneath itself. Is there evidence for such an event at Jericho? It turns out that there is ample evidence that the mud brick city wall on the top collapsed and was deposited down the slide at the base of this wall, thus providing a way for the Israelites to run up the wall, the lower one, up the embankment, and go straight in. Kathleen Kenyon in the 1950s. did most of the work and developed mostly the methods used still today for how to discover archaeological remains without destroying the site. She writes this, fallen red bricks piling nearly to the top of the revetment. These probably came from the wall on the summit of the bank and the brickwork above the revetment. In other words, she found a heap of bricks from the fallen city walls. An Italian team excavating at the southern end of the mound in 1997 found exactly the same thing. After the city walls fell, how did the Israelites surmount the four to five meter high retaining wall at the base of the tell? Excavations have shown that the bricks from the collapsed walls formed a ramp against the retaining walls that the Israelites could merely climb up over the top. The Bible is very precise in its description of how the Israelites entered the city. The people went up into the city, every man straight before. That is, you don't need to go through one section of the wall that is collapsed to do that. But what about Rabe's house? You're going to ask. 1907 to 1909, the German excavation of Jericho discovers a portion of the mud brick wall on the north side of the city that had not fallen. Moreover, there were houses built on the rampart against the outer city wall. The walls of these dwellings were thin, only one brick in width, indicating that this was possibly a poor part of the city. It is plausible. that this was the area of the city in which Rahab's house was located. The entire wall, except one section of the wall, falls flat. The section which Rahab lived. Regarding the city, both John Gerstang, who excavates Jericho in the 1930s, and Kathleen Kenyon, who excavated there in the 1950s, found storage jars filled with burnt grain. Fascinating. In fact, Kenyon found over six bushels of grain in one season alone. This would seem to be a strange discovery, as grain was a primary staple of food for ancient people, but this affirms Joshua 6.24. Then they burned the whole city and everything in it. The discovery of numerous jars full of burnt grain in the destroyed homes of the Canaanite city of Jericho affirms several important biblical facts. One, the Battle of Jericho occurred in the spring of the year, Joshua 3.15 and 5.10, which would have been shortly after the harvest. The jars of grain indicate that the city was indeed destroyed in the spring of the year, shortly after harvest. The siege of Jericho was only seven days long. Large quantities of burned grain in the houses excavated by Kenyon and Gerstan indicate that there was no prolonged siege prior to Jericho's destruction, in which case all the grain would have been consumed. The city of Jericho was devoted to the Lord for destruction, and the Israelites were not to take the plunder. This fact explains why the grain was burned and not taken. Ninthly, she was rescued. which was what she'd asked for, and then included among the Israelites. Here is the blessing of a curious salvation. She's taken, she's brought next to the people of Israel and then included in Israel, and she becomes an Israelite, and thus the bearer of the Messiah to come, ultimately. She was indeed justified by works of faith, as James chapter 2 says. Let me read it for you, James 2, 24-25. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way, was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? The entire story of Re'eb demonstrates the grace of God and salvation. Let me touch on for a moment the subject of the lie. She lied, didn't she? She broke the ninth commandment. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. The spies didn't ask her to lie. The spies were not even aware if they knew whether she lied or not. The story doesn't tell us. Neither does the text tell us that she's saved by her lying. She was saved by her work of faith. And one of those things certainly was deception, which begs the question, what do you do with lying? She deceived, didn't she? Her townspeople? Oh yes, they were here, but go quickly and you can catch them. Meantime, upstairs, under the flax, are the two spies. But what you will notice, I hope, from chapter two, is her words about what is to happen. That this God is a God who is going to carry out His promise and give the whole land to the people of Israel. She believes that that promise is going to be true. Is she saved by faith alone? She's saved by faith that shows by her works. Which begs the question, what do you do with the instances we see in scripture of deception? I leave that to you as a future project. because it is a fascinating subject. I want to bring you back to the first two things. Our God is a God who delivers, right? An impregnable city, he tells them how they will go in, like that, and they do. Not just one section of the wall, which would have been normal, but an entire wall except for one section stands. It also shows that there is a way for people to be saved no matter their history, no matter their lifestyle, no matter what they were, no matter how they're deceived. If I may briefly say, often we may think, Rahab, how could you deceive like that? Surely you're a Christian and you should act in a Christian way before coming to faith. You can't do that, of course. She shows great faith in Christ, in the Christ who is to come, who is to come ultimately from her, by the promise of the Lord, that there will be a rescuer who is to come. I'm not sure if you stay in an area like I do. You probably do. With a great number of people around you, that show by their works that they have no faith in the Lord our God. Can God rescue them? Answer? Yes, he can. No matter their background. Should we judge Rahab because of her lifestyle before she comes to faith? No, we can't. Let no man throw a stone, for which of you have no sin? What should your life look like after you come to faith? A progression in growing and understanding who Jesus is and what he's called you to do, what he's called you to be. Is there salvation for anyone? For anyone at all? You know the answer. So why don't you tell them? Would you bow with me in prayer? We thank you, Father, for just your great deliverance. This first town to be occupied, you show your great work of how you overcome impregnable cities and yet retain for yourself a people. even surprising people, people who we wouldn't think would be called to serve you or included. We thank you, God, that you called us. We thank you for your grace and mercy. Use us, O God, to tell others about this mercy that can be found, no matter their lifestyle, at your feet. O God, Thank you for the deliverance you've given us. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you Lance.