Old Testament Characters: Rahab

The story of Jericho in the Book of Joshua is one of the most iconic events in the Bible. It is found in Joshua 6 and describes how the Israelites, under Joshua’s leadership, conquered the city of Jericho as they began their conquest of the Promised Land. Here’s a summary of the key points:

The Context

• After Moses’ death, Joshua became the leader of the Israelites. God commanded him to lead the people across the Jordan River and into Canaan, the land God promised to their ancestors.
• Jericho was a well-fortified city and represented the first major obstacle to their conquest of the land.

God’s Instructions

God gave Joshua specific and unusual instructions for capturing Jericho:

1. The Israelites were to march around the city once a day for six days.
2. Seven priests, carrying trumpets made of ram’s horns, were to lead the procession, followed by the Ark of the Covenant.
3. On the seventh day, they were to march around the city seven times. After the seventh lap, the priests were to blow their trumpets, and the people were to shout loudly.

The Fall of Jericho

• The Israelites followed God’s instructions precisely.
• On the seventh day, after the priests blew the trumpets and the people shouted, the walls of Jericho collapsed.
• The Israelites stormed the city and destroyed everything within it, except for Rahab and her family. Rahab, a Canaanite woman, had sheltered the Israelite spies and helped them escape. As a result, she and her family were spared, as promised by the spies.

Key Themes

1. Faith and Obedience: The story demonstrates the power of faith and the importance of obeying God’s commands, even when they seem unconventional.
2. God’s Power: The fall of Jericho is attributed not to human effort but to God’s intervention, highlighting His sovereignty and might.
3. Judgment and Mercy: While Jericho faced destruction as an act of divine judgment, Rahab’s salvation illustrates God’s mercy and willingness to save those who turn to Him in faith.

Symbolism

• The Ark of the Covenant represents God’s presence with His people.
• The seven-day march and the use of trumpets signify God’s divine plan and timing.
• The story prefigures the victory believers can achieve through faith and reliance on God’s power.

Now i want to share with you what Spurgeon said:

Brethren, many dangers surround success; it is not much of it that any of us can bear. The full sail needs much ballast lest the boat be overset. When in this or any other part of the world the church sees many converts as the fruit of her labours, when there are great gatherings, and a good deal of shouting, great interest excited, and multitudinous conversions, it is very natural to calculate that the work has been easily done, and needs no very severe or general effort. The idea is fostered that there is no need now for continued house-to-house visitation, no need for more missionaries, no need for regular plodding service in school and cottage-meeting, no need to set our young men and women to work for Christ! The drill and organization of the regular army is in danger of being lightly esteemed. Blow the trumpet, and the walls will come down easily enough. Jericho has fallen with shouting and marching, let us gather ourselves together and show that we are a mighty people, who no longer need to go up unanimously and laboriously in rank and order to the fight, as our fathers did.

Ah, brethren, this evil spirit must be exorcised, for it cometh from the devil. God will not bless us if we tolerate this spirit. Why, some of us are too great altogether for our Lord Jesus to use in his work. Like Saul’s armour, we are unfit for our David to put on if Goliath is to be slain. We must be more sensible of weakness, more mindful that the conversion of souls is the work of omnipotence, or we shall see but little done. We must ourselves believe more fully in the need of earnest work for God, and put forth all our strength, and strain every sinew for him, knowing that it is his power that worketh in us mightily when we strive with all our hearts. We must learn that our great Leader means us not only to shout and blow rams’ horns, but to employ all the strength of every man in our ranks in his glorious cause. May we be delivered from the presumption which leads to the foolish course which Israel pursued.

Let us not forget that these children of Israel were forgetting their commission and violating the command of God. It is a terrible truth that the tribes had been brought out of Egypt that they might be the executioners of divine vengeance upon races which had committed capital crimes, for which the Lord had condemned them to be rooted out. The reward of the ministers of justice was to be the land which the infamous ones had polluted. They were charged to make no alliances with them, nor to intermarry with them, but to execute them for their crimes; and the commission was not given to some of the Israelites, but to all of them, for all were to be rewarded by a portion of the land. The charge was not given to Joshua and to the elders only, but to all the tribes. As they all expected to have a dwelling place in Canaan, so they were all expected to conquer the territory by their own exertions. They were all an enlisted host for God, and he never ordained that a part only should go forth in his great controversy with the condemned Canaanites.

If we ever neglect to render universal service as a church in the cause of Christ we shall depart from our trust and call, for the Lord has sent all his disciples to testify of him and contend against sin. He has sent us all to make known everywhere, according to our ability, the glad tidings of his salvation; and he has not given this command to this or that man, or to this or that body of men, but to all his chosen. Every member of the body has its own office, and no part of it can be allowed to lie dormant. To none has he said, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet, and find fault with those who do the work;” but to all his saints our Lord Jesus says — “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” Every Christian man is described in Scripture as being a light, a light not to be hidden, but seen of men. Every child of God is described as forming a part of that “city set on a hill which cannot be hid.” It is not only the ministers who are the salt of the earth and the light of the world; but “ye are the salt of the earth”; “ye are the light of the world”; all of you without exception. Each one in his own proportion and in his own place must be used as a vessel in the great house of the Lord: and we shall get away from our true position and our high calling if we excuse ourselves or our brethren from personal service, and then go and take part in public meetings and thank God for what other people have done on our behalf.

These Israelites, in the new fashion which they were trying to set up, were departing from their own model. That model was, doubtless, the siege of Jericho. In that siege there was much dependence upon God, but there was no neglect of instrumentality; and, though all they did was to go round the city and shout, yet in so doing they were literally fulfilling orders, and doing all that was commanded. Yes, if this would bring down the walls they did it thoroughly — they marched as bidden and shouted as desired. They all went round Jericho; they did not some of them sit in their tents and look on while the others paraded, but they all filed out in order. It might seem to be a perfectly needless procession, but it was commanded by God, and they all united in it. In martial array they all compassed the city, and all gave the shout, and down came the walls, and there and then every man went up to the prey, leaping over the ruined walls to strike his foe in the name of the Lord! That was their precedent and pattern, and they were departing from it very sadly when they said, “Let not all the people labour thither.”

What, then, is our model as a church? Is it not Pentecost? Is it not those earliest days, that dawn of Christianity, that golden era to which we always look back as the heroic age of our holy faith? In that day did they not break bread from house to house, all of them? Did they not sell their lands and lay the price of them at the apostles’ feet? Was there not a burning enthusiasm throughout the entire company of disciples? We know it was so; and if we are to see again the triumphs of those primitive times we must go back to primitive practice, and every man and woman and child in the church must be consecrated to the divine service. “Child,” did I say? Yes, verily, for “out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise.” I suppose there is not one person present who heard that famous sermon by Matthew Wilks upon the universal service rendered by idolaters to their false gods, from the text, “The children gathered wood, and the fathers kindled the fire, and the women kneaded their dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven.” The preacher’s argument on that occasion was that which I would now press upon you, that all should take part in the work of the Lord. Distinct offices but united aims; diverse operations but the same spirit; many and yet one — so let it be. Would to God that the church would recognise this more fully, and so come back to the great precedents of her warfare.

Again, this error which we are carefully to avoid was no doubt the dictate of carnal wisdom. Spies were never of much use to Israel — two only of the first twelve were faithful — what did Israel want with spies? Better far had it been to walk by faith. To Ai they must need send spies instead of going up at once in the confidence of faith: evil came of it, for these spies counselled that only part of the people need labour up the hill. And, brethren, the best ministers of Christ, worthy of all honour, would be the cause of great mischief if once their carnal wisdom should make them think that they can supersede primitive plans with wiser inventions. I dare say the men-at-arms would have said that Israel’s numbers were a hindrance to efficient fighting, and that the common sort were in the way of trained warriors and encumbered the battle. I know that some able brethren are of this mind. Have they not said in acts if not in words, “That young man is preaching — we wish he would be quiet; he makes such blunders in the Queen’s English! He has a great deal of zeal, but there is no little danger in it. And those good sisters — we know they do a good deal of work which was never done before, but — a n d they shake their heads at them. That is often the main contribution of the more prudent sort to the service of God! They generously lavish upon the younger folks their grave looks and their shakes of the head at innovation and zeal. There is the Sunday-school; well, that is a proper thing, because it is a recognised agency, but if it were started to-day for the first time many would shake their heads at that also. City mission work, again, is a tried and proved mode of operation; but in days gone by there was thought to be peril in lay agency, especially as the men were not college trained. Well, my brethren, there are many more holy agencies yet to be invented, and though they will none of them be perfect, our wet blankets will not improve them. Better far will it be to help the good, and as for the little mischief which may come of imperfect agencies, let the wise men supply the antidote and rectify the blunders. Anything is better than lethargy and death. Thank God that our people have a mind to do good, and if their zeal be inclined to wildfire, let us not quench it, but try to use it for holy purposes; for, after all, fire, wild or otherwise, is what we want. If we have the fire from heaven in the form of zeal for God’s glory, it can easily be regulated, but the most terrible calamity is to have no fire at all.

“But,” says one, “may not the ignorant and indiscreet advocacy of truth by unqualified persons do a great deal of harm to the cause we love?” It may; but is the truth you believe so weak as to be in any serious danger from such an accident? Is not truth invincible and fully able to take care of herself? All she has to fear is the cramping and imprisoning agency of excessive prudence. With weakness for her guardian, and folly for her defender, she is yet safe! The God who protects her from her foes can assuredly save her from her friends. The danger lies in our carnal wisdom, which would cover the light with a bushel to prevent its being blown out, and wrap the talent in a napkin because it is only one.

We very frequently hear it said that there is no need for so much excitement and exertion: and this, too, has come from our prudent men: — we ought to take it coolly, the thing went rightly enough in our grandfather’s days, the great men of the past did very well without all this stir! Well, we have observed that wet blankets are still on sale, and may be had at wholesale prices! Now, brethren, I do not know what you think about it, but I for one feel that there is much work to be done, and very little time to do it in. If I plunge into the work with all my might, I shall do none too much; but, at any rate, all my little might is demanded by such a cause. There is a blessed leisure of the heart which sits at Jesus’s feet; but I am sure that it is not inconsistent with that violence which the kingdom of heaven suffers — “and the violent take it by force.” There were people who complained, in the days of Wesley and Whitefield, because their zeal caused a great deal of fanaticism; but, thank God, the blessed fanaticism spread throughout the land; and it is not extinct even now, nor shall it be by God’s grace, but it shall go on increasing till Christ shall come! Let us bring up our men, the whole of the tribes, weak though they be, and though their weapons be no better than the axes and coulters with which Israel fought the Philistines! Let us spring upon our foe as one man, even as in the days of old. Let us all go up to Ai; and as surely as God was with his people then, so surely will he be with our compacted hosts to-day, and the world shall learn again that there is a God in Israel! Only once more upon this point: these children of Israel, in sending to the war only part of the men, were breaking in upon the divine design. The Lord never intended to have two peoples, but one; and so we read that the Reubenites and the Gadites came over Jordan to the war, although their portion was already conquered. It was the divine intent that they should be one army of the living God, each separate son of the seed of Abraham belonging to that army and fighting in it; he meant, that not some only, but all should see the mighty works of his hand, working with them to overthrow their adversaries. When Jericho fell, all saw it; and if Ai should fall before the divine power, they must all be there to see with their own eyes the glory of the Lord. I am sure it is so with the church of God to-day. Our Lord means to keep all his chosen ones as one army, and to instruct them all as one band. And when are we most manifestly one? When we get to work. If you come to declamation upon your own peculiar points, I shall wish you good morning; but if you are going to work for Jesus, suffer me to go with you. I have marked the history of organizations formed for no practical purpose, and they have invariably come to an end, and I do not know that we need weep over the fact; but work to be done for Jesus is a mighty bond of union. Our God does not mean that his ministers should alone see all the death-beds, and be the sole spectators of the dying triumphs of his people. No, our brothers and sisters must visit too, and have their faith strengthened and their prospects brightened. He does not wish that preachers alone should see all the converts and encourage all the desponding ones. No, his wisdom perceives that it is good for all his servants to behold the trophies of his grace, and know how to use the encouragements of his promises. The Lord does not ordain that one or two should mourn over the evil of the hearts of men and do battle with sinners alone. No; he means all his servants in their measure to learn the lessons which holy warfare would teach them. Not to deal practically with souls is perilous to ourselves. Men who spend their time providing us with marvellous essays and papers in the reviews are most of them unsound in the faith; but if they went out into the world of real life, to save men, if they had to battle personally with hard hearts and evil passions in actual conversion work, they would find that their fine-spun theories are of no use; they would learn that the Puritan faith of our forefathers is the sturdiest of all weapons and the best adapted for the world as it is, and that the old truth is the sword with which alone you can pierce the hearts of men. Work for Jesus is an education for a Christian. What an education it would be for the philanthropist to see what the agricultural labourer eats, or rather does not eat! What a lesson for the sanitary reformer to see with his own eyes where the people lodge! What an education for a man of wealth to spend a night or two in the crowded chambers where our London workmen dwell! And in the same way, holy service is a training for us. In order really to know man’s fall and the way of redemption we must go among the people and labour for their conversion. Hence our Lord will not excuse any of us from service in this war, because it would be to our great damage to be away from it; and it is for our encouragement and growth that we should take our share in it. I will finish this part of my subject with a parable. In the days of chivalry a certain band of knights had never known defeat. In all battles their name was terrible to the foe. On their banners was emblazoned a long list of victories; but in an evil hour the leader of the knights summoned them in chapter, and he said: “My brethren, we cause ourselves too much toil. We have a band of skilled warriors versed in all the arts of battle, these are quite sufficient for ordinary conflicts, and it will be wise for the many if they tarry in the camp and rest, or furbish their weapons for extraordinary occasions. Let the champions go alone. Yonder knight with his sword can cleave a man in twain at a single stroke, and his comrade can break a bar of iron with his axe; others among us are equally powerful, each one being a host in himself. With the terror of our name behind them, the chosen champions can carry on the war while the rest divide the spoil.” The saying pleased the warriors well, but from that hour the knell of their fame was rung, and defeat defiled their standard. When they came together they complained of the champions because they had not sustained the honour of the order, and they bade them exert themselves more heroically. They did so, but with small success. Louder and louder were the notes of discontent and the demands for new champions. Then one of the oldest of the knights said: “Brethren, why do you blame us? The mistake lies here. In the old time, when the enemy assailed us, a thousand men were up in arms, and we who led the van knew that a gallant army followed at our heels. But now you have made us solitary champions, and the adversary takes heart to defy us, finding us unsustained. Come you all with us to the fray as aforetime, and none shall stand against us.” Brethren, ye need not that a man interpret this unto you.