What marks God’s people if we’re moving into victory? Part 4!
Joshua chapter 2: Joshua sends spies to Jericho. They head for the brothel – hopefully because that’s where men could best hope to remain anonymous. The madam of the place, however (Rahab), spots them. What follows has big spiritual lessons…
The first is one my wife pointed out to me: this is a rerun of perhaps the most crucial chapters in Numbers, 13 and 14, where twelve spies are sent ahead to check out the land. On return, ten choose, crucially, not to trust the Lord: `We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.` All Israel are swayed by them (14:2-3); but as a direct result of that lack of faith, that entire generation miss out on their destiny from God and leave their bones scattered over the desert. For me this has repeatedly been an incredibly important, even haunting, chapter, and it still is; Lord, help me not to lose out on Your purpose for me through my lack of confidence in You…
But what becomes obvious when we compare those chapters with Joshua 2 – and this is vital if we want victory – is how very different things may truly be, given the reality of God, from how they seem to us. `All the people we saw there are of great size`, the ten spies lamented despairingly in Numbers; `We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.` That’s not at all how Rahab remembers it now: `We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt… When we heard of it, our hearts sank and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below!`
Brilliant! We don’t see ourselves the way the angelic and demonic powers do: people indwelt, protected and empowered, each one of us, by God the almighty Holy Spirit Himself! It reminds me of 2 Kings 6 where Elisha’s servant is panicking at the huge force sent to seize him, and Elisha calmly answers, `Those who are with us are more than those who are with them`, then prays for God’s revelation: `O LORD, open his eyes!` – and the servant sees how they’re surrounded by supernatural protection, that soon intervenes in devastating power. Revelation: we need to ask God for it too! If we could see ourselves the way the heavenly powers do, we would know we have absolutely no reason ever to fear, absolutely no reason not to advance where Almighty God is calling us and is surely going alongside us!
Then a second thing: like we said four posts ago, the gospel is a key aspect of what this book shows us about victory. What happens here repeats the gospel events of Passover: when God’s judgment came on the evils of Egypt at Passover, salvation came only to those sheltering in a house that had the blood of the lamb at its entrance (Ex 12). Here likewise, salvation from judgment comes only to those (Jos 2:18) who shelter in Rahab’s house, a house marked by a scarlet cord. Clement, the first Christian writer outside the Bible (AD 96), saw this as an unmistakable picture, that `through the blood of the Lord, all who trust and hope in God shall have redemption`. (So did Justin Martyr and Irenaeus.) Victory and deliverance are bound up with the gospel!
But let’s note how the new testament links Rahab’s story with another part of the gospel: Rahab, says Hebrews 11, is a classic example of someone saved through faith; but then, adds James, this faith, the only true faith, must be one that bears fruit in what we do. `Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness”… 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?` (James 2:25). There are people who say Scripture contradicts itself here: Paul says we are justified by faith, James that we are justified by good works. Hardly – unless we want to think that the good works that get people to heaven are infanticide and high treason! No: these actions were vital (and of course Abraham wasn’t allowed to complete his offering of Isaac) just because they so clearly embodied faith. And real faith, faith that brings victory and indeed salvation, must always find expression in action (there has been no true repentance otherwise!) As I gather Luther said, `We are justified by faith alone; but faith is never alone!` God looks for the actions of faith in us!
But let’s note finally that the actions that brought Rahab into deliverance and destiny (her son was Boaz, her daughter in law Ruth, her great-great (at least) grandson David, and her distant descendant Jesus) were a little dangerous, and they also involved, when the chips were down and she chose to hide the spies, a clear choice of commitment to God’s purposes and against her own culture. Victory for us may involve similar choices of deliberate distinctiveness; particularly given the way the West is going in terms of promoting and publicizing sin. `Aliens and strangers in the world`, 1 Peter 2 calls us. `Here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come`, says Hebrews 13. `Everyone born of God overcomes the world` (and wants to!), says 1 John: `This is the victory that has overcome the world [the surrounding culture], even our faith… The One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world!` His power is indeed all we need; but if we want victory, we have to be consciously willing, like Rahab, to live out that serious disjunction from the ways of a culture that is under God’s judgment; to want, consciously (and train our children in), that very deliberate distinctiveness… So then: how do we pray this lesson in?
(And then: if this week was the rerun of Passover, next time we’ll see the rerun of the Red Sea!)
