WHAT FAITH BRINGS (PART 12)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

Hebrews 11:23, 31

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

After Joseph died, things really started getting bad in Egypt. We know this because as we leave the Book of Genesis and begin the Book of Exodus, we find this edict issued by Egypt’s supreme leader, Pharaoh, at the end of the first chapter:

Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” v. 22

As chapter 2 opens, we read about a marriage that had taken place between a Hebrew Levite man and woman. Later in this book, we find that the man was named Amram and his Levite wife was Jochebed (Exodus 6:20). After they had consummated their relationship through dedicated sexual devotion to one another, Jochebed became pregnant and gave birth to a son who she concealed for three months for she saw him as a “fine child”. Given Pharaoh’s command and not wanting to see her son killed, she got a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch before putting the baby within and setting him afloat among the reeds along the banks of the Nile (Exodus 2:1-3).

There is no question that this was a risky endeavor and I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for Jochebed to send off her only son in such a way. It required a great faith in God, believing that He would protect the baby and deliver him safely into someone’s care. That faith was rewarded when Pharaoh’s daughter, who had gone to the river to bathe, saw the basket in the reeds and sent her servant to retrieve it. She had to be amazed to open the top only to find a crying baby within. Immediately identifying the child as Hebrew and having compassion for him, she arranged for Jochebed to nurse her child until he became older at which time she gave him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became hers. She then gave the boy his name, Moses, because she had drawn him up out of the water (Exodus 2:5-10).

As we live life, we learn it is far from risk-free. The older and older we get, the more we understand the importance of stepping out on faith and trusting God, just like Peter did when he stepped out of the boat and walked on water toward Jesus.

In the Old Testament, we find another example of faith in action while someone was at risk. The central character in this story is a prostitute by the name of Rahab and we find her story in the second chapter of Joshua.

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”

But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof 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. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea 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. 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.

“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 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.”

“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.”

So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. She said to them, “Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.”

Now the men had said to her, “This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads; we will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them. But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.”

“Agreed,” she replied. “Let it be as you say.”

So she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them. Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had happened to them. 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.” Joshua 2

Rahab went out of her way to ensure the two Israelite spies were not discovered and killed, first concocting a false narrative that they had already while concealing them on her rooftop and then allowing them to escape by powering them down from her window which just so happened to be on the city wall. Following her recommendation, the men hid in the hills for three days until the Jericho search party had returned and then and made report to Joshua about what had happened. This included the goodness of Rahab and their promise to ensure that she and her family would not be harmed when the Israelites attacked. To designate her home apart from the rest of the city, she tied a scarlet cord to her window.

Fast forwarding ahead to Joshua, chapter 6, we read this:

Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 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. 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.”

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.” And he ordered the army, “Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord.”

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. 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. 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!” 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.

Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. 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. So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.

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. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted 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. 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. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.”

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. 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.

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.” 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.

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. 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. Vv. 1-25

Rahab didn’t have to do what she did. She could have turned in the two spies and would have been hailed as a hero by Jericho’s king but by faith, she knew the God of Israel was far greater in power than any human king. And so, with faith she aided and abetted the spies in defiance of her own people and in return, God delivered and rescued her and her family.

What does faith bring?

In this message, the twelfth in this series, we learn that our faith helps us take risks when we trust that God is present while leading and guiding us through those situations. When we do this, we discover what Jochebed and Rahab did, that God makes good on His promise to bring His believers through whatever He brings them to, no matter how difficult and perilous it may seem.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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