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\nJos 2:1-7<\/b>\u00a0<\/a><\/span>\u00a0And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, \u201cGo, view the land, especially Jericho.\u201d And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there.\u00a0And it was told to the king of Jericho, \u201cBehold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.\u201d\u00a0Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, \u201cBring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.\u201d\u00a0But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, \u201cTrue, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.\u00a0And 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.\u201d\u00a0But 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. 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The city of Jericho was relatively close to Israel\u2019s planned crossing point of the Jordan River and it was one of the most secure and fortified cities in Canaan. It was wise for Joshua to send these spies\u00a0secretly<\/b>. A generation earlier, the public sending of spies into Canaan ended in disaster when most of the spies returned with a discouraging report of the land and its people. Only two of the twelve sent returned with a faith-filled, God-honoring report (Caleb and Joshua,\u00a0Numbers 14:6-9<\/span><\/a>). A generation later, Joshua sent only two spies instead of twelve.<\/p>\n
Somehow, the leader of the city-state of Jericho learned that two Israelite men had come to the city as spies (to search out the country<\/b>). This was of great concern, because the city was already on alert, fearful of the Israelite invasion.<\/p>\n
The Bible simply reports Rahab\u2019s lie; it does not praise it or excuse it. Rahab faced an ethical challenge: either option was bad. She decided that it was worse for her to betray the spies than to lie about their presence. \u00a0Rahab\u2019s protection of the spies was courageous. Despite her pagan upbringing, culture, and morally compromised profession, she allied herself with Israel and the God of Israel. (Guzik)<\/p>\n
Those only are true believers, who find in their hearts to venture for God; they take his people for their people, and cast in their lot among them. The spies were led by the special providence of God, and Rahab entertained them out of regard to Israel and Israel’s God, and not for lucre or for any evil purpose. (Henry)<\/p>\n
Their entering the house of such a person would not excite so much suspicion. Moreover, the situation of her house against or upon the town wall was one which facilitated escape. But the Lord so guided the course of the spies, that they found in this sinner the very person who was the most suitable for their purpose, and upon whose heart the tidings of the miracles wrought by the living God on behalf of Israel had made such an impression, that she not only informed the spies of the despondency of the Canaanites, but, with believing trust in the power of the God of Israel, concealed the spies from all the inquiries of her countrymen, though at the greatest risk to herself. (Keil)<\/p>\n
God’s providence, provision, and purpose are not examined and understood by knowledge and understanding of every little detail of His plans, but rather by faith and steps of faith strengthened by trust and reliance in Him alone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jos 2:1-7\u00a0\u00a0And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, \u201cGo, view the land, especially Jericho.\u201d And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there.\u00a0And it was told to the king of Jericho, \u201cBehold, men of Israel have … Continue reading “53.e. Joshua 2:1-7”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18435,18432,4936,700,719,6447,17161,18434,696,18433,15445,3565,16220],"class_list":["post-194253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers","tag-hid-them","tag-hidden-them","tag-israel","tag-jericho","tag-jordan","tag-joshua","tag-nun","tag-overtake-them","tag-prostitute","tag-pursue-them-quickly","tag-rahab","tag-secretly","tag-spies"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194253"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194257,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194253\/revisions\/194257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}