Daily Devotionals
Week 2
Week 2 – Day 1
God’s Surprise Choice
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. – JOSHUA 2:1
How surprising is it that the two spies spent their first night in the house of a prostitute? Surely this was a strategic choice and not one for pleasure. In fact, all of the facts would suggest that God provided this refuge for them, so they could escape the manhunt that the king of Jericho had launched. Why did God choose Rahab, a prostitute, to work his plan and his purpose? Why had God chosen a disgraced prince and an old sheepherder like Moses? Why did God choose fishermen to spread the story of Jesus? Why did God use hated tax collectors like Matthew and even radically legalistic Pharisees like Paul?
God’s choices for people to use in his plans often seem very unlikely to us—often surprising even those he chooses. God guided the two Israelite spies to Rahab the prostitute because he already knew she believed, just like he had known Moses would believe, Saul of Tarsus would believe, Peter and Matthew would believe—and we believe. God works through all kinds of sinners to further his plan and to save people. So, don’t be surprised if God chooses even us for something extraordinary!
Prayer Time
In your prayer time today, seek answers not only to what God has chosen you to do, but also what he has chosen the church to do as well. Don’t let fear or perceived weaknesses keep you from hearing God’s answers.
Week 2 – Day 2
Risking Resistance, Gaining Reward
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.) - JOSHUA 2:2-6
She could have become a celebrity. She might have been rewarded richly. All she had to do was tell the king’s men that the two spies were over there. Rahab did not choose fame or fortune; rather, she chose to risk her life to protect the men that the most powerful God in all creation had brought to her door. At this point, she had no deal with the spies. She did not know anything except that she was afraid to conspire against the people that Yahweh was empowering. So, she lied to her own king.
Our society and culture can be just as dangerous as any king. God’s people often risk being ostracized at work, shunned in our neighborhoods, ridiculed by our families, or sidelined by the society if we truly believe and confess the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Rahab lost her home, her friends, and her national identity when she chose Yahweh and lied to the king, but in place of what she lost, she saved her soul and gained a whole new family, a whole new world with the people of God. Her reward for the courage to resist power was much greater than her losses. When our faith gives us courage, our rewards as the family of God will outweigh any loss.
Prayer Time
Today is a good day to pray Jesus’ prayer (Matthew 6:9-15), which he taught his disciples to pray, especially this part: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil!
Week 2 – Day 3
Confessing Faith
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. - JOSHUA 2:11
What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities— his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. – ROMANS 1:19-20
To hear these words coming from a pagan prostitute must have shocked the two spies. She didn’t have a Bible. She had not been to their church. How did she know who God was? The Apostle Paul told the Athenians our God’s purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him— though he is not far from any one of us (Acts 17:24). He also told the church in Rome outsiders can know the truth about God because he has made it obvious.
Ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. Rahab believed in Yahweh because of what she had already heard, but it was God’s plan for the two spies to knock on her door, so she could make her confession and join the family of God. God is not far away from anyone who is seeking him.
Prayer Time
Pray for God to use us his church as a convincing testimony of his love and power, and that he will send us to people like Rahab who are seeking him.
Week 2 – Day 4
Intercession for Your Family
“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.” - JOSHUA 2:12-14
Have you wondered what Rahab’s family thought about her before this incident with the two spies? Do you think her mom and dad were proud of her profession? Were her nieces and nephews allowed to go over to her house in the wall and hang out? Likely her family had the same conflicting dynamics our families do—some better and some worse.
Regardless of what they might have thought about her, Rahab loved her family so much that when she risked her own life to save the men of God, she immediately did whatever was necessary to save her family as well. She believed the God of Israel would spare her, but her impression of Yahweh was that he would spare her family if she interceded for them. When we experience God’s saving love, of course we want our family and all we love to be saved as well. Of course, we do.
Prayer Time
Have you got members of your family, near or far away, who do not know Jesus? Would you intercede for them now?
Week 2 – Day 5
Trusting Those Who Trust God
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.
– JOSHUA 2:17-21
The two spies made a very conscious decision to trust Rahab when they hid in her house. Furthermore, they had to decide to trust her again when she told them how to escape from Jericho and avoid the king’s search party. But Rahab had to trust these foreign spies as well. Did you ever wonder if a neighbor ever asked Rahab why that scarlet rope was hanging out of her window? She had already been seen with the enemy spies in her house. It took a lot of courage and trust on her part to leave that red rope dangling.
To add to this story of trust, Rahab’s family certainly had to trust her to stay in her house on the wall that day when the walls all around them were falling. To be saved, God’s people have always had to trust one another. Even outsiders should know they can trust God’s people to speak the truth. His church must be a place where the confidence and security that Christians have in God is a sweet aroma wafting out of every door and window, so that others want to enter and taste God’s goodness.
Prayer Time
Do you trust God? And his people? And can they trust you? Do outsiders know you trust God? Make your answers the heart of your prayer time today.
Use this space to reflect on what the Spirit of God is teaching you through this journey. Consider how the story of Joshua and the invitation to participate in crossing rivers with Jesus has transformed your relationship with God.