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Bible Reading Notes
March 2011
Sunday, March 27th – Joshua 2: 4-6
The work of Rahab that Scripture clearly commends is her preserving of the spies whom she welcomed in peace (Heb. 11:31; Jas. 2:25). The way she performed this work makes all morally attuned believers wonder about her prevarications and leads many such believers to fixate upon her deception and even condemn her for it—neither of which God in His Word does. If we consider Rahab’s action in its context, we gain a clearer understanding of her working out her salvation by faith and thereby we gain insight into our working out of our salvation. We may start by supposing that Rahab sinfully lied. Even if she did, the balance of her work according to the assessment of God in His Word is that she did a good and commendable work. Let us therefore humbly rejoice in the knowledge that our Lord counts all of our sinfully imperfect service done by faith to be good works, acceptable in His sight. When we recognize and rejoice in our Lord’s lavish grace, we avoid the bitter paralysis of an arid perfectionism.
Monday, March 28th – Joshua 2: 4-6
Another facet of the context of Rahab’s deceiving tactic is that she was but a babe in the faith, who shows, as do all spiritual babes, the emergence of her faith from the remnants of her old, sinful nature. We see a similar situation with the Syrian general, Naaman, who came to faith through his being healed of his leprosy by Elisha’s word (2 Ki. 5). Naaman asked Elisha for the Lord’s pardon when he was obliged to bow with Syria’s king in the house of Rimmon (2 Ki. 5:18). This was an obvious flaw in the faith of the newly converted Syrian general. Yet Elisha, far from rebuking or even instructing him, tells him to go in peace, rightly reckoning that as the spiritual babe grew he would come to his own increasingly holy convictions of faith and practice (2 Ki. 5:19). Our Lord graciously, patiently, and tenderly considers our frame, knowing that we are but dust (Ps. 103:14).
Tuesday, March 29th - Joshua 2: 4-6
The essential character of Rahab’s work was that she sought to make peace with God by making her peace with the people of God, whom the spies were serving. This necessarily entailed her being at war with the king of Jericho and with her unbelieving neighbors. It is a universally recognized stratagem of war that tactics of misleading one’s enemies have their necessary place. Camouflage, code words, and misinformation all have their use in saving one’s comrades and thwarting one’s enemies. The Ninth Commandment envisions one’s responsibility in open court before authorized judges to give true testimony. While that commandment generally obliges men to communicate truthfully in social and private conversation as well, the commandment does not oblige believers to enable enemies to perform their wicked designs of using the truth not lovingly but murderously.
Wednesday, March 30th - Joshua 2: 4-6
Still more light is cast on Rahab’s deception when we recall that God Himself has directed His servants at times to employ tactics designed to mislead their enemies. Joshua would later be told to deceive and thus ambush Ai with a feint attack (Josh. 8:1-9). The Lord also directed Samuel to declare that his coming to Bethlehem was to offer sacrifice while saying nothing about the real purpose of his mission, which was to anoint a new king to replace Saul (1 Sam. 16:1-3). In both of these instances, the Lord did not tell His servants to speak and act with open veracity, but rather to employ deceptive tactics. The Lord did not encourage His servants to tell the truth and trust in His almighty power, but rather to express themselves misleadingly and to behold how blind and foolish the wicked are when they are turned from their sinful purposes not with mighty works but with weak deceptive words. God Himself repeatedly deceives Satan and sinners, allowing them to regard the Lord and His Christ as foolish and weak, when in fact they possess infallible wisdom and almighty power.
Thursday, March 31st - Joshua 2: 7
It is remarkable that God chose to secure His servants, the spies, and His people Israel not through the exertion of His almighty power but rather through the words of a spiritual babe, a single woman, who was a weaker vessel than the great men she misled. The real question for us is not to ask why Rahab employed this tactic, but why did God ordain, own, and bless it with success? At least part of the answer must be that our God is here showing us how mightily effective is faith, even if it should be as small as a mustard seed, and how even the weakest and most imperfect believers can do all things through Christ who empowers them (Phil. 4:13). Our Lord also reveals to us how foolish, weak, and vulnerable the wicked render themselves when they so easily swallow and act on the lies they love more than God’s truth.
Friday, April 1st - Joshua 2: 7-9
While the king of Jericho was rendered impotent by his soldiers’ pursuit of deception, Rahab further demonstrates her faith that would save her life and the lives of her family, delivering them from death, sin, and hell, and exalting them to eternal and glorious life in heaven where they would reign with Christ forever. The faith that prompted her to shield the Israelite spies now prompts her to go up to the roof where she had concealed them in order to shield herself and her family from the coming destruction. She does so by professing her faith in the Lord of salvation. The wicked love and follow lies that lead them far from the solid joys and lasting pleasures of those who know by faith that the King of heaven has come to them in saving love and power.
Saturday, April 2nd - Joshua 2: 8-11
From these verses, we learn that Rahab’s faith was grounded in the facts of God’s great redemption. She declares her knowledge that the Lord had given to the Jews the land of the Canaanites. She reveals how the people of Jericho and all the people of Canaan had heard of what God had done for His people as they left their Egyptian bondage and what He did through them as they defeated the enemies who sought to bar their way to the Promised Land. Rahab also reveals the way that the Canaanites had been disheartened and terrified by such awesome divine deeds done for the people of Israel. This God Rahab rightly confesses to be the God of heaven and earth and hence the righteous and sovereign King over all of creation. Yet, while the Canaanites knew God to be so exalted and mighty, they did not surrender to Him but stood fast in their determination to resist Him and His people. The wicked readily follow delusions and lies while they arrogantly refuse to yield to the God of almighty power, absolute authority, and saving love. Sin is not only stupefying; it is also suicidal.
Sunday, April 3rd - Joshua 2: 8-11
The Canaanites beheld only a God of awesome and threatening power. Rahab saw more than that. She saw a majestic and almighty God who did not demand of His people but rather who gave to them deliverance from their bondage, victory over their enemies, and a rich land and home that He had promised and was in process of providing to them. Rahab saw the whole truth about God, that He exists and that He is a gracious rewarder of those who seek Him rather than flee from Him in guilty dread (Heb. 11:6). Rahab, unlike the faithless Canaanites and unlike the faithless ten spies who gave to Israel a bad report at Kadesh-barnea, saw God as He truly was and is, a righteous Judge and a glorious and gracious Savior.
Monday, April 4th - Joshua 2: 12, 13
Based upon her knowledge of God’s sovereign power and saving grace, Rahab asks to receive the free gift of the Lord’s salvation. It is not those who know the facts about the person and work of God who are saved. The devils know those facts, and so do the wicked, and they tremble. It is those and only those and all of those who call on the name of the Lord of majesty and mercy who will be saved. Here Rahab asks that the spies swear by the Lord to remember her and her family and to be to them not instruments of the Lord’s righteous judgment but rather to be instruments of His saving deliverance from death. All people receive either judicial destruction or gracious deliverance from the Lord, in accordance with either their sinful doings or faithful asking.
Tuesday, April 5th - Joshua 2: 14
Rahab’s request had immediate reference to the coming attack by Israel upon Jericho. However, Rahab would receive not only deliverance from that death, she would receive a lasting place among the people of God (Josh. 6:25), and would be honored with a place in the genealogy of Jesus (Mt. 1:5). We, too, may begin by asking God for the least of His mercies, but we shall find that our Lord always gives to us infinitely above what we ask (Eph. 1:3).
Wednesday, April 6th - Joshua 2: 15, 16
Rahab proved to be more than met the eye—even the eyes of the two spies. Their finding her proved to be of more vital value than anything else they encountered on their mission. Rahab received the spies, hid them, provided encouraging intelligence to them, and helped them safely to leave Jericho and return to Joshua. In many ways her faith fortified the people of God, while her faith also saved her from destruction with the people of Jericho who trusted in their high city walls that would soon fall by the hand of God working for His people. By her faith, Rahab, who lived on that wall, escaped the temporal wrath that would come upon Jericho in a few days, and she escaped from the wrath of God that would come upon all sinners on the final day of judgment. Such faith that was instrumental in saving such a sinner and making her a fruitful servant of the people of God, even though she was but a babe in the faith, is rightly regarded as more precious than gold (1 Pet. 1:7).
Thursday, April 7th - Joshua 15, 16
Rahab’s faith in the living God saved her and rendered her a valuable servant of God for the blessing of Israel. She was saved not only from pending death and ultimate divine judgment and condemnation, but also she was saved from the life of harlotry she had been living, and all who could have accused her of harlotry would soon be silenced by the death that God would bring upon them. Saving faith actually saves those possessing and exercising it. Saving faith saves them from manifold sin, guilt, and misery. It also transforms sinners into loving, wise, and effectual instruments of salvation, as we find Rahab to be when she with courage and consideration not only shielded the spies in her house, but also gave them a safe departure from her house and guiding intelligence that would secure them on their return to Joshua. There are no losers in the economy of the family of faith. All partake of great gain and share that gain lovingly and generously with their brethren.
Friday, April 8th - Joshua 2: 15, 16
Rahab’s faith made her not only pious but also practical. By her faith her eyes were opened to the reality that the spies were safe in her house for only a brief time. Therefore, she helped them out of her house as she had helped them in it. She let them out for their preservation so that they might escape from the soldiers of Jericho’s king. By her so doing, she sealed her salvation as well as the doom of all the inhabitants of Jericho. Rahab knew where to send the spies and for how long they should wait there until they could safely return to Joshua. Upon their return, the final steps for the destruction of Jericho would be taken. Those most heavenly-minded are always of most earthly good.
Saturday, April 9th - Joshua 2: 15, 16
Scripture notes that Rahab’s house was on the wall of Jericho. God would soon tear down that wall, while His people would destroy all who lived within its vain security and had trusted in its lifeless bulk rather than in the living God. Yet here at the window of a harlot’s house on the doomed wall of Jericho, a woman and two spies parted, she having helped them in their mission to destroy Jericho and its wicked inhabitants, and they having given to her a pledge of her salvation. Only God could have brought these three people together at such a strategic place, and He did so lovingly to help His people in their entrance to the Promised Land and to snatch Rahab and her family from His wrath that was about to descend upon Jericho. When we trust and follow God, we can be sure that He will lead us in ways that serve for our blessing and for the blessing of others.
Sunday, April 10th - Joshua 2: 17, 18
The promise of Rahab’s salvation contained a pledge that she was obliged to apply if she were to be saved from the wrath to come. The spies designed the pledge in terms very similar to the Passover that had been instituted for them while they were in Egypt. As the destroying angel of the Lord respected the blood of the Passover lamb that the believing Israelites had put on their doors in obedience to the Lord’s instruction through Moses (Ex. 12:7,12,13), so the people of the Lord on their mission of judicial destruction would respect the likeness of that blood in the red thread the spies had instructed Rahab to tie to her window. This pledge of salvation was a special dispensation for Rahab and her family. Yet in her case it pointed as effectively to the blood of the Lamb of God, shed for and applied to His people, as did the Passover. Our holy God and His redeemed people all have supreme respect for the blood of His Son’s atoning sacrifice. Without a person’s faith laying hold of the shedding of that blood, there can be no salvation.
Monday, April 11th - Joshua 2: 17-19
The spies impress upon Rahab that the critical thing for her own salvation as well as for the salvation of her family was that they be found in the house marked by the scarlet thread on the day of Jericho’s judgment. Had the Jews not applied the Passover blood to and remained in their houses during the night of the final plague on Egypt, their first-born would have perished along with the first-born of the Egyptians. If Rahab did not apply the scarlet thread to her house and if she and her family members did not stay in that house on the day of God’s judgment on Jericho, they would have perished with the people of Jericho. Similarly, if we do not believe the apostolic gospel and look by faith to the death of Christ for our life we cannot be saved.
Tuesday, April 12th - Joshua 2: 17-19
The provision of God through the death of His Son is both infinitely precious and absolutely vital. Many of God’s people, in the times before Christ’s coming, perceived the saving blood of Christ through their eyes beholding the blood of the Passover lamb. Others, such as this Canaanite woman, Rahab, perceived it through its likeness in the scarlet thread. Still others, like the apostles, actually witnessed the pouring out of the precious and saving life of Christ, while many more have perceived the saving blood through their reading of it or hearing of it in God’s Word. By whatever means we perceive the atoning death of the Son of God, no one is saved unless he has faith in that sacrificial and atoning blood of Jesus Christ, shed as the expiation and propitiation for sinners. God has made no other provision for the salvation of sinners.
Wednesday, April 13th – Joshua 2: 20, 21
The spies bind themselves to deliver Rahab from death so long as she binds herself to continue shielding them by her discreet silence. The mere application of the pledge of salvation would not be enough to save her or anyone else. There must be a new life characterized by one’s persistent exercise of faith in Christ and repentance from one’s sins. Rahab had shown fruits of such new life in her treatment of the spies, but if those fruits issued from genuine faith, they would flourish until and beyond the day of judgment upon Jericho. She who had begun with good works of faith was accordingly obliged to remain faithful or she could not be saved. Rahab did possess true faith and hence she agrees with humility and gratitude to all of the terms of her salvation. Therefore, as the spies departed from her, she applied the token and pledge of her salvation to her house because she already possessed a saving faith in her heart.
Thursday, April 14th - Joshua 2: 22
As Rahab promised to keep her word of commitment to the spies, so the spies kept strictly to the word of Rahab’s direction for the preservation of their lives. The trust that the spies placed in the woman who had saved them from capture and death was well warranted, for her directions proved to be effective in covering them from their pursuers. We always do well to hear and heed the words of the faithful, because they perceive all things increasingly in the true light of God (Ps. 36:9).
Friday, April 15th - Joshua 2: 23, 24
These two spies prove themselves to be not like the ten faithless spies whose fears clouded their perception forty years previously at Kadesh-barnea. Instead, these two were like Joshua and Caleb had been on the previous spy mission. They saw all things and faithfully reported all things. They saw Jericho’s high walls, just as the earlier spies had seen the fortified cities and giants in the land. Yet, these two, unlike the fearful ten and very much like the faithful two spies on the earlier mission, saw and made much of the hand of God working for them and making them to be more than conquerors, while melting their hardened enemies into water, just like the Jordan’s waters that would soon part by the hand of God and offer no obstacle to them. The fearful see nothing but insurmountable threats; the faithful see that He who is with and for them is always greater than any and all who stand against them.
Saturday, April 16th - Joshua 2: 23, 24
The spies report an utter demoralization among their enemies. They rightly attribute this to the working of the hand of the Lord. How did they know that the people’s hearts had melted within them? They knew it through Rahab’s report. They saw the hand of God through Rahab’s faithful eyes for she truly declared to them in Josh. 2:9 that she knew that the Lord had given to the Israelites not only Jericho but the whole of the land of Canaan. Rahab’s faith helped them see the essential thing, the one thing necessary: that their enemies were already defeated foes because God had already begun to give His people the victory. This is how we should regard all of our foes, especially the sin that can so easily entangle us unless we, by God’s grace and power, lay it aside.
Sunday, April 17th - Joshua 2: 24
The fears of the Canaanites had been wrought in them by God’s ensuring that the reports of His mighty works for Israel reached their ears. Those fears proved to be prophetic of the utter downfall of Jericho. The people of God have nothing to fear so long as they faithfully revere their loving and almighty Lord. Our fears are the last things with which we need concern ourselves because our God first defeats our foes, then He vanquishes our fears. Read 1 Cor. 15:57,58; Col. 2:8-15; and Rom. 8:28-39. These passages tell us far more than Rahab told the spies!
Monday, April 18th - Joshua 3: 1
The report of the spies was virtually the report of Rahab given to them regarding the fearful dread in which the Canaanites regarded the children of Israel. Hers was a faithful report upon which the spies and Joshua placed reliance. This faithful report led to the nation of Israel walking and working by faith as we see them setting out from their camp at Shittim to head to the Jordan, across which lay their first objective of Jericho. The eagerness of Joshua is seen in his rising early in the morning in quick obedience and grateful anticipation of his leading the people into Canaan according to the Lord’s promise and power. Faithful words always quicken those who faithfully receive them, filling them with desire to work out their salvation by immediate obedience and joyful expectation of God’s blessing.
Tuesday, April 19th - Joshua 3: 1
Joshua’s eager enthusiasm to walk in the way of the Lord was thoroughly communicated to the people of Israel. The faithful people followed their faithful leader with sincere and unreserved submission and obedience. Faithfulness is better caught than taught. A faithful leader commends himself and his plans to the Lord’s people most effectively when he himself trusts in and follows gratefully the Lord (Heb. 13:7).
Wednesday, April 20th – Joshua 3: 1
The faith of Joshua and the children of Israel is evident in their quick and complete move from their camp in Shittim to the banks of the Jordan River. Joshua and all of the people moved from a safe and comfortable camp that was located in the fertile region that had been given to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh (Num. 31:1-5). All of Israel traveled eight miles to the arid land through which the Jordan River ran. There they faced a river in flood stage (Josh. 3:15), and, beyond it, the fortified city of Jericho and the enemy-infested territory of Canaan. But while seeing these obstacles in their way, they by faith rightly seized upon the truth that their Lord, the God of mercies and might, had promised to them the land toward which they were headed, and that God was already beginning to give them the land. Faith regards obstacles but relies upon the God who graciously promises and powerfully provides all that He pledges Himself to give to His people (Rom. 4:18-21).
Thursday, April 21st - Joshua 3: 1-4
Once the children of Israel reached the Jordan, they camped there for three days. Presumably they took time to make what provision they could for their crossing of the river. Significantly, there is no mention of them building boats or bridges or seeking fording places. Instead, they knew they were where the Lord wanted them and they were ready to do His will as soon as He revealed it. The people rightly reckoned that their God would direct and empower them to enter Canaan in His perfect timing and effectual way. The very best preparation we can make for any situation is when we prepare our ears to hear and our wills to obey the Word of our God, whether He tells us to wait or to march (Ps. 23:2).
Friday, April 22nd - Joshua 3: 1-4
The people’s faithful waiting was rewarded in due course by the Lord’s revealing to them the way He would lead them into the land. The way of God’s leading was for His people to set and keep their focus upon the ark of their Lord’s covenant that symbolized their salvation by sovereign divine grace. Believers can never go astray so long as they keep their attention vitally fixed upon the holy ordinances of God’s saving grace. Those ordinances are as the sun’s rays shining forth from the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. So long as our hearts and minds are fixed on Christ crucified, we shall neither aim amiss nor be overcome as we run the race set before us by our God, fixing our eyes on our Christ (Heb. 12:1,2).
Saturday, April 23rd - Joshua 3: 1-4
Two divine names are used by Joshua’s officers as they communicate the Lord’s way to His people. The first is God’s covenant name that we translate: Lord. This name implies divine sovereignty and saving mercy. The second name is one we translate: God. This name has the connotation of almighty power like that used to create the world out of nothing. This Lord and God is designated as being the God of Israel (your God). As long as the people of God are united by a vital faith to this God of mercy and might, knowing that He is for them and that nothing can separate them from His love, they will always be strengthened with divine might (Eph. 6:10ff) and made more than conquerors (Rom. 8:37-39).
Sunday, April 24th - Joshua 3: 1-4
The ark of the Lord’s covenant contained the tables of God’s Ten Commandments, a golden jar containing manna, and Aaron’s rod that had budded (Heb. 9:4). These contents symbolized the enlightening Word of God, the empowering nourishment of God, and the authorized guidance and protection of God—all for His people. No one who truly follows the essence of what that ark contained will ever know anything except ultimate success and holy satisfaction.
Monday, April 25th - Joshua 3: 1-4
The ark was to be on the move as God prescribed. Hence, mention is made of the Levitical priests carrying it. Those priests represent the living ministers of God’s saving grace and sanctifying ordinances. The people are told that when they saw the ark being carried by the priests, they were to set out from their place and go after it. It is not the personal pleasures, passions, or even prudent thoughts of the Christian that guide him to secure success. It is the Word and ordinances of God faithfully ministered and faithfully received that lead the Christian in the way of divine blessing and blessed fruitfulness.
Tuesday, April 26th - Joshua 3: 1-4
The people are told to follow the ark when it was carried by the priests. However, they are told not to follow it too closely. A distance of 2,000 cubits (about 1,000 yards, or just over half a mile) was to separate them from the ark. This feature of the people’s guidance does not signify any lack of close intimacy that God’s people are graciously enabled to have with their saving Lord. In Josh. 3:10 these very people are told that their God is among them (cf., Christ in you, the hope of glory, Col. 1:27). Instead, this distance of separation implies a reverent respect for the essential difference between creatures—even redeemed creatures—and their unique, infinite, and eternal Creator. This distance also would serve the practical purpose of enabling all of God’s people to see for themselves that the ark (and all it represented of the person and work of their God) not only showed them the way but also made that way to open before them. Those who hold God in highest reverence best perceive the infallible wisdom, unchanging love, and almighty power of their Lord, and all of their fears, doubts, and enemies are consequently vanquished.
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