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Welcome to the last segment of my 2025 Joshua 2 study. This post will appear during Holy Week, and I hope you can take the time to pause and remember Jesus’s sacrificial death this Friday. Many saw it as the permanent silencing of another would-be messiah, but God knew it was the necessary first step to His plan of redemption for all who would believe. Though many claimed immortality, Jesus is the only man who died yet lives, and the Bible we’re studying contains eyewitness testimony to that fact.

Moreover, we have the same hope of living after our earthly deaths simply by confessing Jesus as Lord with our mouths and believing in our hearts He was indeed raised from the dead (see Romans 10:9). In the meantime, let’s keep digging and treasuring what we discover.

Last Week’s Work

LESSON(S) LEARNED
In my study notes review, the Spirit called my attention to two gifts from God I hadn’t noticed before:

• The opportunity He gave a non-Israelite whose work made her totally unworthy (Rahab) to save herself and her family; and
• The conquest of Jericho He provided for His people, without a single Israelite casualty!

CONVICTION

I feel convicted that the recipients of the above gifts are so very different, yet they had one thing in common—faith. Rahab showed her faith in God and in the Israelites by trusting they’d keep their promise to her. And the Israelites showed their trust by following God’s commands to march around and make a lot of noise rather than waging a normal war against Jericho. Taken with His previous command in Genesis 3 not to eat from a certain tree, doesn’t it seem God asks the strangest things of believers sometimes?!

Next to Rahab and the Israelites, I’m clearly in Adam and Eve’s camp, convicted of feeble faith, and so often subdued by fear.

As I write this, I’m reminded of the black-and-white “Faith/Fear” signs that began popping up all over the Florida town where I lived during the early months of the COVID-19 pan[dem]ic.

At first, I didn’t recognize the graphic’s real message. Not until I realized the importance of where the words were placed. Then I got it: “Faith over fear.” Rahab, the woman whose heart melted at the thought of the Israelites, was the ancient poster woman for that message!

CORRECTION

These last eight weeks, I’ve moved steadily toward several big changes in my life. If they all come to fruition as envisioned, I will be blessed beyond all measure. In all but one instance, though, execution of the plans lies outside my control. Unlike Rahab, none of the changes are matters of life and death, but I still feel some connection with her as she waited for the siege of Jericho, wondering if the spies would keep their promise.

As I mulled over my hopes with the Spirit, He brought three passages from other current projects to mind:

• “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:8-10 ESV, Emphasis mine).
• “‘… be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might’” (Ephesians 6:10). I know God’s strength. I pray the Lord pour His powerful, mighty faith into my heart till there’s no room for fear or anything except confidence in what He will do in the circumstances.
• “‘So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ’” (Romans 10:17). Rahab’s story reminds me He didn’t just spare her life, He intertwined it with the Israelite clan from whom He brought forth Jesus, the man.

ACTION PLAN

Does this mean the changes will turn out in my favor? Only God knows how He plans to work them out. But I do believe whatever happens, I can rest assured what He does bring will be sufficient for me. I intend to keep praying for faith that displaces all the fear with confidence in Him.

Our Next Study

Next week we’ll start our third “blast from the past” study. This time I’m opening up the New Testament, John 3:1-21. Like my other studies this year, these files were also lost when my old website went down in late 2023. By studying the same verses again, I hope to refresh my mind about the earlier study and discover new treasure from the text—treasure the Spirit knows I need for today. I hope you’ll join me again next week as we revisit my 2020 study of God’s Greatest Gift!