ATTENTION: Please note that this is The Adult Sunday School Lesson, God Protects aka God Protects His People, on Joshua 2:2-9, 15-16, 22-24 for the 6-19-11 International Sunday School Lesson. You will find the 6-12-11 lesson, God Has Expectations aka God Expects Obedience directly beneath this message and on the right side.
Jed
God Protects
or
God Protects His People
Joshua 2:2-9, 15-16, 22-24
International Sunday School Lesson
June 19, 2011
Commentary
By
Jed Greenough
If after reading this week’s scripture you think about this week’s title, who is it that you think that God is protecting? Certainly the spies are being protected, after someone saw them entering the city the authorities were notified but God gave them entry into the right household. When the authorities arrived Rahab the prostitute whose home they had entered said that the spies had left.
It seems pretty hard to believe that without God’s assistance that this woman, given her status, would have been believed. It further seems that even the inept would have taken a quick look in the house. But no, that evidently was something God didn’t want to have happen.
But was it really the men who God wanted to protect? Maybe, but in the long run, it was Rahab the prostitute who was protected when as we read in Joshua 6 the Israelites took the city of Jericho.
Joshua 6:21, 25
21 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. 25 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.
In today’s scripture we learn just as the spies did that the people of Jericho were in fear of the Israelites. Rahab told them that she and her people were aware of the complete victories that the Israelites had east of the Jordan and now they were at the threshold of Jericho. The courage of the people of Jericho failed because of all these things that they had heard.
From Rahab though we see something, we realize that she saw that God was giving these victories to the Israelites and from her we see a confession of faith. This faith is recognized among the greats listed in Hebrews 11 (11:31) and her righteousness in James 2:25.
Just as it says many times in the Bible, with Rahab we can appreciate that, “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Do we hear that often enough? I don’t think so obviously and that is why I ask the question. Too many students don’t want to fear God they only want to hear about God's love and teachers accommodate them.
God knew this would happen and that is why we read this pronouncement to all of Israel in Deuteronomy 4:
“Teach them to your children and their children after them…that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.”
There were 14 different versions of the Bible that I checked in doing this lesson and all use the word fear, but you won’t find it in the NIV. In that version of the Bible they have chosen to translate the word as revere.
A simple concordance search shows that fear of God is Biblical and I would highly encourage you to undertake this simple exercise to grow in your understanding of God. Without fear of God there will never be the reverence He is due and love alone will never motivate right behavior any more than it does with our children.
Moses feared God, he said, ““Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” Exodus 20:20a
It was known that Abraham feared God, elsewhere we see that God is called the Fear of Isaac; Joseph tells us that he feared God (Genesis 22, 31 and 41).
Of course there were others you know such as Job, Paul and the growing early Christian church, but what about Christ?
Isaiah 11:1-3
The Branch From Jesse
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD—
and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD—
and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
Psalm 34:7, among others, tells us that God delivers and protects those that fear Him, just as He did for Rahab who became the ancestor of Christ!
For Discussion:
1. Matthew 1 the genealogy of Jesus.
2. I am sure you know, that in order to understand the scripture for this lesson you must read all of chapter 2.
3. Do some research on the city of Jericho.
4. Discuss the efficacy of the two spies.
5. All Jericho melted in fear at the news of God’s workings on Israel’s behalf. There are many different ways and on many different levels to consider the “why onlys” with regard to Rahab.
6. Can we react today to these workings of God just as Rahab did? Are there things going on in our world today that are just as worthy of our consideration?
7. Spend time this week studying the fear of the Lord.
6-26-11: God is Victorious (God Gives Victory) Joshua 6:2-3, 4b, 12-20 or Joshua 6:2-4, 12-20
7-03-11: God Responds to Disobedience (God Reacts to Disobedience) Joshua 7:1, 10-12, 22-26
7-10-11: Listen to God’s Judges; Judges 2:11-19
7-17-11: Use God’s Strength Judges 3:15-25, 29-30
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved
