Faith Remembers God’s Promises

Transcript

GR 1716
03/09/2014
Believing God Makes All the Difference
Hebrews 11:27-31
Gil Rugh

One of the great privileges we have as God's people is coming together as a family of believers and offering God our worship, bowing in His presence, having His Spirit minister His truth to our hearts. What a blessing.

We are in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 11 in your Bibles, the last large book before you get to the book of Revelation. This letter is written to a congregation of Jewish believers to encourage them to endure trials and difficulties with their faith firmly fixed on God and the truth that He has given. Those who believe in Him characterize their saving faith by a life of faith. The beautiful thing about God's salvation, it's not something just limited to a point in time and then we are off on our own. We are saved by the grace of God through faith in God and the promises He has given. Those promises focus in the salvation He has provided in His Son Jesus Christ. But it has always been true that God's people had to trust Him. They had to trust Him to become part of His family. And then that faith is an ongoing faith. What the writer to the Hebrews is doing in Hebrews 11 is drawing examples from Israel's history of various individuals who demonstrated their faith in God by trusting Him, believing He was faithful to do what He promised.

In Hebrews 10:23, “let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” That's basically a summary of what he has been saying through the book of Hebrews. Hold fast in your faith in God and His promises because the God who promised is faithful. And these are examples of individuals who trusted God in the face of difficult and sometimes overwhelming circumstances.

Now keep in mind the letter to the Hebrews is written in the first century. These examples from the Old Testament are drawn from Israel's history, going back hundreds and thousands of years. Abraham was a key example. Abraham lived 2000 years before Christ. Some of the examples like Noah and Enoch go back before that. These individuals lived their lives at a different time, in different circumstances. So the situation of these Hebrews is going to be a little different. But one thing does not change, God does not change. He is the same God, He is faithful to His Word. He is faithful to His promises. So even though their situation and circumstances may be different, the way they go through their trials is to be the same way Abraham went through his, Noah went through his, Moses went through his—by believing in the God who has promised. That's important because we are 2000 years removed from when the letter to the Hebrews was written. Our circumstances, our situations are different than they faced, but the foundational issue is the same. Whatever we are going through, whatever we are facing, our faith in God and His faithfulness to His Word is to be unshakable.

You know it is easy to look back in history and read about individuals who are faithful to God in various situations and admire their faith and picture us standing where they stood and facing what they face, and we would have stood with them. The trial for me is to be faithful in my circumstances in the situations in which God has placed me. These are momentous days in which we live. If you are familiar at all with the Scripture, you have to be in awe of what you see going on in the world. And we are reminded we are looking for the blessed hope, the returning of our Savior to take us to the glory of His Father's presence. These Old Testament saints could not appreciate, as they went through their trials and difficulties, the importance of their faithfulness in trusting God to be faithful. And it is easy for us as these Hebrews were facing to fail to appreciate how important it is to stand faithful to God, to be unwavering in believing in Him and what He has said. We cannot measure the importance of being faithful, unwavering in our faith. Abraham didn't know the impact that his life of faith would have, Moses didn't, the people of Israel didn't. When we're going through a trial, when we're going through life it is easy to wear down, it's easy to be overwhelmed. We become so absorbed in what is immediately facing us. Sometimes it can seem insurmountable that if we're not careful we begin to waiver in our faith because it is difficult to see how this will work out, difficult to know how we are going to get through this, difficult to know what God is doing in our lives at this point. And we don't need to know. What we need to know is God is sovereign over all, and God will be faithful to His Word, His promises and to us as His children.

That's the unchanging truth that comes through all of this. That's why these examples are given to these Hebrew Christians in their local congregation and why the Spirit of God has preserved it for us as His people today, so that we are reminded and encouraged. Keep your faith focused on the God who is faithful.

We've been looking in Hebrews 11:23-31. These verses focus on Moses, the deliverance of Israel from the slavery in Egypt and the entry into the Promised Land, Moses being the key figure in these events and leading up to events after his life. We picked up in verse 23 in our previous study and noted the example of Moses begins with the faith of Moses' parents, believing in God and God's purposes for them, and trusting them even in the face of the king's edict. That took great faith. But look back and see the hand of God was in that and their faith was honored. Moses as he grows up, here he is the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter. It can't get any better for a Jewish man at this stage in Israel's history. The Israelites are slaves in Egypt, under severe oppression. Every day is a relentless burden and yet Moses is privileged to live in the palaces of Pharaoh with all the rewards and honor and wealth that would come to the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter. And yet Moses by faith chose, verse 25 says, to identify with God's people and their suffering, rather than to enjoy the temporary pleasures of sin, a life lived not by believing in God. And it's a reminder to these Hebrews, Moses could have chosen to live the next 80 years of his life, you understand Moses was 40 years, remember, when he broke with Egypt and stepped out to turn his back on the wealth of Egypt to identify with the Israelites. He is going to live to 120. Eighty years, as we noted it never got any better physically and humanly speaking than it did those first 40 years, lived in the palaces of Egypt. But those were temporary enjoyments he could have. He saw the real benefit of being identified with God and His people.

Verse 26, “considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, he was looking to the reward.” You have to look beyond the present life. These Hebrew Christians are facing trials that they have already gone through. Some have lost their earthly possessions, their homes; some have been in prison, they know what it is like. And now that looms on the horizon. We need to keep looking to the reward, that's what is eternal. Moses did that. A reminder to them, it's a reminder to us.

So with verses 27-31 we're going to pick up with events that focus on Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt and their subsequent entry into the land that God has promised. But every step has to be by faith. So we pick up in verse 27 with the statement, by faith he, referring to Moses, “left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. For he endured, as see him who is unseen.” By faith he left Egypt. Now if you remember the Old Testament account, Moses really left Egypt on two different occasions, separated by 40 years. When he was 40 years of age, he identified himself with Israel, protected a Jewish man and killed an Egyptian. He has to flee Egypt and he went to the land of Midian where he would live for 40 years. That's the first time he left Egypt. Then when he was 80 years of age, God appeared to him in the burning bush and sent him back to Egypt to lead the exodus. And in the exodus Moses left Egypt for the second time, this time with the people of God. I think the occasion in view here is the exodus from Egypt of the Israelites. When he left and went to Midian, there is not much focus on that. It is talked about in Exodus 2:14-15. I'm not minimizing, that was part of God's plan for Moses but there is no focus on that in the Old Testament. It is related rather briefly. But really in Exodus 5-11 we will focus on Moses and his confrontations repeatedly with the Pharaoh of Egypt as he ultimately is used of God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. And then there will be two events associated with the exodus that are given in subsequent verses.

“So by faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.” The wrath of the king, that would be Pharaoh. I saw part of a program yesterday on the history channel, they were going over the life of one of the Caesars—Caligula, Gaius Caligula. And talked about the awesome power he had, and until he was put to death by some of his own soldiers he was anticipating moving the capital of the Roman Empire to Egypt. What he wanted to do was restore something of the Pharaoh's absolute power. He had succeeded in all but destroying the Roman Senate, but he wanted to be viewed as a god as the Egyptian Pharaohs had been, and have absolute, total power. As I though of Moses in this account, having to come and stand repeatedly before the power of such a man who would claim for himself to be god. And yet he had to come and tell him, you are offending the God who has chosen Israel. You must bow and obey Him and let Israel go. You are telling the most powerful man who has absolute authority over life and death, he has to let his slaves go. And you don't have to do this once or twice, you are back again and again and again. At any time, all the Pharaoh has to say is, “enough, execute him.” He doesn't have to go through a legal process. He doesn't have to build a case against Moses. It's enough if Pharaoh says the word. In fact he finally will get exasperated and tell Moses, if you appear before me again, you are a dead man. And yet Moses has to keep coming back, coming back, not fearing the wrath of Pharaoh but believing what God has told him, believing in the God who has spoken.

Now you'll note verse 27, “by faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.” How could he not fear the wrath of the king? He endured. How did he endure? As seeing him who is unseen. That word endured, the only time this particular word for endured is used in the New Testament, but there are other words that are used to carry the concept and that's been a major emphasis in Hebrews—endure. This denotes a persistent endurance or steadfastness. That's what Moses did—he stayed with God's plan, God's program. He kept his focus on the God that is invisible, that is not seen. He is the invisible God, you know, Colossians 1:15 refers to Him as “the invisible God.”
1 Timothy 1:17 refers to Him “as the invisible God.” Here we are, 3500 years after Moses. We have not seen Him. I have never seen God. No one here has ever seen God. But we believe in Him. Moses believed in the unseen God. You see his eyes of faith if you will, he stands before the awesome Pharaoh. And we can appreciate something of the splendor and might of Egypt with the archaeological things. Some of you have traveled to Egypt. It's really something, the splendor associated with them that have endured in their ruin.

That's what he could see. A man viewed by his people as God. A man whose word was absolute authority because Moses saw the One who was truly God, the invisible God. He had to have His faith fixed on what could not be seen. The One who could not be seen. That's what gave him his endurance. If he focused on Pharaoh, if he focused on his circumstances and situation and something of the hopelessness of standing before such a powerful man and saying, you have to let 2 million people who are enslaved to you pack up and leave, it would be overwhelming. But he looked at the One who is not seen. It doesn't change. Where do you have to put your faith today? No matter what you go through, no matter what you face, what we have to deal with as God's people, we look to the God who is not seen. That's where our faith is. I believe in God, I believe in what He has promised.

This is how we started out in Hebrews 11. Look at verse 1, “now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” And then we started in verse 3, “by faith we understand the worlds were prepared by the Word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” We believe the invisible God brought creation into existence out of nothing, contrary to the world. The world can't face that. Somehow there had to be something and it exploded and here we are. That's faith, that's a great faith. The problem is it's a faith in foolishness. But we believe in the invisible God who made all that's visible out of that which is not visible. He is the sovereign God.

Verse 6, “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He rewards those who seek Him.” That's the issue. You believe that He is and so you bow before Him as the sovereign God and He's the God who brings blessing to those who believe in Him. He is the rewarder.

Hebrews 11:28, you have the exodus, the summary statement of it when he went through those repeated, climaxing with the most significant of the confrontations and miracles that resulted in the deliverance of the people of Israel from Egypt—the death of the firstborn and the sparing of Israel from that destruction. And that is the Passover. So verse 28, “by faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood so that He who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.” Now we're going to move into these next examples that have a pattern that we didn't see before. In the previous examples, we were reminded that these faithful individuals believed God and that He would fulfill His promises. They even died without experiencing the fulfillment but still believing He would in His time. Now there is going to be an emphasis that balances, and we've seen it through the book of Hebrews in the first ten chapters—God's blessing on those who believe in Him. But now we will also see His judgments on those who do not believe in Him.

So we have the faith of Moses and the children of Israel in keeping the Passover and the destruction that comes on the Egyptians for not believing God. “So by faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood.” The Passover, the sacrificing of the lamb and then taking the blood of the lamb and sprinkling it on the doorposts and the lintel, signifying that this household is protected by believing in God and the obeying by providing the sacrifice that He requires, that this will spare us from coming judgment. So they did that by faith. All they have is the promise of God.

Come back to Exodus 12. In Exodus 11 God gave instructions to Moses about the Passover and what He wanted done. And He told him in verses 4-5, “at midnight I am going to go out, I'm going to destroy the firstborn of everyone in the land of Egypt.” Exodus 11:5, “all the firstborn of the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on the throne to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstone, and even the firstborn of the cattle.” An unheard of judgment. There is not a household in Egypt among the Egyptians that will not have tragedy. Pharaoh can't escape it, and the lowliest slave can't escape it. But God will make provision for Israel.

So Exodus 12 we have the instructions on how the household is to take a lamb and sacrifice it. If the household is too small and too poor to be able to have a lamb, then you can join households. Then you are told how to sacrifice the lamb and you can eat the lamb. But you take the blood and you apply it to the doorposts. Verse 7, “they shall take some of the blood, put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat.” Further instructions. Then verse 11, “you eat it in this manner, prepared to go. It's the Lord's Passover.” Verse 12,”I will go through the land of Egypt on that night. I will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live, when I see the blood I will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

Now you might say, we have been in Egypt for 400 years. These are difficult years. We are slaves. If God wanted to deliver us, He could. And it doesn't look good because we've been through a whole series of plagues and there is no relenting on Pharaoh's part. You know, God could have done this at once. He could have started out with this last plague. Why the repeated actions? Two things are going on—he is dealing with the Egyptians and His judgment on them and their gods, but it is also testing the faith of Israel each failure so to speak of a plague to bring about the desired deliverance is a test that maybe Pharaoh will win. He didn't relent after the first one. He didn't relent after the second one. In fact things have gotten worse for us. Now you come and to escape this coming plague you have to obey God by the required sacrifice and then placing the blood. Well, I don't know that all that detail is necessary. What about if I just sacrifice the lamb and we eat it according to the instructions? Then we'll wait to see what happens. No, it has to be done God's way. You put the blood on the doorposts. If it is not on the doorposts, the destroying angel will be coming in to your house, too.

So they have to believe God, they have to trust Him. And you know the story. The angel of the Lord comes through and every household in Egypt among the Egyptians has a death. There is a nationwide mourning like had never occurred. Every family has to experience that death with the judgment of God in Egypt. And so Pharaoh tells them, “get out.”

Come back to Hebrews 11. Associated with that exodus, you know that sinners are tough, sinners are hard. Pharaoh had a hard heart. Sinners, you know, something tragic happens. They call on God. God, get me out of this, I'm going to change my life, I'm going to do this. That passes. With all that has happened to Pharaoh and to Egypt, do you know what? Even the pain of Pharaoh experiencing the death of his firstborn, he repents of his repentance quickly. So he assembles an Egyptian army to take off after the children of Israel. What have we done? I've let our slaves go. They are a great resource for us. We have to go get them back. I'm not going to be defeated. So he takes off after them.

So the second event associated, well really the third event—the plagues, then culminating with the Passover, a special culminating event, then the events of the Red Sea. Verse 29, “by faith they passed through the Red Sea as though through dry land. And the Egyptians when they attempted it were drowned.” So again you see the result of faith, the result of unbelief. The Israelites are saved and the Egyptians are destroyed, reminding these believers of the consequences of not believing, of not having genuine faith.

This account is in Exodus 14, so come back there. If you haven't read these accounts recently, you ought to sit down sometime here in the next week and just refresh your mind on God's sovereign work. It's in Exodus 14:13-31of the power of God being demonstrated in the deliverance of His people and the destruction of His enemies. So we see God's sovereign power, bringing deliverance to those who believe in Him and destruction to those who don't believe in Him. That's the underlying theme and emphasis.

Verse 13, Moses said to the people, do not fear. Remember this was said about Moses when he had to appear before Pharaoh—he did not fear, looking to Him who is not seen. So now he tells the people of Israel, ”do not fear. Stand and see the salvation of the Lord which he will accomplish for you today. The Lord will fight for you.” So the angel of the Lord goes and you have the pillar of cloud that stands behind the Israelites to keep the Egyptians from coming forward to attack the Israelites. And then God sends a strong wind and the sea is parted. I take it from this description we evidently have the waters walled up and dry land. And Israel goes through. Now this would be a wide road, if you will. Israel would number about 2 million people. Now where we get that number is not because we are told there were 2 million, but when you come to the book of Numbers and they number the Jewish men for military purposes, and the men in Israel from age 20 to age 50 are numbered. They will comprise the army. Men like me were too old. But those from 20 to 50, there are 600,000 of them. So we project from that, if you add women and children and those over 50, this would have been an assembly of some 2 million people. You have to march them, so they are walking through the dry land. This would have been an expanse and it takes a while to walk through there. And Israel has to do it by faith. Why did God do it this way? He could have just sent a plague and wiped out the Egyptians. He'll later do that with the Assyrians and 180,000 Assyrian soldiers don't wake up in the morning. Why didn't He just send a plague through the Egyptian army and those who wake up look around and there are basically dead men all around them? Why do it this way? Those who believe God have to trust Him. The Egyptians haven't gone away, here they are. Now here we are, our wives, our children, and we have the army of Egypt ready to descend on us and now we have a wall of water and we're told, start walking and you'll get to the other side of this water and you'll be safe. I imagine it was intimidating. Maybe we just should surrender and go back to Egypt. No, we have to trust God, step out into that water bed that is now dried up and go. And they did.

You know as I read the history, I would have been right out front to go. Or I might have been drifting toward the back of the line to see how the original ones fare. You have to trust God. They go through. Then the cloud is removed and the armies of Egypt come running. No. Israel is through the water on dry land. When Pharaoh tells his army, in you go, in you go. Something happens. Israel went through on dry land, now the Egyptians are going through and things are getting muddy. Now the chariot wheels are bogging down, now the horses are stuck in the mud, now we can hardly walk. And now panic. But it's too late. God speaks and the waters cover the Egyptians. Then you have the Egyptian army overwhelmed.

These events are a demonstration of the power of God. Exodus 14:31 tells us, “when Israel saw the great power which the Lord used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord. They believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses.” This event becomes one to demonstrate and remind Israel of God's great power, His care for them as His people and His opposition to any of their enemies. Exodus 15, titled in my Bible, “The Song of Moses and Israel,” celebrating the salvation of the Lord and His power, the destruction of their enemies.

Turn over to Psalm 106, just an example of how it is referred to by the psalmist. As a reminder these things are for the encouragement of God's people to trust the Lord. Now the psalm opens up, “praise the Lord. Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His lovingkindness is everlasting. Who can speak of the mighty deeds of the Lord? Can show forth His praise? How blessed are those who keep justice, who practice righteousness at all times.” Those who are believing in Him and His truth and living accordingly.

Come down to verse 9. “Thus He rebuked the Red Sea and dried it up, he led them through the deeps as through the wilderness. He saved them from the hand of the one who hated them, He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. The waters covered their adversaries, not one of them was left. They believed, they sang His praise. And then they quickly forgot His works.” But the reminder is of the greatness of God and His sovereign power, His work.

Turn to one other passage and then we have to move on, Isaiah 43. And Isaiah refers to this even three times, this is one of those times, we'll just look at this time. Verse 14, thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy one of Israel. Verse 15, “I am the Lord your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your king. Thus says the Lord who makes a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who brings forth the chariot and the horse, the army and the mighty men. They will lie down together, not rise again. They have been quenched, extinguished like a wick.” As far as God destroying the mighty armies of Egypt, it’s nothing, just like snuffing out a candlewick. That's all it is for God. Israel went through the waters, the chariots and the horses of Egypt did not. They were extinguished.

So just referring back, we are to learn from this. How much more we today who have something of the faithfulness of God and the provision of the One who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world which the book of Hebrews has emphasized and developed so clearly. How settled our faith and confidence in God should be and must be.

While we are in Isaiah 43 I want to just draw your attention to a verse, verse 22. How sad what God has to say about Israel. Verse 22, “yet you have not called on Me, oh Jacob, but you have become weary of Me, oh Israel.” Isn't that a terrible thing? How could a people become weary of God? These who claim to be the people of God? They got tired of the worship. You've not brought Me the sheep of your burnt offerings, you have not honored Me. They just got tired of it all. I couldn't help but think what happens to the church today. People just get weary and worship just becomes a bother. Get up, get ready, get together with God's people even though God said, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves . . . I don't know, it just seems like a bother. And we like to shrink it down. Then if we can move the worship to a time when it won't interfere with my life and what I really care about. Without saying it we become like Israel if we're not careful. We become weary of God. It just seems inconvenient and troublesome and bothersome instead of a great honor and a great privilege and a great blessing that we can come before the living God who has provided salvation for us. It ought to be the center of our lives and a great blessing. And yet you have become weary of Me, God says to Israel. Tragic verse.

Come back to Hebrews. They passed through the Red Sea. Then we're going to come to verse 30, “by faith the walls of Jericho had fallen down.” There are 40 years between verse 29 and verse 30 and they are not good years. They are the 40 years of wilderness wandering. Turn back to Hebrews 3. You see he used the wilderness wanderings those 40 years back in Hebrews 3 as an example that you do not want to follow. Verse 14 says, verse 12, “take care, brethren, that there not be in anyone of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.” One of the things we do as we get together, we are to encourage one another it says in verse 14. “For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.” And as we have noted repeatedly, the evidence of saving faith is enduring faith. “Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me. For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed did not all those who had come out of Egypt led by Moses. With whom was He angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?” Remember everyone 20 years and older who came out of Egypt with the exception of two were going to die in that wilderness because they wouldn't believe what God had promised.

To whom did He swear they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient. So we see they were not able to enter because of unbelief. You see disobedience and unbelief are the same thing. You can't say, I believe in God, I just don't obey Him. Disobedience is unbelief and a life of disobedience is a life of unbelief. If you don't believe in the God who exists and the promises He has given, how can you claim to be a believer? Well, at a point in time when I was little I prayed a prayer. So? Israel had those times but they failed to have an enduring faith.

So that is an example. When you come back to Hebrews 11 we jump to the Red Sea because he is not just giving the examples here of those that believed in God but the destruction of the unbeliever. And the point here is to pass on Israel's experience. “By faith,” verse 30, “the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.” Now Moses is dead, he died not being permitted by God to go into the Promised Land. Joshua now is the leader of God's people. But he's included here because the purpose of the exodus was to bring Israel into the Promised Land. It was because of their refusal to believe, they had to wait 40 years to experience that. But now they are going into the land.

“By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.” Come back to the book of Joshua, we don't have time to read this account either. Joshua 6. Stop in Joshua 1, this will give you the context. God speaks to Joshua, gives him His word to prepare Joshua how he is going to have to function. And he tells them in verse 5, the end of the verse, “I will be with you, I will not fail you nor forsake you.” Remember what Jesus told His disciples? “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So God promises Joshua, “I won't fail you, I won't forsake you.” Then note this repeated instruction, “be strong and courageous,” verse 6. Look at how verse 7 starts, “only be strong and very courageous;” look down in verse 9, “have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous;” the end of verse 18, “only be strong and courageous.” When God speaks, if you really believe in Him as the sovereign, all powerful God who keeps His word, then how can you be anything but strong and courageous? This is not confidence in myself, building my self-esteem to feel better about myself and self-assured. No. This is God-assured. I realize how weak and frail I am, but I serve the God who is all powerful and I am living in light of His Word and His promises which are sure. That's where my faith and confidence is. Joshua, you don't waver, you don't doubt. You be strong and courageous. Easy for me to read this and say, sure, if I were Joshua, I would be, too. I would have been ready to charge ahead with the armies of Israel. But I don't have to face what Joshua had to face, I have to face what I have to face. That's where the challenge comes for me to be strong and courageous, not to think that if I had to go into the Promised Land and confront Jericho, I would have been strong. It's easy to be strong reading the history and how it came out. The challenge for me in living by faith is what I have to face today. This isn't going to be easy. We're going to do it. How did he have to do it? The way God said.

Come over to Joshua 6. Here is the plan, we're not going to have time to read it. Here is what you are going to do. Jericho is a strong city. It's the entrance to the land. In those days and as they did for millenniums, they built strong cities. Then more modern weapons came and that was no longer effective. They built fortified cities, people withdrew into the city and if you had a strong army you had a hard time defeating the city. And if you couldn't defeat the city, you couldn't progress because you always had the enemy behind you if you got around the city. So we have to deal with Jericho. I wonder what the plan for Jericho will be. There could be a variety of things, but the only plan that matters is God's plan.

So here is what He tells Joshua, here is what you are going to do, He gives the order. Here is how I want Israel to march, the soldiers this place, the ark here, then the soldiers, then the people. You go out and march around Jericho one time. And they'll sound the ram's horns and go around, but nobody is allowed to open their big mouth. You have to walk around the city, but you can't be talking with your neighbor. How did you sleep last night? What are we going to do for dinner when we get back to camp? No, you get up and go. Now, think, you have Israel to deal with. Here is our battle strategy, we're going to go out and walk around the city. The trumpets will sound, nobody talk. Mum's the word. Then we'll come back to camp.

That's all right on day one. Maybe God just wants us to get a good view of the city. Then you do that the second day. Then you do that the third day. Then you do that the fourth day. Then you do that the fifth day. I don't think this is a good plan. I don't see any purpose in going out and walking around the city, going through all that, coming back, sitting down and doing the same thing tomorrow. We've done it four times and nothing has happened. We've done it five times and nothing has happened. We've done it six times and nothing has happened. Day seven, get going. Today you are going to walk around it seven times. Now you have another part. The horns are going to blow and everybody shout, and the walls are going to fall down. Oh really. That's the battle strategy? Maybe Joshua is not the best leader. That's the plan and it works. Why does it work? Because the God, who is sovereign, said it would work; not because you go out, walk around a city and it will fall down. Because for this city, this is His plan. It was a testimony to the unbelieving inhabitants of Jericho of the sovereignty of God and a further testimony to the inhabitants of Canaan that the God of Israel cannot be defeated. And it was a test of Israel's faith. You will trust Me. You will trust what I have said. Doesn't look practical, I can't see how this is going to accomplish anything, but we don't have to.

In one sense we can say, our life is not easy, but it's not complicated. Just do what He says. Well, let me tell you the circumstances. I don't know whether that will work here. Well, there may be situations where it is not clear and we seek counsel, but when we know what God has said, it's not complicated. Do it. He didn't say it is easy, but do it. That's what they had to do. The walls of Jericho fall down.

Come back to Hebrews 11, we have one more example associated with this. God is gracious. It's not only the Israelites who are being preserved and saved by God, but there is even someone in Jericho with her family. This is the only woman mentioned in Hebrews 11, apart from Sarah. And you go to the bottom of the heap for this one, where you have “by faith Rahab the harlot,” not Rahab a good woman, a kind woman, a moral woman. Rahab the whore. She didn't perish along with those who were disobedient, who did not believe, after she welcomed the spies in peace.
Come back to Joshua 2. A reminder of the grace of God. What makes Rahab, a harlot, why would she be spared? She believed God. That's what makes the difference. You remember the spies come into the land, there are two spies sent in to spy out the city. That wouldn't be unusual because during the day a city like Jericho would have its gates open and people to do business would come in and out. People would bring goods to sell and come in to barter and buy and all of that. So these spies come in dressed like ordinary people, but word gets out that there are some spies who have gotten into Jericho. So these spies go to the house of the harlot. Now you might think that they are dallying on the side, gotten side-tracked from spying out the city. But it's the logical place to go. They didn't have motels and hotels in those days. They just couldn't go sit in the city square. So where would you go? You go where a lot of the men who came into the city to do business would go. They would stop at the brothel, at the house of the harlot and spend some of their money. So the spies go there.

And you know the story. Rahab hides them. And her faith is awesome. Now here is a woman who has lived a low life morally in the city of Jericho, but she has heard about the Israelites. They have heard about the God of Israel, they've heard what the God of Israel has done to deliver His people out of Egypt, what He has done to the enemies that they had to deal with as they have come to Canaan. And she believes that that God is the true and living God.

So look in Joshua 2:9, “and she said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land.” And there is a supernatural terror on everybody in the land. Their hearts have melted, but there is a difference between her and the people of the land. The people of the land are frightened, they are terrified, but they don't believe. Rahab believes. Look in verse 11, “when we heard it, our hearts melted. No courage remained in any man any longer because of you. For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.” What a difference. Rahab says, our hearts melted, but the people of Jericho didn't believe in the God of Israel. They were afraid, but they didn't believe. Rahab feared the God of Israel and believed in Him. “He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.” This prostitute, living in a pagan land now ripe for judgment has such faith in the God of Israel.

And you know the story, she is preserved and her family. If you come over to Joshua 6:22, after the walls of the city fall down her house is preserved and her family. When she professed her faith, she said, promise me you'll spare me and my family. You can be sure she was out telling her relatives, her family members, you have to come and stay at my house. The God of Israel is going to destroy the city, but if you join with me in believing in the God of Israel, come in. You know who would come into her house, only those who believe. And those who believe are spared. So verse 22, Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land,” go into the harlot's house and bring the woman and all she has out as you have sworn to her. So they went in, brought Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, all she had, her relatives.” And she becomes part of the camp of Israel. Many of you are familiar with Rahab. Read the genealogy in Matthew 1, for example, and you read that Rahab married a Jewish man, Salmon. And Salmon is the father of Boaz, and Boaz marries Ruth. Then we have Jesse, then we have David, and ultimately we have the Messiah. She is going to be in the line of the Messiah. She is in the Messiah's genealogy as it is set down in Matthew 1. She believed God and she is rescued, delivered by God, experienced His salvation because she believed in the invisible God, His power to deliver.

You'll note the pattern we have looked at in these verses, basically, in verses 28-31 particularly. Those who had faith and lived by faith in obeying God were spared; those who did not were destroyed. That's the difference.

Come back to Hebrews 4 and we're done, just read this verse. Verse 1, we read the end of Hebrews 3 a little bit ago. Chapter 4 opens up, “therefore let us fear, if while a promise remains of entering His rest, any of you may seem to come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also. But the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed entered that rest.” Can anything be more tragic, when people hear the Word of the living God and don't believe it, and they are doomed to destruction. Not enough to hear the Word, not enough to sit here Sunday after Sunday and hear the Word. You can hear the Word and spend an eternity in hell because the Word doesn't profit those who hear it but don't believe it. But when you hear the Word and believe in God and what He has said, the salvation He has provided in the death and resurrection of His Son, then you are cleansed from your sin. You become His child and your life is never the same. That's what he is driving home to these people. That's the message the Spirit has for us today. Place your faith in Him and live, trusting Him day by day.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of your grace. Thank you for the examples that you gave of those who trusted you and experienced the power of your deliverance. Lord, the awesome truth that those who did not trust you were destroyed and a reminder now that we have seen the completion of your provision of salvation in the finished work of our Son, the good news of salvation through faith in Him is given out. But the division is still the same. Those who place their faith in you, the living God, the provision of salvation in your only begotten Son will experience new life, eternal life in Him. The awesome reality is those who do not believe in Him will suffer eternal destruction. Thank you for grace, the grace that has provided this day as an opportunity to hear and believe this glorious Gospel. Thank you, Lord, for these times in which we as your children live, days of opportunity to live by faith, to demonstrate that we trust in the living God and the promises He has given. We praise you in Christ's name, amen.