So the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years. The older generation who lacked the faith to follow God had all passed away. During these forty years the older generation raised their youth in the wilderness, teaching these children to have the faith in God their parents had lacked. When the older generation passed away, all save the two who stood with the prophet (Joshua and Caleb), the time came for the younger generation to enter their promised home.
Moses led the children to the borders of the land, where the Lord God commanded him to leave the children of Israel. The Lord’s chosen people would be required to cross the river Jordan and enter the land of Jericho without Moses. Joshua, the faithful servant who had demonstrated his faith in God forty years earlier, would take charge of leading the people.
God spoke to Joshua and commanded him to prepare the people to enter the Promised Land. Joshua gave the commandment just as God commanded and sent spies to learn about the city of Jericho. When these spies came into the city, the king tried to capture them. Fortunately a woman in the city hid the men from the king, and then helped them escape. Before they departed she declared she knew the Lord had given the land to the children of Israel and asked to be spared when the city was taken.
I want to speak for a moment about the faith of this woman. This woman probably grew up in a land that didn’t know God. She wasn’t with the children of Israel witnessing the miracles of the Lord. And she had made lifestyle choices that went contrary to the commandments of God. Yet she and the people of the land of Jericho had received word of the power of the Lord God in preserving the people of Israel. While the king chose to stand against the armies of Israel, this woman recognized who was at the head of these armies.
Part of what amazes me so much about this woman is the choice she then made. While her king and her country prepared to stand against the armies of Israel, she chose to aide these armies. She undoubtedly knew that the Lord had spared none of the armies of Egypt from destruction in the Red Sea, so she had no reason to believe any in the city of Jericho would be spared. Yet she knew the Lord God was at the head of the armies of Israel, so the armies of Jericho couldn’t prevail. She probably knew her only hope of being spared came through the God, and she chose to put her hope and faith in that possibility.
Think about the risk this woman was taking. She was defying her king. She would probably have died if he found out. She lived in a house that must have been along the outer walls of the city, or she wouldn’t have been able to help the spies escape as she did. This means she would have known her home was in a dangerous place for an invading army. So it was very likely she would have died in the attack. She would have also known there was a possibility, even though the men promised to save her and her household, that something would have gone wrong and the armies of Israel would fail to spare her should they prevail. Yet she believed God was her hope for salvation, and she followed that hope.
Jericho was taken by the armies of Israel. When the city fell, none of the inhabitants of the city were spared except this remarkable woman and her household. Her faith was rewarded.
There is an incredible parallel in our lives. We live in a time when the powers of good and evil stand against each other. This world has become a battleground for the souls of those living here. Nobody on this earth can stand free of the battle. All of us must make a choice between good and evil. That which is good is anything that stands on the side of God. That which is evil is anything that stands against Him.
Ultimately good will prevail against evil. It doesn’t matter how big and powerful the walls are that surround evil. They will fall. It doesn’t matter how much strength evil carries into the battle. Ultimately that strength will fail. God will prevail.
We have but one hope in this battle between good and evil. We have only one chance for salvation. Ultimately that salvation can only be one salvation, and that is eternal salvation. Only through Jesus Christ can we hope to achieve it. Only through the power of His Atoning Sacrifice can we have the blessings of eternal salvation. Our very souls depend on Him. And only through exercising faith in Him can we achieve it.
Thousands of years ago, war and battle would have claimed the life of a woman in Jericho. She chose to exercise faith in the One True God, and as a reward she survived the battle and had a longer life. Today the battle between good and evil threatens to tear eternal life from us. If we choose to exercise faith in the One True God, eternal life will be ours.
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