Outline:
1. National Faith; 30
2. Individual Faith; 31
3. Mountain Moving Faith; 32-35a
4. Martyrdom Faith; 35b-38
5. Grand Finale of Faith; 38-39
Hebrews 11:30-40
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down
after they were encircled for seven days.
National
Faith
This was their first
battle inside the Promise Land.
This was Israel
staking a claim to their God given land, taking a stand, as one united nation
under God.
This was like our Revolutionary war in 1775.
By faith the walls of
Jericho fell. Obviously, the walls didn’t have faith, but they fell by the
faith of those who circled them for seven days.
In Joshua 6, the Lord
told Israel to march around Jericho once a day for six days, and on the seventh
day march seven.
As they marched, they
were not to speak a word.
The warriors would
lead, followed by seven priests blowing rams horns, then priests carrying the Ark
of the Covenant, and then, behind them were more warriors for the rearguard.
On the seventh day on
the seventh lap when the priests blew the trumpets Joshua told the people to
shout for the Lord had given them the city.
At the sound of the
trump and the shout of the people the walls of Jericho fell down flat and Israel
utterly destroyed Jericho.
The falling walls was no small feat. The city was lined with double walls totaling a rise of over 40’. Archeologists have found that the walls fell outward making a natural ramp for Joshua and crew to go straight up into the city; exactly as the Bible says.
Additionally, they’ve discovered in the ruins a layer of ash and full vessels of grain; evidencing the city was all at once utterly destroyed and burned. Once again, confirming exactly what the Bible has said.
By Faith Israel Marched:
1)
In unity.
2)
In
silence (without speaking).
3)
In
obedience.
Unity
In unity they marched.
Not randomly, separately, individually, but together, united, as one force, of
one mind.
The power of unity is
a palpable force, for good, or evil.
God acknowledged this
at the tower of Babel when He said the people are one, and of one tongue, now
nothing they imagine to do will be impossible to them. Gen. 11:6.
In John 17, Jesus
prayed five times, “Father, make them one.”
In Acts 2, on the day
of Pentecost, when the disciples were united, together, in one accord, the Holy
Spirit came, the Church was born, the world has never been the same.
Jesus promises,
whenever you come together, in My name, I’ll be there, in your
midst.
United by faith they
marched, and the walls of Jericho fell.
Our United States,
stands or falls according to how united we are in the faith. (Christian
faith).
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams.
Silence
As the trumps were
sounding, they were marching, as silent knights. They were not to speak a word.
The Lord in His wisdom knew if they were talking, they’d be complaining, outshouting
the trumps, talking doubt, dousing faith and feeding fear.
We’re sitting ducks.
This makes no sense. This is stupid. Those horns are so irritating...
That kind of divisive,
faith robbing, grumbling, would’ve stole their unity, their faith, and the victory.
Dad always said, “If
you don’t have something good to say, don’t say anything at all.”
The Lord puts it like
this:
Be slow
to speak and quick to listen, James 1:19. Let no unwholesome word come out of
your mouth, but only that which is edifying. Eph. 4:29
They marched in
unity, they marched in silence, and they marched in obedience.
Obedience
The Lord commanded when
they march, in what order they march and what they do while they
march.
They obeyed.
Church recipe for a
successful, joyful, walk of faith. Walk in unity, with a bridled tongue,
obedient to the Lord.
They might not have
enjoyed it, but they put one foot in front of the other, stayed the course,
stuck together, remained silent until it came time to be heard, then they let
out an earth shaking, wall dropping victory shout, that landed them in the Hall
of Faith, and has us talking about them to this very day.
National Faith is powerful
and world changing. We’re blessed to be in this country, where currently our
administration promotes, not persecutes, our faith and freedom.
Folks from all over
the world flock here to pursue the American dream.
We must be ever
grateful and never take this for granted. For there are those (from without and
within) that seek to destroy the American dream and our way of life. They are
of their father, the devil, who hates Truth and liberty.
Charlie Kirk often
said, “The American dream dies the moment we forget Who gave it to us.”
Ronald Reagan told us
the moment we are no longer one nation under God, we will be one nation gone
under.
Israel shows that all
too well in their very next battle after Jericho, they fell to the little city
of Ai, due to the sin of one man (Joshua 7).
Which brings us to
our next verse.
National
Faith is powerful and
important but doesn’t exist without Individual Faith.
31 By faith
the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had
received the spies with peace.
Individual
Faith
By faith the...what?
Harlot. Hooker.
I thought we were in
the Hall of Faith chapter. What’s a hooker doing here?
Religious folks try
to scrub HIStory, to fit their sanitized, sanctimonious, sanctuary. So, they
say, “harlot” doesn’t really mean “harlot” it means Inn Keeper.
However, the word the
Holy Spirit chose in the original text is; zanah: (zaw-naw'). It means to
commit fornication, to be a harlot.
Not exactly the definition
for Inn Keeper.
So, by their
hypocritical sanctimonious snobbery, they call God a liar.
We just believe God
says what He means and means what He says.
And we thank Him for
loving us enough to tell us the raw, honest, truth.
God looks past the
hard and broken life of a harlot and sees the soft and searching heart of a
woman.
Could it be, that He
searched all of Jericho and saw the hungry eyes of someone searching; heard,
the faintest cry of a hurting heart, from a harlot.
That’s all it took.
After that, no raging
Jordan river was too wide. No walls of Jericho were too high. He would reach
her, come hell or high water…or rejection, or slander, or beatings, or, an old
rugged cross.
He sent His spies on
a mission. They thought they were there to spy out the land, but really, they
were there to seek and to save, a lost soul, the one the world calls, a harlot,
but He calls, His daughter.
One individual with
faith.
Like the woman at the
well. She thought He was there for water, but He was there for her.
Like here, like now, He
is where you are... for you.
This is the heartbeat
of CHRISTmas—Immanuel, God with us.
Then, He does one
better and reveals His great love by weaving Rahab into His family tree, the
ancestry of His Son.
Matthew 1:5. Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab,
Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, 6 and Jesse
begot David the king.
King
David, mentioned in the
Bible, 971 times, second only to Jesus. A man after God’s own heart, ancestor
to Christ. The mighty King David, great, great grandson, of the harlot, Rahab.
Okay now, just in
case you don’t remember the setting of the story about Rahab. Let’s fill in
some gaps.
Joshua 2. Joshua had sent
two spies into the Promise Land to spy out the land.
They snuck into
Jericho, the oldest city in the world, and found the oldest profession in the
world, the harlot, Rahab.
Somehow the king of
Jericho found out and sent men to Rahab’s to capture the spies.
She hid the spies
then helped them escape with a scarlet rope out her window, on the city wall.
Before they left, she said, I know the LORD has given all
the land into your hands....remember me, and spare my household. They told her
they would if she kept that scarlet rope tied in the window.
Wait! You may be
thinking, we just talked about how the walls come crashing down.
If Rahab’s house is
on the wall—ruh roh.
If only those walls
could talk.
Well, actually they
do.
Archeology caught up with the Bible during the German excavation of Jericho in 1907–1909. They found on the north side a short stretch of the lower city wall did not fall as everywhere else.
What? Really?
Yes.
So, does that mean...?
Yep. This is very likely
the remains of Rahab’s house.
The Bible is so
awesome. HIStory told in advance.
God is awesomer.
Rahab’s scarlet rope,
as blood on the first Passover doorpost, caused death to pass-over.
The harlot, Rahab, born, in a godless pagan culture, destined for destruction, on the wrong side of the river, in the wrong profession.
The harlot, Rahab, great
great grandma to King David, ancestor to Christ, heroine of the faith,
mentioned multiple times in Scripture, (Old Testament and New) and honored in
the Faith Hall of Fame.
Like Jesus kept His
scars as badges of honor reflecting His great love, she kept her name, the
harlot Rahab, as a ray of hope for every lost sinner looking for a place to
call Home.
This CHRISTmas, tell
Rahab’s story. Invite a lost sinner to come Home.
Now the pendulum swings
to another type of faith hero.
The
Mountain Movers
32 And what
more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and
Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: 33
who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises,
stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the violence of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant
in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35 Women
received their dead raised to life again...
These are those that
make the news, followed by television crews.
Through these we
witness Mountain Moving Faith.
The Power
of His Resurrection. Philippians 3:10a
The thrill of
victory.
But don’t look too closely
or you’ll see they’re just regular folks.
Then again, maybe we
should look close to see that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God.
So, we idolize no one,
but Him.
For whatever reason,
according to God’s Divine sovereignty, He used them, worked through them, to
move His plan forward for His glory.
Now, we pause, slow
down, and shift our focus on those, who rather than moving mountains, climb
them, die on them.
They are those unsung,
yet heroic faith heroes, endued with the intense Anointing, the passionate Power,
of the Faith of Martyrs.
35 ...Others
were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better
resurrection. 36 Still others had trial of mockings and
scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. 37 They were
stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They
wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted,
tormented— 38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered
in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
Through these elite
faith heroes we witness a greater love, obtain a better resurrection,
of whom Jesus spoke when He said, “Greater love has no one than this, that
he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13.
These, tried as
though through fire, have the honor of experiencing the intimacy and intensity
of knowing the fellowship of His suffering. Philippians 3:10b.
These see beyond this
life, to Jesus, and like Jesus, endure their cross, for the joy set before
them.
These faithful
martyrs don’t fit in this world.
The world has nothing
to offer them.
They have an unspeakable
joy, an intense satisfaction, from being dissatisfied with this life by seeing
the one just over the hilltop.
For them this
world is not worthy.
39 And all
these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the
promise, 40 God having provided something better for us, that
they should not be made perfect apart from us.
The Grand
Finale
What is this Something
better?
Since it’s Christmas time, we’ll use a Christmas
analogy.
They saw the Present wrapped under the tree.
We saw, the Present unwrapped and up on the tree.
Now, we see and know His Presence internally,
personally, eternally.
All of Hebrews, all of the Bible, points to Him, “Something Better”
Jesus, Immanuel, God with us.
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, we pray for eyes of faith, to see
beyond the present to Your glorious Presence. And with our eyes fixed on You,
we will endure our cross, and walk by faith, to the joy set before us of seeing
You, face to face.
Thank You for the honor of loving You,
forever.
Amen.
Prayer Requests:
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This was feed for you to read. Now it’s
Seed for you to sow.
Thank you for sharing.
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