Day 73 · Part 5: The Promised Land
Rahab and the Spies · Across the Jordan
In the Story
In context
“Moses my servant is dead,” the Lord told Joshua. “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:2, 5). Three times he told Joshua to be strong and courageous (1:6–9).
In Jericho two spies stayed with a prostitute named Rahab, whose house was built into the city wall, and she hid them on her roof under stalks of flax (2:1–6, 15). “Yahweh your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath,” she told them (2:11), nearly the words of Moses (Deuteronomy 4:39). She tied a scarlet line in her window as a sign (2:18–21), and the New Testament names her among Jesus’ ancestors (Matthew 1:5).
The Jordan overflows its banks at harvest time, but when the priests carrying the ark stepped in, the water upstream stood “in one heap a great way off, at Adam,” and Israel crossed on dry ground (3:15–17). They set up twelve stones from the riverbed at Gilgal (4:20). There they kept the Passover and ate food grown in the land, and the manna stopped (5:10–12; Exodus 16:35). Near Jericho the commander of the Lord’s army told Joshua to take off his sandals, as Moses had been told at the burning bush (5:13–15; Exodus 3:5).
Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.” So that with good courage we say, “The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:5–6 · The Lord tells Joshua, “I will not fail you nor forsake you”; Hebrews repeats the promise: “I will in no way leave you.”
For families
Joshua set up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, so “that when your children ask in the future, saying, ‘What do you mean by these stones?’” their parents could tell them how the river was cut off and Israel crossed on dry land (Joshua 4:6–7, 21–23).
What is something in your home that helps your family remember a special day, and what is its story?
In the Bible
World English Bible, as published by eBible.org (public domain).
Joshua 1
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Joshua 2
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Joshua 3
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Joshua 4
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Joshua 5
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A hymn for today
How Firm a Foundation · words by “K” in John Rippon’s Selection of Hymns
- How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!What more can He say than to you He hath said,You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
- In every condition, in sickness, in health,In poverty's vale, or abounding in wealth,At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,As thy days may demand shall thy strength ever be.
- Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed,For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
- When through the deep waters I call thee to go,The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
- When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;The flame shall not hurt thee; I only designThy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
- E'en down to old age all My people shall proveMy sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.
- The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,I will not, I will not desert to his foes;That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,I'll never, no never, no never forsake.