DAILY TRUTH - Fear & Judgment
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Words per minute
158.51117
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4
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30
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Summary
In the face of overwhelming odds and overwhelming fear, Rahab and her family choose to fight for their own people against their first enemy, the Amorites of Jericho. Is there any doubt in her mind that the Lord is with them?
Transcript
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In less than a year, our podcast has gone from an average of 10,000 downloads a month
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and gospel of Jesus Christ. Help us press forward the crown rights of King Jesus by leaving us a
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five-star review on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks. In the same way that Rahab,
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think of Israel going against their first enemy after crossing the Jordan River, that being
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Jericho, in the same way that Rahab distinguished her and her own household from the rest of the
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city of Jericho, now we're seeing that same concept play out at large. So Rahab distinguished
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herself from the rest of her people, Jericho. Now we see the Gibeonite tribe distinguishing
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themselves from the rest of the tribes of Canaan. Both actions are done in faith. We should
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understand this as an act of faith. The faith is, at the very least, Rahab recognizes that at the
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end of the day, that Israel is going to win the battle because they have the Lord. It's not because
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of any practical circumstance, Jericho was a superior. They had the position that was
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advantageous over Israel. Israel was coming in. They were nomadic. They had been wandering in
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the wilderness for 40 years, an entire generation, whereas Jericho was strategically positioned.
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They had a fortified city. They had walls that stretched the heavens, as we see in the book of
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Deuteronomy. That's the way it's described. And so Jericho had the upper hand in every practical
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regard. And yet Rahab recognizes that ultimately the Lord, the God of all gods, lowercase g gods,
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king of all kings, Yahweh himself is with Israel. And so even though Israel doesn't have some of
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the physical provisions and weaponry, what they do have that gives them the victory is that they
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have Yahweh. And so she recognizes that if she sides with her own people, Jericho, she's going
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to lose the battle. And one of the signs that she looks to, that in order to confirm this conclusion,
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this realization that Israel will emerge victorious in this battle between Israel and Jericho,
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is that everyone in Jericho, her own people, the Bible says, she says this to the Israelite spies,
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she says, all their hearts have melted within them like wax, that they are overcome and overwhelmed
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by fear. She recognizes that this supernatural dread upon all of her people is a sign that the
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Lord Yahweh is with Israel and not with Jericho, and that Israel will be victorious over Jericho.
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She says to the spies, I know that you are going to inherit the land.
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No matter what we do, it doesn't matter how tall our walls are.
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It doesn't matter what provisions we have on deck.
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At the end of the day, you're going to conquer because Yahweh is with you.
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They make a treaty with Rahab and her household.
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they say, hang a scarlet thread out of your window, have every member of your household in
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your home, in your physical home, as we come to decimate Jericho, and you will be spared. Why?
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Because of your faith. She's believing in Yahweh. She's saying that the gods of the Amorites, the
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gods of the Canaanites, the god of Jericho, the god of Ai, these are false puny gods, right? It's
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like the Hulk taking Loki. You say, it's not that he's not a God. He's just a weak God, puny God.
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And he starts smashing them back and forth. That's what Jesus does with all the false gods of our
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world. And that's what we see Yahweh do in the conquest of Israel in the land of Canaan is one
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by one, he topples all their gods. And that's the exact same thing that Yahweh did in Egypt with
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each of the 10 plagues that we see transpire as God is delivering his people from bondage and
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slavery, each of these 10 plagues signify the superior power of Yahweh over each of these false
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gods. Whether it be Ra, the sun god, or the god of the Nile river and fertility and all these
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different things, we see Yahweh proving time and time again that he is a superior god. And for the
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record, I don't believe that Jambres and Janus, who are the henchmen, the two right and left hand
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henchmen of Pharaoh in Egypt, the magicians who are performing signs and competing with Moses,
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I don't believe that they were competing by just smoke and mirrors and sleight of hand.
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I believe that they were using true dark arts, that they were actually performing not just tricks
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or slight of eye, but they were actually performing real dark magic by a, not divine,
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but by a supernatural source, namely Satan, the prince of darkness. So they're actually doing
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real signs. So it's not that one God is real and the others are fake. No, it's that these other
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deities, lowercase d, they're not actual deities, but lowercase gods, they're actually real and
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they actually do have some degree, some measure of power. But the point is not that God is real
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and these other guys over here are fake. It's that God is infinitely superior to all these other
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false gods. And so that's what we see is God in the book of Exodus and the deliverance of Israel
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out of Egypt with the 10 plagues. We see God proving his superiority, his infinite superiority
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over false gods. And we see him doing it again in the book of Joshua as Israel is coming into
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the promised land of Canaan and driving out all of these Canaanite tribes that are pagans
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worshiping, again, false gods. Rahab has faith. She sees this. She picks up on it. She realizes
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here's a true God. My people, our God is a false God. And I know that Yahweh is a superior God
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and therefore his people will emerge victorious.
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No, at that level, it looks like we have the upper hand.
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as a sign that Israel will emerge victorious
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is because all the men in my city are cowards.
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that's how you know. You know because everyone is overcome by what only could be described as
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a supernatural sense of dread. Remember when I preached this a few months ago, I said that fear
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is not only a sin, and it is a sin. We have the utmost sympathy for fear, right? We're not very
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sympathetic when it comes to other people's pride. When we see pride, we're like, that's nasty,
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that's bad that's sin how dare you right but when we see someone who has fear well you you poor
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thing but biblically speaking fear is a sin the bible says be anxious for nothing dot dot dot
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except for things that are legitimate and you know and if you're a mom you can't help but worry it
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really just means you love your kids no there's no exception clause it's just be anxious for nothing
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which means to be anxious for something, is going against God's command. Therefore, sin. But not
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only is fear sin on biblical terms, but it's also, at times, a sign of God's corporate judgment.
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When an entire nation, when an entire people are overwhelmed by what only can be described as
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supernatural fear and an extreme sense of dread. That's one of the signs that not only do you have
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individual people sinning in regards to choosing to be fearful rather than have faith and believe,
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but you actually have a corporate judgment, a confirmation of God's corporate judgment over
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a people. Their hearts have melted like wax. So all that being said, Rahab has faith. She sees
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the signs. She sees, you know, she's clued in. She realizes something supernatural is going on here.
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It's not just that our men are a little bit scared. No, they're overcome by dread for no
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practical reason. At every level, in the practical sense, we have the upper hand, but no, this is
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supernatural. It's because Israel has Yahweh, and he is the superior God. He will fulfill all of his
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promises. And one of those promises is to decimate us and to give his people an inheritance in the
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land. And so she makes a treaty. She makes a covenant because of faith. That's what we now
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see in our text today. The same principle now applied at a larger level with the tribe of
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Gibeon. So you have all these tribes in verse one and verse two. What we see right off the bat
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in our text today is you have all these different tribes in Canaan saying, okay, if we go up against
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Israel one at a time, we're going to lose. Our only chance is to have an allegiance, to come
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together as one so that we can take out Israel. Because if it's just Jericho, Israel was victorious.
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If it's just Ai, right, we've had two battles now so far in the book of Joshua and Israel again is
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victorious. Well, maybe it's because Israel is having the luxury of facing each of these tribes,
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Canaanite tribes, one at a time. But what if we all went up against Israel together, simultaneously?
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Well, then maybe we would have the advantage. And even with this plan, which again makes practical
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sense, in the practical sense, it is a reasonable plan. It's a strategic plan. But even with this
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plan, the tribe of Gibeon says, we'll still lose. Why? Why so much confidence that they'll lose?
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Well, it displays some level of faith in the God of Israel, in Yahweh. And so what they do is the
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exact same thing that Rahab did. They go to Israel, they go to Joshua and say, we want terms of peace.
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we want to form a treaty. Quick, make a covenant with us. Now there's one main difference.
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The main difference between what Gibeon did and what Rahab did is this. Rahab lied to her people
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in order to make a treaty with Israel. Whereas the Gibeonites lie to God's people
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