FROM TODAY’S RECAP: - Video: Joshua Overview - Numbers 32:1 - Exodus 15:16 - Exodus 23:27 - Hebrews 11:31 - James 2:25 - Matthew 1:5 - Exodus 1:15-21 - Genesis 12:2 - Map: Land Allotment of Israel - Rate and Review! - The Chosen: Season 5 Sneak Peek Note: We provide links to specific resources; this is not an endorsement of the entire website, author, organization, etc. Their views may not represent our own. SHOW NOTES: - Follow The Bible Recap: Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | YouTube - Follow Tara-Leigh Cobble: Instagram - Read/listen on the Bible App or Dwell App - Learn more at our Start Page - Become a RECAPtain - Shop the TBR Store - Credits PARTNER MINISTRIES: D-Group International Israelux The God Shot TLC Writing & Speaking DISCLAIMER: The Bible Recap, Tara-Leigh Cobble, and affiliates are not a church, pastor, spiritual authority, or counseling service. Listeners and viewers consume this content on a voluntary basis and assume all responsibility for the resulting consequences and impact.
Full Episode
Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. We wrapped up the five books of the law yesterday, and we've already hit one of the wisdom books when we read Job. Today we step into the first of the history books. As we read through these, remember that their goal isn't so much to reveal history as it is to reveal God, so keep looking for Him.
Yesterday, Moses died after 40 years of leading the Israelites through the wilderness. This was probably around 1400 BC, which is roughly 2,500 years after we first met Adam and Eve. Before Moses dies, he passes the torch to his assistant Joshua, the man God appointed to lead the people into the Promised Land.
Joshua was from the tribe of Ephraim, which was the smallest non-Levite tribe at this point, so it's a pretty big deal that he gets this role. Both God and the Israelites tell Joshua to be strong and courageous. He hears that four times in one chapter alone, three times from God and once from the people. He heard it from above and from below, from his leader and from his followers.
It's already a big deal when God repeats himself, but when everyone around you is also telling you the same thing, you know it's something you need to hear. As they prepare to head into Canaan, Joshua reminds the 2.5 Transjordan tribes, Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, that they still have to cross the Jordan and fight for the land like all the other tribes.
Then they can come back east and live in the pasture lands they requested from God back in Numbers 32. They agree to do all Joshua commands them, just like they did with Moses. Which, honestly, doesn't sound like a great promise. These people are pretty forgetful if they really thought they obeyed Moses, but whatever. Joshua sends two spies into the Promised Land.
Remember, he was a spy once, along with 11 others, and he probably knew what kind of man made a good spy versus what kind would come back terrified and unbelieving. He sends the spies to Jericho, a city that's just across the border in the Jordan River, because it will be a logical first step in taking the Promised Land.
The first thing the spies encounter when they get to Jericho are the city walls. The wall was probably a double wall, and it was common for poor people, like Rahab the prostitute, to build their homes in the narrow space between those two walls. The spies had two primary goals on this trip—stay safe and get a good view of the city's layout.
What better place to accomplish both of those goals than a rooftop on the edge of the city? You'll find lots of people who think the spies are staying at Rahab's house for reasons that are not so honorable, but to me, it seems more locationally strategic than anything.
Plus, the text doesn't give us any reason to think they have ill intentions, and from what we've seen so far of the Bible, it doesn't hesitate to tell us the ugly truths. Other historical texts suggest Rahab also ran a hotel of sorts, so that could be the reason they stayed there. Plus, what we see about Rahab is that even though she's a Canaanite prostitute, she seems to fear Yahweh.
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