Lesson 48 - Elementary

Memory Verse

"Perfect love casteth out fear" (I John 4:18).

Notes

Going into the Land

The people were in a camp near the Jordan River. Joshua was getting them ready to go into the new home to which Moses and Joshua had been leading them. No doubt, they were very tired of wandering in a wilderness and not having a permanent place to stay. They were looking forward to the land where they could build their homes, dig wells for water, plant crops, feed their cattle, and build an altar and worship God. God had promised it to them.

Joshua Encouraged

God told Joshua that He would be with him as he had been with Moses. Joshua knew that it would not be an easy task to bring the people into that good land, but God told him to be brave and to trust Him to help them.

Joshua told the people to prepare their food, and be ready to cross the River Jordan. They did not have boats in which to cross the swift, broad, and deep river. But God knew what He would do to help them.

From across the river the people could see the high walls of the city they would have to take later on. Joshua said the women and the children should wait until it was safe for them to go. God always cares for those who need Him.

The Spies

Then Joshua sent two men to see what the country was like, what the dangers were, and what would be the best way to take it. But the king of the country had heard about the people while they were marching through the wilderness, and he was afraid of them. When he heard that some strange men had come into his country he went to look for them, and, perhaps, kill them.

They came to the house of a woman who was kind to them. She hid them under some stalks upstairs in her house. And when the king's men came to look for them they did not find them.

She told two spies that she believed God had given their people the land. She had heard how God had helped them, that He had even dried up the Red Sea so they could cross it. Evidently she believed in the true God instead of in idols.

The Thread in the Window

Then she asked them to be kind to her father and mother, to her brothers and sisters, and to her. The spies promised that in return for her kindness to them they would be kind to her and her family. But they told her what she should do. She should tie the "scarlet thread” -– perhaps a rope -– in the window of her house so that the soldiers would know which was her house and not destroy it. Her family should be sure to stay inside the house.

Then she let the two men down over the wall with the scarlet thread, or rope, and tied it in her window as the men had told her to do. When the soldiers came to take the city her house was not destroyed, because they saw the read thread in the window. It pays to be kind, and it pays to obey. God, no doubt, had told the men what to tell her; and when she did what they said, she was doing what God wanted her to do. People are always safe when they trust God.

Questions

1. Had the people of Jericho heard about the Children of Israel? [JOS:2:10].

2. Were the people of Jericho afraid? [JOS:2:11].

3. How did Rahab make it possible for the two spies to escape? [JOS:2:15].

4. Where should Rahab's whole family meet in order to be safe? [JOS:2:18].

5. What kind of token did she put in the window? [JOS:2:21].