I am sorry to be late, yesterday just got away with my time. Let us finish the story or Rahab the harlot as we continue to study the very Word of Jehovah. We now read the story of the fall and complete destruction of Jericho and the death of all within its walls.
Joshua 6:1 Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in.
6:2 The LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors.
Just as Rahab had told the two spies, the whole city was in fear of them. So the city buttoned up and prepared for some siege, which never came.
6:3 "You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days.
6:4 "Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.
Joshua is now receiving his marching orders directly from Jehovah. While to many these instructions don’t make sense, Jehovah doesn’t need to make any excuses or explanations to require complete obedience.
6:5 "It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead."
Walls don’t ever just fall down on their own. Jericho was a heavily walled city built on a hill with an outer wall and an inner wall. Any army trying to break through would be shot at the archers on the massive outer wall.
6:6 So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD."
6:7 Then he said to the people, "Go forward, and march around the city, and let the armed men go on before the ark of the LORD."
Joshua had learned from his 40 years of being with Moses and now hearing from Jehovah personally, that he did not doubt one word, but carefully instructed all to obey.
6:15 Then on the seventh day they rose early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times; only on that day they marched around the city seven times.
6:16 At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, "Shout! For the LORD has given you the city.
6:17 "The city shall be under the ban, it and all that is in it belongs to the LORD; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in the house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.
With all the instructions, Joshua made sure that Rahab the harlot would be spared and all of her family. He also reminded them that they would take no spoils but only keep the precious metals that would belong to Jehovah, not to them.
6:18 "But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things under the ban, so that you do not covet them and take some of the things under the ban, and make the camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it.
6:19 "But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the LORD; they shall go into the treasury of the LORD." Jos 6:20 So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city.
6:21 They utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.
This is the terrible cost of sin and abominable idolatry. Everyone and every animal would be destroyed. None would survive.
6:22 Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the harlot's house and bring the woman and all she has out of there, as you have sworn to her."
6:23 So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel.
True to their promise, the original two spies went to Rahab’s house and made sure that she and all her assembled family would be safely escorted out of the city. They would have to be kept out of the camp for 7 days to be considered clean and enter the camp.
6:24 They burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD.
6:25 However, Rahab the harlot and her father's household and all she had, Joshua spared; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
Now they lived as one of the people of Jehovah, as they had placed their trust in Jehovah.
6:26 Then Joshua made them take an oath at that time, saying, "Cursed before the LORD is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates."
6:27 So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land.
Two things are presented here, one is the curse upon Jericho. The other is that the whole land now lived in fear of Joshua and the people of Jehovah.
One closing note is that Rahab, a harlot from Moab, would marry Salmon.
Matthew 1:5 Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse.
Rahab the harlot would become the great grandmother of David and in the lineage of Jesus Christ. She would always be referred to as Rahab the harlot. Jehovah can take anyone from their past and bring them into His family.
More next Saturday.