Dedication-2

DEDICATION/Dedicating-II—Joshua 6:15-27

The Task Of Dedication

Need:

We must remember that what we do, we do by & for the Lord God who has graced us with salvation by faith in Christ...

...We DEDICATE our lives to Him!

The children of Israel were to dedicate the city of Jericho to the LORD.

Israel began the conquest of Canaan with the dedication of Jericho to the Lord.

God’s people are to begin God-given tasks by wholly devoting them to the Lord.

How are we to devote/dedicate a task to the Lord?

Some Recollections toward fully dedicating ourselves to the Lord.

“Doomed to destruction”

“Accursed”

“Under the ban”

“Devoted to the Lord”

Previously we found that Dedicating you & your world to the Lord recalls/demands...

1. OWNERSHIP(:17a)

2—Dedicating you & your world to the Lord recalls/demands...

DEPENDENCY(:17b, 22-23, 25)

Explanation:(:17b, 22-23, 25)

:17b—...“Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she & all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.”

Rahab & all with her, were the only things of Jericho to be released from the ban. Therefore she & all with her would be allowed to live.

Rahab was redeemed from the ban because she hid the Israelite messengers/spies.

cf.--Josh. 2:12-13, 17-19—““Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the LORD, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father’s house, & give me a true token, & spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, & all that they have, & deliver our lives from death.”.....“So the men said to her: “We will be blameless of this oath of yours which you have made us swear, unless, when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, & unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, & all your father’s household to your own home. So it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, & we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him.”

Rahab’s faithfulness, though not based on total knowledge of God was faith based on the knowledge she had of God thru God’s presence, His actions with Israel, & thru the word of the spies(cf.-2:1, 8-11).

The Israelites were instructed in no uncertain terms that Rahab & all that was her’s were the only things of Jericho that were NOT “doomed to destruction.”

Rahab & all that she had depended upon her faith’s interaction with the faithfulness of the Israelites & their God.

?Can others depend upon your faithfulness?

?Can others depend upon God’s faithfulness?

Deut. 7:9—“Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;”

Hos. 11:12—“Ephraim has encircled Me with lies, And the house of Israel with deceit; But Judah still walks with God, Even with the Holy One who is faithful.”

1Cor. 1:9; 10:13—“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”.....“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

2Tim. 2:13—“If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.”

:22-23—“But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country, “Go into the harlot’s house, & from there bring out the woman & all that she has, as you swore to her.” And the young men who had been spies went in & brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, & all that she had. So they brought out all her relatives & left them outside the camp of Israel.”

The two unnamed men who had spied out the city(2:1) were summoned by Joshua.

Joshua told the spies to again go into the harlot’s(Rahab) house. They were to bring all present in the house out to safety, because they didn’t fall under the ban due to the promise(2:14). Only those who expressed their kinship(spiritual as well as physical) to Rahab & were willing to believe her were allowed to keep their lives. These would have been gathered in her house knowing that they would be spared(2:17-21).

Josh 2:14—“So the men answered her, “Our lives for yours, if none of you tell this business of ours. And it shall be, when the LORD has given us the land, that we will deal kindly & truly with you.””