Latest / Scripture Central / Joshua I Entering the Promised Land I Handmaidens, Harems and Heroines I Lynne Wilson

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Joshua I Entering the Promised Land I Handmaidens, Harems and Heroines I Lynne Wilson · Scripture Central

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The Lord had called them up the mount, He wanted to give them
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the higher law. He wanted them to be his people,
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and they refused. Now Joshua gets to lead the
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children of Israel in to the promised land.
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This new arrangement is very difficult.
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It also places the wives in a position of great leadership.
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Somebody covets a wedge of gold, buries it in his tent.
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The battle goes poorly. Israelites are killed.
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Joshua, please. Before the Lord, I thought you
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were going to protect us. What happened?
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The Lord says, shout. The walls fall down, the people
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are destroyed. The woman that lived there was a
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harlot. Her name is Rahab.
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She uses a scarlet rope. This is one of the greatest
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things I found in this chapter is what happens in chapter 6
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with that rope. Hello.
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Welcome back to Scripture Central.
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I'm Lynn Hilton Wilson, part of the team that tries to build
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enduring faith in Jesus Christ by illuminating and defending
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our scriptures. And I love the Old Testament.
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I love the Old Testament, this year especially because I'm
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looking at the women and today we're look at some handmaidens.
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We're going to look at a harlot, a very famous harlot, and she
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becomes a heroine. So I hardly want to call her a
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harlot. And then lots of other women
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were in the book of Joshua. And this is a wonderful time
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when the children of Israel are able to enter into their
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promised land. We've got Rahab and her sisters
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and her mother, and we've got the wives of the 2 1/2 tribes on
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the east side of Jordan are mentioned.
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We've got the wives and the women in Jericho and I.
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We've got a daughter of Ancor. We've got the Israelite women in
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the assembly. And of course the mention of all
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the marriages with women of the nations.
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I just want to go back to where we finished last time, this idea
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of a 40 year Exodus cycle where you go through these events that
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actually are typifying of the Christ of the Messiah.
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As we go through the Red Sea, Paul says it's like being
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baptized and the manna in the water is a sacrament.
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And now that we've ended the 40 years, this period of
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purification we talked about in the book of Leviticus is a time
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period that a woman waits for 40 days after the birth of a son.
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That's her purification period before she returns to the
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temple. Everyone else is probably under
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60 years old because everyone 20 and older have died out or been
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translated. I believe Moses was translated
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and now Joshua gets to lead the children of Israel into the
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Promised Land. And the reason why this is so
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exciting for me and how this fits into the Exodus cycle is
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his name. Remember Jesus name is Yeshua or
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Joshua. He probably was raised in
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Aramaic and he probably spoke some Hebrew as well as the Greek
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names. But Jesus is the Greek name for
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Joshua or for Yeshua, and the idea that it means save now or
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one who saves or or save us is just beautiful because Joshua is
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also taking that role. And just as Joshua took the
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children of Israel into their promised land, so our Lord has
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lived and died to take us into the promised eternal lands.
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And this is just beautiful. We see Joshua not only as a type
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of Christ in his name and in his actions, but he was also a type
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of Moses, this great prophet. You remember back, Joshua was
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one of the 12 spies. He was a general in Moses army.
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He'd been working with them. The Lord promises to help him as
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he helped Moses and as Moses parted the Red Sea to Save the
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Children of Israel, so Joshua will open the Jordan River and
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the Israelites are allowed to cross through.
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And this crossing through is very symbolic as well.
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He has a purification period before they celebrate the
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Passover, afterward and afterward.
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The captain of the Lord's host, you know, an Angel of the Lord,
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comes to him and says, take off thy shoes.
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This sacred idea of being able to be in the presence of the
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divine and remove our earthly cares, our earthly closing, and
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any filthiness and come before Him is beautiful.
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And as Joshua and the children of Israel have come through the
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Sinai Peninsula and back up now to the top of the Dead Sea,
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there on the east side of that, they gather together and the
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Lord commands Joshua to tell them to prepare themselves.
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I'm going to read from the BSB translation of Joshua 110.
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Tell the people, prepare your provisions, and for within these
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three days you will cross the Jordan and go in and take
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possessions of the land that the Lord your God is giving you to
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possess. Well, this is a very exciting
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time. And it's not just preparing
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their provisions. You know, they are to prepare
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their hearts and their minds too.
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These people have been desert nomads for their entire lives.
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This is a very exciting life they have.
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They have buried their parents. They've buried their older
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aunties and uncles and grandparents and they now are in
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the condition of purification that the Lord wants to take them
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in. And that's where we get to the
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women of this story. And Joshua refers to the wives
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of these 2 1/2 tribes that are settling on the east side of
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Jordans. We've got half of Manasseh and
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Gad and Reubens tribe who are all on the other side of the
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Jordan. He says, now these men have got
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to go over and help us take the promised land like we promised.
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But you women and children are allowed to stay here.
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Now this new arrangement is very difficult.
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It also places the wives in a position of great leadership and
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responsibility. You know, not only are they just
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managing their homes and raising their children, but they are
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doing it single parenting and they are doing it in a new land
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without a lot of understanding on the climate, on the culture.
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You know, things are very different here.
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And this may have lasted for more than a year.
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You know, this may have been just portions of a year or or
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years at a time. I don't know what how often them
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their men had to go out to battle back and forth, but we
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know that they started by all going over.
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I think it's also interesting is to you look at the text Joshua
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chapter one, verse 14. Do you see that it mentions the
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wives before the children? Now, this emphasis, of course,
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on their primary role in sustaining the community during
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their men's absences. You know, I just think it
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required tremendous faith on these women's part and also
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tremendous work. They had to watch their husbands
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depart. They had no guarantee of them
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coming back. This was very frightening.
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They've already fought many wars when people were killed.
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I just feel like it demonstrates their covenant obligation and
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sometimes it demanded an enormous sacrifice from their
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families, not just the wives, but the children.
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You know, they had to bury that burden of single handedly
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maintaining that household and the communities without the
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support of their young strong husbands, sons, etcetera.
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But they crossover and these 3 tribes may have been watching as
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this crossing came. But when it's time to cross,
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they go on one of these lowest points in the planet.
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You know, it's several 100 feet below sea level.
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And it's called Bethabara. Now, when you take that apart in
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Hebrew, Beth is House of or place of and barach is the place
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of the crossing. So it's it's the House of the
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Ford. It's where they came through.
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And does that name ring a bell? I hope you recognize that as the
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gospel of John. And in the Book of Mormon, we
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learned that this is where John the Baptist was baptizing.
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This is where Jesus came. You know, we're we're right back
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to the same spot. So as you're reading the Old
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Testament, see how it foreshadows the New Testament
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and see how the Book of Mormon acts as a second witness.
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This is really a beautiful little detail that they are
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crossing here at this lowest part.
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And if we're going to talk about the baptism, I also want to talk
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about how this is being born again.
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They're going through the water again.
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And remember, the waters do not separate until the men are
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walking in the water with the ark and the covenant.
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But this idea of a rebirth, of a rebaptism, of a recommitment,
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they're once again starting again to be a covenant people,
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starting again to enter the promised land as they had before
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with Moses. Remember, the 40 years in the
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wilderness was not necessary. You know, the Lord had called
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them up the mount. He wanted to give them the
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higher law. He wanted them to be his people,
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and they refused. So here Joshua comes in a time
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where we hope they can actually make it through it.
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And as you recall, the account describes that stones were taken
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from the middle of the Jordan, and these 12 Stones, one for
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each tribe, are used to build a memorial.
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And as the Levites and the priests are carrying the Ark of
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the Covenant across and the Israelites follow them, they
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arrive in the Promised land. It's a desert wasteland now, but
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it's more, a lot more green than they ever had when they were
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down in the Sinai Peninsula. As we come into the Promised
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Land, we learn about Rahab. This is Joshua chapter 2, and
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she has another part of the story that's repeated in chapter
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6 that we'll get into. But it sounds like just like in
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cities in Europe, they actually had houses built on the walled
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cities. And because this was a very
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important area of the crossroads of the east and the West and the
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desert, the city of Jericho was completely encircled by a wall.
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One of these homes that were on the wall had some sort of an inn
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in it, an innkeeper or some place for lodging.
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But in our text, it's very clear in both the Hebrew and the
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English that the word is that the woman that lived there was a
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harlot. Her name is Rahab.
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She's a prostitute or a harlot is the word the choose.
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But by the time we get through history, a few years, people
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like Josephus say she wasn't a harlot, she was an innkeeper.
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She was keeping people there. And because sometimes innkeepers
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were harlot, it's the same word. Well, I do not know.
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I don't want to say I've received revelation on this one
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and I just want to know that it's very important that we
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don't think these two righteous men who are coming in to check
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out the city, to spy, to see what they information they can
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give back to Joshua, their general to know how to proceed.
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We're not going into a harlot's house to for what is usually
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done in a harlot's house. This is not what they were there
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for. Remember, Joshua was one of
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Moses spies. He's one of the most noble,
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righteous people that we had leaving Egypt.
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And, and Moses has repeated over and over the need for the law of
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chastity and fidelity. And if you look across the time
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of their scripture from Adam, this has been repeated and
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repeated. These are the greatest people
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that are coming to do this work, not the worst.
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And so one problem that we have with the saying that Rahab's a
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harlot is we wonder why they're going to that house.
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But there is no evidence that anything inappropriate was done
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there because she already has a testimony of the God of Israel.
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And we read in chapter 2 that that she allows the men to come
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in. She knows who they are.
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And when the soldiers of the city come by to say there's two
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men that came in here, we've seen them and we know they're
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they're Israelites, she lies to them.
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She said yes, the men came, but I did not know where they came
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from. And at dusk, when it was time to
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close the city gates, they left and I don't know where they
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went. Why don't you hurry out quickly?
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Go catch them. You know, this is versus 4:00
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and 5:00. So she sends them out and the
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military follows where she directs them.
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And the men are upstairs on the rooftop hiding underneath the
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flax. So we know not only is she
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helping with some sort of an inn or, or her family is all there,
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but she also is very industrious and she makes a covenant with
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these men. She agrees to protect them.
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And then she testifies that I know your God is the God that
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has saved you. And she says I want you to
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protect me. I have protected you.
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I have kept your name safe. Would you please protect my
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family? They agree.
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And as they are let down the next morning out of the city,
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she uses a scarlet rope, which is very significant that when
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they come back, they have that same rope.
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And I want to have you just think about that.
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Think about that because I'm so excited.
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This is one of the greatest things I found in this chapter
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is what happens in Chapter 6 with that rope.
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But before we get to Chapter 6, everyone is ready to come in.
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And Joshua, it says, had not circumcised the people for 40
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years. So all the men who had been
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uncircumcised, young, old, had to be circumcised before they
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enter into any more of the promised land, and they wait for
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days afterward. I mentioned earlier that the
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Flint knives that they used in the ancient world that have been
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found through archaeology both in the Old World and the New
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World, are extremely sharp and that when you look under a
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microscope, they're nearly as sharp as anything we can produce
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Now. You know, Flint has an amazing
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ability to keep its sharpness. So I, as a nurse, I'm very
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interested in these kind of medical things.
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And I'm very sorry that they had to go through this.
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You know, if you didn't know what you were doing.
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There's a 50% fatality rate in an in adult men having a
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circumcision at this time. But it appears that these people
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were spared. Their lives were maintained, and
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after the healing and the covenant renewal that it
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represented from the time of Abraham as the sign of the
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covenant, which is so hard for us to understand but so
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beautiful to see, that they were willing to do whatever was
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required to live what God asked them to do.
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So as the children of Israel have now crossed the Jordan, the
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men have healed from their circumcisions, the Lord tells
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them to prepare for a Passover and the manna stops.
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It says in chapter 5 verse 12, they ate the fruit of the land
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and I just cannot imagine what it would have been involved if
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you had not cooked a meal in 40 years.
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Now that isn't true. Remember, they did get the quail
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and I'm sure that they were out gathering up things that they
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could find a Bush that had something or perhaps a lizard or
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something, I don't know. But the last pieces of manna are
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in the Ark of the Covenant. That's all they have left.
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If you remember in the Ark of the Covenant, there was the the
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10 commandments on the stone tablets, the miraculous rod of
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Aaron that budded and bloomed and produced the fruit to show
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who had the authority, and then a golden pot of manna.
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And that's all that's left. Once they have come across a few
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miles, they come to the city of Jericho again.
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And now we're in Joshua 6. Verse 17 says though, that
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before the city was destroyed, the Lord allowed them to go get
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Rahab. And it says she's a prostitute,
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she's a harlot. Again, every time her name is
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mentioned, it's tied to that, unfortunately.
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But in verse 17, it continues on that only Rahab the prostitute
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and all who are with her in her house shall be spared because
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she hid the spies that we sent. I am sure that from the time
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that Rahab sent out the spies of Israel until the day her family
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was saved, she was praying for safety.
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She knew what was going to happen.
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And in her heart she had made a promise and they had made a
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promise. I'm sure she was praying that
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they would remember that promise.
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And the reason why I believe she's a praying woman is because
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not only is she converted and her family is converted, but she
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becomes the great, great grandmother of King David.
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You know, this is Boaz's grandmother.
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And then the line through our Savior's adopted father Joseph
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is through Rahab. And we read about this in
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Matthew chapter one, verse 5, and in Hebrews Chapter 11 and in
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James chapter 2. You know, she becomes the
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lineage of these great and noble ones.
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But I want to talk for a minute about this red rope.
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Do you remember? They've just prepared now to
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have the Passover again. It's the springtime and just as
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they left Egypt, the Passover included the taking of the
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lamb's blood and painting it on the doorpost and the lentils.
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And now as they are entering into the promised land, they are
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cleansed again, they are re circumcised, and they are having
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a Passover. And Rahab, around her doorpost,
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around the window that is the entrance in and out of the
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promised land for safety, is a red cord.
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Do you see that beautiful tie? The authors included this
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scarlet cord that I see as the scarlet of the Passover.
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And it is the blood of the Lamb that it represents.
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And not only is she saved, but this is a woman.
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Whether she was a harlot or an innkeeper, I don't know.
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But I know that she is saved by our Savior, by the blood of the
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Lamb, by the Redeemer and all of her household.
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And not only is she saved, but her witness and her willingness
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to come with the people of the Lord and to be protected by them
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and to testify that she knew that their God was their God,
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ends up becoming the great, great grandmother of the
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greatest king known in Israel, King David.
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It is a powerful story that as a convert we can bring in.
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She sounds like she's a Canaanite when you look at her
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name in Chronicles and in other places.
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I am convinced that she is a great role model for all of us.
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And the way the Lord does this battle is so interesting.
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I brought my shofars. I've got two of them.
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This one, they're both ram's horns, you know, obviously
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different sizes. And if I were clever enough, I
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could make a good sound. My two sons who played the
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trumpet and the French horn can, can really do a great job with
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these shofars. But these were very important in
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the role of the battle of Jericho.
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And the Lord is going to show how miraculous it can be if the
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people are purified, if the people are living their
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covenants, how the Lord will fight your battles.
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You do not need to fight them. I He is not a man of war.
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He's a man of peace. And in Joshua chapter 6, verses
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8-9, the NIV reads that these 7 priests carrying seven trumpets,
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each one had a trumpet before the Lord.
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And then you have the covenant. And then they have people in
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front of them and behind them. But these trumpets are blowing
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all the time. And it's after the Ark of the
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Covenant. The rest of the army coming are
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silent. The only sound are these
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trumpets. So I want to read from Joshua
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chapter 6 verse 10 in the NIV translation.
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Joshua had commanded the army not to give a war cry.
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Do not raise your voices. Do not say a word until the day
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I tell you to shout and then shout.
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So the Ark of the Covenant is carried around the city.
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They circle the entire city one time, and then they camp, and
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the next day the same thing in silence, except for the good
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ram's horn. You know those that are playing
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these trumpets are able to blow them and then it happens again
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for six full days. It's not until the 7th day that
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they then circle the city 7 times.
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Now this 7 is a very common number in the ancient world.
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Remember, it represents wholeness, completeness, and
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sometimes even perfection, but it's part of the Lord's
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calendar. It's the seven days there as
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well. After the 7th time they'll
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Joshua says shout and they call out the Lord gives them to the
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city. The miracle of the timing is
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there's an earthquake or something at the exact same time
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the the the walls fall down, the people are destroyed and Joshua
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says do not keep anything for yourself.
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Everything will go into the Tabernacle or into the Lord's
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house and will be saved as a purification.
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And this to me is so important that these people who have
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nothing at this time, you know, they've lived as Bedouins with
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so little, go to into a place that's a well established city
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that's been along for a long, long, long time.
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And they are not to take anything and they obey and the
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Lord is with them and the precious metals are taken to go
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into the Tabernacle, are taken to build the Kingdom of God that
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was then on the earth. But we see types of this in the
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second coming. You know, if the history of the
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biblical world is going to be 7000 years before Christ comes
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again. And according to our
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understanding of the Book of Revelation that Joseph Smith
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asked questions on, anyway, this is his timeline from Section 77
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of the Doctrine Covenants. And there's going to be the
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seven plagues, and there's 7 angels.
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And I already mentioned that in the creation, there's seven eras
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or 7 periods of time. All of these things parallel the
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second coming. As we look forward to that great
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day, we will see the Lord's hand in our lives too, if we are
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completely purified. Now, the next battle, we hear
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about the sad story of Aiken's household.
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His wives and his daughters are also punished for his sins,
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which are very, very sad. As you recall.
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We go to the battle of I. They don't think there's, it's
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very hard to take. They just take a few of the
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Israelite armor up there. It's only about 30 miles north,
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and somebody covets a wedge of gold.
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His name's Aiken. He goes home.
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He buries it in his tent. The battle goes poorly.
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Israelites are killed. Joshua, please.
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Before the Lord, I thought you were going to protect, protect
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us. What happened?
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The Lord says somebody was not right.
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The reason why the story is so surprising to me, Joshua Chapter
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7, is it speaks of the teamwork required for a Zion society.
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You may think that no one's seeing you do your bad thing in
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your tent, that you're hiding, but it affects the entire
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community. God needs a pure people,
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everybody. We're all related together, and
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this man and his family, we're punished first by stoning and
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then by burning. The Lord wanted to teach that
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everyone will be saved. Now, if these women and children
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were unaware, and if it wasn't their idea and they are
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completely innocent, they will be exalted in heaven.
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I don't have any doubts about that.
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But the book of Joshua ends at this great time with this formal
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covenant setting, and Joshua reminds them that there's a
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snare and a trap. This is Joshua chapter 23,
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verses 12 to 13, that if they marry out of the covenant and
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they lose their testimonies and they start flirting with things
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of the world, that they will not have the blessings promised them
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in this promised land. And tragically, we read in the
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book of Judges that they did take daughters and wives of the
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other world and they are promised the Lord's promises are
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not kept for them. So these Israelite daughters
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were taken into these Pagan household.
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We will talk a little bit more about that and judges, and it's
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tragic because Joshua warned them again.
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But in this covenant setting, Joshua has had the law carved
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into a beautiful stone and he then assembles the tribes in
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Shechem. Now, there's a couple of
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different archaeological ideas. Is this the Shechem where where
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Jacob was, where Dinah was taken?
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Is this a different place? There's a couple of locations,
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but I want to emphasize the women that are there because
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he's summoning the elders and the judges, But he gathers all
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present to make a new oath. And this is where he says,
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choose ye this day whom ye will serve.
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But As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, and that
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word is capitalized. It's Yahweh.
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We will serve the God who is our Creator and who has brought us
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out of the wilderness with a mighty and strong hand.
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And I for one, and you for two also have made these covenants,
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and I am willing to serve the Lord every day of my life.
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I'm so grateful for these scriptures that teach us how, in
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the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.