A small detail from the story sparked my thoughts this morning. It came from the first verse. Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
Joshua has succeeded Moses as leader of Israel. They are perched on the edge of the Promised Land the Lord had sworn to give them. And still Joshua decided to secretly send out spies. I wondered about this.
Couldn’t this be construed as a ‘lack of faith?’ Rather than simply ‘trusting’ God and marching on to attack, Joshua does what many military leaders would have done.
I don’t know. I am perplexed about this.
I can read ‘faith’ into both sides. Faith to simply march out and seize the land the Lord has sworn to you. Or faith, believing God has given you the land and you are now determining the best course of action… some might even call this seeking confirmation!
It seems to me that God rarely has us turn off our brains. God uses our intellect; intellect surrendered to faith in God Almighty.
I am quite certain that Joshua believed his actions to be faith filled. What information he was hoping to gain I do not know. But for Joshua this was step one in faithful leadership of Israel. For Joshua, seeking information isn’t faithless, it can be faithful.
Lord, I pray that you would give me the faith that I need, to trust and believe in You. I thank you Lord for all that You have given to me and may I honor Your name. Through Jesus, I pray. Amen
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