A Recon Team Sent To Jericho

Due to Moses rebellion against the command of Yehovah at Meribah, Joshua was anointed, charged, and encouraged by Yehovah to assume command of the Israelite forces and to lead them into battle against the inhabitants of the walled city, Jericho. Joshua’s first move, while encamped at Shittim, was to send out a recon team for the purpose of assessing the strengths, capabilities, and possible vulnerabilities of Jericho. However, the recon mission was not only necessary for strategic reasons, but, most importantly, it was to inspire confidence and faith in the people, assuring them that they were well able to take the land which Yehovah had promised to them.

Upon arrival in Jericho the two-man recon team found their way to the house of the harlot Rahab. Maybe the men thought that their presence at a harlot’s house would not arouse very much attention; whatever the rationale, certainly it can be said, Yehovah works in humorous and mysterious ways. On the contrary, their precautions did not prevent them from being discovered. The king of Jericho, himself, sent word to Rahab to bring the spies out which had come to her house.

Rahab, being the shrewd operator which she was, and acting under the spiritual motivation of Yehovah, readily acknowledged that the men had come into her house, but, replied that she did not know where they were from; and that when darkness fell, they, without her knowing where, went out by the gates. All the while, however, she had hidden them under stalks of flax on her roof top. Rahab indicated to the seekers of the recon team that if they would hurry, they would stand a good chance of overtaking the two men who had come to her.  In a zealous effort to abort the recon team’s mission, the counterforce squad rushed out into the night and over the streams of Jordan to locate and nullify them.

Meanwhile back at Rahab’s house, she made her plea to the Israeli recon team recounting to them that the inhabitants of Jericho had heard of the exploits of Yehovah on Israel’s behalf, and that fear and fainting had fallen upon Jericho because of them. Further, she implored, since she had shown them kindness in hiding them from their pursuers, she desired favor from them when Yehovah had given them the city. Rahab acknowledged that Yehovah was true God in heaven and earth; therefore, after receiving an oath from them to recognize the red thread in her window and save her and family alive, she let them down by a rope through the window on the wall to make their way back to Israel’s encampment.

What is reported by the two-man recon team after making their way back through the mountains to their camp in Shittim is nothing less than astonishing. There is no mention of the height of the walls or the distance to be traveled from the Jordan river; there is no concern regarding the number of the enemy to be engaged or the kinds of weapons at their disposal. No, there is only a report of what had befallen them in their ordeal of getting into and out of Jordan. Yet the conclusion of the report declares Yehovah has delivered the land into our hands. The faith perception of the recon team was the inhabitants of the country are fainthearted before us. Only that small fragment of information was necessary for the recon team and their commander Joshua to understand that the battle of Jericho was already won.