October 23, 2024

Joshua 2:1-7  (HCSB)
Spies Sent to Jericho
2 Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two men as spies from the Acacia Grove, saying, “Go and scout the land, especially Jericho.” So they left, and they came to the house of a woman, a prostitute named Rahab, and stayed there. 2 The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelite men have come here tonight to investigate the land.” 3 Then the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab and said, “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, for they came to investigate the entire land.” 4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. So she said, “Yes, the men did come to me, but I didn’t know where they were from. 5 At nightfall, when the gate was about to close, the men went out, and I don’t know where they were going. Chase after them quickly, and you can catch up with them!” 6 But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had arranged on the roof. 7 The men pursued them along the road to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as they left to pursue them, the gate was shut.

Rachel Raley
Joshua gets the lay of the land. In this case he sends spies to learn the lay of the land to know how to best defeat his enemy. In church we are often trained on how to share our story with others with the goal of letting others see Jesus through us. I think this is called a testimony. Sharing what God has done in your life is wonderful and biblical. Before this step it’s crucial to get the lay of the land by showing genuine interest in the other person and their ideas. If someone has been hurt by the church, jumping blindly into a gospel presentation talking mostly about church may not be the best approach. One of my favorite authors, Greg Koukl, writes a whole book on this. Here is an excerpt from his book, Tactics. “Your initial goal is to gather as much information from the person as you can before you move on. You want him to talk as much as possible about his own convictions first”. This approach gives you the best chance of “making the most of the opportunity”, as Paul put it in Colossians 4:5.