Greetings in the name of the Father, the son, and the Holy Spirit.
“The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” – Deuteronomy 31:8
Imagine standing at the edge of a massive forest at the stroke of midnight. The air is thick, the shadows are long, and the path ahead is shrouded in a darkness so absolute it feels heavy. You know with a haunting certainty that you have to get to the other side, but you are equipped with nothing—no flashlight to pierce the gloom, no map to navigate the twists, and a heart full of rumors that these woods are filled with things that do not want you there.
Most of us spend a significant portion of our lives standing right there at that tree line. We are paralyzed by the “what-ifs” of a sudden career change, the crushing weight of a health crisis, or the jagged remains of a broken relationship that feels like a towering, jagged wall we simply cannot scale. We feel small, ill-equipped, and desperately alone in the face of the unknown.
Last week, we saw a leader named Joshua standing at a similar threshold on the banks of the Jordan. He was given a divine mandate to be “strong and courageous,” but today, the narrative shifts. We move from the high-level strategy of the commander’s tent down into the grit and shadows of the dusty, dangerous streets of an enemy city called Jericho.
Jericho wasn’t just a simple town; it was an ancient fortress, a symbol of human strength and exclusion. It was the “impossible” obstacle standing between a wandering, weary people and the home they had been promised by the God of the Bible. If you’ve ever felt like life has boxed you out—like there is an immovable barrier between you and the peace, healing, or purpose you crave—then you are standing exactly where those travelers stood.
What we discover in this story is a transformative truth that changes everything about how we face our fears: While you are worrying about the future, God is already there working on it. You are not walking into a terrifying vacuum; you are walking into a situation that has already been meticulously prepared by a Sovereign Hand.
1: The Courage to Step into the Tension
The story begins with two unnamed men standing on the banks of the Jordan, looking toward the horizon. They are given a mission that, on paper, looks like a suicide run. Joshua gives the command in Joshua 2:1: “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” To understand the weight of this, we have to realize that these men were not just tourists; they were outsiders entering a fortress on high alert.
Jericho was a city braced for impact. The King of Jericho knew an invasion was coming; the guards were stationed at the gates, and the atmosphere in the streets was thick with suspicion. Every shadow was a threat, and every stranger was a suspect. These spies spoke differently, dressed differently, and carried the weight of an entire nation’s future on their shoulders. Yet, the Bible tells us they went. They didn’t wait for the walls to crumble from a distance, and they didn’t wait for a “clear path” sign to flash. They stepped directly into the tension while the gates were still locked and the enemy was still watching.
For many of us, the word “faith” feels like something reserved for people who have it all figured out—people who have some secret reserve of inner peace. But in this narrative, faith looks like two guys walking into a dangerous city with nothing but a promise to lean on. They had to confront the danger head-on. This mirrors the truth found in Psalm 23:4: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” Notice the word is through. God doesn’t always build a bridge over our problems; often, He asks us to walk right through the middle of them.
We often fall into the trap of bargaining with the future. We tell ourselves we will move when the circumstances are perfect. We want the bank account overflowing before we take a leap of generosity; we want the medical report cleared before we regain our joy; we want the path paved and polished before we take the first step. But God’s pattern is consistently different. Throughout the Bible, He invites His people into the “lion’s den” or the furnace not because He wants them to suffer, but because He wants to show them what He has already prepared on the inside.
When these spies finally entered the house of a woman named Rahab, they weren’t just looking for a place to sleep or a spot to hide. They were unknowingly stepping into a divine appointment that had been scheduled long before they left camp. If they had stayed in the safety of their tents, paralyzed by the “what-ifs,” they would have missed the miracle. They would have missed seeing how God was already moving in the heart of the enemy.
Your greatest growth—and your most profound discovery of who God really is—rarely happens in the comfort zone. It happens in the places you are most afraid to go. As Isaiah 41:10 reminds us, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.” The tension you feel right now isn’t a sign to stop; it’s the environment where faith is born. When you step into the tension, you aren’t walking away from God’s protection—you are walking toward the provision He has already set in place.
2: The Provider in the Shadows
As the story unfolds, it takes a turn toward high-stakes drama. The presence of the spies has been leaked. The King of Jericho finds out there are intruders within the walls, and suddenly, the “sirens” go off. The city’s security forces are mobilized, and soldiers are dispatched to Rahab’s house with a direct, chilling order: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land” (Joshua 2:3).
In any other story, this is where the journey ends in tragedy. The spies are trapped in a city where every exit is barred, and the king’s soldiers are pounding on the door. But it is precisely in this moment of extreme vulnerability that we see the “Hidden Hand” of God. He reveals a provider in the shadows—someone the world would have never expected.
Rahab was a woman who lived on the margins of society. By the standards of the day, she was someone the “respectable” world would have written off as unimportant, or perhaps even “too far gone” for God to use. Yet, in the economy of the Bible, she becomes the hero. She takes these men up to her roof and hides them under stalks of flax that she had laid out to dry.
Consider the profound timing of those stalks of flax. For that flax to be on the roof at that exact moment, it had to be harvested, hauled up the stairs, and spread out in the sun long before the spies ever set foot in Jericho. This wasn’t a lucky coincidence; it was a pre-arranged rescue. Long before the spies even thought about entering the city, God was already preparing the “hiding place.” This echoes the truth found in Isaiah 65:24: “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.” This is the beauty of how God works in our lives today. He doesn’t just give us the strength to endure the battle; He provides the “flax” on the roof. He orchestrates the details of our lives so that the solution is often in place before we even realize there is a problem. He places people in our paths—sometimes the most unexpected people—to open a door, offer a timely word of encouragement, or provide a way out when we feel completely trapped.
Throughout the Bible, we see this recurring theme: God loves to use the unlikely to accomplish the impossible. Rahab wasn’t a religious leader, a scholar, or a soldier. But she was the person God chose to protect His promise. It reminds us that God’s grace is not a reward for the perfect, but a resource for the willing. As it says in 1 Corinthians 1:27, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”
If you feel like you are in a “dangerous” or overwhelming season of life, I want to encourage you to look around. God’s provision is rarely a lightning bolt from the sky; it is often found in a “Rahab”—a small mercy, a timely coincidence, or a temporary shelter that keeps you safe while the storm passes by. You may feel like you are entering a crisis alone, but the truth is that God has already prepared the resources you need for the challenge you haven’t even fully reached yet. He is the God who works in the shadows to ensure you are never truly left in the dark.
3: The Secret the Enemy is Keeping
The most stunning part of the story happens on that roof, under the cover of night, away from the prying eyes of the king’s guards. Once the soldiers have been sent on a wild goose chase toward the Jordan, Rahab sits down with the spies and tells them something that completely flips their perspective. Up until this point, the spies likely felt like small, vulnerable targets in a city of giants. But Rahab confesses the secret the entire city had been desperately trying to hide: “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you” (Joshua 2:9).
She goes on to explain exactly why they are so terrified. They hadn’t just heard rumors; they had heard of the raw power of the God of the Bible. She mentions how the Lord dried up the Red Sea and how He defeated the mighty kings of the Amorites. She admits, “When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below” (Joshua 2:11).
The spies had entered Jericho expecting to see a city of iron-willed warriors ready to crush them. Instead, they found a city of people whose hearts had already “melted” like wax. The “mighty” walls of Jericho, which looked so impenetrable from the outside, were being guarded by men whose knees were knocking. This is a vital lesson for us: the challenges we face are often far more intimidated by the God in us than we are by the giants in them. We spend so much time looking at the height of our “walls”—our debts, our past mistakes, or our broken relationships—that we forget those walls are being held up by an enemy that has already lost its heart.
This is the core of the Gospel message. We often think we are fighting an uphill battle against a world that is too strong for us, or that we have to generate enough “goodness” to climb over our failures. But the truth found throughout the Bible is that the victory has already been decided in the spiritual realm.
When Jesus walked toward the cross, it didn’t look like a victory; it looked like a tragedy. But behind the scenes, God was disarming the very things that terrify us. The Bible tells us in Colossians 2:15 that Jesus “disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” When you move forward in faith, you aren’t trying to convince God to help you win a battle that is fifty-fifty.
You are discovering that He has already moved. The “melting hearts” of Jericho prove that God’s reputation travels faster than our problems. You can confront your challenges with a bold spirit because the One who is with you has already paralyzed the power of the enemy. As 1 John 4:4 reassures us, “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” The victory isn’t something you achieve through your own strength; it’s something you receive because God has already gone before you. You can walk into your “Jericho” tomorrow not with a spirit of fear, but with a spirit of power, knowing that the secret the world is keeping is that it has no answer for the God you serve.
Summary: The Scarlet Thread of Hope
As the spies prepared to leave the city under the cover of darkness, a final, life-saving deal was struck. A scarlet cord—a bright red rope—was to be hung from Rahab’s window. This wasn’t just a piece of equipment for a quick escape; it was a signal. When the day of judgment eventually came for the city, any house marked by that red cord would be spared.
That scarlet thread is the most important image in this entire narrative. It serves as a vivid “bridge” that points directly to the Gospel. Throughout the Bible, there is a “scarlet thread” of God’s rescue that weaves through every generation. It starts with the blood of the lamb painted on the doorposts in Egypt during the Passover and leads directly to the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. It is the color of sacrifice, the color of protection, and the color of a promise kept.
The beauty of this summary is found in who was holding the rope. Rahab didn’t have to be perfect to be saved; she didn’t need a clean record or a high social standing. She simply needed the faith to hang that “scarlet cord” and trust that the God of the Bible would honor His word. This is the invitation of the Gospel for us today: we don’t have to fix ourselves before we come to God. We just have to trust that Jesus’ sacrifice is the “scarlet thread” sufficient to cover our past and secure our future.
The spies left Jericho not with a complex map of the walls, but with a report of God’s faithfulness. They realized that while they were nervous about the mission, God had already paved the way. As you face your own “Jericho” this week, remember:
1. Step out anyway. Courage isn’t the absence of fear; it’s the movement toward a promise. As it says in Joshua 1:9, “Be strong and courageous… for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
2. Look for the flax. God’s provision is already in place. Look for the small mercies and unexpected allies He has positioned in your path.
3. Trust the melt. Your obstacles are not as strong as they appear. The “victory” was won long before you arrived on the scene because God has already preceded you.
You are not alone in the unknown. The God of the Bible is already there, standing in your tomorrow, inviting you to simply walk forward with Him.
Let’s pray together.
Lord, we thank You that You are the God who goes before us. For every person here who feels like they are staring at an impossible wall, we pray they would see the “scarlet thread” of Your hope today.
Give us the courage to step into the tension of our lives, knowing that You have already prepared the way and softened the hearts of our giants.
We thank You for Jesus, our ultimate hiding place and our sure salvation. As we go into this week, help us to move with the confidence that the battle is already won.
In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 15:57