Leadership lessons from Joshua

Joshua 2

Rahab and the Spies

¹ 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.

I remember being in my biblical preparation class in seminary and hearing my professor having to tell the class that it was “spiritual” to actually prepare for a sermon. Now for a majority of Christians this would be a “da” statement; however, being that I was at a spirit-filled seminary it was crucial for the professor to drive home that point because the class was full of charismatic preachers. Many times believers who fall under the spirit-filled umbrella feel that planning and/or organizing can “quench the spirit”. But, thank God for this verse. Here we see the orchestra of how God and His believers work in symphony to fulfill his will. The context of the Scripture is important. God has already told Joshua that he was going to possess the Land. And, God’s will is certain. With that knowledge in the back of his mind, Joshua understood that the possessing of the land would come through God by His Spirit empowering the Hebrews to physically overcome their enemies. So it’s safe to say the Hebrews were being led by the Spirit of God. Now the interesting thing we see in verse 1 is that “Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim.” Why would Joshua send spies unless he planned on gathering information about his opponent and using that information to develop a strategy in order to defeat them. But, now look at the end of the verse, “So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.” Rahab a prostitute who in the Book of Hebrews ends up on the roll call of faith in chapter 11 coincidently ends up as the one who not only welcomes the spies in, but protects them from certain death as well. Since coincidence is not a biblical concept lets attribute this scenario to the hand of God working in the spies’ situation in order to assure their success. So we see through preparation and the hand of God that Joshua was able to set the stage for the fall of Jericho. Many spirit filled believers operate on the notion that preparation is antithetical to being led by the spirit of God. However, it’s crucial for the advancement of the Kingdom that leaders prepare because it is through preparation that God will fulfill his plan of furthering His Kingdom.