Faith and God's Promises

Faith That Hears, Believes and Acts

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Rahab is one of the clearest pictures of faith in the whole Bible. She heard about God, she believed what she heard, and then she acted on it.

What faith is. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is being sure of what God has said, even before you see it happen.

Faith pleases God. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Step one: she heard. “For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you” (Joshua 2:10). “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

Step two: she believed. Rahab said, “I know that the Lord has given you the land” (Joshua 2:9). She trusted that God would do what He said, before a single wall had fallen.

The right one to trust. Faith is only as good as the one you trust. The people of Jericho trusted their walls. Rahab trusted the Lord, who “is God in heaven above and on earth beneath” (Joshua 2:11).

Step three: she acted. She hid the spies, let them down safely from her window and tied the scarlet cord there (Joshua 2:15, 21).

James explains. “Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?” (James 2:25). Her actions showed that her faith was real.

Saved by faith. Hebrews says Rahab was saved “by faith” (Hebrews 11:31). Her works did not save her. They were the fruit of a faith that was already alive.

Same news, different hearts. Forty years earlier, many Israelites heard God’s promise and did not believe it. “The word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it” (Hebrews 4:2).

Fear is not faith. All of Jericho was afraid of God (Joshua 2:9-11), but fear alone saved no one. Rahab’s fear turned into trust.

Faith on both sides. Later, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days” (Hebrews 11:30). Israel showed faith outside the wall, and Rahab showed faith inside it.

What we learn. Real faith hears God’s Word, trusts the Lord and shows itself in what we do.

What to do. Think of one thing God says in the Bible that you can trust and obey this week. Then do it.

Hebrews 11 and James 2 both use Rahab as an example. One shows her saved by faith; the other shows that faith at work. Together they show what saving faith looks like.

Hebrews 11:1. Faith is “the substance of things hoped for.” The Greek word hupostasis (say: hoo-POSS-tah-sis), translated substance, means a firm foundation, something solid enough to stand on.

Hearing (Romans 10:17). Rahab’s faith began with a report about what God had done (Joshua 2:10). Faith is a response to God’s Word, not a feeling we create in ourselves.

Knowing (2:9, 11). Rahab did not say she hoped Israel might win. She said, “I know.” Biblical faith is confident because it rests on God’s character and on what He has already done. Rahab had not seen Israel win a single battle in Canaan, yet she spoke as if the land were already theirs.

The object of faith. Jericho had faith in walls. Faith saves only when its object is the Lord, who rules “in heaven above and on earth beneath” (2:11). Strong faith in the wrong thing still fails.

Hebrews 11:31. Rahab “did not perish with those who did not believe.” The line runs between belief and unbelief, not between good people and bad people.

James 2:25. “Was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works?” James is answering people who claim faith while nothing in their lives changes. In James 2, faith without works is a dead faith (James 2:26); Rahab’s faith was alive.

Paul and James agree. Paul says we are saved “through faith… not of works” (Ephesians 2:8-9). James shows what that faith does. A person is saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.

Hebrews 4:2. The desert generation heard the good news of God’s promised rest, “but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith.” Rahab, an outsider, mixed the same kind of news with faith.

Joshua and Caleb. Forty years earlier the two faithful spies had said, “The Lord is with us. Do not fear them” (Numbers 14:9). Now a Canaanite woman shared their faith.

Faith that risks. Hiding the spies could have cost Rahab her life. Real faith often costs something, because it puts God’s will ahead of our own safety.

Application. Ask what you really trust when you are afraid. Faith in Christ shows itself in ordinary obedience: telling the truth, standing with God’s people and doing what He says.

God Keeps Every Promise

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Joshua 2 is full of promises. The spies promised to save Rahab. Even bigger, God had promised to give Israel the land. Every one of these promises came true.

A promise from long ago. God told Abraham that his family would live in a land that was not theirs and be treated badly “four hundred years,” and that afterward they would come back (Genesis 15:13-16). In Joshua’s day, God kept that promise.

Rahab knew it. She said, “I know that the Lord has given you the land” (Joshua 2:9). She believed God’s promise before Israel did anything.

The spies’ promise. “Our lives for yours… we will deal kindly and truly with you” (Joshua 2:14).

Promise kept. When Jericho fell, Joshua told the spies to bring Rahab out “as you swore to her” (Joshua 6:22). “And Joshua spared Rahab the harlot, her father’s household, and all that she had” (Joshua 6:25).

God cannot lie. Paul wrote about “God, who cannot lie” (Titus 1:2). People sometimes break promises, but God never does.

The faithful God. “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him” (Deuteronomy 7:9).

Not one word failed. At the end of his life Joshua told Israel, “Not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you” (Joshua 23:14).

The promise of His presence. God told Joshua, “I will not leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:5). Hebrews 13:5 gives that same promise to every believer.

Yes in Jesus. “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20). Every promise God makes is kept through Jesus.

Hold on. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).

Waiting is part of it. Some of God’s promises take a long time. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob “all died in faith, not having received the promises” (Hebrews 11:13). But God kept His word at the right time.

What we learn. God’s promises are safer than any wall. If God said it, He will do it.

What to do. Find a promise in the Bible, like John 3:16 or Joshua 1:9. Write it down, and thank God that He always keeps His word.

Joshua 2 sits inside a much larger promise. The spies’ small oath to Rahab and God’s great oath to Abraham were both kept, and both show what God is like.

Genesis 15:13-16. God told Abram that his descendants would be afflicted “four hundred years,” that God would judge the nation they served, and that they would return when the Amorites’ sin was complete. Joshua 2 is that return beginning.

An oath in the Lord’s name (2:12-14). The spies swore by the Lord. Israel’s honoring of that oath (6:22-25) shows that God’s people keep their word because their God keeps His.

Deuteronomy 7:9. “The faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy.” The Hebrew word for mercy here is chesed (say: KHEH-sed), the same word Rahab used in Joshua 2:12. Rahab asked for the very thing God is known for.

Titus 1:2. God “cannot lie.” His promises are not hopeful guesses but sure things, because they rest on His unchanging character.

Joshua 23:14. Joshua’s farewell: “All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed.” He spoke as an eyewitness of God’s faithfulness across a whole lifetime.

Hebrews 11:13. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off.” Abraham, Isaac and Jacob trusted promises they never saw completed. Faith includes patience.

Lamentations 3:22-23. “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” These words were written after Jerusalem was destroyed, and they still trust God’s faithfulness.

2 Corinthians 1:20. “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen.” Every Old Testament promise, of a land, a King and blessing for the nations, finds its final yes in Christ.

Hebrews 10:23. “He who promised is faithful.” Believers hold on without wavering, not because their grip is strong, but because God is faithful.

The greatest promise. God promised eternal life to “whoever believes in Him” (John 3:16), and He kept that promise by sending His Son to die and rise again.

Application. When God seems slow, remember Abraham’s four hundred years and Rahab’s scarlet cord. Learn God’s promises by heart, and let them shape what you do when you are afraid.

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Read each section and answer the questions correctly.