Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

116 I love the Lord because he hears my prayers and answers them. ² Because he bends down and listens, I will pray as long as I breathe!

³ Death stared me in the face—I was frightened and sad. ⁴ Then I cried, “Lord, save me!” ⁵ How kind he is! How good he is! So merciful, this God of ours! ⁶ The Lord protects the simple and the childlike; I was facing death, and then he saved me. ⁷ Now I can relax. For the Lord has done this wonderful miracle for me. ⁸ He has saved me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. ⁹ I shall live! Yes, in his presence—here on earth!

2 Then Joshua sent two spies from the Israeli camp at Acacia to cross the river and check out the situation on the other side, especially at Jericho. They arrived at an inn operated by a woman named Rahab, who was a prostitute. They were planning to spend the night there, ² but someone informed the king of Jericho that two Israelis who were suspected of being spies had arrived in the city that evening. ³ He dispatched a police squadron to Rahab’s home, demanding that she surrender them.

“They are spies,” he explained. “They have been sent by the Israeli leaders to discover the best way to attack us.”

⁴ But she had hidden them, so she told the officer in charge, “The men were here earlier, but I didn’t know they were spies. ⁵ They left the city at dusk as the city gates were about to close, and I don’t know where they went. If you hurry, you can probably catch up with them!”

⁶ But actually she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them beneath piles of flax that were drying there. ⁷ So the constable and his men went all the way to the Jordan River looking for them; meanwhile, the city gates were kept shut. ⁸ Rahab went up to talk to the men before they retired for the night.

⁹ “I know perfectly well that your God is going to give my country to you,” she told them. “We are all afraid of you; everyone is terrified if the word Israel is even mentioned. ¹⁰ For we have heard how the Lord made a path through the Red Sea for you when you left Egypt! And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan, and how you ruined their land and completely destroyed their people. ¹¹ No wonder we are afraid of you! No one has any fight left in him after hearing things like that, for your God is the supreme God of heaven, not just an ordinary god. ^12-13 Now I beg for this one thing: Swear to me by the sacred name of your God that when Jericho is conquered you will let me live, along with my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all their families. This is only fair after the way I have helped you.”

¹⁴ The men agreed. “If you won’t betray us, we’ll see to it that you and your family aren’t harmed,” they promised.

¹⁷ While God was testing him, Abraham still trusted in God and his promises, and so he offered up his son Isaac and was ready to slay him on the altar of sacrifice; ¹⁸ yes, to slay even Isaac, through whom God had promised to give Abraham a whole nation of descendants!

¹⁹ He believed that if Isaac died God would bring him back to life again; and that is just about what happened, for as far as Abraham was concerned, Isaac was doomed to death, but he came back again alive! ²⁰ It was by faith that Isaac knew God would give future blessings to his two sons, Jacob and Esau.

²¹ By faith Jacob, when he was old and dying, blessed each of Joseph’s two sons as he stood and prayed, leaning on the top of his cane.

²² And it was by faith that Joseph, as he neared the end of his life, confidently spoke of God bringing the people of Israel out of Egypt; and he was so sure of it that he made them promise to carry his bones with them when they left!