by Jen | Mar 18, 2025 | 1-24, DISO studies, Joshua 2
NEW TO THIS STUDY? START HERE.
Hi, again: this time through Joshua 2, I noticed many more details than I did during my previous study. The Spirit has been sharpening my skills, and I pray He’s doing that for you, too!
Last Week’s Work
REPETITION
- Melt [away] (vv9, 11, 24). This describes the inhabitants of the land, including Rahab.
- Sure sign (v12), scarlet cord (vv18, 21). This alerted the coming invaders to spare Rahab and her family.
SPECIAL STATEMENTS
- One blessing: …the LORD has given all the land into [the Israelites’] hands (vv8, 24).
- Nine commands:
Joshua to the two spies: Go, view the land (v1).
Jericho’s king to Rahab: Bring out the [spies](v3).
Rahab to the king’s men: Pursue them quickly (v5).
Rahab to the spies: give me a sure sign (v12),
Go into the hills…
hide there three days…
then… go your way (v16).
- Four promises:
The spies to Rahab: our life for yours,
If you [keep our mission secret], … we will [keep our word to you] (v14),
if a hand is laid on anyone… in the house, his blood shall be on our head (v19).
Rahab to the spies: According to your words, so be it (v21).
- One request from Rahab to the spies: Please swear to me… as I have dealt kindly with you, … you will save alive my [family] … and deliver our lives from death (v12-13).
- One warning from the spies to Rahab: If anyone [leaves Rahab’s house during the siege] his blood shall be on his own head, … we shall be guiltless (v19).
LISTS
- Five ways Rahab helped the spies:
Hid them (vv4,6).
Misdirected the king’s guard (vv4-5).
Kept their business a secret (vv4-5).
Helped them escape through her window in the wall (vv15-16).
- Three things Rahab must do to save her family (in addition to her help in vv4-6, 15-16):
Tie the cord in the window,
Bring her family into her house during the siege (v18),
Keep her family in her house (v19).
- The spies’ three promises to Rahab:
Our lives for yours…
They would deal kindly and faithfully with her (v14), and
Refrain from attacking Rahab’s family within her home (v19).
Through all this, I felt the Spirit pointing out Rahab’s vulnerability. Because of her treasonous behavior (vv4-6), both the king’s guard and the foreigners (vv9-11) were a threat to her. Why did she choose to work with strangers she clearly feared (v9)? I believe the answer is in her statement, the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath (v11).
Dig-In Challenges
Next week, we’ll wrap up Step 3 by:
- PRAYING: As always, start with the prayer we wrote for Step 1.
- MINING: Read through the passage again looking for comparisons in or related to your focus verses. Look for similarities using like or as, quantitative/qualitative comparisons using more or less, and/or contrasts.
- MINING: Next, look for causes or motives by focusing on key words or phrases I call cause connectors.
- In this chapter, look for the connectors lest, for, and because.
- Then check the text surrounding the connector for an action and the reason for that action.
For example: I went to the store because I was out of milk:
the action = I went to the store because the reason = I was out of milk.
NOTE A: for doesn’t always connect an action and a reason. To determine if it does here, read the sentence replacing for with because. If the new sentence makes sense and means the same as the original, make a note of the action and its cause.
NOTE B: Most often the action will occur before the cause connector and the reason will follow it (like the example above). If you have questions about this or any other part of the study, please reach out to me at [email protected]!
- MINING: Finally, look for conditions or methods the author describes. For example, does the text say if or when a certain condition is met, some outcome will happen (e.g., whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith (Matt 21:22)? Or does the author describe a particular method by which something happens—for example, specific steps taken to achieve something, or more generally by or through attributes or actions (e.g., saved by grace, through faith (Eph 2:8)? Does he use any adverbs (-ly words) that describe how action was accomplished?
These exercises are more involved, I know, but I’m confident you can do this with the Holy Spirit! Don’t forget to check your How to Dig Into Scripture Ourselves guide, and you can always reach out to me at [email protected] if you have questions.
GO TO WEEK 5 >
by Jen | Mar 11, 2025 | 1-24, DISO studies, Joshua 2
NEW TO THIS STUDY? START HERE.
Welcome back and thank you for checking in with me today!
Last Week’s Work
MY PERSONAL TREASURE
Of the Huh?s and Wow!s the Spirit showed me last week, I feel drawn to melt and melted in verses 9, 11, and 24. Both Rahab (v9) and the spies (v24) said the inhabitants of [Jericho] melt away before the Israelites. She also revealed the hearts of her people melted when they heard what God had done (vv10-11). I’m interested in learning about that history and understanding exactly what she means by melting.
WHO (CHARACTERS)
I noticed these main characters in Joshua 2:
- Joshua. Son of Nun (vv1, 23-24), the Israelite commander who ordered the spies to view Jericho and the surrounding area.
- Two unnamed men. The whole book is about their secret (v1) mission from Shittim to Jericho to search out the land (v2); how they lodged with the prostitute, Rahab, in Jericho (v1) and made a deal with her to preserve her family (vv12-14) in exchange for her hiding them (vv4, 6), lying to the king’s guard (vv4-5), helping them escape through the window in the wall, and telling them the best way to avoid the returning posse (vv15-16).
- Rahab, the treasonous prostitute who lived in the Jericho city wall.
- King of Jericho, who apparently sent his dullest men to Rahab’s house to find the spies.
- Men, pursuers, sent to find the Israelite spies (vv7, 16, 22).
- The LORD. First mentioned by Rahab as the One who had [already!] given the Israelites her land and dried up the Red Sea in front of them (vv9-10). She also acknowledged He is God in the heavens and the earth (v11), and asked the men to swear by Him they won’t harm her and her family (vv12-13). The Israelite men agreed, indicating they’d deal fairly with her when the LORD gives [them] the land (v14). The spies also told Joshua the LORD had already given the land into their hands (v24).
Interestingly, the author didn’t name the spies, only the conquered kings (v10), plus Joshua, Rahab, and the LORD.
WHERE (LOCATIONS)
I noted these locations:
- Shittim, where the spies and Joshua were when he gave them the command to view the land and Jericho (v1). The spies returned there and reported the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us (vv23-24).
- The land and Jericho (vv1-3), the area Joshua wanted the men to spy out, where most of the action happens.
- Rahab’s house (v1), where the spies lodged (v1), where the guard inquired about them and were told they’d gone (v3-5).
- The gate (v5), where Rahab said the spies had gone out (v5). It was shut right after the pursuers went out (v7).
- Rahab’s roof, where she hid the spies (v6), and where she and they made the deal to spare her and her family (vv8-14).
- The king’s men pursued the spies on the way to the Jordan [River], as far as the fords(v7).
- In the heavens above and on the earth beneath(v11), where Rahab says the LORD is God (v11). This reminded me of Ruth’s profession of faith (Ruth 1:16). Neither of these women knew the Hebrew God through culture or tradition but still believed in Him!
- Rahab’s window in the city wall, by which she helped the spies escape after the city gate had been closed (v15). In this window, she tied the scarlet cord that alerted the Israelites to save her family (vv18, 21).
- The hills, where the spies hid for three days so the pursuers wouldn’t find them (vv16, 22).
WHEN (TIMEFRAMES)
Here’s the timeline for the events in this passage:
- Day 1: Two spies, sent by Joshua, arrived at Rahab’s house in Jericho (v1). The same evening [tonight (v2)], the King of Jericho learned they’d arrived. The King sent his guard to Rahab’s to get them; she said they’d already left when the gate was about to be closed at dark (v5). So, the pursuers left town, and the gate was closed after them (v7).
- Before the [spies] lay down (v8) that night, Rahab struck a deal with them to keep her family alive. She told them the inhabitants of the land melt away because they knew what God did when [the Israelites] came out of Egyptand destroyed the Amorites. Their hearts melted as soon as [they] heard about the Israelites. The spies said they would deal kindly and faithfully with her, when the LORD gives us the land (vv9-14).
- Then(v15), she lowered them from a window in the wall and told them to hide in the hills for three days(v16). The spies told her to gather her family into her house and tie a scarlet cord in that same window when we come into the land.
This context seems to indicate they discussed when and how the family would be saved as they were escaping out the window (vv15-20).
- The spies waited the three days, then they returned to Joshua and gave him their report (vv22-24).
Dig-In Challenges
Here’s my plan for this week:
- PRAY this prayer before I study.
- MINE: Look for repeated concepts in this passage, including synonyms and pronouns referring to those concepts.
- MINE: Locate any special statements (blessings, commands, curses, prayers, promises, requests, and/or warnings) in the passage. This time, I’m also going to notice another category: questions.
- MINE: Note any lists (3 or more similar items) mentioned in Joshua 2.
Remember, you can download this printable summary of the DISO process for more specific instructions. I hope you’ll check in with me next week!
GO TO WEEK 4 >
by Jen | Mar 4, 2025 | 1-24, DISO studies, Joshua 2
NEW TO THIS STUDY? START HERE.
Hello again!
For many Christians, tomorrow begins the season of Lent: forty days (excluding Sundays) from my favorite holiday, Easter Sunday (April 20). Some faith traditions observe lent by fasting, Scripture study, and/or prayers to refocus busy lives on the events leading up to Jesus’s death and resurrection. In Jesus’s name, I ask that this Lenten season be a time of rebirth: that we who were dead in our sins and trespasses may be raised to life again, bursting forth from tombs of our past into the light of your everlasting love. Use this study for Your glory, Lord. Help us grow stronger in the faith, hope, and love that enables us to share your light with others. Amen.
Last Week’s Work
MY PRAYER
This time, I’m adapting a previous study prayer as follows:
Father God, thank you for the guidance of Your Holy Spirit as I study Joshua 2 again. Open my eyes, ears, and heart. Help me observe this Scripture, understand the lesson You have for me in this season, and put it to good use in my life so that others are blessed by it and give You the glory. I pray this in Jesus’s name. Amen.
HUH? and WOW! MOMENTS
Next, I read Joshua 2 and focused on my reactions. Here’s what I noted:
HUH?s
- Verse 1 indicates the men were supposed to secretly… go, view the land, especially Jericho. So, who told the king they had arrived? (vv1-2) And how did Rahab know so much about them? (vv9-10)?
- Would Israelite men spending the night in a prostitute’s house (v1) be a violation of Jewish law?
- Why would a prostitute have stalks of flax on her roof (v6)?
- What did Rahab mean when she talked about melted hearts (v11) [similar language also in vv9, 24]?
WOW!s
- Israelite spies going to a prostitute’s house seems out of character; on the other hand, it wouldn’t appear strange to the neighbors that men she didn’t know would come and go from her home.
- Feels like it would take a lot of nerve for a prostitute to lie to the king’s guard (vv4-5). And a lot of nerve (or desperation) to offer a deal to strangers whom she’d heard bad things about (vv9-13).
- Putting the men on the roof (v6) would have given them a good view of the surrounding area and possibly Rahab’s exchange with the guard (vv3-5). V15 indicates she lived in the city wall, so maybe her roof was attached to the wall as well.
- Pretty cool of the spies to agree to Rahab’s deal (v14).
- After the agreement was struck, she helped them escape (through a window in the wall) and told them how to avoid the pursuers (v16).
- Rahab was instructed to tie a red cord in her window to ensure the safety of all inside (v18), which she did (v21) [this reminds me of the blood on Israelite doorposts in Egypt during the Passover (Exodus 12:7)!].
I’ll be in prayer this week to determine what I should focus on for this study. Once that decision is made, I’ll start mining treasure from Joshua 2 as indicated below. I hope you’ll keep checking back with me to see how it goes!
Dig-In Challenges
If you’re studying this passage, too, listen to the Spirit this week, and choose a personal Huh? or Wow! to dig more deeply into. Going forward, I’ll refer to this as your personal treasure from Joshua 2. It can be something you noticed in your study, one of the items I’ve listed above, or anything else the Holy Spirit has laid upon your heart as you think about this passage. Write this treasure in your study journal and note the verse(s) most relevant to it. As we study, we’ll consider everything in the chapter, but we’ll gradually narrow the focus to the relevant verse(s).
Then:
- PRAY.
- MINE: Dig into the facts recorded in Joshua 2. This week, we’ll focus specifically on the setting (who’s involved, and where and when the action took place). Note anything the Spirit emphasizes.
I hope you’ll join me again soon!
GO TO WEEK 3 >
by Jen | Feb 25, 2025 | 1-24, DISO studies, Introduction, Joshua 2
Welcome to this Digging into Scripture Ourselves (DISO) study of Joshua 2. I’m glad you’re here with me!
This is the second study in a series of seven I’m calling Restoration. I explored these passages years ago using the original “20 Questions” version of DISO, but those posts are no longer available online. Rather than republish those entries (with the old process), I’ve decided to work through the texts again using the current DISO method. I can’t wait to see what new revelations the Holy Spirit will help me see this time.
Let’s Study Joshua 2!
This week, I’ll pray and survey Joshua 2. If you want to work along with me, here’s what I recommend you have ready::
- A copy of Joshua 2, plus access to the entire book of Joshua.
I like to refer often to the text I’m studying and sometimes make notes on it, so I copy the passage from www.blueletterbible.org, paste it into a word processing program like Google Docs or MS Word, change the formatting to suit my preferences, and print it out. If you want to use the ESV translation, here’s a pdf of my Scripture study sheet with lots of room for doodles and notes.
- A study journal.
We’ll spend the next seven weeks immersed in and learning about Joshua 2, and the work we’ll do each week builds on what came before, so plan to record at least some highlights from your work over the coming weeks. I’m old-school and like the pen-and-paper method for journaling my studies, but it’s okay if that doesn’t work for you. If you don’t have time to write out or type your notes, consider dictating them into a notes app, or recording audio files, instead.
Or, you may decide to just read the posts I publish here. That’s good, too because you’ll become familiar with the process and see how the Spirit speaks to my situation. You may find that’s enough to make it worth your while to keep checking in with me, even if you can’t dig into Joshua 2 yourself this time.
Dig-In Challenges
So, here’s how I’ll be studying this week:
- PRAY: I’ll be creating a prayer that I can pray every time I study Joshua 2. I’m going to write it in my study journal, so I’ll have it handy each time I study.
- SURVEY: And then I’ll read Joshua 2, noting anything that makes me say, “huh?” (as in, “I wonder what that means?”) or “wow” (as in, “that is so awesome!”). I’ll record these and later ask the Spirit to direct me to the one I should dig more deeply into right now.
If you’d like more information about these steps, check out this printable summary of the process I’ll be using over the next eight weeks. Or, you can always reach out to me with your questions through my contact page or at [email protected]. I’m looking forward to sharing what I discover in this process with you, along with snippets of my previous study from 2022 as appropriate—I hope you’ll keep checking in with me each week!
GO TO WEEK 2 >
by Jen | Feb 18, 2025 | 1-24, DISO studies, Genesis 3
NEW TO THIS STUDY? START HERE.
It’s so hard to believe we’re almost through this study of Genesis 3. I hope the Holy Spirit has shown you much treasure in the past few weeks. Here’s what he’s directing me to take from my work:
Last Week’s Work
LESSON(S) LEARNED
In my review of my study notes, I noted these main lessons:
- Through trickery, the serpent of old—the devil/Satan (Rev 12:9)—managed to separate mankind from God and direct our attention away from Him.
- Yet the serpent’s punishment rendered it lower than mankind, crawling on his belly and conquered by the woman’s offspring.
- That child of Eve, Jesus, covered all sin through His death once for all (Hebrews 9:26). In doing so, He defeated the devil, saving all who put their faith in Him for salvation.
- But the evil one can still tempt us to sin when we hide or otherwise willfully separate ourselves from God, using fear and clever manipulation against us.
CONVICTION
- Like Eve, I’m not always in God’s presence; I hide from Him or physically or mentally go where I know He doesn’t want me to be.
- When I’m separated from Him, I’m most vulnerable to the lies and deception that can make even paradise seem unsatisfactory.
- I need to better recognize the devil’s voice in my head and remember, he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44), he’s already beaten, and when I stay close to God he is powerless.
CORRECTION
- In my review, the Spirit drew me to Jesus battling Satan in the wilderness when he was tempted to turn stones into bread: particularly to His use of Scripture in Matthew 4:4, “… It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” I wondered where in Scripture Jesus would have gotten that saying, so I followed the cross-reference to Deuteronomy 8:3 (emphasis mine), “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”
- By this, I know God’s Word is life—the opposite of the result Adam and Eve acquired by eating the forbidden fruit. The devil will always try to trick me, but I believe the Spirit is equipping me to respond to his temptation by tuning out anything that doesn’t reflect God’s Word.
ACTION PLAN
Going forward, my action plan is to
- Practice recognizing the devil’s deception,
- Stay connected to God and his people, especially when I’m tempted to separate myself and/or give in to fear, and
- Increase my knowledge of God’s Word. The more I know it, the less I believe I’ll be hungry for things that don’t satisfy me!
Our Next Study
Next week we’ll start another “blast from the past” study from the Old Testament, Joshua 2. If you’ve been with me for a while, you probably know those web files were lost when my site went down in late 2023. By studying the same chapter again, I hope to refresh my mind about the earlier study, but also discover new treasure from the text: treasure the Spirit knows I need for today. I hope you’ll join me, my friend!
