Explore Joshua 2
8 And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof;
9 And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.
11 And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.
Joshua sent people to go to Jericho to spy out and investigate the City. They managed to find Rahab, the only person in Jericho that had a Godly fear of the Lord. She gave testimony that she had heard of the things that God had done in the lives of the Israelites and they were terrified of the God of Israel. Forty years earlier, Israel chose not to go into the land of Canaan because they were afraid of the people that were afraid of their god.
The people of Canaan had an extra forty years to prepare for Israels to come into the land. If you go back and study the ten plagues of Egypt, you will find that each plague was a direct challenge to the gods of Egypt. The end result was that the false gods of the land are not able to over power the one true God. Rahab admitted that they knew that the Lord had given the land to Israel and the things God had done in their lives.
Do the people around you and me see and hear about what the Lord is doing in our lives? The people in Jericho new that they were in opposition to God almighty, yet they chose to continue to oppose him instead of turning towards him.
Genesis 15
13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
Israel was in Egypt for 430 years, 400 of which was in slavery. They came out of Egypt when the Time of the Amorites were full. So God above gave the land of Canaan several years, but when he became fed up with the land of Canaan, he brought Israel out of Egypt. Note that the most grievous actions was that Canaan sacrificed children, and there is archeological evidence that child sacrifice took place during the battles with Israel.
So when it comes to our lives, do we turn towards the Lord and let him work in our lives, or do we turn away? In all of Jericho there was one family that was saved because one person accepted that salvation and blessings only comes from the Lordthe World