Scared Straight

The last couple of days I have really been sinking deep into the lives of Joshua, Gideon and somewhat of Samson. Well I don\’t know if you would classify it as sinking deep but I have looked at them more deeply than I have ever before. They are men who God used. They are three different men with different personalities and God used all three of them in very different ways and all of those ways in some way, shaped or form have to do with them conquering other people with the one sided help of God. So, thus far it has been all about the offense. The winner if you might say. Now I kinda want to take the perspective of the other guys. The ones that got trashed by Samson, Gideon and Joshua. Thats where this idea of scared straight comes in and its kinda a rip off C\’s scared shitless.

Have you ever seen the show? Its about these at-risk teenage boys and girls who are already in trouble with the law. There parents sign them up for this program where they are taken to a prison and the inmates in the program literally try and scare them straight out of their stupid behaviors. Its actually a really good program and some of these teens stop fighting, smoking and drinking and turn themselves around. I guess the basis of the show really has no connection to the application that I am trying to make but I get I liked the title. Well maybe a little but we will see. I guess that it does relate a little because I feel a lot of teens and even grown adult \”Christians\” need to be scared straight out of their own ways.

Anyways, I am still staying in Joshua and on the way to work tonight I listened a little farther in Joshua to the story of Rahab. I think I will prolly jump around a little to and cover a few topic, I will come back to Rahab. Now these other guys like the Midianites, Philistines, Ammonites and many more were just mowed over by God\’s plan. They all had one huge thing in common and that was that they didnt have God with them. Pretty unfortunate but if you really think about it and put yourself in their shoes, you almost become sad for them and even maybe feel sorry a little bit. They were definitely the underdogs for sure. So you can match each of them up to Israel and you would think that Israel would have a shot at victory. Especially in the story of Gideon. He had 300 men. Thats it. 300. And in the story of Joshua when they marched around the city the had horns and clay pots. They didnt even use their swords! Seriously they should have been the underdogs. They had a ringer tho. This ringer is like none other. He is impossible to defeat. And now what seems like the weakest squad in the world is now unstoppable.

Can you imagine being these other guys? It had to be terrifying. I think back to Gideon for this one and its a little bit farther in the story (Judges 7) where God tells Gideon…“Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. ¹⁰ If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah ¹¹ and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. ¹² The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.
 ¹³ Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.”
 ¹⁴ His friend responded, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.” – Now this is cool and all for Gideon. Its a great confidence booster, but what about the other guys? Its almost like the movie Space Jam! Remember the Monstars and they are like 100 times bigger and 100 times strong than the looneytoon team. Definitely out match and they know it. The story of Gideon is way worse for these guys. The dude had a dream that they were going to lose to Gideon. (and in those days dreams were no joke) I couldn\’t imagine being in that position. You must think to yourself, \”alright, now tomorrow i am going to die.\” Wow. That would scare me straight to the other side, which conveniently is the next thing I want to talk about.


Rahab. She was a prostitute from the city of Jericho. She was the one that harbored the two 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.
 ² The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” ³ So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”
 ⁴ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. ⁵ At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” ⁶ (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) ⁷ So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.(Joshua 2:1-7)


Now basically I tried to put my self in this prostitutes shoes and figure out what it might be like. I feel like she would have heard about Israel and what was promised to them and what they have been doing. I could just imagine reading the paper every day and seeing what group of people Israel had conquered that day. She knew the power of God and believed that God would do what he said. 


Joshua 2:8-11 ⁸ Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof ⁹ and said to them, “I know that the LORD has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. ¹⁰ We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea<sup class="footnote" style="line-height: 0.5em;" value="[a]\”>[a] for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.<sup class="footnote" style="line-height: 0.5em;" value="[b]\”>[b] ¹¹ When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.


I think this is a crazy picture of salvation. She is the biggest trader ever. So is every follower of Christ. One day you realize that you are fighting for the wrong side and then next you choose to fight on God\’s army. She understands that they are there to spy and about to take over the land so she hides them and wants to make a deal with them/join God\’s squad.



¹² “Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign ¹³ that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.”
 ¹⁴ “Our lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land.”

That\’s some serious scared straightness. It was known that if you were against God that you would be crushed. There was no doubt about it at all! We need that today. To many of us walk around with no fear of God and the scarier ones are the ones that know the truth yet don\’t follow. Or think they are following but are actually way off the mark. So i guess that is my prayer. That i am not the one that is way off the mark. God help me to be a faithful servant and slave of you. Help me to be the best trader in the world. Help me to help my fellow spies to that we can defeat the enemy. Help me to risk my own life to help your kingdom be advanced as Rahab did.