Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 3
The speaker suggests Joshua might have sent the men as “messengers” seeking cooperation and hospitality rather than as pure military “spies,” noting that James calls them “messengers”; how would that reading change what you think God was doing in Jericho before judgment fell?
Another way to ask: What if Joshua sent the men more as “messengers” looking for help, not just as military spies? How would that change what you think God was doing in Jericho before judgment came?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
If the men functioned as “messengers,” then Jericho wasn’t only being reconnoitered for attack; it was also being confronted with a final opportunity for mercy—finding anyone willing to surrender, seek refuge, or align with Israel’s God before judgment.
- The speaker admits the normal military reading: Joshua “wants a plan… a military man,” and at that time “he has no idea how this city is going to come down.”
- He then “step[s] outside the box” and suggests they went “more as messengers than as spies,” looking for “hospitality… cooperation within the city.”
- He points to James as key evidence: James “refers to these men as messengers. He doesn't call them spies.”
- He speculates their mission might include seeing “if there was anyone… who wanted out or who was willing to surrender.”
- He connects this to how it “helps the story make a little more sense,” since they quickly end up in Rahab’s house and their cover is blown almost immediately.