Joshua (a)

Joshua is a leader of the people of Israel and a close assistant of Moses. He commands Israel's camp outside the walled city of Jericho, where the nation waits to claim the land God promised. He follows God's instructions faithfully, even when they seem strange. Under his leadership the Jordan River stopped flowing and the manna ceased. Two Israelite spies slipped into Jericho, where an innkeeper named Rahab hid them under stalks of flax on her roof. She bargained for her family's safety, a promise sealed with a scarlet rope hung from her window. Israel then marched silently around the city day after day while the people inside laughed from the walls. On the seventh day the trumpets blasted, the shout went up, and the walls crashed down - all except the house marked by the scarlet rope.