Spying in the Bible 12 - 1406 BC (3)

Joshua's Intriguing Intrigue (3)

Once the Israelite army reached Jericho and The Angel of the Lord appeared to Joshua and told him God’s plan of attack for Jericho. Therefore, God Himself helped to complete the Analysis and Production of the intelligence and then Joshua does the Dissemination and Explanation step by communicating the plan to the Israelites (Joshua 5:13-14;6:2-7).

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

“Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”...

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.” And he ordered the army, “Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord.”

The last step in the Intelligence cycle is Evaluation and Feedback. The evaluation and feedback of the intelligence was obviously positive, since it enabled the Israelites to succeed in their mission and take the city of Jericho. The feedback also led to another tasking and requirement of the spies to save Rahab and her family from the city, initiating the cycle again. That is why it is called a cycle. Frequently once the final intelligence is evaluated feedback comes in the form of follow on requirements and missions based on what was learned from the first campaign. The spies then fulfilled their mission and Rahab and her family joined the Israelites and lived with them (Joshua 6:22-23).

Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.

As can be seen, spying should be done by professionals without ulterior motives in secret, with minimal oversight by only their management, who makes the decisions. The spies should not have policy input. The spies should be given minimal instructions and operational flexibility enough to get the job done. By giving the spies that operational flexibility, Joshua also had the responsibility to follow through with the promise they made to Rahab, which he did honor. The one and only failure of the mission, was by a soldier named Achan. The Lord, through Joshua, had given explicit instructions not to pillage the city or take artifacts from it, which Achan secretly did and it caused problems later.