Rahab’s Faith

Joshua following the people as they prepare to enter into the promised land. So we are in Joshua chapter 2. We’ll read the entire chapter. Children, here are your questions for this evening. Where did the two spies in our passage hide? What had the people of Jericho heard about Yahweh God? Three, what did Rahab ask in return for protecting the spies? And four, what two places do we find Rahab’s name mentioned in the New Testament? Actually, there are more than two. Joshua 2, this is the word of God.

And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies saying, go view the land, especially Jericho. And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land. Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab saying, bring out the men who have come to you who entered your house for they have come to search out all the land.

But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, true. The men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.

But she had brought them up on the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords, and the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out.

Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to them, I know that the Lord has given you the land and that the fear of you has fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.

And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters and all who belong to them and deliver our lives from death. And the men said to her, our life for yours even to death. If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land, we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.

Then she let them down by a rope through the window for her house was built into the city wall so that she lived in the wall. And she said to them, go into the hills or the pursuers will encounter you and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward, you may go your way. The man said to her, we will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear.

Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down and you shall gather into your house, your father and your mother, your brother and your father’s household. That if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear. And she said, according to your word, so be it.

Then she sent them away and they departed and she tied the scarlet cord in the window. They departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned and the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing. Then the two men returned. They came down from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua, the son of Nun. And they told him all that had happened to them. And they said to Joshua, truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands. And also the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.

There ends the reading of God’s word. Let’s pray together. Well, Lord our God, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for this amazing account of your work so long ago. And we know that this word still speaks to us today. And so help us as we come to this passage, as we’ve heard the word that you’ve given to us now, we pray that you would bless the preaching of your word. So send your Holy Spirit in a special way, we pray.

In Jesus’ name, amen. Well, who would have thought that the hero of our narrative tonight would be a woman of ill repute who is a pagan, who lives in the wall of a pagan city, who would have thought that she would be the hero and who would have thought a whole chapter in God’s word would be dedicated to her and what she’s done. Now, the story, of course, the narrative is actually about the work of God, but the key figure is this woman Rahab. The setting is this, they’re getting ready to go into the land, the Israelites into Canaan to take over the land. God has told them that he’s given them the land. So they already know, Joshua and his leaders know that the battle is the Lord’s and he is going to win the battle, but they still have to take their responsibility, do due diligence with the military and send in spies to check out the land, to see the lay of the land. We have this wonderful account, which ends up being a story from a wall of shame to a wonderful story of God’s grace and mercy to a poor, lost sinner.

This woman, Rahab, was a prostitute. She had a miserable existence. Anyone who’s involved in that tragic lifestyle has a miserable existence. It’s a cheapened humanity. Imagine the disregard for someone’s own self-worth, no matter how acceptable in a culture it may be, it’s degrading. You think of red light districts, whether it’s in a place that’s extreme poverty or in a place like Amsterdam, in a red light district where there’s plenty of money, none of those women are happy. None of them can be satisfied in their souls. What a tragic way to live life.

Now granted in this setting in Jericho, maybe this so-called profession was actually acceptable. It does strike me that while in our culture and in most cultures, women or men who go into prostitution are usually either cut off from their families or addicted to drugs, have been abused, have been kidnapped or something like that. It seems that in this setting, it’s very acceptable. It is strange to us that her own mother and father are in the community as well as her brothers and sisters, and it doesn’t seem to be an issue.

Nonetheless, for her personally, this is a miserable existence. Her life is cheapened, her worth is cheapened. Not only that, she’s in a pagan religion, It’s assumed that she’s a worshiper of the Canaanite deities, Baal and Asherah, and all the other deities that they had, all the other aspects of their false religion. But her biggest problem was this. Her biggest problem was, like any other sinner, she was at enmity with God. She was far from God. She was without hope in the world. That really is the state of her soul.

But a moving report comes into her city. It’s a moving report in this way, not a moving report of God’s love for sinners, but a warning that those who are against God, especially at this place and at this time, are in danger from him consuming them in war. They had to purge the people out of Canaan for the Israelites to settle in. Ultimately, the report that comes to Jericho is from God, but word of mouth had gotten out.

And I love the fact that she says, our hearts are melting. What a vivid description. If you’ve ever been, and I don’t know if you have, but if you’ve ever been terrified by something, absolutely terrified, it is like your insides are becoming liquefied, melting within. Our hearts are melting within because we’ve heard about your mighty God.

God was on the move. They had heard about the Exodus some 40 years earlier. They had heard about the power of God in the Exodus. Most recently, they heard about the defeat of the Amorites. They all heard something. But she, Rahab, heard something different and saw something different in this situation. She saw an opportunity for life. Granted, it began with fear. And that’s not always a bad thing. Fear can be used by God to have someone cry out to Him. But it starts with fear, but as you’ll see, that her faith develops.

Her faith develops, and it turns out that this woman, this Rahab, this prostitute, this pagan, this enemy of God becomes a recipient of grace. Her heart, her heart melted, but in a very different way. God had singled her out and she responded appropriately. And again, her initial entry was through fear, but we’ll see that she enters the community of God’s people. She actually becomes a hero of faith. She becomes a hero of faith. So we read in our passage, she cuts a deal with the spies. If I hide you, if I help you escape, you need to promise me that you’re going to spare my father and my mother and my siblings.” And she knew that she was putting herself at risk.

The king had found out that spies had come. The first place the spies came to was this brothel on the wall of Jericho. That was their in into the city to spy it out. There’s nothing untoward about what they were doing. As far as we can tell, that was simply their way to get in. But the king found out and knew that that’s the way they came in. And so he comes to her and there’s a threat behind what he’s saying. Because if she’s complicit, her life is at stake. Her life would be ended. But she knew that it was worth it. She knew it was worth risking her life.

She knew for sure that the battle was Yahweh’s, the God of the Hebrews, but I believe she knew something even bigger. If she didn’t know it at this point, she would know it later, that this battle between God’s people and the people of Jericho and all the Canaanites was not just a military thing. It was a battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. That’s what I believe all the battles of the Old Testament represent, this grander, this bigger, this cosmic battle.

And I believe that, again, if she didn’t see it then, she would see it later. But she acts upon her faith. How do we know that this was an act of faith? The writer of Hebrews puts it very simple. Very little is said in the New Testament He puts it very simple, by faith, along with all these other people of faith, by faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. That was an act of faith.

And it’s put in the context of faith and works. James does a very similar thing. He uses her as an example of faith and work. She had faith, she put it into action by sparing the spies, by lying to the king, by honoring God through what she did. It was an act of faith.

And if you look at James, Rahab is put right next to, guess who? Right next to Abraham, the father of our faith. James gives the example of Abraham, he goes right to Rahab. What an amazing parallel. Abraham, I did say Abraham, didn’t I? Abraham, the father of our faith, a righteous man, next to Rahab, the prostitute.

There is this issue of this scarlet cord, and a lot of people have taken this to mean a lot of different things, but I don’t think we can miss that there’s some parallel here, that this scarlet cord is what actually represents her and her family being spared. And you can’t help but go back to the Exodus.

Think of the blood over the doorposts of the houses of the people who were spared from the angel of death. Here in a very similar way, we can’t help but see at least an analogy, at least a type of this covering on the household to protect her and her family. Maybe the scarlet cord once ID’d her house as a house of prostitution. But now it’s showing, if you will, that she’s covered by the Lamb of God, the blood of the Lamb of God. In an Old Testament fashion, she becomes a part of the community of Christ, of the Church of Christ, the family of God.

After the rescue, and here’s a spoiler alert, she does get rescued. We’ll save that for later. But when she’s rescued, she’s taken out of the world. She’s taken out of her miserable life, she’s taken out of her prostitution, she’s taken out of paganism, and she’s brought into the covenant of God.

And it’s fair to assume that in that process, she was embraced by Yahweh, but she embraced Him, that she could say, I am His and He is mine, just like we sing. I am His. And he is mine. And then she becomes a worshiper of Yahweh. All those false gods cast away.

And she would get a new set of lifestyle rules. Think of this. She would be exposed more and more to the truth of God. She would be treated to the truths of all the promises, insight into all the types and all the shadows that would point to final salvation in Christ. All that would be hers, but she would also have her moral perspective changed. And her self-esteem, her estimation of herself would change. And she could now see herself as a creature of God.

That her life was a sacred thing and that her life did matter. Assuming that in the covenant of God’s people that she would be loved. She even ends up getting married. Legitimately in the covenant of God and she has a baby. Whether she was accepted by the people, by all the people, she certainly was by some. The amazing thing is she was accepted by God.

Rahab reminds me of the woman caught in adultery. And Jesus intervenes and tells her, go, and from now on, sin no more. Reminds me of this account. One of the Pharisees, this is with Jesus. One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner When she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment and standing behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment and said, your sins are forgiven.

She reminds me of the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman at the well who was living a very corrupted lifestyle. The fact that she had many so-called husbands and that the one she was with was not her husband indicates completely that she was an adulterer and some even suggest a prostitute herself.

She meets a savior and everything changes. She meets Messiah and everything changes. And it goes even further. She becomes a matriarch in the covenant household of God, blessed as a mom. If you go back in Numbers, there’s a man that we meet. These leaders were called together to make offerings at the tabernacle. This is years before. The King James Version uses the word princes. And here’s what we read.

The princes of Israel Heads of the house of their fathers who were the princes of the tribes and were over them that were numbered came. You move down, it says, he who offered his offering the first day was Nation, the son of Amenadab of the tribe of Judah. Rahab marries into this family. And I think it would be fair to say that this woman goes from being a prostitute to a princess. for husband truly is a prince of Israel.

Jump ahead into the New Testament and you look at the genealogy of Jesus. And I won’t read the whole thing, but here’s how it reads. Ram, the father of Amminadab. Amminadab, the father of Nation. Nation, the father of Salmon. Salmon, the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David the king. And you know that that line goes right down to Jesus. So of all people, this former prostitute, this former pagan, this former enemy of God is in the genealogy of Jesus.

And that doesn’t make her any more sacred than anybody else. but it shows the grace of God in his including her in this wonderful covenant that he’s established. She becomes a beloved child of God with new worth and new dignity. I think about her being brought into the kingdom, and I can’t help but wonder how we would handle someone who came off the street, fresh off the street, professing Christ.

Would we love them and have great joy in their repentance, rejoice with heaven in that case? You name the notorious sin, it doesn’t have to be prostitution, homosexuality, lesbianism, druggies, thieves, who find forgiveness in Christ. Would we embrace them? Would we disciple them? Would we include them? Would we love on them? I have a quote from Francis Schaeffer, and I forgot how much I love Francis Schaeffer, but please listen to this quote, and I’ll do the best I can to read it.

He writes, after all, Rahab did not stand with the people of God as an unclean harlot. She had come under the blood of the coming Christ. She was the harlot cleansed. Is Rahab any worse than we? If it is not fitting that she should be the ancestress of Christ, is it fitting that we should be the bride of Christ? Woe to anybody who has such a mentality as to be upset by Rahab. Such a person does not understand sin, the horribleness of the whole race turning into a prostitute against the Living Creator. We all stand in Rahab’s place in the sight of the Holy God. Probably we are even worse, for she had little knowledge There is probably no one reading this book who has as little knowledge as Rahab had when she made her step of faith.

We are all sinners, each one of us like this woman living up there on the wall. Each of us deserves only one thing, the flaming judgment of God. If it were not for the spiritual portion of the covenant of grace, and Christ’s death on Calvary’s cross, we would all be lost. We would all be lost.

And so my question as we look at this recipient of God’s grace, this very unlikely hero, this prostitute, this pagan, this enemy of God, saved by the grace of God, could we stand next to her? Could we stand next to her and worship with her and sing amazing grace? How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Could we stand next to her or him or whoever it might be and sing, and can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior’s blood? Died he for me? Who caused his pain? for me who him to death pursued. Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Worship next to her singing, no condemnation, now I dread. Jesus and all in him is mine, alive in him, my living head, and clothed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own. I hope we could. I hope we can. Let’s pray.

Oh Lord, our God, you are amazing. And that hardly captures it, but your love for sinners like us is amazing. Your grace is amazing. And to hear of your grace for others and for ourselves is a sweet sound. Because we know it’s through your grace and through the blood of our savior jesus That you’ve set us free That you saved wretches like us We praise you tonight, and we thank you And we pray now that you would help us to live our lives in full thankfulness to you And we come to you in jesus name with the help of the holy spirit