A Faith Lesson From A Bad Girl Series

Have you ever had someone discover something about you that you’d rather them not know? Ben Affleck has.

Evidently, Ben was excited about participating in the PBS show called “Finding Your Roots” until he discovered that his ancestors were slave owners and asked that he be removed from the show schedule.

This was successful until someone hacked into a Sony email sight, obtained the family info. and then put it out to the public. It was reported that he had three ancestors that were slave owners:

a) Nathaniel Stanley from Goshen, Connecticut who left behind a bill of sale for a slave named

Tobe.

b) Benjamin Cole who was from Savannah who owned 25 slaves.

c) And His great grandfather from New Jersey who owned 8 slaves.

Affleck was embarrassed and angered by the leak because He obviously wanted to distance himself from this fact about his family ancestors.

Transition:

If PBS were to do a documentary about the ancestors of Jesus Christ, it would not take long to find a few interesting characters as well.

In your Bible, the first page of the New Testament; Matthew chapter 1, contains the name of someone in Jewish history who some might wish to pass on by as well: Her name was Rahab; one of the “bad girls” of the Bible.

Yet, in Matthew 1:5 God boldly includes her name in the birth announcement of Jesus; as well as, brings her name up again in the “faith chapter” known as Hebrews chapter 11.

A quick glance back in scripture leads us to the Book of Joshua where we meet Rahab and hear her story. Through her story we learn a lot of the God we place our faith in. What does God teach us about Himself through including Rahab and her faith story in the Bible?

Transition: Through Rahab we learn several things about the God we trust to lead our life and what we can expect from Him when we trust Him and walk by faith.

Transitional Sentence: When we trust God and walk with Him by faith we learn that:

I. God Can Do Anything Anywhere

Vs. 30- “ By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled seven days.”

Explanation:

Before we are introduced to Rabab, we are introduced to her hometown. In verse 30 we read: “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down....”

Rahab was from a town in southern Israel named, “Jericho.” It was a town located in the Jordan Valley with the Jordan river to the east and Jerusalem to the west. Even today it is a fertile area and is known in the Bible as “the city of palm trees.” Its name comes from a Canaanite word that means: “fragrant” and was originally a place dedicated to the lunar deity; a place where the moon was worshipped.

Yet, Jericho was the Achilles heel for the Israelite. It was the blockade that stood between them and the land God promised to them.

Remember, Jericho was the city that the spies scoped out and returned with a difficult report. They said in Deuteronomy 1:28: “...the people are bigger and taller than us and their city walls reach up into the heavens.”

When the spies saw it, it was like nothing they had ever seen. They were overwhelmed. They exaggerated in their minds what the city was like.

I have visited the ruins and remains of ancient Jericho and there you can still see that there were two sets of walls; the lower walls and the foundation walls. It has been said that it was the first walled city in history.

Artist depiction of Jericho from examination of the ruins

The foundation walls (clay walls) according to archeologists stood 15 feet high and were 6 feet thick. Above these walls were the secondary or “upper walls” (Red brick) that were 20 feet high and was so thinks that houses were built on them. (Joshua 2:15)

The city was so well built that it has been called “the Citadel of the Neolithic age.”

The town was heavily fortified and considered the front door into Canaan. Ownership of a home there was considered to be a true treasure.

Archeologists have discovered that buried in the floors of those homes were human remains. The reason why was because if your ancestor was buried in the home it was like a deed to the home, proof of ownership was because grandma was buried in the floor of the living room.

This is how important it was for people to have a home in Jericho. Jericho was one of most secure places in the world; therefore, people valued owning homes in Jericho.

Yet, let me remind you of my point: God can do anything anywhere.

To prove it God gave Joshua one of the strangest military strategies. Imagine the military commander telling you; “We are going to march around the city 12 times and on the thirteenth time we are going to shout in triumph and the walls are going to come tumbling down.”