Living Up To The Lowest Of Lows

Living Up to the Lowest of Lows

Joshua 2:1-24

Introduction

A. Today we are going to do something that we do not normally do in Church

B. Were going to openly discuss a prostitute

C. Wow, your all looking at me a little funny!

D. Seriously though, we are going to look at the life of Rahab

E. First we have to catch up on what is going on in the History of the Bible

F. The Israelites have been wondering around in the desert for about 40 years and well they are getting a little sick of it

G. Moses died and Joshua took over

H. Joshua in the first chapter basically get commissioned by the Lord and the people of Israelites

I. Joshua sends two spies to Jericho to scope out the land

J. The found a safe place to stay, a place were they could go basically without being noticed

K. The hid at Rahab’s house, thinking that no one would come looking for them there

L. Someone however, snitch (I wonder how much he got to do that) and told the king that there are some Israelites who came to spy on us

M. So we pick up the story here

N. (Read 2:1-24)

O. This is a amazing story we are going to look at:

a. God’s Provision

b. God’s Protection

c. God’s Purpose

I. God’s Provision (8-11)

A. Explanation

1. Rahab was no dummy

2. She new exactly what was going on

3. She had been receiving a copy of the USA Today and read the newspaper

4. She heard about what the Israelites have accomplished in the last 40 years that they were running around the dessert

a) She heard about how the Red Sea parted and the Israelites walked across on dry land – this is front page news

b) She heard about what happen to Sihon and Og

(1) You forgot what happens (Read Judges 11:21-22)

5. She read all these things, heard all this Gossip, was able to weed out the fact and the stories and come to one of the most remarkable conclusions you could imagine

6. Read 2:11

7. Rahab realized that the Israelites God is God.

8. She realized that God has been protected and providing for them all along

B. Application

1. So what does this mean to our lives?

2. It is embarrassing sometime how Rahab can see these things going on and Christians will miss it

3. We go a long thinking that nothing special is happening

4. There is a statement out there that if the Holy Spirit would leave about 90% of the Church’s functions would continue

5. That is not right

6. We do not recognizes things that are happening

7. We do not give God credit for what he is doing.

8. We often come up with the idea that he does not care

9. That is not the case at all, we just fail to recognize what he is doing

C. Illustration

1. Perhaps I can best illustrate what I am trying to say by using my wife and I as an example. Many people have asked Heather and I when we started dating. We laugh at that question. To answer it honestly, we don’t know. Ill help you out it was somewhere between 1995 and 2000. It was a progression. As I look back on it, I realize that there were many different ways God was providing, guiding, and leading us.

2. God makes provisions in every ones life.

3. The sad part is that we do not recognize it, and we do not give credit were credit is due

4. Rahab was able to figure it out, shouldn’t you be able to?

II. God’s Protection (2-7)

A. Explanation

1. There was a code back then called Hammurabi’s Code

a) What it said was “If felons are banded together in a prostitute’s house and she does not inform the palace, that prostitute shall be put to death

2. So some palace officials came to her house and asked her were these spies were

3. Of course she knew were they were she has hidden them on her roof

4. But she knew if she would tell the palace officials they would kill the Israelites

5. She was faced with a dilemma

6. A dilemma that leads to a tough question. Is it acceptable to lie at any time?

7. Little bonus history lesson, back in 1804 there were a group of Baptist that had this dispute, the question would be if they lied and saved a kids life from an hostile Indian was it right. The ended up causing a split and the one group became known as the lying Baptist

8. Is it ok to lie in those cases? Guess what? I am not going to answer that, search your hearts.