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THE RAHAB IN US
Joshua 2:1-11
May 10, 2009
Have you ever looked into your family tree? It can be a lot of fun if you look deep into your family history and origins. Most likely you’ll discover there are some pretty strange and odd characters in your family’s background. Maybe that explains why . . . well never mind?
Have you taken a hard look at Jesus’ family tree?
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When we look at His family tree, we see kings and heroes of the faith. We see people of great faith and great accomplishments. We also find there are a few on the list who we may think were unsavory characters and did not belong on the family tree of the Savior. It’s very interesting to note that 3 women were specifically named -- all of whom were unlikely candidates for membership on Jesus’ family tree. One was Ruth, who was from Moab, a nonIsraelite idol worshiper; another was Tamar, who masqueraded as a prostitute, and tricked her former father-in-law into fathering her children; the third was Rahab, also a prostitute, a Canaanite resident of Jericho who didn’t know the God of Israel.
God chose those whom we may not refer to as the best people to be part of the Messianic line. In fact, God has a habit of picking unlikely people, obviously flawed people, to further His kingdom. It seems that God loves to turn things upside down as He chooses the unexpected to lead His people. God did it with Jesus, and He continues to do it with you and I.
Since God used flawed people in the Messianic line, that means He can use us to do great things in His kingdom. Like it or not, we are ALL flawed! The good news - - is that who we are or what we have done should never prevent us from experiencing the presence of God and experiencing a great faith relationship with God so that we can demonstrate our relationship with God to others.
Today, as is my custom on Mother’s Day, I want to look at a woman from the Bible we need to know about and what it means for us. So, let’s look at Rahab. Who was she and why is she listed in the genealogy of Jesus and in the Hall of fame of faith in Hebrews 11?
Let’s begin with a quick look at the setting. We first meet Rahab as the people of Israel are about to cross the Jordan river and enter Canaan, or Israel. The book of Joshua records the entrance into the promised land by the Israelites.
In a sense it’s D-DAY and, like any good commander, before the invasion begins Joshua wanted to gather information about the enemy.
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So Joshua secretly sent two spies to look over the land of Jericho. Jericho was the focus of this recon mission because it was a formidable fortress city guarding the pass leading west into the nation. Jericho is that big red square on the map. You can see it is along the western border, just north of the Dead Sea and next to the Jordan River, and south of the Sea of Galilee.
Joshua wanted the spies to bring him information about Jericho’s walls and gates, its population, the size of its army, and more.
After the spies snuck into Jericho they encountered an unexpected and unlikely ally in Rahab. Maybe they decided to enter her home since the presence of strangers in this kind of house wouldn’t arouse undue suspicion. Also her profession may mean she was knowledgeable of public affairs. Another reason to choose her house was that it offered a method of escape since it was located on the city wall . . . it’s windows faced outward, or freedom.
The spies were detected and the king immediately sent soldiers to Rahab’s house expecting Rahab to do her patriotic duty and turn the spies in, however, she committed the capitol offense of treason! She hid the men and sent the guards on a wild goose chase. Rahab sensed there was something unusual about these two men. . . something different from the other men who frequented her home. Maybe these spies were the first to come through her door without sinful intent.
After the soldiers left, Rahab asked the spies to spare her life and the lives of her family when the city was destroyed. And the spies agreed, then she helped them escape using a rope from a window on the wall and gave them instructions so they could avoid capture.
Now what can Rahab’s life thousands of years ago teach us about faith in our day and age? I want to focus on two things. First of all, Rahab’s life shows us...
PEOPLE NOTICE REAL FAITH AT WORK
After the Before the Israelite spies left, Rahab spoke to them, and told them she had heard of the miracles God had been performing for the Israelites, saying,
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10 We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.
She explained that the heart’s of the people of Jericho were melting because of what they were hearing about the power of God to lead the Israelites.
Rahab not only heard about this power, but she came to believe in the power of the God of Israel and she believed.
In fact she spoke of the takeover of Jericho by the Hebrew people as if it were already an accomplished fact. In Joshua 2:9 she said, (SLIDE) “I know that the LORD has given this land to you.”
Rahab and her countrymen saw God at work in and through His people!
And this is what led her to leave her sinful lifestyle and embrace a faith in God. Rahab said, (CLICK) “. . . for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below” - Joshua 2:11.
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When Rahab referred to God, she did not use a generic name God, instead Rahab referred to God using the formal and highest name for God, she called Him YAHWEH (LORD - capitalized). She didn’t use a Canaanite name for God, but the covenant name that the Hebrew people used for their personal God. You see, when people like Rahab see things happening in the lives of other people that can only be explained by God, they want to have that kind of relationship with God as well. They believe that God really is God because they see His people doing things that could only be explained by His presence and power.
And Rahab would experience that presence and power . . . as Joshua and the army marched around the huge, impenetrable walls of Jericho for seven days. And on the 7th day they marched around it seven times and on the seventh time the priests blew their trumpets, and the people gave a loud shout and the walls fell down. And all of Jericho was destroyed ... except Rahab and her family. They were safely led out to safety.
So Rahab saw with her own eyes and heard with her own ears, the power of the God in whom she had placed her faith and trust.
Rahab’s experience helps us to see that a genuine, deep faith-relationship with God involves a person trusting God enough to allow Him to use them to do things they could not do on their own. And the world pays attention when this happens! And it makes them hunger to know God.
We may not think we’re capable to do what God calls us to do, because we don’t believe in ourselves, yet God believes in us.
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In his book Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby wrote, “The kind of assignments God gives are always God-sized. They are always beyond what people can do, because He wants to demonstrate His nature, His strength, His provision, and His kindness to His people and to a watching world.”
Friends, people are watching and when they see us doing things that can only be explained by the power of God, it awakens their hunger for faith as it did in the life of Rahab.
Rahab’s faith story shows that if we lift God up by allowing Him to do what we think is impossible through us, others will notice, and they are drawn to Jesus!
And the second thing Rahab’s life shows us is
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EGENUINE FAITH IN GOD SHOWS PEOPLE THEY CAN BEGIN AGAIN
When I was about 6 years old I began to play golf with my dad. On Sunday mornings I would go with him and his friends. He had some kids clubs for me and he would drop a few balls on the fairway, and I would try to hit the balls and just hang out with the men. Other than waking up too early, it was great.
I still enjoy playing golf, well, some days I really enjoy it, and other days, I wonder why I play. Some who have seen me play, know when I connect, the ball flies, but when I miss, ooh! It’s ugly. But there is a bonus aspect when you play golf that you don’t find in other sports. It has a silly name . . . it’s called a (CLICK) ‘mulligan.’
A mulligan means you are getting a do-over. It means the shot that you just hit into the water or woods no longer counts against you, you are not penalized for that terrible shot. Instead, you get to take your shot over, as if that first shot never happened. It’s a great thing to play golf.
Each of us has a little Rahab in us. None of us are exactly where God wants us to be in our life. Some of us have things in our past we believe will prohibit God from loving us. Each of us has fallen short at some time in our lives. However, these actions will not eliminate our obtaining grace from God or keep Him from using us in His perfect plan. God can use the Rahab in us! If God can make a rock praise Him, He certainly has the ability to use these broke down vessels of ours. God can use the Rahab that is in us!
Now, think about it . . . wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to take mulligans in other areas of life? Wouldn’t it be great if your math teacher called to let you know you flunked your final exam and you said, “I’ll take a mulligan on that one.” And she said, “No problem!” Or think how wonderful it would be if you wrote a check at the store and it bounced but when they called, you said, “I’ll take a mulligan, please.” and they said, “Sure, by the way, thanks for shopping with us!” Wouldn’t it be great if we could simply begin again when we forgot to send in our taxes, or blew up at our kids, or said something unloving to a loved one, or made a huge mistake at work?
This would be great, but the problem is....mulligans don’t work in real life. Because life keeps score! Life is not a game. It’s for real! The reason we take mulligans in golf is because . . . it’s just a game. If you’re playing Tiger Woods for the Masters and you’re tied on the final hole and you mishit your drive, you can’t say, ‘Uh, Tiger, I’ll take a mulligan here.’
There are no mulligan’s on the PGA tour. And this is the way it is in life. Your score is a brutally honest reflection of what you did.
God won’t say to murderers, liars, gossipers, thieves, abusers, bitter people, or adulterers, ‘Take a mulligan. Let’s pretend it never happened.’ We need to deal with the personal consequences of sin in our lives.
While we must suffer the consequences, someone must pay for all the wrong on the scorecards of our lives so that our relationship with God can be made right.
And the wonderful news is that Someone has! Jesus paid our debt. He took the consequence of our sins upon Himself. And because of that, God desires to forgive us and help us start over.
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It is so important for us to remember, GENUINE FAITH IN GOD SHOWS PEOPLE THEY CAN BEGIN AGAIN.
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Only God can give us that great opportunity to start over again, and then do it again. Pastor John Ortberg wrote, “If there is one way that human beings consistently underestimate God’s love, it is perhaps in His loving longing to forgive.” God has invested an unbelievable amount in the forgiveness He offers all of us.
God longs to hear us repent . . . so He can forgive us. So He can cleanse us from our unrighteousness . . . so He can cast our sins as far as the east is from the west and remember them no more . . . because He invested the life of His only Son in us . . . so we CAN begin again!
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Ortberg adds, “Redeeming is what God is into. He is the finder of directionally-challenged sheep, the searcher of missing coins, the embracer of foolish prodigal sons. His favorite department is Lost and Found.”
So you see, when we come to know God through faith we discover that we can start over in life, no matter what our past life was like.
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2 Corinthians 5:17 is one of my favorite verses. Maybe because it describes the mulligan principle of life, as Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creature; the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.”
So the past is the past, it happened and it matters, but when we come to God asking for His forgiveness, we find His presence, His power and a second and third and fourth and fifth and more . . . chances to join God in His work.
After the fall of Jericho, Rahab lived with the people of Israel. She married a man named Salmon - and they had a son named Boaz.
Boaz married Ruth, and their child was Obed, Rahab’s grandson.
And Obed was the father of Jesse, who was her great grandson.
And Jesse was the father of David, who was her great, great grandson.
And as Matthew 1 reminds us, from the line of David came JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God. I guess you could sum this all up by saying Rahab shows us that we can turn from our sin and come to GOD. . . and when we do, He will do great things in and through us.
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John 3:17 tells us, “God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
So, this morning why not take God up on His offer and take a mulligan! Come, just as you are and ask God to forgive you of your sin and help you start over in life. Our God is willing to give us a second chance, as He is a fresh start God.
Maybe you are a Christian and you want to start over in your walk with God. You realize you’ve been playing it safe and now you want to have enough faith to let God do GOD-SIZED tasks through your life.
Why not Take that step right now . . . by saying, ‘God I need you more than ever. I give you my life, change me, mold me, and give me the faith in You to make this happen.’
