Rahab and her entire family were saved because of her FAITH in God and the GRACE of God.
• Her faith in God moved her from being a “nobody” to becoming a significant player in God’s plan.
• From being someone who was simply known as “the prostitute”, to finding her name into the genealogy of Jesus Christ.
• Faith unlocks the door to God’s grace in her life. No matter how bad is your past, faith in God will give you a new future.
The Israelites get ready to cross the Jordan River and take possession of the Land.
• Fulfilling God’s purpose requires their response, their involvement, their faith and their unity.
• Joshua sent out two spies to view the land and Jericho, the first obstacle in their path. The men went and came to hide in the house of a prostitute named Rahab.
• It was likely so because the house was by the city wall (verse 15).
News leaked out that spies came into the city and the King sent men to arrest them.
• Rahab did a remarkable thing. She risked her life to cover up for them and protect them.
• She did that because she had heard about Israel’s God. Her words to the spies revealed her faith.
She said to them in verse 9: “Verse 9 – “I KNOW that the Lord has given this land to you…”
• Verse 10 “We have HEARD how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt…”
• She got to know what God has SAID and what God has DONE.
And her conclusion? Verse 11 – “… for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” That’s her CONFESSION OF HER FAITH.
• She did not know everything about this God (she does not have the LAW), but that little that she knows was enough to convince her that Israel’s God is true.
• Faith unlocks God’s grace in her life. She said, “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family…”
• And that’s exactly what God will do – show her loving kindness, show her grace.
We do not need to understand everything to have FAITH in God.
• It is not how much we need to know. It is whether we can have faith in what God has already revealed to us.
Rahab’s faith was not blind. It was based on the information she had.
• The whole nation feared because of what they have heard. There must be some authenticity; it wasn’t just rumours.
• Faith is never without a basis. Faith is not blind. Blind faith is not faith, it is superstition or presumption.
• Real faith is anchored upon truth. It is always based upon the revelations of God. The revelation is always ENOUGH.
Rahab responded with simple faith to the little she has heard about God, and that’s enough. That is enough to save her and her family.
Faith is not an emotion or a feeling. It works.
• We see the ACT of true faith and the FRUIT of faith.
• Rahab demonstrated her faith when she took the great risk in shielding the spies. She is putting her life at stake.
• WHY? She knew their God to be true. Jesus: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” (Matt 13:44)
Heb 11:31 “By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.”
• Faith without works is dead. In order words, it is useless. Rahab’s faith was proven to be true because of her actions. And it resulted in her salvation.
• James 2:25-26 “In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”
Notice something here - each time the name Rahab is mentioned, in Joshua, Hebrews, James, the authors tagged her occupation with it – “the prostitute”.
• It was clear to me that they are sending a message. It doesn’t matter what kind of a past you have, or what kind of an occupation you hold.
• These don’t define you. Faith in God does. We are BELIEVERS of Jesus Christ and God our Father. That must defines us. That’s our identity. We are children of the living God.
• Don’t be too caught up by your past, occupation, education, social status, qualifications or whatever. Be proud that you are a Christian – a BELIEVER of Christ, someone who has FAITH in God.
God uses people with faith to accomplish His purposes.
Rahab was instrumental in bringing victory to Israel. And she was saved because God acts in response to faith in Him.
• Faith is not a projection of what we want. Our faith is not in faith. Our faith is in God. Trust Him and God acts.
• God transformed her life and used her in His plan. She was “grafted” into God’s Kingdom, by the GRACE of God.
She was actually DISQUALIFIED in many ways. She was a pagan, Canaanite living in Jericho, a community steep in idolatry. They were the target of God’s judgment.
• Rahab was not even a decent, moral person. Her occupation was well-known.
• She was completely an outsider to God’s covenant, BUT an outsider who is willing to TRUST God!
That’s the difference. God showed her grace, in response to her faith.
• She became the branch that was grafted into God’s vine, and found a new life.
• God rewarded Rahab by giving her more than she ever asked. Not only did He spare her life and the lives of her family members, He gave them an inheritance among Israel.
• Josh 6:24-25 “Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD's house. 25But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho-and she lives among the Israelites to this day.”
After the fall of Jericho, she was taken back to live with the people of Israel and became a part of the community.
• Faith ushers us into God’s Kingdom. We become one of His.
• Jesus said in Matt 12:48 “He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" 49Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. 50For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."
• John 1:12-13 “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.”
And that was not all. Her name was found in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1.
• According to this list, Rahab married a man named Salmon. Tradition says he was one of those two spies she protected.
• They had a son named BOAZ (the Boaz in the book of Ruth). Boaz married Ruth and became the father of Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David.
• And from the lineage of David comes Jesus Christ. There’s a “prostitute” in his family line, and God did not remove her name from the record.
God is proud to have Rahab’s name mentioned a couple to times in the Scriptures.
• The past is not an issue with God. Your sin is not a problem with God. He can remove it and use your life for His glory. He makes you a new creation.
• Rahab left her life of sin and became a saint for God. She left her shame but lived a life of significance.
• God can change a despised person into a noteworthy person His Kingdom.
Faith in God unlocks His blessings in our lives.
If God can use her, God can use you.
• You past don’t defines you. You occupation don’t define you. Your faith does!
• God can make everything new, in Christ. We can always have a new start.
Come to God just as you are. Come clean with Him. Put your trust in Jesus Christ. God will change you and God will use you to accomplish His purposes.
