IT TAKES FAITH (part eleven)
Hebrews 11:31
INTRODUCTION: We've looked at many people on our journey through the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. And while it wouldn't surprise us to see names like Noah, Abraham and Moses, the next name on our list might raise a few eyebrows. Last week I talked about the fall of Jericho. I started by referring to Joshua sending out the spies and encountering Rahab. Today we'll explore the details of that encounter as we look at the faith of Rahab.
1) Rahab had faith but the rest of Jericho didn't.
Heb. 11:31, "By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient."
Jericho was a city whose inhabitants were violent and depraved. They were so corrupt that when God commissioned the city to be destroyed Joshua 6:26 states that anyone who sought to rebuild the city would be cursed. God wanted this place wiped from the map. But it wasn't before they had an opportunity to believe.
"Those who were disobedient". Here, the word disobedient can also mean unbelieving. It makes sense because we need to answer the question of how did Rahab come to have faith? How would she come to believe in the one, true God if he hadn't revealed himself to her? And since God is no respecter of persons I would conclude that he afforded the same opportunity to the rest of the city.
However, the only one to show faith was this woman of ill-repute. The people of Jericho perished because they did not believe as Rahab did. Therefore, she and her family would be the only ones spared. God's righteous judgment would come upon the rest of the city for their unwillingness to believe.
Just like Noah. God destroyed the world by flood and the only one who believed in the one, true God was Noah. It's not much different today. Believers are of the minority. That means, like Noah and Rahab, we have to contend with the majority being non-believers. We have to go against the flow. It's much easier to go with the flow; it's much easier to do whatever we want rather than resist temptation.
It's not easy to persevere when there's so much opposition around us but that's what we are called to do and we've been given the power and ability to do it. And we are motivated by those who went before us who overcame and were victorious. It takes faith to stay committed.
2) A prostitute and a liar commended for her faith? What gives?
Joshua 2:1-7, "Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. The king of Jericho was told, “Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”
But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut."
"Rahab the prostitute." If you have footnotes in your bible you may see a little 'a' after the word prostitute. At the bottom of the page it says "or possibly an innkeeper". Some have used this to suppose that Rahab was not a prostitute but simply a woman who ran a hotel. But the Hebrew word and the Greek word both mean what it says-prostitute.
With that said, it would make sense that she could easily be both an innkeeper and a prostitute. But to remove the prostitute from the innkeeper is not keeping with the reality of the text. In fact I think it diminishes the impact of the outcome. To know and understand what Rahab was helps us to commend her for the faith she had and the things that resulted from it. To realize her past would help us to believe that there's hope for all future prostitutes and anyone else caught up in a sinful lifestyle.
But it makes sense that the spies would've sought out such a location as it was near the entrance to the city and many travelers would be looking for lodging as soon as they came in. And the spies would not have chanced being seen meandering through the city so to go to the place near the gate where the commercial lodging was would've been a typical strategy.
However, we see that they were spotted and reported. So the king sends some of his men to Rahab's place. I thought it was interesting that the messengers took Rahab at her word. This shows that either they trusted her or they didn't think she would lie in a situation like this. But why didn't they demand to search the place to be sure?
From the JFB commentary: "According to Eastern manners, which pay an almost superstitious respect to a woman's apartment, the royal messengers did not demand admittance to search but asked her to bring the foreigners out."
In any event, what you have here is Rahab lying to protect the spies. Which raises the question: how can she be commended? How can she be included in the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 when she lied? James 2:25 calls her righteous. How can this be? Isn't this a contradiction. Does this mean God condones lying in certain circumstances?
This is a topic that has been discussed and debated by smarter men than me but here's my take on the matter. We can say that the lie was for a noble purpose, we can say that it was justified because she was protecting someone else. Although these sound good, at the end of the day it's still a lie.
But regardless if we think her lie is an exception to the rule, we need to remember that Rahab is commended for her faith, not her ethics. It's still true that she had faith when she made the decision to hide the spies. She was still risking her life. So, God chose to highlight her act of faith despite her other actions.
Plus, God didn't command Rahab to lie in order to help the spies but that's what she did. And it's understandable. She did what seemed like the best way to her to protect them. Remember-she's new to the faith. I'm sure honesty and integrity were not the priorities of everyday life in the unbelieving city of Jericho.
Rahab was probably accustomed to lying since she ran a house of ill-repute she probably had angry wives stopping by all the time asking if their husbands were there. In fact, it's suggested that that's why she had the flax on the roof and the long rope used to let the spies down from the window. These things had already been used to hide and allow adulterous husbands to escape.
But none of this changes the fact that Rahab had faith. We don't know Rahab's whole story. We don't know how she ended up in the position we find her in. I'm sure she didn't plan for this; it's not like this was her aspiration when she was a little girl.
There's no mention of there being a husband so it's possible she was a widow and she may have turned to the world's oldest profession to make ends meet. Sure, there were probably other ways but she chose the easiest way. Not that anything justifies sin but we need to be careful to not judge a person based on their current reality when we don't know their story.
While the rest of the city saw Rahab the prostitute, God saw her in a different light. Conversation between Satan and God, "You know what she is, right? A prostitute. You're aware of some of the disgusting things she's done, right?" "I know everything. I know what she's done but I also know who she is. I know the condition of her heart. To me she is not a disgusting harlot she is a precious treasure." Oscar Wilde, “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” Rahab had a sordid past but because of her faith she had a beautiful future.
3) The pledge.
Joshua 2:8-15, "Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, “I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 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. When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death.”
“Our lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land.” So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall."
So Rahab makes her plea and the spies accept it under the condition that she didn't turn on them. Later in the text the spies instructed Rahab to tie a scarlet cord around her window so that when they came back they would see the cord and spare her and her family.
The passage starts out with Rahab's confession of faith. The prostitute obviously had a change of heart by the time the spies came. She came to believe in the one, true God and believed to the point of being willing to risk her and her family's life.
What's interesting about the sequence of events is that Rahab acted on her faith before there was a promise. She hid and protected the spies before she had spoken to them about ensuring her family's safety. She was willing to risk exposure despite not having any assurance of safety. Such was her devotion to the God she barely knew.
And even after the agreement she still had to exhibit faith that they would follow through on it. Rahab trusted that she would be protected and spared from death. She put her and her family's fate in these stranger's hands. I'm sure, living in a corrupt place along with working in her profession, she had come across countless people who have promised her things only to be let down and betrayed. Had she ever known honesty and loyalty from anyone outside her family?
Such was her faith that she was willing to trust these strangers; not because they had honest faces but because these strangers represented the God who she came to believe in and place her trust in. Sometimes our faith in God will mean we need to trust others. That's the vulnerability we place ourselves in because of what God wants us to do. But it's not really the person I'm placing my trust in so much as it is God.
There's something interesting about this whole encounter that Max Lucado points out in his book, Glory Days. He states that when God commissioned Joshua to send the spies it wasn't really to check out the land-it was to connect with Rahab. Isn't that just like God to do something like that? A purpose beyond what is visible. Unbeknownst to everyone, Rahab's faith prompted God's encounter with the spies so she and her family could be rescued. God sees and rewards our faith.
4) Rahab was spared.
The spies go back to camp and Joshua and the troops march and blow their horns and the walls came tumbling down. But not before the spies came through on their promise to Rahab and her family.
Joshua 6:22-25, "Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.
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. But 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."
Rahab was spared. She hung a scarlet cord outside her window signifying where she was so that the troops wouldn't storm her house. Similar to the Israelites putting the scarlet blood over the doorposts so that the angel of death would pass over their house. As the scarlet cord spared Rahab and her family from being destroyed and as the blood over the door frame saved the Israelites from the angel of death so does the blood of Christ do the same for us.
When God revealed himself to Rahab she had two choices-reject him like the rest of Jericho did or believe in him which is what she did. And we saw that the people's rejection resulted in being destroyed while faith resulted in salvation. It's no different for us.
We have to make a choice also. We can reject Christ, like most people do, and be destroyed or we can believe and be saved. The end came for Jericho and the end is coming for the world. And if we don't attach the scarlet cord, if we don't cover ourselves with the blood of the lamb we will not escape. We need to be like Rahab and choose correctly.
"To this day". Rahab was spared and lived as an Israelite. She married an Israelite, Salmon, and she bore Boaz who was the father of Jesse who was the father of David...whose descendant was Jesus. In the genealogy of Jesus, you will find Rahab's name in Matthew 1:5. Rahab is an ancestor of none other than Jesus himself.
Who would ever have thought that Rahab, the former prostitute, would be included in the bloodline of Jesus! The genealogy of Jesus, mention in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11, referenced by James as an example of righteousness and active faith. Pretty good resume for a former prostitute, wouldn't you say?
Rahab is a testimony that it doesn't matter who you are or what you've done-God wants you and he wants to do great things through you. And all it takes to start on that road is faith. Rahab is no more special than you or I. So don't ever think that you couldn't have a great future too. No matter what your undesirable track record looks like, you are not beyond hope; the Lord's arm is not too short to save no matter how far away you think you are from him. Come to him in faith.
5) Yes, even Rahab.
James 2:24-25, "You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. 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?"
In this passage James highlights that saving faith is active faith. That's what Rahab possessed. Rahab was put to a major test so soon after putting her faith in God. This shows that as soon as we have faith we have the ability to pass tests; even big ones.
The world identifies Rahab as a prostitute but God has identified her as righteous. I believe the only reason she is listed as a prostitute in scripture is not to demean her but to provide contrast and hope for those who would follow her. To know that even someone like Rahab can have a change of heart and be declared righteous.
There are some NT equivalents to this. In Luke 7 Jesus was at the home of a Pharisee and it says a woman who had lived a sinful life came in and she was weeping and wetting Jesus' feet with her tears so she began to dry his feet with her hair. The Pharisee whispered, 'if he were really a prophet he would know what kind of woman is touching him'. Knowing this, Jesus teaches him and everyone else there a lesson; explaining that her actions showed love while the religious leader's did not.
In John 4 Jesus encountered the woman at the well. She was not a woman of good standing in the community; which is why she went to the well in the middle of the day instead of the morning like the other women-she avoided having to endure the looks and comments she would receive because she had been married five times and a currently had a live in boyfriend. Yet Jesus ministered to her and told her where she could find living water.
God is all about reaching those whom the world has shunned. Are you here today putting yourself in the category of Rahab? Have you taken on the identity of what you've done? Have you taken on the identity of what others have said you are? Take heart! God loves you and he wants you to be free. You are forgivable, you are worthy because of what Christ has done for you to make you worthy.
Rahab the prostitute was a key figure in Israel being successful in overcoming Jericho. God is in the business of turning people of ill repute into people of righteousness. God is in the business of taking shunned, insignificant people and using them to accomplish great things for him. Rahab had no future as a prostitute; but she had a bright one as a believer.
While it may be true that you've done some bad things, you are no different than any of the rest of us. And perhaps you haven't done very much with your life up to this point but now you have an opportunity to put all that behind you when you decide to live for Jesus.
Perhaps there's not a lot of people who believe in you but God does because he knows what you're capable of if you come to him. It's time to leave your old life behind and come find a new, celebrated life in Jesus. Rahab was a changed woman. She didn't continue in her old lifestyle; she replaced it with a new, sanctified one.
Spurgeon commented, "You cannot have faith, and yet live in sin. To believe is to be holy. The two things must go together. That faith is a dead faith, a corrupt faith, a rotten faith, which lives in sin that grace may abound. Rahab was a sanctified woman.”
When we come to Christ we leave the old behind and adopt the new. We may still struggle with detachment from the old but we have made the commitment to walk in newness of life. But it takes faith to become convinced-convinced that God loves you despite what you've done, convinced that you can overcome despite the odds; convinced that you can change and become more than what you are today. It takes faith.
