“Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, ‘Go, view the land, especially Jericho.’ And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, ‘Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.’ Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, ‘Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.’ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, ‘True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.’ But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. And the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out.” [1]
During my days of service before the Lord in the City of San Francisco, the congregation experienced numerous events that caused a stir. For instance, I recall the day Patty Hearst was captured near our church building. We realized that we had visited that house, knocking on the door and inviting those living there to join us in worship. As you can imagine, her capture occasioned quite a disturbance.
On another occasion, I was stunned when informed of the robbery of one of the ladies as she left a service one Sunday morning. A woman grabbed our parishioner’s handbag which she had slung on her shoulder. When Sylvia didn’t surrender the bag, the woman began to beat her in the face with a handgun until the strap broke on the bag. The woman jumped into a waiting car and the male driver took the handgun from her. Sylvia’s husband, one of my best friends in the city, rushed to the driver’s side of the car and reached in to grab the keys. The driver shoved the gun into Tony’s face and pulled the trigger. Fortunately, the gun misfired, and Tony was spared injury or death.
There was the day a motley group attempted to take over the service to announce that the New Jerusalem would soon be descending to St. Cloud, Minnesota. The message they attempted to announce on that day was that we’d all have to move there if we wished to be part of the celestial city. The pastor indicated to the organist that she should loudly play a lively hymn. The congregation stood and began to sing loudly while the ushers moved to the front of the auditorium and escorted the people disrupting the service from the building. Actually, there was no one particularly interested in moving to St. Cloud, Minnesota, even if the New Jerusalem was soon to descend somewhere near there.
One event, however, stands out in my memory. It was the attempted kidnapping of a child from the church nursery during a worship service. A prostitute had been saved and united with the church. She had a child, a product of one of her multiplied trysts. This woman was transformed by the grace of God, and she was an example of the believer despite a sordid past. For some months she had demonstrated grace and beauty as she sought to learn of the things of Christ and to put all she was learning into practise.
During one Sunday service, there was a loud disturbance in the foyer area, just down the stairs and outside the main auditorium. The ushers for the congregation were chosen for their ability to respond to disturbances quickly, and most of them were large men. In addition to being godly and willing to serve others, being muscular and fearless was certainly an advantage for those selected to fill that position. Several of the ushers rushed down the stairs and confronted a man who was attempting to force his way into the nursery. He had been the pimp for this woman who had been saved and delivered from her past. That evil man thought that by kidnapping her child he could force her back into his control where he could profit off her body. His scheme didn’t work out.
I have often thought of this woman, marvelling at the transformation in her life when the Spirit of God had taken up residence. Once, she had been a prostitute. Then she came to faith in the Risen Son of God, and the Spirit of Christ transformed her life. Now, she served Christ by working in the nursery and she shared in teaching young girls in the Sunday School. God had performed a gracious work in her life, and the reality of the Word was evident in her life. She was a living example of ROMANS 12:1-2. You will recall that Paul wrote, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Our study today introduces a woman who was a prostitute. Yet, God worked in her life and she became one of the ancestors of Jesus of Nazareth Who is the Messiah. God makes room for misfits, even receiving prostitutes and transforming their lives.
A BAD START FOR A GOOD WOMAN — Despite the efforts of what has been identified as the “cancel culture,” past indiscretions are not necessarily detrimental and disqualifying for all time. To be certain, evil acts can indelibly stain a life. However, the manner in which one conducts life in recent history tells us more about the person than singular poor choices from the past. Your past need not define who you are.
Chuck Colson was recognized as a champion of the Faith. He never hid the fact that he had a less than stellar history of judicial purity. His efforts at getting the President for whom he worked re-elected meant that Colson would spend time in a federal prison. However, that time in prison became the catalyst for bringing him to faith in the Risen Son of God. Colson invested the remaining years of his life as an advocate for the incarcerated. He laboured tirelessly to bring men and women to faith and give them opportunity to re-establish themselves as productive citizens. Past errors, past choices, need not mar the life of an individual.
Rahab was a woman who made a bad choice early in life—she was a prostitute. At least by community standards in this present day, her occupational choice was seriously flawed. Perhaps the decision to be a prostitute in that ancient Canaanite culture may not have been such a questionable occupation. One scholar has noted, “In Canaanite culture, extramarital relationships in connection with the fertility cult were common. Through sacral prostitution the harlot and her lover became consecrated individuals.” [2]
It is interesting that prostitution is not specifically condemned in the Old Testament. Neither are prostitutes identified as law breakers. Prostitutes were common throughout Palestine and the ancient Near East. Using Scripture as a resource, we discover that prostitutes would dress enticingly and they frequented public places, apparently seeking to lure their customers to the houses of their enterprise. [3]
Nevertheless, prostitution, whoredom, harlotry, is condemned as disgraceful. Prostitutes were seen as deceitful women, and their actions were seen as disgraceful. Anyone born of an adulterous relationship was debarred from entering the assembly of the LORD. I base this on what Moses, in Deuteronomy, has written, “No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the LORD. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD” [DEUTERONOMY 23:2].
A priest was proscribed from marrying a prostitute. The Law definitely proscribes all such marriages. Scripture commands, “[The sons of Aaron] shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy. And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.
“The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes. He shall not go in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother. He shall not go out of the sanctuary, lest he profane the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am the LORD. And he shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry” [LEVITICUS 21:7-14a].
To iterate, prostitution was not specifically proscribed in Israel, but prostitution was definitely looked down upon. It is fair to say that the prostitute was tolerated in ancient societies, but the trade was definitely stigmatized. In making this assertion, I must caution that cultic prostitution was specifically prohibited, in contradistinction to the practise of the common prostitute. The difference between a prostitute and a cult prostitute appears to be that a prostitute offered sex for money—she offered a dalliance, whereas a cult prostitute used sex as an accoutrement to worship of the gods. So long as the prostitute did not commit adultery, she did not violate the law. She was, however, considered as much lower in social standing that others, a view that would continue until the days of the New Testament were past.
God charged, through Moses, “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the LORD your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God” [DEUTERONOMY 23:17-18]. It is likely that the reasoning behind this prohibition was because of the close association between idolatry and sexual immorality. Cult prostitutes were inevitably attempting to induce “gods” to mimic their actions by sending rain, or by granting abundant crops. Consequently, throughout the writings comprising our Scriptures, idolatry is condemned as spiritual prostitution for the people of God.
It should be noted that although prostitutes were looked down upon, these women upon whom society frowned were people receiving Jesus’ mercy. Jesus treated all people with courtesy, save for those who were combative and obstreperous. And simply showing consideration to a woman in that day was a courageous act. Women were not valued as were men. The Tosephta reveals the attitude concerning women that was current. “Rabbi Judah says: There are three Benedictions which one must say every day: Blessed be He who did not make me a Gentile; Blessed be He who did not make me a woman; Blessed be He who did not make me an uneducated man. Blessed be He who did not make me a Gentile. All the nations are as nothing before Him. Blessed be He who did not make me a woman, for a woman is under no obligation to keep the commandments. Blessed be He who did not make me an uneducated person, for no uneducated person fears sin.” [4]
In tractate Sanhedrin of the Babylonian Talmud, one group of rabbis teaches, “A daughter is a vain treasure to her father: through anxiety on her account, he cannot sleep at night. As a minor, lest she be seduced; in her majority, lest she play the harlot; as an adult, lest she be not married; if she marries, lest she bear no children; if she grows old, lest she engage in witchcraft! But the rabbis have said the same: The world cannot exist without males and females; happy is he whose children are males, and woe to him whose children are females.” [5]
Perhaps you will recall a parable Jesus told. Jesus challenged the chief priests and the elders, saying, “‘What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” And he answered, “I will not,” but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, “I go, sir,” but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first’” [MATTHEW 21:28-31a].
How it must have stung these proud religious leaders when Jesus provided the application for the parable He had just told: “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you” [MATTHEW 21:31b]. They were lower than tax collectors and prostitutes! All their self-righteous deeds meant nothing to the Son of God, and He just informed them that the Father was unimpressed with their religious efforts!
In the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus has the elder brother saying, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him” [LUKE 15:29-30]! The younger brother did squander what the father gave him on prostitutes; but the focus of the father is on the return of his son! He is not focused on what he did. Just so, our Heavenly Father is focused on our return and not on what we have wasted in the past. Stop living in the past! Focus on the new relationship that you now enjoy with the Father!
Notice the difference between the response to the sexually promiscuous under the Old Covenant and as such people meet Jesus. Under the Law, adulterers were to be killed. Though prostitution wasn’t specifically proscribed, one who was an adulterer was to be stoned. The Law commanded swift application of justice for sexual infidelity. According to the Law, “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death” [LEVITICUS 20:10].
If a young woman who was betrothed be found to have had sexual intercourse, she was to die. “If … evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst” [DEUTERONOMY 22:20-21]. There was no appeal, no explanation; sentence was to be applied swiftly and without mercy. Under the Law of Moses, justice was demanded.
Notice Jesus’ response on one occasion when a woman was dragged before Him as the religious leaders demanded that He respond to what they had found. “The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?’ This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more’” [JOHN 8:3-11].
Jesus doesn’t dispute that this woman violated the moral law. However, He takes her punishment upon Himself when He goes to the cross. Forgiveness takes the place of the strict demand for civil punishment. Jesus assumed within Himself the punishment justice demanded because of her sin. This woman received imputed righteousness, purity through Christ as He removed the penalty of sin. And that is true for each one of us, if we are willing to receive His sacrifice because of our brokenness. I’m not suggesting that we should not promote and value sexual purity; I am, however, declaring that whatever your past, whatever dark sins have stained your life in the past, Christ has taken those sins upon Himself and He now offers purity where impurity once prevailed.
I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but I do want to stress this vital point. Listen to the Word of God as presented by the Apostle when writing the Corinthian Christians. “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” [1 CORINTHIANS 6:9-11].
Whatever you once were no longer prevails in Christ. For the twice-born child of God, the new reality is described thusly: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” [2 CORINTHIANS 5:17].
We don’t know the particulars of how Rahab might have plied her trade, and it isn’t essential that know how she conducted her sordid craft. From brief vignettes provided in the Word of God, we note that it is possible that prostitutes identified themselves with distinctive marks on their forehead [see JEREMIAH 3:3] or on their breasts [see HOSEA 2:2]. They might go to public places where they sought to attract attention by their clothing, jewelry, or makeup [see JEREMIAH 4:30; EZEKIEL 23:40; REVELATION 17:4]. The Proverbs appears to indicate that they were known for a quick wit witnessed through verbal abilities [see PROVERBS 2:16]. Isaiah seems to associate prostitutes with sweet music [see ISAIAH 23:16]. Brothels, which also served as taverns and inns, were also known in that ancient world. The text would support the idea that Rahab’s house may have been a brothel. What is important for our study is to realize that Rahab was a prostitute. Therefore, she would not have been someone whom the Jewish people esteemed. She would be looked down upon and her life choices would be despised.
A WISE CHOICE AT A CRITICAL TIME — Two spies were dispatched by Joshua to gather intelligence about the land Israel was about to enter. They were to be especially attentive to the city of Jericho. They were strangers, so they needed some way to disguise their mission. They knew enough about the culture of the Canaanites that they chose to go to the inn, the brothel, that Rahab operated. It would not be unusual for travellers to go to such an establishment, and it wouldn’t be unusual for locals to frequent the place.
However, the city was on high alert. Leaders knew that Israel had crossed the Jordan. Even then, the invaders were mere kilometers away from the city, and that would be problematic for the populace. They had heard the story of how the LORD had dried up the Red Sea. They had heard how Israel crossed over and how the Egyptians, attempting to make the same crossing were destroyed. That was terrifying to the people. Perhaps even more terrifying was the knowledge of what Israel had done to Sihon and Og, two kings of the Amorites.
Do you recall that battle? Here is the biblical account. “Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, ‘Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into field or vineyard. We will not drink the water of a well. We will go by the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.’ But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. He gathered all his people together and went out against Israel to the wilderness and came to Jahaz and fought against Israel. And Israel defeated him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as to the Ammonites, for the border of the Ammonites was strong. And Israel took all these cities, and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages. For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon” [NUMBERS 21:21-26].
The battle was joined. Sihon was determined that he would not permit Israel to pass through his country. He gathered allies to join him to push back against what he saw as invaders. But it was a vain effort. The LORD fought for Israel, as He had when the people were compelled to fight Amalek. In that instance, we read, “Joshua … fought with Amalek… And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword” [EXODUS 17:10, 13]. It was a victory over the enemies of Israel because the LORD had fought for Israel.
When Israel defeated Sihon and Og, musicians wrote a ballad that was sung in commemoration of the defeat.
“Come to Heshbon, let it be built;
let the city of Sihon be established.
For fire came out from Heshbon,
flame from the city of Sihon.
It devoured Ar of Moab,
and swallowed the heights of the Arnon.
Woe to you, O Moab!
You are undone, O people of Chemosh!
He has made his sons fugitives,
and his daughters captives,
to an Amorite king, Sihon.
So we overthrew them;
Heshbon, as far as Dibon, perished;
and we laid waste as far as Nophah;
fire spread as far as Medeba.”
[NUMBERS 21:27-30]
The song became a hit. It was sung by the people of Israel, and it was known even among those peoples who stood opposed to Israel. The song spoke of God’s intervention for His people and presented a warning to those who opposed God’s people. And Israel moved relentlessly toward the land the LORD was giving them. We read, “Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites. And Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there. Then they turned and went up by the way to Bashan. And Og the king of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. But the LORD said to Moses, ‘Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people, and his land. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.’ So they defeated him and his sons and all his people, until he had no survivor left. And they possessed his land” [NUMBERS 21:31-35].
Thus, the spies came into the inn which Rahab ran. But they had been seen! Therefore, we read, “It was told to the king of Jericho, ‘Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.’ Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, ‘Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.’ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, ‘True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.’ But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. And the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out” [JOSHUA 2:2-7]. Rahab made a decision. She misdirected those sent to capture the spies. She was casting her lot with Israel. She determined that she would rather surrender her position as an inhabitant of Jericho in order to be counted as one of the people of God.
Her interaction with the spies, especially the choice she made, reveals that Rahab was a woman capable of making decisions quickly. She was able to analyze what lay before her and make the right choice. She could set aside her emotions and sift through a mountain of data in order to do what was best. Her interaction with these spies is detailed as follow. “Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, ‘I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.’ And the men said to her, ‘Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the LORD gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.’
“Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall. And she said to them, ‘Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward you may go your way.’ The men said to her, ‘We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear.’ And she said, ‘According to your words, so be it.’ Then she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
“They departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned, and the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing. Then the two men returned. They came down from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they told him all that had happened to them. And they said to Joshua, ‘Truly the LORD has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us’” [JOSHUA 2:8-24].
Something that may be overlooked is the fact that in honouring the people of God, which Rahab did when she hid the spies, sparing their lives, she honoured the LORD Himself. The principle that is demonstrated in this information is that when we honour the people of God, when we honour the congregation of the righteous, we honour the Lord. To love the Bride of Christ is to love Christ Himself. It is impossible to love the Risen Saviour if we don’t love those whom He has redeemed.
Charles Shultz portrayed Linus as saying, “I love people… It’s mankind I can’t stand.” There appear to be a lot of people who claim, “I love the church… It’s Christians I can’t stand.” They won’t share in the life of the assembly because there are too many hypocrites. I always say, “Come on and join us; we have room for one more.”
Many get offended because someone didn’t give them the strokes they thought they deserved, so they’ll just teach that church by not attending services any longer. Do such aggrieved souls cease going to their family physician because a doctor in the clinic made a misdiagnosis once? Do they cease going to their barber because she gave a lousy haircut on one occasion? Do they cease using the services of the bank because the bank rejected a deposit once? People have such silly excuses for why they won’t participate in the life of the church, but they can’t find a single reason for their obstreperous behaviour. Never forget that those who love Christ love His church. If you do not honour the church, you will not honour the Saviour who purchased her with His blood.
GOD’S BLESSING FOR HONOURING HIM — When Israel at last arrived at Jericho, Joshua gave specific orders to protect Rahab and her family. We read in Scripture, “To the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, ‘Go into the prostitute’s house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, as you swore to her.’ So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel. And they burned the city with fire, and everything in it. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho” [JOSHUA 6:22-25].
Rahab preserved her life and the life of those who were nearest to her. By doing this, she was richly blessed by the God of Israel. Rahab is listed among those who are honoured in the great hall of faith penned in the Letter to Hebrew Christians. There we read, “By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies” [HEBREWS 11:31].
James, the half-brother of our Lord, likewise points to Rahab as an example of faith put into practise when he writes, “Was not … Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way” [JAMES 2:25]?
There is another reference to Rahab that reveals the grace of God as He honoured her for her actions. The Gospel of Matthew opens with a genealogy of Jesus. I won’t read the entire genealogy, but I do want to read some of the opening verses. “Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king” [MATTHEW 1:2-6a].
Here we see that Rahab, this erstwhile prostitute, was honoured by being included among the forebears of Jesus of Nazareth. Rahab was the mother of Boaz, the great-grandfather of David, King of Israel. There are three women listed in the lineage of Jesus the Messiah. Each of the three were women who would be looked down upon because of past identity or past indiscretion, and especially in a patriarchal society. And yet, each is included in the lineage of Jesus the Christ. The point that is being made is something that should encourage each of us. Each of these women were flawed, and God chose not simply to use them, but He chose to honour them.
Here is the point that we should take from this—what you may have done at some point in the past does not identify you. Past failure does not indelibly mark you when you come to faith in the Risen Saviour. Listen to the Apostle Paul as he addresses this very issue. “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” [1 CORINTHIANS 6:9-11].
Past sexual indiscretion, idolatry, adultery, homosexuality, theft, greed, drunkenness, slander and gossip, extortion and swindling are each grave sins. Any of these will exclude an individual from the Kingdom of God. In fact, I dare say that some of these sins are represented in the past for people who share this service. I know for a fact that the preacher can lay claim to some of these awful sins against God. Here is what is important to know and to remember, however. What you once were does not define who you are in Christ. Thus, for each one who has faith in the Risen Son of God, we can announce that they are now Christians! Isn’t that what Paul says when he says of those to whom he wrote, “And such were some of you?” Here is the glorious truth for the redeemed of God: “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Rahab was a prostitute, a whore. However, at a critical point in her life, she cast her lot with the people of God. It was not choosing to be counted among the Hebrews that made her accepted by the Lord GOD—it was when she believed that God was her God. It was when Rahab chose God as the One worthy of her faith, worthy of her worship, worthy of her service. And she put her faith into action by jeopardizing her life by protecting those whom God had dispatched into her city.
In a similar way, it is not in joining the church that one is saved. Being baptized will only make you a wet sinner if there is no faith before you identify with Christ. Partaking of the Communion meal may put food in your belly, but it will not save you. Salvation is the gift of God to those who believe that Jesus died because of their sin and raised for their justification. As the Apostle testifies, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [ROMANS 10:13]. When one has believed the message of life, when one has received the Son of God as Master over life, then that one should be baptized. Baptism has meaning for those who are twice-born. After one has been baptized, then the Communion Meal becomes a wonderful testimony of confidence in the Son of God who redeems the life of His people.
The message is a call to faith in the Son of God. It is a call for all who hear to believe the message of salvation offered in Christ the Lord. The message is a call for those who believe to identify with the Risen Saviour as Lord over that person’s life. The message is a call for those who have believed and who have also been baptized to come walk with us who confess our faith that Jesus is Master over life. Don’t allow what you may have been or what you may have done in the past keep you from walking with Christ now. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] S. Erlandsson, “?????,” ed. G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren, trans. David E. Green, Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.1980) 101
[3] Allen C. Myers, “Harlot” (art.), The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI 1987) 462
[4] Tractate Berakoth, “Benedictions,” Mishna and Tosephta, trans. A. Lukyn Williams (The MacMillian Co., New York 1921) 84, section vii, 18; cited by Matthew Rueger, Sexual Morality in a Christless World (Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO 2016)
[5] Rabbi Isidore Epstein, ed., “Sanhedrin 100b,” trans. H. Freedman, in Soncino Hebrew/English Babylonian Talmud (Jew’s College online ed.,” www.come-andhear.com/sanhedrin/sanhedrin¬_100.html, accessed 14 July 2020
