If you have your Bibles with you and you would like to follow along, we will be looking at the book of Joshua 2. That is an Old Testament book. If you wanted to use the red pew Bibles, the story can be found on page 208. First question that we have. Does anyone recognize the name Diana Nyad? A few people. In case you don’t know, Diana Nyad is a 64-year-old long-distance swimmer. Last week, she made it into the record books by accomplishing an amazing feat. She basically swam 110 miles from Havana, Cuba to Key West, FL, which is an amazing thing because those waters are really shark infested and jellyfish infested. It was an amazing feat. In case you didn’t see it on the news, I found a clip from ESPN Sports Science that helps put the whole feat in proper perspective. (Clip shown here.)
Today, what we are going to do is begin a new series that I call “Extraordinary People”. What we are going to do over the next few months is look in the Bible at some of the men and women in the Old and the New Testament who would be considered extraordinary people simply because of their faith in God and their willingness to act on that faith in an amazing way. Today, we are going to look at an Old Testament person by the name of Rahab. Does anybody know the name Rahab? A little bit more than knew Diana Nyad. Rahab was a lady that lived about 1500 B.C. which is 1500 years before Christ walked the earth. She was what some would say a lady of the evening. Others would maybe call her a harlot. What the Bible chooses to do is call her by her trade name, a prostitute. Rahab was a prostitute. Although she was a prostitute, her occupation as we will see did not define her. Her identity was tied into the fact that she was a woman of great faith and a faith that acted out in very concrete and practical ways. Consequently, she has been given a lot of press in both the Old and the New Testament, which means that she is held with high regards. She is considered an extraordinary person in both Jewish and Christian history. That is what we are going to look at today. We are going to look at the story of Rahab.
First a little bit of background in this book of Joshua. In Joshua 1, you see it opens up by talking about the idea that Moses had died and his sidekick Joshua was going to be leading the people into the Promised Land. Into the land of milk and honey. Into the land that had been promised by their forefathers. Into what we know today as pretty much Israel. That is what we are talking about here. Joshua is ready to lead the people into the Promised Land. God basically says we are going to give you every bit of land and even encourages them to be aggressive when they go into the land. In other words, when you enter into the land of the Canaanites, don’t take any prisoners. Kill people. Evict them. Take their stuff. Whatever you need to do to get them out of there and for you to then set up God’s rule and reign in that area. I know some people, especially if you read the Old Testament, say God looks like a mean God to go in there with such vengeance. To go in there and destroy innocent people. You have to remember that the Canaanites were an evil people. It was a very evil culture. It would be considered a cesspool of evil both in human and demonic form. It was a country known for its idol worship and not just any old idol worship. Idol worship that was tied to sexual immorality. Idol worship that was even tied to things such as infant sacrifice where infants were placed on the altar as a sacrifice to a god. Canaan was really a cesspool of evil. It was a place that was ripe for God’s army to come in and basically get rid of them and set up God’s rule and reign. What we have in chapter 1 is Joshua and his people camped out on the River Jordan on the east side of the River Jordan across from Jericho. Just to put it in modern perspective, I have a map here of basically the Middle East. Syria has been in the news lately. You have Syria up here and then down about here would be Jericho. Here is the Jordan River. Here is the Dead Sea. Basically, what you have is they are camped out about here ready to cross the Jordan into the city of Jericho. An interesting side note about this; the distance between Damascus where a lot of the fighting is happening today and Jerusalem is only about 135 miles. Really not much farther than Diana Nyad’s swam. It is not that great of a distance, which is one more reason that we need to continue to pray for the nation of Israel. I guarantee in a matter of time, they are going to be affected by what is going on in Syria.
Anyway, that is the situation here. You have this group of Israelites led by Joshua camped out on the east side of the Jordan. Joshua has been given his marching orders by God. In the first chapter God says “Be strong and courageous.” Go in there and take the city. Don’t be afraid even though it is highly fortified. Even though it has 6-foot walls circling the city. Go in. Be strong and be courageous. Go in there. That is the opening chapter 1. We also find at the end of the chapter that for some reason Joshua decides to engage in some sort of a warfare-type intelligence. He decides to send two spies into the area. He decides to send two unnamed spies into the area to kind of check out what is going on in the area and to try to get a gauge for the emotional state of the people and really how well they are armed. For some reason, we don’t know why, they end up at the house of the prostitute Rahab. That is where we are going to pick up our story today, chapter 2 of the book of Joshua. I am going to read from Chapter 2:1 all the way down to verse 24 and then I will go back and highlight a few things. Again we are reading from the New International Version. (Scripture read here.)
Hopefully, you can see from that passage that Rahab was pretty much an extraordinary woman. In case you can’t see it from that passage, I wanted to spend the remaining minutes unpacking it a little bit and help you consider why she would be considered an extraordinary woman. First of all, I want to think again about her character. She was a prostitute. In those days, there were basically several categories of prostitute. Several people could be called prostitute based on a number of things. First of all, you had people that were just a little bit too free with their sexuality. They would be called prostitutes. But you also had a professional temple-working prostitute. Prostitutes that were called temple prostitutes because they worked inside the temple of the gods and the goddesses. They worked inside of there and they provided services within those particular temple cults, those temple religions that were geared towards pleasing the gods and the goddesses. They especially found in what would be called the fertility cults. The cults that were responsible to help ensure that there was a good crop that particular year. They were a regular feature in the temples. As it is detestable to us to think about, it was definitely detestable to the Jewish culture, to the Hebrews. In fact, so detestable that they had a law in the book of Leviticus that said basically if anybody becomes a temple prostitute, they should be burned. Leviticus 21:9 says “If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by becoming a temple prostitute, she disgraces her father; she must be burned in the fire.” They thought this was detestable. This woman needed to be burned in the fire. The good news is scholars do not believe that Rahab was a temple prostitute. She was probably the third type of prostitute, which is basically the type of prostitute we think of. Someone who is just willing to sell her services to any man who happens to show up at the door. That is the type of prostitute that we think of. Even though she was an ordinary everyday type of prostitute, you have to remember she was also probably a pagan, which means she too followed false gods, which means she probably had her own little set up of idols in her house or she regularly attended the temples to sacrifice to the gods and the goddesses out there. In the Jewish mind, she was detestable because of three things. She had three strikes against her. Number one, she was a woman, and if you are familiar with the Old Testament, back then they treated woman like they treated livestock. As we already mentioned she was a prostitute, so she would be seen as very unclean. Again, she was also considered a pagan, someone who worshiped foreign gods. So she had three strikes against her. No respectable Jewish man would go near her. That leaves the question then why were these two spies at the house of Rahab?
There are a number of reasons. Some of you may be thinking the obvious. Maybe they were there to engage in the services that she had to offer. But the more likely answer is they figured out that is a pretty good hiding place. Prostitution was very common back then so seeing strange men coming and going from a prostitute’s house throughout the wee hours of the morning would not be seen as uncommon. They probably saw that as a pretty good place to hide out. Even if that was the rationale, we know that the rationale was a little bit faulty because we see right at the beginning in chapter 2 that the king somehow figured out that they were in that house. What did he do? He sent his messenger to get the two spies out of the house so they could try them or execute them or whatever he was going to do. What we find is that Rahab resisted and she hid those two spies. Not only did she hide the spies, which would have been a violation against the law, she actually lied about it. She didn’t just lie once. She didn’t lie twice. She basically lied three times. When she was questioned by the messenger, “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.’” Buried in this passage you can count three very clear lies. She said I don’t know where they had come from. By that time, she knew exactly that they came from the other side of the Jordan in the camp of the Israel Army. Then she said when the gate closed, the men left. No they didn’t. They were right there. They were hiding under the flax. Then she said I don’t know which way they went. Sure she did. She knew they were up on the roof. She lied three times.
This is the type of passage that I think causes some problem in Bible study groups. If we are honest with ourselves and we come across this passage, everybody says Rahab was a liar. If you are a liar, how could God honor a liar? Some people would say this is an extreme situation that justified lying. Others would say lying is never justified. Lying just demonstrates a lack of faith or whatever it is. To argue about that is basically to miss the point here. The point is again that she is a person of really low character. Yes, she is a liar, big deal. She is a prostitute. And also she is a pagan worshiper, which means she has probably violated every law on the books of the Jews. So what does it matter that she is a liar? To me this just highlights the fact that she was indeed an extraordinary woman. Because any ordinary run-of-the-mill prostitute would probably not be so generous to the two spies. During that time, I suspect that the woman that worked in the brothels were very guarded, very suspicious, very nervous, very just sensitive to anybody who came to the house. If two guys show up and they are not willing to pay for the services, an ordinary, everyday prostitute probably would have said I can make some money here if I turn these guys in to the messenger. Do you get that? But she didn’t do that did she? Instead, she chose to hide the spies, which gave evidence that she had a brave heart. It gave evidence of a real solid bravery. Not only that, as we will see, it also gave evidence that she had a heart that was turning away from her sin, turning away from her past life, and moving towards God. She had a brave heart evidenced by the fact that if the messenger had found out that she had lied and that she had hidden the spies, she probably would have been executed on the spot. Her and her entire family. She had a very brave heart. Really, again, what she had based on the conversation that she had on the rooftop with the two spies, she not only had a brave heart, she had a heart that seemed like it was going through something. It seemed like it was beginning to move closer towards the true God. You see, in the conversation on the roof, she was trying to explain how the people in Jericho or how her family felt when they had heard that the Israelites were going to invade the city. She goes on to say “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 earth below.” The key part of this passage is that last part that is highlighted in red. “For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.” This would be classified in modern terms as really a statement of faith. A statement of new faith. A statement of faith that would often come in the context of a conversion.
We think of a conversion as somebody turning from one religion to another religion. Somebody turning from Jehovah Witness to Christian. That is a major transition. As a side note, I have a brother-in-law who has spent 20 years as a Jehovah Witness and I believe that he is in a cult. If you are in your prayer time and if you are praying for somebody, pray for my brother-in-law. His name actually is Chuck also and he needs your prayer because he is involved in a cult and I pray for his conversion into Christianity. That is how we think of a conversion. We also think of a conversion in terms of I have accepted Jesus Christ into my heart. That would be a moment of conversion. We have to realize, back in that time, 1500 B.C., Jesus wasn’t even on the people’s radars whatsoever. They weren’t thinking in those terms. They were thinking in terms about switching gods and that sort of thing. Back then, they had multiple gods. All sorts of gods. They could quickly jump around from different gods based upon their needs on any particular moment in time. They are used to converting between gods but here in the Bible at least, when it mentions conversion, it is talking about converting from one particular thing over to the one true God. The God of the Jews. The God of the universe. The God who is God in heaven above and the earth below. She was having a major change of heart. Like all good conversions, like all good moves in faith, that conversion is demonstrated by a real practical action. As I have said before, your belief should affect your behavior. In her case, it did affect her behavior. She demonstrated that her faith, whatever that faith was that was moving inside of her, was the real deal because she was willing to risk her life and the lives of her family to follow this new God.
Really what was going on here is she was coupling faith plus works. Faith and works. Some of you are familiar with the book of James. The book of James is all about faith and works. James spends a good portion of his book arguing the point that you can’t have faith without having some associated works, some sort of service or some sort of kind activity. Whatever it is. Some sort of a response to God. He actually used Abraham as the model of faith. Someone who was willing to sacrifice his own son Isaac as a model of righteousness, as a model of faith. Right after Abraham, you know who he used, the prostitute Rahab. He goes on to say in James 2:25 “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? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” This is an amazing thing that makes Rahab look extraordinary. What James is doing is putting Rahab, the prostitute, on the same level as Abraham, the patriarch of the Jewish people. He is putting them on equal level, equal relationship with God. Calling them both righteous and that has never happened in all of history. James is basically writing a letter and makes note of Rahab’s activity 1500 years earlier and puts it in his letter and uses her as an example. I suspect back then at the time of Rahab, she was hoping that the two spies would do the same thing. They would make note of what she is doing. She is a relatively new convert. She probably wouldn’t be technically classified as a convert, but there is something going on in her heart. She is still probably worried about her own skin. She is worried about the skin of her family. She is worried about being safe. When that siege comes in, she wants to make sure that she is safe. She wants to make sure that they remember this and go back and tell people. Keep me and my family safe when you come in. She goes on to say “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you.”
Again an aside here. We see those two words “show kindness”. These are words that mean nothing to us. Be kind to somebody. They are words with deep, deep meaning to people, especially to Jewish people because when you say show kindness, there is an assumption going on here that we are under both the same God. The God that showed kindness to us, showed favor to us, expects us to show kindness to others, especially others that are included in the family of faith, including this time the Jewish community. Do you follow that? When she says show kindness, I guarantee that the ears of those two spies perked up. That Rahab was a smart cookie. She knew what she was saying. She knew exactly what she was saying. She was saying again, because I have said your God is God that he is the creator of the universe above the heavens, above the earth, above all, we are now part of the same family. We are under the same umbrella of faith or whatever you want to call it, so now I expect you to care for me as you would anybody else in your family. Show kindness. You can almost hear a little bit of familial loyalty in the two spies’ voices. They say “’Our lives for you 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.’” In other words, we will make sure you are covered. Yes I guess you are family. We will take care of you.
If we had time, we could read through chapter 6 of Joshua and we would see that they held true to the promises. At the beginning of chapter 6, it basically goes through Joshua’s approach to taking the city that was given to them by God. They were to march around the city for seven days blowing these trumpets. On the seventh day, they were supposed to march seven times around the walls and then give a loud shout and the walls of Jericho would come tumbling down just as the song goes. That is what happens there. The walls came down and the two spies fulfilled their end of the bargain. It says “So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.” This is just another little aside. They didn’t bring her into the camp. They left her outside the camp. She was kind of under the protection of the Jews, but at that point I don’t think she was truly accepted into the Jewish family. I think the Jewish people still had an attitude towards Rahab and her family.
But anyway, that is the story. Hopefully, you can see that Rahab is and can be considered an extraordinary human being, an extraordinary woman. So much so that she is listed in what some refer to as the Great Hall of Faith that is found in Hebrews 11. The Hall of Faith that includes the saints and the martyrs and all the people that have given their lives throughout the history for the Jewish faith and even for the Christian faith. It is said of Rahab “By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.” Again, she was an extraordinary woman and given a place of prominence with all those other people.
In close, I hope you are beginning to see her as an extraordinary woman but what lessons can we glean from this? I would just propose three short lessons. The first lesson is be careful how you judge those people that you perceive outside of the community of faith. Because we don’t know how God may be at work in the lives of those people. Possibly, God is working a miracle in their life or doing a might extraordinary thing and that person may be just on the edge of coming to the faith. May actually be a reverent fearer of God but just has not made that final step into accepting Jesus in their heart. Sometimes, I believe that God works amazing miracles in the people outside of the community not only to advance his purposes but to advance their heart towards him. Do you get that? So again be sensitive to how you view those outsiders.
The second thing is when somebody does come into the community of faith, when somebody does get converted, accepts Jesus as Christ into their heart, be sensitive to how you treat them. What I am saying is be sure you show them kindness and that you not treat them on their past. You do not look at them as somebody who is still the person you looked at before they came into the house of faith. Make sure that you are willing to extend the same kindness to them that God has shown to you. Again, bring them in. Welcome them in. Show hospitality. Bring them in to the family of faith by showing kindness and love to them.
The last thing is really I think the most important thing. Don’t let your past define your future. If there is a story from Rahab, it is don’t let your past decide your destiny. Your past is just a foundation. God will use the good, the bad, and the ugly to get you where he wants you to go. You are not defined by your past any more than Rahab was defined by her past. I suspect if we were to take an anonymous survey, we would see everybody here has a bit of a checkered past. Things they are not too proud of. Things that make them think that God could never use them in any way whatsoever. Again, that is a lie from the pit of hell. It is. That is exactly the type of people that God will use, especially if they are people of faith that are open to what God wants to give them and how God wants to move in them. When they receive that and they begin to see that God works through them in mighty and powerful ways that we don’t even know how.
In closing, I think again about this woman, Diana Nyad. By all standards, she was an extraordinary woman. I can’t imagine how you would swim 110 miles. I have a hard time driving 110 miles. She had incredible endurance. She was an incredible athlete. Because of her endurance, she was able, through shark-infested and jellyfish-infested waters, to get her name written in all sorts of record books including probably the Guinness Book of World Records and that sort of thing. As we know, all earthly records are just temporal. Eventually, what will happen, the record will be broken because somebody right now is trying to figure out how they are going to beat Diana Nyad’s record. When they beat Diana Nyad’s record, Diana will just become a little blip in history. That is just the way it is. Someone like Rahab on the other hand, someone who went through this conversion process and had such extreme faith in God that not only was she willing to risk her own life, immediate execution, and the lives of her entire family, but she was willing to come alongside and partner with his God as he began to extend his purposes into the Promised Land. Because of that, she got her name written in a more permanent book. The Bible. The book of Hebrews. Because of that, 3500 years later, we are still reading about Rahab. You are not going to be reading about Diana Nyad 3500 years from now. I can pretty much guarantee that. I know there are people in the room here that may consider themselves too old or not athletic enough to ever accomplish anything on par with what Diana Nyad accomplished. That is probably true. I know there are probably people who think they could never accomplish anything like Rahab could accomplish. That is probably true. They can’t get their name in the Bible. The book is pretty much closed. There are people here today, every person here, no matter what your age, no matter what your gender, no matter what your background, no matter what you have gone through in life, you can be used by God. If you are willing to take your faith and be open to put it in action, God will use you in an amazing way that you can never even predict just as Rahab could never have predicted 3500 years ago. When you do that, your name won’t be written in the Guinness Book of World Records, your name won’t be written in the book of Hebrews, but I guarantee it will be written in God’s ledger book now and for all time. Let us pray.
