I heard the story recently of two friends who were talking to each other. One remarked to his friend and said, “Man, you look so depressed. Whatever could you be thinking about to depress you so?” His friend quickly replied, “My future”. “Your future?” his friend said. “Whatever in the world would make it look so hopeless?” to which his miserable friend sighed and unhappily said “My past.”
Wouldn’t it be great if we never had problems in our past? However, most of us know that the past can load us down with baggage like guilt, depression, and fear. The past can certainly affect us and push us down. Everyday people carry scars from their past, and often these scars are still painful and tender. A former seminary professor, and a good friend of mine, used to say, “There’s no such thing as a family that is not dysfunctional in some way”. We know that the family ought to be a place where love, safety, and security can be found, but often it is not. We hear terms today like co-dependency, chemical addiction, sexual and verbal abuse, and all of these take part in families. In 1999, it was found that 826,000 children were the victims of abuse and neglect here in the United States. I doubt if there is family here today that in some way has not been touched by divorce. We have all heard the statistics that cite that roughly one-half of every marriage ends in divorce. Forty percent of young women before the age of 20 become pregnant here in the United States. Many raise children as single moms, one of the fastest growing segments of the American population. This leads to a lot of hardship and economic problems, including providing proper health care.
They say that children of dysfunctional families take on one of four different roles, either they become very controlling, or they are filled with self hatred, or they become filled with low self worth and try to be people pleasers, or they try to withdraw completely to themselves. These roles are taken on because of their attempt to escape their past. The reason I’m bringing up all of this is that I want you to see that there are a lot of hurting people, with a lot of baggage that we encounter everyday. These are people who have a past. They become labeled as losers, failures, trouble makers, insecure, all because either they or someone else close to them made mistakes. Guess what? Every single one of us here has a past. Every one of us is carrying baggage from our past because the past influences us. However, it is important to know that your past doesn’t have to keep you out of the plan of God.
Rahab was a woman with a past. Very little is mentioned about her in the scriptures. Yet she is a fascinating character. This woman who came from a pagan background was able to start over, and begin a journey that included her in receiving the inheritance of Israel, even to the point that she was included in the ancestry of the Messiah. This woman with a past was even included in God’s hall of faith. Hebrews 11:31 By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. Talk about the wonderful grace of God. For those who say that God’s grace can’t be found in the Old Testament need to look at Rahab. By faith, she did not perish, and by faith, she received her inheritance. There are three details in this passage of scripture that I wish to share with you this morning from the life of Rahab that show how she overcame her past and was blessed of God.
I. WE NEED TO FIRST SEE HER PAST CONDITION.
1. Rahab certainly had a past. When you think about her past condition, you can’t help but thank God for His marvelous grace. You see, today, I doubt if anyone would want Rahab to chair the Women’s ministries. Rahab would not be the type person that you would want to teach your children in Sunday School.
2. Most of the churches I know wouldn’t even want a woman like Rahab attending for they would be afraid that people would talk.
A. Rahab was a Canaanite from Jericho. (wrong religion)
1. Rahab was from Jericho. Jericho was her home, no doubt it was all she ever knew. She was a Canaanite through and through.
2. God had demanded total destruction of the Canaanites.
Deuteronomy 7:1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
3. These people worshipped Baal and they did so through gross acts of sexual immorality and even practiced child sacrifice. One of the things that they would do was when they built a new home, they would sacrifice a baby and bury the body in the foundation of the house to bring prosperity.
Leviticus 18:25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
4. Their practices and behavior was so bad that God said even the very land vomited them out. In Leviticus chapter 18, there is a series of commands given to Israel regarding things like forbidding sexual relations with family members or with animals, or with members of the same sex. It has been discovered that the Canaanites practiced all of these. Homosexuality was encouraged among them, beastality was also common. The Canaanite culture was seeped in sin and fornication, abortion was common as well as just killing unwanted children. No wonder God said the very land vomits them out.
5. Rahab was from Jericho and was also a Canaanite.
B. Rahab was a harlot. (wrong profession)
1. I realize that in recent years there has been a move to somewhat soften this. Some scholars have said that she was just an innkeeper to somewhat take away her reproach. They don’t like the idea that God would choose a prostitute to include in the genealogy of the Savior. Isn’t it interesting that in Matthew’s account of the linage of Jesus, the only three women mentioned were all involved in sexual sin, Rahab, a prostitute, Bathsheba, an adulteress, and Tamar, who committed incest with her father-in-law. Oh the amazing grace of God.
2. The Hebrew word for harlot used in Jos. 2:1 is "zanah" {zaw-naw’} which means a harlot, go a whoring, commit fornication, be a harlot, play the harlot, to commit adultery. It is never used in any form to describe just an innkeeper. The Greek word used in the New Testament to describe Rahab is the word prone from which we get the word pornography. Rahab was a prostitute.
3. Never once is a husband mentioned, why? as a harlot, she didn’t need one. Where was the one place that two strangers such as the Hebrew spies could go in a city and not attract a lot of attention? Where else but a harlot’s place?
4. Now let me ask you a question, did Rahab have a past? She most certainly did. By all accounts, she should have perished with the rest of the Canaanites of Jericho. Was she any better than them? No, she was just as guilty of sin, maybe even worst. If ever there was a person who’s past should have hindered them, it would have been Rahab. Her past was shady at best and immoral at worst.
II. WE NEED TO NEXT SEE HER PRESENT CHOICE.
1. We could only imagine what a typical day for Rahab must have been like. However, there was one day that she heard about the children of Israel. Maybe a customer made mention of these Israelites, of how God had dried up the Red Sea for them a generation ago, or maybe she heard it on the streets of Jericho. She had heard about this group that had came out of Egypt who worshipped an invisible God. She had heard how this invisible God had already delivered the kingdoms of Sihon and Og, the Ammorites kings into their hands. Maybe she had heard how God had cared for them and provided for them for 40 years in the wilderness and no doubt she had heard of God’s promised inheritance of delivering Canaan into their hands.
2. One day she got up in the morning, expecting that day to go just like any other, but God had other plans. As evening approached, two men were secretly coming to her house. The grace of God was directing them, just as the grace of God directed you to an altar when you got saved. They entered in and some how, some way, Rahab recognized them as being Israelites. Remember last Sunday night how that we talked about the vision of faith. Rahab is now seeing by faith.
3. Somehow the king of Jericho heard about these spies and he sent word to Rahab to deliver them up. Now Rahab was faced with a choice, she could deliver up the spies and go about her normal business, or take the step of faith and have her world turned upside down. If we step out in faith, we need to understand that we are going against the status quo. Things are going to be different. If the king found out she had hid the spies, she could be executed for treason. You have to count the cost if you are going to believe God. What would Rahab do?
4. I believe she was tired of a past that had kept her down. Men after men had came and went, leaving her with just a little more money, but never with any real happiness. When these spies came to her, she had a choice, to continue to live a life that her past dictated to her, or believe God and step out in faith, and claim the inheritance that went with being part of the people of God.
5. She chose to step out in faith. She took the two spies and led them to the roof top. There she hid them among the stacks of flax (a crop used in the making of paper and clothing). Listen to her words as she speaks to these spies. “I know that the LORD hath given you the land (v. 9),” “for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath (v. 11).”
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
6. Is Rahab operating in faith? I believe she is.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
7. There are two dimensions of faith mentioned here in Heb. 11:6. Most of us never get past the first one, which is believing that He is. Rahab was just like us, she had never seen God. She had never laid her eyes on His glory, but by faith she knew He existed. She said that He is God in heaven above.
8. Here’s what I want you to see, this is the reason she refused to let her past continue to control her life, to keep her down and out for she entered the second dimension of faith, she believe that God was/is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
9. The devil wants to tell you, God won’t bless someone like you, you just not worthy to be blessed of God. God can’t use someone like you, you won’t ever be able to change and you’ll never break the bonds from your past. One of the things that our studies tell us today about abuse, be it sexual, physical, or chemical, is that if you grew up in that, most likely you’ll become that. If your parents were alcoholics, you probably be an alcoholic. If you were physically abused as a child, you probably be an abusive parent to your children. This is what psychologists call the “cycle of abuse”. Without God, there’s a lot of truth in the cycle of abuse. People do tend to repeat the mistake of the past, and there are such things as generational sins. However, God is the “unknown variable” in the formula of life.
10. Here Rahab takes the next step of faith, not only did she believe God exists, she believed He was a rewarder or a blesser of those that seek Him. She knew that God had commanded every Canaanite to be killed, she knew that according to God’s decree, she had no chance. However like Abraham when interceding for Lot, she is moving in faith. Like the Syro-Phoenician woman whom Jesus called a dog, she is moving in faith. She knows that God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him so she asks the spies to not only spare her, but also the life of her family, her father and mother and her brothers and sisters. Moms and Dads that have been praying for family members, hear the word of God. If God will spare the life of a prostitute’s family because she believes God, what about yours?
11. The spies told her to tie the cord, the scarlet cord, upon which she let them down the wall to escape, in her window and she and her house hold would be spared. I’ve told you, faith = obedience. She is acting in faith so she ties the cord in the window. Every time she pasted that window, no doubt she said to herself, “I’m believing God”. When the children of Israel crossed the Jordan, it paralyzed her neighbors with fear, but she said, “I’m believing God”. When Israel marched around the walls for 7 days, she said to herself, “I’m believing God”. She made her choice.
III. FINALLY WE NEED TO SEE RAHAB’S COMMENDATION.
1. Remember she was a prostitute, but she’s a prostitute believing God.
Joshua 6:23 And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel.
2. Did you catch that? Her whole family was saved, all that she had was saved.
3. After chapter six of Joshua, Rahab is no longer mentioned in the book, but she does not disappear from history.
Mat 1:5 And Salmon fathered Boaz of Rahab, and Boaz fathered Obed of Ruth, and Obed fathered Jesse,
3. Did you know that this Rahab became the great, great grandmother of King David? And from David’s linage, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, both Jew and Gentile, would be born.
4. Also, in the New Testament, two biblical writers commend her.
James 2:25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
Hebrews 11:31 By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.
5. She became adopted into the congregation of Israel, married Salmon, one of the princes of the tribe of Judah, had children, became the great, great grandmother of David, is listed in the genealogy of Jesus for all the church to read, and is held up as an example of both faith and works and is included in God’s hall of faith. She overcame her past.
David Simmons, a former cornerback for the Dallas Cowboys, tells about his childhood home. His father, a military man, was extremely demanding, rarely saying a kind word, always pushing him with harsh criticism to do better. The father had decided that he would never permit his son to feel any satisfaction from his accomplishments, reminding him there were always new goals ahead.
When Dave was a little boy, his dad gave him a bicycle, unassembled, with the command that he put it together. After Dave struggled to the point of tears with the difficult instructions and many parts, his father said, "I knew you couldn’t do it." Then he assembled it for him.
When Dave played football in high school, his father was unrelenting in his criticisms. In the backyard of his home, after every game, his dad would go over every play and point out Dave’s errors. "Most boys got butterflies in the stomach before the game; I got them afterwards. Facing my father was more stressful than facing any opposing team."
By the time he entered college, Dave hated his father and his harsh discipline. He chose to play football at the University of Georgia because its campus was further from home than any school that offered him a scholarship. After college, he became the second round draft pick of the St. Louis cardinal’s professional football club. Joe Namath (who later signed with the New York Jets), was the club’s first round pick that year. "Excited, I telephoned my father to tell him the good news. He said, ’How does it feel to be second?’"
Despite the hateful feelings he had for his father, Dave began to build a bridge to his dad. Christ had come into his life during college years, and it was God’s love that made him turn to his father. During visits home he stimulated conversation with him and listened with interest to what his father had to say. He learned for the first time what his grandfather had been like-a tough lumberjack known for his quick temper. Once he destroyed a pickup truck with a sledgehammer because it wouldn’t start, and he often beat his son. This new awareness affected Dave dramatically. "Knowing about my father’s upbringing not only made me more sympathetic for him, but it helped me see that, under the circumstances, he might have done much worse. By the time he died, I can honestly say we were friends."
IV. Closing.
Maybe all you ever heard in your past was criticism. I wish I could tell you that I had a good relationship with my father, but it wasn’t until just before he died that we really got along. Parents, be careful of what you say to your kids, be careful of calling them things like stupid and dumb because it hurts. If you tell a child he/she will never amount to anything, it doesn’t take long until they begin to believe it. Maybe you came from that type of home, don’t let your past hinder you. Maybe you have guilt hidden in your past from something you’ve done, that the devil continues to tell you will keep you from being used of God. You have a choice, who are you going to believe, Satan or God, parents or God. If God will take a prostitute and include her in His plan, He’ll do the same for you.
