Matthew 1:4-5a
Ram was the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab was the father of Nahshon.
Nahshon was the father of Salmon.
Salmon was the father of Boaz (whose mother was Rahab).
Matthew 1 lists the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, the Savior of the world. There are some very "interesting"
characters there. None of them deserved the honor of inclusion in Christ's
royal lineage. Thankfully, God doesn't reward people with what they deserve. He is gracious and loves people who put their whole faith in Him.
There are only five women listed among the 40 male ancestors of Christ. Who were these five Christmas maidens and why were they remembered in a society usually overlooked women?
Last week, were heard the tale of Tamar who was mistaken for a prostitute by her father-in-law. Today, we will learn about Rahab who was a prostitute.
For four hundred years after Tamar, the Israelites lived in Egypt and became slaves. But God remembered His promise to give the Israelites a home in the land of Canaan as His holy people. They would be God's representatives to the whole world. So, God raised up Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery. And after wandering in the desert for forty years, God chose a leader named Joshua to finally lead the Israelites to conquer Canaan. To take possession of the Promise Land, Joshua and the Israelites would have to destroy the Canaanites fortress city, Jericho. God promised He would do the fighting for the Israelites and prove to everyone that their God was the one true Lord of all.
Joshua 2:1
Then Joshua secretly
sent out two spies from the Israelite camp at Acacia Grove. He instructed them, “Scout out the land on the other side of the Jordan River, especially around Jericho.” So the two men set out and came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there that night.
Rahab
And so, we are introduced to the heroine of our story—Rahab the prostitute. Prostitution has never been an honorable profession, but it is the oldest profession. In a male dominated society like we find in the Old Testament, prostitution was one of the only ways a woman could make it
on her own. Little girls don't dream of being of growing up to be prostitutes. They usually sell their bodies for sex because it's the only way they can survive.
Brenda Myers-Powell was a prostitute for 25 years on the West Side of Chicago. Her mother died when Brenda was only 6 months old. She was raised by her grandmother, an alcoholic. Brenda was molested regularly by her grandmother's male companions from the time she was only 4 years old. Brenda had 2 babies by the time she was 14. One day when the baby was hungry and crying, Brenda's grandmother told her to get a job because they had nothing to eat. Brenda, not knowing what else to do, joined the prostitutes who stood on the street corner in front of her house. In her own words: since men had been taking her panties off all her life, she figured she might as well get paid for it.
Most church people have strong opinions about prostitutes and prostitution. But how many of us have ever talked to a prostitute to get to know her story? Jesus did. It was one of the reasons his adversaries hated him so much. In Mark 2:16, the religious leaders complained, "Why does he eat with such scum?" Jesus ate with prostitutes and other notorious sinners because God cares about them just as much as He cares about me and you. Jesus, as God, sees the heart and knows the whole story of why people do what they do. And He loves. And He forgives. And He redeems.
We don't know why Rahab was a prostitute. The Bible doesn't give the details. We could stand in self-righteousness judgment of her (like everyone else probably did) or we could realize that most women who become prostitutes do it because it's the only way they know how to survive.
They Had One Job!
On the other hand, we could ask some nagging questions about the spies in Joshua 2:1.
What were the spies doing at a prostitute's house? These spies are members of God's chosen people. They're supposed to be holy. They're supposed to be on a mission from God. You mean to say the first thing they do when they cross enemy lines is go to a brothel? Who am I to judge? Maybe they had their reasons. Maybe God sent them to Rahab's house. We don't know and the Bible doesn't say.
I have another question. Why was Joshua sending spies in the first place? God promised He would conquer Jericho and all the Promised Land and give it to the Israelites. The battle would be The Lord's, not the Israelites. Why was Joshua sending spies? Was he worried about how they were going to defeat the enemy? Didn't he trust God? If you read the whole story, you'll see the Israelites didn't do any real fighting. They march around the city a bunch of times and blew trumpets. This was all symbolic. The Lord did the fighting. The Lord caused the city walls to collapse and the city fell. There was no need to send spies. It's a hint that maybe Joshua didn't fully trust God's Word. Most people read the Joshua 2:1 to mean Joshua sent some spies to secretly find out about Jericho. Another way to read it is Joshua sent them in secret (as in he didn't want his own people to know he sent the spies.) One thing I don't see anywhere in the passage where it says God told Joshua to send spies. The last time spies were sent into the Promised Land was when Moses sent 12 spies to check out the land. And of the 12, only 2 had faith God could defeat the Canaanites. God was so disgusted with the people's lack of faith the Israelites had to wait 40 more years before they could go into the Promised Land—an entire generation had to pass away!
At any rate, Joshua's spies are the worst spies in the history of spies. The first thing they do is go to a prostitute's house and in verse 2 their cover is immediately blown. The enemy knows they're in town and the enemy is hunting for them!
Joshua 2:2-7
But someone told the king of Jericho, “Some Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” So the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab: “Bring out the men who have come into your house, for they have come here to spy out the whole land.” Rahab had hidden the two men, but she replied, “Yes, the men were here earlier, but I didn’t know where they were from. They left the town at dusk, as the gates were about to close. I don’t know where they went. If you hurry, you can probably catch up with them.” (Actually, she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them beneath bundles of flax she had laid out.) So the king’s men went looking for the spies along the road leading to the shallow crossings of the Jordan River. And as soon as the king’s men had left, the gate of Jericho was shut.
Why did Rahab protect the Israelites? Rahab tells us herself.
Joshua 2:8-11
Before the spies went to sleep that night, Rahab went up on the roof to talk with them. “I know the Lord has given you this land,” she told them. “We are all afraid of you. Everyone in the land is living in terror. For we have heard how the Lord made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt. And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River, whose people you completely destroyed. No wonder our hearts have melted in fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below.
A Profession of Faith
I wish we had a little more back story about Rahab. I'd like to know how she ended up a prostitute. I'd like to know if she cried out to God for help. I wonder why she turned her back on her own people.
We don't know much about Rahab before she met the spies. What we do have in the story is Rahab's profession
of faith. A profession of faith is a
statement where a person says they believe in God and promise to follow
Him. I pastor a Methodist church and we like to
make it easy for people to profess their faith.
So, we list our standard profession of faith in the front of our hymnal on page 34. The pastor asks the person wanting to become a Christian: Do you
confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole trust in his grace, and
promise to serve him as your Lord, in union with the Church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races? And if the person agrees, they respond: I do. It is a simple and effective way for a person to affirm that they believe in Jesus Christ and trust Him to save them.
Romans 10:9 says, "If you openly
declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from
the dead, you will be saved." Usually, a person who wants to make a commitment to follow Jesus Christ professes their faith--usually in a church service or a revival. Maybe they pray the "sinners prayer" to declare their faith in Christ, repent of their sins, and ask Jesus to save them. However, when God saves someone, it doesn’t always look
like it does in church or at a Billy Graham crusade. It could look the Rahab’s story. Rahab exhibits all three elements of a person
who truly turns their life over to God and is saved: Faith, a Profession of Faith, and Action.
Salvation: Faith, Profession, Action
First of all, Rahab shows faith. Of all the people in the story, Rahab had the most
faith. While Joshua was sending spies
when he should have just trusted God’s promise, Rehab had great faith.
Rahab trusted spies she didn’t know who could have betrayed her. That was risky! (Spies aren't best know for being trustworthy!) Furthermore, Rahab puts all her hopes in a God
she didn't know very well and trusted He would save her. Rahab, a Canaanite, turned her back on the wicked
Canaanite way of life and turned to the One True God of the
Israelites, a foreign people. It took tremendous faith for Rahab to take these risks. God is willing to accept the
faith of anyone who trusts Him that way and turns to Him for forgiveness
and salvation. Do you have faith to turn your back on everything that is not of God and turn to Him instead?
Secondly, Rahab makes a profession of faith. Rahab states her faith in God. She said, “For the Lord
your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below.”
(Joshua 2:11) Have you ever made a profession of faith—have you said out
loud that you know God is the supreme Lord of all? Do you continue to tell people this Truth whenever
you get the chance?
There is also action. It's one thing to talk a big talk. It's another thing to walk the walk. Rahab walked the walk; she acted on her faith. She defied the King of Jericho
and his soldier. She put her own life on the line for the sake of God's people. She hid the Israelite spies and sent the
soldiers on a wild goose chase and helped the spies escape. Do you put your beliefs about God into
action? Do you do what He asks you to
do? Do you serve the Lord with all your
heart?
Joshua 2:12-21
“Now swear to me by the Lord that you
will be kind to me and my family since I have helped you. Give me some
guarantee that when Jericho is conquered, you will let me live, along with my
father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all their families.”
Rahab’s faith was going to save her whole family from
destruction. Do you realize what you do
affects more than just you? Your choices
about God could bring life or death to people you care about.
“We offer our own lives as a guarantee
for your safety,” the men agreed. “If you don’t betray us, we will keep our
promise and be kind to you when the Lord gives us the land.”
Then, since Rahab’s house was built into
the town wall, she let them down by a rope through the window. “Escape to the
hill country,” she told them. “Hide there for three days from the men searching
for you. Then, when they have returned, you can go on your way.”
Before they left, the men told her, “We
will be bound by the oath we have taken only if you follow these instructions. When
we come into the land, you must leave this scarlet rope hanging from the window
through which you let us down. And all your family members—your father, mother,
brothers, and all your relatives—must be here inside the house. If they go out
into the street and are killed, it will not be our fault. But if anyone lays a
hand on people inside this house, we will accept the responsibility for their death.
If you betray us, however, we are not bound by this oath in any way.”
“I accept your terms,” she replied. And she sent them on
their way, leaving the scarlet rope hanging from the window.
How Does the
Story End?
Well, how does the story end? We find the answer to Rahab’s fate in Joshua chapter 6.
The Israelites surround the fortress of Jericho. All the villagers outside the fortress walls have fled. Those left inside the walls are mostly soldiers and others determined to fight to the bitter end.
But God said He would do the fighting for Israel. So, for six days the Israelites march around Jericho. On the seventh day, they march around the city seven times. Then, the Israelite priests blow their ram’s horns and all the people shout. And the walls of Jericho came tumbling down—everywhere except for the part of the wall that housed Rahab’s home. The Israelites swarmed over the rubble to mop up any remaining defenders not killed by the collapse. It wasn't much a fight after the fortresses collapse; most of the enemy were probably already dead.
Joshua 6:22-23 & 25
Meanwhile,
Joshua said to the two spies, “Keep your promise. Go to the prostitute’s house
and bring her out, along with all her family.”
The men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father,
mother, brothers, and all the other relatives who were with her. They moved her
whole family to a safe place near the camp of Israel.… So Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute and
her relatives who were with her in the house, because she had hidden the spies
Joshua sent to Jericho. And she lives among the Israelites to this day.
And then we fast forward through the Bible about a thousand years and look in Matthew chapter
1 and we see Jesus’ genealogy and what do we find? Rahab is one of the great, great,
great… grandmothers of Jesus.
What’s Your Story?
Well, that’s Rahab’s story. What’ your story? I want to tell you that God knows what you’re
going through. He is the God who
sees. He didn’t overlook Rahab the prostitute
and He won’t overlook you. Are you
facing a situation you just cannot overcome?
God wants to help you. Do you
realize God is your only hope? God will
redeem your situation, but He’ll also save your soul. Do you trust God to save you? Are you willing to profess your faith
in God and turn your back on everything that is not of Him? Are you willing to act on your faith by
putting it all on the line for Him? Perhaps you should pray about it.
Next week, we will examine the story of the third woman in Jesus' genealogy--Ruth the Refugee.
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