Monday May 20
A Transformed Woman - Rahab the Harlot
Joshua 2:1
Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." So they went, and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and lodged there.
The storyline of the Bible is the story of people who by faith meet God and their lives are forever changed. When we come to Joshua 2, we meet a very interesting woman named Rahab, and throughout Scripture she is most often referred to as “Rahab the Harlot”, or the “prostitute”. God choses to reveal what kind of God He is often by the people He calls and uses to fulfill His kingdom purposes. When we read the stories of these individuals, we should find tremendous hope for ourselves as we realize that God is a God of grace, mercy, and love!
I couldn’t help but think about how we have been studying about the life of Joshua who was called and prepared by God to take the place of the great Moses to lead to people into the Promise Land. From being born a slave in Egypt, redeemed by the blood of a lamb, crossing the Red Sea miraculously, becoming Moses’ assistant, leading the army of Israel to victory over Amalek, by faith giving a good report after spying out the land, we see God at work in his life. He is a godly worshipper. Most of this training took place in the wilderness outside the Promise Land.
But at the same time God is at work inside the Promise Land, inside the City of Jericho, the first major obstacle between the people of Israel and their inheritance. God was revealing Himself to a prostitute that He was going to use to help the people of Israel conquer this great fortress. And as we will also find out that God is going to use in another wonderful way! In one chapter we go from Joshua, a godly worshipper, to Rahab, a pagan, idol worshipping prostitute. What an amazing story!!!!
Only two women are personally named in Hebrews 11, in the "The Hall of Fame of Faith": Sarah, the wife of Abraham (v. 11), and Rahab, the harlot of Jericho (v. 31). Sarah was a godly woman, the wife of the founder of the Hebrew race; and God used her dedicated body to bring Isaac into the world. But Rahab was an ungodly Gentile who worshiped pagan gods and sold her body for money. Humanly speaking, Sarah and Rahab had nothing in common. But from the divine viewpoint, Sarah and Rahab shared the most important thing in life: They both had exercised saving faith in the true and living God.
Not only does the Bible associate Rahab with Sarah; but in James 2:21-26, it also associates her with Abraham. James used both Abraham and Rahab to illustrate the fact that true saving faith always proves itself by good works.
But there's more! The Bible associates Rahab with the Messiah! When you read the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 1, you find Rahab's name listed there (v. 5), along with Jacob, David, and the other famous people in the Messianic line. She has certainly come a long way from being a pagan prostitute to being an ancestress of the Messiah! "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Rom. 5:20).
But keep in mind that the most important thing about Rahab was her faith. That's the most important thing about any person, for "without faith it is impossible to please Him [God]" (Heb. 11:6). Not everything that is called "faith" is really true faith, the kind of faith that is described in the Bible. For the next few days, we are going to be looking at Joshua 2 and the kind of faith that Rahab had!
We so often get so accustomed to our “spiritual bubbles” that we live in, our homes, our church and fellowship groups, that we think that is the only place God is working! I’m encouraged by the story of Rahab to know that God is working even in the lives of people that are actively involved in this wicked evil world, and He is about to change them from a raging “Saul” to an Apostle Paul, that will turn the world upside down for Jesus!
Remember, God is ready to transform you today by His grace, mercy, love, and power, to be on mission with Him in changing this sinful world around us!
God bless!
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