Title: Rahab - a woman of faith
Date: June 6, 2009
Text: Joshua 2:1-24
Introduction
· There once was a rather rough, uncultured man who for some reason fell in love with a beautiful vase in a shop window.
· Eventually he bought the vase and put it on the mantelpiece in his room.
· There it became a kind of judgment on its surroundings.
· He had to clean up the room to make it worthy of the vase.
· The curtains looked dingy beside it. The old chair with the stuffing coming out of the seat would not do. The wallpaper and the paint needed redoing.
· Gradually the whole room was transformed.
· When Jesus comes into your life, gradually your whole life is transformed.
· Today we are going to look at the testimony of the life of someone who lived 3,500 years ago, and see the change that happened in her life
· It was around 1425 B.C.
· The Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land, the country that had been their dream for 40 years
· Joshua became the new leader after Moses died, and he sent out spies to report on the town of Jericho, the first challenge that the Israelites would face
· These two spies mingled with the travelers and traders entering the city through the gates, and tried to find somewhere to stay the night
· Someone said, why don’t you try Rahab’s place?
· So they stayed the night
· Who was this Rahab they stayed with?
Rahab – a sinful woman of the world
· Josh 2:1 – Rahab was a prostitute
· The Hebrew word used here is Zahnah
· It comes from a root word meaning “highly-fed and wanton” and it means “to commit fornication, be a harlot, play the harlot”
· Some commentaries try to make it sound better by saying the word may mean inn-keeper, but the fact of the matter is that it literally means prostitute
· Rahab was a prostititute in a totally immoral city
· The implication is that she was doing pretty well and that her nature was that of someone who liked playing around
· Rahab was no worse and no better than each of us was before we accepted Jesus
· Eph 2:1-3
· Rahab was just fitting in with her surroundings
· People around her were messing up, so she followed suit
· Don’t we do the same?
· Most of us started using around age 13, when we get into high school
· What was the reason? Usually I hear you say, it was the friends I used to hang with
· I think the root word meaning wanton is interesting
· It tells me that this may have been a part of her character, not just a way to make a living
· She may have grown up in an abusive environment, and then started acting out her anger by throwing all moral standards to the winds
· She probably had a low opinion of herself, but knew no other way to live
Rahab – a repentant convert
· Joh 2:8-11
· Rahab had heard stories about the Israelites leaving Egypt
· All her life she had heard about the things God was doing with the Israelites
· Traders would come from Egypt, and as they sat around the campfire, they would tell stories of how a nation had been brought to its knees by a God no one knew about
· Six million Israelites leaving Egypt was a major occurrence – it would be today as well
· Midianites and Amalekites and Edomites would come as travelers and tell about how the Israelite army had whooped them and all but wiped them out
· Rahab heard all these stories
· She was not stupid, she knew the time was coming when they would be on the doorstep at Jericho
· But more than that, she also recognized that their must be a God behind all this who was way bigger than impotent idols she was used to worshipping
· So when the Israelite spies turned up, she chose to side with the God of Israel
· This was huge! Jericho was a major city and she was risking her life to side with these spies
· This took a huge step of faith for her. She was trusting a God she had not yet experienced, but she took that step of faith anyway
· When we come into this program, we learn about how we can know that there is a real God.
· We examine proofs that there has to have been a beginning, and if there was a beginning there has to have been a beginner, one who started it all, a Creator who is bigger than his creation.
· Recognizing this is a head thing, not a heart commitment
· It is when we take that step of faith, and say, ok, I am now going to commit my life to this God that my head says exists, but whom I have never seen - that is when it becomes a heart commitment
· Rahab took that step of faith
· That faith was expressed in her protection of the two spies
· We express that faith by praying to God and asking for forgiveness of our sins, and asking Jesus into our lives
Rahab – a transformed woman of faith
· Rahab was not yet a perfect Christian
· She lied to protect the spies and engaged in deception to get them out of town
· She had, however, turned to trusting God, rather than her old religion or lack thereof
· As a result of this she is mentioned in the list of heroes of faith in Hebrews 11
· Heb 11:31
· After Jericho fell, Rahab joined up with the Israelites, and adopted their God as her own
· She learned about the ten commandments, she learned about how to worship and what it meant to have God as her Savior
· Later on, she became the mother in law of Ruth, and the great-great-grandmother of King David. Through him, she became part of the physical ancestry of Jesus our Savior
· The Israelites had experienced God as a Savior when they were protected by the blood of a lamb on their doorposts
· Rahab had experienced God as a Savior when she let down the scarlet rope out of her window
· We experience Jesus as our Savior when we accept the blood of Jesus as payment for our sins
A step of faith
· God saving Rahab though, was after she had taken this step of faith
· The head knowledge of hearing about the miracles God had done, had been translated into action, by her taking a stand against Jericho and for God
· In the same way, we can agree that yes, I can see that there has to be a God
· That head knowledge needs to be translated into the step of faith when we turn our back on our old way, and ask Jesus into our life
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