And in the Book of Joshua, after 400 years of God extending grace, God brought the Jewish people to the edge of the Promised Land. And Jericho, being a border city a short distance from the Jordan River, would be the first city that the Jewish nation would encounter. You can even go visit the ruins of Jericho today. So as the Jewish people prepare for their first battle against the nations that lived in the Promised Land, their leader Joshua sends spies out on a reconnaissance mission to prepare for battle. We find out what happens next as the story continues:
So they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there.Now you may be thinking, why go to a brothel? In the culture of Jericho it would not be viewed as unusual for people to come from out of town and have a little fun with the local prostitutes. This made a brothel the perfect place for spies to hide without drawing suspicion. And whether you were raised in church and regularly attend church or if this is the first time you have attended church; whether or not you have read much of the Bible, most people have heard of Rahab. As we discovered in a sermon leading up to Christmas, Rahab has a well-known reputation doesn’t she? We know who Rahab was because of her label, “you know, Rahab the Harlot”. However, the plan did not work out so well, as we see in the next verses:
It was told the king of Jericho, saying, "Behold, men from the sons of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land." And the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab, saying, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land." But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them, and she said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. "It came about when it was time to shut the gate at dark, that the men went out; I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them." But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them in the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof. So the men pursued them on the road to the Jordan to the fords; and as soon as those who were pursuing them had gone out, they shut the gate.Now you might be wondering, “Why would Rahab lie?” While it is not unusual for people who are far from God to lie about something, especially in a culture as wicked as Jericho was, why she lied seems weird, doesn’t it? Why would Rahab lie and risk her life to protect men that she knew represented the people who desired to destroy her and her people? Usually people lie in a way that is for their benefit. This lie, however, does not seem to help her. We find the reason why Rahab lied revealed as the story continues:
Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, and said to the men, "I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. "For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. "When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.Rahab responded to the evidence of God’s activity through the Jewish people by recognizing that the Lord was the one true God. Rahab responded by recognizing that the label that she bore and the life that she lived placed her on the lowest rung on the ladder as part of this wicked culture and that she was worthy of punishment and in need of rescue. Rahab recognized that she needed to restart her life. And Rahab responded to her need to restart her life by swimming against the current of the culture she lived in that devalued human life by protecting the spies that she viewed as representatives of the one true God. Rahab then demonstrates her belief in who God was and her need to restart her life by doing something that many would view as incredibly risky and even stupid:
"Now therefore, please swear to me by the LORD, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father's household, and give me a pledge of truth, and spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death." So the men said to her, "Our life for yours if you do not tell this business of ours; and it shall come about when the LORD gives us the land that we will deal kindly and faithfully with you."
This morning, place yourself in Rahab’s shoes. Would you have responded the same way? Would you hide spies from a nation that is bent on destroying your people? Would you provide a way of escape to ensure their safe return with all the information necessary to overcome the defenses of your city? Would you trust the word of two spies that they would spare your life? Remember, you are a harlot, a prostitute; you probably have been lied to hundreds of times. How many times have men failed to come through on their promises to you? And what would happen to you and your family if the rest of Jericho found out what you did?
Rahab responded to who she was and who God was by trusting these men, who represented the Lord, to keep their word. Rahab exercised and demonstrated faith by placing her confident trust in the fact that these two men, who were God’s representatives, would keep their promise to her, in spite of the label that she wore. But not only did Rahab have to decide to exercise confident trust that these men would keep their word to spare her and her family’s life; the spies also had a decision to make.
We will look at the decision that the spies faced, along with the timeless principle that this story reveals for us when it comes to restarting our life, tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment