God's Imperfect Family: Rahab ~ Joshua 2, 6 ~ Carl Crouse

​I love Rahab ~ Rahab the Prostitute ~ she is the next family member in Jesus’ genealogy leading up to Jesus from Matt. 1 (READ Matt. 1:5-6).   Rahab has some similarities to Tamar, but it’s not hard to find different lessons… Rahab is married into the family of Jesus, she is like a favorite aunt that is more colorful than the blood uncle…. Rahab helps puts family into perspective… she is a gentile woman, unexpected inclusion, yet a wonderful example of what it means to live your faith.  Some folks question if the Rahab in Matt. 1 is the same Rahab that is also in the beginning part of the book of Joshua.  To me there is no doubt the same; Matt only lists woman where we know something of their story… Matthew wants us to understand Jesus family is imperfect, yet God redeems them and uses them to his glory anyway! 
 
A big lesson today: Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.  

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.  Rahab is a prostitute.  If we didn’t know the rest of the story, and we were confronted with such a person today, how easy to come to a quick judgment…she also betrays her nation.  Outside of Matt. 1, in the other two times  her name is mentioned in the N.T. it carries the description, “the prostitute.”  why isn’t the description dropped? Maybe “the prostitute” is kept as a contrast with grace, like a tall person nicknamed Shorty. 

Heb. 11:31 provides one of the amazing captions of what God thought of Rahab READ…. We’ll look at her story in a moment.  Sometimes when I meet confusing people that I don’t know what to think about them… I literally wonder to myself what God’s caption is for this person.  Years ago when I was at UW I used to frequent the Ave to catch the bus or go to a store…the Ave was the wonderful street where you could find anything under the sun…. the first time I went to the Ave I’ll never forget running into an outline of a person on the sidewalk, I’d seen crime shows so I thought this was a place where a murder happened.  A few days later I discovered they were on many corners, it was street art… but I was afraid… a few years later something change in me and one I found myself having a conversation with a person that had more hardware in their face than skin …. I had learned that people are people and they just want to be heard, to look past the outward appearance, let go as much as possible of the appearance, and see the person… God’s caption is quite likely very different, far more gracious, than our first impressions… Rahab the prostitute is a model of faith…

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. I bet many of you wish more of the world knew the real you… maybe you did something you’re not proud of and you imagine your reputation will haunt you forever…Rahab’s story is a story of faith, a story of overcoming herself…how did she get such confidence?  God chooses to use her to His glory.  Maybe people don’t know the true you… Be like Rahab and shine anyway…

 Let’s not be quick to write people off…. Stephen Covey in his book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People says, “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand.  Most people listen with the intent to reply.”  Seek to understand others making that your gift to the people in your daily world… those that mentor young people in the NV schools, that is the intent, to listen to the young people… it’s easy to look at Rahab the prostitute and think you know enough, but what we see and her inner struggle and desires are different.  Don’t judge a book by it’s cover…. Just as you don’t want to be judged, don’t judge others by a knee jerk reaction… seek to understand what is being said…try and imagine what God’s caption might be for this person. Often when I am counseling people I will tell them of the potential I believe they have… the Holy Spirit has to confirm for them if my thoughts are accurate or not, but I want to at least give them impressions of what God might be saying that is different from their overwhelming present struggles… One more time Rahab is mentioned in NT: READ James 2:

Let’s take a look at the story of Rahab in the book of Joshua…
            Background:  Moses leads Israel from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land.  40 years in the dessert.  Moses died before they crossed the Jordan River to take possession of the land.  Joshua picks up the story of entering the promised land.  Before they cross the Jordan, Joshua sends spies to check things out…. READ Joshua 2:1. Israel is a million people at this time.  All the cities/states of the region know all about them…

The king of Jericho hears spies have been sent and they went to see Rahab… by the way, the fact that Rahab has a house is amazing.  She has a family that she loves.  She lives by herself in a house… she hides the spies on her rooftop under stalks of flax (this is all in Josh 2)… why flax, smarter people than me say that the only reason for the flax is because she is preparing them to make cloth… sounds like a businesswoman to me… don’t judge a book by it’s cover… when the kings representatives come to question her she admits they were there, but says they left the city and sends the men off to chase them… It’s a great risk because if she’d been caught hiding them, off with her head… after the soldiers leave, Rahab goes to the rooftop and talks with the spies, READ Josh. 2:8-15. 

Amazing insight into the heart of Rahab in this scripture.  I love Rahab, her example, her courage, her wisdom, her faith in action.  Ever hear the phrase, “Love is a verb”….  I think it is true of Faith as well, “Faith is a verb.” putting hands and feet on what we believe… surely that is what James 2: passage is emphasizing… READ again…Faith is a verb… try an experiment, spend a week consciously putting hands and feet to your faith.  Nobody else may notice, try to find ways to live out your faith, sacrifice time, speak kind words, listen intently to another person to understand….faith is a verb.

Joshua 6:17-25 continues story of Rahab.  The Israelites have crossed the Jordan into the promised land, head to Jericho, and most of you are likely familiar with the seven days march around the fortified walled city, and on the seventh day they march around seven times and the trumpets blow and walls crash down… we have this wonderful detail in Josh 6:16-17.  READ…. The appendix to Rahab’s story: READ Josh 6:22-23, 25. 
 
Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.  God used a prostitute to continue His promise to bring a savior to the world to die for the sins of all people.  A prostitute, worse than a nobody… but she had an active faith. Rahab, lives among the people of Israel “to this day”  (showing Joshua was written while many were alive) … she meets and marries Salmon, one of the little known characters Chad spoke about last week, legend has it Salmon was one of the two spies but that’s a romantic made up feel good story with no evidence. 

One more thing about Rahab our ears don’t hear because of time and culture.  “RA” is one of the gods of the land of the ancient world.  ~ the Sun god.  He was the most important god of ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians believed Ra was swallowed every night by darkness and reborn every morning. RA travelled the under-world at night.  RA-hab is in the line of Jesus.  To our ears, that might be like a Muslim name appearing in Jesus ancestry…..
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Lessons from Rahab the Prostitute…

• Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.  You don’t want others to do that to you… one of the remarkable details about the story is that the spies trust Rahab… she was a prostitute, but somehow they knew she was a Godly woman of faith, amazing risk taking faith… that may be the most amazing part of this story ~ the spies trusted Rahab.  God surely tests us by putting people in our lives we are tempted to reject, but they are godly people, even if we don’t get the cover of the book, and we must trust them…
• Rahab was willing to act outside her comfort zone. By aligning herself with God and the spies she was betraying her own people without knowing the end of the story… Sometimes I imagine what Rahab and her family was thinking those seven days while Israel marched around the city with her front row seat.  any wavering?…. It seems Rahab sensed a distinct call from God…. I don’t recall God ever telling us he would only ask us to do things that made us comfortable… Rahab’s call made her willing to sacrifice her own nation. The declaration of faith given by this Canaanite woman places her in a unique position among the women of the Bible.  READ Josh. 2:11b.  “For the Lord…
• Rahab cared about her family/others… the salvation of others. With the shadow of death and destruction over Jericho, Rahab secured a promise from the spies for her and her family. It’s a good guess she was estranged her from her family, yet she desired all her loved ones to share in the rescue….  And they believed her….  May we make Rahab’s prayer for the salvation of her family, the cry for our own homes. ~ Our community. 
• Rahab lived her faith.  Faith is a verb.  READ James 2:25), Faith in practice. Faith changed Rahab, and enabled her to shield the spies with confidence God would triumph over His enemies. Rahab lived her faith
• Rahab listened to the Spirit of God.  How did Rahab become a God follower? Nobody came to her door and shared the gospel.  She had no personal friendships with any God followers.  Yet somehow Rahab had a change of heart and life. Rahab became the first convert in the Promised Land… in fact, she seems to be a believer before the people of God set foot in the land.  Rahab is like the closet Christians in the Muslim world, almost all women, I understand in my reading 1000’s upon 1000’s who worship Christ yet stay hidden till God tells them otherwise so they can keep their children and family’s and pray from within the community.  How did Rahab come to a saving knowledge of the one true God, rejecting the gods of the Canaanites, rejecting Ra, the sun god for whom she is named, rejecting her culture and her people?  She heard the stories of the Israelites and the miracle of the Red Sea… that is the seed, but that’s not the same as faith and commitment. 

I can only think of one way: Rahab heard the stories and she listened to the Spirit of God in her.   The Holy Spirit is always the difference maker… in our culture we have a lot of words spoken, a lot of stories told, many opportunities to hear the message of salvation, all good, but when it comes down to it, a person must act on the prompting of the Spirit and make a commitment to God Almighty and Jesus Christ.  It’s the Spirit in you, convicting you, leading you, loving you, and promising to be with you.   May you listen to the Spirit to act in boldness, to embrace the calling of Christ even when outside your comfort zone, the love to pray for others for their salvation, to act in ways that are out of character, to live your life in the name of Christ. 
 
Rahab is an amazing hero of the Bible.  I can see Jesus growing up looking through the family photo book and coming to the picture of Rahab the prostitute.  A smile on his face.  No shame. Pride. Her name and nickname are ironic, an ancestor named after the Egyptian god RA, and a lowly Prostitute.   But it’s her character, not her name, which brings satisfaction.  Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.  She may be known in history as Rahab the Prostitute, but her character is Rahab the Redeemed.  Amen.