If you are familiar with the story of Joshua and the tumbling walls of Jericho (which skeptics like to debate), then you have also heard the story of Rahab. Rahab’s story has been told many times in fictional ways. I wrote about her life in The Crimson Cord a few years ago. And in She Walked Before Us* I add a few new fictional scenes, but then we dive into what we do and do not know about her. *Affiliate link
The Bible tells us Rahab was a prostitute. In her day we would probably consider her a high-ranking madame or courtesan. Since the king of the city knew where she lived, I’m guessing some of her clients were wealthy men of the city. In other words, she was more than someone who sold herself simply to survive. She owned a house in the city wall, men listened to her and accepted what she said, and her family believed her when she told them to come and live with her without giving them an explanation as to why. (She promised the spies she would not tell anyone about them.)
But the biggest thing that set Rahab apart and what got her mentioned in the New Testament and landed her in the lineage of grace – the line of Jesus Christ – was her faith.
Interesting word – faith.
We all know that faith is believing in something that we can’t see. We practice it all of the time with everyday objects. We trust by faith the chair to hold our weight. We trust the sun to come up each morning and set each evening. We believe a storm is coming because we can feel the strength of the wind or hear the thunder in the distance. We can’t know for sure any of these things will happen but we’ve heard or seen the affects of our faith in the past so we believe the next time things will be the same.
Rahab was not unfamiliar with faith in what we would call idols—images made to look like animals or humans or both. People in her culture believed—put their faith in their idols. They just didn’t believe in the God they couldn’t see. Well…maybe they did, but not with a faith that could protect and save them. They feared what He might do because they’d heard the stories of what He’d done to other nations in protection of Israel in times past.
Rahab heard those same stories and when spies from Israel came to her door, she had a choice to make. Dare she take a risk and trust that this unseen God who had destroyed other nations on Israel’s behalf was real? Dare she ask that she and her family be protected from what was sure to be coming calamity?
Dare she trust Israel’s God when she had no object that represented Him? Nothing at which to aim her faith except those stories? Dare she trust Him?
The spies asked Rahab to help them and in that moment, she made her decision to ask them for a promise. She would help them if they would help her. In that moment, she put her faith, shaky as it might have been, in Israel’s God to save her.
And He did.
In our world, we don’t see the same idols Rahab was familiar with, though we have plenty of subtle idols that infect our world. Whatever we worship other than God becomes our idol. How can we tell what they might be? What do we love more than God? What do we want more than anything else? If we can’t say we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength—above all others—we have something else taking His place in our hearts.
We’re worshiping a different god. Maybe we’re worshiping ourselves, which seems to be the biggest idol in the world today. We are obsessed with self and selfish or self-serving pursuits. Most of the time we don’t even realize it.
But one day we are going to face something perhaps a little bit like Rahab did and have to make a choice in whom we are going to trust. Will it be ourselves? Someone else? Some ideology? Or God our Maker? (By the way, the God of Scripture is not an ideology. He’s a person. Faith in Him means being in a relationship with Him. Very different than a simple ideology.)
Rahab had to make that choice rather quickly. Sometimes faith is like that. In a moment. With the flip of a switch in our minds, we can choose and we can change. God makes it easy to come to Him. We make it hard when we turn away from Him.
Do you think Rahab made a wise choice? Even if she chose out of fear, the seeds of faith were planted. And seeds planted in good soil or the truth planted in a ready heart, grows strong.
Next time – Deborah
~Selah #behindthesceneswithrahab #rahab #faith #worship
