1 PP The Wonder Woman series: Rahab Part 2-Joshua 2, 6 (p. 178 Pew bible) 6/18-19/2018 We just began the Wonder Woman series, and last week we looked at the Rebekah, Isaac s wife I was told that there was someone who fell asleep in that sermon, surprisingly, a woman! I mean I expected some guys to nod off here and there, but a lady, in a Wonder Woman series?? So I thought this week we d look closely at someone that will surely keep you awake a pagan prostitute Innkeeper, who shows us the power of faith! Her origin story begins in Joshua 2, And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, Go, view the land, especially Jericho. And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. Joshua 2:1 PP Rahab is a picture of sinner living in a fallen world Israel is camped about 7 miles east of the Jordan River at a place called Abel Shittim It had been 40 years since Israel had left Egypt, wandering in the wilderness, but now the time had come to go in and conquer the land that God had promised them to possess Moses had died, Joshua was now leading them, and he sent two spies into a town called Jericho PP (Map) Jericho was the gateway to the land of Canaan, 5 miles West of the Jordan River, 6 miles North of the Dead Sea, and 16 Northeast of Jerusalem You may have heard stories of Jericho and imagined a golden walled metropolis the size of NYC But in reality, the city was around 8 acres in size with a population of 1500-2000 people It may be the world s oldest city, certainly one its lowest at 740 feet below sea level It was more of a fortress, where the people who lived in the outlying villages could flee in danger The two spies go in, and enter into the house of a prostitute named Rahab whom Jewish tradition lists as one of the 4 most beautiful women in the bible We find out that our wonder woman sells her body, not as a religious pagan priestess, a merchant She doesn t sound so wonder-full at all We tend to like our heroes cleaned up, lives straightened away, great examples for our kids! We would even be pretty much okay if the bible says they went into the house of Rahab, who used to be a prostitute but now is living for the LORD Yet, all indications are that at present, Rahab is a prostitute, selling her body to make a living The story begins here, and she is a clear picture of really, all human beings God s grace isn t given to those who have cleaned up their act, or gotten their lives together His grace is given to those in desperate need, who are sinners, who do not deserve it, and are helpless to ever get their lives straightened up Not only is she a sinner as all people are, she is living among a fallen, God-opposing people She is a Canaanite, an incredibly decayed people, living in Jericho, an exceedingly wicked city A city so bad that after its fall, God commanded it to be burned and never rebuilt God had given this land to Abraham for his descendants to possess, but waited century after century until their wickedness had become complete In other words, God gave time for the people in this land to repent, but instead, they increased their wickedness until the possibility of repentance was gone, it was too late
2 There are many who are troubled that God would dispossess these people from this land, destroying most of them in the process, accusing God as cruel, unfair and unjust Yet this land never belonged to them, they were squatters whom the Creator of the universe allowed to remain for a time giving them time to repent Imagine the following scenario for a moment Let s say you start a company, and you hire employees, and one of your employees hates you, and rarely does what you ask, and when he does, never does it as well as you d like This worker doesn t care about your company s reputation at all and every pay check he complains it is never enough Your other employees keep asking, Why aren t you getting rid of this guy, he deserves firing? But you respond that you want time for him to change, to show him your kindness Now imagine that you and your employee live unnaturally long lives, hundreds of years And for 400 years you employ this worker, and instead of getting gradually better as a worker, he actually gets worse, much worse To the point that he now only does what he wants, not what you tell him, and he is utterly selfish, and hateful to your other employees, refusing to work in a way that you ask Still, your patience stretches on, and you give him another 40 years to change, making it clear to him what will happen if he doesn t But there is a day when your patience comes to an end, so after 440 years of giving this worker a chance to change, to apologize, but to no avail, you fire him, quickly and without mercy Would anyone be able to truly accuse you of mistreatment of this worker? After 440 years of patiently waiting, and encouraging, and warning him, he would not listen, would not heed, would not come in and ask for help to change his ways PP The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 God had told Abraham 685 years earlier, PP Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. Genesis 15:13-14, 16 The sin of the people in this land was not yet complete, but nearly 700 years later, it was, and God s judgment begins with Jericho, and finds an unlikely woman of faith PP Rahab is a picture of saving faith You have to wonder why the story of Rahab is even in the bible, for it has no bearing on the outcome of the fall of Jericho It shows the kindness of God that could have been given to the Canaanites if they had repented Even these cruel, wicked people, as this prostitute shows, could have been saved if they repented Rahab owns a house, likely an Inn, a B&B, except more bed than breakfast And we immediately wonder what two good Hebrews boys are doing in her house Jericho, being situated on the trade routes, was CNN in that day and since a prostitute interacted with merchants from all over the land, she was a perfect source of news If they want to discover the secrets of Jericho and its people, they came to the right place
3 But they were lousy spies and had been detected, and soldiers came to her house (2:3) If caught, they would have plucked out the eyes of these men, cut off their tongue and hands, and dragged half-alive through the streets of the city before stoned as a traitor Rahab holds their lives in her hands, so what will she do? 2:4 tells us that she lied, three times, and then manipulated the Jericho soldiers After they left, she went up onto the roof of her home where she d hidden the men under piles of flax drying in the sun waiting to be spun into linen cloth She digs them out and tells them the reason she did what she did I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt 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 devoted to destruction. Joshua 2:9-10 She knew that this land was given to Israel by the Lord, and the Canaanite lease was up By faith, Rahab could see the deed to the land of Canaan had been given to Israel by the Lord Faith had come to life within her the way it always does, For we have heard how the Lord 10 PP So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17 She didn t have a copy of the bible, or sit in SS classes being taught about Jehovah She had heard what the LORD had done, and knew He was greater than any other god And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Joshua 2:11 She didn t argue God s right to give the land to Israel, but acknowledged it to be rightfully true That is what saving faith is, which is why one day she would be written about in Hebrews By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. Hebrews 11:31 God had opened her eyes, just as He would one day with Peter and countless other believers PP And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father Who is in heaven. Matthew 16:17 Her eyes are opened, her faith explodes in righteous action, something which James explained PP And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. James 2:25-26 The Apostle Paul stresses the faith that results in works, James the works that result from faith Works cannot contribute to saving someone, yet faith must contribute to someone doing right things namely faith that pours forth in the evidence of someone possessing God s love Paul addresses the one who thinks salvation can be aided by doing right things James addresses the one who thinks you can be saved and not do right things Rahab s faith was seen in her actions as find that her house is built into the wall of Jericho PP (Pic) Archeology has revealed that Jericho had a great embankment surrounding the city, with both a lower and an upper wall At its base was a stone retaining wall 12-15 feet high on top of which was a 6-foot-thick mudbrick wall, about 20-26 feet high At the crest of the embankment was another mudbrick wall some 46 feet high
4 Houses were often built between the two walls, and in fact, right into the walls according to 2:15, Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall. But not before she makes these spies take an oath PP Rahab is a picture of faithfulness to others Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father s house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death. Joshua 2:12-13 The spies give her their word, and also a scarlet cord to put in her window Might we see in this red cord a metaphor for the blood painted on the doorposts in Egypt? Or even a metaphor of the distant future when Jesus Christ will shed His blood to save sinners? Her faith moves her actions and she puts the cord immediately in the window, and when the city would fall, her and her family were spared from death PP But Rahab the prostitute and her father s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. Joshua 6:25 A German excavation in 1907 found on the northern stretch of the lower city a portion of wall that did not fall, and even more discovered there were houses built into that wall PP Rahab is a picture of God s exceedingly blessings And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Joshua 6:25 Rahab was blessed, and while she eventually died, she lived on in the greatest birth in human history, that of Jesus Christ, the Son of God She eventually married a Jewish leader in the tribe of Judah, whose name was Salmon Through them a man named Boaz would be born, who married Ruth, our next Wonder Woman Through Boaz and Ruth, Obed would be born, the father of Jesse, the father of David Rahab would be the ancestor of Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ PP The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. Matthew 1:1, 5-6, 16 God s grace took a prostitute who believed in Him, and saved her, listened to her cries for her family, and blessed her with the greatest blessing imaginable in her own lineage Do you know you are a great sinner, deserving the judgment of God? Have you heard of Jesus Christ and believed you can be saved from that judgment? Has your salvation resulted in great works for the Lord, seen in telling your family and friends of the hope of salvation you have experienced? Have you been able to see the great blessings God has given to you? Let s pray
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