Rahab the Redeemed
Joshua: Strong and Courageous • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Joshua 2
1 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.
2 And it was told to the king of Jericho, “Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.” 3 Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.” 4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. 5 And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.” 6 But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. 7 So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. And the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out.
8 Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof 9 and said to the men, “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. 10 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. 11 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.
12 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 13 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.”
14 And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.” 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. 16 And she said to them, “Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward you may go your way.” 17 The men said to her, “We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear. 18 Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. 19 Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. 20 But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear.” 21 And she said, “According to your words, so be it.” Then she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window
22 They departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned, and the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing. 23 Then the two men returned. They came down from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they told him all that had happened to them. 24 And they said to Joshua, “Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.”
The stories here in the OT reveal God to us — His nature, His character, and His ways. Because Jesus is Himself God, and because all of redemptive history points toward the cross or from the cross, all of Scripture speaks of Jesus.
We can see that even here in this passage.
God prepares people for His plan.
God makes Himself known so people might know Him.
God can use anyone in His redemptive plan.
God welcomes the foreigner into His family through faith.
God can redeem anyone’s past as they trust Him with their future.
These would all be true, and good, and most of them were part of the sermon I had prepared. (We will revisit some of these as we continue today)
While this story (and all of Scripture) is ultimately about God and His plan, this particular story is also about a woman named Rahab, and her faith.
And while it is always important for us to recognize what a particular passage says about God (and we will), I also want to see what this passage says about Rahab and her faith — because it is remarkable.
And it is not just me who thinks so. The author of Hebrews found her faith so remarkable that she is only one of two women listed in Hebrews 11 - the chapter that is known as the “Hall of Faith.” She is placed alongside Sarah — the mother of the nation of Israel even though Rahab was born into a people that were the enemy of Israel.
It is helpful to look at Rahab’s life not only because she is highlighted in Hebrews but because Paul reminds us that the events in the OT serve as examples for us today.
After describing the events of Israel in the wilderness, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:6
6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.
11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
While circumstances change, we can see how people who face similar temptations and trials as we face interact with the God who is forever the same.
Because of this, let’s take a look at the faith of Rahab.
How important is faith in your life?
According to Gallup Poll:
“Religion 'Very Important' to About Half of Americans”
“Forty-five percent of Americans say religion is "very important" in their life, with another 26% saying it is "fairly important" and 28% saying it's "not very important."”
Now while you may think this is a high number,
“When Gallup first asked this question in 1965, 70% said religion was very important. That fell to 52% in a 1978 survey, but the percentage ticked up to nearly 60% between 1990 and 2005. Over the past 20 years, a declining share of Americans have said religion is important, dropping below 50% for the first time in 2019.”
True, religion is not the same as faith, and even faith needs some definition.
Some people may speak of faith generally while others may be specific about who or what they place their faith in.
The reality is, if faith in your life doesn’t make a difference, you’ll tend to be indifferent to a life of faith.
I don’t know about you, but I want experience a faith that makes a difference. Don’t you want that kind of faith as well? This is the faith we will see with Rahab, and as we explore her example of faith, we will learn how we too can have a faith that makes a difference.
Courageous faith (2-4)
Courageous faith (2-4)
Jericho was a city-state ruled by a king. The city was about 8-9 acres and surrounded by double walls about fifteen feet apart.
Joshua sent spies into the city to scope it out not because he was unsure of whether they could take the city (he was one of the two spies who had believed God could help them defeat the city forty years earlier), but likely to learn about the city before they did take it.
We’re told that the spies came to “the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there.” Anyone else have some questions?!
It doesn’t seem there is anything rated R happening.
While it is true that Rahab was a prostitute, it is unlikely that the house was in a red light district. It is more likely a tavern or public house of some sort where travellers would come and stay
As a public house like a tavern, it would have been a great place for the spies to gain information about the city.
All of the wording used about the spies coming into the house and lodging and everything surrounding this part of the story seems very innocuous.
How the people of the city learned about the Israelites and all that God had been doing with them we don’t know (perhaps because many of the city-states in Canaan were vassals to Pharaoh in Egypt?).
Whatever the case , the king learns about the spies and somehow learns they are at Rahab’s house.
Rahab was told, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.” 4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them.
That’s pretty courageous! Rahab risked everything to hide the spies. She did this because she believed the God they served was real, and that was worth the risk of going against the king.
We’ll learn later in the story that Rahab recognized that the king and his orders would only be temporary as she believed that God had given the city over to the Israelites.
How courageous is your faith? Are you willing to buck the system to follow God?
To go against the “everybody is doing it?” To go against the king (or our president) should he or the government call us to something against God’s Word?
Imperfect faith (5-7)
Imperfect faith (5-7)
And she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. 5 And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.” 6 But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them
uhhhh. . . that sounds like a lie.
Is it ok to lie in this circumstance? Scholars and ethicists have debated this probably since Joshua’s day.
22 Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.
Rahab was faced with a dilemma: lie or risk the lives of the spies. Two principles in conflict: 1) it is wrong to tell a lie, 2) we should protect human life.
Two schools of thought:
Take the lesser of two evils: is it worse to tell a lie or allow someone to die?
Lying is wrong no matter what and should be avoided trusting God will honor the truth by protecting the life in another manner.
What would you do? (**Take a poll**)
ILLUST - Corrie ten Boom - early 1940’s Netherlands. Corrie lied to soldier about a private radio.
“During the war Germany needed labor for their munitions factories. They would suddenly surround a block and round up the men ages 16 - 30 and send them off to Germany to work in their factories. So families started sending their men into hiding or dressing them up as women when they went out or finding emergency hiding places in their houses. Corrie’s sister’s family had devised a plan to use a small potato cellar in the kitchen floor to hide their sons. They arranged a large rug over it and centered the kitchen table over it.
Sure enough one day they needed it. Two of their sons came flying in the house saying the soldiers were two houses down and on their way. They hid in the potato cellar. The one soldier asked their sister if she had brothers and where they were. Even though she had been taught not to ever lie, Corrie thought, ‘surely now of all times a lie is permissible!’ The sister told them they were under the table. When the soldier went to look the girl started laughing hysterically and the soldiers thought she was laughing at them. They stopped searching and left.”
Should Rahab have refused to answer? Should Rahab have told the king the truth and allowed God to free them another way?
Either way, God worked through Rahab and her decision to lie.
God can use imperfect people.
You do not need to be perfect for God to use you in a mighty way. You do not need to have the perfect answer for God to work through you. You simply need a humble heart and a trusting faith.
Other than Jesus, name one person in all of Scripture who did not screw up at some point.
Is anyone here perfect - never screw up — YOU JUST DID!
God honors the heart that, however limited or imperfect, is aimed at his glory.
Confident faith (8-10)
Confident faith (8-10)
10 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.
Rahab actually exhibited more faith than the ten spies from Israel forty years prior.
Her faith was based on facts not feelings.
Her confidence was rooted in what she had heard about God and the stories of what God had done through others.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
The confidence of Rahab’s faith came from the reality of who God is and not how she felt.
Her faith was convinced by the words about God. Our faith should be convinced by the Word of God.
God’s Word is trustworthy and true.
“Well, I have a lot of questions and problems with the Bible, but it’s not a big deal right now”
ILLUST - Anchoring to a floating log on Promised Land lake instead of a grounded log — left you floating.
How confident that what you believe is TRUE? Life and death confident?
Saving faith (11)
Saving faith (11)
Saving faith requires that you know God:
TRULY
Rahab had a remarkable understanding of God for a pagan prostitute! She had arguably more faith than many of the previous generation of the Israelites! She may not have known much about Yahweh, but what she did know was correct. She doesn’t need fully informed faith but she does need true faith.
PERSONALLY (through Jesus)
“I know that the Lord has given you the land,
Rahab used the personal name for God at least three times in this passage.
In a land that worshipped many gods (Baal, Asherah, and others), Rahab recognized it was not a god that was giving Israel the land but Yahweh, the God of the Israelites.
ONLY
for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.
Rahab’s culture and upbringing would have stated that Baal and Asherah shared the ruling of the heavens and the earth, but Rahab claimed it was Yahweh alone who ruled all.
Also, Rahab stated that Yahweh is God, none of the others.
The same is true for saving faith today.
Saving faith requires that you know God TRULY, PERSONALLY (Through Jesus), and ONLY.
Joshua (2) Rahab’s Faith in Words (2:9–14)
Here was Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute who presumably knew her culture’s religious traditions, affirming that Israel’s God ruled over the very heavens and earth that her own religious traditions asserted belonged to Baal, Asherah, and others.
Second, Rahab stated that Israel’s God, Yahweh, was indeed (the only) God: “the LORD your God is God.” “Yahweh” was the true God’s personal name, just as “Baal” or “Asherah,” “Marduk,” or “Ishtar” were the personal names of Canaanite and Babylonian gods, respectively. Thus, when Rahab stated that “Yahweh your God is God,” she was stating that Baal, Asherah, and the rest were not true gods.
Expectant faith (12-14)
Expectant faith (12-14)
Rahab’s faith was operating more out of what she was expecting (salvation) than what she had experienced.
She didn’t place her faith in God only after she experienced the things he could do for her.
Instead, Rahab had an expectant faith about what God had promised to do.
How much of your faith and trust is contingent on what God has done for you, rather than on what he has promised to do?
Defining faith (15-21)
Defining faith (15-21)
ILLUST - Did you ever have a nickname or a label in high school? Mine was “Stickman” because I was so skinny.
When you think of Rahab, what do you think of? Rahab the _________ (Prostitute)?
Why do think that way? True, she started out that way:
prostitute
socially marginalized
insignificant
used and abused?
under judgment (by people and God)
But then, by faith, she trusted God’s Word through the spies and became:
redeemed
significant
part of a new people (when she went and lived with the Israelites)
Did you know that Rahab shows up three other times outside of the Book ofJoshua?
31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
25 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?
Why don’t we call her “Rahab the Justified” or “Rahab the faithful”?
God redeems your past when you trust Him with your future.
God gives us a new identity through redemption.
That is the most important thing about Rahab - and it is the most important thing about YOU!
God gives OTHERS a new identity through redemption.
God gives OTHERS a new identity through redemption.
*Who do we label (in our hearts, minds, or words) with who they were or what they have done to us rather than with who they are in Christ and what HE has done for them?
Anyone can become a part of the family of God through faith. (Matthew 1:5)
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,
Rahab was defined more by her faith than by her failures.
How are you defined?
Courageous faith
Courageous faith
Confident faith
Confident faith
Saving faith
Saving faith
Expectant faith
Expectant faith
Your past failures don’t define you, your faith does
There is nothing about rahabs beauty, strength, talent, etc. only her faith.
She is remembered by her faith - how will you be remembered?
