Messianic Women - Rahab and the Spies

Rahab and the Spies

Reading:        Joshua 2:1-24

Introduction

It's always fun to boast about one's famous ancestors, isn't it?

I haven’t got any famous ancestors as far as I know.  But I remember Jacky Wise telling me that a famous ancestor of hers was the first European to climb Mount Taranaki in the north island of New Zealand.

I'm sure you all have ancestors you like to talk about as well.

In the light of this, it's interesting to look at the genealogy of Jesus, which is recorded in Matthew chapter one.

Of course Jesus had all sorts of famous and illustrious ancestors: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; King David; King Solomon and many other names we recognise. These are just the kind of names we would expect to find in the ancestry of the King of the Jews. But there are some surprising names there as well. For a start there are some women mentioned, which is surprising given the time it was written.

Who are these women? Well, working backwards, there's Mary, Jesus' mother, of course. Then there's Bathsheba, Uriah the Hittite's wife who bore Solomon to David. So, hang on a minute, already we have a frank admission that Jesus' ancestry includes an adulterous relationship. Before that was Ruth: well, she's OK at least. But just before that we come to Rahab, whom we heard about in the readings today.

How did that get past the editor? I don't think I would have put that one in. Here we have recorded in black and white, in the first paragraph of the New Testament, that Rahab, a pagan prostitute from a heathen people, was one of the ancestors of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That makes this story we heard earlier pretty intriguing, doesn't it? Let's find out how this extraordinary situation came about. It's all in Joshua chapter 2.

Joshua and Jericho

Let's recap the story so far.

Joshua and the Israelites are on the border of the land that God has promised them. For forty years they have been wandering about in the desert, but God is finally going to give them what He has promised.

However, the important pagan city of Jericho stands between them and the land. Perhaps daunted by this, Joshua sent two spies over the river to check out the city and report back to him.

We're told in verse one of chapter two that the spies go to stay at the house of Rahab the prostitute. You may have a footnote that suggests that Rahab might have been an innkeeper and not a prostitute, but this is just a prudish attempt to sanitize her. The New Testament is unequivocal on this matter: she was a prostitute. And, of course, the prostitute's house was an inspired choice of place for the spies to stay. Who would concern themselves with two men coming and going from a brothel? What better place to find out all the gossip about what was going on in the city?

It appears that Rahab had a more respectable trade as well, working with flax, and she hid the spies under the large stalks of flax drying on the flat roof of her house. In Rahab the spies had clearly found an ally. What was it that made her take such an incredible risk? What made Rahab betray her people like this?

The Signs of the Times

Well, Rahab had seen the signs of the times, and that is my first heading: Rahab saw the signs of the times.

What Rahab saw was that her world was going to change it was destined for destruction.

It wasn't just that there was a large army camped just over the river from her: after all Jericho was a heavily fortified city, ordinarily they would have fancied their chances. No, Rahab knew that they had no chance because it was God's Kingdom itself that was coming.

Rahab had no doubt: God's Kingdom was coming and her world was going to change.

And we should have no doubt either: God's Kingdom is coming, and our world is going to change too.

Let me challenge you to think tonight: where is your allegiance? Are you attached to this world that we can see and feel all around us, but which is just temporary? Or do you want to be part of God's coming Kingdom? Is it time to switch allegiances?

So, what does it mean for us to switch allegiences? Rahab shows us the way. First of all, like Rahab in Jericho, we need to see the signs of the times: God's kingdom is coming. And next, like Rahab, we need to do something about it.

An act of faith

That brings me to my second heading, Rahab's act of faith.  According to Rahab, everybody in the country could see that God's Kingdom was coming and feared the consequences, but in the end only Rahab had the faith to do something about it.

Her first act of faith we saw in verse 1, when she let the spies stay at her house. But somehow news about them and what they were up to leaked out, and the king sent guards to Rahab to capture the spies. Rahab's second act of faith was in protecting the Israelites by sending the guards on a wild goose chase.

Out of all the people of Jericho, Rahab was the only one who did anything. The others had belief, but Rahab had faith. This shows us a sharp distinction between the two.

An act of faith in God is an act of defiance against the world.  So, how are we going to show our defiance to this world, that we no longer belong to it? Rahab harboured spies; how will we show our faith? Here are some ideas.

Our world says you are what you own; shop, shop, shop seven days a week. So when we refuse to shop or work on Sundays and come to church instead then we are honouring God and committing an act of defiance against the world.

Our world says that we are only to be considered successful if we are in jobs that pay a lot of money. So every time we do a good deed of love in secret for no reward then we are honouring God and committing an act of defiance against the world.

So, Rahab saw the signs of the times: God's Kingdom was coming, and she showed her faith by what she did, thoroughly putting most of us to shame in the process.

Saved by Grace

But there is some really good news here. In the end Rahab was not saved from the destruction by what she did; she was saved from the destruction by the mercy of the Israelites. And that gives us a third heading: saved by grace.

So the Israelite spies promise that she will be saved if and only if she ties a scarlet cord to her window frame, which the Israelite army will be able to see as it approached Jericho.

This choice of sign must have had great resonance for the spies. Just a few years earlier the Israelites themselves had gone through an amazing rescue by God. In living memory of the Israelites would have been that amazing passover night when God had gone through Egypt and slain the firstborn of every household. But in those households where the scarlet blood of a passover lamb had been smeared on the door frame God spared the family. Those were the houses of the faithful Israelites.

Now again we have the same symbolism: not scarlet blood, but a scarlet cord; not a door frame, but a window frame. Nonetheless, a sign of God's saving grace.

Perhaps too many questions would have been asked if Rahab had sacrificed a lamb to smear its blood on the window frame, but she could get away with hanging out a scarlet cord: it was probably a sign of her trade, a pre-electric version of the red light district. God turned this sordid symbol into a wonderful sign of salvation.

And we know, don't we, of another sordid symbol that God has turned into a wonderful sign of salvation. I'm talking about the cross on which Jesus was crucified. This Roman torture instrument—the electric chair of its day—has become for us the wonderful way that God rescues us from this world.

Rahab and her family didn't save themselves: they didn't need to fight their way out of Jericho with swords when the Israelites came.

No, in faith they put up the sign that had been given to them, and waited for rescue: God's rescue. It wasn't their work, it was God's: that's why I called this section "saved by grace". It's a gift of God, freely given to those who want it.

So that's the answer to the question that I asked earlier, isn't it? How are you and I going to make sure that we will be rescued into God's Kingdom? Well, the answer is that we simply need to make sure that we are marked with that scarlet sign: the blood of Jesus, and God will do the rest. How do we receive this sign from God? Just by putting our faith in him: a genuine faith in which belief and actions go together.

Conclusion

I think that if this pagan prostitute from a heathen nation can become an ancestor of our Lord then there is hope for all of us.

Far from being ashamed of her, she is an ancestor to be proud of, because when she saw God's kingdom coming she decided where her allegiance lay; she acted on that decision which made her a traitor to her world; and she put her trust in God to save her.

This is exactly the same way that God deals with us today.

Let us pray: Thank you Jesus for the example of your ancestor Rahab.  Help us to know that God's kingdom is coming. Help us to put our faith in God and to act on that faith. Thank you that we can have the certain hope, because of the blood that Jesus shed, that God will rescue us when he comes.  Amen.