If you have not read Abby’s first post, “Neither Do I Condemn You”, read it. I am so excited to have her a part of this team. But, I believe that I am even more excited to see God move through her and her testimony. When I read her first post, I had two thoughts come to mind;
How do I follow a post like that?
Whoa, that was good.
This week, I struggled when writing this post, so I asked Abby to post hers first. After reading hers, I struggled with this even more. I struggled to create the perfect title, the perfect quotable snippets to create that perfect social media post. I wanted things to be perfect, but while studying scriptures, I was reminded that God never used the “perfect” people to tell His story.
Today, I am going to talk about Rahab the prostitute. Her profession is not easy to talk about in any generation or time period, yet God used her. Rahab had a reputation—a nasty one. Most people were ashamed to know her. You didn’t go knock on her door asking to borrow a cup of sugar; you didn’t ask her to go on a walk through the neighborhood with you. If you knew her, you probably didn’t let many people know.
In Joshua 2, Rahab gets a knock on the door from two men. These two men were not her usual clientele, they were her enemies, they were Israelites. Later, the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab asking her to bring out the men that entered her house because he knew they were spies. Rahab’s profession allowed her to easily hide these men and lie to the King about them (still) being in her house. In verse 4, we see that Rahab told the King,
“yes, the men did come to me, but I didn’t know where they were from. At nightfall, when the city gate was about to close, the men went out, and I don’t know where they were going. Chase after them quickly, and you can catch them!”
In verses 8 through 12, we see something interesting. We see Rahab telling the spies that she knows and has heard what “the LORD” has done when allowing them to take over lands in the past. She and her family fear death because she knows that God has promised them the land of Jericho. She pleads with the spies to have God save her and her family.
We know that Rahab was saved as well as her family. One of the beautiful takeaways from this passage is that regardless of the reputation that she had, Rahab was faithful to God and trusted him. Rahab didn’t have to “fix herself” before God could use her. He used all of her, right then.
Rahab had a reputation, just like we all do. Our reputation may sometimes be the basis our life, but it is God’s reputation that is the basis of our faith. Rahab spoke of the things she had heard of the God of the Israelites. She spoke of a God who continually delivered his people out of bondage and trouble. She spoke of a God who continually saved the lives of his people. She spoke of a God who wiped out the enemies trying to attack or harm his people. In the end, Rahab saw a God that was faithful to her and her people regardless of any reputation that was given to her.
As sinful humans, we are so quick to judge, believe, and destroy the reputation of a person. We are so quick to consult the opinions of others, rather than try and see how God may be working in that person’s life.
Due to the faithfulness of Rahab, we see her name mentioned several times even in the New Testament. We see her name mentioned in Matthew 1:5 in none other than the lineage of Jesus! Wow, a sinful prostitute used to bring the Son of God into the world!! We also see Rahab pop up later in Hebrews 11 in the “Role Call of Faith”, after she is mentioned the writer of Hebrews goes on to say that he doesn’t have time to talk about, David, Samson, Samuel or the rest of the prophets. He stops with “Rahab the Prostitute”.
Rahab is again mentioned in James 2:25, we see that the words “prostitute” and “justified”/“righteous” are used in the same sentence. This is something that I struggled with. Multiple times in scripture, people change their names because of a life change. Saul to Paul, Abram to Abraham; but that wasn’t the case with Rahab. Her occupation still continues to follow her name even after she is shown to be “justified”.
My only takeaway is this: Rahab has a beautiful story, she is identified by the redemption of her past. But because God worked in her life, she is unveiled to be righteous. She didn’t run from her past but embraced a new future found in Jesus. I am not sure why in scriptures she is still identified by her past occupation, but I will say that her faith is one I can learn from! She knew she had a reputation, and she knew of a God who could save her. She didn’t try to fix herself before following Jesus, she just came to him and the cleanup followed.
Thank you all so much for following along on this journey and welcome Abby!! We love you all and we are very excited for the future!!
-Courtney
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