21st.: Rahab’s Turning to the God of the Jews
The Israelites were about to invade Palestine.
Joshua sent two men to spy out Jericho.
While in Jericho, a prostitute named Rahab temporarily hid the two spies from arrest,
“And she said unto the men, ‘I know that the Lord has given you the land,
and that your terror is fallen upon us. … And as soon as we [the people of Jericho] heard these things,
our hearts did melt. … for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.
Now, therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness,
that ye will also show kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token,
and that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters,
and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.’” (Josh. 2:9-13).
Word traveled fast. After hearing how God had wupped Egypt, for Israel's sake,
Rahab knew the Israelite God was the real God.
Rahab did not know how to pray like the Jews.
But, when she realized that some Jews were in her city, she reached out to them.
She hoped that her kindness, or something, would be enough to get her on God’s good side.
Josh. 6:25 tells us that Joshua saved Rahab.
Much later, Matt. 1:5a tells us, “Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab”.
God saw her faith in Him, and honored her by putting her into Jesus’ ancestry.
“For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man has, and not according to that he has not.” (2nd Cor. 8:12)