By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who
were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
Rahab is only one of four women who are mentioned in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus. Tamar, another harlot, a cursed Moabite woman, Ruth and a somewhat veiled reference
to Bathsheba, an adulteress.
Jewish genealogies usually don’t include women at all, not to mention that these four are hardly examples of virtue and righteousness. It seems like Jesus’ royal genealogy
is filled with sinners…And that is because it is. But why?
Think of these four women: Tamar, her story is one of incest, deception and prostitution. Judah, the son of Jacob had chosen this woman as a wife for his son, Er.
But Er was evil and God killed him. Er’s brother Onan was then to become Tamar’s husband as the law required. But he refused to have a child by her and so God killed Onan as well. Frustrated and without child, she would not wait on the Lord and so she dressed
up as a prostitute and solicited her father-in-law, Judah. Twin sons were born and Perez, the oldest, carried on the Messianic line. We almost shudder at such an episode, and many Christians just as soon ignore that this woman is found in the sacred genealogies.
Ruth was a Moabite. If you remember your history, the entire Moabite race was a product of incest between Lot and his daughter. Because of this, their existence was
a stench to the Israelites, they hated this people and God in his law, would not allow the Moabites to enter the worship of God for 10 generations. And yet Ruth the Moabite, became a trophy of grace as well as the wife of Boaz and the great grandmother of
King David. She too is found in the genealogy of Christ, a Gentile from paganism. And of course, there is Bathsheba and we are well aware of her story, but it is her son Solomon who will be heir to the throne of David.
“The reality that the Messianic line was populated with Gentiles, fornicators, adulteresses, liars, cursed kings and other sinners was something most of Matthew’s
readers would have preferred to ignore. That is the kind of truth men’s writings frequently gloss over, but the Bible…refuses to obscure what is truly important.” (J. MacArthur, God with Us.)
Rahab is the proof that those who enter heaven do so not because of their ethnic or national identity, not because they find themselves in the right place at the right time,
and certainly not because they are better than others. Rahab was a prostitute for goodness sake! People got a place in the Promised Land only
because they trusted in the Lord, and joined themselves to His people.
Rahab was a pagan. Imagine her life. She made her living in a disreputable and dehumanizing occupation; as disreputable and as dehumanizing in her day as it is in ours. She
impresses us here and perhaps she was an able woman, but the life of a prostitute is a hard life and would have been still worse in 15th century B.C. Canaan. She had probably adjusted herself to her life in Canaanite society, brutalized and brutalizing as
it was. It never ceases to amaze me what people will get used to.
But this woman came to trust in the Lord and was saved together with her family. “I will be a God to you and to your children after her,”was a promise Yahweh made to
all who believe in him, whatever their background, however wicked their past.
Indeed, as mentioned we read later not only that Rahab became a citizen of Israel but married an Israelite and became an ancestress of Jesus Christ!
Rahab was the first Canaanite convert to faith in the living God, but she would not be the last. If you want to know why the author of the book of Joshua thought it important
to report this episode of the spies and Rahab, consider this: That the Canaanite lady of ill repute became a hero of Israel’s history and an ancestress of the King of Kings is the entire message of the Bible compressed into an individual personal history.
[Davis, 29]
And if the history of Joshua and the conquest of Canaan is a picture of the salvation of the people of God from sin and death, as the rest of the Bible teaches that it is, then
Rahab teaches us that anyone can find that salvation if only he or she will believe that God is the rewarder of those who seek him.
That is the point of the genealogies and it is the point underlying why she is mentioned in Hebrews 11. The grace of God is on display. Grace that assures his people
of his promises and grace that brings sinners to see clearly the majesty of this great God and Savior and to seek refuge in Him.
The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a club, it is not where you go to have your children socialized or to try and find some friends to play cards with. It is
not a place where you must first go and get your life together and polish the outside so that you can come and be accepted. It is not a place where you are to be placated in your guilt, or have your self-esteem coddled or to meet business contacts.
The church, the people of God, is a refuge for sinners…It is a place for the outcast like Ruth, and the notoriously wicked who seek to turn from sin unto life, like
Rahab. It is a place for sinners who have been touched by the grace of God and even overwhelmed by who He is and who put on no masks, no false faces and who are tired of pretending to be something they are not and instead want only to be what grace alone can
make them.
It is for those who understand that we are very much like the great, great grandmother of David, Rahab, the prostitute! WE are wickedly sinful in the eyes of God,
BUT, God has lavished love upon us to give us faith and to cause us to embrace the promises He has made.
Brothers and sisters, let me ask a question. We have no problem with this story, no problem with Rahab. In fact, we like to hear sermons about her and about what God
did for her, and we smile and maybe even have a warm feeling inside. We have no problem thinking of her living within Israel from this day forward, now, a grafted in part of the people of God, by the grace of God, isn’t that wonderful!
But what would you think if she were here in OUR midst? And remember, like you, her sanctification was not instantaneous. She did not come into the body without baggage,
without sin still needing to be dug out and killed. She wasn’t Rahab one day and the virgin Mary the next.
Would you let your daughter talk to her? If you saw Rahab approach her and begin talking over by the drinking fountain, would your heart race faster thinking only
that you needed to get your precious one away from such a woman?
What would you do if you found out that in our congregation we have those who have struggled in the past with homosexuality, or who were thieves, or drug users, or
some who even sold drugs, or who were in prison? What would you do if you found out that the woman next to you had an abortion before she was a Christian, or was sexually abused growing up? Would you keep your distance? Would you have your children keep theirs?
Would such a person be a project of the church, or would they simply be a brother or sister in Christ?
We like to think that Rahab would of course be welcomed in our midst, but I am not convinced we could handle knowing the truth about one another, and what God has
saved us from, let alone a woman such as this. Even those who confess grace, confess sinfulness, in many ways don’t really think they are all that bad, and don’t really see grace the way this woman does, the way Rahab does…I wish it was not this way, but I
am not so sure we really, really understand the depths of our own sin and the absolute miracle that the grace of God is. Many folks can embrace Rahab in pages and ink, but when she sits next to them in the pew, well, that is different.
How can we say that we understand grace and forgiveness if we cannot relate to Rahab? How can we sing, “The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day,
and there have I as vile as he washed all my sins away? ”Do you really see yourself as vile as he? Or does it just sound pious, besides…you like the tune.
So, what is on display? Rahab? Jericho? The spies? No. Rahab’s story puts the grace of God and the faith He gives, on display and more powerfully because the backdrop
of grace is the judgment of God…but that is always the case, isn’t it?
Grace given to you because God the Father judged God the Son, in your place. Oh, my brothers and sisters, do we really believe that there is a fountain filled with
blood, drawn from Emmanuel’s veins…do we really believe that sinners plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains?
Prayer: Father, I too often forget that life is connected. I like to live my life in and with many compartments and closed off areas that are just for me…as though
I can keep you out of those areas wherein I live for myself. Forgive me for my foolishness. Help me to see and to live a life where all aspects touch and where Christ Jesus is at the center; Lord over all things in the world and all things in my living, thinking
and desiring, for then will Jesus truly be Lord of my life. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
Hymn: Nunc Dimittis
