Now, if you’re new to Christianity, something you have to get used to about God is that he has this wonderful habit of using very broken and very unqualified people to further his kingdom purposes. And you know, these are the people that we would say as you read through the Bible and you read about people like who we’re going to read about read about Rahab, you would say, you know, not a likely hero, not someone that I would have picked to do great things for God’s kingdom. He has this amazing ability. And of course, at the end of the day, we have to say he does use broken people. He doesn’t really have anything else to work with.

But I want you to think of someone. It can be anybody that maybe is in your life. Someone who you would say is very far from God. Someone who maybe you would call them they’re a on the list of least likely to be used by God. They would be someone you’d say not only are they non-Christian, they are anti-Christian.

They seem so far from receiving Jesus. I want you to think about that kind of person and know that the person that we’re going to be reading about this morning, Rahab, would fit into that category, least likely to be used by God. Joshua, we saw this last week, has been commissioned by God to be the the captain of Israel to lead God’s people into the promised land. God said to him, “Be strong and courageous.” And so, that’s what we’re we’re focusing on.

What does it look like to be strong and courageous in the fight of faith? How do we live this out as followers of Jesus? But in this time, Joshua, when God calls him to do this, he he doesn’t say, Joshua, you need to make sure that you’re studying all the maps of the region and get get, you know, get a military strategy book in front of you and study that really well. No, he says, Joshua, what you need to do is get the word of God in front of you and meditate on that day and night. That will be your guide.

That will give you the strength you need. And now in Joshua 2, we see this great example. Because she has the same faith despite being a a Canaanite, a pagan, and a prostitute, you know, least likely to be used by God. She puts her faith in the same God as Joshua. And she has a relationship with that same God.

Here’s the big idea this morning. Because we are saved by grace through faith. No matter how lost someone might be, they are never a lost cause. If you’re able to, would you stand for the reading of God’s holy and perfect word? Joshua chapter 2.

Joshua chapter 2. We’ll read a portion of this chapter here. It says this. And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shhatim 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.

And it was told to the king of Jericho, “Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.” 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. 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. 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.” But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with stocks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. 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.

Before the men laid down, she came up to them on the roof 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. 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. 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 Yahweh your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

Thank you. You may be seated. I love this story of Rahab’s faith. I love that God chooses to use an unlikely convert like her. You know, at the end of the book of Joshua, we read about Joshua when he’s an old man and he calls the tribes of Israel to himself and he says to them, speaking to all of them at the end of his days, he says, “Choose today who you will serve.

Make the choice. Are you going to serve the the gods of your ancestors beyond the river, or are you going to serve the Lord your God?” He says, “As for me in my house, we are going to serve the Lord.” And I imagine that scene. I picture Rahab among the throng at that time.

Later later on in her life, she’s now married to her husband Salmon. She’s got kids by her side. And I picture her saying, “Yes, I have chosen to forsake the gods of my ancestors, and I’m going to serve the Lord, and I will continue to serve the Lord my God.” And Rahab, this story is in the Bible to remind us of how gracious God is because it’s easy for us to forget this. It’s easy for us to downplay how gracious God really is.

And this is a story that the self-righteous, I would say, don’t really like. You know, those who are looking at this story, they say, well, you know, it’s kind of something it’s inconvenient in the text. Pastors can even come to this passage and say, “You know what? Let’s just skip it alto together because it’s about a prostitute.” And, you know, they look at this and they they’re like, “I don’t know what to do with that.

Let’s just pass over this.” But this passage is here for a reason. I also found it interesting to learn this last week that when the ancient rabbis taught this passage, told the story of Rahab, they specifically called her not a prostitute, but an inkeeper. Very interesting. They would always call her an inkeeper.

And as if that was that was, you know, that’s safe and clean for the whole family, right? But the Bible is rated R for redemption. It is rated R for redemption. If you try to whitewash the story of Rahab’s past, you what you do is you end up diminishing the grace of God. Because think about this, God wrote this story.

He could have left that inconvenient detail out of the story if he wanted to, but he wanted us to know Rahab was a prostitute. And not only that, but she was used by God in a mighty way at this pivotal time in redemptive history. Just think about that. God is writing the story. See, if the Bible was a book full of moral tales that we just need to read and follow along, this detail doesn’t make any sense.

It kind of gets in the way of what you would want to teach if you’re just teaching strict morality. But the Bible is a story of redemption. It’s a story of how we have all fallen short. We have all come to this point broken and sinful and God meets us where we’re at in all the mess of our lives and he says, “Guess what? I’m for you in Christ.

I can use you. I choose to use you for my glory. Even more interesting is that while the ancient rabbis refused to call Rahab a prostitute, the New Testament authors seem to make a point of it, like they go out of their way. Like James, for example, when he mentions Rahab, he even wants to do in his book, he’s making the case that works will always follow faith. And yet, what he does is he says, think of Rahab the prostitute.

That’s the way he brings her up. See, part of God’s glory and salvation is that he rescues and redeems big time sinners like Rahab and Jonah and David, Saul of Tarsus, Peter, Thomas. You could go on and on and on. That is the story of scripture. So, we shouldn’t celebrate sin.

Well, we got to be clear about that. We’re not celebrating sin, but we should celebrate the God who chooses to redeem those who are sinning. Think about how much was stacked against Rahab. She’s a pagan living in a pagan city. She lives in a society, think about this, a society where people bring their children, their own babies, and they offer them up on an altar to worship their gods.

That’s the kind of corruption that is happening in the Canaanite society. Not only that, but this this community, the Jericho community, was incredibly depraved. I don’t even want to get into all the details of how archaeology and and history has uncovered just how corrupt these people were. They were downright wicked and ripe for judgment. So God has already condemned the city to destruction.

He has already given Joshua the marching orders. Go forth, take the land, and Jericho is coming down. And God told them that Jericho is to be judged because the city is evil. God has every right to judge evil. Do we still believe that God has every right to judge evil?

In fact, he is the only one who has that ultimate right because he is perfectly good and holy and he misses nothing. And so when all the accounts are brought forward, only God is in that place of judgment. Only he can do that and he chooses to judge Jericho. But that’s the society Rahab grew up in. But now think about her own personal story.

Rahab does not come from a long line of faithful people. In fact, nobody in her family worships the one true God. And she’s living as a prostitute. And the people of Israel have just received a law that condemns sexual immorality. So everything about Rahab would say that she is one of those who’s least likely to be used by God.

She’s the kind of person someone would say, you know, we need to write her off immediately. In fact, if there’s one thing you remember from Sunday school, it’s that when Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, the walls came a tumbling down, right? And Rahab is living in those outer walls in Jericho. And so, she’s not likely to be used by God. Yet, the New Testament can’t help bringing her up as an example of faith.

First of all, we see that she has courageous faith. Rahab was willing to risk everything. In your notes, she was willing to risk everything to help these spies. It says in verse one, “And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, “Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.”

Now, on the surface, it looks like this is just an accidental encounter, like the the spies just happen to show up at the house of someone with faith, but we know God is the one orchestrating all the details here. Nothing is here by accident. And and it’s not as though the spies were in their strategy, they were thinking, “Okay, we need to find a house that’s just right. We need to find that one place where there’s a person of faith. No, not at all.

In fact, these spies seem pretty inept because they’re spotted and pegged right away as spies by the king’s men. There’s a reason that they show up there. God is writing the story. God is writing the story. He’s the one who worked out the details so that they would show up at Rahab’s house at the right time.

And in the same way, God is writing each of our stories. When you think about all the circumstances in your life, the reason that you heard the gospel when you did, the reason that there have been so many people in your life who have influenced you in the faith and encouraged you in the faith, I would say the reason even that you’re here today, right now, it’s not by accident. Anything that brings people into a saving relationship with Jesus, that leads people to Jesus is not by accident. It’s part of God weaving together your story. That’s the truth with Rahab here.

Verse three says, “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. But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them.” Just think about how much courage this took for Rahab to do this. If she had been found out hiding these spies, these guys are spying out their land. If they had been caught, if she had been caught, then she would have been executed as a traitor.

And so she is taking this bold step of faith. She is risking so much to protect these spies. Some people have pointed out that Rahab sinned because she lied to the soldiers. And there’s this whole ethical debate that would say, you know, is there a time when it’s okay to lie to save a life? You know, for example, when Corey Tenboom hid Jews from the Nazis and lied about it, you know, was that a sin?

And and I would say I’m not going to get into the the whole depth of that debate, but I’ll say this briefly about lying. The Bible everywhere condemns lying. Proverbs even says that God hates a lying tongue. And Revelation says even that all liars have their part in the lake of fire. So we need to be really careful about saying something like lying is sometimes okay because as far as I can tell the Bible never says that.

The other thing that I would say is that even if there was a case, one scenario say where a lying would be okay, it would be so exceedingly rare. The truth of the matter is that we in more often what happens is we look for reasons and rationalizations for our lies. That’s why we use words like fib. You know, it’s just a fib I told or you know, it’s just a an innocent white lie, right? We use those terms because what we’re doing is we’re saying it’s okay that I lied.

But we’re called to be people of truth. We’re called to be those who speak the truth, who love the truth. And so I would say I would not use this story as a proof text for why lying is sometimes okay. But I would add that if if there was one instance in which God did approve of lying, it would almost certainly be to save a life. So that’s the story of Rahab.

Here’s the bigger takeaway, though. Rahab stood alone in her faith. Of all the people of Jericho, she stood alone. We don’t need to justify every action she took. The fact is she stood up in faith.

She was broken and and she made you know, she committed sin just like the rest of us, but she had faith. We’re called to swim against the stream of the world and be bold in our faith just like Rahab. You know, she stood up. She She was willing to do something that very few people would be willing to do. Risk your own life to save others.

Risk your own life because of what you believe about God. It’s interesting to remember that it’s the dead fish that will usually float with the current. It’s the living fish that swim against the current. That was Rahab. She swam against the current of her day.

Courageous faith is not about doing what’s popular. It’s about doing everything that Jesus commands of us. That’s what is faith. And and if you’re stepping out in faith, you’re not looking for reasons not to do something. You’re you’re looking for reasons to do something for Jesus.

And I would say that if you’re in the fight of faith, it’s going to cost you something. Following Jesus. That’s how you know that you’re in the fight. If there’s a sacrifice involved. See, if you never have to make any sacrifice for your faith or if it never costs you anything to stand up for the sake of the gospel, it’s worth asking, am I in the fight or not?

Am I just kind of going with what’s easy? Am I going with the flow? Am I in the current, letting that take me? Or am I standing up and am I standing out when Christ calls me to? Rahab was willing to stand out courageously.

She was in the fight and she takes a bold risk here. Many people would say that they’ve fully surrendered to Jesus Christ. But I would ask them to to look at their calendar and to look at their bank account and say, “How does that match up? Does that always match up with a fully surrendered heart to Jesus?” Again, it’s not about how much money you give.

It’s about where your heart is. It’s about are you fully devoted? Is there anything that you’d say no? If Jesus asks me to give up that I have to say no or are you willing to say I’m completely in with Jesus. I’m completely in.

If he asks anything of me, he is the king. He’s the Lord of my life. He gets everything. That’s the courageous faith we’re called to. Rahab had that faith.

Hebrews 11:31 says, “It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God, for she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.” See, that’s what God’s grace can do. It can turn a brothel into a sanctuary of salvation. It can transform a place of sin into a place of redemption. And it can transform a sinner headed for judgment into a saint headed for rescue.

The second thing we see is that Rahab had a committed faith. Rahab confessed the truth that God is king over all. Verse 8 says this, “Before the spies went to sleep that night, Rahab went up on the roof to talk with them. I know the Lord has given you this land.” She told them, “We are all afraid of you.

Everyone in the land is living in terror. She says, “You know, we’ve heard about your God. We we’ve heard about the God of Israel, how he made a way through the Red Sea. We heard about how nation after nation, every nation that stood against you was defeated.” Verse 11, “No wonder our hearts have melted in fear.

No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things, for the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below. Rahab recognized that if God is God, then he’s God of everywhere. There’s nowhere that God is not God. He’s God of the heavens and God of the earth. So when these two spies show up in Jericho, Rahab had a decision to make.

She had to decide, you know, she she knew about what had happened with the God of Israel. She knew the details of what happened at the Red Sea and with these other nations, but she still had to make a commitment. She had to take a step of faith in response to everything she’d heard. In the same way, it’s not enough for us to just have all the information about Jesus. You know, many people know a lot about Jesus that they could tell you all these details historically about what Jesus did and and who he was.

But what it comes down to is this. Have you personally committed your life to Jesus? Because nothing else matters. You can know everything about the Bible. You can know everything about Christianity and about Jesus and his life and death and resurrection.

But if you have not personally committed yourself to Jesus, it’s all for nothing. Rahab was willing to commit herself to the God of Israel. When she says, “For the Lord your God is the supreme God of heaven and earth,” what she’s doing there is confessing faith in God,” she’s recognizing these gods that I have worshiped. They’re not the real thing. The God of Israel, the God of the heavens and the earth, he is the supreme God.

He’s the true God. The Bible doesn’t say this was her moment of conversion, but it does say that she was righteous or she was justified, made right with God by faith. What I love about Rahab’s story is that it shows the inclusion of Gentiles into the promise of the gospel. You remember that original promise that God gave to Abraham? He said, “In you, Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

All the families. In other words, it’s not ultimately going to end with you, Abraham, or end with Israel. It’s not only about Israel. It’s about all the nations of the earth. Every ethnicity, every nation, all peoples of the earth are invited into my kingdom.

It’s going to happen through you and your family line. But all the peoples of the earth are invited into this salvation. And we see that even in the Old Testament because here’s Rahab. She’s not an Israelite. She was raised in a pagan nation and God invites her to become a member of his covenant people.

So the story of Rahab is very relevant for us today because the same gospel, the same salvation that was available to Rahab is available to people today. And the great discovery of the gospel is that salvation is by faith. It’s by faith. You know, so many people have this idea of salvation as I need to somehow earn my way into God’s good graces. I need to be recognized as good enough and do enough and and do enough ritual or religion until God accepts me.

But the message of Christianity is that God saves by grace and through faith alone. Many people recognize this. They will say, you know, I’ve achieved so much in life and yet I feel like something is lacking. Have you ever talked to someone who spoke that way? I lack this peace.

I wish I knew this peace. And the reason we have the answer for that, the reason that they’re feeling like they lack something is because we were made to be in relationship with the God who made us. We were made to know him, to know his love, to be in unity with him. The gospel says this is why we have been separated. It’s because of our sin.

That’s our great problem. We’re we’re sinners by nature and by choice. We have rebelled against God as a human race. And so that has cut us off from God. And yet that’s not the end of the story.

Jesus also spoke about the the way of destruction. He said, you know, many people go the way of destruction, but the way to life is narrow. See, this is the great tragedy that that many people, maybe even most people live out their lives not knowing the God who made them. Can you think of a deeper tragedy than that? Not knowing why they were put on this earth to know the living God.

Most people understand something has gone wrong. And yet they only partially understand Christianity because they understand God is God is good. He’s loving. He’s holy. And I’m a sinner.

And and so they think logically I need to somehow make myself right with God. I need to be good enough for God. If I’m the one who’s gone wrong, I need to change that. But salvation is not a matter of being good enough. This is the great truth of the gospel.

The gospel says no one is righteous. Not even one. So it doesn’t matter how much religion or ritual that can’t save you. Going to church can’t save you. Wait, a pastor is saying going to church can’t save you.

That’s right. It can’t save you. It’s important to go to church for growth as a Christian, but it can’t save you. Nothing that you do can save you. Because the gospel is not about God responding to what you do for him.

It’s about you responding to what God has done for you. And what did God do? He sent his son from heaven to earth to bear your sin in his body on the cross. He suffered the the judgment, the penalty that your sins deserve. And he rose again.

Jesus rose again on the third day. And he now calls us to repent of sin and trust in him alone for salvation. That’s where the hope is. So I’d encourage you if you have not yet received Jesus as your savior that you would make that commitment today. Give your life to him and he will transform you from the inside out.

And this is the key. We receive him by faith. It’s by faith that we receive Jesus. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” So, it’s not about earning righteousness because if it was Rahab, let’s just say it, Rahab would have no hope.

If it was about earning righteousness before God, none of us would have any hope. It is only through receiving the righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith that we can be saved. So, someone might say, “What does salvation by faith have to do with spiritual warfare?” Well, it has everything to do with it. Because our enemy, Satan, wants to suppress the knowledge of God.

He does not want people to be reconciled to God. And so he wants to silence the gospel. He wants people to be blinded to the truth of the gospel because that is the only message that saves. When Jesus saved Paul, he said this to Paul. I’m sending you to open their eyes so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.

Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people who are set apart by faith in me. Jesus said, “This is what will set people apart.” Did they have faith in me? That’s where forgiveness of sin is found, and that’s where you’re set apart as God’s people. So Rahab’s faith shines so brightly because she’s the only one in Jericho to show this faith.

In fact, she shows more faith than most of the Israelites. Last week, I talked about those 10 spies who, you know, they go into the land and they doubt that God has really given them the land. And yet, here’s this pagan prostitute, and she says, “I know that God has given you the land.” She has faith. There was evidence that Israel’s God was the true God.

That was available to all the people of Jericho. But Rahab alone acted in faith. In the same way, it’s not enough to know all that historical data about Jesus. You have to put your faith in him. So, what it comes down to is this.

Will you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Will you personally commit yourself to him? Rahab, although she didn’t have the full revelation of Jesus at this time, she is committing herself to the one true God. The rest of Jericho shrink back in fear, but she throws herself on God’s mercy. And that takes faith to believe there’s hope for me.

That this God who is the God of heaven and earth, the supreme God, there’s hope for me. If I put my faith in him, that I can be saved. What if Rahab had decided, you know what? I’m a prostitute. That that’s that’s all there is to it.

I’m not going to change and the God of Israel is just going to have to deal with that. Rahab understood something very crucial. There’s only room for one on the throne of your heart. Only one can reign over your life. And if it’s not Jesus, it’ll be something else.

Rahab confessed that God is the one true God. She put him on the throne of her life. But the other thing to remember is that Rahab also could have just as easily shrank back in shame. You know, she could have looked at it and said, you know, this this God of Israel, he’s holy. I’m a prostitute.

What hope do I have? The whole reason Jericho was being judged was because of its immorality. And so, it would be very easy for Rahab to look at this situation and say, “I don’t belong with those people. They’re the the holy people of God. They’re the covenant people.

They have the law that condemns who I am and what I have done. I don’t belong with them. Many people today think that way about Christianity. They think, you know what, I I’m too far gone. I’m too gross.

I don’t belong in church. I don’t belong with the people of God because of who I am. And this is so important. Those people need to know that God loves sinners. He loves those who don’t deserve his love.

One of the devil’s favorite tactics is to tell us that God could never love us. That we’re just too gross for God. Something supernatural stirred in Rahab’s heart. Because you just think about this. Up to this point, nation after nation is being judged by God.

He’s judging evil. And yet here she is, a pagan woman, and she steps forward in faith and she says, “I’m putting my trust in this God. I’m putting my hope in his mercy that I can be saved.” That’s a miracle. It’s very easy for people to be intimidated and think, “I don’t belong in a church or I don’t belong with God’s people.”

God would have them know that I by my grace sanctify you. I make you holy. I make you belonging. Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer, used to say, “If Satan comes and accuses you and and points out all the sins in your life, don’t bother defending yourself. Instead, use his accusations against him.”

You could say, “Yeah, you’re right, Satan. I am a no good sinner.” you know, and and actually you don’t even know the half of it. But God loves no good sinners. He sent his son to save no good sinners and transform them into saints.

It’s why the Bible says God is rich in mercy. You think about is there any level to which sin would surpass God’s mercy? The Bible says no. Where sin abounds, God’s grace abounds all the more. And because of her faith, Rahab’s story was rewritten.

She went from being a slave of sin to a daughter of the king. Third, Rahab had contagious faith. Rahab’s faith made her want others to be saved. This is what I love about Rahab as she’s not just seeking salvation for herself, but she’s seeking salvation for others, for her family. This is what it says in verse 12.

Now swear to me by the Lord that you will be kind to me and my family since I have helped you. Give me some guarantee that when Jericho is conquered, you will let me live along with my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all their families. And so the spies agree to her terms and they they tell her, “Okay, when we come and and we conquer this city, you hang that scarlet cord,” which they’re about to be let down the window. You let that scarlet cord out the window as a signal that your household will be saved. And they couldn’t have known this at the time, but that scarlet cord was a symbol of the red blood of Jesus.

It’s as if God was using this moment and prophetically saying, “This one will be spared. This one will be covered by my son’s blood.” The gospel is all through the Bible. I want to share a story from my first pastor about a a girl who came to our church. We’ll call her Tiffany.

Tiffany grew up in a splinter group from a Mormon group in Utah. And maybe you’ve heard of Warren Jeffs, who’s currently serving a life sentence for the abuse of minors that took place in his cult. Tiffany grew up in that cult. Given her traumatic background, it was understandable that she wanted nothing to do with anything that was remotely religious. And it was understandable that she had trust issues and that she struggled with feelings of low selfworth.

And yet, amazingly, when a friend of hers invited her to our church, she said, “I’ll come.” And she came and she heard the message of a God of love and justice. She Sheard the message about Jesus and how he came and he lived and died and rose again to rewrite our story. But Tiffany was not ready to commit to anything. After all, where was the God of love and justice all those dark years as a kid?

One night after a Bible study, Tiffany confided in Whitney and me that she was contemplating suicide. And we strongly urged her not to do that. We could see in this moment there was this battle for this young woman’s soul. It was being waged and the devil wanted to destroy her. And so we we came with the only hope we had.

We we offered again the gospel. We told her God loves you. We told her that Satan lies to you and he will try to deceive you about yourself and about eternity. And we told her that Jesus can set her free. I’m pleased to tell you that Tiffany did not take her life that night.

In fact, Tiffany surrendered her life to Jesus and she she was she found hope. She found the redemption in the cross and was given a new identity in Jesus. It helped her to know that in Jesus, God knows what it’s like to be mocked, maligned, and mistreated. Whatever darkness that we are going through or whatever darkness we have gone through, Jesus went through the darkest of darkness. He knows what it’s like.

And yet Jesus rose triumphantly from the grave. I had the privilege of baptizing Tiffany about a year later and you could see that the joy of the Lord was her strength. So like Rahab and Tiffany, you might know someone who you’re tempted to think there is no way they will ever receive Jesus. There’s no way that they’re too far gone. They’re they’re too deep in their worldview and their sin or whatever you might think of.

But I’d encourage you to look at the example of Rahab. Earthly speaking, she had no hope. There’s no reason that God would use her. And yet, she becomes in the New Testament this prime example of faith. This hope that God is gracious.

And so, in the fight of faith, we need to have that God-sized view of grace. We need to see people through that lens of grace. Seeing people not just as they are today, but as they one day will be in Christ. Only in Christianity would it make sense for a prostitute to be held up as an example of faith. Not only is Rahab honored for her faith in God, but she has this great privilege of being in the ancestral line of Jesus Christ.

And next time you read Matthew 1, I know it’s a genealogy and we’re tempted to skim right past that, but slow down when you get to that name Rahab and ask yourself, why did God want her name to be included right here? Jesus was known as a friend of tax collectors and sinners, and he was not ashamed to have a former prostitute in his family tree. Think about that. Because again, she was rescued by faith. And so the question I want to leave you with is this.

Where is Jesus calling you to step out in courageous, battle ready, Rahablike faith? It could be that there’s someone that you are thinking about sharing the gospel with and God wants to encourage you to go do that. It could be that there’s a an area where you feel like you need to give and God’s been putting it on your heart. I need to give toward this. It ta

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