October 22, 2000

Joshua 2, 5-6

Rahab: How God Uses Sinners

1. Introduction

1. Illustration – A speaker started his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. "Who would like this?" he asked. Hands went up throughout the audience. "I am going to give this $20 to one of you, but first let me do this." He crumpled the bill. "Who still wants it?" The same hands went up into the air. "Well," he replied, "what if I do this?" He dropped the twenty and started to grind it into the carpet with his shoe. He picked it up, all wrinkled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Again, hands went into the air. "You have all learned a valuable lesson," the speaker said. "No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or ever will happen, you will never lose your value in God’s eyes. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are priceless to him."
2. Today we are going to take a look at Joshua chapters 2, 5 and 6 to find out about someone who was crumpled and ground into the dirt, but God used her for His glory anyway.

1. Scripture Passage

1. Joshua 2:1-16 - Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. "Go, look over the land," he said, "especially Jericho." So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. ² The king of Jericho was told, "Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land." ³ So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: "Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land." ⁴ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. ⁵ At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them." ⁶ (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) ⁷ So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. ⁸ Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof ⁹ and said to them, "I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. ¹⁰ We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. ¹¹ When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. ¹² Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign ¹³ that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death." ¹⁴ "Our lives for your lives!" the men assured her. "If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land." ¹⁵ So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. ¹⁶ Now she had said to them, "Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way."
2. Rahab was someone who the Israelites would not normally associate with. Why? For two reasons: first, she was a Canaanite, and the Hebrews were commanded to have nothing to do with Canaanites; and second, she was a prostitute, and the Israelites were commanded to have no contact with prostitutes whatsoever. So what was it that made the difference? What made this Canaanite prostitute different?

1. Faith

1. Verses four to six tell us that Rahab took the spies hid them on her roof under the flax that was drying, and then lied to her own people about them. Why?
2. In verse eight, Rahab says something truly remarkable - "I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you." In verse eleven, she says something even more remarkable – "the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below." Rahab knew that her people were afraid, and she knew why they were afraid. They had heard about what God did for the Israelites over forty years before at the Red Sea, and she had heard about what God did for them when they annihilated the Amorite kings. But how did she know that the Lord had given the land to Israel?
3. How did she know?

• First, she had heard about the Red Sea crossing, and she believed those stories.
• Second, she had heard about annihilation of the Amorite kings, and she believed that story.
• Third, God must have spoken to her spirit and confirmed to her what His purpose was.
• Why would He do that? What was the purpose of the spies checking out Jericho? Why did God allow that? God was confirming to Israel that He was going ahead of them to fight for them. What did the spies tell Joshua when they returned? Verse 24 - They said to Joshua, "The LORD has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us."
• So God used Rahab to encourage the Israelites to go forward into the Promised Land and take it over with His help.

1. Unusual Methods

1. Let’s go back to Joshua for a minute. The Israelites cross the flooding Jordan River on dry land, because the Lord stopped it up. The kings on that side of the river heard about it and were very afraid and wouldn’t attack Israel. Joshua follows the directions to circumcise all the men because they hadn’t been on the journey through the desert. Then, as he is approaching Jericho, a man meets him with a drawn sword.
2. Joshua gets his orders from the messenger of God. March around the city once a day for six days. March around it seven times the seventh day, blow the trumpets, have the people shout, and the walls will crash down. Not the ordinary way of doing things back then. Normal warfare of that time was to build bunkers and trenches around the city so that no one could come or go, wait until they ran out of food or water or both, use a battering ram to break through the gates, and go in and slaughter or enslave the survivors.
3. What God told Joshua was not the norm. The person God chose to use in Jericho was not one you would normally think of for God to use. A city official or at least a soldier, maybe. But not a prostitute! But God’s ways are different than ours, because God knows the heart of the person, and we can’t.
4. So what happened to Rahab? Chapter six verses 22-25 - Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her." ²³ So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel. ²⁴ Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD’s house. ²⁵ But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.
5. One more bit of information about Rahab – Matthew 1:5 tells us that Rahab became the mother of Boaz and thus was included in the lineage of Christ. God can take anyone from any background and use him or her for God’s own glory. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or said.
6. Illustration – Oswald Chambers wrote Think of the worst man or woman you know. Do you believe that that one can be presented perfect in Jesus Christ? If you do not, it is because you are still under an illusion about yourself, you still have a notion that there is something in your virtues that will save you. Rahab had been worse than many of us, but she still knew she did not have a chance without God. She knew she could not save herself from destruction, so she trusted in Him. How many of us, though we may be Christians, have come to the same realization – that none of our "virtues" make a bit of difference to God. Only when we turn to Him with all our hearts can He use us for His glory.

1. Conclusion

1. Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney wrote in his book Sold Out – Recently I spoke at a large arena. The moment I stepped off stage, I began asking friends and associates how I’d done. There were high fives, back slaps, encouraging complements to the effect that I’d "hit a home run." I went back to the hotel quite pleased with myself. The next morning, early, I went to my knees. God wasn’t to be found. I asked, "Lord, where are you? I rose early to meet with You. I spoke of Your wonder and glory last night. I praised You with all my heart. I thought You would be pleased. What have I done? Where are You?" In that very instant, I sensed God was asking me a direct question: "Last night, when you finished your message, why didn’t you ask Me how you did? You came to me for anointing to speak, but you went to your friends seeking their opinions. Why did you not seek Mine first?" It broke my heart to hear it. But it was true. I’d spent weeks seeking God’s heart for that message. And it was a home run; the power of the Holy Spirit fell upon that arena – not because of anything I said, but because God showed up. And yet I didn’t seek God’s affirmation first. I sought the approval of men. I confessed my sin and repented. Immediately God’s sweetness returned. It shocked me into seeing that the only One I’ve ever needed to please is God.
2. Rahab saw her need to please God. McCartney saw his need to please God. The bottom line again is that it doesn’t matter what we’ve said or done – God still loves us and wants to make a difference in us and in the world through us. We just need to confess our sin and follow His leading, and He'll take care of the rest.
3. If there is something that has been keeping you from following God or turning over your heart to Him, now’s the time to do something about it. If you’ve done some bad things in your life, God still wants to walk close with Him. You just have to want it too. And confess the wrong you’ve done. 1 John 1:9 says If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Now is the time to make things right with God.
4. Let’s spend a few moments listening to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. Then will come the opportunity to respond.
5. With every head bowed and every eye closed, if there is something that you’ve done that has allowed distance to get between you and God, now is the time to confess it to Him and turn from it, and get back into a close relationship with Him. If that’s you, come forward and kneel and pray. If you don’t know Jesus, but would like Him to come into your heart and life and make you into the kind of person you’ve always wanted to be, one who can follow Him and serve Him, come forward and pray, too. Then I’ll close us in prayer.
6. Let us pray.