“Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the LORD, since I
have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father’s house,
and give me a true token, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my
sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.” (Joshua
2:12-13 )
A woman belonging to a cult believes that blood transfusions
are sinful, so she refuses medical treatment and dies. What killed her? Not so much the disease, as rejecting the
cure. We all are born with a terminal
disease called sin. There is only one
cure—Jesus. The grace of God is a great
and glorious thing! We are mistaken to
think that the Old Testament is about judgment and the New Testament is about
grace. There is judgment described in
the New Testament—haven’t you read Revelation?
There is also grace in the Old Testament—we see it in Joshua 2 .
Rahab was a madam who ran a brothel (v.1-7). There is no way to clean this up. It was her sad condition. How many men had she slept with? She had developed a lucrative business,
selling sex. I believe she was like the
subject of an old country song, “Looking for love in all the wrong places;
looking for love in too many faces.” I
dare say, there was an emptiness in her life that Rahab was trying to
fill. To drink of the world, however, is
to be always thirsty—it is like drinking from the ocean—the more you drink, the
thirstier you become. How many Rahabs
are there in our world today! We look
down on them—“scandalous” we say of them—and fail to see a person that Christ
died for—someone He wants to redeem.
That’s what grace is all about!
God has a Divine appointment with Rahab (v.8-14). The conviction of her sin plowed open her
heart and the seed of truth was planted there.
The witness that she heard produced saving faith in her. Scripture says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom.10:17 ). We need to sow the Gospel seed wherever and
whenever we can. This is how people come
to faith in Christ—even the Rahab’s! She
gives a personal testimony of her faith.
She acknowledges the true and living God—unlike the pagans she lived
among. She confesses Him and worships
Him. Saving faith bears fruit. That is the evidence of repentance.
Rahab would never be the same (v.15-24). The scarlet cord speaks of the scarlet blood
of Jesus Christ that stretches from Calvary to
any who will receive Him. You can’t
reach God on the rocket of reason, or climb up on the ladder of logic. You can get there on the railroad of
redemption—the good old T & O—trust and obey! The scarlet cord, Rahab dropped from her
window was a guarantee she would escape judgment. When the walls of Jericho
Rahab is a shining trophy of God’s grace. Jesus came to save such sinners. To the Rahabs and Roberts out there: you are
not beyond the reach of salvation!
Church, will we offer compassion or condemnation to the
Rahabs? Rahab is our co-worker, our
neighbor, our family member. Do we not
believe in the power of the Gospel to turn sinners into saints?
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