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A Faith that was Assured
Verses 17-24
The author tells us that after Rahab had helped the spies and asks for mercy from the coming judgement of God the spies make an agreement with her to spare her and her family when the city finally falls. 
The spies tell Rahab that she needed to tie a scarlet cord in her window so that when the Israelites attacked the city they would know that her house was to be kept safe in the midst of judgement. The spies also tell Rahab that she needed to make sure that all her family was in the house because those outside would not be spared. Like Noah’s ark when the floods rose or like the houses with lamb’s blood smeared on the doorframes when the angel of death passed through Egypt, Rahab’s house would not suffer God’s judgement.
And Rahab’s experience of salvation is parallel to all those who come to faith in Jesus Christ today.
For we are Rahab if we truly understand the story!
We were not part of the people of God; we were not one of the faithful Israelites about to administer God’s judgement on the land. We were part of a corrupt and sinful generation that despised God; we were a citizen of Jericho, just as Rahab was.
But we were part of God’s plan; for we were chosen before the foundations of the earth were set. And God who loved us as a son or daughter enacted his sovereign will to lead us to faith – our faith was part of God’s plan. God brought his messengers into our life and through them we learnt of the great act of salvation that God has done in Christ Jesus. We ground our faith in what God has already done; we ground our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus – We have a faith grounded in what God has done. And we work this faith out in action as we reject the ways of our people and identify with God’s people – We have a faith that works itself out into action.
And as a sign of that, the blood of Jesus, like a scarlet cord, is given to us that we may hang it in our window and over our lives. The blood of Jesus shows God that we are saved and that though we still live in Jericho, we are part of his kingdom.
And now we live as part of his kingdom, although we remain in Jericho as we await the time of his coming judgement and with it our complete deliverance.
Friends if we have faith in Christ then we have a faith that is assured. Like Rahab, we who have faith in the blood of Jesus know that we have the mercy of God and that on the final day when the wicked are judged, we will be shown mercy.
A Faith that worked itself out into Action
So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. 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.” (Joshua 2:15,16)
In James chapter 2 the apostle James is in the middle of his great argument about how faith and works are always inextricably linked and that faith without works is dead! And as he is making his point he turns to his readers (in case they hadn’t agreed with his argument up to this point) and says: “Look at Rahab the prostitute!” he says in Rahab the prostitute you see someone who gets what it means to live of faith that works itself out into action.
Rahab’s faith led to real action, she hid the spies, put her family at risk, she turned her back on her people and joined a foreign nation. Rahab didn’t just hear about God and believe in him. She heard about God, believed he was true and changed her whole life because of it!
We can all too often confine our faith to simply being head knowledge of who God is and what he has done and nothing more. But if that is all our faith is then the bible tells us that we are no different from the demons who know that there is a God and who hear his name and shudder!
Knowledge of God never saves. Faith, working itself out into action is what saves!
See all who lived in Jericho had heard what God had done in Egypt and in the desert, they knew about him but only Rahab acted on this knowledge, only Rahab decided to turn away from the sinfulness of her people and their false gods and seek refuge in the God of Israel.
Faith must always work itself out into real action in every area of our life. Our faith must be always working itself out in the way we speak, the way we act, the way we use our money, the way we prioritise our time and in our relationships!
So many people hear about God, believe that he is real but never let their faith work out to change their life. They are just like a skydiver who jumps out of his plane believing that the parachute he has can save him, but who never acts on that belief by pulling the cord.
Is your faith more than head knowledge? Are you someone who comes to church each week but on a Monday morning is exactly the same as the person next to him on the street? If you are then learn from Rahab’s faith and work your faith out into life changing action!
A Faith that was Grounded in what God had done
Verses 9-11 of this passage is sometimes called Rahab’s confession. In this confession we see that real faith is always grounded in what God has done. Rahab had faith in God because she knew what God had done for the Israelites, how he delivered them from their slavery to Pharaoh and how he defeated their enemies in the desert. Rahab didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to follow God, rather she had heard what God had done and from these things she knew that there is only one God in heaven above and on Earth below.
If you are in a relationship – a special friend type relationship, then you’ll know that you didn’t fall in love with the other person by just sighing and oohing and ahhing as you looked into each others eyes. Rather you talked and communicated and found out about each other – your pasts, your character your likes and dislikes etc. The notion of love at merely first sight is ridiculous; romance has its basis in knowledge! So too is the case with faith, Rahab’s faith was not just a warm cosy feeling towards God, her faith was a trust based on knowledge of what God had done.
Friends we like Rahab have heard how God has delivered his people and brought judgment to his enemies. We ground our faith in the real and true historical Jesus who died and rose again. Our faith is not just a vague belief that there is a God and that the bible is true so therefore we should live good lives and be kind to people. Nor is it just a warm cosy feeling we get when we hear that God loves us that helps us get through the tough times. No we have heard that God raised this Jesus from the dead showing to the entire world that this Jesus is both Lord and Christ! We know from this that he is alive today and that he has conquered death and sin and that we share in this victory. And we know that when we die we will not descend to the dead but will live forever with Christ in glory.
We know this because our faith, like Rahab’s faith, is grounded in what God has done.
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. (Joshua 2:1)
The passage begins with Joshua sending out the two spies to survey Jericho and to get an accurate picture of its strategic weaknesses. Joshua sends out the spies because he is a good general, he didn’t know at this point that God was going to miraculously make the walls of Jericho crumble, and so Joshua in his foresight sends out the two spies to formulate his plan of attack.
Saving Rahab, however, was definitely not part of his plan.
So too the spies, they are good soldiers, their mission is simple, to go and get a good look at the city and to report its weaknesses back to the general. When they get into Jericho they plan to go to a prostitute’s house – the one place where they wouldn’t be asked embarrassing questions, and where they could go as quickly as they came. It makes sense for the spies to plan to stay in a prostitute’s house, where do you disappear in a city but the red light district?
Saving Rahab, however, was definitely not part of their plan.
Rahab was not in Joshua’s plan, Rahab was not in the spies plan, but Rahab was in God’s plan.
Rahab was one of God’s children, even if she didn’t know it yet, she had been elected by God and loved by him like a daughter since the creation of the world. God had been working in Rahab’s heart and now God was using his people, even though they didn’t know it, to lead her to faith and physically save her. Friends, God always enacts his sovereign will to bring his lost sheep back into the flock.
He did this for you just as he did it for Rahab! If you were born into a Christian family and were raised in a church community, then that was God’s plan that you would come to have faith. If you came to Christ through the witness of a friend at high school, then that friendship was in God’s plan for you to be saved! If you came to Christ because you found a gospel tract flapping in the wind down at the train station, then it was in God’s plan to lead you there! Just as Rahab was in God’s plan so too are you!
And knowing this gives us renewed purpose to live as Godly and visible Christians wherever God has placed us. Why are you at your workplace? Why are you at your University? Chances are God is using you for a purpose, and so live as a Godly and visible Christian, shining like a star in a dark place, even though you may not know how God is using you. The next time an opportunity to talk about Jesus comes up with someone at work, at uni or on the bus remember that God directed the feet of the spies to Rahab’s door and he still directs people’s feet today.
By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient Hebrews 11:31
Joshua chapter 1 ends with the people of God ready to cross the river and fight heir way into the Promised Land! Joshua has been exhorted to be strong and courageous and he in turn has exhorted the people to be strong and courageous! Everyone is ready to go, we’re at battle stations! It is time to cross the river!
But then the story stops and zooms in on a quirky little story about a woman and two spies. It is a story you could take out of Joshua and not really miss it! I mean Joshua 1 ends with the people ready to enter the land and Joshua 3 begins with the people entering the land. We don’t need chapter 2! But of course the author of Joshua is quite intentional in his placement of the story there because the author is not just writing chronologically, he is also writing theologically! So he tells us the story of Rahab to give us a great example of faith!
Well if you remember, in Chapter 1 we met Joshua. Joshua was the kind of kid that was raised in a strong Christian home to loving Christian parents who were active in their church. His whole life he knew and loved God and worked his faith out in humble, consistent and faithful obedience. Joshua is just the kind of Christian person who reads his bible every day and is just putting one obedient foot in front of another as he walks the Christian life.
Well here in Chapter 2 we meet someone who is about as opposite to Joshua as you can get! Rahab!
Rahab was born into a pagan, Amorite, family, she never knew God, she never even heard of him. She most likely would have joined in with the various idol worship of her community, which included sacrificing children. We can probably assume that around the teenage years Rahab started hanging with the wrong crowd, around bikies (no, not the kind that ride the Tour de France). It wasn’t long before she ended up at the red light district of Jericho, the Kings Cross equivalent and started selling her body for sex. Rahab was about as opposite to Joshua as you could get.
But when we get to the New Testament we read that Rahab is an example of great faith! The New Testament tells us on two separate occasions (Hebrews 11 and James 2) that Rahab the Amorite prostitute is someone we need to look at to understand what saving faith is. The author of the Hebrews puts her in the same league as Abraham, Moses and Noah. And when the apostle James is arguing in his letter that faith without works is dead he holds up Rahab as an example of what saving faith is.
Rahab is someone who we can learn from what it means to have true faith! And so as we go through chapter 2 we are going to look at Rahab’s faith and learn what it means for us to have saving faith. We are going to study four elements of Rahab’s faith:
1/ It was a faith that was in God’s plan (verses 1-7)
2/ It was a faith that was grounded in what God had done (verses 8-11)
3/ It was a faith that worked itself out into action (verses 12-16)
4/ It was a faith that was assured (verses 17-24)
