imitators of Christ become initators of faith...
Rahab the prostitute. Stuck with a label as if there was another Rahab in the bible that we might confuse her with. Mary, well there's a lot of Mary's, so I think it's appropriate to title them. But Rahab is the one and only, and yet she couldn't shake her label.
You've probably felt like her before. Stuck with a label you really didn't want. Sure, you may have lived up to it at one time, but you've moved on and that's not who you are anymore. It's who you were. Who you might very well still be were it not for God's grace and mercy in your life. And yet even though you've let it go, they can't. They simply can't see you for who you are now because they knew who you were then. I think that's what happened to poor Rahab. When she stepped on the scene, she was a prostitute, but that's not how her story ended. No, Rahab was given an opportunity of a life time. Actually, it was the opportunity that saved her life.
I love Rahab, and I love her story. I love seeing how God takes a woman whose future looked bleak, rescues her from a life of death and destruction, and weaves her into the lineage of Jesus Christ. What a story, am I right? Every time I read about her I just wish I could give her a hug. But the real hero of this story is God. God is the one who deserves all of the credit for Rahab's faith and obedience. Yet I feel like there's another important part in the story that we often overlook. A part that speaks such truth about the lives of integrity to which God calls his people. After all, God is a God of his word, and he expects the same of his children.
The spies showed up to scout out the land, and they ended up on Rahab's doorstep. I don't know why. I don't know if there was something that drew them to her house, or if they resorted to the "eeny-meeny-miney-mo" method. Either way, they were there for the night, and I'm sure this was one of the first nights she spent with a man who was not a paying customer. She had heard about these people and their God. She knew of his power and his abilities. And so she hid the men when the authorities showed up. She saved their lives, and in return, she asked that they save hers. She said, "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.” (Joshua 2:12-13) Their word. That was all she was asking for, all she was going off of, and so they gave it to her.
But they could have lied. They could have simply told her what she wanted to hear just so that they could get her help. They could have said, "Sure, sure, we'll save you," just so she wouldn't turn them in. They could have used Rahab for their own benefit, for their own gain, and cared the less about her future. After all, she was just a "prostitute." They couldn't have said, "Can you believe how easily she bought that? Like we're really going to go back and try to save her of all people. We don't even know her. Who cares about her and her family?" But they were men of integrity, men who had given a stranger, a woman they just happened upon, their word. And so the day that the walls fell, Rahab and her family were saved from death and added to the people of Israel, to God's chosen ones.
God keeps his word, but he calls us to keep our word, too. He doesn't call us to use people for gain or to simply involve ourselves in their lives so that we can somehow benefit. He doesn't call us to invest in others when it's most convenient for us and them drop then when we no longer see a use in them. Rahab had heard of God and she knew of his power, but how much more was his love and compassion displayed when these men of God kept their word? What a testament to God's faithfulness when his people imitate his behavior. No where in the story did God command these men to save Rahab. This was something they chose to do on their own. They found a lost woman, and they brought life to her. After all, this was the very thing God had done for them. They showed her the kindness their God had showed them, and because of it, their God became her God, too.
You never know how the Lord may use you to draw people to him. You never know when God may give you the opportunity to share life with someone whose stuck in death. But God does. He knows where to send you and whose path to cross with yours. He knows who needs hope, and he knows exactly how to deliver it. It may be through you, it may be through your actions, but when we are imitators of Christ, people will see him. When we show them the same love he has shown us, when we extend to them the same grace he has extended to us, when we see them for who he has made them to be rather than a title that's indicative of their past, we can be an instrument that he uses to save their lives. After all, isn't that your story? It's certainly mine, and I'm forever grateful that God calls to himself Rahab's, and Brittnye's, so that they can find renewed life, restored life, and life everlasting.
"In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." - James 2:25-26
You've probably felt like her before. Stuck with a label you really didn't want. Sure, you may have lived up to it at one time, but you've moved on and that's not who you are anymore. It's who you were. Who you might very well still be were it not for God's grace and mercy in your life. And yet even though you've let it go, they can't. They simply can't see you for who you are now because they knew who you were then. I think that's what happened to poor Rahab. When she stepped on the scene, she was a prostitute, but that's not how her story ended. No, Rahab was given an opportunity of a life time. Actually, it was the opportunity that saved her life.
I love Rahab, and I love her story. I love seeing how God takes a woman whose future looked bleak, rescues her from a life of death and destruction, and weaves her into the lineage of Jesus Christ. What a story, am I right? Every time I read about her I just wish I could give her a hug. But the real hero of this story is God. God is the one who deserves all of the credit for Rahab's faith and obedience. Yet I feel like there's another important part in the story that we often overlook. A part that speaks such truth about the lives of integrity to which God calls his people. After all, God is a God of his word, and he expects the same of his children.
The spies showed up to scout out the land, and they ended up on Rahab's doorstep. I don't know why. I don't know if there was something that drew them to her house, or if they resorted to the "eeny-meeny-miney-mo" method. Either way, they were there for the night, and I'm sure this was one of the first nights she spent with a man who was not a paying customer. She had heard about these people and their God. She knew of his power and his abilities. And so she hid the men when the authorities showed up. She saved their lives, and in return, she asked that they save hers. She said, "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.” (Joshua 2:12-13) Their word. That was all she was asking for, all she was going off of, and so they gave it to her.
But they could have lied. They could have simply told her what she wanted to hear just so that they could get her help. They could have said, "Sure, sure, we'll save you," just so she wouldn't turn them in. They could have used Rahab for their own benefit, for their own gain, and cared the less about her future. After all, she was just a "prostitute." They couldn't have said, "Can you believe how easily she bought that? Like we're really going to go back and try to save her of all people. We don't even know her. Who cares about her and her family?" But they were men of integrity, men who had given a stranger, a woman they just happened upon, their word. And so the day that the walls fell, Rahab and her family were saved from death and added to the people of Israel, to God's chosen ones.
God keeps his word, but he calls us to keep our word, too. He doesn't call us to use people for gain or to simply involve ourselves in their lives so that we can somehow benefit. He doesn't call us to invest in others when it's most convenient for us and them drop then when we no longer see a use in them. Rahab had heard of God and she knew of his power, but how much more was his love and compassion displayed when these men of God kept their word? What a testament to God's faithfulness when his people imitate his behavior. No where in the story did God command these men to save Rahab. This was something they chose to do on their own. They found a lost woman, and they brought life to her. After all, this was the very thing God had done for them. They showed her the kindness their God had showed them, and because of it, their God became her God, too.
You never know how the Lord may use you to draw people to him. You never know when God may give you the opportunity to share life with someone whose stuck in death. But God does. He knows where to send you and whose path to cross with yours. He knows who needs hope, and he knows exactly how to deliver it. It may be through you, it may be through your actions, but when we are imitators of Christ, people will see him. When we show them the same love he has shown us, when we extend to them the same grace he has extended to us, when we see them for who he has made them to be rather than a title that's indicative of their past, we can be an instrument that he uses to save their lives. After all, isn't that your story? It's certainly mine, and I'm forever grateful that God calls to himself Rahab's, and Brittnye's, so that they can find renewed life, restored life, and life everlasting.
"In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." - James 2:25-26
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