An Unlikely Convert

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Well, you open up your Bibles with me to Joshua Chapter 2. Joshua Chapter 2. If you're using the Pew Bibles, once again, that can be found on page 194, Joshua chapter 2, page 194. Joshua chapter 2, page 194.

Let me ask you, as you think of someone who has just become a Christian, what do they look like? If you imagine in your mind somebody who has just become a Christian, what do they behave like? Imagine in your mind someone who has just confessed God alone to be Lord. What does that person look like to you?

Well, that's a question we need to bring with us to Joshua chapter 2, and as we turn our eyes to Joshua chapter 2, we're going to take this chunk by chunk together, and we're going to see that God calls some interesting people to himself. So first, in Joshua, chapter two, verse one, now Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly saying, go into the land, especially Jericho. So they went. So this is an interesting thing. Joshua sent out spies.

Remember, they're at the Acacia Grove just on the other side of the Jordan River there. They're on the west or on the east side of the Jordan River. It's right over there, the promised land. They can most likely see Jericho from the hills across the valley.

And he's just been told by God, be strong and very courageous. And then the two and a half tribes on the other side also said to him, be strong and courageous. We'll follow you as long as you're following the Lord. Be strong and courageous. And here, what does Joshua do? Sends out two spies. Now, remember, Joshua himself had been a spy. He had been one of those 12 spies sent out by Moses. And so he knew that it was important to gather intel on the army that you were about to go fight. So he sends out these two spies and they go to what we might find shocking in verse one.

Verse one, it goes on. So they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab and lodged there. Now, some of us might get a little bit antsy sitting down, thinking about this, squirming around a little bit. Hold on. Why are they going to a harlot house? Why are they going to the to the home of a prostitute? You know, we might look back on this and think, wow, that's maybe these aren't really righteous guys after all. Maybe these Israelites are doing things that God doesn't take pleasure in, but think about it for a moment.

If you're a spy, if you look like other people, if you're in a town and people don't know you, where would you go to make sure that you could stay the night in safety without somebody raising eyebrows? You'd go somewhere that strange people go all the time. So even though they might go under this pretense that they're going to this woman's house for a reason, it's actually a wonderful cover for them. Because even though nothing nefarious needs to happen to the rest of the people in town, it's just two other dudes going to this lady's house that always has dudes going there. So nobody raises eyebrows. The people might have looked judgmentally upon them, but it's doubtful they looked suspiciously at them.

So this is their plan. They're going to go and they're going to secretly search out Jericho. They're going to figure out what's going on with the town. And as they're there, they go to the harlot's house. It's a great cover that they created for themselves. But there's a problem in verse two. And it was told the king of Jericho saying, Behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country. They were found out. They were found out. We don't know how. We don't know how they knew that these men were Israelites, but somehow they knew that they had come from the encampment across the Jordan River. And now these lives, men were in peril. Now, these two men, if they were found, what do you think would have happened to them? Hung, stoned, killed, thrown from the city walls, their lives were on the line.

And it was told the king of Jericho saying, behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country. So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab saying, bring out the men who have come to you, have entered your house, but they have come to search out all the country. He demands her, I know that they're in there. The king of the city comes and he says, bring them out.

And it's not that tense moment. Is she going to do it? Is she going to betray them? What ties does she have to them? She doesn't owe them anything. Makes more sense if she would just turn them over. But what does she do? Verse four. Then the woman took the two men and hid them. So she said, yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And it happened as the gate was being shut when it was dark, that the men went out where the men went. I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you may overtake them. What does Rahab do in this situation? Let's just be absolutely honest. She lies to the king. Don't we? We don't need to sugarcoat this. We don't need to make it sound better than it is. No, she lies to the civil magistrate. She lies to the king of the country. And many people have wrestled with the moral implications of this, because what did she say?

Yeah, they came to me, but I don't know where they were. I don't know where I think they left and they got out right before the gate went. You should probably go chase after them. Maybe you'll catch up to them. And this is a convincing story, the king buys it.

She lies to his face and many commentators and preachers and theologians have wrestled with this passage. You know, what are the moral implications of it? Why did she lie? Is lying OK? Does does this passage give us moral justification to lie to our to to those above us? Doesn't the ninth commandment tell us not to bear false testimony?

All those moral implications are there, but I want to read something to you that I thought was extremely helpful. Extremely helpful from a commentator named Dale Davis. He wrote this. Don't get distracted from the main point. This incidentally tells us what the writer is not concerned about.

He's not very interested in picky ethical questions based on these three verses, endless wranglings and discussions about whether it was right for Rahab to lie to the Jericho police and so on. It is tragic when people snag their pants on the nail of Rahab's lie, quibbling endlessly about the matter and never get around to hearing the truth that Rahab says in verses eight through 13. which the writer has written in such a way to make it the centerpiece of the narrative.

That is like a wife who proudly opens the refrigerator door to show her husband the scrumptious salad and dessert she has prepared for their dinner guest. But her husband, scarcely glancing at the delicacies, instead rubs his finger across the top of the fridge and goes off, murmuring that there seems to be a good bit of dust on the top of this refrigerator. He missed the whole point. He didn't understand his wife's intention at all. His focus was all wrong. Naturally, the New Testament doesn't fall into this trap.

What does it do? But it highlights Rahab's faith in Hebrews chapter 11. See, this is a reality. Rahab has, we're going to find out in the next section, Rahab has heard about who God is and what he has done, but we have no indication that she's actually heard God's law yet. Rahab is familiar with the God who has done mighty things, but she's not familiar with the ethics of that God who would arrest her soul.

It should also be noted that just because, this is a very tricky thing, we need to be very, very careful when we come to passages in the Old Testament. We've dealt with this in the book of Esther. Just because the Bible says something is, That does not mean that it's saying that's what should be. This is one of the things I love about the Bible. It is unvarnished truth. It doesn't hide the warts. It doesn't hide the ugliness of what happens. It just says Rahab did this. And notice there's no moral judgment on it. It just says this is what she did.

So we should be careful. If we're trying to tweeze out the story for all the moral implications of it, where the scripture is silent on that, we can end up digging ourselves into a hole that we find we don't want to be in. I also want to point out, new believers sometimes still do silly things.

Maybe you've noticed this before. Have you ever seen this with children? Do children grasp everything right away? When you're trying to teach a child, you know, maybe you've tried to teach a child mathematics before. Do they get it right away? Or does it take a little bit of struggling and getting things wrong to figure out how to get it right?

I remember a story from Ken Smith as he was saying, he was talking to his son and they called him Kenny. It was Kenneth Jr. And they were, he was saying to his son, put your milk here. And he was trying to tell him, you know, pick up your cup and put it in your hand. And so he kept telling Kenneth, put your milk here, put your milk here. And so Kenneth took his glass and he poured his milk onto his hand.

Because children do silly things. New believers often mess up. And this is where we need to also show grace to Rahab in this moment, in this setting. So I don't want to get sucked down the endless squabbling. And we can, if you want, in a private conversation, talk about the implications of telling the truth to the civil magistrate. Go read Corrie Boone's book on The Hiding Place and see her struggle with this as the Nazis came and knocked on her door and demanded to know if she was hiding any Jews.

And she was bound and determined she would not tell a lie to the civil magistrate. And she had a secret room underneath the floor, underneath the kitchen table. And she said, oh yeah, they're right here underneath the table. And she determined in her heart she wasn't going to tell a lie. And they would look under the table. And obviously there's nobody hiding underneath the table. But she told the truth because they're under the floor, under the table. This is a difficult situation that Rahab finds herself in. So she tells us why. Verse 6 tells us that it is a lie, but she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the socks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof. At Chalk and Talk, we're going to talk about why those flax were there.

But imagine for a second being one of those spies. How would you feel? I wonder if they could hear this conversation between the king of Jericho and Rahab. It's happening right underneath their feet. Was it just murmuring? Where they could just hear muffled, loud voices talking? As they're crouched down in the itchy flaxes, scratching their necks, could they hear their heartbeat? Have you ever tried to hide from someone and tried to slow down your breath because you were worried that they were going to find you? As a cold night was setting in, could they feel the breeze on the roof of that house? What was running through their minds? What was going to happen? How are they going to get out of this?

As the two spies sit next to each other, glancing at one another, unable to speak, The text is also silent. Verse seven. Then the men pursued them, those being the men of Jericho, then the men of Jericho pursued them by the road to the Jordan, to the fords, as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate. Again, The men are on the rooftop. Her house is built into the wall.

How are they going to get out? How are they going to escape? How are they not going to die? How are the people on the other side of the Jordan going to know that it's safe for them to come and to attack? Is this going to thwart all of God's plans? Is this going to be just another 40 years of wandering in the wilderness? What is going to happen? We're saying. We take a time travel back to when she first said them. Now, before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to them, I know.

That Yahweh has given you this land and that the territory of you and that the terror of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint hearted because of you. For 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 the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you. For Yahweh your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

Rahab says something that they could have never imagined. A harlot, a prostitute, a woman of the night, makes a confession that they never would have anticipated. As they're on the roof, their lives are in danger, she has one thing in mind. She's going to tell them what she believes.

I know that Yahweh has given you this land. If you notice there, and I say this regularly, but every time you see like in verse 10, or verse 9, verse 9 first, I know that the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that is the covenant name for God, Jehovah or Yahweh, He has given you the land. And then in verse 10 also, For we have heard how Yahweh, or the Lord, capital L, capital R, capital D, dried up the waters of the Red Sea. And then in the middle of verse 11, for the Lord, your God, He is God. See, the word God is just the generic word, like we would use God. The Hindus have their gods, the Mormons have their gods, there's all sorts of people who believe in different gods, but the scriptures proclaim that there is but one true living God, and this is what she proclaims here.

Why are the people of Jericho afraid? Because they've heard about what Yahweh did at the Red Sea, drowning Pharaoh's chariot men and army. Why were the people in Jericho, why were their hearts melted and why were they left without wind? Because they had heard about what they had just done to the two kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, on the other side of the Jordan, and they knew that their number was next.

Their hearts melted and their courage was gone. A good translation is that we could no longer breathe. They were shocked and left breathless. But if we have to ask the question, then why are they still fighting? If they've lost courage, if there's no more wind in their sails, if their hearts are melted, why are they fighting?

This is pretty typical. There are many people, the majority of the people in the world, who know deep down in their souls, that God is the Lord. And it will fight Him with all their might. Don't be surprised when you see it. But Rahab confesses in verse 11, For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. What is she meaning by this? This is not a generic confession. What she is meaning by this is she is forsaking all the gods that she's ever grown up with.

See, she is a Canaanite woman. And as a Canaanite woman, she would have believed in the gods that we find in the end of snaring the children of Israel, Baal and Asherah. She believed that there was a God of heaven, Baal, who brought the rain and who brought the moisture on the earth. And she was one of those who was brought up to believe in Asherah, who is the God of the harvest and would bring up the crops. And here, what does she say in verse 11?

No, I don't believe any of it. For the Lord's your God. He is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. It is Jehovah, it is Yahweh alone who is the God in heaven above. It is not Baal who brings the thunder and the rain, but it is God who opens the storehouses of snow. It is not Asherah who brings up the crops, but it is the Lord who brings seed time and harvest time. No, it is Yahweh alone who is the one in heaven and on the earth.

In this short sentence in verse 11, she is denouncing everything of the people of Jericho. She's doing very similar to what we saw Ruth do. Where God would be, the Lord would be her God, and the Lord's people would be her people. This is exactly what God had commanded His people to do in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 39 and 40. Therefore, know this day and consider it in your heart that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath.

There is no other. She hears what God did when He parted the Red Sea. She's heard what the Israelites did when God gave them defeat over Sihon and Og. And she believes what God had to command the Israelites to believe. That He alone was God and beside Him there was no other.

So Rahab makes this shocking request. Or she makes this shocking profession and then she makes this request in verses 12 and 13. Listen to the request that she makes in verses 12 and 13 after she confesses the Lord to be her God. 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 they have and deliver me and deliver our lives from death.

She's not only confessed that the Lord is God, but she desires the protection from the Lord. She has the men swear to her that she'll be protected. Again, Dale Davies helpfully writes, he says, again, Rahab not only must know the clear truth about God, but she must also escape the coming wrath of God. It isn't just a matter of correct belief, but of desperate need. Saving faith is always like this. It never stops with brooding over the nature or activity of God, but always runs to take refuge under his wings. Rahab knows that the only place that she can go to find protection is if God shows her kindness, if God envelops her and her family into God's people. That's the only hope that she has.

And then we come to verse 14 where there's confidence and a promise. So the men answered her, our lives for yours, if none of you tell this business of ours and it shall be when the Lord has given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with you. Notice the spies confidence. They've now seen. that in one of the most unlikely houses imaginable, the Lord has still protected them. And he's going to bring about his promise. He's going to give them the land.

And if Rahab is true to her word, her and her whole family will be saved. And so she devises an escape for them and they leave, verses 15 through 16. And then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house is on the city wall. She dwelt in the wall, by the way, shameless plug for Chalk and Talk. We're going to look at one of those walls and how a house can be built into the wall this afternoon. So she lives in the wall, verse 15. And she said to them, get to the mountain. Let the pursuers meet you. Hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Afterward, you may go your way.

So the men said to her, we will be blameless of this oath of yours, which you have made a swear, unless when we come to the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down. And unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers and your father's household into your own home. So it shall be that whoever goes out of the doors of your house into the street, this blood shall be on his own head and we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on this on him. And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath, which you made us swear. They make a plan and then make an agreement with stipulations. This is a covenant that they've entered in with them.

She tells them, go out into the mountains, go hide for three days. They're going to be like bloodhounds on your tail. They're going to be chasing you. They're already outside the gates. They've already made it to the Jordan River. They're searching you out. Go and be gorillas in the mountains. Go and hide. Go and stay away. Stay in front of them. They're going to pursue you for three days, but then they're going to give up.

Then go to your people and they say, all right, we'll do it. But here's the thing. Here's the sign that will know that you haven't broken the covenant. You go ahead and hang a scarlet cord from your window and you bring all your family into your house. And when the destruction comes, when the walls fall, whoever is in your house will be saved. And if a hand is laid on them, their blood will be on our heads. But if they're not in your house, it's not our fault.

And if you violate this promise and you go and you tell our business to others, neither will we keep this. See, they bind her to the truth. They tell her you must keep this secret, you must actually hold this true, because if you deal falsely here, the blood's on your own head. And you won't be saved. So God protects. And then she has faith in God's promise as well as the Israelites. Look with me at verses 21 through 24. And then she said, according to your words, so it be.

And she sent them away. And they departed and she bound the scarlet cord in the window. They dropped and went to the mountain and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned. The pursuers sought them all along the way, but did not find them. So the two men returned, descended from the mountain and crossed over. And they came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen them. And they said to Joshua, truly, The Lord has delivered all the land into our hands. For indeed, all the inhabitants of the country are faint-hearted because of us.

They spend the three days in the hills. The pursuit is gone. They climb down from the hill. They cross the Jordan. They enter into the camp. And the beautiful thing is, these two spies do what the ten spies, the previous group, failed to do. They trusted God's promise. They trusted that what she said about the men of the city was true, that their hearts were fainted, that they had lost their courage, there was no more wind in their sails, and that God had truly given them the land. They rehearsed the whole story for Joshua. And with confidence, they encouraged Joshua, we can do this. The Lord truly has given us this land, and it's hard to not hear the echoes from Joshua's past as he sits there with his eyes upon these two faithful servants.

But notice, as we've come to the end of the chapter, we never get the name of the two spies. In Hebrew literature, that's a clue that the story is not actually about the spies. People who are named and named repetitively are the main subjects of Hebrew stories. Rahab is named, Joshua is named, and the Lord is named foremost above all.

Isn't it amazing that it's Rahab, the harlot, who is named? Hebrews chapter 11. She's not just mentioned here, but Hebrews chapter 11 verse 31 tells us, by faith, the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she received the spies with peace. Rahab is to be remembered for her faith. She's also used as an example in the book of James. James chapter 2. The Lord uses her again, James chapter 2, verses 25 through 26.

Likewise was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the message and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. See, Rahab doesn't sit there in her home and say, oh, so I know that the Lord has given this land to the people, so I'm not going to do anything about it. No, she actually puts her faith in the living God and she helps the Israelite spies to escape. Her faith isn't dead, but her faith is filled with good works. Rahab was a harlot. She was one of the disreputable. She was in her society one of the lowest of the low. Rahab was in her society a woman to be used and abused, not a woman to be trusted and blessed.

And yet, this is the picture that God gives us of a sinner becoming a saint. This is one of the beautiful pictures that God uses to show us redemption. This is what Jesus Christ is talking about when he says, he did not come for those who were healthy, but for those who are sick.

Who did you think of when I asked you to imagine a new Christian? Did you think of a woman who's coming out of sex trafficking? Did you imagine somebody who's coming as a woman of the night? Can you imagine a drug addict who is struggling to put to death their addiction?

Jesus Christ came to save sinners. We need to be careful with this. Because in evangelicalism this is true. The church is a hospital for sinners. The church is a hospital for sinners. But you know what happens to people in hospitals? They're supposed to get better.

In so many evangelical churches, they'll say, there's even a song about it on Caleb right now about, you know, if the church was really a hospital for sinners, we would see more people coming in. But the problem is, is I was talking to a man. not too long ago, and maybe about a year and a half ago. And, and he was saying, you know, it just bothers me that in our church, it seems like, you know, it's just respectable people who end up coming and I know the church he's a member of. And that's not true, because I've seen some people come to that church, who are the most violent of people. And yet the Lord changed their hearts. It's that God makes us perfect by His grace. He saves us and He loves us, but then His work doesn't stop there. He sanctifies us.

Yes, broken people are to come to church. But if we're not here to find healing, what are we here for? There's a danger with that, though, too. We can often act like we are perfect and not be honest about our sins. There's this always tension in the Christian church. We must keep that tension true. The church is a hospital for the sick, but it is also a rehabilitation home where we are made healthier and healthier.

This is what Hebrews chapter 10, 14 is getting at, for by one offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being made holy. I want to tease that sentence out for you a little bit, OK? Listen to it again. You might even want to flip to it in your Bible. Hebrews 10, 14. For by one offering, he, that being Jesus, has perfected for all time. Are you a Christian? The honest question, are you a Christian? OK. Do you have faith in Jesus Christ alone?

Wonderful. You have been perfected. Perfect tense in the past has happened. Present consequence. You are perfect. Keep going in the sentence, though. Who are being made holy. You are both simultaneously justified and sinner. Each and every one of us sins daily in thought, word and deed. God is not done convicting me of sin. The moment you think to yourself, I got this Christian thing down, I'm doing everything right. If you're a real Christian, just wait until you go have a conversation with your wife and then you'll find out, no, you don't have it all down right. The reality is you're deceiving yourself. He who says he is without sin deceives himself and makes God a liar. Rahab would not stay a harlot.

She would eventually learn the law of God and indeed she would become a prominent woman in Israel. We'll find that out in chapter six. But her name is listed here as a woman of faith. It's not just listed here. Many people don't like the genealogies of the Old Testament. It's interesting though, the genealogies in the Old Testament are just a small part of the Old Testament. How does the New Testament start? The New Testament starts with the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1. And it's in that genealogy, it's in that lineage of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that it's Ruth. who begets Boaz. Well, I'm just going to read it so I don't mess up the genealogy here.

In Matthew chapter 1, it says, Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah and his brothers, Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron and Hezron begot Ram, Ram begot Abinadab, and Abinadab begot Nashon, and Nashon begot Solomon, Solomon begot Boaz, by Rahab. Boaz begot Obed by Ruth. Obed begot Jesse. And Jesse begot David, the king.

And it's of David's lineage that the king of kings has come. It is from that line of unlikely converts that Jesus Christ finds his lineage. For by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. It was God who changed Rahab's heart. It was God who saved Rahab.

And it was by God's plan that through this unlikely convert, he would bring about the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, our Prince of Peace. The conquest of Canaan is in a way Nothing more than the shadow of the glorious salvation God started and will finish when he brings about the new heavens and the new earth. Jesus has sent out his soldiers now, arrayed in armor. We have been given the Great Commission. And indeed, truly, the Lord has delivered into our hands For indeed, all the inhabitants of the country are fainthearted because of us.

Do you actually believe the Great Commission? Do you actually believe that the gospel is going out to all the nations? Do you actually believe that what Jesus Christ started cannot be stopped? that the mustard seed has been planted and is growing into a great tree in which all the birds take refuge? Do you believe that every tribe and tongue and language will one day bow the knee to Jesus Christ? These are the promises that God has given. Do you believe it? Or are you like those disbelieving spies? Are you a Rahab who has been brought into the family of faith because you believe these promises?

Will you put on the armor of God? Will you cling to your shield of faith? Will you have your feet shod with the hope of the gospel? Will you wear the breastplate of righteousness that Jesus Christ has given you? Will you put on that helmet of salvation, the same one he gave to Rahab? Will you trust in the scarlet cord, the blood of Jesus Christ? Will you and your household be saved?

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for giving us true stories, complicated stories, triumphant stories of your grace and of the promises that you have given that are accomplished in amazing ways. Lord, we pray that we would have faith in you. We pray that we would trust in you. We pray that we would have confidence in your promises. Lord, we pray that your kingdom would come here on earth as it is in heaven.

In Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.