Rahab / Hebrews 11:30-31 / Joshua 2,6

The Hall of the Broken

It’s good to be back with you. Summer is a crazy time, and it’s been fun watching this summer teaching series, “Heroes,” click through the weeks with all the different communicators who have shared. But selfishly, it’s just good to be back in this room. If you have your Bibles, turn to Hebrews chapter 11. We’re continuing our look at the names listed in what many call the “Hall of Faith.”

The issue I have with that title, “Hall of Fame,” is that it makes it sound like these people were the best of the best—the elite who never tripped up. We tend to look at them and think, “Oh, be just like them.” But then you actually read the names. There are 22 names either stated explicitly or inferred, and not all of them lived lives that I would necessarily want you to replicate. In fact, more often than not, these heroes of the faith were deeply broken people.

I don’t know how you perceive your Bible. I remember being a guy living in a fraternity, trying to get sober, trying to learn what morality even was, and trying to walk with God. As I read the Bible, I just assumed everybody in it was perfect all the time because it’s a Holy Book. I pictured everyone walking around in white robes and halos, never doing anything wrong. I thought they were the kind of people who, at every turn of the page, would remind you of who you weren’t and who they were—and if you just worked a little harder, maybe you’d be better. That’s what I assumed.

What I didn’t understand then, but am so grateful for now, is that the Bible is full of all kinds of jacked-up people—some even worse than you and me. The Bible is full of stories I’m still trying to explain to my kids. My daughter will ask, “Dad, help me understand Judah and Tamar.” And I have to explain that Judah decided to sleep with a prostitute, but the prostitute was actually his daughter-in-law who veiled herself to disguise her identity, and then they had a baby… and it’s just awkward. The Bible is a little awkward in places like that.

I find that deeply encouraging because I’m a little awkward sometimes. As I look at my own life, there are times where I’ve done things I wish I wouldn’t have done. Just this week, my daughter and I had our ongoing “please do your chores” thing, and she chose not to. I don’t know what happened, but I turned green. I was like the Hulk. I got so upset. I asked her, “Do you sense that I’m angry?” She said, “Uh-huh.” I said, “Yes, I’m angry!”

To be honest with you, I probably crossed a boundary with her. I probably need to go tie the apron strings a little bit because I can be a bit of an ogre. My point is simply this: when you approach the Bible, if you find yourself far from perfect, you’re in good company. The character we’re looking at tonight is no exception to that.

An Unlikely Hero

In Hebrews 11, we see that faith is defined as the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. That is why these people are in this list. It’s not that they lived perfectly; it’s that they pursued God by faith. And the woman mentioned in verse 31 is a very interesting case study in that.

Hebrews 11:31 (NASB)

By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.

Talk about a bad reputation. It’s one thing to have a reputation in high school that you eventually graduate from, move away from, or wait until the people who knew you then are gone so nobody’s talking about it anymore. But how would you like to be immortalized in the Holy Spirit-inspired Word of God as “Rahab the Harlot”? Captured for eternity in the scriptures as Rahab the prostitute. That is a terrible reputation to carry with you.

But Rahab is our kind of people. She was a woman who lived “downwind of herself.” She understood the depth of her sin. Now, I’m not saying she started on a good career path—I wouldn’t have recommended that at a high school career day—but she started down a path, and then something happened. To understand what that “something” was, we have to look at the backstory in the book of Joshua.

The Context of Jericho

In Joshua chapter 2, Rahab is living in a city called Jericho. Most people who grew up around the Bible know that name because of the Sunday school story about the walls falling down. In Rahab’s time, Jericho was a very impressive, well-fortified Canaanite city. It was located just east of the lower Jordan River, out in the middle of nowhere, with two primary roads. It was so well-fortified that it didn’t just have one wall; it had two external city walls.

Due to city growth, or perhaps for the convenience of her clientele, Rahab actually built her home on the inside of the outer wall. This made it very easy for men coming to call upon her business to find her, and it’s going to make it very convenient for her to do something significant by faith.

To give you the biblical context, Moses had led the people of God out of slavery in Egypt. After forty years of wandering in the wilderness—a journey that should have only taken two weeks—the older generation died off, and a new leader, Joshua, stepped up. Joshua led them to the eastern side of the Dead Sea, camping at a small city within eyesight of Jericho.

Joshua 2:1 (NASB)

Then Joshua the son of Nun sent two men as spies secretly from Shittim, saying, ‘Go, view the land, especially Jericho.’ So they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there.

The city they were camping in, Shittim, literally means “acacia trees.” From there, Joshua sends two spies into Jericho, and they stop at Rahab’s home. Some translations say they stopped at an “inn,” but you and I would probably know it as a brothel. Her home was also her place of business. It wouldn’t have been unusual for men to come and go from her house, so it wouldn’t have caused an alarm—unless there was a horde of two million people just on the other side of the river.

A Heart Melted Like Wax

If you lived in Jericho, you had heard the stories. You’d heard about the decimation of Egypt, the most powerful force on the planet. You’d heard about the plagues that devastated their military and economy. You’d heard about the Red Sea parting. For forty years, you’d watched these people wandering just south of you with a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. The people of Jericho probably thought the Israelites were crazy or had a terrible GPS system, but they were also terrified.

When the king of Jericho hears that Israelite spies are in the city, he sends an envoy to Rahab’s house. He wants to know who these people are and what they intend to do.

Joshua 2:4 (NASB)

But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them, and she said, ’Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.

Rahab hides the spies under stalks of flax on her roof and lies to the king’s men, telling them the spies already left. The question is: why? Why would this woman risk everything? This is her home. These people are her countrymen. Why would she risk being labeled a traitor to provide shelter for these men? She explains her reasoning to the spies before they go to sleep.

Joshua 2:9-11 (NASB)

and said to the men, ’I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. ’For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. ’When we heard [it], our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

What would cause a Canaanite prostitute to hide men of God? It was because she knew that the Lord their God was the God of heaven above and earth below. She had heard of His greatness, and she knew His hand was on them. She realized that nothing they could do could stop the hand of an Almighty God. Her heart, and the hearts of her people, had melted like wax because the strong arm of the Lord was unstoppable.

She strikes a deal with the spies: “I took care of you; now, will you spare me and my family?” They agree, telling her to hang a scarlet thread out of her window. If that thread is there, they will spare everyone inside the house.

The Walls Fall Down

In the following chapters, the people of God cross the Jordan River, which God parts for Joshua just as He did for Moses. Then, the siege of Jericho begins. But God gives them a very peculiar set of instructions. They are told to walk around the city once a day for six days.

Imagine being Rahab, peeking out your window. You see the army muster for war, and you think, “This is it.” Then they just walk around the city silently and go back to their tents. You’re thinking, “That’s it?” It happens again and again for six days. But on the seventh day, they walk around seven times—thirteen circles in total. Then, they don’t launch a stone or use a battering ram. They blow the shofar and they yell.

Joshua 6:20 (NASB)

So the people shouted, and [priests] blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city.

The walls literally fall down. The entire wall collapses, and the army walks straight ahead into the city—except for one small space.

Joshua 6:23-25 (NASB)

So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel. They burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. However, Rahab the harlot and her father’s household and all she had, Joshua spared; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

The entire wall collapses, but her house mysteriously stands. She and her family are spared and brought into the camp of Israel. Joshua then places a curse on the city, saying that anyone who tries to rebuild it will do so at the cost of his firstborn and his youngest son. Centuries later, a man named Hiel tried to do exactly that, and it happened just as Joshua prophesied.

Joshua 6:26 (NASB)

Then Joshua made them take an oath at that time, saying, ‘Cursed before the LORD is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with [the loss of] his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and with [the loss of] his youngest son he shall set up its gates.’

1 Kings 16:34 (NASB)

In his days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho; he laid its foundations with the [loss of] Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates with the [loss of] his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which He spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.

A New Identity

So, what happened to Rahab? Jewish tradition suggests she may have married Joshua, but we don’t know that for sure. We do know that the Jewish people considered her an example of a true convert. Her interaction in Joshua 2 is one of the longest recorded dialogues from a woman in the Old Testament. Her faith was a rebuke to the faithlessness of the Israelites who had seen God’s miracles firsthand but still doubted.

We see her again in the New Testament. James uses her as an example of what authentic faith looks like—a faith that produces action.

James 2:24-25 (NASB)

You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

But the most beautiful place she appears is in the very first chapter of the New Testament. If you’ve ever tried to read through the New Testament and got stuck on the list of names in Matthew 1, you might want to pump the brakes and look closer.

Matthew 1:5-6 (NASB)

Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah.

Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute, is in the family tree of Jesus Christ. She is the great-great-grandmother of King David. This means she is in the direct lineage of our Savior. That is beautiful. We aren’t talking about saints who always did everything right; we are talking about an ex-prostitute who walked away from selling herself for money and pleasure to pursue a new life with God by faith.

Not Defined by the Past

What is the takeaway from Rahab’s life? If there was ever a biblical character who could have said, “You don’t understand how hard it’s been to be me,” it was her. Her identity, her livelihood, and her reputation were all tied to being a harlot. That was her character until she heard of the goodness and power of God.

She learned that she didn’t have to live the way she had lived for years. She could be different. She refused to be defined by her past. By faith, she left behind who she was and pursued who she could be because of the grace of God.

The good news for us is the same: you and I are not defined by our past either. We are not shackled by it. The gospel of Jesus Christ invades our story, invades our past, and breaks the chains of who we’ve been.

You might have come here today as an alcoholic who is still using. You might be struggling with sexual addiction. You might be someone who just lost their temper with their daughter, or someone who cheated in business. But friends, we are defined by what the gospel is doing in our lives, not where we have been. If God can use Rahab, He can use us.

Rahab submitted herself to a holy God, and her heart melted like wax. How much more should we submit ourselves to the God who graciously sent Jesus to redeem us from our nonsense and allow us to write a whole new chapter?

I wonder how many times Rahab got to tell her story. I can hear her saying, “Oh, no, that’s who I used to be. But I’m not her anymore.” That is the same privilege we have today. We get to walk in newness of life.

Some of you resonate with Rahab because you feel lost and you need the cross. Embrace the gospel and be made new. Others of you know better, but you live in shame because you keep going back to the old life. Could Rahab have gone back to being a harlot? Yes, but why would she? If you’ve gone back, I’m inviting you to come home.

Recently, our church staff went through a program called “Regen.” As a pastor, doing steps four, five, and six—the inventory steps—was a really interesting experience. I hated digging up all that old stuff. But I realized that I still respond to things based on who I used to be. I realized that my anger this week was still sin, and I needed to invite the gospel into that moment. God desires truth in our innermost being. He wants us to live confessionally and walk in the light.

Learn the lesson of Rahab: it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. God makes old things new. Just as He used a Canaanite harlot, He can use you. Turn to Him, submit your life to Him, and let’s see how Jesus can be true to His word.

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NASB)

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Father, we celebrate the use of broken people in our Bibles as examples for us. Because of stories like Rahab’s, we can lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles. May her story encourage us to run with endurance the race You have for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Amen.