Go Ahead – Call Her That!

 

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By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. (Hebrews 11:31)

 

 

          There is no way I could tell you his last name. After all, I came to know him as you did: simply as “Joe the Plumber.”

          “Joe the Plumber’s” life was characterized by his profession. And – at least at first! – it seemed as if he were the ideal example for one of the political parties to use in its campaign. All you needed to know was Joe was a plumber who was going to be harmed by one party’s policies.

          This morning, meet Rahab the Prostitute.

          You might object that it’s not fair, or nice, to characterize her by her ignoble (former) profession. But that’s how the Word of God presents this ancestor of Jesus, literally etching her in stone as “the harlot.”

          Why? Because Rahab the prostitute is a striking, and enduring, example of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to transform sinners. And she is both an encouragement and a challenge to you and me today.

 

          Rahab the prostitute is, first, proof that Christ came to save all types of sinners.

          “Rahab the harlot” – her name says it all, doesn’t it? For one, she was a Canaanite, a Gentile who stood outside the covenant community of God. From birth she was an alien to the covenants of promise. Her people worshipped any number of false gods and had no personal, saving knowledge of the one, true God. In our terms, she didn’t have a Bible and hadn’t even heard of Jesus – much less did she know she was a sinner in need of a Savior. Then there is the matter of her former profession – a prostitute. In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul pointed to sexual sin as being the worst embodiment of the fruit of pagan religion. Surely this Rahab the prostitute was beyond feeling, beyond saving, wasn’t she?

          This is why the hand of God providentially led two Israelites, sent to spy out the city of Jericho on behalf of God’s people, to Rahab’s house. The least-likely candidate for salvation was about to become example No. 1 of the power of Christ to save any type of sinner – even you.

          The spies probably looked for a place in the city wall where they were less likely to be noticed, and it “just happened” that they found Rahab the prostitute. This woman received them in peace, Paul writes in Hebrews 11, protected them against Gentile authorities and then spoke remarkable words of conversion to them. Rahab begged their mercy for herself and for her family, but pay special attention to how she phrased her request. She did not say, “Wow, you guys have won some big victories lately. Y’all are pretty powerful. I think I’ll take my chances with you – okay?”

          Instead, she confessed the truth: Israel’s God was the Lord of Heaven and earth, and He had given this good land to His people. God in His sovereign grace blessed Rahab with the spiritual understanding to couple current events (Israel’s major victories) with what she evidently had heard about Israel’s God (that He alone was the true God, Maker of Heaven and earth). And she asked for covenant mercy from God’s representatives.

          No wonder the Lord chose to include this “un-save-able” person in Jesus’ royal family tree. Isn’t that what the Gospel is all about – the Great Physician healing the sick? Those whom the “healthy” world writes off as beyond hope? No wonder Jesus, in his earthly ministry, showed mercy to a woman caught in adultery.

          How about you? Are you known here in town by your past sins? Do you think you’re beyond saving? Rahab wasn’t. There is no possible way you are either.

          Or are you a professed Christian who enjoys looking down on others – withholding the Gospel from them? Remember Rahab the harlot: proof that Jesus came to save all types of sinners. Even you.

 

          Rahab the harlot is proof secondly that those whom Jesus saves act on their faith.

          Granted, she is known to this day as “Rahab the harlot” – but clearly she reformed her life after her conversion to true religion. Otherwise she would not have continued to dwell among the people of God, as we’re told later (in Joshua 6). The very name “Rahab the harlot” reminds you and me that she indeed had a reputation based on her former life – but it also reminds us that her new identity in Christ was incomparably more important than her former identity in sin!

          Both St. James and St. Paul commend Rahab as a believer who acted on her faith in the Lord. To paraphrase James, Rahab’s actions in hiding the spies and risking her life for God’s servants meant that she had a “justifiable claim to be justified before God.” When she claimed to be in right standing with the Lord, in perfect conformity to His holy law by faith in His righteous Messiah, her claim was justifiable.

          True faith in the Lord demands that you and I stand out from the spiritually dead world around us. In the PCA today we see conformity, but not to Christ’s image. We instead see conformity to a debauched and licentious world, which willfully rejects the knowledge of God. Rahab was surrounded by an equal – and possibly even greater – degree of paganism, yet her non-conformity shames you and me. She hid the spies in the large stalks of flax in her roof. She chose to risk her life for the Lord’s cause rather than take the immediate path of least resistance and align with the Gentiles.

          To be sure, she told a lie to the authorities, who had heard about some strangers in town and assumed those strangers to be Israelite spies. Scripture does not commend Rahab for her lie. God is the Author of all truth, and just as Scripture does not applaud Tamar for tricking Judah, the Word withholds praise of Rahab’s lie.

          Our focus, though, needs to be where Scripture places it: on the power of God to change a sinner and use her for His service. Saving faith in Jesus results in a changed life, forsaking the former, sinful ways of thinking about this life and the world around us, and forsaking the former ways of rebelling against God’s law. Saved people act on their faith.

          This is the message you and I need to receive in Greene County, where everyone claims to be a born-again Christian. We even have the lingo down, don’t we? “I walked the aisle at such-and-such church on such-and-such day and gave my life to Christ.” Oh really? How often do you keep the Lord’s Day holy to Him? Do you and your family have devotions? How are you doing in your battle with persistent sinful habits? Do you give your tithe to the church and support missionaries and needy folks apart from the church’s giving?

          Rahab the harlot had a justifiable claim to be justified before God. Do you?

 

          Third, Rahab the harlot is proof that God uses saved sinners to fulfill His good plans of redemption in His world.

          Now, you and I get uncomfortable at the suggestion that a former Gentile harlot could play a key role in salvation history. Doesn’t God use such luminaries as Elijah and Moses and John to advance His saving work and message?

          Well, He does – and He uses former prostitutes.

          And you and me.

          The land that the spies were scoping out was a place flowing with milk and honey. The Lord had promised it to Abraham centuries before, and in Joshua 2 we encounter the people of God on the verge of entering this land of rest. Here they could dwell in security and serve the Lord with fear and joy, just as He always had intended. But in Godly prudence, Joshua had sent two spies into Jericho to get the lay of the land. Their safe return, coupled with their report of Rahab’s words of encouragement (she had told the spies all the Canaanites were melting in fear of Israel), bolstered the people in their crossing of the Jordan.

          In her own way, then, Rahab played a role in the first Joshua leading God’s people into the Promised Land. Her courage in hosting, hiding and supporting the spies facilitated the taking of Jericho by Israel. The Lord used this former prostitute to advance His plan of salvation for His people!

          Of course, that physical land only pointed to our rest in the Lord Jesus – and to the greater Land to which he will lead all the faithful: the New Heavens and New Earth. You and I rest from our fear of guilt and accusation before God as we rest in Jesus; one day we will be free from all our enemies when we cross Jordan. That will be the true Land of Promise, in which dwelleth righteousness and where there is no curse.

          It is fitting, then, that the Lord would choose to include Rahab in the genealogy of the Second Joshua. (You know, don’t you, that “Jesus” and “Joshua” are the same name in Hebrew?”) Rahab married Salmon, who became the great-great-grandfather of King David, an ancestor of King Jesus. By her physical labors, she furthered God’s plan of redemption in history.

          Do you think God can use you in calling His elect to Himself? Certainly you and I fulfill a different role in salvation history from, say, Elijah and David; but the Lord still uses you in the building of His Church. Remember, God has an eternally appointed number of the elect. Some of those elect live and work with you. You might not know exactly who they are right now; really, that doesn’t matter. You live and tell the saving mercies of Jesus, and the Lord will take care of the rest as He calls sinners around you to faith in Christ.

          If God can employ Rahab the harlot in church work, He can utilize you as well.

 

          With all of our “cultural sensitivities” these days, you and I might think it rude to refer habitually to this woman of faith as “Rahab the harlot.” Hey, didn’t Joe the Plumber even have more going than just his profession?

          Somehow, I don’t think Rahab would mind us calling her by her former title. Because when you speak of Rahab the harlot, you’re speaking of Rahab the Christian and of Rahab the Ancestor of the Savior. You’re recalling how powerful the blood of Jesus is to save the worst of sinners.

          Isn’t that the message of Christmas?