A/N: I wrote this blog as a sermon for a church service while here in Chile.
This year my team and I have been traveling across the world, first to Africa, then Asia, and now we’re here in South America for another seven weeks before we head back home to the United States. Over the course of the last ten months I have seen a lot, done a lot, and experienced a lot, but most importantly, God has taught me a lot.
When we left the United States in January, I decided to make it my goal to read the entire Bible. I’d read a lot of it before, but never had I ever read all 66 books of the Bible. It was the only real goal I had made for the year besides trying to see a sunrise and sunset in ever country; because I didn’t want to try and put expectations on God and limit what I thought he could do in my life this year. So I started the year with the goal to read the whole Bible in a 12-month period of time. I’m not done yet but I’m getting there.
Something that god has been teaching me as I read the Bible this year, is just how much I didn’t know was in the Bible. Just how many stories I had only heard but never read. For example, the Story of Rahab the Prostitute. I’ve been reading the Book of Joshua these last couple of weeks and as I read Joshua chapters 2 and 6 I realized that while I remembered hearing about Rahab the Prostitute as a child, I had never actually read her story before.
When I think of Prostitutes I don’t think of very much, in fact most people don’t. In the USA we look down on them because we think they can do better for themselves; a lot of people think that Prostitutes aren’t worth much, and there are people who don’t think they can do any good. But that’s the furthest thing from the truth. God can use them. God can take people that we don’t think are any good and use them for his Glory. He did that with Rahab.
Joshua 2 begins the story of Rahab. The story goes a little like this…. Joshua sends two spies to go and check out Jericho, and while they were in Jericho they came across the house of a prostitute named Rahab and asked if they could stay there and she said yes. After finding out that these two spies were in his town and hiding the King went to search them out, and he went to Rahab and said, tell me where the two men you are lodging are hiding; and she was like, it’s true that these men came looking for a place to stay, but I told them no, that I couldn’t help them; they left here, and I don’t know where they went. So the kings people left to go search for the men, and Rahab went to where she had hidden the two men and said to them in verses 9-13, “I know the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all inhabitants of the land melt away before you…now then, please swear to me by the Lord that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, brothers and sisters and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” And the two men replied to Rahab saying that they owed her their lives even until their death. They then left her house and Rahab told them where they could run and hide and as the men left her house they told her in verse 17, “…We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear.” And they told her that when they returned that she should tie a ribbon to her window and gather all her family there and they would leave her household alone, but if anyone left her hose their blood was in their own hands. And then the men left and hid in the hills.
The story of Rahab then continues in Joshua 6 where the book of Joshua talks about the fall of the Wall of Jericho. In Joshua 6:17 it says that, “and the city and all that is with it shall be devoted to the lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.” Thus the promise to Rahab to keep her safe because she protected the two men in secret was kept and honored. God Keeps His promises to the ones he makes them to.
Rahab was a woman who may have been a prostitute in profession, but regardless she was a daughter of God. She did what he needed her to do. When those two spies came to her house one night and knocked on the door and asked for a place to stay, she could have easily have said no, of turned them into the king, but no she didn’t; she stepped out, she stood up, and she did something brave and courageous, she risked her own safety and her own life to help someone else; to help someone she didn’t even know.
Are you willing to step up and help out? Are you willing to risk your life and your safety for someone you didn’t know? Are you willing to risk your family’s life, their safety? Are you willing to step out and be bold and Courageous? Joshua 1:9 says, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Rahab was strong and courageous when she said yes to those two spies. She was strong and courageous when she lied to the king. Her life was on the line, if the King had found out the truth, that Rahab was helping these two men; she could have been sent to prison or worse to death.
Notice Rahab didn’t ask the men to protect her in the long run, before she agreed to help them. She just did it. And when she did ask them for protection as they were leaving, she wasn’t asking them to do more than she had, she was just like, treat me like I treated you. In all honesty, I’m not even sure if she really expected them to follow through with their response that they would Respect the request. I KNOW I wouldn’t have 100% trusted their response to her request. But in the end the men did just that, they followed through, they kept their promise to her, and in doing so God protected her. God protects those who are working for his good, he’s going to make sure we’re okay. God uses those for his Glory, even if we don’t think they’re “good enough” to be used. I know I haven’t always believed this; with my past the way it is I’ve questioned whether I’m “good enough” for God to use; but after this year, seeing the people I’ve seen, witnessing the things I’ve done and seen, and just seeing God’s goodness all over the world, I’ve come to realize that God CAN use anyone, no matter who they are, what they’ve done, or what their past is like.
So as I said before my team and I have been traveling for the last ten months, and have seen, done and experience a lot of things as well as learned a lot from God. One of the most important thing that God has taught me this year is that God CAN use anyone, regardless what we as humans think of a particular person and what they’re capable of God can use anyone. Look at the person to the left, he can use him/her; now look to the person at the right, God can use that person too; and now look at yourself, God can use you; no matter what you’ve said, done, or thought, there is nothing that God can’t redeem you from, and there is nothing that God can’t use you it.
So, my challenge for you is this…step out and do something you don’t think is possible….be courageous like Rahab was when she stepped out and said Yes to helping those men she didn’t know, even though she was risking everything. I know it can be scary, but my friends and I stepped out to say Yes to the World Race and if we hadn’t I wouldn’t be here to speak to you today. So step out, be courageous. Trust in God…and let God use you.
