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More Joshua commentaries
Joshua 1:1-9
God’s Commission to Joshua
Joshua 1:10-18
The Order to Cross the Jordan
Joshua 2:1-11
Rahab Hides the Spies
Joshua 2:12-24
The Spies Promise to Protect Rahab
Joshua 3:1-17
Crossing the Jordan
Joshua 4:1-14
Two Memorials of Stone are built
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Rahab Hides the Spies
Joshua 2:1–11
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)
I heard the story of two friends who were talking to each other. One remarked to his friend and said, “Man, you look so depressed. Whatever could you be thinking about to depress you so?” His friend quickly replied, “My future.” “Your future?” his fr … More
Every single one of us has a past. There are very few people today that have not been touched by divorce. We have all heard the statistics that cite that roughly one-half of all marriages ends in divorce. Forty percent of young women before the age of 20 become pregnant here in the United States. Many raise children as single moms, which has become one of the fastest growing segments of the American population. There are a lot of hurting people who become labeled as losers, failures, trouble makers, or insecure, all because either they or someone else close to them made mistakes. However, it is important to know that your past doesn’t have to keep you out of the plan of God.
Rahab was a woman with a past (vv. 1-11). She came from a pagan background (wrong religion), and was a harlot (wrong profession). If ever there was a person who’s past should have hindered them, it was Rahab. Her past was shady at best and immoral at worst. She was not the type of person you would want to teach your children in Sunday School. Many churches wouldn’t even want a woman like Rahab attending for they would be afraid that people would talk. It is interesting to note that in Matthew’s account of the linage of Jesus, the only three women mentioned were all involved in sexual sin. Rahab was a prostitute, Bathsheba, an adulteress, and Tamar, who committed incest with her father-in-law. Yet Rahab became the great, great grandmother of King David.
Remember that the only two women mentioned in the Hebrew 11, “Hall of Fame (Faith)” are Sarah, the godly wife of Abraham, and Rahab, an ungodly Gentile who was a harlot. Talk about the wonderful grace of God. Those who say that God’s grace can’t be found in the Old Testament need to look at Rahab. By faith, she did not perish, and by faith, she received her inheritance. She chose to step out in faith. Listen to her words as she speaks to the spies (vv. 9-11).
Application
I have a choice of who I am going to believe, Satan or God. If God could take a prostitute and include her in His plan, He certainly has a plan for my life.
Joshua 2:1-11 (English Standard Version)
And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, "Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land." Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land." But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, "True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them." But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. And the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out. Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, "I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt 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 devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath."
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