A Woman God Can Use - Part 3

Today we will take a look at Rahab.  She was the prostitute that hid the two spies that Joshua had sent to check out Jericho (see Joshua 2).  Why would she, a lowly prostitute, be used by God? 

If we take a look at the facts that we can see in the scripture, Rahab was clearly unmarried and without children.  We know that she had a father, mother, brothers and sisters.  What we don’t know is why the men of her family weren’t taking care of her.  We could assume that it was a situation of a family in dire poverty.  This young woman may have had to find a way to provide for herself, and maybe even for ailing parents. We aren’t told why she was a prostitute, just that she was one.  Sometimes people are victims of circumstance.  Sometimes people just make bad choices.  Either way, she ended up living this life. 

In Rahab’s line of work, she must have had the opportunity to talk to many men.  She had heard tales of how the God of the Israelites was making a way for them to take over the land.  She knew about the parting of the Red Sea and about the complete destruction of Sihon and Og.   In her destitution, I’m sure she longed to be taken care of and provided for like this God of Israel was doing for His people.  She had a fear of that God and had faith that He might protect and provide for her, too, if she did something for Him. She risked her life to help those spies escape.

                             

Because of what she did for God’s people, He saved her and her entire family.  They were taken in by the Israelite nation and lived among them.  According to Matthew 1, Rahab apparently married and had a son named Boaz. We will find out more about him in Ruth’s story later on, but he was a wealthy man.  That must mean that his parents were probably wealthy also.  This poor prostitute was blessed beyond what she could have ever imagined because of her faith in God and because she acted on that faith. 

In James 2: 24-26 Rahab’s faith is used as an example to all of us.  “You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.  In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?  As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”