“Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.” (Joshua 2:1 NIV)
There’s no right answer to this question, but one of my favorites is Rahab. She is in the lineage of Jesus. She is a heroine who saved the spies Joshua sent into the land. She saved her family with her heroic actions. She was a prostitute who was wiser than anyone else in the city. She was following God. I’ve always thought Rahab was cool. Rahab, the prostitute, was a woman of God.
Rahab, the prostitute, was a woman of God.
Of all the people Joshua could have sent the spies too, he sent them to Rahab. Joshua was chosen by God to lead the Israelites after Moses died. Therefore, we can assume, Joshua was a man of God. So Joshua, man of God, sends the spies to the only woman of God in the entire city, Rahab the prostitute.
The reason why I love Rahab, and all prostitutes, is because I’m just like them. I’m an imperfect woman. I’ve made bad choices at different points in my life. But praise Jesus, He loves me anyway. I may not have done what Rahab did for a living, but that doesn’t make a difference. We are all sinners in need of redemption.
We all have done things in this life we regret doing. We’ve made choices we wish we could take back. We will make choices in the future we will regret. But when we begin to comprehend the love Jesus has for us, we’ll begin to follow Him more. As we follow Him more, we’ll start to do what He did. When we begin doing what Jesus did, we’ll start making better choices. Just as Rahab and the sinful woman did.
Rahab understood God’s love for her. She did what He wanted her to do. She hid the spies and helped them escape. She made a good choice for her life and the lives of her family. She saved them all with her obedience to God. The sinful woman understood Jesus’s love for her. That is why she fell at his feet, wetting them with her tears, anointing them with expensive oil, and drying them with her hair. She was preparing her Lord for what was coming, His death.
Question of the Day:
Do you understand the depth of God’s love for you today?
Further Reading: Deuteronomy 34:1- Joshua 2:24 NIV, Luke 13:22-14:6 NIV, Psalm 79:1-13 NIV, Proverbs 12:26 NIV
