Ever wondered, “will God forgive me?” or “can God use me?” The short answer is yes! The impossible is possible with God on your side (spoiler alert: He’s always on your side!).

Through the story of Rahab, we learn how God can use our obedience—no matter our past choices—for good. God creates divine appointments—intercessions—to accomplish great things.

Today is your divine appointment! Seek God. Believe in Jesus. Confess your sin and walk in faith and victory. It’s yours for the taking!

Through this series, you’ll learn how to live well & enjoy God's promises. You are loved by God; He knows your name. He has a plan for your life. Get helpful advice, encouragement, and hope for a life well lived in 2021 and beyond.

Are you walking in faith and victory? Set your eyes on the promises of God. You only have one life journey; say yes to Jesus. Like Rahab, turn away from any past guilt or sin and look to God.

No matter your past, your faith and obedience now are what matter to God.

Faith in God inspires courage

Today we are continuing our series on Life is a Journey. In this series we have looked at both Abraham and Joseph. Today we will be looking at a woman named Rahab. She is the woman who sheltered two spies in the town of Jericho, whom Joshua had sent to spy out the land.

The Israelites are about to cross over the Jordan River and enter the promised land. They left Egypt over 38 years earlier and are now about to take possession of the land God had promised to give Israel.

Remember, this is the second time the Israelites are about to enter the promised land. The first time was years earlier under Moses’ leadership; Moses sent in twelve spies to look over the land. Ten of them came back with a bad report that the people were like giants and they did not see how the Israelites would overpower these inhabitants.

Only Joshua and Caleb returned with a positive report that victory was possible.

Victory is always possible over seemingly impossible situations when the Lord is present. Faith in the Lord brings with it the courage to believe and have faith not to fear. A lack of faith in God and in God’s ability will cause fear to grip your heart and cause you to shrink back from doing the will of God. So, walk with faith in God and allow your faith to believe that the impossible is possible with the Lord on your side.

Dead faith only delivers fear and hopelessness. Faith in the living God is living faith, which speaks life and hope in the face of adversity and doom.

Faith in God inspires:

• Hope and courage.

• Boldness to be the person of God that you are meant to be.

• Personal action and the ability to look past fear to victory.

• Positive change your life.

As we study the story of Rahab, we find a woman acted on her faith in God. At this point, Joshua sends only two spies out to the land. Rahab helps the men accomplish their task. They come back with a report that the people of Jericho were fearful and without courage.

‘The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” 3 So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.” 4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from’ (Joshua 2:2-4, NIV).

Because of Rahab’s faith and her courageous actions, she and her whole family are protected.

‘Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” 23 So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel’ (Joshua 6:22-23).

The book of Joshua records the Israelites’ crossing of the Jordan River along with Israel’s conquest of the land that God promised them. You will find God is faithful regarding his promises. He blesses those who believe and obey, and brings judgement towards those who refused to believe.

The people living in Canaan were ungodly, cruel, and immoral. They worshiped false gods and offered up human sacrifices. The inhabitants of the city of Jericho had nothing going for them and they refused to change or believe in God.

Yet one woman placed her faith in God and acted on her faith. She hid the two Israelite spies from the authorities and she proclaimed her faith openly to the two spies.

Rahab, along with all the people of Jericho, knew about what happened in Egypt and how God parted the Red Sea and delivered them from bondage and the Egyptian army. They had heard what happened some forty years earlier. They also knew what recently happened to the two Amorite kings that Israel defeated on the other side of the Jordan.

The hearts of the people in Jericho melted in fear. They had no courage. Fear was running rampant throughout the city.

Yet one person, Rahab, considered in her heart all that God had done. She believed the stories of how Israel’s God delivered the Israelites from their oppressors. She believed the Lord was God above all other gods and professed her faith in God both in word and actions. Rahab humbly asked that all her father’s household be shown kindness for the kindness that she had shown to the two spies.

I want you to notice, Rahab was not asking to be shown kindness simply for herself, but her entire family. Was it just by chance that the spies found themselves crossing paths with Rahab? I think not!

God Can use our obedience for amazing things

Some scholars believe Rahab might have been an innkeeper along with having been a prostitute. If someone was a spy and they would want to blend in and not be noticed. Acting like a couple of travelers from out of town and stopping at an Inn or at a prostitute’s place might be the very thing to use as a cover story.

But was this encounter by chance or a divine appointment, an intervention from God? The two spies did not know Rahab. They did not know how she would act. They did not know Rahab would hide and protect them from the king’s men who sought them out. Also, why would the king think the two spies went to Rahab’s place in the first place? Did someone notice the spies go into Rahab’s place? Why would Rahab take a chance and protect the spies?

Rahab was putting her life on the line when she lied to protect the two spies. Rahab and her entire family could be considered traitors and be sentenced to death for what she was doing.

I am inclined to think that this encounter was a divine appointment:

1. Rahab protected the spies, realizing who they were.

2. Rahab proclaims her faith in the Lord and she, along with her father’s household, are saved.

3. The spies learned firsthand the attitude and fear of the people.

4. Rahab is part of Jesus’ lineage. Rahab: an outsider, a Gentile, a prostitute is delivered from death and is saved to be part of the greatest redemption story ever known.

When God intervenes with a divine appointment, it’s not by chance. They are purposeful encounters, planned by God such as:

• The story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4). Jesus had to travel through Samaria, which Jews typically avoided because they didn’t like Samaritans. But Jesus had a divine appointment with a woman at the well. Jesus shared the Gospel in a conversation with the woman. This caused her and many other Samaritans to become believers.

• The story of Saul becoming the apostle Paul (Acts 9): he had a divine encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road. God was calling Paul to be a witness of the saving Grace of God. Paul would write most of the New Testament and point countless numbers of people to Jesus down the ages through the written Word of God.

• The story of Paul’s and Silas’ prison doors opened by an earthquake (Acts 16:16-40). They were thrown in jail for helping someone. As awful as this seems, God turned this terrible event into something good. There was an earthquake, the cell doors opened, their chains fell off. Unbelievably, none of the prisoners left. The jailer, who would have been killed if he lost the prisoners on his watch, and his household came to faith and were baptized because of this divine appointment.

• The story of the crippled beggar who was miraculously healed (Acts 3). Peter and John went to the temple to pray, as they did every day. There was a crippled beggar who was there every day for many years. This is the same beggar that Peter and John would have passed time and again. But this time, Peter turned and commanded him to walk. Immediately, the man was healed and praised God.

• The story of Philip leading the Ethiopian to Christ (Acts 8:26-39). Philip meets an Ethiopian reading the scriptures and leads him to faith in Christ. An angel told Philip what road to take and to speak to the man in the chariot. Was this by chance? No!

• The story of Ruth, an outsider, becoming part of Jesus’ ancestry (Ruth 1-4). A woman named Naomi and her family travel to Moab because of a famine. Naomi’s two sons marry two women from Moab. Naomi’s husband and two sons die in Moab, and Naomi decides to return home to Bethlehem. Ruth, one of Naomi’s daughters-in-law, chooses to go back to Bethlehem with her and Ruth proclaims her faith in God. Ruth later meets Boaz (v. 2:3-5), and they get married (v. 4:13). Ruth, once a Moabite, becomes a person of faith in God, and ultimately is included in the lineage of Jesus! Did all this happen by chance? I think not.

Each of these, I believe, were divine appointments that God orchestrated well in advance.

Just as Ruth was included in the lineage of Jesus, so was another outsider, Rahab. Both women were Gentiles and from an ungodly nation. Both had questionable pasts and yet they came to believe in God. Their faith in God and changed lives made all the difference and they were included in the lineage of King David and Jesus. Can you believe it? Two women with immoral and ungodly pasts, who then place their faith in God are a part of Jesus’ lineage? By chance? I think not.

When you were told about Jesus, was that by chance? No, I do not think so.

Faith and action can make a difference!

Rahab’s faith is seen in her profession of faith and actions. So, how did Rahab come to faith? It was by hearing all that God had done and believing in her heart that God was God in heaven above and on earth below.

But how did she hear of it? It might have been travelers that she spoke with as they visited her establishment. It could be the gossip of others from far and near who reported to others what they had heard. Whatever the case, no one in all Jericho except for Rahab believed that God was God over the whole earth.

Was it by chance that:

• The two spies and Rahab crossed paths?

• She heard the stories of God?

• She acted in faith?

NO!

Rahab had everything going against her. She was from the wrong side of the tracks, she was an Amorite. She lived in an immoral city among immoral people and lived the life of a prostitute. But God had mercy on her and, because of her faith, she was delivered from death to life.

Rahab turned her back on her past and looked to God. Her changed heart is revealed by her actions and the words spoken to the two spies. Rahab was turning her back on her past and she was letting go of everything she owned and that was familiar to her:

• Her home, her livelihood, (as an innkeeper), her past as a prostitute and all connections to the city except for her father’s household.

• Rahab walked away from any connection to the false gods she may have once worshiped.

• If Rahab had remained unmoved and spiritually unchanged in Jericho, she was as good as dead.

I can only imagine Rahab experienced some painful days at times, but she remained faithful to God. Some Israelites might have looked down on Rahab and her family because:

• She was a non-Jew.

• She had a checkered past.

• She may not have dressed the same or spoken the same or even looked the same as other Israelites, and yet scripture tells us that she was accepted and later married an Israelite and is included in the lineage of Jesus.

This tells me that no matter your past, you can become a child of God when you have faith in Jesus and your actions line up with your profession of faith.

Your past doesn’t matter when you Turn to God and believe.

Friends, in a manner of speaking, like Rahab, we each live in our own Jericho. The world, like Jericho, is immoral and filled with greed, lies, ungodly teaching and ungodly ideas. Pride, jealously, hatred, envy, selfish ambition, impurity, discord, drunkenness, orgies and much more can be found everywhere. Mankind’s sinful nature and sinful desires are opposed to the things of God and rule the unbeliever’s heart.

Galatians 5:16-26 lists the sinful nature; but in contrast Galatians also lists the fruit of the spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…” (Galatians 5:22-23), some of which Rahab displayed.

Every person who refuses to believe in Jesus, every person who ignores the truth regarding God, every person who chooses to continue to live a life in spiritual rebellion towards God is already spiritually dead.

Rahab was as good as dead—as were all the other inhabitants of Jericho. But her spiritual eyes, ears and heart were opened, and she believed God was God, and her life was changed for all eternity.

Rahab’s faith and actions displayed some of the Fruits of the Spirit. Kindness, faithfulness along with others. The spies told Rahab to put a scarlet cord outside her window and to remain inside her home. They were showing kindness to Rahab and her family for her showing kindness to them. Rahab need to believe and have faith to trust God along with the word of the two spies, and in doing so she was delivered from death to life.

Now, consider these verses:

“And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls” (Joel 2:32).

“If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God” (1 John 4:15).

‘for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”’ Romans 10:13).

Rahab placed her faith in God and was delivered from death to life. Because of Rahab’s faith and belief in God, she was not killed with the others in Jericho who were disobedient (Hebrews 11:31). Her actions revealed her heart.

What do your actions reveal?

Do your words line up with your actions? Do you believe and have faith that Jesus is the son of God?

‘But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit’ (1 Peter 3:15-18).

Whatever you may be experiencing, don’t give up. Don’t think all is lost. Put your faith in Jesus. Pray for that unsaved loved one. It’s not too late. Pray the truth of God is revealed in their heart, that their spiritual eyes, ears and hearts are opened to the truth of God and that they place their faith in Jesus.

No one is so bad that God cannot redeem them from sin.

• Rahab was a prostitute.

• Ruth was a worshiper of the god of Baal who sacrificed children.

• Paul condoned the stoning of Stephen.

• The vilest of sinners can be saved!

The Blood of Jesus is sufficient to pay for the sins of the whole world. That includes yours and anyone else who will place their faith in Jesus.

Today is your divine appointment. Hear the word of God and know it is true. Seek God. Believe in Jesus. Confess your sin and begin to walk in faith and victory.

Life is a journey. Today turn away from any past guilt and old sinful ways, and seek the Lord Jesus with all your heart.

Like Rahab, you too will become a child of God. Your name will be written in the book of life, just like Rahab’s name.

Suggested Praise and Worship

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