Family Christmas: Rahab

Good morning again. Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 1. We are beginning a series of messages for the Christmas season called Family Christmas: Investigating the family of Jesus. Christmas is when we celebrate that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, one hundred percent God and one hundred percent God to dwell with us on Earth and ultimately to die in our place, for our sins. Christmas is when we celebrate the fulfillment of the promise that God would send a Savior.

When we start thinking about some of the traditions surrounding our celebrations of Christmas, those generally end up involving some kind of family. Some traditions have been passed down for many generations. During the month of December we are going to take a look at some of the people in Jesus’ family line and what their stories tell us about Jesus.

The book of Matthew opens with giving us a genealogy of Jesus. I’m guess that most of you probably either skip over these or skim right through the list of names. However, the Lord had these included in His Word for a reason. It was so we would know the lineage of Jesus and to show that He was who He said He was. It proves Jesus as the descendant of the line of David.

As you read though Jesus’ genealogy you start to notice that there’s a few people with some sketchy backgrounds in there. If there’s room for people like that in Jesus’ family, then there’s room for you in His family too. The first person we are going to look at we find in Matthew 1, verse 5. Let’s read the first five verses in Matthew to bring us up to this point.

Matthew 1:1–5 ESV

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,

This is the Word of the Lord. Let’s pray and ask God to help us understand.

In verse 5, we see a lady named Rahab mentioned. Rahab’s story is found in Joshua chapter 2. You can go ahead and turn there. Now, there are a few reasons why finding Rahab mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus should stand out to us. First is that she was a woman and women were only mentioned in Biblical genealogies occasionally. Jesus’ genealogy mentions five women. Luke doesn’t mention them in his genealogy of Jesus found in Luke 3. Sinclair Ferguson* suggests that Matthew is hinting at three important biblical principles. These principles are directly connected to the reasons why Rahab’s appearance here seems odd to us.

The second reason her appearance here is noticeable is that she was an outsider. She was not part of Israel at the start of this. She was a gentile. Ferguson points out that this hints at the principle in Scripture that God extends his grace beyond the people of Israel and brings Gentiles into His covenant.

And third, she was a prostitute. I told you some of these folks had sketch backgrounds. Ferguson writes that this shows the biblical principle that God overcomes the effects of sin and shame as He works out His promises and God keeps His promises in ways that we could never have anticipated. God had promised to bring the people into the promised land and here they were ready to take the land but the city of Jericho stood in the way.

Let’s read from Joshua chapter 2 and find out what is going on in this story.

Joshua 2 ESV

1 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. 2 And it was told to the king of Jericho, “Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.” 3 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.” 4 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. 5 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.” 6 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. 7 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. 8 Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof 9 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. 10 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. 11 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. 12 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 13 that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” 14 And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.” 15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall. 16 And she said to them, “Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward you may go your way.” 17 The men said to her, “We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear. 18 Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. 19 Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. 20 But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear.” 21 And she said, “According to your words, so be it.” Then she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window. 22 They departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned, and the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing. 23 Then the two men returned. They came down from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they told him all that had happened to them. 24 And they said to Joshua, “Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.”

I. Rahab’s reception.

She received the spies. Joshua sent the two spies into the land to check out Jericho and they came to her house. There’s no mention of any kind of illicit relationship between the spies and Rahab. It was likely that her house was an inn or type of way station which would have made it a logical place to stay and get some information about the city. They didn’t do a great job staying undercover because word got to the king that there were spies in town. Somehow he knows to ask Rahab about them. He seems to have heard specifically that they were staying at her house.

II. Rahab's response

1. To the king

She tells the king that she didn’t know who the men were and that they had already taken off. She even tells him to hurry up and get after them and he might be able to catch them.

Now, this response generally brings up the ethical question of Rahab deceiving the king in order to protect the spies. It’s important to understand that her deception is never the focus of what is going on here but instead on the fact that she feared the Lord and had faith that she and her family could be rescued from the oncoming attack. The narrative of this story does not address the ethics of the issue. When Rahab is commended for her faith in the New Testament, her methods are not commented on. This is not a prescriptive narrative in that it’s not telling you that this is the way you should do things. Remember also that she was not an Israelite and would not have been used to living under laws such as the ten commandments and the prohibition against lying. So her response to the king was to protect the spies.

In Hebrews 11:31 the writer includes her with the great examples of faith because she welcomed the spies.

2. To the spies

Her response to the spies was to recieve them, keep them safe, and help them escape. Beginning in verse 9, Rahab gives an astonishing awareness of the history of Israel and the plan of God to give them the land of Canaan. She tells them that she knows the Lord is God and asks them to keep her family safe from the destruction that is about to be visited upon Jericho.

Joshua 2:12–13 ESV

12 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 13 that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.”

Rahab responded with faith. Later in the story we find that she and her family are integrated into Israel and in fact she ends up marrying into the nation and in the family lineage of Jesus. Her faith that God was God and would do what He said for Israel was not something she only gave word of mouth to. It was something that moved her to act. I want you to see that today. Her belief in the power of God moved her to act. If she was discovered by the king she could have faced serious consequences. But she feared the Lord more than anything that could happen to her as a result.

Faith leads obedience. When someone is constantly disobedient to what the Lord has commanded, I question the presence of faith in their life. When our words and our obedience don’t line up, we need to seek the Lord and see what the issue is. Faith leads to action.

Rahab’s obedience out of her faith, ended with her being rescued.

III. Rahab's rescue -

The response of the spies -

Joshua 2:14 ESV

14 And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.”

She lets them down by a rope through the window of her house that was built into the city wall. Then they have this conversation.

Joshua 2:16–19 ESV

16 And she said to them, “Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward you may go your way.” 17 The men said to her, “We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear. 18 Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. 19 Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head.

Rahab does just this. She puts the scarlet cord in the window. The Israelites come and march around Jericho as commanded by the Lord. You can read about it in Joshua chapter 6. I remember once speaking at the boys elementary school years ago and having the kids march around the sanctuary during chapel to keep their attention while acting out this story.

God was going to flatten the walls and then they were supposed to go in and kill and destroy everything. It was all devoted to the Lord for destruction. But Rahab and all those in her house were to be spared. So Israel did as the Lord commanded and they captured the city.

Let’s look at how Joshua handles Rahab in verses 22 through 25 of Joshua chapter 6.

Joshua 6:22–25 ESV

22 But to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, as you swore to her.” 23 So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel. 24 And they burned the city with fire, and everything in it. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. 25 But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

The scarlet cord in Rahab’s window reminds us of one thing and points forward to another. It reminds us of the blood that the Israelites put on their doorposts in Egypt so that their first born would be spared. They are both signs of God’s deliverance. During the first Passover the blood marked the houses that would be passed over for judgement and the scarlet cord marked the house of Rahab that should be spared because of the aid she gave to the spies. But in this new sort of passover, God isn’t rescuing a people that He had chosen for Himself but He is saving a gentile prostitute and making her part of the people of God.

This should also remind us of Jesus who we celebrate. Jesus who was the ultimate passover lamb. Jesus who through His life, death, and resurrection adopts sinners into His family.

Rahab believed and her faith is commended when she is mentioned later in the New Testament. She got a reputation of faith.

IV. Rahab's reputation

In the New Testament, Rahab is known as a woman of faith. I suppose you can imagine the reputation she would have had as a prostitute in the city of Jericho.

Imagine you’re at family Christmas and your son brings home a nice young lady. You ask her what she does and she tells you she is a prostitute over in Rockford. You would choke on your eggnog. But in redemptive history we have Rahab, a prostitute who goes from that reputation to in the book of James being used along with Abraham as examples of faith and action combined.

James 2:25 ESV

25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

Rahab had faith and acted on it. I mentioned this earlier but it’s so key. Her faith was active. It was a catalyst in her life that led to good works. The works were not what saved her but were an outgrowth of her surrender to the Lord God. This is what God does. He takes sinners like me and through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ gives us a new purpose and hope and moves us to act on our faith. The point of all this is not to praise Rahab or be so in awe of her. No, not at all. The point is to revel and stand in awe of the God who came to dwell among us even though we didn’t deserve Him. A God who took on human, flesh in the frail body of a baby.

It was to imperfect people that a perfect Savior came. He came from a genealogy of messed up people because that's the only people there are.

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:10–12 ESV

10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Listen to this good news:

Romans 5:8 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Richard Hess writes, “The story of Rahab confirms God’s welcome to all people, whatever their condition. Christ died for all the world and the opportunity is available for all to come to him through faith, even the chief of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). Like Paul, Rahab exhibits faith and understanding of the God who saves her. She becomes part of the family line that leads to the birth of Jesus (Matt. 1:5) and a model of faith for all Christians (Heb. 11:31).”

(Richard S. Hess, Joshua: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 6, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 89.)

You may have royally messed up your life. You may sit there and think you are the worst sinner you know. I am the worst sinner I know. Here’s the thing: There is room for Rahab in Jesus’ family. There's room in Jesus' family for you too.