Can God Use The Ordinary & Unlikely?

Can God Use The Ordinary & Unlikely?

Text: Joshua 2

Some quick recap of the story:

Joshua was needing some final military intelligence about Jericho. He sent two spies disguised as foreign travelers.

It is no surprise that these two guys found safety in the house of a prostitute. She was probably an innkeeper as well.

Her house was probably located on the outside wall, which would make for easier escape for these men as well as the scarlet rope seen with ease.

The king sent authorities to look for spies. They cape to Rehab’s house and questioned her about the spies.

She hid them on the roof while sending the authorities on a wild goose chase to find them outside the city.

Rahab admitted her conviction that she had come to know that the God of Israel is the God of heaven and earth.

Rehab asked for kindness to be shown to her due to her kindness showed to them. That is exactly what they promised her as long as she and her family remained in her house when the wall fell.

1) God Working Through The Ordinary & Unlikely

Where does God find His recruits?

The high achievements found in the newspaper?

The hall of fame?

The largest bank account at the bank?

The winner of the local talent show?

God has throughout the centuries has chosen out men and women (ordinary and unlikely to us) and used them to be movers and shakers of the world.

Let’s take a quick though about the spies:

Help me remember their names…

Help me remember their achievements…

Thats right, we don’t know either.

Let’s ponder on Rahab for a moment. She a least had FOUR STRIKES against her:

She was a Canaanite and not a Jew.

The Rehab group is a reminder that even if the city-state society was labeled as wicked, there were still remnants of them who were potential allies.

She was a woman.

Old daily Jewish prayer: “I thank God that I was not born a woman.”

Western societies forced women to become militant just to achieve equal rights.

Some countries today only allow woman to be second-class citizens without the right to vote.

God celebrates females as much as he does males. God created them both!

She was a prostitute.

You may even be able to look through the chauvinistic culture of that day, but a prostitute?

We can easily affirm the potential God sees in ever single one of us.

Where he has placed you is with the knowledge of the potential He has given you.

She was dishonest.

At this point, Rehab was a harlot and a liar while at the same time a person of faith.

I believe we can all affirm that the light of God’s truths comes in gradually, giving us time to mature.

What is even more impressive about how God worked through this very unlikely woman, is that she made it in to the ancestry of Jesus Christ and in the HALL OF FAITH in Hebrews 11.

2) Rehab’s Life Changing Moments

She was open to truth

We have personally had moments when we did the best we could to not accept truth.

You might have also interacted with someone that was very closed minded.

Personal issue: My desire for perfect order and symmetry can easily cause me to live my life in a fish bowl. It also causes others to not meet their full potential.

She was not paralyzed by her fear and was even ready to think deeper theologically.

I want to challenge you:

A life of growth God is leading you too may be threatening to your comfort, but GO FOR IT!

Be willing to be surprised by God in what He can actually accomplish through you!

She was courageous to make the tough decision

How much time did she have to decide what she was going to do with these two Jews and what to tell the soldiers? VERY LITTLE TIME!

So, what aided her to the decisions she made? She took time to consider the truth about their people and their God before this moment arrived.

Quote: Our availability to God can change the whole future of our lives and perhaps the lives of others. Our availability to God involves a decision on our part. Are we going to be available to Him? Are we willing to take action? Are we willing to pledge ourselves to Him without all the answers?[Jr. Huffman John A. and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, Joshua, vol. 6, The Preacher’s Commentary Series (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1986), 59.]

God has not given you a life (being alive) to just spend doing nothing.

Quote: Do what the Lord bids you, where He bids you, as He bids you, as long as He bids you, and do it at once (C.H. Spurgeon)

Let me challenge you:

Make plain and clear-cut decisions for Jesus.

Don’t just spin your wheels philosophizing. Agree to God’s call and get it done!!!

She was willing to join God’s people

Here is a comforting truth for all of us: She did not have a full understanding about God or His people.

None of us do!

God permits us all to grow in our understanding of Him as we grow in our faith.

This was not a scenario where she just added God to her collection of Canaanite God’s.

She set all others aside and gave her life to THE GOD (repentance & faith)

This SCARLET ROPE was simply an outward sign of inward life brought by God’s grace.

She had no idea that this movement of faith would give her a name down through history we would all admire!

Harlot, prostitute, saved by grace, most unusual mother, mother of Boaz, great-great-grandmother of King David, one of the direct ancestors of Joseph (the husband of Mary, Jesus’ mother)

She was very loyal to her family

Here is where I have seen people get this backwards.

Their family is the reason why they don’t go to church anymore or not as faithful as they once was.

We are to LEAD our families, NOT be led AWAY from God by our families.

If we all pursued and persuaded our families the way she did, how many more of our family members would possibly be in the pew with you?

LISTEN…your loved ones need to know what you believe!

They need to know and see the life changing work of Jesus in your life!

The SCARLET ROPE was not only for her, but for ALL THOSE who would join her faith!!!

She had a persevering faith

She met the conditions of faith and followed through.

There was evidence of a NEW IDENTITY.

Her moral, spiritual, and social framework was now shaped by God and not by her life of passed sin!

She is a grade A example of what Paul said about becoming ‘a new creature in Christ.’

Conclusion

Rahab continued on in her life being shaped by her God to live for His purposes no matter how strange they may seem for her to live out.

God is doing the very same thing with each of you! He is producing qualities in you. Trust Him when He calls you, to where He calls you, to do what He calls you to do, for how long He calls you to do it!

He knows how to use His creation!