Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
May 16, 2004 - W0420

Today we have a special guest whose life teaches us an important lesson of God’s love. That person is Rahab. In her day, she was known as Rahab the harlot. Her name includes a description of her profession and a lifestyle she was caught up in. Although you may wonder what we can learn from someone like Rahab, Rahab did something that many of us nowadays hesitate to do but should…which is to change mid stream and allow God to transform us from glory to glory.

Rahab lived a long, long time ago around 1400 B.C. in the city of Jericho. Jericho was a double fortified city which meant it had two walls surrounding the city to protect its occupants. At night, the inner city gates were closed to protect the people within but there was still activity in the outer city where the gates were sometimes left open and there was access to shops, merchants, and boarding houses. Rahab ran one of those boarding houses where people could come to stay for the night but for a little extra, they could get extra “amenities”.

So the story starts where Joshua, a successor of Moses, has crossed the Jordan River and is going to take over the city of Jericho:

“Then Joshua the son of Nun sent two men as spies secretly saying, ‘Go, view the land, especially Jericho.’ So they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there” (Josh. 2:1)

When they get into the lodging place, the King detects them and sends the police to arrest them but Rahab hides them and protects them by telling the police that the two men they are looking for have left her place and if the police will run quickly outside the city gates, they may find the men.  Now the Bible does not endorse Rahab’s lie but just reports what she had said.

Once the police left, Rahab went to talk to the two men that she had hidden on the roof.  She talks about the miracles she has heard about and how she knows that Joshua’s God is the true God.  She is from a pagan city, caught up in a lifestyle that she knows is not right but she recognizes the greatness of God and helps Joshua’s men.  In turn, Joshua’s men tell Rahab if she ties a scarlet cord in the window of her house, they will instruct their men to not hurt anyone in that household.  So they made a covenant and Rahab said, “…according to your words, let it be so,” and she tied a scarlet cord in the window.

Now let’s take a look at what this amazing story is really telling us. Rahab, a woman who ran a boarding house, made some decisions during her life that were bad choices. Those bad choices and decisions led to other bad choices until eventually she ended up in a lifestyle that she knew was not good but she did not know how to change. She had gotten into it too far and could not see how to free herself from it.

Have you ever been in a situation where you thought things were set and couldn’t be changed?  That’s dangerous! I recall a situation I was in where things were set and I was wondering how I was going to get out of it. I had a pair of sunglasses once that I loved but one of the arms had broken off. So I bought some crazy glue to put it back together. I put the glue on and followed the directions of holding the pieces together for 10 -15 seconds or so until the glue could set. After the time had passed, I let go the hand that was holding the broken sunglass arm and cheered because the broken arm was now re-attached.  The problem was that some glue had leaked between the fingers of my other hand and the glasses and now the glasses were stuck to my hand! Now I know why it’s called crazy glue…because you have to be crazy to use it!

Well, once the glue was set, I couldn’t figure out how to get myself out of it except to take an exacto knife and cut away the skin between my fingers and the glasses. Isn’t that just like sin sometimes? We find ourselves attached to things that we seemingly are unable to separate ourselves from. Sometimes the only choice we have is to just cut it off!

Rahab’s situation was like this. Through a series of situations and choices along the way, she had created a lifestyle for herself that she did not know how escape from. Her circumstances looked bleak until she made a conscious choice to change them. When Joshua’s men told her she could hang a scarlet cord in her window and her household would be spared, Rahab made a decision to change her path and change her life…mid stream.

We all make choices everyday. In fact, studies suggest that an average person makes approximately 300 choices a day. Rahab’s story and testimony yields advice about choices for different groups of people:

¨       People who are just beginning life and before life and personalities harden and choices that are made set their lifestyle

¨       Those who are generally making good choices but still want to improve

¨       People who have made poor choices and formed bad habits, and whose personalities are set in a lifestyle that they’re trying to break out of

Note:  One of the great things about New Hope is that it is not a place where you have arrived because you’ve made all the right choices but rather, a place where people come and are still making choices.  It is also a place where people can come to be encouraged to make good choices and to help them find their way home.

Oftentimes the setting of ways is a gradual process not a quick event. Hearts harden and crystallize over time, through a series of events or circumstances. Sometimes it is our inactivity rather than our actions that lead us to where we are.  We may know there is something in our life that is not the best yet we choose not to acknowledge it, or worse, normalize it and accept it.  This is dangerous because we may soon end up in a place or with a lifestyle that we know is not God’s best but we do not even realize how we got there.

Change is inevitable so if we do not consciously make good choices, we may likely end up somewhere (or become someone) we do not want to be because of the constantly changing world around us.  So below are three considerations for making decisions and changes:

1.      RECOGNIZE COMPROMISES EARLY ON!

Before you normalize less than best behaviors, recognize when compromises are being made. How? Here are two sound suggestions:

¨       Do Devotions Daily.

“He must always keep this copy of the law with him and read it daily…It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way” (Deut. 17:19,20 NLT).

Daily devotions keeps you close to the heart of God and sensitizes your heart to drifts. It’s like the scanning of radar that sets off alarms when you start to drift.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed” (2 Tim. 3:16,17 TEV).

¨       Pray for Guidance Daily.

“Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41).

We often learn what is right but do not change as a result of it. Do your daily devotions to study the Bible but also allow the Bible to study you, and pray for help to recognize temptations that pull you adrift.

Temptation is a two-step process. First, there are thoughts that we entertain and consider. Then, there is a commitment when we take action.  When we are in the first phase of temptation, just considering things, we often think there is no harm done as long as we do not act upon it. However, when considering temptation, there are two significant dangers:

v      We do not grow and we are not supporting what is right. We may not have left…but our hearts have. And as long as we are in that place, we lose time and growth.

v      The longer we stay in that place, the more likely it is that we will take the next step.

So how do we get out of that place?

2.      RECOGNIZE THAT GOD’S WAYS ARE GREATER

“…’I know that the LORD has given you the land, and…we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt…for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath’” (Josh. 2:9, 10, 11).

Sometimes when we’re in the first phase of temptation, we are blinded by it. Then when we try to defend it, the crazy glue starts to set. An example of this is when King Herod was in a compromising situation with Herodias and John the Baptist told King Herod that he was living beneath God’s best. Herodias was mad and told her daughter, when given the chance, to request that John the Baptist be beheaded. Although King Herod knew that it was not the right thing to do, he did it nonetheless.

“…Although he was grieved, the king commanded it to be given because of his oaths, and because of his dinner guests” (Matt. 14:9).

And then, when all else fails…

3.      BREAK YOUR TIES WITH THE OLD.

Sometimes when things have set too long and there appears to be no way out of it you must break your ties or cut yourself it free, like with the crazy glue and like Rahab did.  Change midstream. 

“…Rahab the harlot and her father’s household and all she had, Joshua spared; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers whom Joshua send to spy our Jericho” (Josh. 6:25).

“…Salmon was the father Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse.  Jesse was the father of David the king” (Matt. 1:5).

In this last passage, not only do we see that Rahab redeemed her own life but that God rewarded her action. Through her lineage, and the lineage of David the king, the messiah was born.

Rahab’s story is not about a woman who made bad choices and lived a lifestyle that was unpleasing to God, but rather an example of how such a life can be redeemed for the Lord and blessed beyond expectation. Jesus makes redemption available to those willing to make the change not matter how difficult it is. It’s not about learning what is right versus wrong, but about being willing to be changed and transformed. It is not about being religious, but about being faithful and coming to God with a childlike simplicity and being the kind of people through which redemption comes to families and communities.

Discussion Ideas:

1.      Describe a habit you had or lifestyle you were set in that you knew was not God’s best.  Why did you keep it and what made you change?

2.      What small compromises have you made in the past that led to an unexpected negative result?

3.      Describe a situation when you were faced with a choice between your way and God’s way?  What choice did you make and what was the result?

4.      Share about a time when your only option was to cleanly break a tie with the old.  Why did you feel that was your only option and was it hard or easy?  How did you feel when you finally broke it.

5.      Describe a situation that, if you had to do it again, you’d do it differently.  What advice can you offer someone facing a similar situation and why?

      Mahalo to our precious volunteer writer, Jaylene Tsukayama for this week's summary.  Well done, indeed!