Rahab: Dangerous Faith

Hebrews 11:31

There’s a special word for tightrope walkers, you know, those courageous (or stupid – you decide) people who display amazing feats of balance on a high wire – they’re called funambulists. In his book Off Balance on Purpose, funambulist and business leader Dan Thurmon writes that these high wire walking daredevils are constantly making small, critical adjustments, lifting their free leg as a counterweight, raising and lowering arms, adjusting their pole. A good funambulist is never truly at rest or “on balance.”

As a matter of fact, Thurmon writes, “[They] are perpetually off balance: making adjustments that bring [them] through a point of balance, only to readjust on the other side. Most of these movements are so subtle that they are imperceptible to the audience.” They make it all look effortless.

But Thurmon says it’s not nearly as easy is looks. So how do they maintain their balance? He continues:

When new students step onto the rope or cable … they almost always begin with the same flawed game plan. They stare downward at the wire to ensure that they have the proper footing. And so they fall … So what is the solution to this dilemma? If you have ever closely watched professional tightrope walkers, you may recall that they never look down at their feet or the wire or to either side at their hands (or the balance pole). Rather, they keep their head up and look forward toward the goal – the faraway platform – in front of them.[i]

They’re aware of where they are, but they’re always looking where they are going, not down at their feet. That’s a good picture of faith as its defined in Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The “things not seen” are God’s grace and mercy in our lives. God’s power and presence at work IN us, transforming us into the image of his son. And his power and presence at work THROUGH us shining his light in our broken but redeemed lives so that others will be drawn to his forgiving, transforming embrace.

How many of us wondered if the chair we just plopped down in would actually hold us up? Or did we just sit down with the conviction that it would. Just as we cannot see atoms and molecules without the aid of a microscope and yet we have the conviction that they are there and that they will hold together and support our weight when we sit down in chairs in the sanctuary this morning. Faith isn’t stating or agreeing that the chair will hold me up. Faith sits in the chair.

The “things hoped for” are the promises of God that as yet are unfulfilled – the return of Christ and the full coming of the kingdom of God into the created order. We hold firm to the truth that God is at work in this world and in us, even when we cannot sense or see his work. And we are sure – that’s what assurance means, to be sure of something – that Christ’s return and God’s kingdom coming in its fullness is just as sure, just as guaranteed, as his first coming was.

And after defining faith, the writer of Hebrews gives us several lived examples of faith. And most of them are names we all know. Noah. Abraham. Sarah. Moses. But the last named example is kind of interesting. Because if the goal was just to include another woman in the list, there were several much better options. Deborah. Esther. Miriam. Ruth. Hannah. Instead, the God through the writer opts to draw our attention to a pagan, non-Jewish prostitute named Rahab. Turn with me to Hebrews 11:31.

Rahab enters the Biblical story as a prostitute, but that isn’t where she winds up. Her story is told primarily in the early chapters of the Old Testament book of Joshua, which tells the story of the Israelites entering the Promised Land. She was an Amorite woman, a resident of the highly fortified city of Jericho.

By this time, Jericho had already been fortified with walls for hundreds of years. To this day, Jericho is still widely considered the world’s oldest fortified city. It had already survived numerous attacks and sieges. And with a few million Israelites encamped close by, the gates to the city were tightly shut and heavily guarded. No one was coming or going. Although the walls had never been breached, Jericho also hadn’t stood for centuries because its residents were stupid.

They knew what they were doing. They weren’t cocky or overconfident. They know their city walls had stood firm for centuries. They also knew of the miracles God had been doing on behalf of the Israelites as they left Egypt wandered in the wilderness. Could their walls withstand a divine attack? They didn’t know, and they were concerned. So they prepared for the worst, and they were on high alert for spies.

Joshua sent in two spies. Of course they would have dressed as Canaanites. Would have tried to act like Canaanites. They weren’t dumb. They would have tried to fit in as best they could. So they figured they’d do what many travelers did when they were away from home. They would stay in the house of a prostitute. They would appear to be just normal travelers who had the misfortune of being in Jericho when the Israelites approached. Unfortunately, someone in Jericho pegged them as spies right away. Again, they weren’t dumb. Their city had stood for centuries for a reason.

Joshua 2 says, “And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, “Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.” 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” (1b-3).

And now Rahab has a decision to make. Israelite spies are in her establishment, lodging there. The king of Jericho knows they are there, and he wants her to turn them over to his men. We aren’t told exactly how Rahab figured out they were Israelite spies. Whether she recognized the look of an Israelite or they decided quickly that they could trust her is unknown. All we know is that she knew pretty early on who they really were. Most residents of Jericho would do exactly as the king said. These people were, after all, there to conquer them.

But that isn’t what Rahab did. She chose instead to hide them, then misdirect those who were looking for them, and then help them get out of the city safely. Why? Look at Joshua 2:9-13. “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. 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.

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. 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 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.”

It would be easy to say, “She wasn’t showing real faith. She just wanted to save her own skin.” But that isn’t what’s going on here. All of Jericho was afraid of the approaching Israelites. They knew what their God had done for them. But they still saw the Israelite God as one of many gods. Sure, the Egyptian gods had failed to stop Israel and the Israelite God. But maybe their own god would fare better. So they were on high alert, ready to defend.

Not so with Rahab. Notice that when she says “the LORD,” it’s in all caps. What does that mean? It means that the name of God, “Yahweh,” which means “I Am,” the God who is, is the name being translated, right? And then she says, “the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.” She has heard what God did 40 years ago as Israel left Egypt, and what God has continued to do for the people of Israel in the wilderness. And she no longer believes in a multitude of gods at war with one another through humanity. She knows that there is only one God, the one who simply calls himself Yahweh, I Am. And she has placed her faith in him. She knows that Jericho will fall.

If for some reason Yahweh failed and Jericho didn’t fall, she was going to be accused of lying and harboring spies, because they weren’t found where she said they went, and the attack did come. If God didn’t come through for Israel and for her, she and her family were doomed. But she had heard of the power and might of God, and she trusted him. She sat down in that chair, confident that it would hold her. She was all in. She didn’t hedge her bets. She knew she had to place her faith in God and in God alone. Not in God and … God and Baal. God and Ashera. God and the moon gods.

Real faith goes all in, trusting in the goodness and the faithfulness and unrivaled power of God. The creator and saving God of the universe will not share his throne with another. He isn’t satisfied being a part of my life. He must be my life. Jesus is not a part of the whole, a piece of the pie, he is the hub around which everything else revolves. All the other pieces of the pie – my family, my work, my hobbies and recreation, my health, my friendships and social life, my finances and bills, my possessions – they are the pieces, and they revolve around him. He is not a part of life. He IS life.

Pete Greig is a British Christ follower and pastor who started what is now a global prayer network called the 24-7 prayer network. In fact, two of his books: How to Pray – A Simple Guide for Normal People, and How to Hear God – A Simple God for Normal People, are going to be the content of one of our adult spiritual formation classes next year, one in the fall and one in the spring. If you’ve been through those resources with me and would like to facilitate that class, let me know. They also have a prayer app I use daily and highly recommend called Lectio 365.

Well, back in 2019, when Twitter was still Twitter and not X, Pete tweeted this: “Can I be honest with you? I’m actually not into prayer. I’m into Jesus, so we talk. I don’t believe in the power of prayer. I believe in the power of God. So I ask for his help. A lot. I’m not into evangelism. I hate evangelism! I’m into Jesus. So I talk to people about him.” That’s what it looks like when Jesus is the hub, and not one of the pieces. When you’re all in with Jesus, you aren’t “in” with anything else. All of your eggs are in one basket. His.

Rahab was all in, and it was risky and costly. If Israel failed, she would likely be executed as a traitor. If they succeeded, everyone and everything she had known, except for her own family, would be gone. Either way, her life was changing.

Then the two spies told her, “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. 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” (Josh. 2:18-19).

She was going to have to identify with God and with God’s people in a visible way. Her house was built into the city wall. She had a window high up that looked out of the wall, and she let them down out of that window using a scarlet rope. When Israel marched against Jericho, she was to put that rope back in the window. Just as the scarlet blood of lambs marked the homes of God’s faithful people in Egypt and protected Israel’s firstborn from the angel of death, so this scarlet rope in her window would protect Rahab and her family. It was a visible sign. If Israel failed, again, Jericho’s king and warriors would certainly have seen the rope as a traitorous move. A sign to the Israelites, and they would execute her and her family.

Rahab couldn’t just say, “The chair will support me. God will protect me.” She had to sit down in the chair, trust God, and put the rope in the window. And that is what she did. She went all in, she trusted God, and she obeyed. And when the walls of Jericho fell, her house, built into the wall, didn’t fall. The two spies went and got her and her family, all safe, and put them near Israel’s camp before burning the city, including her home, to the ground. Her old life was over. It was gone. It was a pile of rubble and ash.

When we place our faith in Christ, our old life is over. Oh, we may still work in the same business or field, but we approach it differently now. We may still have the same friends, but we relate to them differently now. We may have the same money, or lack of money, but our relationship to money is different now. We may live in the same neighborhood, but we relate to our neighbors differently now. Those we used to hate or avoid, we now love sacrificially. Rahab’s old life is gone, but her story doesn’t end in an ash pile where Jericho once was.

She serves as an example of faithfulness twice in the New Testament, once here in Hebrews 11 and once in James. But she also appears in Matthew 1. Matthew is tracing the lineage of Jesus from Abraham to his earthly father, Joseph. And in Vv. 4-5 we read, “and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon … he continues to trace the line from Abraham … and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king” (Matt. 1:4-5).

Rahab, a pagan, Amorite prostitute, who heard about the power of God, placed her trust in God, and obeyed God, went on to marry an Israelite named Salmon. Salmon was an Israelite leader in the tribe of Judah. He was the Israelite version of what we might consider a prince at the time. He was a wealthy and powerful man.

Some scholars think he was one of the two spies sent into Jericho by Joshua, but there’s no real evidence for or against that right now. He married Rahab, and with Rahab had a son named Boaz, who married a foreign woman named Ruth. Their story is told in the Old Testament book of Ruth. And Boaz and Obed had a son named Jesse. And Jesse had a son named … David, who would become king over Israel, with whom God would make an everlasting covenant, a promise that he would not break, and eventually, through whose line would come Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah.

Rahab, a pagan, Amorite prostitute, married an Israelite prince, was the great, great grandmother of King David, and a part of the lineage of Joseph, earthly father of Jesus. Why? Because when she heard about Israel’s God, she was all in. She sat down in the chair, trusting that it would hold her up. She obeyed God. Her old life was destroyed, and it was probably a lucrative one. But that didn’t matter anymore. Her new life would at times be a struggle. Her husband would have to fight for Israel in the conquest of Canaan. She wouldn’t be living in walled cities and nice houses. She would be living in tents. But none of that mattered anymore. She was all in with God. And she would trust him, no matter the cost.

Faith, real faith, can be dangerous. It upends, even destroys, our old lives. God won’t be satisfied being a piece of the pie. He’s the hub around which the pieces of life rotate.

Robert Chesebrough believed in his product. He’s the guy who invented Vaseline, a petroleum jelly refined from rod wax, the ooze that forms on shafts of oil rigs. He so believed in the healing properties of his product that he became his own guinea pig. He burned himself with acid and flame; he cut and scratched himself so often and so deeply that he bore the scars of his tests the rest of his life. But he proved his product worked. People had only to look at his wounds, now healed, to see the value of his work – and the extent of his belief.[ii] He was all in.

Are you all in, or are you still trying to keep God as just another part of your life? If we aren’t all in with Jesus, our faith won’t last through the storms, dark valleys, and spiritually dangerous dark places we’ll face in this life. Like Rahab, we have to be all in. Let’s pray.

[i] Adapted from Dan Thurmon, Off Balance on Purpose (Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2009), pp 8-9

[ii] Ralph Walker, Concord, North Carolina. Leadership, Vol. 12, no. 1.