June 30, 2019 – “Heroes of the Faith: Rahab Uses Whatever She Has” by Rev. Cody Sandahl

Lay Reader = Hebrews 11:24-35

24By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called a son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26He considered abuse suffered for the Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to the reward. 27By faith he left Egypt, unafraid of the king’s anger; for he persevered as though he saw him who is invisible. 28By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. 29By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. 30By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. 31By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace.
32And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection.
Introduction
This is the last in our series looking at the heroes of the faith – the women and men of the Bible who had a character trait or made decisions that are worth copying today. Last week Pastor Carol showed how Mary Magdalene was undeterred in her devotion to Jesus.
Our last hero is Rahab. For context, this story takes place as the Israelites are starting to invade the Promised Land after wandering in the desert for forty years. Moses passed away, leaving Joshua in charge. If you remember several weeks ago, we heard about Caleb, one of the spies that Moses sent into the land the first time. Caleb and Joshua were faithful and trusted God, but the other ten spies were afraid. They were afraid because the cities were well-defended, which was true, and because there were giants, which wasn’t true.
So this is the second attempt with a hopefully more faithful generation. No giants to be found, but definitely some well-defended cities with thick walls – Jericho foremost among them. Jericho is located in the desert areas a few miles away from the Jordan River, but I traveled there several years ago and I vividly remember the fabulous local fruit we ate. The area receives water from a natural spring, so it’s a very fertile oasis in the otherwise barren desert.
And that’s what made Jericho loom so large in the minds of Joshua and the other Israelites. We’ve talked before that the main way ancient armies could defeat a walled city was to starve them out with a siege. But how do you starve out a city that has large, thick double walls and has a natural spring for water and a well-established agricultural base next to the spring? There is no easy way to do it. That’s why in our text today Joshua sends two spies and tells them to give special attention to Jericho. Joshua is looking for a creative solution, because the normal ways of war will not work.
Now you probably know that God makes the walls fall down when the Israelites eventually attack Jericho. But before they received their divine intervention, the Israelites first needed to catch a break. They needed a window of opportunity. Listen to how Rahab provides that opportunity, and why she does it.
Joshua 2:1-16
Then Joshua son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and spent the night there. 2The king of Jericho was told, “Some Israelites have come here tonight to search out the land.” 3Then the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come only to search out the whole land.” 4But the woman took the two men and hid them. Then she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from. 5And when it was time to close the gate at dark, the men went out. Where the men went I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you can overtake them.” 6She had, however, brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax that she had laid out on the roof. 7So the men pursued them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. As soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.
8Before they went to sleep, she came up to them on the roof 9and said to the men: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before you. 10For 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 that were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 11As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no courage left in any of us because of you. The Lord your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below. 12Now then, since I have dealt kindly with you, swear to me by the Lord that you in turn will deal kindly with my family. Give me a sign of good faith 13that you will spare my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” 14The men said to her, “Our life for yours! If you do not tell this business of ours, then we will deal kindly and faithfully with you when the Lord gives us the land.” 15Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the outer side of the city wall and she resided within the wall itself. 16She said to them, “Go toward the hill country, so that the pursuers may not come upon you. Hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned; then afterward you may go your way.”
Rahab
Rewind with me, if you will, to the days of the Wild West. Imagine that you stroll into a dusty town – you don’t have enough funds to have a horse, so you’re on foot. You’re hungry and you’re thirsty, so where’s your first stop? The saloon, right? You’ve got two choices. One is the respectable saloon where guns, gambling, and saloon girls are prohibited. It’s a fancy establishment with music and billiards. It’s also expensive.
Your second choice is a little run-down, a little dusty, a little rowdy, but a whole lot cheaper. As you walk up to this…more affordable choice…a man is chased out of the building by the female saloon owner. She’s shouting something about a bar tab at him.
Inside, the air is musty and the light is only bright enough for the gamblers to see their cards. There are saloon girls all around, and it’s anyone’s guess as to which ones are open to more than flirting for the right price. No one spends too much time staring at anyone else, because this isn’t the place for people who are too curious.
If you can smell that tobacco-filled air, if you can hear that ragtime piano, if you can picture those shady characters at the card table, if you can imagine the brash and iron-willed female owner of the saloon, then you’re pretty close to Rahab’s establishment in Jericho.
We know from other sources that Rahab ran a somewhat seedy inn that was situated between the two layers of the walls in Jericho. This was where the less-reputable businesses and homes were situated. They were encouraged because the walls of the buildings helped reinforce the strength of the wall, but they were also vulnerable in case of attack so the wealthy people preferred to be fully inside the walls. It’s not 100% clear if Rahab herself was a prostitute or if it’s referring to her inn functioning as a brothel as well. Either way, I think we can safely say that Rahab is not the most morally-upstanding citizen.
So Rahab has a well-deserved bad reputation. She has a run-down saloon in the bad part of town. She does seem to be a pretty good fast-talker – she’s quick on her feet mentally. She has commitment when she decides to do something. Oh – and she also has a pile of flax that’s soaking in stinky water on her roof. It’s not ready yet, but that flax can be sold later.
Do a little line-by-line comparison with yourself. How’s your reputation – whether it’s deserved or not? Do you have a lot of financial resources, or a little, or somewhere in between? Do you have a feisty personality or more even-keeled? Are you a planner or an improviser? Are you committed and reliable or not so much? Do you have some ideas for the future that aren’t ready yet?
More or Now?
We were having a discussion in the church office a few weeks ago about what we would do if we won the lottery. Since there is no video evidence of this conversation, I can assure you it was full of very deep theology and Christ-like selfless compassion throughout all of our ideas. You believe me, right?
I said that my main problem in thinking about what I would do if I won the lottery is that many of my ideas require more money than that. My biggest ideas would require billions, not merely millions. In other words, you could give me a million dollars, and I have ideas on how to use it but I also have ideas for ten million, for a hundred million, for a billion, and even for tens of billions. I’m not sure I could get you to hundreds of billions – that may be where my ideas run out. But if you have the hook-up on a couple hundred billion dollars I’d be glad to give it a go!
What’s the number for you? How big can you dream? How many resources would you need before you could achieve your biggest, hairiest, most audacious dreams? Have you ever thought, “If only I had this much more money, then I could do something really useful to God or society?” Or maybe, “If I only had a different family situation, or if I didn’t have to be a care giver all the time, then I could make a difference?” Or maybe, “If I were only healthier, then I could matter?” Or maybe, “If I had only made better decisions earlier in my life, then I would have better opportunities now?”
Here’s the point. Do you think you need more than you have to be useful to God? Do you think you need a different situation to be useful to God? Rahab might have thought that, too.
But she’s a hero of the faith because when the opportunity came to her, she gave everything she had, every resource, every ability, every talent – she used everything she had for God’s purposes. Hey, if “the location of a certain brothel” isn’t the most unlikely resource God has used, I don’t know what is.
Maybe you might quibble with me. Maybe you’re willing to admit that you have better moral character than Rahab. Maybe you’re willing to admit that you have at least some resources when you compare yourself to Rahab. But maybe you want to tell me, “Yeah, but she clearly had more faith than I do.”
Maybe she did later. Later on she seems to have truly converted to the Jewish faith. But right here at this moment? What’s her statement of faith to the spies? In short – your God seems powerful, so I’m afraid to stand in your God’s way. She doesn’t renounce her tribal gods. She doesn’t proclaim a monotheistic devotion to Yahweh. All she does is recognize power when she sees it. That’s one of the weakest statements of faith in the whole Bible! You probably have more faith than Rahab did at this particular juncture!
But what she had was enough. What she had was enough. Think about that – what she had was enough. What you have is enough, too. You don’t need more to be useful to God. You don’t need a different situation to be able to show the love of Christ to someone. You don’t need to be a different person to let God use you in some small way. What you have is enough. YOU are enough right now.
One of our church members has been integral in helping me with the robot coding camps I’ve offered the last two years. Despite the fact that she says, and I quote, “I know nothing about computers,” here she is helping kids learn to program robots.
No, she’s not showing the kids how to program. No, she’s not troubleshooting internet and Bluetooth connection issues. No, she’s not telling the kids the proper way to use multiple conditionals in their control loops. We have other people to help with those things.
But she was able to organize the snacks each day. Some of the best pictures of the camp are the kids showing off their snack creations each day, because we told them to play with their food – just this time – and make a robot with your snack food, or make a maze, or make a self-driving car. She made that happen.
We had the kids build cardboard mazes for their robots and then they tried to get their robots through the maze. When you have to multiply each activity by 19 kids, it starts to add up. We needed four hundred strips of cardboard cut out ahead of time. I was going to organize a group to cut it on Sunday before the camp. I didn’t need to, because this church member cut all 400 pieces herself the week before – and tied them into neat bundles of 10 with rubber bands.
More than half of the kids who were there were invited by this church member. Eleven of the nineteen kids learned to program this summer because someone who doesn’t know anything about computers invited them and pitched in wherever she could. I think that’s pretty amazing.
But what if she said, “Well I don’t know anything about computers, so I can’t help with a robot camp!” Eleven kids wouldn’t know how to program, eleven kids wouldn’t have their own robots that we sent home with them. That’s the difference between saying, “I can’t do these things,” and saying, “But I can do these other things.”
You may know of a thousand ways God can’t use you. You may know of a thousand ways you don’t measure up. You may know of a thousand ways that someone else could do it better. But what about the things you can do? I’ve heard one of the former Broncos players say on the radio that sometimes the best ability of all is availability. If you’re available, God can use you to make a difference in someone’s life.
Summary
Sisters and brothers, Rahab is one of the most unlikely people to play a major role in Jewish history. But she was willing to use her meager resources at the right moment. Unlike many of the heroes of the faith, she wasn’t particularly moral. She wasn’t particularly faithful. She wasn’t particularly notable. But she was available. And she was committed once she decided to help. That’s pretty heroic.
You don’t need to win the lottery to be available to God. You don’t need to have a different family situation to be available to God. You don’t need to have better health to be available to God. You don’t need to know more about the Bible to be available to God. You can be available right now. Will you be available when the moment comes? Amen.