Okay, I know what you’re thinking; “you mean the prostitute?” Yeah, I mean the prostitute. I’m certainly not suggesting we should be like Rahab in that sense (God forbid!) any more than I think we should be like Rebekah in the sense that she deceived her husband. Nevertheless the story of Rahab is a powerful story of faith. It was through faith in the God of the Israelites that Rahab was saved, much like our faith saves us today. It is worth noting that although Rahab had prostitution in her past; the Bible seems to indicate that she did not in fact remain a prostitute. That is a powerful testimony to the goodness and mercy of the Lord and the transformation possible when we come to know Him!
If you aren’t familiar with the story, two Israelites were sent to Jericho to spy out the land. They end up at the house of Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute. When the king of Jericho learns there are spies in the land he sends orders to Rahab to send the men out. She hides the two Israelites and says that the men came to her house earlier, but they have already left. She betrayed her own people. The Israelites were there with the intention of taking the land and she knew that. She could have stopped them, but instead she protected them. Why did she do that? Joshua 2:10-11 gives us the answer; she had heard how the Lord had dried up the Red Sea when they escaped Egypt and she had heard of other things the Lord had done in their midst. And she believed it!
She knew the Lord had given them that land so she acted according to God’s will. The remarkable thing is that the Israelites themselves had heard what God did for them at the Red Sea and many of them were eye witnesses to some of the other miracles performed in their midst and yet so many of them still lacked the faith to act. Rahab was not even one of them. She had never witnessed any of the miracles of God and yet she acted on faith! She made the men swear if they took the land that they would save her and her family (Joshua 2:12-13). She believed God for what He had done in the past and she believed Him for what He would do in the future. She even had faith for her entire family!
A lowly prostitute and her family were saved because she believed God. She is even named among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11:31. Amazingly, she was apparently accepted by the Israelites and according to the Talmud even married an Israelite. She is listed in Matthew 1:5 as being part of the genealogy of Jesus! Yes, you read that right, our sinless Savior came into this world through the lineage of a prostitute.
There is no one who is beyond the reach of God. He is able to use and transform any one of us!
I know of someone, who like Rahab, was caught up in 
prostitution. As a young girl she was forced into it by her own family. Her father allowed a man to rape her as a child while he was present in the home. For money. Her father proceeded to make many such arrangements over the years for his daughter. Teaching her what men like, what they expect; how she should act, what she should wear, what she should say. He used her for profit. Her own father. The man who was supposed to protect and care for her.
I spent a lot of energy disliking her before I learned of her past. To me, she was the one who destroyed my future. I had this picture in my head of how things would go in my life and she came along and tore my little picture to shreds. Now that I understand more about where she comes from my heart is filled with compassion for her. We are called to love everyone. It is so easy to judge people for their wrong doings without understanding the evil influences that befall them.
My heart breaks for what she has been through. How does a person like this learn what it is to feel loved and cherished? But she has so
meone in her life now that knows the Lord. This person has gone out of their way to show her the love of God. It is my prayer that she would be like Rahab; a person with a questionable past, but an honorable future. I pray that she will have the faith of Rahab to believe God and allow Him to transform her life. Can you believe God with me? Will you pray for this young woman with me?
Dear Readers, Let us have faith like Rahab. Let us believe the report of the Lord and like Rahab act according to God’s will. Let us pray for all the Rahabs out there who carry pain or walk in sin and let us believe God to lift them out of darkness into His marvelous light!
In His Love,
Rebekah L
This is not the end! God is amazing- read the follow up at: Revisiting Rahab and The Faith of Rahab.
Being Rebekah 
Praying for God to fill her heart with joy so that she can forgive not only herself, but her transgressors and live a life of faith in God. Thank you for this post – you continue to bring me inspiration.
Thank you for your prayers, she is coming to realize there is hope in the Lord! I believe she is hungry for Him and pray and trust that she will come to know Him.
I will pray for her and for you for having such a forgiving an open heart. Please let her know how many of us are praying for her. I absolutely believe she can change and heal and wish her the absolute best, which indeed is a life with God.
Thank you for your prayers. I too believe that she can change and be healed. God is the Master Physician!
This is powerful. Thanks for sharing.
I be joining you at your prayers for the young lady. He is able and I have faith in Him that she will be healed by His unfailing love.
Thank you. I see that faith is being activated in her life and I believe in time she will come to know the power of His love and forgiveness!
Will do! And thanks for “liking” my post.
Blessings,
Phyllis
So much appreciate all that you shared here. Thank you. The faith of Rahab is remarkable! And our God is an awesome God!! Thanks also for visiting wordimagery. Do stop in again:) May the Lord richly bless you today and your ministry for His great name and purpose in the gospel for His glory in the church.
Stephen
Thanks for writing this. It also reminded me of the woman caught in adultery that Jesus spared from being stoned. He touched her with genuine love. He was probably the only one who had ever loved her. And then told her to “go and sin no more”. Rahab is such a powerful example. Keep up the encouraging writing!
The story moves from thought provoking to powerful as you share how you have had to forgive. It is a hard journey, and I know one that I have failed many times as people have attacked those I love. As Paul says: “To the praise of His glorious grace!”
Indeed forgiving is one of the most difficult aspects of being a Christian. It is also one of the most freeing and rewarding. When it comes to forgiveness, we have no better example than Christ!
I could not agree more. No one is beyond the grace of our God.
Thank God He is willing to reach out to all of us; we are all sinners who have fallen short. I do not know where I would be if it were not for His unfailing love and unending mercy!
Beautiful post, Rebekah. I will pray for this little girl. So thankful for a God who redeems by His love and grace. May God bless your day. Thanks for reading my blog. Connie
Thank you. Although it all started when she was a child, she is an adult now. I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to say a prayer for her! May God guide her into all Truth!
The redemptive power of the living, resurrected Jesus Christ is still working to transform hearts and lives from bondage to godliness!
Amen!
If we only stopped to understand where people come from, we might get to experience the compassion that you have shared in this message! Thanks for the reminder and great lesson! It was very timely. But God has a way of doing that doesn’t He?
That’s true, His timing is perfect. I am always moved when I read the Scriptures and see the compassion of Jesus as the crowds pressed on Him for healing, a Word, or forgiveness.
Well written. We all to easily sit on a lofty position of “Judgement”, when we don’t possess all of the facts. I remember being part of a team that went to help at an Alpha course in prison.
The people that I sat with were murderers and so on (I only found out afterwards). When I heard about their backgrounds and insecurities I found it hard to imagine that I would have been any better if I’d started out in life with their disadvantages.
I wrote about prostitution too, see –
http://snowgood.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/fine-young-women/
I agree. Our job as Christians is love God and love people. We can’t stand in a place of condemnation because 1) we aren’t the judge, God is. and 2) we cannot presume to be better than anyone. Given the same set of circumstances, we are likely to make many of the same mistakes. We are ALL sinners who have come short of the glory. What we can do, is pray for the lost, care for them and show them godly love so that they might come to know Him.
Amen! Love this post!
I’m glad it resonated with you. God bless!
In San Francisco I’ve had a number of pretty surprising divine appointments with Rahab-like people, ones who were secretly harboring a belief in the same God I love, sort of “closet pre-christians.” I make every effort to coax them out of the closet. It seems to me that everyone has some semblance of a clue about a power higher than them. God speaks through Creation (Psalm 19), through Conscience (Romans 2), through Culture and through Christians (Acts 17). He “gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1), so it’s not like we have to do all the work of convincing people that there is a God and that they need his help and friendship.
Amen. We aren’t the one’s who do the work. God draws people to Him, we are just blessed to be allowed to be a part of it and to watch the beauty of the Lord’s plan unfold in people’s lives.
THANK YOU FOR THIS TREMENDOUSLY INSIGHTFUL POST. IT IS AWESOME!
Reblogged this on “Rediscovering Biblical Christianity”.
Excellent!
Thank you Rebekah for sharing this story. Yes all of us have our back stories which is why Jesus asks us not to judge anyone. And thank you for following my blog. I’m working on my next post now which will share some more of my back story, something I have been reticent to share at all. Rahab is in my prayers as well.
Hi Rebekah, thanks for liking my ‘storm in a teacup’ post. I clicked on the link to your post from my email notification. Your writing has touched my heart, with a timely reminder about true compassion, hope and mercy. I feel more full of love as a result. Thank you!
Thanks for stopping by my blog! In some ways, we are all like Rahab, prostituting ourselves to the worlds pleasures, giving our hearts to temporal pleasures, with empty promises our pay. And all the time we belong to Jesus, the lover and Redeemer of our souls. May we never look down on another when our own hearts are so far from home.
This is so true. None of us has the right to look down on another when we have ALL fallen so short of the glory and holiness of God!
Reblogged this on Wren In The Willow and commented:
This is a beautiful testimony that needs to be shared… Praise the Lord that He has cleansed so many Rahabs…
Thank you for the reblog. It is awesome to consider how the Lord is able to cleanse and transform people!
Betraying your people because of some rumors? That is a horrible story.
Certainly, Rahab was human, full of flaws and failures. Yet she displayed a great faith in the God of the Israelites. The Bible clearly shows us that not all of her actions can be condoned. However, in this case, she had a difficult choice to make between following the prompting of God (to protect His people) or following the authority of the land. She chose God and was blessed for doing so.
One thing to keep in mind is that the people she betrayed, had betrayed and rejected her long before the Israelites ever came. She was a cast-off, discarded, prostitute. She was shunned by society, living on the fringe – literally on the wall of the city, as far out from the center as she could be and still be considered part of that city. She had family and yet was still in a position where she had to work as a prostitute. This was a woman who despite her hopeless situation took a chance and trusted God. That trust, and her subsequent act of faith transformed her life!
From a human perspective, it can be difficult to understand some things in the Bible, but when we open ourselves up to be spiritually sensitive, we can see this is a beautiful story of redemption. It encourages me that God is willing to take people as messed up as Rahab and change them. It is a reminder that He can use any one of us if we are willing to step out in faith.
“It is so easy to judge people for their wrong doings without understanding the evil influences that befall them.”
So well said ! I wish we could all think this way,
with every single person we come in contact with, everyday.
…………we could change the world.-Loretta
Amen. May God help us all to be more sensitive, more loving, and more merciful to those around us.
I’m honored and humbled that you “liked” this post. You are more conservative than I am but my roots are with conservative religion and my heart is still there…somewhat…and I still have tremendous respect for that tradition. Thanks for stopping by again!
An incredibly powerful post. Thank you so much.
the greatest sinners have the most love to give…….
Pingback: Revisiting Rahab | Being Rebekah
For those of you who have been following this post, I encourage you to read an uplifting update at: https://beingrebekah.com/2013/10/01/revisiting-rahab/. God is good!
Really enjoyed this and thanks for visiting my blog! Perhaps you’d be interested in being a Guest Blogger?! I’d be delighted and to God be the glory!
Hello there! I could have sworn I’ve visited your blog before
but after browsing through a few of the posts I realized it’s new to me.
Anyhow, I’m certainly happy I discovered it and I’ll be book-marking it and
checking back regularly!
I loved this article! Missed it the first time around. “There is no one who is beyond the reach of God.” Amen! It’s so important that we who know Christ remember this and pray fervently for the lost, with the knowledge that God is reaching out to all humanity. Thank you for being the face of Jesus toward this woman. I am praying for her and can’t wait to read the update. Expecting to read a good report. God is awesome!
The thing with Jesus is His Words, that says He didn’t come for the righteous but sinners… and many of us look at the “big” sins, yet bible says SIN is the transgression of God’s law. May God help us. Nice subject…
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God bless and thanks for dropping by
Thanks so much for stopping by our blog http://www.lifeistoughbutgodalwaysmakesaway.wordpress.com and liking our latest post “Disability is tough, but God makes a way, #3”. We are glad the post ministered to you.
I enjoyed your blog. As a pastors wife i met a young girl, 17 years old who was giving herself to prostitution. My heart had never hurt for someone so much before her. She’s been in and out of church but God is faithful and has a way of drawing people into Him. Praying for your friend and thanks for liking my blog. God bless.
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