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.”
Sometimes committees who try to discern the will of God can be too large. Sometimes too many heads are too many! Moses discovered this truth when he sent out the spies and only two (Caleb and Joshua) said “go” and the rest said “no”. It wound up wasting a lot of time and lives.
So Joshua sent only two. Think about that for a moment. If the Holy Spirit is telling you to do something – or in the vernacular, “leading you to do something” – you don’t need a lot of other advice. A couple of other people might be needed to make sure you are truly listening to the Holy Spirit, but a few naysayers just might be wrong about what God wants you to do.
And a note on Rahab the zonah this morning: The word zonah typically means a prostitute and typically we just read it for what it is and wonder, “Why a prostitute?”. For one thing, and possibly the most important reason, the Law prohibits being with a prostitute so no one would suspect a couple of Jewish men would be with Rahab. Secondly, Jewish sages suggest that she would have been a good source of information for the spies. After all, she probably met a lot of folks who talked too much.
In the end, the king suspects Rahab, she hides the spies and then helps them escape. Yet she never gets in trouble for the aid she gave to God’s people – quite possibly for the very fact the Law prohibits a Jewish man from being the a prostitute. When the spies could not be found, she was no longer suspected in aiding them.
Rahab’s faith and obedience to God in helping the spies resulted in her being mention in Hebrews 11 and in the second chapter of James.Wait! Just she’s mentioned just because she helped the spies? Nooo… she eventually married Salmon and had Boaz. Boaz married Ruth and fathered Obed, and Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David! Her faithfulness to the Children of Israel brought her into the lineage of King David — and Yeshua!
Your faithulness has impact!
Go out and be a blessing to someone today.