Harlot

Rahab and Joshua's Emissaries

You’ll read her name in several books of the Bible.  She was a prostitute. It didn’t mean the same as it does now, but it would have defined her place in society. One of the most interesting stories I’ve read about her outside the Bible was in Francine Rivers’ “A Lineage of Grace.” I recommended the book back in 2010, and I do so again – if you have time, please read the stories of five exceptional women.

She was the topic of Pastor’s Sunday morning sermon. Why would he be preaching about a harlot on mother’s day?  Because she married and became a mother, remembered and written of across the ages.
To me she’s an example of how greatly a person can change, once they recognize the Lord.  And, she did so:

And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. (Joshua 2:11 KJV)

Because she recognized the strength of God’s help to the Children of Israel, she knew what was coming.  She was concerned for her family:

Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father's house, and give me a true token: And that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. (Joshua 2:12-13 KJV)

The Bible does not give the names of the two spies she protected, but the Bible does tell us who she married:

And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; (Matthew 1:5 KJV)

Yep, Rahab was the mother of Boaz, mother-in-law to Ruth, great-grandmother to David, King of Israel, direct ancestress of Jesus.

Now, tell me again that people cannot change.  That there are some sins so worse than others that forgiveness is out of the question. What a beautiful picture of God’s ability to cleanse lives and place them right in the middle of His plans for mankind.

There are some who would deny her this place in history. Who do not believe God is capable of cleansing, that there must have have been another, more acceptable Rachab separate from the harlot. They neglect the Bible, which speaks of her faith:

By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. (Hebrews 11:31 KJV)

and her works:

Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (James 2:25-26 KJV)

Faith is to be lived, not hidden away.  Works are to be done for God, not to be displayed to people.  But, when our works are seen, they must reflect God and our faith in Him. As Rahab’s!