26. Rahab’s Faith

Meditations in James: 26 : Rahab’s Faith

Jas 2:25    In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?

There are times when I giggle at the audacity of the Bible writers as, in a subtle way; they poke fun at the self-righteous, Sunday-only ‘Christians’.  As you may have gathered from earlier meditations, I have a problem with ‘ladies in big hats and men in suits’ type of religion.  It is so frightfully ‘nice’ and so far from the reality of Jesus Christ who met with prostitutes, crooks and the general dregs of society.  Now I apologise if you belong to one of those rare congregations who can wear nice hats and suits and yet also rub shoulders with the poor and the unrighteous at the same time, but so often the two do not go together.  I’m sorry for these descriptions, but they do exist and they do portray a poor imitation of the life of Christ.

I hope you will have been getting the message from these recent reflections on what James has been saying, as he has been speaking to the church, living in the world, and in danger of taking on the world’s values.  ‘Snobbery rules OK!’ is NOT a motto for the church of Jesus Christ; neither is ‘performance religion’ acceptable, where you turn up to perform as good people on Sundays but for the rest of the week fail to exhibit the nature and characteristics of Jesus Christ, or exhibit Biblical faith as the Bible teaches. These are the dangers that James is seeking to counter.

The ‘nice’ Christian is very happy to hear illustrations involving Abraham, because Abraham was a good man, a man of faith, THE man of faith.  Abraham conjures up good images, but Rahab is a bit different!  Rahab was a prostitute (possibly an innkeeper) who lied to save the Israelite spies.  A prostitute, an innkeeper and a liar!  How embarrassing!  To make it worse, it’s not only James who cites her.  The writer to the Hebrews in the ‘gallery of faith’ in chapter 11 also cites her: “By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient” (Heb 11:31).  It gets even worse, Rahab is cited in Matthew’s record of Jesus’ family tree as the mother of Boaz, which makes her the great, great, great grandmother of King David (Mt 1:5,6).  Jesus’ human family tree included a prostitute?  Yes, because even prostitute’s get saved!  Well they might not in your church, but they do in Jesus’ church. (Sorry about that!)

What fun! James who is so meticulous about right behaviour in the kingdom of God, isn’t ashamed to use a prostitute as an example of faith – because she was!  Now that is a bit of a challenge!  It’s a challenge because of the way she exhibited faith, and it’s a challenge in the light of our own lives today.

Let’s consider first how she exhibited faith.  You can find it in Joshua 2.  The key to her citation is found in the following: “Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, “I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” (Josh 2:8-11).  Do you see it?  “We have heard” Remember Rom 10:17, “faith comes from hearing the message”?  She had heard what God had been doing for Israel and she believed and she wanted to be a part of them as a result. Her conclusion was, “the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” She became a believer and because she was a believer, she acted to protect the spies.  In a Fallen World, sometimes you have to choose the lesser of two evils.  Yes there are both evil, but you have to choose one of them to prevent a worse thing.  Thus she lied and saved the spies and was taken into Israel and became part of the Messianic family tree.  But don’t forget what James is teaching: because she believe she acted.

Now the second challenge that comes out of this, is to respond as least as well as Rahab did.  If a prostitute can respond to the Good News that “God is here,” (because basically that is what she heard and believed and responded to), how much more should we respond to the wonderful news that He has come in the form of His Son, and now in the form of His Holy Spirit who lives within us.  Recently in these meditations we considered the rewards we receive in heaven, and perhaps we may find some surprises there.  Could it be that those who comes from socially much inferior groups to some of the ‘nicer’ parts of the country, may receive greater rewards because they responded more fully, being more aware of their need?  If the local drug dealer turns to Christ and his life is totally transformed and he lives a real life of faith, how does that compare with the person who thinks they are all right,  simply goes to church on a Sunday, and sees little change in their life and knows nothing of the faith experience we have been speaking about recently?  Challenging stuff here in James!