Elevate - The Story Pt 8 - Rahab

In this message from Elevate at Authentic Life Church, Pastor John DiQuatro talks about the story of the Israelites and their journey to the Promised Land. He discusses the significance of Jericho and the role of Rahab, a prostitute who helps the Israelite spies. Rahab recognizes that Jericho is already defeated because of what she has heard about the Israelites' victories and the power of their God. The message encourages listeners to trust in God's promises and not be discouraged by the obstacles in their lives. There's something being told through the truth that we read in the Word of God is that your brokenness is not going to stop God from using you to be a part of His big story. Your shame, your sin, your past, your choices are not going to stop God from being able to rescue you and use you as a part of the big story. Welcome to Elevate from Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama with Pastor John DiQuatro. We hope it builds your faith and helps you to live a life for God that you've always wanted to live. We hope it inspires you to be a fully devoted, authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Enjoy the message and welcome to Elevate. Alright, well it's been a couple of weeks but we are getting back to the story and I hope you've all read chapter 7. I know we covered chapter 7 the last time that we preached on the story. I know the holidays kind of, you know, we took a deviation. But I wanted to hit something else in chapter 7. But before I do, let me just kind of give you a quick recap of all the things that we've studied, that we've talked about. Because, listen, we're trying to get the big story here. Remember, the story of the Bible is God's redemption. It's the story of God's redemption of mankind. Starts in the garden, Adam and Eve sin, God immediately sets a plan in place for the redemption of mankind, to remove the stain and the barrier of sin so that we can once again be restored to right relationship with Him. And so that is the story of the Bible. It's not just a collection of miracles and random things that happened in biblical times. It is a narrative and a story. And so, Adam and Eve sin in the garden. God sets a plan in place. He calls Abraham and promises Abraham that he's going to have a son and that through that son, a great nation will be made through that son. And so Abraham, miraculously at his old age, is given a son named Isaac. And then Isaac has two sons, Jacob and Esau, the twins. One of Jacob's sons, Joseph, gets sold into slavery and somehow, miraculously through that, it's a great story. Make sure you read it. It's in Genesis if you haven't. Joseph ends up becoming the ruler of Egypt in the midst of a famine. And when this happens, he restores relationship with his brothers that sold him to slavery 14 years earlier. Restores relationship, brings his whole family to Egypt because they had food in Egypt. When the rest of the land was barren and experiencing a famine, they had food in Egypt. He brings his family to live there in Egypt. Well, throughout that time, they begin to flourish and grow and grow and grow. This is God's people that are growing now. Well, Joseph dies and that pharaoh dies and new leadership comes and they get scared. They're like, who are these people that are not Egyptian, these Hebrew people? They're getting bigger and bigger and bigger and I'm afraid they're going to try to overthrow us. So the solution was, enslave them. They become enslaved for 400 years. And all that time, their population is growing and growing and growing. Well, then God raises up Moses. In the midst of their slavery, God raises up Moses. And Moses, through the hand of God, performs miracles and humiliates the Egyptian gods. And the Israelites are able to leave Egypt and they're freed from their slavery. They go into the wilderness on their way to a land that God promised them. The land of Canaan, the same land that God promised Abraham hundreds and hundreds of years earlier. And in the wilderness, God begins to reveal Himself to His people like never before in a cloud, in fire, in thunder. He gives them the Ten Commandments. He gives them a law, a way of relating to Him so that they can be His people. And He instructs them to build a tabernacle so that God's presence could dwell in the midst of them. And so, they're wandering in the wilderness with the presence of God. And they're wandering for 40 years. And they finally come to the Jordan River and they're getting ready to cross over to take the land. And this is where chapter 7 picks up. Well, Moses was already old when he led them out of Egypt and 40 years later, he ends up passing away before they got to the Promised Land. And Joshua, his assistant, he takes over. And they get ready to march into the land and begin the battle to claim that land. And the first city that they face is a city named Jericho. Now, Jericho is an interesting place. It is the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the world. And Jericho is also the first city to have built walls around their city. They were a sophisticated, fortified, modern city. Now, those walls had been torn down and rebuilt many times over. But at this stage of the game, Jericho was a powerful, sophisticated, modern city. So, Israel is at the Jordan River. It's the Jordan River that separates them from walking into the Promised Land and Jericho lies on the other side of the Jordan River. So, Joshua, who is now leading Israel, Joshua sends spies into the land. He wants to scope out the area before they go in. And so, he sends two spies out there. And he wants them to go in, check out the land, but especially check out this city of Jericho. So, they go in. And as they go in, the Bible says, The Bible says they enter into the house of a prostitute named Rahab. The king of Jericho finds out about the men that have visited Rahab and he orders Rahab, the prostitute, to give up these men. He comes and he says, Come on, I know they're here. Where did they go? Where are they? Give them up. And that's where we're going to pick up in Joshua chapter 2. We're going to look at the beginning in verse 4. We're talking about Rahab here. But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don't know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them. But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax that she had laid out on the roof. So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan. And as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. Now today's message is going to be a two-pronged message because there is a victory for Israel at Jericho. Many of us know the story. We're going to talk about that story a little bit because there's a victory there. But there's also this story about a prostitute named Rahab. And we're going to talk about her redemption and what God did through Rahab. And I think you're going to find this to be an incredible story, one that is going to inspire you and challenge you. But for some reason, Rahab the prostitute decides to lie to the king of Jericho when he sends men to her house. And instead of giving the two spies up, she hides them. Now this seems like odd behavior for a woman in a city that is being spied on and is about to be attacked. Why would she hide them? Why would she take their side? She is a societal outsider, a pariah. She's earning her living in a way that has caused her much shame and very low standing within their community. Just like today, prostitutes did not have high standing in the city of Jericho in those times. Yet, she's risking her life to hide two spies from Israel. And so we're going to see why she does that as we read on. And this is very significant. Beginning in verse 8 of Joshua chapter 2. Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up to the roof and said to them, Now listen, I know that the Lord has given you this land 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 Sion and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear because everyone's courage failed because of you. For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. So in this little exchange that Rahab the prostitute has with the two spies, she says a few very significant things. In verse 9 she says, I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us. Listen, Rahab knows what's about to happen. She's very aware of the fact that Jericho lies within the borders of Israel's promised land. She knows that this land is going to be Israel's and that there's no stopping them from taking the land that their God promised them. She says in verse 10, We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea. She says in verse 11, When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear. This is why Rahab helped the two spies from Israel. Jericho was already defeated. And she knew it. I mean, it was a done deal. I'll say it again. Jericho was already defeated. She had heard the story. Not just her, but the whole town. She said, we heard what your God did at the Red Sea and our hearts melted in fear. The whole city of Jericho knew about the Israelites. Now Jericho is 432 miles away from Egypt. That's how far away they are. We have CNN and Fox News, but somehow the news about what happened with Israel coming out of Egypt and how God had parted the Red Sea, something that happened 40 years earlier, 432 miles away, somehow word got to Jericho. And it brought fear upon the people. In fact, it had to have been told over and over and over and over again for these 40 years that it would spark so much fear in the city as they knew that Israel was approaching. Listen, Jericho was defeated long before Israel arrived. No wall could stop it. It was a done deal. So know this. There are some fortified cities in your life that stand between the wilderness that you're in and the promised land that God has for you and is leading you toward. But I want you to read the promise that God gave to Israel in Deuteronomy 31 verse 8. He says, The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. This was the promise given. Just as Israel was about to cross over the Jordan and go take the promised land, as they stood and they were viewing the promised land from across the Jordan River, they received this promise. The Lord Himself goes before you. You know, your fortified wall, your fortified city may be huge and impenetrable. It may seem absolutely impossible. Maybe it's an impossible financial situation or a failing marriage that feels irreconcilable. Maybe it's depression and anxiety that is just bearing down on you so hard and you don't know if you'll ever feel better. Maybe it's illness or some troubles that you're having at home. Any number of things can stand between you and the promise that God has for you. But know this, just as He promised Israel, God goes before you. Your Jericho, whatever your Jericho is, your Jericho is already defeated. It's a done deal already. You're already on the winning side. Now the how, now that's a whole other story. The deal is done. Jericho is defeated. But the how is the big question. We don't know how God is going to make our walls fall. We don't know how He's going to do it. We may think that we have to attack with brute force and scale walls and fight hard with swords. In this case, God shows that He is in control. It's their first battle. And for Israel, God had them do something very unexpected in order to take Jericho. And what He does is He has them march around the city. He doesn't tell them to set up catapults and build siege ramps and to sharpen their swords. He just has them march around the city for seven days. And on the seventh day, the walls fall and Jericho is defeated. Listen, the fact that Jericho was already defeated, that was a done deal. That was a given. The method and the steps to realize it were not known by Israel until God gave them instructions as they approached that city. And I want to tell you this. I know in your situation, I know that the answer is there. I know that the solution is there. I know that the walls of your Jericho have already fallen. God has already gone before you and done it. And it's going to happen. And it may look nothing like what you expect or want or what you would typically do. But God either has a way through your situation or He has a way out of your situation. And either way, we have to be obedient to the how He tells us to do it. You see, this particular time, Israel didn't have to go in and fight the big battle. God fought the battle completely for them. The walls fell. All they had to do was march and blow some horns and shout. That's all they did and the walls fell. In other cities that they took, they actually had to go in. They had to fight and sometimes they suffered losses. And sometimes they actually lost the battle. But they kept on pushing forward and they kept on marching forward. They lost soldiers. They suffered temporary setbacks and tired defeats in some cases. But at the end of the book of Joshua, what we find is Israel has taken the Promised Land. There was a lot of fighting, a lot of crazy things that happened. God stopped the sun at one point. And they had extra daylight. There were ambushes that God sent. There were things that He caused enemy armies to hear. And it caused them to freak out. He had armies attacking themselves. And Israel won without lifting a finger. But some of these battles, they just had to march in and just fight them. And some of them they lost. And they made two steps forward and then it was one step back. And then they marched forward again. But either way, no matter what they faced, no matter how God was bringing about the victory, at the end of Joshua, we see that they have the victory. They have entered the Promised Land. And that's what faith allows us to do. No matter what we see, no matter how hard the battle is, no matter if God does something crazy, supernatural, or He just gives us the power to fight. We have to stay in faith and believe what God is going to do. The Bible tells us in Romans that faith comes by hearing. Faith comes by hearing. And I want to ask you this question. What are you hearing as you walk through your circumstance? What are you hearing as you walk through this life? Are you hearing the news? Are you listening to Fox and CNN and just hearing that? Are you listening about inflation? Are you hearing all about gas prices? And are you just seeing memes about how depressed the world is? Are you hearing about mass shootings? Are you hearing about the despair right now and the hopelessness that is in our country and that's in our world? Is that what you're feeding your spirit with? Faith comes by hearing. Because if that's what you feed your spirit with, then your default mode will be fear and despair and depression and hopelessness. You see, Rahab the prostitute, she heard the stories of Israel. She heard those stories about their God and how God delivered them and what He did in Egypt. And you know what it did? It sparked fear in the rest of Jericho. Everybody in Jericho, it says their hearts melted with fear. When you listen to all that stuff, and that's what you're hearing, right? It sparked fear in their hearts. But you know what it sparked in the heart of Rahab? Faith. It sparked faith. Because she was seeing this God. She's like, that's the real deal. That God is able. And she tells the spies, I know that you're taking this land. I know it. Because you've got God on your side. And it sparked faith within her. And so I ask you, what are you feeding your spirit with? What are you hearing? Because the last part of that verse that I said, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Are you in the Word? Is your spirit being fed so that the things you hear out in the world, are they going to spark fear or are they going to spark faith within you? Now through this, God spared Rahab. And I told you it's a two-pronged message. The victory that Israel experienced in this crazy supernatural way. But also, there's this thing that God's doing through Rahab. And God spared Rahab and her family. And I want to tell you how this went down. Because after she hid the men on the roof, the spies that came in to spy the land. After she hid them and after the king's men left, this is what she tells them. In verse 12 of Joshua 2. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord, that you will show kindness to my family. Because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them. And that you will save us from death. So she helps them escape. And then they work out a way that when they come against the city of Jericho, that she and her family will be saved. And it was simple. She lived in a house that was actually on the wall. And she just had to hang a scarlet cord out of her window. And if she did that, they would see the cord and they would make sure that everybody was spared inside her house. So Israel crosses the Jordan. They arrive at Jericho for seven days. They march around the city. The people of Israel, they march and they shout. And on the seventh day, they blow the trumpets as the Lord commanded. And we pick this up now in verse 20. When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted. And at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed. So everyone charged straight in and they took the city. They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it, men, women, young, old, cattle, sheep, donkey. Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, Go into the prostitute's house and bring her out and all who belong to her in accordance with your oath to her. The young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belong to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel. So Rahab and her family are safe while the rest of the city falls. Now this in and of itself is a miraculous story and we see the hand and the power of God at work. We see how God used a prostitute to help them secure victory. We see that without fancy military equipment, they breach the walls of a city and they take it. But who is Rahab? Who is this prostitute? Who is she that God would use her in this story? And what is the significance of her role in this amazing epic? Well, we don't have a wealth of information about Rahab the prostitute, but we do know about the culture of that day. So let's humanize Rahab for just a moment. You know, a person doesn't normally choose the life of a prostitute as their preferred career path. Prostitution is something that people choose then as they do today. If they choose it, they choose it out of desperation. Whatever happened in her life, whatever mistakes that she may have made, whatever tragedies and horrible things that may have happened to her, whatever bad living choices, whatever it is, she wound up in a place of desperation. Hired out throughout the night. In and out of the arms of men who only want her for one thing. Only ever feeling a false sense of love and affection and safety. Just a false version of that. Maybe she would close her eyes and imagine that this moment was real. That it meant something more. Only to open her eyes again and have that harsh, horrible reality thrust upon her once again. She's just a tool. Just a vehicle of temporary pleasure for yet another customer. Another customer that will throw her away in just a few minutes as so many have done before. The shame, the depression, the emptiness, the numbness. This was Rahab, the prostitute. The lowest of the low. The outcast of her society. A life that no one saw as having any value, worth or purpose other than what they could get out of her. Just a prostitute. That's how she was seen. This is the woman that is introduced to us in the Bible. In the story of God's great redemption plan for all of mankind. He introduces us to Rahab. The lowly street worker that society had cast off and had thrown away. This is how she is known. And if you've read the story in the Bible before, if you're familiar with this entire story, you know that this is how people know her. Rahab is synonymous with the word prostitutes. And you'll notice, and maybe it's made you uncomfortable in this room, I don't know, but I've continually, throughout this message, I've referred to her as Rahab the prostitute. How easy it is in our situation, or in our decisions, or for our shame to define us. To become our identity. And up until this moment in history, this was Rahab's identity. Identified by her sin. Identified by her shame. Identified by her lifestyle. And some of you know what I'm talking about. What's followed you, what becomes your identity is your sin, your addiction, or your anger, or your poor choice of relationships, or your desperate situation. And you begin to identify with that perception of yourself. And because of it, it makes you feel worthless. And you feel empty. And you wonder if you'll ever feel different, or if you'll ever feel anything at all. Now Rahab's 15 minutes of fame gets told in the story of the conquest of Canaan. This is where we hear about Rahab. Her life and her family are spared. But this isn't the real victory. Let me tell you, this isn't the real victory. The real victory we find out hundreds and hundreds of years later. We find out at the beginning of the New Testament. In a portion of Scripture that most of us skip over every time we come to it. And so we're going to do the cardinal sin of preaching to a group of people. And that is we're going to read a genealogy in the Bible. Matthew chapter 1, verse 1. Listen to what it says. This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac, the father of Jacob. We know all this, we've been talking about it. Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez, the father of Hezron. Hezron, the father of Ram. Ram, the father of Amminadab. Amminadab, the father of Nashon. Nashon, the father of Salmon. Salmon, the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. This prostitute. This woman of the night. This woman who lived a life of shame and the consequences of poor decisions and just some bad luck. She is listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Yes. She was a major part of God's story of redemption. Her story doesn't end in the book of Joshua. Her identity is not stuck in that moment in time as Rahab, the prostitute. That is no longer her identity. Rather, her identity is Rahab, the great, great, great, times 32, great grandmother of Jesus. That's her identity. The great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother of the Son of God, the Savior of our souls. The one who has given us new life and has given life to countless prostitutes and addicts and criminals and adulterers and broken people. I don't know about you, but that excites me. There is a prostitute in the royal lineage of Jesus Christ. That ought to get you so excited because there's something being told through the truth that we read in the Word of God. The fact of this story is that your brokenness is not going to stop God from using you to be a part of His big story. Your shame, your sin, your past, your choices are not going to stop God from being able to rescue you and use you as a part of the big story. Thank you for listening to Elevate. We hope this message encouraged, inspired, and challenged you. Authentic Life Church is located at 3750 Michael Boulevard in Mobile, Alabama. Visit our website, AuthenticLife.tv, for more information about Authentic Life Church, to find out what we have going on, or to make a donation. You can also find us on Facebook. We'd love for you to join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. for our weekend service. We have excellent children's, nursery, and youth programs, so bring the family. For Pastor John DeQuatro, I'm Scott Chestnut. Thanks again for listening, and God bless you.