Rahab - Week 5: The Big Picture

Erin Davis: Well, grab your Bible and your copy of the study Rahab that we’re walking through. (It’s okay with me if you have some great snacks close at hand. That’s really helpful!) Pull up a chair.

I’m joined by some women that I adore, and I know you’re going to adore them, too. We’re walking through a study of Rahab together, Tracing the Thread of Redemption. I would love for you, panel, to reintroduce yourselves. Hopefully they’ve been listening to us, they’ve been walking through this study with us.

I have a big question for you, a big intro question. I want to know your favorite promise of God. So, I’ll go first; I’ll give you a minute to think. My name is Erin. Probably my favorite promises are: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). “I am with you always, to the [very] end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). (It’s okay if these are your favorite verses, too.)

Sometimes I need that, like, tattooed on my eyelids, because I feel like, “Oh, no! He’s left me! He’s going to abandon me! He’s going to give up on me! He’s going to quit on me! (Because I quit on me!) And I remember the promise, “Nope, He’s with me always, to the very end of the age.”

If I had to pick a promise as my favorite, that would be mine.

Leslie Bennett: Can I share two?

Erin: Yes, you can share ten!

Leslie: Great. I’m Leslie. From Philippians, I love 4:19, “For I will meet all of your needs according to the glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (paraphrase). And I have a new promise that I’m grabbing hold to in my older age, and it is: Psalm 37:25, “For once I was young and now I am old; I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread” (NIV).

And that’s just the faithfulness of God in my life. Now that I am the older woman it just is speaking precious truths to me, encouraging me.

Erin: I love those promises!

Lisa Whittle: So good! I’m Lisa; I’m from North Carolina. Oh man, I cannot pick one, and since Leslie did two . . .

Leslie: Are you going to beat me with three? 

Lisa: No, no desire to be an overachiever here. From Philippians 1:6: “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.” I love the fact that God’s a finisher, because I leave a lot of tasks undone, and He doesn’t! I claim that one often.

Also, I love the promise of Ephesians 1:19–20, that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is available to us who believe in Him! I claim that a lot as I walk through this world; it feels like it’s gone crazy! I want to believe that I can walk strong, so that’s one that I claim a lot—especially in recent years.

Erin: I love that one. Ron Dunn is my favorite old-timey preacher; he’s in heaven now, but somehow he’s still podcasting. (laughter) So I love the Ron Dunn podcasts. Here’s one that sticks with me. He says, “Faith is betting all of your chips on the faithfulness of God.” It’s just pushing everything forward to, “God’s going to be faithful!”

Lisa: Oh, I love that picture!

Erin: And that’s what we do with the promises. You both just came alive when you were telling me those promises. Those came from a deep place in you. Somewhere you’ve pushed the chips of your life toward, “I believe He’s going to finish the work He started!” “I believe” (remind me of your promises) . . .

Leslie: “He’s going to meet every need of mine!”

Erin: “Out of His riches in glory!”

Leslie: “Out of His riches, not mine!”

Erin: That’s right! And so that’s what the promises of God do for us.

Leslie: They shore us up; they anchor us.

Erin: They put a steel rod through our backs, they put our hand to the plow. The promises of God are not these pie-in-the-sky pithy platitudes that don’t mean anything. They change our lives! And so I like to know the big idea when I’m studying the Bible.

Today the big idea is that we can always, always, always times infinity trust the promises of God! So we’ve been looking at the life of Rahab. We find her story in Joshua 2; we’re going to hop over to Joshua 6 a little bit with her story today.

I hope those listening have caught the other episodes; I hope they’ve read the story of Rahab; I hope they’re doing the study with us. But just in case they have what I call “momnesia”. . . they’ve slept or their children have required too much of them . . .

Leslie: Or they’re getting older like me and having a senior moment and can’t remember! (laughter)

Erin: I’ve never known you to have a senior moment in all your life!

Leslie: Oh, girl!

Erin: You have the brain, heart, and energy of a twenty-two year old!

Leslie: Well, okay! I am taking it! I’m not rebuking or pushing back on that; I will take it!

Erin: Let’s just review Rahab a little bit: We know she’s a prostitute. We know she’s a Canaanite. We know she lies. The spies of Israel come to her home; she hides them, and so they’re protected for a while.

They promise her that if she’ll do something kind of really weird and specific, they will spare her and her whole household when it comes time for the invasion of Jericho. And that thing she had to do in obedience is worth mentioning. So, Lisa, what was it? What did she have to do? The spies said, “If you hang something from your window, we will spare you.” What was it?

Lisa: The scarlet cord. It was visible, no mistaking it, “this is a sign.”

Erin: “This is a sign that this house will be redeemed.” And that’s what we’re really looking at in this study, we’re looking at redemption. But here, together, I want to look at promises, because there was a gap between the hanging out of the scarlet cord and the realization of her redemption.

So I’m going to take us back to Joshua 2:21–24, and I’ll just read it for us: 

And she said, "According to your words, so be it." Then she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window. They departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned, and the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing.

Then the two men returned. [They didn’t return to Rahab; they returned to the Israelites. They were getting ready for this big battle to overtake Jericho.] They came down from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they told him all that had happened to them.

And they said to Joshua, "Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us." 

So that’s what’s happening. Rahab had pretty simple instructions. She was supposed to gather her family; she was not supposed to tell anybody about the spies; and she was supposed to hang the red cord. So she does it. And then what does Rahab do?

Leslie: Waits. She doesn’t know when they’re going to come back. 

Erin: She doesn’t know.

Leslie: It must have been a situation where it was doubtful. I’m sure she was struggling with some doubt, maybe even some fear: “Are they really going to come back for me? How is this going to work out?”

Erin: Yes!

Lisa: We’re quick-minded in today’s society, because everything’s “microwave.” But back then, things were longer periods of time than we can even wrap our minds around.

Erin: And the spies aren’t texting her, like, “Hey, we’re coming!”

Leslie: It would have been nice.

Lisa: Right, it was probably lengthy in some terms.

Leslie: It probably felt like an eternity to her!

Lisa: I’m sure!

Erin: Oh, it must have. We read in Joshua 2 that they make this agreement and the spies say, “Listen! If you let anybody out of your home from your family, their blood’s on them. In other words, when the destruction comes, if they’re not in your home they’re goners!”

So this is Rahab the prostitute—she’s probably not living in a mansion! She’s has to get everyone she cares about in her home.

Leslie: Mother, father, brothers, sisters, aunts. . . 

Erin: There might be some babies they need to entertain, who knows? They’ve got to feed everybody; they’ve got to sleep. So there’s just this waiting—waiting for God to come through, waiting for the people of God to do what they’ve said they’re going to do—no communication. She’s just waiting. And I wonder what you’re waiting for God to do?

Leslie, what is it you are waiting for God to do? Give us big and give us small. We’re all waiting. 

Leslie: Yes, well, on one level for my family . . . I still have so many loved ones in my family that I’m waiting to see come to Christ. I’m waiting to see brokenness in my family mended and redeemed.

My husband and I moved a year-and-a-half ago to a new town. We’re waiting to see even the purpose for us being there and how we’re part of God’s kingdom plan at this stage of our life and what He has for us to continue to serve Him. It’s kind of exciting, kind of unknown. That’s what we’re waiting for.

Erin: You’re waiting. Lisa, what are you waiting for God to do?

Lisa: Well, I would have even said up until a couple weeks ago we were waiting on this piece of land that we’d talked about in another episode. For ten years we’d been waiting. That finally has kind of come to fruition. But I’m always waiting on something, and usually impatiently, to be honest with you. 

But I do think about how all of us are waiting for something, I think at every moment. A lot of times it has to do with someone else, because we can only control ourselves, right? At the same time, God does things that we don’t know what He’s doing, and so it feels long whatever the case may be.

Even our earnest prayers over and over and again. We don’t like to pray for more than five minutes, but the reality is, it’s the discipline of prayer and the obedience and how it changes us. And I do believe it moves the heart of God as well.

There are just some things, honestly Erin, that I can’t say on the air that I’m waiting on, but God knows what they are. They have to do with other people, just like Leslie was talking about . . . some hearts that I really desperately want to turn back to God!

Erin: Yes, I’m waiting for reconciliation with my dad. I’ve talked about that on Revive Our Hearts before. I want to be reconciled to my dad; I pray to be reconciled to my dad, but there’s been no turning. I don’t know . . .and so I wait.

There are some other relationships that are strained where I would love to see reconciliation, and I don’t know when it will happen. So another round of holidays comes and goes, another round of birthdays comes and goes . . . and still waiting.

Lisa: It’s hard.

Erin: And on a more specific to me level, I just feel like I’m always waiting for Jesus to sanctify me, you know? I’ve been following Him a long time, and how long until . . .

Leslie: “When am I going to grow up!?”

Erin: Right, that’s right! When am I going to outgrow this thing, or when is He going to take this out of my heart or my life? And that weight wears me slick!

Lisa: Yes, that one’s hard! I can really relate to that! It’s like, “Should I not be over this by now?”

Leslie: “Shouldn’t I be further along by now?!”

Lisa: We do struggle and often it’s with the same struggle over and over and over again.

Erin: There’s an area of sin and defeat and discouragement in my life that just this week I thought, “Ah, that’s still there?

Leslie: “I thought I dealt with that!”

Erin: So I’m waiting. I really do believe that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. (see 2 Cor. 3:17) And He has freed me of so much! But there are things that I am waiting for, for Him to free me of, that I am just tired of waiting. 

Lisa: Well, and let’s make sure that we say—because I have to say this to myself—there is intention on our part; there is choice on our part. There needs to be movement on our part. I hear that a lot, and I hear it from my own self: “God, when are You going to free me from this?”

And the reality is, I’ve got to look at my life and what needs to be altered there, what needs to be changed that’s not in alignment with the Word of God, or whatever the case may be. Because God certainly is the One Who does the freeing and the One Who frees us, but also we have free will and we have to make choices in order to be in that place.

Leslie: And the Bible tells us that we have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (see Phil. 2:12). I think that speaks to what you’re talking about.

Erin: And a lot of waiting! You know, we are all in waiting rooms! Every single one of us is sitting in a waiting room. Sometimes I can look at my friends and go, “Well, she’s not waiting on anything,” or “He’s not waiting on anything.” The reality is that we are all waiting. We’re all waiting, but we’re not all waiting well.

You know what helps me wait well? The promises of God! They anchor me; they help me to wait with grace. So what had God promised concerning Jericho? I’m going to take us back just a little bit to Joshua 1:13; we read it in most episodes, we’re going to read it again.

Joshua 1:13: 

Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, "The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land." 

That was the promise. It’s why we call it the Promised Land. God was going to give the city over to the Israelites, but . . . they’re waiting.

As Rahab is in the home with the family waiting, did she have moments of doubt? What do you think?

Leslie: Of course she did! I mean, let’s remember. She didn’t have the Bible; all she had were some second-hand stories about the Lord. She didn’t have so much to draw on; she didn’t have so many promises. 

All she knew was that God brought them through the Red Sea and enabled them to conquer the two Amorite kings. That was all that she had to cling to, so she didn’t know a whole lot.

Erin: She didn’t have the Bible; she didn’t have hymns. I don’t know how many times the songs of God had been brought to mind and reminded me of Him. She didn’t have that. She didn’t have the church. She didn’t have a single other Canaanite speaking truth. 

Lisa: She didn’t have the YouVersion App! I mean, let’s just get real! 

Erin: . . . or BibleGateway, where I can type in just a fraction of a verse and the verse pops up. She had none of that. So she’s gathered in her home. Surely she has to turn away visitors, because we know what kind of profession she had, so there are people knocking on the door. She just has to hang that scarlet thread out the door and wait!

There are so many promises of God that we could talk about. We talked about them at the beginning,but let’s just rattle off the promises of God that we can remember, that we have to hold onto when we’re in a waiting room. 

Leslie: I was going to just mention that when we think about waiting, biblical waiting is active. t’s not a passive word. That’s exactly what we are doing. We’re drawing upon the promises of God. Christ is going to return! He is the Victor, He is the Faithful and True! And I know the end of the story! I mean, I am clinging to this promise all the time!

God knows the end of my story, and it’s going to be really, really good! One day I’m going to see Jesus face to face! 

Erin: That’s a promise!

Leslie: He is redeeming all things, and He is good all of the time! Despite what it looks like all around me, I can trust Him because He is good!

Erin: You rattled off . . . you speak Bible! I love that about you. When you talk, it just comes out of you. But you rattled off several promises there. Yes, He’s coming back for us; that’s a promise! (see Acts 1:11) He’s going to make all things new; that’s a promise! (see Rev. 21:5) He’s going to bring redemption; that’s a promise! (see Heb. 9:12; Rom. 8:23) Those are promises that we have in His Word.

I think of 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That’s a promise! There’s not going to be a moment when He turns off the spigot. 

Leslie: Praise the Lord!

Erin: Yes, praise the Lord! If I confess, He will forgive. I can push all my chips toward that promise. Lisa, can you think of some others?

Lisa: Oh, man! Isaiah 45:6: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.” He says in surrounding verses He proclaims bold promises. He does not speak obscurities in some dark corner so no one can understand what He means. He, the Lord, speaks only what is true and right.

That’s a powerful promise for me, because we live in a spin culture. I love the fact that He says, “I’m God! There’s no other (in case you’ve forgotten!). I boldly speak; you can understand what I mean, and I speak what is true and right!” So I compare that to all the spin masters of the world. That’s a promise I claim all the time! 

Erin: “If God says it, it’s true!”

Lisa: I have put all my chips on that. I love the promise in Joel 2:25 where it says, “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.” Now, I think a lot of people take that out of context, and they take it to mean, “What the haters have taken from me.” If you put it in context, it’s actually what our own sin has done.

So we won’t get into all that nerdy stuff now, but here’s the promise and here’s the beautiful thing for us: a lot of us have gotten into sin, locusts have eaten our life because of it. God says, “I’ll restore to you . . .” And there’s a beautiful promise there for a lot of us who aren’t perfect, which, by the way, would be me!

Leslie: And when God says, “If you return to Me, I will return to you,” as in Jeremiah 3:12, that comes to mind, too. He is never far away! (see Acts 17:27)

Erin: “Seek and you will find Me; knock and I’ll open the door.” (see Matt. 7:7) That’s a promise; you can push your chips toward it. And so, we could talk about His promises all day long!

Forever! 

Lisa: That really helps me!

Erin: And what’s happening in our hearts and our minds . . . and it’s actually happening with our postures even as we’re talking about it . . . it’s shoring us up!

I want us to drill down on one promise in particular. Leslie, you took us there, which is that Christ will return for His Bride. I wish we talked more about Christ’s return; I don’t know why we don’t; maybe because it’s mysterious or because we don’t know when it is.

I’ve got to tell this story on my four little boys: their daddy was out of town for a business trip. I must talk about Christ’s return a lot, because one of them said, “What happens, Momma, if Jesus returns while Daddy’s travelling?” 

And I said, “We’ll meet him in the sky!” I love that that was even on their hearts!

They were worried about it, because “Daddy’s gone, and Jesus could be coming back, and is it okay if he’s in another state?” We talk about it a lot; I hope. I think they hear me say, “Today, there’s still time today. Jesus, come!” And sometimes it’s, “Jesus, come! I’ve got four kids!” But I mean it.

Sometimes it’s like, He is coming! He will return as He promised. Let’s take it to the bank. We could read lots of verses about that, but we’ve got a few lined up. Leslie, can you read us Hebrews 9:28?

Leslie: I’d love to. 

So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. [Woo!]

Erin: I love that! The first time Christ came was when? 

Leslie: He’s come already once in the gospels.

Erin: That’s right, but He’s coming again. He’s coming to redeem—there’s that word—to save. Alright, take us to 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, Lisa.

Lisa: Okay it says, 

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

Erin: He’s coming! With a shout, which you just gave us, Leslie, woo! With a trumpet blast, the archangel’s going to be with Him! We’re not going to miss it!

Lisa: This honestly cannot get better!

Erin: No. It’s going to be the apex of history!

Leslie: Everything is moving towards it.

Erin: I chose to give myself Revelation 22:12–13, because I love it! 

“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” 

He’s coming! He said He’s coming, so what that doesn’t mean is that we gather everybody in the living room and wait, like Rahab did. It doesn’t mean, though we might be tempted, that we just hunker down. Because we don’t know if it’s tomorrow or in a million years.

Leslie: The Scripture tells us that a day with the Lord is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day, and He is not slow in keeping His promises, He says. (see 2 Peter 3:8–9) We feel that it’s slow, but God is always on time. His timing is perfect. 

Lisa: Yes.

Erin: I frequently say, “It won’t be long now.” And that’s true, no matter how long from now it is, because in the redemptive timeline, “It won’t be long now.” It doesn’t mean we just hole-up, because then, where’s the hope for the lost world? So, what does it mean practically?

If we believe Christ is returning, and I do and I know you do, and we believe He’s coming soon (it won’t be long now!) and He’s coming to redeem us, what does it mean practically to live our lives in light of that promise? What does it change?

Leslie: You know what I think about? In 2 Peter 3:18, when Peter is closing his second letter and he says, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity” that’s what I’m supposed to continue to do while I’m waiting for Him. 

I’m growing in the grace and the knowledge, which is exactly what we’re doing right here by being in the Word of God. We're growing in our knowledge of God and receiving grace.

Erin: That’s that active waiting you were talking about. We don’t just sit. “Jesus is going to come, so I’m just going to sit here.” (No.) We’re growing! What else does it mean, practically, to live in light of Jesus’ return?

Lisa: Well, for me, I think it’s like this complete confidence that what He says He will do, that in the meantime there is purpose here on earth and that’s why I’m still here. If that’s the case, though I will not reach full wholeness and perfection until I get to heaven, there are measures of things. For example, the fruit of the Spirit and things like that. 

I can live with joy, peace, all of those things to show the world. I think also of David who was anointed as the king, but what? It took fifteen years later for him to be appointed. There was the waiting period in there. What was he doing in that period? There are still preparatory things that happen in all of those times.

I long for heaven more and more—especially when you have someone that you love who is there, you want to go there more. But I also understand that the work here is fruitful, that others may come to know Him. And so there is purpose here.

And so, to me, the practicality is I am growing, as you say Leslie. I also am living in a real purpose, that God has made me and crafted me to do what He wants me to do—work here while I’m here and then reward soon.

Leslie: And He has commissioned us, and I hear you talk about this all the time, Erin. I know you’re going there. We have to make disciples of all nations while we’re here. That is what my life is about. That is a purposeful woman; that is what our life is about.

Erin: I say a lot, “We don’t have time for this!” And part of that is my personality, man, I’m a ramrod! But really, it’s just we don’t have time for this. We don’t have time for the nonsense, because Jesus is coming. He’s returning, and we have work to do in light of that.

I think it also helps the lesser things be lesser things. We have a saying in our family, “This came to pass, it didn’t come to stay.” It’s true. Whatever it is, from big things to little things, they’re not that big a deal. 

Leslie: The days are short.

Erin: Because Jesus is coming for us, and He’s going to keep that promise. God kept His promise to Rahab, and it’s a foreshadowing, really, of the fact that God is going to keep His promise to us. 

So, humanly speaking, Rahab’s story wraps up in Joshua chapter 6. We could all probably sing the song: “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho . . .” Then what happened? “The walls came a tumblin’ down!”

That’s what we see in Joshua chapter 6, and that’s a whole other podcast series, probably, on how they did the marching and the trumpet blasting—“The Men of the Bible,” “The Instruments of the Bible,” “The Battles of the Bible.”

So that all happens and the walls actually do come tumbling down, but is Rahab spared? I’m going to take us to Joshua 6:20–23 and see, does God keep His promise to Rahab? Do the people of God keep their promise? 

So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown.

As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city.

Okay, so Rahab was in the walls. What happened? 

Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword. But to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, "Go into the prostitute's house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, as you swore to her."

So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel.

You can go ahead and read the rest of it. The city burns, but Rahab is spared. God kept His promise to Rahab. 

Leslie: He did!

Erin: And God will keep His promise to us.

Leslie: What we’re reading is that Joshua came for Rahab and her family. Joshua’s name means “Yahweh is salvation.” And we—the church—are waiting for Jesus, our “Joshua,” our salvation, to come back for us. 

Erin: And He will! It’s all pointing us forward, yes, forward to the moment where Christ died and was raised. But then forward again to the moment when Jesus will return for us. I love 2 Corinthians 1:20, when we think about the promises of God. Leslie, could you read that to us?

Leslie: 2 Corinthians 1:20: 

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

Erin: So who’s the “Him”?

Leslie: Jesus.

Erin: Jesus. All the promises of God find their yes in Jesus! And, you know what? A promise means there’s waiting. That’s the nature of a promise. It’s not, “I’m giving you this right now.” It’s, “I promise I will.” And sometimes when there’s a promise, we want collateral. So if a guy promises to love you faithfully the rest of your life, we’d like a little collateral, a little ring on the finger, right?

Leslie: A little bling on our hand!

Erin: If someone wants to buy your house—you just experienced this Lisa—we’d like some earnest money. We want collateral.

Lisa: That’s right.

Erin: So what is the collateral for the promises of God?

Lisa: It’s Jesus!

Erin: How can we know He will come through for us? Well, He already has! So all the promises of God find their yes in Him. And Rahab’s story is as much about that—more about that—than it is about anything else that we’ve talked about here.

Leslie, I’m never going to open the Bible with you and not want to hear you pray. So I would love for you to just help us end this episode by praying for the woman who’s in a waiting room—which is all of us—and needs to cling to the promises of God. 

Leslie: I’d love to! 

Lord, I can even see specific faces before me of women that I know that are waiting for really hard things . . . to see their “Joshua” coming across the hills to save them! I know women are waiting who are infertile; I have precious loved ones who are waiting for that. I know women who are waiting to be healed, women who are waiting for You to provide financially for them, women who are waiting for their marriages that are just barely hanging on by a thread to be resurrected and redeemed. 

Lord, there are so many in broken relationships and in brokenness in their hearts. There are so many children that are far, far away from You. And so, God, we thank You that in that waiting we are not alone! Because You have promised not to ever leave us nor forsake us. In all of these situations help us to put our faith and our trust in You and to always remember that You are doing a thousand things that we cannot even imagine or know; that You are working in every one of these situations, and that You are good, and that You are redeeming all things for our good. But more importantly, for Your glory. We thank You! We lift up all of our sisters, every one of us who is waiting. Help us to keep our eyes fixed on You, Jesus. And it’s in Your name we pray, amen!