Fearless Faith
“By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.” Hebrews 11:31
Rahab brushed her long, chestnut-brown hair and pulled it taut at the nape of her neck. She tied it firmly with a crimson ribbon of fabric and felt her shoulders twinge from holding so much tension. Her hands dropped heavy into her lap as her frame exhaled deeply. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to imagine what it might be like to be somewhere else…any place where she mattered.
She couldn’t remember the last time she wasn’t tired. It was bad enough to be trapped inside a city where no one could move in or out. But she knew it was her own choices that entombed her most. She pressed her hand against the door, built against the city wall. “So close yet impossible,” she thought with resignation. She longed for a fresh start and wondered if a conversation she overheard just days before might hold the answer.
“We must remain vigilant. We have enough supplies to last through a siege, even if it goes on for a couple of months. With what the Israelites have done to our neighbors, we can’t risk them infiltrating our city. And after their escape through the Red Sea, who knows what could happen? The ban stays. No one goes in, no one goes out.”
The tremor in the men’s voices exposed their fear, but something inside of her leapt at the possibilities. Could this be her chance for a clean slate?
Moses led God’s people for 40 years through the wilderness, but Joshua took them across the Jordan River to possess the land given to them by God. First, they had to conquer Jericho – a critical, heavily fortified city and the key to all the land west of the Jordan.
They sent spies ahead to see what they faced. These men met a woman carrying a painful past and an uncertain future. They discovered the prostitute, Rahab, the unlikeliest of heroes with uncommon faith. She was stuck – in a sinful lifestyle, and in a wicked place, both set for destruction. Rahab dreamt of a different life; one where her worth was defined by what God said about her, not by the world. She put herself in grave danger to help the Israelites and God honored her obedience.
While in Israel, I filmed a video resource for my second Bible Study, “Fearless: Ordinary Women of the Bible who Dared to do Extraordinary Things.” I sat mere feet from the only structure that remained when the walls of Jericho collapsed. As the brutal noonday sun beat across my face, one simple fact arrested my thoughts: a house built strategically against the town wall stood when the walls fell. Yet, even more incredulous, one woman, under the intense heat of pressure and her back against the wall, refused to bow to fear.
Rahab wanted out of this place.
She devised a plan, not out of selfishness, but out of authentic faith. The sign of her willingness and complete cooperation was a scarlet cord, hanging conspicuously in her window. No matter how strong the enemy looked on the outside, her faith remained intact on the inside. I’m so challenged by the courage of Rahab. It’s much easier to just blend in with the crowd than to stand up for what is right.
Our past doesn’t have to paralyze our future. You can get out from under anything that’s trying to bury you. When you encounter Christ, you are freed from the identity put on you by the world. Grace is the undoing of something old and the unfolding of something new. It is the awareness that God picks us up out of the rubble and leads us to safety. It is the realization that God longs to save us, redeem us, and use us. It is the promise that we will no longer remain paralyzed by our past, but we will walk fearlessly into all that lies ahead. And if we look closely enough, we might just trace Rahab’s footsteps.
Praised throughout Scripture for her fearless faith, she is last mentioned in Hebrews 11:31: “By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.” This is what happens when God intersects our story with grace.
