Run=check. Cleaned up=check. Micah down=check. Coffee and Dewayne here with me=check. Now, finally, I can blog again! How I love ideal mornings...
A lot of you have heard this, but this Spring I am putting together a conference for girls, junior high and high school. It's called "Adored" and I am just beyond excited for it. So many women have stepped up to help me and God has been gradually revealing to me what he wants the conference to look like.
Right away I knew what topics I wanted to cover. You know, the classics: boys (giggle giggle), modesty, friendship, etc. But I felt God asking me to speak from Scripture, exogetically. ( How in the world do you spell that?!) So I have been doing that and really praying and trusting that God will show me those topics within His word.
So I'm thinking one talk on Esther, ah godly, pretty Esther. And one on Ruth. Devoted, faithful Ruth. And one on.....Rahab. Sweet....skanky Rahab.
I luv Rahab! I told the director of our women's ministries who I wanted to speak on, and she responded in her southern draw, "Rebekah, hun, did you know Rahab was a prostitute?" I had to laugh. ha. ha. ha. Yes, in fact, I did know that.
So Rahab's story is told in Joshua, starting in chapter 2. But she is mentioned in 2 other books as well. She comes onto the scene at a very climactic time for God's people. They are just days away from entering into the promised land, with only one more battle to fight. That battle--Jericho. Rahab was a hooker, sent to live in the walls of the city. Likely because the king was 'done' with her. How rejected she must have felt, like an outcast. And all she had come to believe she was was a body, a tool for men's pleasure. Did she have any hopes for a husband? Not likely. Did she have any hopes of changing her lifestyle? Probably not. She was well known, but not in a good way. She got plenty of attention, but not the kind that warms your heart.
And here she is, dressed in satin, well accessorized, staring out the window of her room. Contemplating what she has heard about this God of the Israelites. The hub around town was a nervous chatter about them and their God. The rumor is that they had a promised land from their God, and that her city was in the foyer of this land. Maybe it was the 'bad girl' in her, but Rahab found herself drawn to these people, and to their God. Something deep within her longed for this God, a God who split the waters and destroyed enemies. Could this God split her chains and destroy her darkness? Could he lead her out of her prison and into victory?
A quick rap on the door startles her from her day dreaming. She rolls her eyes, expecting to find a soldier hoping to enjoy her...company. Instead, it's two foreigners, travelers. Before she knew what she was doing she shooed them into her room and secured the door behind her. They explained to her that they were spies, sent from the leader of the Israelites. They claimed that Jericho was to be attacked, and their God would completely conquer this city, they claimed.
Another knock. And the sounds of soldiers at her door. Perhaps prompted by her dreams, she swiftly rushes the spies into hiding. She then answers the door to paranoid soldiers, demanding she bring out the spies. Rahab, without understanding, again, acts in faith. "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. It came about when it was time to shut the gate at dark, and the men went out; I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them."
Maybe it was her dark eyes, or her perfectly olive toned skin, but the soldiers believed her, and left in pursuit of them.
And the story goes on where Rahab tells the spies that she had heard of their powerful God, and that she believes he is the Lord God, the God of heaven and earth. And as boldly as she could flirt, she asked the Israelite men for salvation. She asks that her and her family be spared when they attack Jericho. They give her their word, and they keep it.
LOVE IT. Here is a story of a women who refused to be shackled to her past. She had the courage of Ruth. The beauty of Esther. The reputation of a Playboy. Yet she is a main character in a main story in the Bible. SHE is in the lineage of Christ.
Little did she know. When she got moved to the wall, did she have any idea it would be her gate to salvation? Although it was isolating, it allowed for the spies to come to her house. Although the labels the world gave her hurt beyond description, the God of the Hebrews used that pain to give her an appetite for Him. And that appetite prompted an active faith. One that many of us still crave to live out. Little did she know a man named James would talk about her in the same paragraph as Abraham. Yea, Abraham the Patriarch of my faith, he shared a paragraph with a gentile prostitute.
She had no idea what hung in the balance of her faith jump. No idea that she would be recorded in the "Hall of Faith" in Hebrews.
What a story of redemption. Forgiveness. Simple faith. New starts.
Our God makes all things new.
How I'm praying that these teenage girls will find new starts prompted by faith. That they will believe in the restoration and redemption of a big God. That they will understand that they are Adored. Who knows what hangs in the balance of us believing in what God thinks of us, rather than the world....
