RAHAB TO REHAB

Text:  Joshua 2:1

And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho.  And they went, and came into a harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there.

Rehabilitation – an action or process of rehabilitating or to be rehabilitated.

Rehabilitate – to restore to a former capacity; to restore to a condition of health or useful and constructive activity.

Rehabilitant – disabled person undergoing rehab.

In the natural, we do many things without a second thought, such as getting out of bed and getting dressed without assistance, walking your dog in a park, dashing down a basketball court, mowing the lawn.  We just do these things.  Usually, we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the great gift we have to move, bend, lift, throw, or push without limitation.  But an injury or illness can take away those abilities, and suddenly everyday activities become an extraordinary task.

During those times, the “rehabilitant” will need rehabilitation.  Keep one thing in mind - who you choose to provide your physical rehab can impact the rest of your life.

There are teams of specialists who concentrate their efforts in one activity.  They are health care workers trained and dedicated to improving, maintaining or restoring physical strength, cognition (awareness), and mobility with maximum results to the “rehabilitant”.  They can assist you in getting back to doing the things you love with people you love.

Spiritually, it’s no different.  Why would you need spiritual “rehabilitation”?  Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.  

If you are outside the ark of safety and don’t know Christ as your personal Savior, you’re in need of rehabilitation!  If you’re down and out, defiled in a helpless, hopeless life, you’re in need of rehabilitation!  If you’re experiencing symptoms of fear, discouragement, and you’re at a crossroad of life without direction, you’re in need of rehabilitation!  When the Doctor has told you they’ve done all they can do, your back is against the wall, and you feel like God doesn’t care about you - you’re in need of rehabilitation!

Just like in the natural, who you choose to provide your physical “rehabilitation” can impact the rest of your life.  Likewise in the spiritual, who you choose to provide your spiritual “rehabilitation” can also impact the rest of your life!  

In the natural realm, there are multiple teams from which one can choose, but in the spiritual, there’s only one specialized team that’s dedicated to improving and restoring mental/physical strength and mobility with maximum results!  No appointment is necessary!  The team can be reached any time of day or night.  They won’t turn you away because of lack of insurance.  I’d like to introduce this “specialized team”:  The Godhead:  (three all in one)

• The one and only:  GOD – our Father, Creator-Elohiym!  The One who framed the world with His spoken Word!  The One who said, “Let there be”, and it was!!!  
• “It” was JESUS, THE CHRIST – the Word in flesh form!  The orchestrator – the One who composes and arranges things through clever and thorough planning.  It was He who said, “It is expedient for you that I go away” (John 16:7), but I will not leave you comfortless.  “For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you”.  
• The Holy Ghost – Comforter – Spirit of Truth!  The One the “world system” cannot receive because it neither sees nor knows Him.  John 14:16-17  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him:  but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.  He will guide you into all truth! It is what you know and who you know that matters!

Our text opens with Joshua sending out two spies to view Jericho, which was the first city overtaken by the Israelites when they entered the Promise land.  Scripture states they went out and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab and lodged there.

Did you notice the spies didn’t roam around the city of Jericho?  They went straight to Rahab’s home.  What do you think the reaction would be today if you and I, as men and women of God, were spotted going into a harlot’s home?  One thing I do know and that is this - Rahab was undergoing “rehab”!  

Brief history:  Rahab ran an inn built in the Jericho city wall.  Besides her infamous profession, it appears that she engaged in raising or buying “flax”, which she dried on her roof top.  

She had three strikes against her:  

(1) Rahab was a Canaanite – not a Jew!  Canaanites were wicked people and idolaters.  So wicked or evil were they that God used Israel as his instrument to judge them.  

(2) Rahab was a “woman”.  Women at that time were treated as second class; treated as property; and had few rights.  Let me inform you that “Sadducee” and “Pharisee” spirit is alive today!  Many think “women” should sit in the back and not be heard.  Many still believe that God gave the dominion to “man” (the male gender).  Galatians 3:27-28 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female:  for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.  You see how the “Sadducees” will make you “sad you see”:  and the “Pharisees” are not “fair I see”!  

(3) Rahab was a prostitute.  She sold herself for money.  But God is not like man!  He has a way of working through very ordinary and unlikely people.  To “man”, your background determines your livelihood.  To God your background is just that - “in the back behind you”!!  Despite all that Rahab had against her, she had something great working in her favor!!  She had faith and knowledge of who God was!!

There’s a saying, “what you don’t know won’t hurt you”, but what you don’t know can cost you your life!  Knowledge is power!!!

The whole City had received news about the miraculous events of the wandering nation of Israel.  They heard how the Lord had parted the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to escape the Egyptian army.  They heard how God helped to utterly defeat the two Amorite Kings east of Jordan.

In Rahab’s own words, “when we heard of it our hearts melted”!  Joshua 2:11 And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you:  for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.

Rahab knew some stuff.  She had foresight to believe the Lord Himself was at work in all that happened to the Jews.  That foresight came from God.  She connected with the “light” and “call” of God in her heart, and she used the same information others had to make a rational decision.  She humbled herself before Almighty God!  When it came to choosing sides, she sided with God’s people!  Her transformation in spirit and personal business had already taken place before the spies knocked on her door.  

Example:  The mention of “flax” drying on her floor!  “FLAX” is used to make “linen”!  “LINEN” is “righteousness”, the very character of God!  Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.  Revelation 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.  The covering of the spies with the “flax” by Rahab symbolized them being covered with the “righteousness” of God!  As Rahab herself became!

When the spies entered Jericho to determine its strength, it was confirmed to them immediately with Rahab.  In conversation she revealed to them her understanding of the true God with her determination to help them.

When the king learned the spies were lodged at her house, he sent soldiers with a message to hand them over.  She took them to the roof top and hid them under the “flax”, assuring them she would not betray them, and lied to the king’s soldiers and sent them in another direction.

She then went up to the spies and pleaded for her life and her family members.  She made an oath with them:  she would keep silent about their mission and the Israelites would spare everyone in her household when they invaded the city.  She was to hang a scarlet cord from the window as a sign so the Israelites could find and protect her.

Rahab stepped out in “dynamic faith”, receiving the spies and betraying her own people by lying to the king’s soldiers.  She had heard what the Lord had done for the Israelites, and she moved in faith!  Romans 10:17  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  Rahab believed.  Hebrews 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him:  for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

So many times we hear and see what God has done and refuse to believe, or worse we believe and don’t act on that belief.  Rahab believed and acted in faith by not betraying the spies and by hanging the scarlet cord in her window, even though this action put her own life on the line.  Yet faith was at work in Rahab.

Faith alone is not good enough, and it can’t be just words or even sincere emotions.  Faith must produce action!  James 2:14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works?  Can faith save him?  Vs 17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.  Vs 20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?  Failure to act despite her claim of faith could have brought destruction.  Her faith and her action saved not only herself but her entire family.

That same opportunity is available for us today.  It’s never easy stepping out in faith – if it were, it wouldn’t be faith.  It’s not easy stepping out on nothing and believing something is there.  Hebrews 11:31 By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.

On the day of the battle, the city was captured, and everyone within its walls died except Rahab and her family.  She had gathered her family in her home and marked it with the scarlet cord as agreed.  Before burning the city to the ground, Joshua sent the spies to her home to rescue them.

Get this - her house was built in the city wall, which of course came tumbling down at the shout of the Israelites army.  Of all the massive stone work protecting the city of Jericho, only that portion containing her home was left standing.  What a witness to the power of God who knows how to rescue his own from the fiery trials of life.

Check this out regarding the spies:  Except for reporting that all of Jericho was scared, they didn’t bring Joshua any intelligence that helped develop the battle plan.  No, the Lord had already determined that battle plan, and they contributed nothing to it.  Joshua 6:2-5  And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.  And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once.  Thus shalt thou do six days.  And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns:  and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.  And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.

Their true purpose in all this was to hear Rahab’s confession and save her from destruction.  Rahab believed God’s report.  Whose report do you believe?  She received salvation for herself and her household through confessing with her mouth the Lord Jesus.  Jesus Christ has always been.  John 8:58  Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.  Rahab was no longer the same!  She was a new creature or new creation in Christ – the old things had passed away and behold all things had become new for her and her household!

Rahab was rehabbed from a call girl to a convert; from a zero to a hero in nothing flat!  Rahab wasn’t reformed or conformed; she was transformed!  She was rehabbed from a house of shame and wound up in a house of fame!!

Remember Rahab – Let’s walk by faith and not by feelings.  She offered the spies shelter and aided in their escape!  She received from the promise that when they returned to Jericho with Joshua and his army, she and her family would be spared alive.  She wasn’t just a hearer but a doer of the Word.  She had to hang that scarlet cord from her window.  The “red cord” was a token of security for Rahab!  That’s where the term came from which we now know as the “Red Light District”.  When men saw the “red cord” hanging from her window (which in their minds symbolized her trade), they knew a harlot would be found there.

When the spies told her to hang the scarlet cord in her window, it was not for men to see, but for God to see!  It represented His “blood”!  When he saw His blood, He saw a confession of her sins.  When we hang our sins before God, then He sends forth His “grace” through the shed blood of His Son Jesus the Christ!

Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD:  though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

What can wash away my sins?  Nothing but the “blood” of Jesus!!!  What can make me whole again?  Nothing but the “blood” of Jesus!!!

Most people think Christianity is about being good and hitting all the check points of what is considered the “good life”!  Jesus offered something different.  He said that He didn’t come for those who are good, but for those who know they’re lost.  In Matthew chapter 9, the Pharisees are questioning the disciples of Jesus about Him sitting and eating with publicans and sinners.  Matthew 9:12-13 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.  But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice:  for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.  Matthew 18:11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.

Keep this in mind:  though Rahab was a harlot, our Savior Jesus Christ came from this blood-line.  She married a Jewish man name Salmon, and they had a son name Boaz; Boaz begat Obed of Ruth; Obed begat Jesse; Jesse begat David; David begat Solomon of the wife of Uriah.  It was with David that God established the Kingdom covenant that He spoke through the Prophet Nathan that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ! That’s why in Matthew, He is referred to as the son of David (in relation to the “KINGDOM”) and the son of Abraham (in relation to the “BLESSING”).  Matthew 1:1  The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.  2 Samuel 7:12-17  (Vs 16)  And thine house and thy kingdom shall be stablished for ever before thee:  thy throne shall be stablished for ever.  

That kingdom has been established in and by Jesus the Christ!  Jesus was referred to as the son of Abraham because of the covenant promise God made with Abraham according to the “blessing” of His people in Genesis chapter 17 and Genesis chapter 22.  Genesis 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy “seed” after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to they “seed” after thee.  Genesis 22:18 And in thy “seed” shall the nations of the earth be “BLESSED”; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Let me remind you here, God didn’t say “SEEDS”, but “SEED”!  And that “SEED” was “CHRIST”!  Galatians 3:16  Now to Abraham and his “SEED” were the promises made.  He saith not, And to “SEEDS”, as of many; but as of ONE, And to thy “SEED”, which is “CHRIST”!!!

Rahab’s name from the Hebrew means proud; roomy; broad; large; at liberty.  That is what her faith did for her and her household.  It liberated her from the harlot mentality and broadened her spiritual horizon!  Rahab’s faith made so much “room” for her and her family that it moved them from the house of the harlot to the house of God!!!  Her faith fulfilled Isaiah 54:2-3  Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations:  spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;  for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.  This was all accomplished by Rahab’s faith and through Christ that came from her bloodline!

So He (Jesus) came for the Rahab’s of the world - those who carry a label they can’t shake!!  He wants to take us as “RAHAB’S” and perform a “REHAB” work in us!!!

~ Evangelist Brenda Hansley