Rahab's Shocking Faith — How a Harlot Ended Up in Jesus' Genealogy

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now, here's your host, Les Feldick. Okay, now we like to welcome all our television viewers and as well as our people here in the studio. But we've got a little explanation to do on this one, and I'm a firm believer in letting people know what's going on. You know, that was the only thing I didn't like about being in the service. They never told us poor old troops what was going to happen next, and I just don't like that. So this particular half hour was lost somewhere along the line, and when we started repeating our programs daily, we didn't want to just leave a gap in it. So we are repeating Book Nine, the second part, and the fourth part of that. And so for those of you who have our books and have our original tapes, I'm going to try and stick to it as much as I can, but don't expect it to be word for word. You also are seeing a different crowd than what you saw in the last program or what you will see in the next program. So we'd just like you to realize that this is a reproduction of a previous program. All right, now for those of you out in television, of course by now we have all the past programs available on video and audio and the books, which of course we did not have yet when we were producing this program a couple of years ago. So for those of you who are watching us on the daily basis, why, this is all apropos for you. Okay, now we're going to come into the lesson as we are going to repeat it in Joshua chapter 1, verse 1. Now in our last program we finished the book of Deuteronomy, where of course Moses has now given up the leadership of the nation of Israel. He has brought them all the way around through Moab, and they are on the east side of Jordan at flood time, and Moses has gone up into Mount Nebo and died, and Joshua picks up the reins or the leadership of the nation as they are going to go in now and occupy the promised land. Now it's still more or less the land of promise, but certainly not under the circumstances that they could have had 40 years earlier. But the one comment I know I made in our last production of this, and that is that the book of Genesis ended with the death of Joseph. The book of Deuteronomy ends with the death of Moses. And so this is not original with me, but I like to repeat it from time to time. God buries his servants, but never his program. And so even though great men of God have passed off the scene, it did not interrupt the fulfilling of all of God's purposes. And so here in the book of Joshua now we see that the nation of Israel is encamped across the river, across the Jordan River, and you almost have to get to Israel to understand this. And that is that just west of the Jordan River, down east from the city of Jerusalem is the city of Jericho. And I know the first time I got to Israel I couldn't get over it. And here I thought I knew the geography of Israel. I thought I knew, but I didn't. But this is the setting. Here they are on the east side of the Jordan River coming down from the Sea of Galilee, going on into the Dead Sea, which is just right in plain view of Jericho. And now Joshua has been designated by God to take over the leadership, and we'll just look at what the Scripture said. Verse 1. Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give them, even to the children of Israel. That is, that's who God has given the land. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses, from the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates. All right. But Moses wasn't the first one God said it to. Who did He say it to first? Abraham. So let's come back to Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15. And He has just deeded the land, and now He tells us the extent. And Israel, of course, never occupied all this. They never have. Now a little while under Saul, I mean under David and Solomon, they ventured a little beyond Galilee and a little beyond Jordan River, but that's been the extent of it. Now even today, with all the Middle East in a constant uproar, you all realize that the land of Israel is strictly between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, from a little bit south of Jerusalem up until the southern border of Lebanon. All right. But look what has been deeded to them. And as I've said over and over in my teaching, I don't care what the United Nations says. I don't care what the European community says. I don't care what the President of the United States says. I don't care what the large denominations may say. God's Word says that the whole Middle East has been deeded to the nation of Israel. Now we don't know when they will occupy it, except that it's going to be in the kingdom, of course, but we don't know when that'll be. But we think we're getting closer and closer. All right. In Genesis 15, dropping down to verse 18. Genesis 15, and we'll drop in at verse 18. God has already transacted the title deed according to the rules of Hammurabi. In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given. Past tense. It's done. Unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt. Now I'm even going to be a little bit lenient. I'm not going to call it the Nile. I think there was another river back in antiquity a little ways east of the Nile, which was called the river of Egypt, but whatever. So unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. Now, since desert storm, everybody is aware where the Euphrates River flows clear out there to the east, coming out of Turkey and all the way around through Iraq and down into the Persian Gulf. And everything between the Mediterranean Sea and that river, God deeded to Abraham. Now most of your Jewish leaders don't claim that even today, but when Bagan was prime minister of Israel, he would. He'd tell the world, the press, this has been deeded to us through our father Abraham. But now it hasn't been heard much lately. But don't ever lose sight of the fact that when Christ returns, Israel will have the whole Middle East and it won't be desert sand. It's going to be like the Garden of Eden. All right. Now let's go on. Unto thy seed I have given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates. And then you list all the tribes, the Kenites, the Kenizzites, and so forth, which indicated that the northern border of this would be clear up in northern Lebanon. Not southern Lebanon, northern Lebanon. Way beyond Mount Hermon, out to the Euphrates, all the way down to the Persian Gulf, down to the Red Sea, and then across to the river of Egypt. That's the whole Middle East, see? Now I didn't say this. This is what God's Word says. And so Moses repeated it. Now if you'll come back with me again to Joshua, and Joshua repeats it for the third time, see? Verse 4. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, unto the great sea, that is the Mediterranean on the west, toward the going down of the sun shall be your coast, or your border. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life, God says, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Now you know I'm always stressing the Old Testament was addressed to the Jew. But does that mean that I can't take a statement like this and say, well, God says the same thing to me? Of course not. Because, you see, the book of Hebrews practically repeats it word for word. Only how does Hebrews put it? Therefore he has promised, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And it's repeated to us as believers in the age of grace. And so this is why I'm always teaching, yes, all this back in the Old Testament was directed to the nation of Israel under the law. But we can feed from it. We can learn from it, as Romans says. All right, now reading on. Verse 6, be strong and of a good courage. Now I had to think, and I think I had it in the previous program. Come back with me to Ephesians chapter 6, which definitely, of course, is written to us as Gentile believers. And Ephesians chapter 6 says basically the same identical thing. Now remember what Joshua just said, stand, see, be strong and of a good courage. Verse 7 in Joshua says, strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do. All right, now look what Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12. Almost along the same lines. But this is for us. This is to us. This is God speaking to you and I right now, the day, for we wrestle, we fight, we battle. Not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness, where? In high places. And it's not talking about Congress or the White House or Buckingham Palace or what have you. What are the high places? The spiritual high places, the leaders of Christendom, the great denominational leaders. My, I can remember when I was a kid in service and I was driving, I think, across Texas one time, had my car radio on, and I was listening to, I think at that time, I'm not sure, I wasn't a Southern Baptist and I didn't really know the name, but I listened to the fellow and I think his name was Vance Havner or something like that. And a lot of people will recognize it, but I'll never forget the statement that he made. And I'm thinking back, he must have been addressing the convention. But he said, ladies and gentlemen, when I was a little kid growing up in the Carolinas, he said, I always used to love to walk amongst those tall pines. And one day it struck me that whenever one of those pine trees died, it always started dying where? At the top. And, of course, what he was addressing was exactly what was happening, that it's in the high places of denominations that things begin to erode and turn corrupt, see? And all right, this is what we are talking about. We are not talking about political rulers. We're talking about the spiritual rulers in high places who have come under the satanic influence. As we saw in our study in Corinthians, how that Satan can transform himself into what? An angel of light. And that's what these people are, see? All right, reading on again in Ephesians 6, now into verse 13. "...Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to," what? "...withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Now, it's interesting that when you study all this—and Paul, of course, so often used the Roman army or the soldier as an example, or to allude to them for one reason or another. But do you know that all the armor and the equipment of the Roman soldier was only for one direction? What was it? Forward. Never a room for retreat. There was never a rearguard action. Everything that Paul denotes in here was for a frontal attack. And I remember a few years ago, some of the liberals were decrying the old hymn, Onward, Christian Soldiers, because it was too militant. It was too confrontational. Well, maybe that's what's happened to the church. We have lost it, and we have to be confrontational up to a point. No, not to be obnoxious, of course, but we have to be able to stand against the powers in high places, see? And then he goes on, your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel, in verse 16, and above all, taking the shield of what? Faith. I mentioned it in our last taping in Corinthians. My goodness, what are we seeing today? We are seeing a lack of faith, and we're seeing the emphasis on experience. And experience does not exercise faith. But we have to get doctrinally grounded by our faith, and then we work toward experience, not the other way around. All right, let's come back to Joshua. There's a half hour to be gone, too, before we know it. And so, verse 8, now this, of course, was Israel under the law, and take that in consideration. But by application, we can learn a tremendous lesson. Reading on in verse 7, to observe and do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded thee, turn not from it to the right, to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. Now, we know that Israel's prosperity was always based on their spiritual obedience. And that was typical of all of Israel's history. When they were obedient to the Word of God, they were blessed. Absolutely, they were. And they ascended amongst the nations of the Middle East. And that's, of course, what brought David's kingdom to its height and Solomon. But just as soon as Israel would become disobedient, then where would they go? Down, down, down, and they'd hit bottom, and then they'd suddenly realize that they needed the God of Abraham. And then, of course, he'd bring them back up. But now, up to a point, yeah, that's valid for today. We know that God is not going to bless a believer who is out there in total disobedience and rebellion. He can't. But on the other hand, I cannot stand here and teach that if you're obedient, and if you give, and if you pray, and if you do this, that God will make you a millionaire. No way. No way. But the analogy here is that if we are obedient, then, of course, we can expect God's blessings, but not necessarily always in the material, see? All right, now then, verse 8. Here is another admonition that was particularly pointed to the Jew under the law, but we can still garner some lessons from it. And that is, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein, and then shalt thou make thy way prosperous. Now, here again, this was the Old Testament fair format. If they were obedient, they would be blessed materially. If they were disobedient, the blessings would disappear. But what's the lesson for us? If we are going to be pleasing in God's eyes as believers, where do we have to spend a good share of our time? In the book, see? In the book. Now, a verse just comes to mind. Turn, keep your hand in Joshua, and go all the way back again to Ephesians. Galatians, Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 26. Now, of course, he's talking about the Gentile believers, members of the body of Christ. Verse 26, oh, all these things that he's been dealing with in the book of Ephesians is to bring us to this place, that he, the God of glory, the Lord Jesus himself, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water. Oh, not baptismal water, but what kind of water? The Word, see? This is how we're cleansed. We just literally inundate ourselves with the Word, and it has a cleansing effect. You know, I left one of my classes here in Oklahoma the other night. I said, I'm going to leave you with something to mull over in the next week. How many times does Paul tell us to ask for forgiveness? Well, I'd already taught them, so they knew, never. We never have to beg for forgiveness. Why? We're already forgiven. It's all done. And yet, how many times people are always begging, well, forgive us all our sin. No, you don't have to do that. That's done. So, what takes its place? A cleansing effect of being in the Word. Well, see, people don't want to take time for that. But all right, now come back to Joshua. It was the same concept, that they were to just saturate themselves with the Law. They were to memorize it. They were to have it on frontlets on their forehead. It was to be on their chest. It was to be wherever they went. And so, he says, verse 9, "...Have not I commanded thee?" Back in Joshua now, chapter 1, verse 9. "...Have I not commanded thee, Be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest?" What is that? That's a promise. That's a promise. And God wasn't going to go back on His promises. But does that mean that they had clear sailing everywhere they went? Well, of course not. They're going to have to fight battles this time, you know. They're going to have to lose some of their good young men in war. Now, had they gone in the first time up there at Kadesh Barnea, then they wouldn't have. They wouldn't have had to lift a sword. Then they could have had it all, because God said He would drive out the enemy. But now, you see, 40 years later, they're going to have to go in and fight for every inch of the way, and they're going to lose some of their prime young men. All right? But nevertheless, the promise was, "...be thou afraid, but neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee." All right. And then He tells them how to do it, how to line up the various tribes. And then as we come on over to chapter 2, I just want to make a moment or two on Rahab. And the reason I spend a little time with Rahab is because she is in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew chapter 1. She's one of four women. And when I teach Matthew chapter 1, I point out that not a one of us would like to have had any one of those four women in our genealogy, because they were all immoral women, every one of them. And yet, what does it point out? Oh, the grace of God. Not the license, but the grace of God. All right. So here's chapter 2 now, and Israel is outside of Jericho. They've come across the river, and I think they have anyway. No, they haven't either. They're still on the other side of the river. But they send the spies over, and they go to Jericho, and they enter into the house of this Rahab who is living on the wall. And you remember the wall of Jericho was so huge that they could drive chariots, two or three abreast around the perimeter. All right. Verse 1 of chapter 2, And so 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. So what was she? Well, she was a prostitute living on the wall. All right. Verse 2, And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither tonight of the children of Israel to search out the country. Now, don't lose sight of the fact that the inhabitants of Jericho could look out across the Jordan and see those millions of Israelites encamped, and they had already heard everything that had happened for the last 40 years concerning this bunch of people. They had heard how God destroyed Egypt. They had heard how He destroyed the king of Moab and all the things that tried to oppose them and how they were so great in number. All right. So now the king of Jericho is shaking in his boots, and he's trying to find out where these spies have gone. Verse 3, And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, who are entered into thy house, for they be come to search out the country. They've come to be spies. Verse 4, And the woman took the two men and hid them, and said thus, Well, there came men unto me, but I knew not whence they were. And it came to pass the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, the men went out. And whither the men went, I know not. Pursue after them quickly, for you shall overtake them. In other words, she was sending them out on a wild goose chase, wasn't she? Verse 6, But she, Rahab, had brought the spies up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which were laid in order. And then they pursue after them in a wrong direction. But now, verse 8, And before they were laid down, she came up unto them on the roof, and she said unto the men, Now here is what I call Rahab's confession of faith. Wasn't much, but it was enough that Rahab became a Gentile believer. She's one of the exceptions that I'm always talking about in the Old Testament. And here's her confession of faith. I know, see, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have, what's the next word, heard. For we have heard how the Lord, Jehovah, dried up the water of the Red Sea when you came out of Egypt. Now remember, that's 40 years previously. They haven't forgotten. And when you came out of Egypt, and what you did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side, Jordan. Verse 11, As soon as we 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 below. See, now listen. Faith did not always require a recognition of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. They couldn't back here. So what did God look for in the heart of even a Gentile like Rahab? The fact that she believed who God was. And see, this is what we have to understand. Even Abraham, when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldee by faith, how much did Abraham know? Not all that much, except who God was, and that He had told him to do such and such, and he did it by faith. And so this prostitute, living on the wall of Jericho, a Gentile, her faith was in the fact that the God of Israel was the God of creation, and He was the God whom she was going to serve. And then she goes on to make, of course, a deal with Joshua's spies, how that when they would finally take the city, how that they would remember her family members. And again, as you read on into the account, the members of her family who had faith enough to trust what the spies had promised, they were saved. They were saved, I think, not only from the destruction of the Israeli invasion, but they were saved spiritually. And so the point I always have to make is faith doesn't have to be all that great. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner-supported ministry. If this program has been a help to your study of the Scriptures and you'd like to see others enjoy the teaching, your support would be greatly appreciated. Write to us at Les Feldick Ministries, 30706 West Lona Valley Rd., Genta, OK 74552, or call 1-800-369-7856. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette, and videotape. Be sure to tune in next time to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.