Faithful.
We don’t often see faithfulness as a quality to be admired in our culture today.
In our rush to satisfy our own needs, we forget how it honors God when we show honor and put one another first.
In Joshua 2, we see how God proves faithful to His people, and how He is blessed when we are faithful with our words & our actions.
Joshua sent two men into Jericho to spy in enemy territory ….reconnoitring the city & checking out competition before they attacked to take the land God had promised them.
How odd on one hand that these Israelites would have entered the home of a prostitute, but as travellers would always be welcome at such an establishment, it makes sense to enter the city this way. Less noticeable.
Except the king of Jericho also had well positioned spies, and word got back to him there were Israelites in town.
Why such a big deal?
Because word had been spreading, as we learn through Rahab’s conversation with the spies, that Israel’s God was faithful & strong, and terror was striking the inhabitants of the land they had not yet begun to conquer!
Only God could have stirred such a fear!
He not only told His people where to settle, but was causing fear of what had not yet happened to make their enemies quake with fear, before the physical battle had begun!
God was already keeping His promise to give them this land.
Rahab knew He was the real God, and in exchange for protecting the Israelite spies from capture, she wanted her family kept safe in the battle for Jericho.
I noticed the spies response was basically, “If you keep your word to us, we will keep ours to you.”
Put your word on display with a red cord, and we will honor our word to you.
Human faithfulness on display.
God IS faithful in His very core.
And keeps His word, even when we don’t.
This is true faithfulness at its purest.
God honored Rahab, not only for her actions in saving His spies, but for her faith.
She and her household were saved from the fall of Jericho’s walls, and the destruction of the city.
Israel lived up to its word.
Human faithfulness again.
And in Matthew 1:5-6, we get a glimpse of just how faithful God was in how He blessed Rahab for her actions:
…and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.
Rahab enters His family!
She becomes the mother of Boaz, one of the most compassionate of men & most honoring of his word,
the mother in law of Ruth,
and the great great grandmother of King David.
From whose blood line came Jesus!
God is SO faithful.
What we cannot see ahead is just how much more we will recognize Him as faithful when we look back on our lives, and see His faithfulness interwoven through the story of our lives!
Be encouraged. This same God is still as faithful today as He can be seen through out His Word & history.
For He never changes, and He is still as incredibly faithful towards us, right here and now.
Most often, His faithfulness is even beyond what we comprehend!
May we rise up to be women & men of our words, and live lives as faithful as the God who made us part of His forever family, regardless of what we may have done, just as Rahab!
KARLA LEES 