“By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.”
Hebrews 11:31
God our Savior saves sinners, real sinners. The Lord
Jesus Christ takes the guttermost and saves them to the uttermost by his
omnipotent mercy, through the merits of his blood and righteousness. Here we
read of a woman who was once a harlot who is now seated among the redeemed,
made to be a chaste, pure, undefiled, perfectly holy virgin before God (Rev. 14:4).
How can that be?
Rahab was the object of God’s sovereign, electing love. What a picture this woman is of God’s sovereign mercy and grace in Christ to sinners like us! Rahab was a sinner by birth, and a notorious sinner by choice and practice. Religious moralists and legalists try their best to make us believe that the word “harlot” simply means that Rahab was an innkeeper. But the kind of inn Rahab kept was a brothel. The only women in those times and countries who kept public houses and inns were prostitutes.
I do not understand why people have so much trouble with that. The Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners - real sinners (1 Tim. 1:15; Matt. 9:10-13; Rom. 5:6-8).
Mercy is for the miserable.
Grace is for the guilty. Redemption is for the ruined. Righteousness is for the
rotten. Rahab was a cursed woman, in a cursed profession, dwelling in a cursed
city, from a cursed race (An Amorite); yet she obtained mercy.
Why did this cursed woman obtain mercy? It was not because of anything in her, or anything done by her, but because the Lord loved her and chose her as the object of his grace. It is true, that she and her house were saved because she received the spies, hid them, and sent them out another way. But that was an act of faith, faith which God gave her, not to get mercy, but because she had obtained mercy.
Faith is not the product of natural religion, logic, or human reason. Faith is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8-9). Faith is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). Faith is the operation of God in the souls of chosen, redeemed, called sinners (Col. 2:12).
It
was not by accident that the spies stumbled into Rahab’s house when they came
in to spy out the land. They came to Rahab’s house because God had purposed it
from eternity. If you will read her conversation with the spies in chapter two,
you will see how this harlot’s experience of grace is described (Jos. 2:8-19).
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By some means or another,
this woman heard the gospel of God’s salvation (Jos. 2:10). Rahab’s heart
withered before the august, sovereign majesty of the one true and living God
(Jos. 2:11).
The other inhabitants of the land withered in the dread and fear of God’s wrath and power; but Rahab’s heart withered in repentance and faith, as is evident from Joshua 2:9. Here we see, that when she heard the report of God’s wondrous works, Rahab believed God. – "And she said unto the men, 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."
Not only was Rahab an object of God’s amazing, free, and sovereign grace in Christ, her house could not fall under the wrath of God because it was under the refuge and protection of the precious blood of Christ. That is what was symbolized by the scarlet cord hanging from her window (Jos. 2:18-21).
This scarlet cord that Rahab dropped from her window was, like the blood of Abel’s lamb, like the blood of the passover lamb upon the houses of the Israelites, like the blood of sin-offering in the tabernacle, a picture and type of the precious blood of Christ.
Let others mock and deride us as being outdated in our religion, if they must, but among the saints of God the precious, sin-atoning, redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is not only prominent, it is everything! We glory only in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 6:14). How we thank God for the blood!
It is by the blood that we are redeemed (1 Pet.
1:18-20; Rev. 5:9-10). It is by the blood that we have forgiveness (Eph. 1:7).
It is the precious blood of Christ that gives us access to and acceptance with
the Lord our God (Heb. 10:19-22). It is the blood of Christ, sprinkled upon our
hearts, that gives us the blessed peace and full assurance of faith that under
it we are safe and secure from the avenging wrath and justice of God (Rom.
8:1-4, 33-34).
The Lord our God declares, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you!” Rahab believed him. Do you? When Joshua saw the scarlet cord hanging in her window, when he saw the blood upon her house, “Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive”. This one house on the wall could not fall because it was protected by grace. It could not fall because it was protected by blood.