Hebrews 11:1-2 TLB “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen…the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead.” Hebrews chapter 11 is referred to asthe Hall of Faith, modern scholars naming it this as the Bible’s equivalent to today’s Sports Hall of Fame. Hebrews 11 is aboutpeople in the Old Testament whose unwavering trust and faith in God is famous and encourages us to imitate the faith of these people of the past.
I’ve been reading through Hebrews 11 for a few weeks now, and every time I finished, I felt I’d missed something! Realizing the Lord was prompting me to keep reading to discover what He wanted me to see, I finally saw it in verse 31! “By faith—because she believed in God and his power—Rahab the prostitute did not die with all the others in her city when they refused to obey God, for she gave a friendly welcome to the spies.” Along with those the Hall of Faith recognized, with greats such as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, and Moses commended by God for their great faith, here is Rahab, a prostitute!
To summarize the whole story in Joshua 2, the Israelite spies came into Jericho to run reconnaissance before invading it. They stayed at Rahab’s inn. In those times, houses of prostitution and public inns and taverns were often in the same place. The kingof Jericho sent troops to arrest the spies but Rahab hid them, then helped them escape the city, saving their lives. Joshua 2:15says, “So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall.” Rahab asked the spies if, when Israel invaded the city, they would treat herand her family the same way she treated them, with kindness—sparing their lives.
Jericho was a fortress, surrounded by walls 25 to 45 feethigh. When the Lord caused the walls of the city to collapse, there was only one section of the wall that didn’t collapse—the part that held Rahab and her family! In the 1950’s Kathleen Kenyon oversaw an archaeological dig at Jericho. She was not abeliever that the walls fell by supernatural means, but she did discover that they had collapsed and the city was destroyed.However, she also discovered there was a small section of the wall that didn’t collapse.
Why would God spare a prostitute? The answer is in Joshua 2:11where Rahab declared, “The Lord your God is the true God who rules in heaven above and earth below!” The prostitute confessed her faith in God! Believing that God would rescue her and her family, she now trusted in Him. This faith in God and her action to save God’s people got her commended as a woman of faith! So what happened to Rahab and her family? We find in Joshua 6:25 that “Rahab the prostitute and her family went to live among the people of Israel.” She then became the great grandmother of King David of the lineage of Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus!
So if Rahab became part of Jesus’ lineage, why is she still known as Rahab the prostitute? It is proof that the Lord gives us all a hope and a future when we make Him our Lord and Savior, not to live in constant fear of past failures or regrets happening again. Don’t let your past dictate your future! The world around you reminds you of your past faults, but your faith in Jesus results in His response, “Faults? What faults?! Past? What past?!”
So don’t feel you need to hide your past out of fear of being condemned, because God uses it as a victorious testimony of His grace and mercy to you.
-Emil Liko 10/2/26