Secret agents disappoint. Brave woman helps to save the day.

Well as we learnt this week the story of blundering spies and heroic women is actually much older than a television sitcom from the 1960’s.

In the second sermon of the series in the book of Joshua, we learnt about the story of the Israelite spies who were sent by Joshua into the land that the Israelites were preparing to invade at God’s command. Rather than sticking to the plan of their mission and surveying the land, these mediocre moles ended up in the house of Rahab the Prostitute, and none other than the King of Jericho somehow found out!

Thanks to Rahab’s realisation that the God of the Israelites was the true God of heaven and earth, Rahab joined in the cause of the Israelites and assisted the spies by hiding them and helping them to escape so that they could make their report to their new leader, Joshua. 

Rahab’s faith and courage has been celebrated ever since, including the honour of her being in the family line of the famous King David and then Jesus Himself. (See Matthew 1:5)

The story of Rahab shows that being part of God’s people and receiving God’s salvation is not only for people of a particular race, or for people with “respectable” careers or a high social standing. It is for everyone who recognises that God is indeed the Lord of heaven and earth and that He sent His son Jesus into the world to be punished for our failure to live God’s way and that by believing in Jesus we can be called the children of God.

John 1:12 – “Yet to all who received him (Jesus) to those who believed in his name he (God) gave them the right to become children of God.”