Fellowship in the Word

Guest (Male): Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bil Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

Bil Gebhardt: When God recycles something, something happens to you, and there's a phrase that's always used. If you could sing it, it's the chorus of grace. I was, but now. I was blind, but now I see. I was lost, but now found. That's the great chorus of grace. Rahab was a harlot, but now she's a child of God.

You see, that's the way this works. God recycles. He takes the trash and he turns it into masterpieces. When I think of her, I think, "Wow, isn't that a great story about her?" But what happened to her is exactly what happened to me.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bil Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bil Gebhardt now, as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world.

Bil Gebhardt: Have you ever thought about recycling? From the founding of America to about the 1950s, people recycled everything. Goods were scarce, so everybody recycled. If you had something you could get another use out of, you did it. Then after the '50s, '60s, and '70s, it kind of went away. Around in the '80s, we started this idea on a national level of recycling. You may have a little recycling can in your garage and all of that.

How effective has it been? If it's aluminum that you're recycling, very effective. 95% of aluminum can be recycled and has the highest rating of an energy value. However, if it's plastic that you're trying to recycle, it has an extremely low percentage, almost no percentage of recovery at all as far as energy goes.

I imagine right now you're thinking, what are we talking about recycling for? I believe that God's grace is the single greatest picture of effective recycling that exists. God takes the junk of this world, and he turns it into a masterpiece through his grace. That's the ultimate form of recycling. Think of the junk. Think of Peter, who denied him three times, each time more vehement in his denial.

Think of Paul, who actually went around and arrested and ran down and likely was involved in the execution of many Christians. These two men became apostles and wrote over half of the New Testament. Think of David, a young man who committed adultery, then he had Uriah the Hittite murdered, and he's called a man after God's own heart in the Bible.

I want to think about someone in particular today. I want to think about Rahab. Rahab, who is usually described almost in every case in the Bible except for a few, Rahab the harlot is her description. To me, she is the perfect poster girl for what the recycling program of God is, how God takes trash and turns it into his masterpiece.

The context that we're going to find Rahab is in the book of Joshua. I invite you to open to Joshua chapter 3. I'll read from verses 1 and 2 of chapter 1 just to give you some context. "How it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' servant, and said, 'Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land that I am giving you to the sons of Israel.'"

What you have is that what was supposed to take about six weeks to go from Egypt to the Promised Land took a little bit longer: 40 years. They spent 40 years in the wilderness, just wandering around. The reason that they did that was that they really had to learn something. They had to learn to trust God on a day-by-day basis. That's what they didn't do.

For 40 years, God fed them with manna. He gave them the water that all these people needed, mainly about 2 million people at least. All they did was wander around the wilderness, eat manna, drink the water, and bury their dead. That's what they did. Now they're on the verge of going into the Promised Land.

You see in chapter 3, down in verse 3, Joshua writes this: "When you see the ark of the Lord your God with the Levitical priests carrying it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it." Verse 6: "And Joshua spoke to the priests and he said, 'Take the ark of the covenant and cross over ahead of the people.' So they took up the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people."

Verse 8: "You shall moreover command the priests who carry the ark of the covenant saying, 'When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.'" Then verse 10: "Joshua said, 'By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will surely dispossess from you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, and the Amorite and the Jebusite.'"

If you look down to verse 16, it says the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were flowing down toward the sea of Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. Their first big obstacle was the Jordan River.

Normally speaking, the Jordan River is about 40 yards wide. The deepest it could be in that area near the Dead Sea is about 6 feet deep, sometimes less than that, 3 or 4 feet deep. Except at one time of year: the harvest time. At the harvest time, that's when all the snows from Mount Hermon in the northern part of the country flood the Jordan.

The Jordan is between a mile and a mile and a half wide. That's when God said we're going to cross. We're not going to cross when it's 40 yards wide. We're going to cross when it's a mile wide. He has them and he said, "Here's all you have to do: the priests will go in first, they'll carry the ark of the covenant, you just follow them."

Even when the water is all heaped up against them, the priests will stay right in the water on the edge and let all the people pass. The very first thing that happens is it's a complete success. 2 million people moved across the Jordan River. Now they have the second barrier, and the second barrier is the fortified city of Jericho.

An amazing city, tremendous walls, had never been conquered. The city of Jericho was one of those places. It was a crossroads for travel. The city of Jericho was populated with Amorites. The Amorites were unbelievably cruel and depraved people. They actually burned babies alive as a sacrifice to their god.

That's who the Amorites are and they're living in Jericho. That's where we start picking up the study. I want to go back now to chapter 2. In the first seven verses, we're going to see an unexpected act of heroic kindness. Something you would never expect from this city is going to happen.

Verse 1: "Then Joshua, the son of Nun, sent two men as spies secretly from Shittim, saying, 'Go view the land, especially Jericho.' So they went and they came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab that she lodged there." How they ended up in her house is a matter of a lot of speculation. She could have been soliciting them. That's certainly possible.

They could have overheard her when they were walking the streets, talking about where she was. You see, she wasn't just a harlot. She was an extremely successful one. She lived above the wall. Most of the people in Jericho don't have that kind of money. She's a very successful lady. That could have happened that way.

She could have done something that the other people apparently did: she recognized that they were Jews. They didn't look like Amorites. She went to them and said, "You need to come with me to my place." That seems the most likely of all of these from my point of view. Or if you don't like any of them, strictly providential, God made it happen.

Verse 2: "It was told to the king of Jericho, 'Behold, two men from the sons of Israel,' so others knew that they didn't look like Amorites, 'have come here tonight to search out the land.'" So the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab and said, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out the land."

We need to get these guys. We need to find them. They know they're in your house. You send them to us. Very likely if she had done that and done the right patriotic thing to do for the king, she'd have been rewarded for the capture of these two spies. However, under the law of Hammurabi, which they abided by, if she hid the spies, it's a death sentence.

That's the choice that she has. She has this choice: become an informer or a death sentence. Well, it says the woman had taken the two men and hidden them and she said to them, "Yes, the men came to me, but I don't know where they're from. And it came about that it was time to shut the gate dark and the men went out. I don't know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, you could overtake them."

That is clearly two lies. What's really interesting about this is how divided the church has been over all the centuries about how she could do this. I'll give you an example. Donald Campbell, who was a president of Dallas Seminary at one time, said, "To excuse Rahab for indulging in a common practice is to condone what God condemns. The lie of Rahab was recorded but not approved of. The Bible approves of faith demonstrated by good works, but not by her lying or falsehood."

Merrill Unger says the same thing. He said, "Rahab's lie of course is morally wrong." A.W. Pink says she failed to fully trust God, and the fear of man brought her a snare, and so she told these lies. My opinion: I completely disagree with that. You see, her situation is this is war. That's what's happening here.

Let me ask you something. If there's a war and you kill somebody, are you a murderer? You killed them. No, you're fighting a war. Think about this: the Ten Commandments say thou shalt not murder. It's one of the Ten Commandments. But God tells them this is a war for the Promised Land. He says kill them.

This is warfare. This is a different thing. This isn't normal everyday life. So that's one aspect to this. The Expositor's Bible Commentary says, "Rahab lied as much in what she did as in what she said. Deception is an important strategy in warfare. Espionage would be impossible without it. When Rahab hid the spies, she sided with Israel against her own people. It was an act of treason to her people but a loyalty to Israel."

That's what really happens here. You see, even if she didn't lie, there's a deception going on. She hid them. There should be a deception going on. I'll make my case. Even the spies kept telling her the only thing that could get you in trouble is the truth. You need to keep this up.

Now, you are all real pious and have never told a lie in your life, but I found a guy that said this and I thought it was interesting. He said, "Let's be honest here. When you take a vacation, do you leave a light on or a TV to come on in the evening so there'll be impression you're home? You ever heard anyone do that when they leave town? That's a lie."

That's the way this works. But she does this in the way in which she does it. So she says in verse 6, she brought them up to the roof and had hidden them in the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof. And so the men pursued them on the road to the Jordan and as soon as they were pursuing them had gone out, the gate was shut.

She hid them upstairs in some flax on the roof. Here's my thought: she's done that before. Some angry wife beating at the door, she hid people in that flax before in her trade. She hid the spies there. That worked out. So she does this unexpected act of kindness and now this is followed by an amazing expression of her faith.

"Now before they lay down, she came up to the roof and she said to them, 'I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.'"

"'And when we heard it our hearts melted, and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is the God in heaven and above and earth beneath.'" Unbelievable testimony. You don't read testimonies even in the time of Moses that clear about who God is. He's the Lord of heaven, he's the Lord of earth.

They knew all about it. They knew that the Red Sea was parted when they left Egypt and that the Red Sea closed on Pharaoh's army. They knew that they'd been sustained miraculously in the wilderness for 40 years. They knew that they conquered these kings, which show up other times in the Bible. Sihon and Og are very warlike. They ran right over them.

He said, "Our hearts melted." The word is mug, an interesting word. Our hearts dissolved. Now here's what's interesting about that. Her heart did. She says everybody's talking about it, nothing can stop you. But as far as we know, she's the only person of faith. They were afraid, but they didn't believe.

They heard about the Red Sea, but didn't believe. They heard about how they were supernaturally sustained, but didn't believe. They heard that they conquered these kings, but didn't believe. Why? They trusted in their walls. Jericho's never been taken. No one's ever taken Jericho. No one's going to take Jericho. We're going to remain who we are. But she believed it.

"Now therefore please swear to me by the Lord, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father's household and give me the pledge of truth. Spare my father and my mother, my brothers and sisters, with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death." The men said to her, "Our life for yours, if you do not tell this business of ours."

Let me paraphrase: we'd give our life for yours if you do not tell this business of ours. As long as you keep lying, we'll help you. But if you tell the truth, we're out. That's what the spies said. They said we'll deal kindly and faithfully. She let them down by a rope through the window for her house was on the city wall.

She said to them, "Go to the hill country that the pursuers will not happen upon you, hide yourselves there for three days until the pursuers return. Then afterward you may go your way." She's a strategist. When you leave here, don't beat it back for the Jordan because they're going to come after you. Don't go east to the Jordan. Go west to the hill country.

Stay in the hill country for three days. They won't find you. They'll come back into the city, then go to the Jordan. And the men said to her, "We shall be free from this oath to which you have made us swear unless when we come into the land you tie this cord of scarlet thread in your window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself in the house your father, your mother, your brothers, and all their father's household."

"Look, there's going to have to be a sign here of some sort. You're going to let us down on a rope, but on a scarlet thread around that rope." There's a lot of talk about whether the scarlet thread is representative of Christ, the Son of God. Could be. But scarlet's very hard to come by in that part of the world and there'll be a lot of ropes maybe hanging, but this one will have a scarlet thread.

They know when Israel comes into the city, don't harm anyone in that house. "And it shall come about that anyone who goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his head and we shall be free. But anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid upon them." If anybody runs out in the street and they die, it's their fault.

"But if you tell this business of ours, if you speak the truth again, then we shall be free from the oath which you have made us swear." All bets are off if you tell the truth. According to your word, so be it. She sent them away and they departed, and she tied a scarlet cord in the window. They departed and came to the hill country, remaining there for three days.

The pursuers had sought them all along the road but had not found them. Then the two men returned and came down from the hill country, crossed the river and came to Joshua. They related to him all that had happened. They said to Joshua, "Surely the Lord has given us the land into our hands, moreover all the inhabitants of the land have melted away from us."

Joshua didn't make the mistake Moses did. Remember Moses sent spies in the land? 12 of them. When they came back, who did they tell what they saw? Everybody. Joshua sends two spies in. Guess who they tell? Joshua. We're not talking to the crowd again. So Joshua makes the decision, not the people.

You have this amazing expression of her faith. But that's not why I'm making her one of the extraordinary women of the Bible. She has an enduring legacy. In chapter 6, verse 17, he says, "The city shall be under the ban, in it all that is in it belongs to the Lord. Only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in the house shall live because she hid the messengers whom we sent."

Verse 23: "So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all they had. They also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp." Verse 25: "However Rahab the harlot and her father's household and all that she had Joshua spared, and she lived in the midst of Israel to this day for she hid the messengers of Joshua sent to spy out Jericho."

She becomes a Jew convert. She becomes a proselyte Jew. She's part of Israel now, this Amorite woman, this pagan lady, this harlot. But that's not even just her legacy. Go with me now to Hebrews chapter 11 in the New Testament. If I'm in chapter 11 of Hebrews, it's called the Hall of Fame of Faith.

The writer of Hebrews decides I want to give you the greatest examples of faith you can find. What you end up finding here is something that I find just fascinating. You find all these incredible names: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, and now verse 31.

"And by faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace." All these giants of the faith and now Rahab the harlot. Why didn't they call Abraham the liar? He lied twice, 25 years apart, to save his own skin. He's not called Abraham the liar.

She's called Rahab the harlot. God wants to make sure you understand that because of how we see harlots. Remember Jesus, what did they say about him that they hated? He's a friend of prostitutes and sinners. I hate that about him. He hangs out with prostitutes and sinners. They're harlots. Max Lucado, I love Max's view of this.

Max said Rahab is very closely in our language related to rehab. She was rehabbed. Why's she rehabbed? Because God takes trash and recycles it into his own masterpieces, his own children. That's the reason this works. Charles Spurgeon said, "This woman was nothing near a hostess. She's a real harlot. I'm persuaded that nothing but a spirit of distaste for the grace of God would ever make a commentator try to deny her sin."

One writer reading that said he's exactly right. Remove the stigma of sin, you remove the need for grace. Rahab is extraordinarily precise because she received the extraordinary precise grace of God. There's no need to reinvent her past to try to make her seem like less of a sinner. The fact about what she once was magnifies the glory of divine grace.

So she's in the Hall of Fame of Faith. But it gets better. Go with me now to Matthew chapter 1. The record of the genealogy of Yeshua, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. This is the genealogy of God's Son, God incarnate, our Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac was the father of Jacob, Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.

Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Tamar's not Jewish. Tamar's a Canaanite, worst kind of pagan possible. Her husband had died, and so she posed as a prostitute and seduced Judah. She's in the genealogy of Jesus. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez was the father of Hezron and Hezron was the father of Ram.

Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon was the father of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth. You have Tamar who is a Canaanite. Then you have Rahab, she's an Amorite. Then you have Ruth, she's a Moabite.

These are all the worst kind of pagans in the Promised Land. They're all on the genealogy to Jesus. And then Obed by Ruth, Jesse, Jesse was the father of David. You keep working through and you come to Joseph and then to Jesus Christ. She is so honored by God. There's something amazing about this.

When God recycles something, something happens to you, and there's a phrase that's always used. If you could sing it, it's the chorus of grace. It always has the same kind of words. I was, but now. I was blind, but now I see. I was lost, but now found. That's the great chorus of grace.

Rahab was a harlot, but now she's a child of God. You see, that's the way this works. God recycles. He takes the trash and he turns it into masterpieces. When I think of her, I think, "Wow, isn't that a great story about her?" But what happened to her is exactly what happened to me.

I would pray it would happen to you. That's what God does. He recycles. He takes trash and he makes it a masterpiece. That's how God operates. There's always some people that think, "Yeah, but I don't know if he could do that for me." That's one of the reasons God wanted to make sure we all knew she was a harlot.

In almost all cultures, prostitutes are viewed differently. Some people even today say, "I don't know if he could really do that to me because you have to understand how sordid I am and my past is or how dirty and afflicted I've been or how much sin I've done or how often I've sinned."

The Bible says let Rahab's story be your story. We have exactly the same story. God saw her story starting as a harlot in Jericho. Where does it end up? In the Hall of Fame of Faith in Hebrews 11 and in the genealogy of his own Son, Jesus Christ.

That's what God is trying to say in using those terms. Rahab tells me no one is too far from the grace of God. Nobody. No one ever will be. Jesus Christ said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one will come to the Father but through me."

That's my invitation to you. If you put your trust in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross, his dying as your substitute for your sin, your story will be exactly the same as Rahab's story. It'll be exactly the same as mine. God recycles trash into masterpieces. How about letting him recycle you?

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Pastor Bil Gebhardt on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you'd just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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