Rahab the Harlot and Easter Faith: Day 4

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine.

Eph. 3:20

We gravitate to “happily ever after/riding off into the sunset” stories, don’t we? Rahab has a new home and a new life and we are satisfied that her tale has been told. That is, I think, because our fallen nature renders us incapable of comprehending eternal things.

For God, however, there is only one happy ending, and it will be at the end of the age when time is swallowed up into eternity. His plan for us does not necessarily end when our life is over or our problem has seemingly been solved.

First, Scripture tells us that Rahab married Salmon, a prince of Israel who, some believe, was one of the two spies that she saved (how romantic). They had a son named Boaz who became the husband of Ruth. These facts are found in the lineage of Jesus Christ in the Book of Matthew. Absent from the same history are the names of generations of godly, but anonymous Hebrew women. Rahab is one of only three women honored by being included by name in Christ’s genealogy.

Secondly, her story was celebrated in faith’s hall of fame in Hebrews 11.

By faith, the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient (Hebrews 11:31).

And, finally, the apostle James, writing around A.D. 45, (about 1355 years post-Jericho) says:

You see, that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? (James 2:24-25).

Easter faith holds fast when plans fail, dreams die and we can see no resolution in our lifetime. But Easter faith is not a faith that thinks of God as “good” only when He follows orders because the goodness of our God is the kind that will last for all eternity.

Nancy Shirah